One day at an early hour in the morning all of Orffyreus’ arch-enemies, Gärtner, Borlach and Wagner, arrived to look at the machine. They had no courage to face Orffyreus, as he was a truthful person. Intentionally, they went there early to avoid facing Orffyreus and mocking their ‘examination’. Orffyreus was living with his wife and brothers. When they arrived at his home, possibly one of his brothers showed them the device; they quickly finished their inspection and left. If their aim had really been to examine the machine thoroughly, they could have stayed longer. They only wanted to create the impression in the minds of people that they had completed formality of examining the machine, and it was found to be a fraud on their examination. Since the known laws of physics prejudiced them, they could never believe in fact   that such a device was possible and could operate to perform work without a flaw. They believed Orffyreus was surely a fraud and there was no need to truly examine the machine and thus waste the time. Obviously in their minds they had a plot against Orffyreus.  His enemies announced to the people that they detected fraud in Orffyreus machine. They called Orffyreus a swindler. To persuade the people to believe, J.G.Borlach of Leipzig and rest of the gang including Gärtner and Wagner published a pamphlet in which they demonstrated that a perpetual motion machine is against the laws of nature.  The drawing made by one of them on a copper plate displayed how Orffyreus was cheating.  It showed that the machine was powered from the outside via the columns supporting the wheel. They produced many copies of the pamphlet and circulated it very widely.

              Teubber who was convinced of Orffyreus’ integrity got worried about this vicious campaign  against a sincere inventor and on 22^nd July 1715, he wrote to Leibniz about Gartners’ false propaganda:

“Mr. Gärtner from Dresden has been boasting that he has detected fraud in Orffyreus' machine. But how can he have detected it? Did he open the machine? I don’t know, but I hesitate to believe it.”

Leibniz answered promptly, within a fortnight. On August 1715, he wrote::

“If Mr. Gärtner has already detected fraud in Orffyreus’ artifice he should be able to imitate it. As far as I am concerned, as I have said often, I do not regard the movement to be solely mechanical but stemming from some physical principle. But what it is, I still cannot puzzle out. It will be useful because the machine can exhibit considerable energy for an extended length of time. In which case, I cannot call this work of skill a fraud if it is able to deliver what is expected of it.

         “In all descriptions of its effects there is always a lack of informa­tion about how long and how high the weight is lifted. In fact no one has informed me until now:

1.What weight is lifted during one revolution?

2.How high is such a weight lifted in one revolution?

3. How many revolutions are performed in one hour?

One could then, at least, estimate the power of the machine.”

On 5th October 1715, in another correspondence Leibniz wrote:

'I do not think Mr. Gartner will easily discover Mr. Orffyreus' secret. I also do not think it is purely perpetual motion, because I believe that to be impossible. If it is, then the machine could be enlarged to give much greater power. But I suspect that there is some physical principle behind it because its power is quite limited.' – (Gottfried Leibniz, 5th October, 1715.)

             It is clear that Leibniz wanted to get more and more concrete information, and it was almost impossible to be procured until he himself would decide to go and examine the machine. Meanwhile, on 27^th August 1715 Councillor Buchta also wrote to Leibniz about Gärtner’s vicious campaign..

“I do not know whether Your Excellency has received the Gärtneriana. I have been unable to discover from Mr. Gärtner what he is planning. This excerpt from a letter written to him will tell you of recent events connected with Orffyreus’ machine. I hope that because of this we may soon know what to expect of this machine. But I am afraid that Mr. Gärtner is going to lose a good deal of his reputation.”

The enmity of Gärtner, Wagner and Borlach had its results. It made many people began to believe that Orffyreus was a charlatan.  At this time it became very necessary for Orffyreus to again convince people as quickly as possible that his machine was genuine and could actually work. He did not want his enemies to completely ruin his reputation. His enemies intensified the campaign very much before any authentic and rigorous examination would proceed. They were also constantly trying to steal the secret of invention but Orffyreus was always cautious. Simon Schaffer (1995) mentions that Gärtner worked as model-master for the Polish royal court and in that capacity he constructed several devices that imitated Orffyreus’ public demonstrations, including the locked-room test, but which Gärtner acknowledged as mere fraud.*

           Orffyreus had already destroyed his previous wheel in Draswitz.  Motivated by the success of his previous wheels and to counter the criticism, Orffyreus decided to create another wheel, in Merseberg in 1715.