Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.238) on June 11, 2003 at 00:31:16:
In Reply to: Re: Number of components in Bessler's wheel;Joseph Fischer posted by Joel Wright on June 10, 2003 at 14:20:11:
AS far as I know no-one else has described the noise made by the wheels. I can say this with some confidence as I too, searched the records for just such a description.
As for your comment about "seven components would make eight sounds per complete revolution", I not sure I agree. I too, thought of this but when I carried out an experiment to see if it was true I came to the conclusion that it wasn't. Imagine that you are there beside the Kassel wheel and you want to count the number of weights that you can hear. As soon as you hear a weight fall, you mark an imaginery spot on the wheel and keep staring at the orbit that the spot will return to. You could have marked it with a piece of chalk. So the first weight has landed and you mark the wheel and count say eight weights and then your mark reappears. You know that the first weight fell and then you marked the wheel, so you also know if the last weight fell after your mark appeared so you know how many weights fell. I'm sure that I guy like Fischer von Erlach could have worked that out and not made a mistake. He was something of an engineer himself having assisted in designing and building
the first steam engine in Europe.
JC
: Is there any other witnesses that counted the number of sounds of the weights falling other than Joseph Fischer or any other mention of number of sounds other than Joseph Fischer (about eight sounds gently falling on the side of the wheel going down)? To me this seems very important as seven components would make eight sounds per complete revolution as eight components would make nine sounds per complete revolution six would make seven etc etc from starting point to starting point....................................Joel Wright........: There has been some discussion about the number of components in JB's wheel. There is no way of knowing how many there were and he himself said that the number of cross-beams (minor axles?) were variable dependent on the end use of the wheel. He could make the wheels wider or thicker and faster or slower, so clearly there is no ideal number although there is probably a minimum number required and that would also depend on whether it was a one-way or a two way wheel.
: : Darren, I think, said there were 21 moving parts in his wheel but that could increase to 102. In my current design there are 40 moving parts but there are some additional pieces which comprise each moving part - and yet the design is extremely simple in theory - but not so easy tp put together!
: : I'm puzzled that Darren should arrive at the figure of 102 since that is divisible by three but not by two. You might be constructing your wheel with three or six weights Darren? Interesting.
: : JC