Where is the springs?

[ozzy]

There was a description of the wheel, where Bessler pushed down on a spring as he reinstalled the weights. The spring then expanded upwards. I cant see any springs i his drawings, except for flexible "spring" steel in MT18.
I cant make a spring fit in any idea Ive had.
It can probably send a weight up, but it has to be compressed first.
Any Ideas?

[John Collins]

The mention of a spring occurred in Professor Christian Wolff's report about his examination of the Merseberg wheel. He said that when Bessler replaced the weights after translocation of the wheel had taken place, he heard the sound of a spring as it expanded aloft. Remember that this is a subjective interpretation of a sound heard and should be taken with jus a little scepticism.

John Collins

[jim_mich]

Where a spring is located depends on what the spring does. It's my opinion that Bessler's springs had only one specific function. That function was to move the weights quickly. If you play with designs long enough you will come to realize that when weights are allowed to be moved only by their own momentum and/or gravity then they usually move too slow to cause out-of-balance. They seem to always be one step behind where you want them to be.

A spring can cause a weight to oscillate back and forth as the momentum of the weight continually flexes the spring. A stronger spring will cause a faster oscillation. Suppose a weight were to swing one way flexing a spring then latch just before it starts to swing back. After the wheel has rotated, the weight is unlatched and swings back flexing the spring the other way then latches again. The spring has done only one thing. It has forced the weight to swing much faster than it normally would.

A hair-spring in a watch causes the little flywheel to swing back and forth with very little added energy. The swing rate will depend on the strength of the hair-spring. I think Bessler's springs caused the weights to swing at or near a certain speed. That speed forced them to swing faster than normal when the wheel was turning very slow and kept them from swinging too fast as the wheel sped up.

[keith sinclair]

spring not springs!

One has to remember what was available at that time in history.
one spring can do many things if it is well wrought , spring on carriages were very good and could be with a good smith be made very thin after all they were used in guns and clocks , but perhaps if one not thought of springs but one circular then maybe it would suffice to say it would make that particular sound would it not ? the wheel was large so would not the spring be large also??



keith