Re: Construction standard


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Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.30) on June 08, 2003 at 09:38:34:

In Reply to: Re: Construction standard posted by Jeff on June 08, 2003 at 07:12:58:

Maybe it didn't take so long to build the wheel? We know JB arrived in Kassel to work for Karl in 1716. The first long duration test ran from November 1717 to 4th January 1718. I'm not sure what month JB and his family arrived but it might have been late in 1716, so there's your year. Having settled in, the inventor had to acquire his materials and begin construction, under secure conditions. At this time he also undertook the writing of 7000 lines of rhyming couplets describing his life to that point, including the secret code which he hid in the document. This document (the Apologia)is dated 1716-1717 so presumably it took him that long to write it and get it printed.

I know that he had considerable trouble tying Karl down to a firm date for the tests because Karl was in the middle of intense peace negotiations with several of Europe's various rulers. Sometimes he was in residence and other times he was elsewhere and the test had to take place during one of his residencies. I seem to remember reading that it took some four months to arrange the long-duration tests.

I suspect that it took him about six months to get hold of the materials, construct the wheel in a suitable room and build the necessary staging that I described in my book. This staging had to permit inspection of the wheel-bearings which were over six feet up off the ground. It also had to permit the translocation of the wheel from one set of bearings to another - and of course a duplicate set of bearings mounted on a fixed pillar needed to be constructed in the room. Remember also that JB's brother helped to translocate the wheel so staging was required on each side of the wheel.

So although the idea might be simple, carrying out full construction and preparing for the test could have been a lengthy process. Clearly materials were not quickly got hold of then and again in my research into John Rowley, I discovered that time was not an important factor in supplying materials to order and five years from request to supply was nothing in those days

JC


: 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?




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