Orffyreus worked as an apprentice but a vague feeling of ‘wanting
something’ developed strongly in him. He had a vague desire to discover
something new. Day and night, he was restless for that. In perfect commune with
nature, his soul was hankering to discover some great hidden mystery of Nature. Reason showed him glimpses of invention but
he knew not what exactly it could be! He could not know how to embark on perpetual
motion in a right manner. He did not know how to start! Bessler prayed God to show him the right path and help him.*
Nephite prophet, Moroni. 7:5-19 says: “... for every thing which inviteth to do good,
and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect
knowledge it is of God. But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe
not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil”
Let me say here, Orffyreus’ unconscious
mind was always working on perpetual motion. He had strong desire to invent it
but consciously there was no way to begin. He asked God for help. Then he was
looking different visions of nature. One night, with the help of God, he had a strangely invigorating dream*, which gave him some decisive idea to construct his perpetual motion
machine. This dream set him on his perpetual motion journey and inspired him
to continue to engage in the mission with relentless effort. He concentrated
on work again with renewed strength and at last, his efforts were crowned with success.
He finally constructed his working invention.
Collins
also mentions that Orffyreus made numerous prior models and had flashes of inspiration* before his “strangely invigorating dream.” Orffyreus went through many failed devices before he was eventually successful. Orffyreus might have understood major portions of how the machine should work. He just stuck with the problem and got help from as many diverse sources of information as possible.* Bessler was successful only after 10 years of study and rigorous experiments. He is said to have experimented with no fewer than 300 different machines until he
at last succeeded to invent a perpetual motion machine
His joy was unbounded when the first machine,
about one meter in diameter, began to work. It presented an amazing phenomenon in front of him. The mechanism consisted of
a rotating wheel in which weights moved and balanced against each other along a special path.
Orffyreus concealed the entire mechanism by covering the machine with oilcloth. He was careful not to leave behind
any concrete descriptions or drawing of the secret so that no one could know how it worked.
His achievement, especially as an inventor of perpetual motion machine was most remarkable considering that Orffyreus
was not formally educated as an engineer. The invention was, to a large degree
the product of his reflective thought, his creative potential based on his very extensive working with all sorts of machines
present in his time. It was a solitary work with practically no benefit from
give and take discussions with his colleagues, mostly the clock makers and friends having similar interests.
When Orffyreus achieved his goal, he was relieved. He wanted money for
development of his invention. He brooded over securing a patent for it or selling
it to some wealthy man. Meanwhile, as his fortunes would have it, two wealthy
patients came to him for cure. We must recall here that he was a physician also. With utmost patience, he stopped working on perpetual motion machines for a while and resumed medical profession again in order to earn some money to help finance
further development. One of his patients who were having attacks of spasms was
the mayor’s daughter Anne Rosin Mauersberg. She lived in small town of Anhaberg Buchorz. Orffyreus himself wrote
that he cured her quickly, by grace of God, and then married her in 1711, when he would have been around 30. He settled down with her in a small German town called Gera, and built another small-sized perpetual motion
wheel which he then demonstrated to the public.
References:
* See Collins’ book pp. 28, 29,
32, 65, and 141.
* ibid Page: 28, 29, 32,
65, 141
* ibid page. 25,29,30
and 44.