Posted by John Collins (194.164.232.108) on October 05, 2003 at 00:14:07:
In Reply to: Re: Question for John,Scott, and Oyvvus posted by grim on October 04, 2003 at 14:56:31:
: : Good point. I've never given much consideration to the pendula since they didn't seem to me to be a vital ingredient of the wheel's mechanism. I think it's clear that they were not present at any of the tests otherwise someone would have mentioned them.
: Hi John
: No one noticed them, as you say, or the "eyewitness statements" would have said so.
: But even so, Bessler himself states in the "New Text Translation" that the rotational force
: is through the application of modified 'pendula'. If what he says is true, and noone present saw any connected to the wheel, then they must be internal.
: That is the why of my question to you concerning how close the different translation versions that you've seen
: are to each other.
: Best regards
: grim
Hi Grim,
Your question prompted me to look again at the original text which is in both German and Latin. Bessler uses the word "pendula" in the German text, but unlike the gothic font round it, he uses a Latin font. In the Latin text he uses the word "pendulis". Pendulis means hanging or suspended but does not refer to pendulums specifically. The German can mean pendulums or it can mean oscillate, swing, vibrate etc. I would have thought that he would have used the word "pendula" in the Latin text as well, if he had meant pendulums (pendula) and not hanging weights. I believe that the translation "swinging weights" is more accurate but that's just an opinion and not based on a good knowledge of the German or Latin language. This probably doesn't help much, but that's my two cent's worth.
John Collins