}6Wheel Of Eternity
 
  {4An article by }4Metal / Destiny

{6This true story has been taken from
the book "Unsolved Mysteries" by
Valentine Dyall.  Some of the stories
in the book are truly amazing and if
you ever see the book I recommend you
read it!  It is however quite an old
book, so I took this story from it for
you.  If there is enough interest I
will type out some of the other
stories for future editions of
{2Satanic Rites {6...  {1(There's
enough interest - Ed.)

{6Anyway,

{4One of the cardinal laws of modern
science is known as the Principle of
the Conservation of Energy.  In
everyday language it tells us that we
cannot get more energy out of a
machine than we put into it - in the
form of fuel, for instance.  Once we
understand this, we realise that the
biggest wild-goose chase in human
history must have been the search for
}4perpetual motion{4.

{5In plain terms, perpetual motion is
a machine which creates its own
energy, or driving force, and does not
depend on any external power.
Throughout the ages various inventors
in different countries have claimed
acheivement of the impossible in this
direction - but all have been exposed
as cranks,hoaxers or charlatans.  All,
that is, except one...  a ragged,
uncouth, untrained and penniless
German known as ^Councillor
Orffyreus^.

{7This name alone stands out - the one
we cannot dismiss.  The more we study
this mans history, the more we begin
to doubt the final truth of modern
laws and theories which condemn
perpetual motion as a fallacy.

{4Very little is known of his early
life, save that he was hounded out of
half a dozen countries and branded by
Church and State as a wizard, an
offender against the laws of religion
and an enemy of orthodox science.  In
his twenties he built at least three
machines - one at Zittau, Saxony -
which he claimed were "perpetual
motions", but his demonstrations, far
from winning him patrons or even
admirers, apparently incurred wrath
and hatred.

{5His boyhood is a complete blank.
Indeed, so obscure was his birth that
today his real name is uncertain, and
he is remembered only by the flowery,
pseudo-Greek appellation which he
chose in the mistaken belief that it
would intrigue and impress.

{7But in the year 1716 we are able to
grasp firmly the thread of his amazing
story, for it was then, at the age of
thirty-six, that he turned up in
Hesse-Cassel, one of the many small,
semi-independant states making up
eighteenth century Germany.  Fleeing
from his latest persecutors, the
vagrant Orffyreus - a shaggy giant,
with long black hair and wild eyes -
sought only a safe hiding-place and
some means of feeding himself:  for
the time being he had had enough of
inventing!  But even in this tiny
backwater of Europe, no sooner did he
begin inquiring for work at carpenters
shops and blacksmiths forges that he
was recognised and driven off with
angry threats and much abuse.

{4In despair he spent the last of his
money on a nights solitary drinking at
a country inn, meaning to start
travelling again in the morning,
heading West - to Holland perhaps, or
France.  But when daylight came he
awoke to find himself behind bars, and
learned from a stern-faced guard that
he was in the dungeons at the ducal
castle of Weissenstein, the prisoner
of His Highness Prince Karl, Landgrave
(or Count) of Hesse-Cassel.

{5An hour or so later he was marched
between burly troopers through the
lofty, winding corridors to the
Prince`s study.  Sullen, bedraggled
and red-eyed from his melancholy
carousal, the outcast inventor must
have looked a sorry figure indeed as
he was pushed and prodded into the
noblemans presence.  No doubt he was
wondering what vile fate was in store
- whether he would be sent back to
face his persecutors or merely flogged
and clapped in the stocks for a week
or so.  He did not dream that he was
about to make a powerful friend and
start a new life in which, for the
first time, he would posses money,
dignity and - most precious of all -
an opportunity to realise his burning
ambition...

{7For an incredible turn of luck he
had fallen into the hands of the one
man in Europe who was prepared to
listen to his ideas without prejudice
or suspicion.  Prince Karl - a stout,
good-natured man in his fifties - was
an amateur mechanic and a firm
beleiver in perpetual motion:  he had
heard of Orffyreus, and had been
trying to find him ever since he was
first reported in the area.

{4Imagine the vagrants amazement as he
listen to the Prince upbraiding the
captain of the guard "for keeping this
gentleman locked up instead of
treating him as my guest"!  Picture
his bewildered expression as Karl
ushered him into a chair and sent the
servants scurrying to fetch food and
wine and "suitable attire"!

{5All the morning they talked - the
Landgrave avidly questioning,
Orffyreus explaining his theories and
sketching plans of the "engines" he
had built.  It was the forging of an
unlikely but most promising
partnership:  the Prince and the
vagrant dedicated themselves to the
production of a machine which would
launch Mankind into a new and
marvellous era - the "Power Age"!

{7Civillisation commanding unlimited
energy, at practically no cost...
Machines that need no tending, no fuel
- that produce their own energy {6out
of nothing!  {4- this, no less, was
the vision they shared, the goal they
set themselves.  And neither was a
qualified scientist...

Under Karl's protection Orffyreus
underwent an amazing transformation.
Gone was the sullen, hangdog attitude:
all his old enthusiasm and vitality
flooded back as, equiped with the best
tools and material, he set to work in
a room of the castle to construct "the
largest and most perfect Perpetual
Motion".  The Prince made him a Town
Councillor, and the people of
Hesse-Cassel showed him every respect.
It seemed at last that he had found
his place in the world.

{5Karl, though an amateur mechanic and
no scientist at all, nevertheless had
excellent connections throughout
Europe.  He exerted all his influence
on behalf of his new protege, writing
scores of letters to scientific
organisations and celebrities in
several countries.  In the Autumn of
the following year - 1717 - there came
to Hesse-Cassel two international
distinguished scientists:  the Baron
Fischer, architect to the Emperor of
Austria, and Professor Willems
Gravesande of Lieden University,
Holland - an intimatefriend of Sir
Isaac Newton.

