Posted by Stewart Hughes (80.1.2.30) on June 02, 2003 at 23:59:56:
One strange thing I've noticed to do with the lettering in MT is the use of two different versions of the letter "A". In some drawings it has a straight bar, in others a v shaped bar like this:
/\
/\/\
It looks especially odd when Bessler uses both types to label parts in the same drawing. I could understand him perhaps using one style in some drawings and another style in others, especially as the drawings are a collection of ideas over time. It seems really strange to mix the two in the same drawing unless there was a specific reason. Does anyone have any ideas?
Maybe the lettering in MT is important and contains clues. This seems more likely after reading the page on John's website about the Roman Numeral code.
I wondered whether the A with the v bar indicated a part of the wheel mentioned in the Apologia Poetica. I thought I'd try out this theory, and I nearly freaked out. I picked the first MT drawing with the strange A in it, which is MT16. In this drawing there are two A's (both the same) and they seem to label the same wheel part which looks to me like a weight on a rope that moves towards and away from the hub depending on the position of its paired weight. This immediately made me think of "The dog creeps out of his kennel just as far as his chain will stretch". I then counted which item that was in the poem (i.e. 1-Greed is an evil root. 2-An anvil receives many blows. 3-A driver drives.4-A runner runs. 5-A seer sees. 6-The buyer buys. etc), and guess what it's number 16! And if that wasn't enough the Apologia image fits MT16! Anyway its all probably just a coincidence, but it made me laugh, and hopefully its made you laugh too! :) Now you know I'm really insane, if the "decoder" thing hadn't already convinced you! Anyway I'll keep looking for other weird coincidences for your amusement! :)
All the best
Stewart