Question for John Collins - Wolff's statements

[Jeff]

John,

Were Wolff's statements concerning his eyewitness account of the wheel written in English or were they in old German and translated? Who was Wolff reporting to about the wheel, and did Bessler know of this report?

Was there any reaction from Bessler when he found someone had glimpsed a part of the interior of the wheel through a slit in the covering?

Thank you,

Jeff

[John Collins]

Wolff's words were written in the German of the time. The comments you refer to appeared in a letter to Gottfried Leibniz dated 19th December 1715. I don't know if Bessler knew of the report but I see no reason why he would - although, he knew Wolff was there and that he would probably write about what he had seen. He also knew Leibniz and that he too would probably write about what he had seen. Letters were the chief means of communicating information and I believe that the records show that Leibniz wrote to over 600 people.

There is no record that Bessler reacted to someone seeing through the slit in the covering of the wheel, so perhaps he did not notice. I doubt that it would have bothered him since he invited everyone to examine the entire surface of the wheel, and if the slit was visible, he must have been aware of it. I don't think that anything visible through the slit could have provided any kind of clue as to the interior of the wheel.