Posted by Scott Ellis (206.168.33.195) on July 30, 2002 at 09:48:02:
In Reply to: Costa wheel posted by Davis Landstrom on July 27, 2002 at 16:58:43:
Hi Davis, thanks for your post. I emailed John Collins about this and here is his response:
> John,
> How are you? It has been a while since I heard from you. Hope
> you are doing well. I am eagerly awaiting your publication.
> There was talk on my website discussion board that you might
> have gone to see Aldo Costa's wheel in France. Is that true?
> Do you have anything to report? Any information you might
> have would be very much appreciated. Best, Scott
Hi Scott,
Congratulations on your excellent web site. I've been away for a few weeks but I keep an eye on the message board. Just a few comments for your contributors and some answers to your queries.
Re Costa's wheel, I was contacted last year by an Australian TV producer who wished to make a one hour television special on the subject ' The History of Perpetual Motion and the Modern Day Quest for 'Free' energy'. Part of his intinerary included a visit to Aldo Costa's wheel and he asked me to meet him there and view it with him and get my views. Unfortunately I had other commitments at the time and could not fit in with his tight flying schedule.
A friend was able to question the inventor and his responses were something like this (underlined):-
1) How many working models have you made? - No response.
2) Were they all on this same large scale? Or did you make smaller
working models as well? - Others models were smaller but not working.
3) Do you believe that only the force of gravity is used to constantly
imbalance the wheel or are other forces involved?
Seule la pesanteur. [Only gravity]
4) When the wheel is turning, what is the torque at the center in
Newton-Metres?
No answer to this question
5) Have you used the working wheel to do work - e.g. to lift other
objects or raise water etc etc?
Non
6) Does the circular outer rim remain perfectly circular or does it
"deform" due to the heavy mass?
Reste parfaite [It stays perfectly circular]
7) What is the earliest date we could come to visit you and see a
working model?
Selon votre possibilité.
(Max adds the following) He is still working on it and he will be pleased to show you the machine and his principles as you come But for full working machine it is better to wait some weeks more (end of september ? )
8) Why do you think your wheel does not use the same idea as the wheel of Bessler?
He does not really know Bessler wheel and will not answer
9) What is the official number or reference for your patent on this
invention?
INPI 95/12421
INPI is:INTITUT NATIONAL PROTECTION INDUSTRIELLE
10) What do you really want from this invention? Money? recognition? something else?
Argent bien sur, mais aussi sauver l'humanité [I take this to mean `money for sure, but also to save humanity`)
We came to the conclusion that it wasn't a "Bessler" wheel and although it might use gravity, because of its enormous size one couldn't rule out other effects. Why is it so large anyway?
With regard to other postings, Bessler was originally christened just "Johann Bessler" - he adopted the additional names "Ernst Elias" later in adulthood along with his curiius pen name - I have no idea why although I note that his godfather was called Elias. It may or may not have had something to do with his code.
Another posting seems to assume eight weights per wheel - I suspect only four for each direction and possibly only three were necessary. It seems sensible to attempt a replication of a single- direction wheel at first and therefore work on the assumption that there were either three of four weights only. I should also like to point out that the weight of seven hundred pounds or so for the kassel wheel was an early estimate by myself and I think perhaps the weight was closer to four or five hundred pounds including the weights. I originally included my workings out of the volume of the wood used and used the specific gravity of north european oak and pine to calculate the weight, but I could still only make an educated guess at the structure of the wh 'franc' the detailed pictures on your web page reveal little more about it. Keely net were discussing Costa's wheel on their discussion board under the posting 'eurowheel', here is some interesting information gleamed from 'eurowheel':
: 1.John Collins at some point made arangements to go to France and see the wheel, I do not know any more than this, mabey you could ask him for details? (If he saw it that is)
: 2.The wheel rotates VERY slowly, half a revolution every other minuit, or something of that nature.
: I thought that I would include this additional information, as the Costa wheel has the potential to provide a real demonstration of a principle that could turn out to be a modern day Bessler wheel.
: I wounder why people are not taking a greater interest in it?