Gravity Wheel

[Steve Witter]

Hi All,
Thought some of you would like to see one of my projects. This is my rendition of the Marquis of Worcester gravity wheel. The bearing balls take a similar path as the weights in the Marquis' wheel.
Am presently constructing a permanent magnet motor with a new concept. Will post a picture when completed.
My next project is another overbalance gravity wheel with a unique method to replace the weight to the positive side using gravity to do it.
Regards to all,
Steve Witter

[coylo]

I like your approach - if it dosen't work, hey.....it'll look good above the fireplace.

Nice work!

[Fletcher]

Beautiful Steve .. can I order one :) A finely crafted piece of art like that would look good in my house. How big is it ? It looks quite small but is hard to tell without a reference.

[ovyyus]

Nice job there Steve - always great to see craftmanship and attention to detail. Only one thing would make it better - if it could be made to work. I'm sure you agree :)

Keep it up!

[ken_behrendt]

Steve W...

Beautiful model you've made there and welcome to our Discussion Board.

The only problem I see with it is that, supposedly, there are no drawings of the Marquis' wheel and we only have the description given in A Century of Inventions.

I think the actual design used cannon balls that were suspended from the rim of the wheel by two foot pieces of chain. An the wheel itself was BIG...like 20 feet in diameter or so.

Below is a wheel that may be close to what the Marquis actually built. BTW, I think someone here modeled it last year and, unfortunately, it does not work.


ken

[pstroud]

Hi Steve!

Very impressive wheel you have built and as stated earlier, it is very well crafted.

Would you mind sharing with the group how it performed? I've built several wheels and each has its pros and cons. WE learn a new lesson with each one that WE build and from each one other members build.

Just curious about what you learned with this one?

Thanks again for sharing with the group and great job with the the construction.

Preston.

[jim_mich]

Steve, you do beautiful work!

Looking at the wheel that Ken posted it's plain to see why it's balanced. There are 18 weights on the right side and 20 weights on the left. Two weights are centered. But suppose that as the wheel turns centrifugal forces were to cause the weights to swing out in such a manner that the wheel becomes continually unbalanced? We must ALWAYS be very careful so that we don't jump to conclusions that a wheel doesn't work based solely on it being statically balanced when standing still! I'm not saying that this wheel works. I'm just saying to be vigilant so we don't reject a possible working design without proper dynamic testing or dynamic analysis.

[Steve Witter]

Thank you all for your compliments and comments.
Coylo --- It doesn't and it does.
Fletcher --- Wheel is 15" D. --- 21" L, 8" W, 18" H. Possibly.
ovyyus --- I agree. Maybe the next one will.
ken --- I have the same dwg. It inspired me. Found it in Ord-Hume's book. "Perpetual Motion - The History of an Obsession"
pstroud --- It rotates for a minute or so with a light spin. The total weight
helps, like a heavy flywheel. Too fast a spin and centrifugal force will move all the balls to the maximum position thus balancing the wheel.
jim --- In my pic. if you draw a vertical line down to 6:00 O'clock you will notice that one ball is almost at that position. Five balls are on the right an six are on the left. The right five are a greater radius than the left six. Here again we have a balance situation.

Thank you all again,
Steve Witter

[ken_behrendt]

Steve W. wrote:

In my pic. if you draw a vertical line down to 6:00 O'clock you will notice that one ball is almost at that position. Five balls are on the right an six are on the left. The right five are a greater radius than the left six. Here again we have a balance situation.

This is the problem that dooms all "classic" rolling weight sphere machines to failure. There can be no net torque in the wheel and, thus, no motion. It seems like there is some subtle law of geometry that always causes the problem to arise. If only there was some way to have the weights on the descending side of one's wheel always farther from the axle than the same number of weights on the ascending side, then success would be assured. Apparently, Bessler found a way to do it, though most likely not with rolling weight spheres.


ken