PERPETUAL MOTION 77 



name of this inventor was Jean Ernest Elie-Bessler, and he 

 is said to have manufactured the name Orffyreus by plac- 

 ing his own name between two lines of letters, and picking 

 out alternate letters above and below. He was educated 

 for the church, but turned his attention to mechanics and 

 became an expert clock maker. His character, as given 

 by his contemporaries was fickle, tricky, and irascible. 

 Having devised a scheme for perpetual motion he con- 

 structed several wheels which he claimed.to be self-moving. 

 The last one which he made was 12 feet in diameter and 

 14 inches deep, the material being light pine boards, 

 covered with waxed cloth to conceal the mechanism. The 

 axle was 8 inches thick, thus affording abundant space for 

 concealed machinery. 



This wheel was submitted to the Landgrave of Hesse 

 who had it placed in a room which was then locked, and 

 the lock secured with the Landgrave's own seal. At the 

 end of forty days it was found to be still running. 



Professor 'sGravesande having been employed by the 

 Landgrave to make an examination and pronounce upon 

 its merits, he endeavored to perform his work thoroughly ; 

 this so irritated Orffyreus that the latter broke the machine 

 in pieces, and left on the wall a writing stating that he had 

 been driven to do this by the impertinent curiosity of the 

 Professor ! 



I have no doubt that this was a clear case of fraud, and 

 that the wheel was driven by some mechanism concealed 

 in the huge axle. As already stated, Orffyreus was at 

 one time a clock maker ; now clocks have been made to go 

 for a whole year without having to be rewound, so that 

 forty days was not a very long time for the apparatus to 

 keep in motion. 



