Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.194) on June 30, 2003 at 00:03:58:
In Reply to: Question for J.C. posted by Michael on June 29, 2003 at 14:34:51:
: Hi John,
: How many people do you figure have looked over Besslers Drawings in the past 290 years? I know we were taught about him in junior high (around 22 years ago) so he's always been well known.
: Thanks,
: MO
Hi Mo,
Although Bessler was written about in several German and French encyclopaedias and most of the major ones we are all familiar with, their accounts were mostly copied from older accounts. Even the wording is almost identical. There have been more modern accounts written but the majority are sceptical and rarely mention the MT. And that is why in my opinion, the drawings have largely been ignored, because no one knew of them unless they happened to read about them in the only couple of books that did mention them. I myself did not manage to acquire a copy of MT until many years had passed partly because I did not realise that they still existed and also simply because I did not know where to look.
To answer your question, I guess fewer than 50 people would have bothered to study them in the last 290 odd years and possibly a lot less than that maybe hald that number.
JC