Reports of the findings by the committee made no effect
on his enemies; instead, they made fun of all - Orffyreus as well as the members
of the committee who had signed the report. History shows that from here things again started to turn bad for Orffyreus. By the time his invention became popular, the general feeling in the scientific community
turned against him. His invention proved the existence of perpetual motion, and
scientist believed that it was against the natural laws of science. It was also a set back to influential Clock makers who
kept public under false impression by claiming that they were going to release new models of clock based on such a mechanism. In fact, none of them came forward with any perpetual motion clock. In technology,
they were far behind Orffyreus’ machine, which demonstrated its power doing all sorts of works like lifting weights,
moving a grinder etc. Orffyreus’ claim offended them. They took support
of the scientific people who advocated that Orffyreus machine contravened the accepted law of nature and physics. The breaching of these laws was a challenge to scientist.
The money paid for the demonstration and construction
of perpetual motion machine was depriving Orffyreus of his source of income and his reputation. Under the pressure of circumstances,
Orffyreus psychic tension greatly increased. It was increased by the reproaches of the people around him. It seems that to
a great extent his whole personal life was poisoned, distorted and corroded by unusual tensions of various kinds. His own behavior distracted people around him. He developed
many controversies that eventually brought disrepute. It is also said that he
was arrested for insulting a monk. Many historians have commented on Orffyreus
personal behavior in a different way. We will discuss this point separately later.
Unfortunately,
Orffyreus’ distrust and the lack of understanding and antagonism of the outside world resulted in the internal structure
of his wheel still being unknown today.. Amidst
all these controversies, he suffered depression, which lasted for four months and, owing to various further difficulties,
he once more destroyed his machine. Orffyreus then decided to move to a new place, to the city of Kassel..
Leibniz was worried to see the plight of the great inventor. On 14th April, 1716 in his letter to
Teuber, he showed his concern to
save invention of Orffyreus. Orffyreus’ biographer J. Collins, remarks that Leibniz had a soft spot for the inventor.Leibniz
wrote:
“I
am very worried that something may have happened to Mr. Orffyreus and I would be very pleased if you would enquire about this.
The superintendent from his place will know best what has happened. Many things have already troubled that good man and he
has not accustomed himself to the rules of communal life. Because of this, I am worried that his invention could be easily
lost, if it is not disclosed to his friends."”
It was at this stage of his struggling career
that he, for his love of Latin changed his name from Bessler to Orffyreus and then latinised to be called as Orffyreus. Besseler
adopted a Latin name for himself because it was spoken and written all over the Germany from east to west and north to south.
Orffyreus original name was Bessler. It is interesting
to note that how Bessler adopted his professional name, Orffyre, by transposing the letters in his name using the 'Albam'
method. He arranged the alphabet in a circle and transposed each letter in his name ('Bessler') with the letter directly across
the circle. This resulted in 'Orffyre,' or 'Orffyreus' when latinized, as was fashionable at the time.
Few authors state it in a slightly different way. Bessler
arranged the letters of the alphabet in a circle and commenced to take the 13th letter after each of the letters
in his name (BESSLER). This resulted in ‘Orffyre’
