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sketchily, from the time of the big Kassel wheel, up to the _ piece of iron inserted and connected to the shaft journal. Anyone
inventor's death. Unfortunately, we only have Orffyreus' giving reasonable consideration to this account will see that the
own account of his life up to and including the building of the last — power and strength required to keep a machine of this size turn-
wheel. It is therefore harder to determine how much faith to place ing, by applying its force through the bearings, would be enor-
in Strieder's account of Orffyreus' life after 1719 because we have = mous. And besides, where would one find a metal of sufficient
nothing to compare it with, except what we can piece together strength to withstand the tremendous load placed on it? Not only
from the numerous letters and newspaper reports. Itis reasonable __ that, it had to be kept turning for almost eight weeks—and was
B ut to return to Strieder, his account continues, albeit The maid stated that the posts were hollowed out and a barbed
to assume that Strieder's account was a factual rendition of events, expected to do work, i.e., raise a box of bricks weighing 70
ut biased. The reason for this bias is not hard to find. pounds and turn an Archimedean screw. Forget the problem of
In his search for information, Strieder turned up some extreme- actually devising a mechanism which would operate inside a
ly damning pieces of evidence—namely, no fewer than seven wooden post connected to a bearing at one end and a small wheel
sworn statements to the effect that the inventor was a swindler at the other!
and that they, the witnesses, had been forced to take part in the It is hard for me to convey the utter certainty in my mind, of
fraud and had been sworn to silence by malicious intent by the maid. I am sure
Orffyreus. Most of the witnesses were either that whatever criminal accusations may be
relatives of Orffyreus or his servants. laid at Orffyreus' door, the maid's account
This evidence has been the overwhelming is fictitious.
factor in the demise of Orffyreus' reputation, . And if this part of Strieder's evidence,
notwithstanding the fact that perpetual motion wall had to be kept the key part, is faulty, how much reliability
even at that time was regarded as a scientific i may be placed on the rest of his evidence?
impossibility. Faced with these facts, the turning for almost During Orffyreus' efforts to achieve
reader may well feel it is pointless even to eight weeks— recognition for his perpetual motion
suggest that there could be anything other than machine, his claims came to the attention
fraud connected with the Orffyrean machine. and was expected of Karl, the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel.
The Biographer only reproduced two docu- | tO WO WOFK, 1.€., | Engtand. and as such he ruled « small
werent bad enough he summarised acc raise a box of bricks town of Kassel. eis recorded that he
sations from some of the other docu- weighing 70 pounds was the only man whom Orffyreus
ments. For instance, he stated that and turn an ever allowed to see inside the wheel.
Archimedean
screw.
Orffyreus' "wife confirmed in great He was sworn to secrecy, and he
shame that she was forced to swear five never broke his word.
oaths to her husband—who always car- It puzzled me to think that if he had
ried consecrated wafers, but was a des- seen the inside of the wheel, he obvi-
perate man who cared for nothing—and ously knew the truth, and yet no men-
that, in the end, she nevertheless felt tion was made in Strieder's biography
obliged to confide secretly in a man who of any comment by Karl following
was bound by oath and duty, but that that Orffyreus' arrest for fraud. He took
man decided to take her treacherous hus- Orffyreus and his machine under his
band's side and do nothing, even warning patronage, and even made the inven-
her of the most frightful consequences of tor Councillor of Commerce for
any further action". Hesse-Kassel. Could he have been a party to the subterfuge"? Or
Can there possibly be any doubt of Orffyreus' guilt? History might he have been duped by a plausible rogue? Or, the only
does not think so, and I wouldn't have had any doubt except for other possibility, was Orffyreus telling the truth? Had he really
my finding one small, seemingly insignificant phrase which cast —_ invented some kind of self-propelled machine? oo
doubt on the authenticity of the evidence. About the Author:
In a document dated 28 November 1727, Orffyreus' maid gave John Collins has worked within the engineering industry for most of his life,
the following statement, as recorded by Strieder: and has been intrigued and mystified by Johann Bessler's life and work for
"The posts had been hollowed out and contained a long thin much of the last 30 years. He is experimenting with his own prototype based
Sane of 1 “th a harh - Ah wae attacl on Orffyreus' wheel and is having encouraging results. Collins is the author of
piece of iron with a barb at the bottom which was attached to the Perpetual Motion: An Ancient Mystery Solved? (reviewed in NEXUS 5/03,
shaft journal. Turning was carried out from Orffyreus' bedroom April-May 1998). He can be contacted at PO Box 2001, Leamington Spa,
which was close to the machine, on a shelf behind the bed." Warwickshire CV32 6YQ, UK; tel/fax +44 (0)1926 424264; website
The first area of concern was the maid's statement regarding the —_