Posted by John Collins (194.164.38.245) on June 30, 2003 at 12:57:14:
In Reply to: Re: Question for J.C. posted by David on June 30, 2003 at 12:28:12:
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: : To answer your question, I guess fewer than 50 people would have bothered to study them in the last 290 odd years and possibly a lot less than that maybe hald that number.
: Hi John. Um...are you sure about that, or is it a guess. I would think many Germans would have looked at it especially when it was first produced or after Bessler died.
: David
Just a guess David, and I don't know how one could find out anyway. But I see what you mean, I thought that you meant how many had looked at the papers once they were in a collection, such as a museum. I think that everything went into the state archive immediately after JB's death and don't forget that the majority opinion was that he was a liar and a con-man to the day he died. So I still doubt that many have bothered to look at the drawings but I may be wrong. I suppose that it might be possible that the museum could tell me how mnay applications had been made to view the papers since they held them.
JC