BesslerWheel.com

Despite the quality of Bessler's drawing, the notion that his clues would be in a modern scientific format seems flawed, and certainly not supported by his use of language. His assumption of the name Orffyreus points to an earlier, esoteric, tradition in which multiple allusions point to an intended...

Stewart, you are formally correct.

I would just observe that if two connected masses could traverse curved paths such that CF does work, the system would gain energy.

Cut John a little slack and see if he can make the case.

The Earth is rotating on its axis and, together with the Moon, is in orbit around the Sun, which is itself orbiting the Galactic centre, etc.

Or were you referring to something else?

For there to be leverage, the lever has to be able to move. Placing the pivots on a separate inner wheel and limiting the travel of the falling weight might be a start.

How far does the weight fall when the wheel turns 5 degrees?

The pinned weight behaves as if it were attached through its centre of gravity.

Apparently I wasn't sufficiently clear...

A mass of 1kg is hung from a pivot by a bar of length 1m. A mass of 2kg is hung from the same pivot by a bar of length 50cm. The 2kg mass is raised and released. What happens?

Two balls of equal mass are hung from the same pivot by bars of equal length. If one ball is raised and released, when it impacts the other ball it transfers all of its momentum and comes to a dead stop. If one of the balls is replaced by a ball of half the mass on a bar of twice the length, what ha...

Read a bit further: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrail#Condensation_from_decreases_in_pressure As a wing generates lift, it causes a vortex to form at each wingtip, and sometimes also at the tip of each wing flap. These wingtip vortices persist in the atmosphere long after the aircraft has passed...

Contrails (vapour trails) behind aircraft are caused by several mechanisms, one of which is the conservation of angular momentum. Lift generated by a wing cause a vortex to form at the tip and turbulent air quickly detaches this from the aircraft. The rotating horizontal column of air then has no ob...

Assuming the above, Bessler could have used a heavy metal ramp hanging from the axle inside the wheel. That would have produced the reported knocking sound as each weight hit the ramp and was forced to rise.

If John is right, and bearing in mind the substantial contributions here by Scott, Jim and Pathfinder, then it seems possible that Sjack Abeling has a workable wheel. If Preston could adapt his model so that the bottom weight rising on the ramp pulls down the top weight instead of trying to lift it,...

@pathfinder: the two weights can't be opposite all the way round - they're only opposite when one is at 12 o'clock and the other at 6 o'clock. The rest of the time one is accelerating and the other decelerating, so the angle between them is not 180 degrees. Carefully re-read your old post, then look...

Exceptional claims require exceptional proof.

This is often quoted, but it's false. There isn't a double standard in science - every claim requires adequate proof.

It's peddled by people making apparently unexceptional claims to distract others from scrutinising them too closely.

Bessler's own experience proves that...

The BuzzSaw comes to mind.