Posted by David (199.60.107.1) on April 25, 2003 at 14:55:36:
In Reply to: General comments posted by John Collins on April 25, 2003 at 12:16:23:
John I hope you don't mind me replying to this.
: David writes "The wise will find that only through relentless questioning can the unknown hope to become known." David it was my relentles questioning that uncovered all that we know about Bessler.
: David believes that I am pro Bessler and indeed I am. But it is not blind faith. The reason I began to research Bessler was because I thought that there were inconsistencies in the story as I knew it then, as told by Lieut.-Commander Rupert T. Gould, famous for his work on the history and development of the marine chronometer made by John Harris. It was this book, called "Oddities; A Book of Unexplained Facts", first published in London in 1928 by Philip Allan & Co. Ltd., which was based on actual historical documents, which caught my imagination.
: The result of my investigations seemed to point to some unexplained method of powering his wheel, simply because the method as described was not possible. Now you may disagree with me about this fact - I know David does. Although it may seem circumstantial rather then hard evidence, I do speak as a qualified engineer of some thirty years experience as a problem solving mechanical technician.
David here, I certainly hope no one sees this as an attack but have no other way of putting it. John, I know you are not an engineer with a degree. You've said as much to me over 5 years ago, that you only worked with engineers. Am I wrong on this?
: So when I say that you cannot drive a (roughly) twelve foot diameter wheel weighing (let us be conservative and suggest 100LBS) through two bearings measuring (variously described as) three-quarters of an inch and a quarter of an inch, up to full speed of (roughly) one revolution per second within three turns -and drive a pulley to raise a weight of seventy pounds up in the air several feet, I mean it. It can't be done - unless it is powered from some internal mechanism not connected to the bearings.
Heck let's just say 500 pounds and I never personally have been mentioning it being driven by an external source.
: Now any internal source of power simply will not drive a heavy wheel for 54 days (24 hours a day)apart from one brief break to see if all was OK, without running out of energy, long before that.
This...is just not true. First of all any wheel than can easily be turned side to side or (as you put it) started with just a slight push, no matter how heavy, is a well balanced flywheel. Look no further than the door at coral castle if you dont thik a heavy weight can be easily moved once it is balanced. And it takes far less energy to maintain a flywheel in motion, per minute duration, than it does to get it up to speed in the first place. That, and coupled with the fact that I have said repeatedly that I think gravity did pull the wheel via weights, but something else shifted the weights, and the fact that even a wheel with a configuration of moving weights can be made to act as a flywheel, disputes this.
: We are, therefore, left to conclude that there was an application of some exterior force driving the wheel through its internal mechanism. Bessler said there were weights driving his wheel. Why would he lie? He intended to sell the machine as soon as possible.
But he never did, and herein lies the crux of the matter.
David