I doubt he could explain it too. After all he and his fellow critics were the ones who had called for a 4 week test as proof of true PM. Bessler extended the test to well beyond what was asked for, as I presume a kind of double down, to kick the debunking to touch once and for all. Karl died in 1730 whereupon his son took over the reins. Bessler had been granted from Karl (after seeing inside the wheel and later receiving a payment and a job because of its authenticity) a house for life and a salary for 5 years should he leave Karl's employ IIRC (which he eventually did). As you say JB never publicly demonstrated a wheel outside Karrl's protection. He did build a final wheel for his landlord at his death in 1745 tho I believe it was never handed over, or presumably paid for in full. So no public demonstration to perhaps resurrect his previous vocal critics, should they have had a mind to, but I doubt they did.ovyyus wrote:I doubt Wagner could easily explain Bessler's long duration test. Bessler's critics grew silent when Karl became his patron. Bessler never publicly demonstrated a wheel after leaving Karl's protection, so there was probably nothing for his critics to rail against.Fletcher wrote:You'd think he'd keep hammering away at Bessler, but for a reason I don't know he apparently went quiet. Was this an admission of defeat ?
Bessler's critics (Wagner, Borlach, Gartner et al) did apparently grow silent when Karl became his patron. I would say that was one of the main purposes behind Karl's Attestation which I include excepts beneath for background. When you read it it becomes clear that Karl was having the full and final say.
Thanks again to John Collins and his books for the detail, available at his website for those interested in the full translations (as you will appreciate shortly). N.B. I have truncated parts of the relevant information for expediency and the saving of thread space here. Anyone wishing to read the full context is welcome to and I recommend it.
http://www.free-energy.co.uk/html/books_for_sale.html
On the note of contextual information I include quotes on what Karl did say and was recorded, about Bessler's wheel when he had seen the inside workings. They are from his Attestation Document (first hand) and from Desaguliers writings (second hand) and from a post from John Collins about what he read in a separate letter recounting Karl IINM.
John Collins wrote:BW.Com Post subject: re: Landgraf Karl von Hessen-Kassel : Mon 03 Sep, 2018 :
I am not in the UK at present but from memory, I have seen a letter to HMs government in which a conversation with the Landgrave is recounted in which the Landgrave says he has seen the inside of the wheel and it is very simple and he is surprised that no one else has thought of it before.
Also I have copy of a letter from Bessler to the Landgrave in which he requests the payment promised to him if he allowed the Landgrave access to his wheels interior. There are other pieces of circumstantial evidence which supports the conclusion that the Landgrave demanded access before he could grant his patronage to Bessler.
Desagueliers wrote:... This experiment, Sir, showing the rapidity of the wheel augmenting from the very slow movement I gave it, to an extraordinary rapid one, convinces me more that if I had seen the wheel moving for a whole year, which would not have persuaded me that it was perpetual motion, because it might have diminished little by little until it ceased altogether; but to gain speed instead of losing it, and to increase that speed to a certain degree in spite of the resistance of air and the friction of the axles, I do not see how anyone can doubt the truth of this action. I then turned it in the opposite direction, and the wheel produced the same effect. I examined the bearings of this wheel to see if there was any hidden artifice; but was unable to see anything more than the two small bearings on which the wheel is suspended at its centre.
His Highness, who possesses all the qualities that a great prince should have, has always had consideration for the inventor, and will not use the machine in any way for fear of the secret being discovered before the inventor had received a reward from foreigners. His Highness, who has a perfect understanding of mathematics, assured me that the machine is so simple that a carpenter's boy could understand and make it after having seen the inside of this wheel, and that he would not risk his name in giving these attestations, if he did not have knowledge of the machine...' - letter from Joseph Fischer to J.T. Desaguliers, 1721.
