John Keely's machines and similarities to Bessler's wheel.

[f nepure]

Hi all, i used to post a bit here in 2007/8 but i had to take a break because the addiction of 'the search' became a dangerous thing!

I've always been intrigued by the work of John Keely, because the claims of fraud that surround his work are very similar to those in the Bessler story. Some say that Keely is more easily disproved because of what was found hidden in his shop after his death.

I wondered if Bessler could have discovered a similar technique through his work with organ building, and then used that to drive the wheel (a controversial suggestion that has probably seen the light of day more than once).

This is a bit of a longwinded post so please bear with me or pass this one by if it holds no interest.

John Keely supposedly moved his machines through waveforms, amplified vibrations.

His main kit for his party tricks consisted of a 'liberator' (read zither or banjo) connected via a solid wire to a receiver or reservoir which was a hollow brass globe or toroidal ring, with more solid wire connecting the reciever to the final rotating device or engine.

The strings on the zither generate vibrations, these are then amplified in the globe shaped reservoir where the metal resonates to the incoming vibrations. More gradual input of soundwaves increases the resonance in a similar way to how a wine glass is broken with sound, a gradual rocking back and forth of the structure that is increased with each incoming waveform rather like a swing or a pendulum. The molecular bonds of the structure itself (wine glass or brass sphere) provide the opposing force just as gravity provides the opposing force to a pendulum. Allowing vibrational energy to be built-up, like charging a battery.

The musical tubes on the rotating and stationary part of the machine/engine recieve this amplified vibration and are tuned to generate opposing waveforms that meet to form a standing wave. The standing wave creates high and low pressure nodes in the air between the tubes.

This student's degree project demonstrates the force of standing wave nodes quite nicely - /www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9SlyXhNoZ4&feature=relmfu

In Keely's machines, the pressure nodes are set to repel or attract one another to generate rotation, rather like the manipulation of magnetic fields that drives an electric motor.

In some of his designs (the dynasphere) all this kit was mounted in the same machine, the strings at the bottom, the hollow sphere reservoir above them, and the sphere itself rotates, powered by the resonating tubes fixed inside the sphere and on the stationary ring that encircles it. In his later machines he had a bigger, heavier rotating assemblies, connected with solid wire from the globe shaped reservoir.

Even if my surmisations about Keely's methods are correct... it isn't PM. Because the force ending up at the axle is no greater than all the combined energy input from agitating the zither strings. So there is no magic, just a clever manipulation of vibrational energy. Keely probably spent time getting his globe reservoir primed and really humming with high non-auditory vibrational energy, then for a demonstration he could magically transmit this force to turn his device and wow spectators. He once admitted to a reporter that it would take him 5 hours to recharge his reservoir.

In his early experiments he definately used solid wires to transfer vibrations between machinery. But after his death the Philidelphia Press investigation discovered hidden tubes and a large hidden reservoir under the floor of his shop, which they assumed was for storing compressed air. I like to think that it was a vibratory reservoir... but maybe he started to use compressed air in desperation for better results.

Still no PM either way, but just like Bessler he managed to convince (fool?) a lot of people through the mysterious way that he could get his machines to rotate with no visible input of energy.

If Bessler did use a similar system... it would support the maid's crazy story in a way - maybe the handle that they turned in the opposing room could have been the vibratory generator, and the barbed rod on the axle could have been the connection that transferred vibrational energy into the wheel.

Please feel free to criticise the hell out of my theories, that's what i'm here for ;-)
Regards to all,

Frank

[getterdone]

The wheel was so simple, that once understood , a carpenters son could build it?

Count Karl didn't say that Bessler had discovered something extraordinary. He said that it was so simple, he was amazed no one had thought of it before?

[daxwc]

Great post Frank was always intrigued with the Kelly saga, but Besslers maid getting enough energy though the wire is suspect in my opinion. There has to be lots of wasted energy just supplying the noise the wheel made. Speculation that if the wire was hollow maybe Bessler was pumping bellows air and Karl just assumed he knew how the wheel worked.

[f nepure]

The link with Bessler is tenuous perhaps!

I love to believe in power from a unique manipulation of mass/gravity/inertia, but i am equally intrigued by how he could have driven the wheel from an external energy source.

Please PM me if you're interested in the Keely machine operation/design as that in itself is quite fascinating

[greendoor]

I doubt very much that Bessler was a fraud, and I don't think Keeley was either. Conservative historians says that both these gentlemen were frauds, but that is because of ultimate faith in the principle of Conservation of Energy (which might turn out to be the biggest fraud of all).

The principles of acoustic waves (not merely restricted to the human audible range, but the total spectrum of mechanical oscillations of all frequencies) are very interesting and very overlooked. Bessler would have learnt a lot from his pipe organ experience - possibly including acoustic levitation, which is an acknowledged scientific principle.

I just don't think it fits the facts very well.