Zeroing in on Bessler's wheel

[Sam Peppiatt]

FWEIW,
Weights sliding out and down on a radius will never work. They are always trying to catch up with the wheel and there for produce little or no torque. A weight less ness effect, if you will. A much better way is to have the weights sliding / resetting on a horizontal translating rod, at the 6 & 12 positions.

The Ring & Rollers keep the rods translating. They, the rods, actually turn opposite to the rotation of the wheel but, do not rotate with respect to ground----------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

A review / rehash,
Pendulums are a good way to turn a wheel, maybe the best way. I could routinely get 10 revolutions of the wheel by dropping one pendulum one time. I remember t__4 found a video that showed a wheel that could make over 20 turns. However, I could never find a good way to reset them until now.

Looks like the cross-bar for the ring & rollers is well suited to the task. It continuously resets the pendulums. That is to say, keeping the pendulum rod horizontal at all times. The resetting is a two fold process. The pen. weight has to slide out to the left going down and back to the right, back to the pivot point / balanced; similar to a normal pendulum, rotating back to the top of the wheel.

The weights slide on linear ball bearings on a hardened and ground rod. It's like being on ice. They weigh about one pound and slide 9 inches. Out to the left going down and back to the right going up,(for CCW rotation). Anyway that's the idea of it------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

Update,
Nothing new, just the work of making parts. However, I do have a good concept now. The pendulums should turn the wheel and, the rollers will do the lifting. The question now is; can I make it good enough mechanically, for it to work---------------------------------Sam

[thx4]

Hi Sam,

MT 51 shows how to maintain a balance wheel, I tried, but it doesn't Not the way I wanted.
You have to imagine a cross-shaped pendulum (like MT51), the end of the cross has to be connected to your wheel as close as possible to the axis... With a cord or a small connecting rod.
With each revolution in synchro, the wheel gives a flick to the pendulum. The pendulum has to be on an axis with an anti-reverse, which complicates things.
Bonne route

[Sam Peppiatt]

thx4,
MT-51. Yes, I see what you mean. You're right. "F" is the pendulum / ratchet or anti-reverse. I,H, & G resets the pendulum once for every turn of the axle. That's good stuff, I never realized that before. What's wrong with me?

It deffantly suggests that pendulums could have been used, to turn the wheel--------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

thx4,
You have given me an incredible idea!! The Bonne Route!!

MT-51 shows a pendulum on the very center of the wheel, which might not work. But, what might work is, a bell-crank pivoting on the center line of the wheel. The short leg connects to the cross-bar, (of the rollers), with a weight on the other, long horizontal leg of it.

I'll try it and see what happens------------------Sam

ETA Great simplicity; so difficult to imagine.

[Sam Peppiatt]

Follow up,
I'm fairly certain now, (as certain as I can be), that this is how Bessler's wheel worked. The bell-crank should eliminate any problems with back torque. Also If it, the bell-crank, was 'T" shaped with a sliding weight, it could change the direction of rotation. And it would be more or less stationary with respect to ground.

That's about all there is to it. A good road to a runner, (Bonne route) ------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

To continue,
Fletcher's simulations showed the center of mass of the two rollers to be directly below the axle, equal to the difference in the diameter of the roller and it's ring. This point is more or less fixed in space. The center of the cross-bar rotates around this imaginary point. It is pined to the short arm of the bell-crank. If the weighted, long arm, is to the right it will shift the center of mass of the rollers to the left, which causes the wheel to turn CCW. The B-C pivots on the center line of the wheel.

Why should it take so long to figure out some thing so simple-------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

No response, good or bad.
At great length, I wonder why? Maybe it's because a workable device, spells defeat for every one.
Critics and inventers alike------------------Sam

ETA I wish Waltcy was here, I miss him..

[Sam Peppiatt]

Anyway, moving on.
One thing that has always bothered me is; how to control the wheel, once it get's going. My Brother figured it out. Now that the bell-crank is on the centerline. A rod could extend through a hollow shaft, so that it, the crank, could be rotated externally with a lever, out board of the wheel.

This lever could start and stop the wheel, provided forward, reverse, brake, neutral and throttle. All in one lever!------------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

Still NOT working.
However, the rollers can change quite quickly from being balanced, to out of balance and back again. Balanced at 12 & 6 and, OOB at 9 & 3. Have to find some way to do that------Sam

[Sam Peppiatt]

Nothing is working,
I think I got way off the track, going back to February 8th---------------Sam

[Fletcher]

Keep up the good work Sam .. all nuts eventually must crack ..

[Sam Peppiatt]

FLetcher,
You're right I'm about to crack! Well, I hope you are right. I keep going back, (regressing), looking for a simple way to do it which I think now, was a big mistake.

It may not be simple, if I'm right that is--------------------Sam

[Fletcher]

At 82 Sam you've probably put in more combined hard yards than most researchers, just simply from having been, and still at it so long .. and I believe it will be someone (like you or JC etc) that has the hands on experience and the where-with-all to crack it wide open ..

Having said that some luck wouldn't go amiss - and you make your own luck eh .. so that opens the door for anybody with an interest and drive to solve it ..

Reminds me of an old saying in my parts - "nothing beats a good guess, especially when its right" .. :7)