1. The wheel is made entirely of ponderous matter/material "(matter which, as long as it or the Universe exists, will so remain)". This was written by Bessler in DT and which included Karl's Attestation of 1718. The book was publicly available. If Karl did not personally proof read it then I would suggest someone in his service did on his behalf. Nothing would have gone in there that did not bare scrutiny or was not attributable to Karl.Karl's Attestation wrote:DT Page 192-195
(mine Bessler) And so in this manner I was able to demonstrate, using just three special tests out of the infinite number possible, that my crafted Wheel, consisting as it does entirely of ponderous matter (matter which, as long as it or the Universe exists, will so remain) yet moves and rotates of its own accord, and, like a living creature, can work and perform services of great value ...
For His Serene Highness, Karl, my Prince, himself in person, was pleased to inspect my Wheel and, after a most deeply illuminating investigation, expressed himself in the highest degree content therewith, and happily cognisant of the very great benefits which, after so much inspection, it was now evident would accrue to the world there from. (Benefits which would be all the greater on account of the almost infinitely diverse applications which were possible). Moreover, His Highness expressed his great and just indignation at the wrong which the device and its poor inventor had had to suffer at the hands of frivolous, and indeed malicious, slanderers.
His Serene Highness, therefore, immediately and most graciously made the following proposal, in order to authenticate the effects described above. (No-one would admit that the device could run for a month, but with great bravado, certain people wished to force me to accept the challenge of a bet of 1000 Reichthalers as a means of wresting my secret from me or at any rate to vilify the machine and destroy my reputation.) The proposal, then, was to seal up the machine, once set in motion in its room, with all windows shut and with the double doors locked and bolted, and guarded at all times, to see if the result of the experiment will vindicate the claims I have made for my Wheel, and will overcome and lay low forever the impertinence of those doubters who did not hesitate to accuse the poor inventor of impropriety, deceit, stupidity and hypocrisy.
All this was ordained and carried out in the presence of His Serene Highness in accordance with all due ceremony. With the result that success was complete, the outcome being just as we had desired, for it was duly noted that the machine still continued to revolve after a period of two months with unchanged strength and power. Whereupon, His Serene Highness, despite the fact that I was willing to allow the wheel to revolve for a longer period, declared that the success of the experiment was sufficient, indeed decisive, for the reputation of all the provocative accusations made by my enemies, and that a prolongation of the experiment would be an unnecessary and pointless burden. Indeed, His Highness declared himself ready to proclaim, and sign with his own hand, the following testimonial and Letters Patent with the aim of making, as stated, a complete refutation of all the accusations and doubts against me and my machine scurrilously promulgated by my enemies, and, instead, allowing the true facts to be known.
By The Grace Of God, We, Karl, Landgrave Of Hessen, Prince Of Hersfeld, Count Of Katzenelnbogen, Dietz, Ziegenhaven, Nidda And Schaumburg, hereby make the following testimony and proclamation: -
‘Whereby our Kommerzienrath (mine : counselor) and loyal subject Doctor Johann Ernst Elias Orffyreus has most submissively informed us how he, at our castle Weissenstein, has constructed once more a new machine from the one he first invented and constructed some years ago, i.e. in 1712, firstly at Gera in the Voigtland, and then in 1713, 14 and 15 at Draschwitz and Merseburg in Saxony, where it was publicly demonstrated. This machine, a ‘Perpetuum Mobile’, he continues, has now been rebuilt in a room of the aforementioned castle, after the concession we had granted to him. But he adds how hitherto grave doubts concerning his device have been expressed, including the charge leveled against it that it is not the true P.M., namely a machine which, when once set in motion, continues thus of its own inner being, without (being driven by) clockwork, weights that require raising, or by springs, so long as its materials retain their integrity, unless it is deliberately interrupted in its persistent motion. He adds many details about the defamatory remarks regarding him and his machine which have been widely disseminated in public journals, and that he has been challenged in wagers that his machine could not continue in motion for a period of four weeks. As a result of this, our aforementioned Kommerzienrath most humbly approached us to request that we might most graciously not only inspect his aforesaid invention, but might also, while the machine was running, arrange that it should be most carefully protected; in particular that all routes by which persons might have access to it or tamper with it in any way, should, in order to pre-empt any further objections or doubts, be thoroughly sealed up, and, moreover, be put under guard, with the aim that the device should, after the lapse of a sufficient period of time, be re-inspected, and, on ensuring validation of its genuineness, be given, most graciously, the stamp of an official princely testimonial and Letters Patent, thereby also making unnecessary the payment of any duties. And therefore it has pleased us to accede most graciously to this request, and, from a love of truth and in order to appreciate the real nature of this so important device we have spared no effort or expense to this end.
