In Mersburg, Orffyreus had enough
time to ponder over allegations made by watchmakers that some concealed clockwork powered Orffyreus machine. To counter the
criticism, he developed a solution, which enabled the wheel to revolve in either direction.It was indeed a good reply from a mechanical genius to shut the mouth of watchmakers and other people who had accused
him of employing a wound-up spring.
Merseberg
Wheel at a Glance
Diameter = 11.15 feet
Thickness = 11.15 inches
Speed = Greater than 40 RPM
Rotation = bi-directional, required gentle
push start in either direction
Axle = 6 inches diameter
(probable diameter = 1/4 ell = 5.6 inches)
Sound = banging noise at descending side of wheel
Power = not calculated
The structure of the bi-directional wheel has remained unknown. After Orffyreus produced basic design of perpetual
motion machine, next few logical steps led him to realize different formations using the same principles. Collins, his biographer
has traced back altogether 7 devices.
Orffyreus exhibited his new bi directional wheel at
his home in Green Manor by the sixth Gate Merseberg, Germany. This wheel was 11.15 feet diameter and 11.15 inches thick and
rotated at 46 RPM unloaded.This was the first of Bessler's dual-direction wheels,
designed to counter criticism that his machines are somehow wound up with a spring.
We also have enough documentary proof.Leipzig Post Zeitungen, published
for week of 24th - 30th June 1715 described the machine and demonstration as follows:
“An illness which has afflicted the famous Mr. Orffyreus has prevented him
from exhibiting, at the Easter Leipzig Fair, as he wished to do, a new and larger version of the true perpetual motion machine,
invented by him. It will be of interest to the public to know that the famous inventor has just informed us that he has brought
to perfection a new perpetual motion machine. It was finished with God's help, just before the recent Whitsun Holiday, in
his rooms in the Green Manor by the sixth Gate..
The machine is similar
to the one
constructed in Draschwitz a year ago, and is in the form of a wheel. However,
the present machine is slightly larger, having a diameter of six Leipzig
ells, (11.15
feet) and a thickness of half an ell, (11.15 inches). The axle or shaft on
which the wheel is fixed averages six inches thickness and is six feet long.
The continuous impulse attributed to this very useful and ingeniuos machine, is
independent of any hidden power source or drive. According to the original
factual description given by the "Leipzig
Gazette" on the 3rd November last year, the rotation is caused, without
any evidence of fraud, exclusively by its own internal power and artful design.
It moves in a fast, strong and uniform rotation as long as the materials from
which it is made, ie., wood, metal etc. last. A considerable force has to be
applied to brake or stop the machine. Having put into motion its own mechanism,
the power is sufficient to raise high or pull a load of approximately one
hundred weight. To demonstrate its effectiveness, four stampers of considerable
weight have now been attached. They are lifted by means of eight cams fixed to
the shaft, and at each revolution they are lifted twice. Consider how much more
such a perpetuum mobile could do if, in the future, a larger one was
constructed and by combining several machines have its power multiplied; or it
could be applied to other mathematical inventions...
This new perpetual mobile has
something unique and extremely valuable about it that was not found in the
Draschwitz model; it can rotate in either direction as desired. As a result it
can, turning to the left or the right, wind a load up or down, in or out as
necessary. However, to start it, a preliminary push or help by hand is
needed...” - Leipzig
Post Zeitungen, published for week of 24th - 30th June , 1715.
(Orffyreus himself informed to News paper . Courtesy -orffyre.com)
To conceal the internal machinery, it was again covered
with oilcloth that was tightly stretched in every direction.Like its predecessor,
the wheel required a but gentle push to set it in motion and once set in motion, it increased its speed until it reached its
maximum velocity of about twenty six rotations per minute which it could apparently maintain forever, unaided by any external
agency.Those who come to watch the impossible spectacle unanimously agreed that
Orffyreus had solved the mystery of perpetual motion machine but still disbelievers were there.Many of them peered under axle and placed their ears against the base to listen for the concealed mechanism.They failed to detect any fraud as they could only hear some sort of tumbling of weights
inside the wheel. Bessler let people feel the weights concealed by his handkerchief*.
His
wheel performed flawlessly, on the other hand, bitter arguments continued.Those
who doubted the truth of his claims as a genuine inventor of perpetual motion machine began to grow in large number and started
accusing Orffyreus to be charlatan or a fraudulent inventor.Orffyreus found
himself in troubled waters again.
* (Seepages - 79, 131 of Collins’ book- Perpetual Motion
: An Ancient Mystery Solved? ),
This lively pet hamster will keep you company throughout the
day. Watch him
run on his wheel, drink water, and eat the food you feed him by clicking your
mouse. Click the center of the wheel to make him get back on it.