Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.15) on January 29, 2003 at 00:05:24:
In Reply to: Bessler biographical question for John Collins posted by grim on January 28, 2003 at 19:05:04:
: Hello John
: Did Bessler ever belong to the Masonic Order or some other similar organization?
:
: Thanks
:
: grim
Hi Grim,
I can see where you're going with this and I did actually research the point, prior to publication. I think it is merely coincidence but Desaguliers, who was Newton's curator of experiments, and also received the famous letter from Fischer von Erlach about Bessler's wheel, was a major player in the renaissence of the Masons. He founded the London lodge and went on to personally arrange for the acceptance of some major European members of Royalty and other scientists within the London lodge. He also founded some other lodges both in Germany and France. Against him is the fact that he, above many others sought to discredit Bessler's claims, even publishing "proof" of their impossibility. He went to considerable lengths to make sure that Bessler was not taken seriously and having given a public lecture to that purpose went ahead and published the lecture some ten years afterwards. His language about Bessler was dismissive as it was about Newcomen's steam engine. Basically he did not accept that anyone who had not attended university and received the best education could possibly solve a problem that neither he nor his peers could solve.
As far as I'm aware Bessler did not belong to the Masons or any other order although he did have a knowledge of them as he did of the Egyptians and Hebrews etc. Hope this helps.
John Collins