Besslers prime mover and its enabler.

[Roxaway59]

Yes that's right Fletcher.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

Today I will begin by posting the theory of this wheel. I have most of the parts for the real thing so I will begin carefully building it later today and I must admit I feel nervous about it. I'm sure we all know that feeling.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

This first picture and Algodoo simulation is purely theoretical.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

The yellow weight is 20g the blue is 5g and the green weight is 25g. What this is creating is an inverted pendulum. Initially the wheel is balanced because the same weight is on both sides so let the motor take it either right or left and watch it swing.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

You will notice that when the pendulum reaches 6 o'clock the wheel looks like this.

[Roxaway59]

Imagine now if we had a way of shifting the green weight so it was a yellow and blue weight and shifting the yellow and blue weights on the right so they became the green weight. If we did that the pendulum would flip to the top and the whole process would begin again.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

At this point there is something that I want you to notice because people very often try to make sense of Besslers clues. The weights being further in or out from the axle is the opposite way to what you would think when being turned clockwise. Bessler didn't mind people knowing that his wheel over balanced with weights being further out on one side than the other because he knew they would take it the wrong way.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

So the next question is how do we arrange the weights in this way successfully? The next diagrams I put up will be showing this.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

Here is the left hand side view of the wheel.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

Here is the right hand side view of the wheel.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

You will notice that in reality the green weight has to be further down from the centre line like this.

[Roxaway59]

If you experiment with the Algodoo model yourself you will find that it still works with the green weight further down. If you lower the green weight you will find that the more you lower it the weaker the pendulum becomes as you would expect.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

You may notice that it is starting to look more and more like my Avatar.
Graham

[Roxaway59]

Speaking of Besslers clues at this point I want to ask members a question relating to the toy pages. You may have to look very carefully because Besslers drawing is very faint and I don't think he meant people to see this drawing. Does this remind you of anything?
Graham

[Roxaway59]

Believe it or not I only noticed this after I had built and run my experiment.
Graham