A Question

[11Turion]

I apologize in advance for not having taken the time, as some of you have, to read and research everything on this forum and others like it that reference Bessler's Wheel. I am not here often because of other projects, but this damn wheel is always in the back of my mind. It is a concept that keeps me up late at night on occasion and I draw strange and mysterious things that make my wife shake her head in the morning when she finds me slumped over mounds of wadded up, discarded sketches.

Last night I was playing with something, and before I take the time (something I am currently extremely short on, but will have eons in a couple months) I thought I might run it by the folks here on the forum to see if anyone has tried something like it. In a nutshell it is this.

A hollow wheel a couple feet across

Four rods which are arranged to run from side to side (through center) on the wheel, but are side BY side with space between each. From the side view it looks like spokes of a bicycle wheel only with no central hub.

The center shaft on which the wheel rotates does NOT run through the wheel, so plenty of room inside for mechanical stuff.

Weighted tubes that slide up and down the rods (with pre-set stops) because of gravity.
Two weights attached to each tube with lever arms and pivot points, so that the one on the right moves out toward the rim as the weighted tube slides down the rod to its stop, and the one on the left moves in from the rim as the same weight falls.

In this example the wheel would rotate clockwise. To get it to be able to rotate in either direction you would have to have an upside down and mirrored set of weights attached with lever arms to another set of four tubes on four more rods, so the width of the wheel would have to double.

There would have to be four separate compartments within the wheel and each pole and tube would move only within its own compartment. Because the rods are each several degrees different in orientation from the previous rod, they cannot use the same pivot points, so would need the walls of their own chamber to support the pivot points for their own set of lever arms and weights.

This would make the machine quite heavy and it might require some help to get it moving.

If anyone has tried something like this, could you please direct me to where it is s that I might take a peek. If no one has, it gives me a place to begin.

Dave Bowling

[triplock]

Dave
I think you need to give us a simple sketch as to the arrangement of sliding weights , tracks, levers etc. The outline idea is understood but not the position of everything .

Having no through axle is always useful as you can jump across from - to + very efficiently .

The main thing you should look at is not when you draw the wheel at a point of most PE, rather sketch it when it is at a point of near keel. What happens with your various driving weights then to re-ignite the motion of the assembly as a whole ?

Chris

[11Turion]

Sorry for the poor sketch. This was the original sketch I had in my notebook. I realize that the weights are not symmetrical, which will cause problems, so I have been working on that. But it still shows the idea. Four setups like this in four sections or chambers of the wheel. Each chamber has walls because the pivot points for each section will be different than for the previous section.