Posted by Lurker (66.222.48.116) on June 08, 2003 at 09:16:14:
In Reply to: Re: Construction standard posted by Jeff on June 08, 2003 at 07:12:58:
: I think I remember reading that it took Bessler over a year to construct one of his wheels, (maybe the two-direction one). If it was so simple a Carpenter's apprentice could build it with no problem, why did it take Bessler, who knew the exact details, so long to complete?
My guess is that the basic construction is very simple, but that you have to build the parts very carefully to ensure that friction and other problems do not reduce the efficiency of the machine. Also, Bessler probably added a lot of unecessary complexity to some of his wheels to make sure that other people would not understand how it worked if they saw it. I believe Asa Jackson did the same thing with his wheels. In fact, I think that perhaps 75% or more of the part's in his machine were entirely unecesary. They were simply put there to prevent other people from discovering the secret.
Lurker.