|
According to Orffyreus’
biographer J. Collins, Orffyreus constructed four major wheels in his lifetime varying from smaller to larger size
with capacity to produce more and more power.1 These were exhibited, examined and tested. No fraud was ever detected. Collins
has found that in addition to these four well-publicized wheels Orffyreus also constructed three more wheels. During all tests, the officials who had talked with him were convinced that he was a sincere inventor.
Orffyreus exhibited
his wheels at various towns like Prague, Zera, Leipzig, Drashwitz, and Merseburg, all these were parts of Germany in those
times. The accounts of exhibitions to the public, examinations of these wheels
by distinguished persons and all other events and episodes related to the wheels are very interesting to read and are source
of vital information. These events cover major part of the story of Orffyreus. We have many versions of the story from different authors in which descriptions of
the events vary slightly but main story remains undisputable that Orffyreus invented
perpetual motion and demonstrated it without a fraud.
Let us look into various details of Orffyreus’ wheels that he built in his
lifetime with all hope that his work on perpetual motion would get recognition in world of science and technology and eventually
bring him a suitable reward. To achieve this goal, he struggled steadfastly through out his life. In following pages, you will find descriptions of main events that mark his life. You will find arguments,
explanations on his wheel and also guess work about their working mechanism put forward by various authors. In the end, you will also find reconstruction of his wheel by Ramananda.
1 Orffyreus built, publicly exhibited, and destroyed four “self” moving wheels though
Collins (p. 60) has found evidence for three more such perpetual motion wheels
built (and destroyed) by Orffyreus. The first of the four popular wheels was
shown publicly in Gera in 1712 (see p. 15). Each unique wheel rotated about a
horizontal axle. See the figures on pp. 27, 35, 199 of J. Collins’ book
“Perpetual Motion: An Ancient Mystery Solved? and some related discussion
on pp. 36, 66, 198.
| Measurments of Orffyreus' Wheels |

|
|