'There are some springs, but not used as you think'...

[path_finder]

I want to share here a very important element needed in the 'hamster' design I suggested earlier: the locking rollers
http://www.besslerwheel.com/forum/downl ... fe587f25ae
On a practical way they can be some very light plastic rolls, parallel with the axis of the cylindrical weights.

They are acting for the motion like a diode.
As soon a prime-mover has reached the maximum elevation, it's necessary to avoid the return back of this mass along the outer rim.
By locking immediately the rolling mass, we allow the torque to be applied immediately and as longest as possible on the drum.

I don't know if Bessler used the springs like that.
But on my opinion, on a strict gravitational point of view, regarding the gravity action there is no particular requirement to add any other mechanism (if you need a better torque, just increase the size of the weights). Also there is no reason to decrease the force of the weights by any spring (we will loose a part of the active torque).
Therefore I always though that the springs were not involved in the basic motion, but used for a marginal action.

Il you accept the idea that the springs were used like that (like a classic bicycle free wheel clutch, see the picture bellow) there is an obvious conclusion:
this feature can only be used in the uni-directional design.
If you want to reverse the rotation of the wheel, you need to relocate the locking rollers on the other side of the weights.
This can be the reason why some witnesses observed that Bessler, after replacing the weights inside the wheel for a new demonstration, was obliged to relocate the locking rollers at the rear side of each new deposited weight and some noise of 'spring' song can be heart at that occasion (Bessler was operating in the dark and lost sometime the end of some spring???)

[Fletcher]

Hi pathfinder .. over here we call those one-way clutch bearing or one-way rachets - you can buy them from bearing retailers to fit even very small shafts - nice engineering around today that make them very frictionless in slip mode but grab almost instantaneously in drive mode - as you say, in bicycle hubs also & I have a few in my garage I salvaged years ago to see how they worked [pawls just like your picture shows] - I used small one-way clutch bearings in a truck wash gantry I once owned to pull the side brushes apart [belt drive from electric motor] then gravity would swing them together again to make contact with the vehicle, slipping against the electric motor drive shaft rotation.

[Michael]

Therefore I always though that the springs were not involved in the basic motion, but used for a marginal action.

Sounds a lot like what John wrote about on his blog months ago. But that's all he said, the rest is yours.

[path_finder]

Dear Michael,
I have no access to the JC blog, therefore I don't know what was exactly published.
But anyway I will be happy if we arrive at the same conclusion on this subject.
Please note that there are another way to lock the runner, like in MT51.
But locking the central axle of the runner may be less accurate and less reactive than the above one.