Posted by John Collins (194.164.232.108) on October 28, 2003 at 11:35:08:
In Reply to: Re: 'Warped boards' posted by Georg Künstler on October 28, 2003 at 09:37:58:
: : There was some discussion about the 'warped boards' described in JB's wheel. Georg wanted the original German so that he could offer an alternative translation. The original text comes from a letter written by professor Christian Wolff to professor Leibniz on the 19th December, 1715 from Halle. Unfortunately I don't have the original German as some of the research in Germany was carried out on my behalf a few years ago and I never had the original text. The student who did that particular piece of research was a highly competent translator but there are always ambiguities in language translations. For interest I looked up the German word for warp and got several and when I then checked their English translation I got the following possibilities. "Warped, crooked, bent, curved,deformed, damaged, wrinkled,puckered",etc etc. I think that you have to look at the context and the conclusions Wolff drew from what he had seen.
: : John Collins
: Hi John,
: you see what cause a forward and backward translation can do. The meaning may be
: totally different. What has he seen, the curved board, or a weight that was warped ?
: Nevertheless, both are used in the Besslerwheel. If you are saying it is from the book
: of 1715, then I will order the original book and have a look on it.
: Best regards
: Georg
Hi Georg,
The letters I have quoted from were not included in any of Bessler's publications, in fact as far as I know they have never been published. They form part of a collection of a set of papers and letters which originally belonged to Gottfried Leibniz or Christian Wolff and now belong to one of the Museums in Germany. Many of Leibniz's letter were published but anything connected with Johann Bessler was rejected as being too controversial for publication. Somewhere I have a record of where this particular letter is held but I cannot get at my own records at the moment.
Kind regards
John Collins