The Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel Karl had offered protection and sponsorship to Bessler only on condition the machine was genuine. He negotiated with eminent persons and heed to their opinion. To prevent risking his reputation, Karl insisted on seeing inside the wheel. Bessler agreed and requested a suitable reward for showing the great secret. After seeing the secret, Karl gave the inventor his full and considerable support and also the award 4000 Thaler!.

 

Orffyreus was highly fearful that someone would rob the secret of his remarkable wheel, cheating him of his rights. He did not want to risk losing neither the money nor the secret as he had many ambitions to complete. Orffyreus did not allow any one   to view the inner workings of the wheel, except Count Karl, only for a single time.  How it came to be that the Count was allowed to view the wheel is unknown and still a mystery.  Perhaps by some mysterious maneuvering, Karl succeeded to induce the inventor to let him see the secret, internal mechanism of the machine and he became the only fortunate man to learn the secret.  For this Karl gave a handsome amount of 4000 Thalers. Count Karl made a promise to Orffyreus that he would never disclose the secret to anyone until Orffyreus would get his reward.  Orffyreus permitted him to have a glimpse of the interior, but how long we do not know, we can only speculate that Orffyreus must have imposed some time limit to watch the mechanism.  Whatever be the duration, Karl was intelligent enough to learn the working mechanism of the machine at a glance therefore he himself was satisfied as to the validity of Orffyreus claim and did not bother what the rest world accused Orffyreus of being a fraud.  Having learnt the secret, Karl rushed to his residence to write an account of what he had seen.  Count described an intricate system of weights and strings.  When the oiled cloth was removed and left nude wrote Count Karl, he found himself gazing upon a very simple arrangement of weights and levers. He never disclosed the secret what he had seen. However, Karl did state to his ministers that he believed the wheel was a true perpetual motion machine and he was amazed that no one had invented a similar machine before Bessler.  He also stated that machine was so simple and easy to understand that a "carpenters boy" could build one after seeing inside the wheel.

 

 

Christian Wolff’s letter to Laurentius Blumentrost, dated 20th January 1720 also bears testimony to the same event. 

 

 “...I can tell you that His Serene Highness the Landgrave has seen the interior structure of the wheel and gave the inventor a payment of 4000 thalers, together with his word of honour, never to communicate the secret to anyone or to imitate it for himself. Thus it may be correctly assumed that the wheel is moved by some internal principle.”

 

The author of the book “ Forbidden Invention”, George Egely describes the events as follows:

 

“An interesting incident happened with Orffyreus and the Landgrave. He was the only person to whom Orffyreus disclosed his secret - the inside structure of the wheel - but not without a charge, allegedly, of 4000 Thalers, a big sum at that time. After the Landgrave had made sure that there was no deception in the invention, that it was really kept in motion by weights self-sustainingly, i.e. it was de facto a perpetual motion machine, he began to support the inventor and his device with all of his authority. The fact that Orffyreus had allowed him to have an insight into the machine during operation improved Orffyreus’s status considerably, but the fundamental problems were not solved by this situation.”

 

Leibniz and his student remained confused about the source of motive power that moved machine. Orffyreus explained that by the grace of almighty he had conceived a system whereby the weights one side of the wheel were farther from the axle than the weights on the other side of the wheel, creating an imbalance which caused the wheel to rotate.  The secret laid in the ingenuity of the design by which weights on the ascending side of the wheel were prevented from following their normal path next to the rim.  Count Karl explained that small pegs, which swung back out of the way as the weight passed the zenith, blocked these weights. Again Karl assured Orffyreus not to disclose or use Bessler's secret until a sale had been finalised.

Now new problems appeared.  Orffyreus was faced with financial tax problems imposed upon him.  Castle became a major tourist attraction as Count Karl informed scientists throughout Europe about Orffyreus project and many people arrived to see the perpetual motion wheel.  Somehow, Orffyreus had hope that he would be able to pay his debts by the money he will get from sale of his machine. He desired that a company be formed between Prince Karl, himself and other mediators that would finalize his sale of machine.  They together fixed 20000 pounds for the invention.  It would be very wrong to think that Orffyreus had any lust for the money.  He only wanted to fulfill his scientific ambitions and live a descent life.