Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.13) on December 06, 2002 at 07:56:40:
In Reply to: Re: Random thoughts posted by Jeff on December 05, 2002 at 14:27:17:
As far as I have been able to determine Bessler left no will. His widow is said to have given all his belongings, which are clearly listed,.to the local government. No will is mentioned although the pieces of a broken wheel are listed.
His helper was his younger brother Gottfried, who left for England with his wife and family around 1726. I'm pretty sure from hints given in his writings, that Gottfried was not privy to the secret of the wheel.
John Collins
: Did Bessler not have a written will? Could he have devised the secret to his next of kin? What of his helper? He probably had help building the wheel. I can see keeping the details secret while Bessler was alive, but why didn't the helper construct a wheel after Bessler's death?
: Jeff
:
: : Good point Steve. I never thought of buried as meaning buried in the existing literature. My research "on the ground" as it were seems to indicate that Bessler's grave is in fact under a car lot! As for the buried texts they were probably included in his mausoleum that he built in his garden so they are under the car lot too! I don't know where else he would have buried them. The car lot is very nice and has been there for years and what was there before I don't know but I guess there isn't much hope of finding anything now - unless of course someone succeeds in replicating his wheel and then all sorts of things might happen.
: : John
: : :
: : Hmm, I just thought of this.. he burned or buried all of the important documents so that they would not be found by the wrong persons. The burnt ones are gone, but where are the buried ones? Could be reffering to his texts? Since they did'nt give a strait answer I did'nt think he was worried about them.
: : : Maybe I'm just missing something, but I think the real stuff may well still be buried somewhere.. but prolly under a parking lot by now.