It is now attested and witnessed in the true words of His Highness what was indeed discovered to be the truth about the much-discussed Orffyrean P M. – namely that its motion depends neither on external force or assistance, nor, especially, on any internal clockwork device of wheels and springs. It more than fulfills the requirements of an almost countless number of learned prescriptions as to what any credible device laying claim to Perpetual Motion status must perform. Indeed, this long-sought and much-desired machine, or so-called Perpetual Motion. (T.N. – ‘pure artificiale quoad durantem materiam’ [mine : the purely artificial durable material] is added after P.M. – this Latin phrase is then described a few lines later, marked *) is a revolving wheel, which is able to run, by means of its own innate momentum, * for as long as its innate structure and character is not compromised, and so long as it does not fly to pieces, smash or break, or become defective or damaged. But, since the principle is viable, and the material of which this device is constructed is not subject to defect, lack of durability or brittleness, there remains no doubt that it could, and would, if started, continue to rotate indefinitely. As an emphatic proof of its capabilities this device, though really little more than a model, has, to our not inconsiderable pleasure, already passed the long-demanded month-long test, and, what is more, has in effect passed it twice. For, after said Wheel had been continuously, closely and many times observed for three whole months by many persons, both local and from further afield, and of both high and low estate, I caused it, on 12th November last year (1717) to be locked away in a sealed room. I allowed the Wheel to run for two weeks, and then, on 26th November, I repaired to the place once more, accompanied by several of my Ministers, and in person opened up the intact seals, checked everything thoroughly, and with my own hands brought to rest the Wheel, still revolving with undiminished energy, without violent shock. Then, with some assistance from the Master himself, the Inventor, the Wheel was brought back into motion once more, and still greater security precautions were taken to prevent interference. Not only were all windows locked tight, but also all the doors, including those in the corridor leading to the room where the Wheel was situated. This was all done in Our presence and that of Our accompanying retinue, and guards were posted and seals applied. After all this was performed, six whole weeks were allowed to elapse, during which no one was allowed near the machine. Then, on the 4th day of January of the Lord’s new year, 1718, we betook ourselves again to our castle at Weissenstein, where we not only recognised our impressed seals, noting that they were completely intact, but also, after the opening up of the doors and window-shutters had been completed, we examined the Orffyrean Wheel, still continuing unabated in its revolutions, from many angles, and noted, both in the room and outside, that there was not a single trace of anything that could give rise to the slightest suspicion. And so, notwithstanding the fact that the inventor freely offered a longer test run, we considered (especially as the already completed run of eight weeks had exceeded by a factor of two that which had been demanded by his adversaries) that this was quite unnecessary.
In order that all these things might be confirmed all the more strongly, we have, yielding to the inventor’s most humbly expressed request, not only appended to this testimonial our own signature, adding to it the great Seal of our Dynasty, after the most mature consideration, but further, we strongly exhort all people, of whatever class or rank they may be (and in the case of our own subjects we not only exhort but command) that our aforementioned Kommerzienrat Orffyreus, who, by virtue of his service with us enjoys our protection, should on account of this, his most wonderful, but as yet not widely appreciated invention, not be burdened by unjust accusations, but rather should, when he requests it or is otherwise seen to require it, enjoy all the assistance, protection and promotional goodwill that can be offered him. The which we are at any time most graciously pleased to repeat on request, even in legally binding terms, to any person, depending upon his rank; to our own subjects this shall serve as a solemn proclamation.
Kassel, 27th May, 1718 KARL
The upshot being that the entire wheel was made of ponderous matter i.e. it shall remain, not diminish over time. It looks like very little room for fuels of any sort, IMO.
2. The wheel was understood completely by Karl, it was very simple. It could be understood with only a short viewing time. It should have been thought of by others. It self-moved by virtue of its own innate momentum (mine : .. of its ponderous matter of which it was constructed).