{7It is significant that both these
men had made the journey mainly out of
a sense of duty, and as a gesture of
friendship with the small state.  In
the past each had exposed many
"perpetual motion" frauds, and they
made no secret of the fact that they
expected to do so again.  The Baron
went so far as to say that his
intention was to rid his host of a
"rascally pretender, an unscupulous
leech"!  To these men of letters and
distinction nothing could be more
preposterous than the idea of two
amateur "tinkerers" mastering a secret
which had eluded the worlds finest
brains for over a century.

{4Orffyreus for his part was bitterly
disappointed.  The moment he looked at
the visitors he knew they were no
different from the other scientists he
had encountered.  The Barons
supercilious smile and the Professors
cold politeness told him they were his
enemies.  Their world was not his -
they were grim mathematicians, dealing
in laws, in theories, in precedent:
antithetically he saw himself as a
free-thinking pioneer, dealing in
questions, in bold chalenges to the
Unknown.

{5All his old surliness and suspicion
returned in full force.  He knew what
to expect - they would seek to destroy
him in the name of Orthodoxy.  They
would never give a fair hearing to a
man who refused to recognise their
dogma or abide by their laws.

{7Karl strove desperately to reassure
his temperamental protege, but
Orffyreus insisted on laying down
conditions for the forthcoming
demonstration:  the scientists could
inspect the external parts of the
machine, the room and all supports,
but he would not permit them to see
the interior workings "until my
invention has been paid for"!  He
feared they would steal the secret and
cheat him out of the reward for a
life`s work...

{4After much argument the scientists
agreed - provided Orffyreus submitted
his machine to whatever test they
might prescribe after the first
demonstration.  Without hesitation the
inventor accepted this challenge, and
led the way to his workroom - a large
chamber in the exact centre of the
castle at ground level, with a heavy,
ironbound door; it had been built in
some stormy period of the past as a
final retreat for the occupants should
an enemy break into the fortress.

{5As Orffyreus unlocked the great door
the others kindled lanterns and Karl
explained:  "There is but this one
entrance, and there are no windows.
The walls are four feet thick.  You
will, of course, have every chance to
examine every inch of it, if you so
desire..."

{7The scientists nodded gravely.  The
door creaked open and all four
advanced into musty-smelling gloom.
Orffyreus hurried forward, holding his
lantern high.  In the wavering light
the visitors beheld a huge wheel, or
drum, twelve feet high and about two
feet thick, standing in the middle of
the bare room.  It was suspended clear
of the stone floor, its slender axle
pivoted in two uprights of light wood.
At the top of each upright there was a
wooden crosspiece, or rocker, from
which a long pendulum hung.

{4The outer covering of the wheel
appeared to be ordinary oiled cloth.
For all its size it seemed a
ridiculously simple construction.

{5The two observers began by observing
the uprights, and satisfying
themselves that no ropes or wires led
from the apparatus to the walls, floor
or ceiling.  (We may be sure that they
were experts at detecting any hidden
devices!) Then they invited Orffyreus
to set his machine in motion.

{7To their suprise he merely placed
one hand on the rim of the wheel and
gave it a gentle push.  At once it
began to turn smoothly, and - even
more intriguing - quickly accelerated
to twenty-six revolutions per minute
(according to the Barons timepiece),
at which speed it settled down.  The
pendulums swung majestically and from
within the drum came a rythmic
thumping and a low, whirring sound.

{4"How is it brought to rest?" the
Professor asked at length.  "In the
same maner as she is started," the
inventor said.  "Stop her with your
hands, Professor!"

{5Gravesande stared in perplexity.
How could such a huge, fast-revolving
wheel be arrested so easily?
Uncertainly he stretched out his hand
and touched the rim.  Immediately, at
the first light pressure, the
machine`s speed fell away.  Smoothly
it came to a halt...

{7The Professor, though impressed by
such delicacy of balance and bearings,
regarded this as a serious failing:
if the wheel could be brought to rest
at such slight bidding, how could it
do work?  But Orffyreus laughed and
assured him that it could lift great
beams, pump water, drive a mill,
operate looms and perform scores of
other tasks - by means of a gearing
system which was a part of the
secret...

{4The Baron took the Professor to one
side and whispered, "Has it occured to
you...  it`s so large that a man could
easily be concealed within?"

{5"Yes it's possible", the professor
agreed.  "In London I investigated
such a machine, said to be pure
mechanism.  But a pinch of snuff
dropped into it soon showed that it
could not only move, but sneeze too -
like a Christian!"

{7They laughed softly.  And on the
other side of the room Orffyreus
stiffened and scowled.

{4The rest of that day and most of the
next was spent in the workroom.  The
scientists stripped the wheels
supports, uncovered the axle, tapped
the framework - even had the whole
apparatus moved to another position.
Every square foot of the room was
meticulously examined, and every stone
tapped.  They failed to find any hint
of trickery, or the vaguest clue to
the nature of the machine`s driving
force.  With each hour they were more
perplexed, and Orffyreus more
suspicious - hovering over them,
mumbling under his breath, reminding
them again and again that the interior
mechanism was to remain his secret.

{5"Tell me only this, Orffyreus," the
Professor asked.  "Is your mechanism
complicated?"

{7The inventor stared at the oiled
cloth and in a low trembling tone
replied, "No - what is in there is so
simple that a carpenter`s boy could
construct a replica - had he five
minutes` study of it"

{4On the third day after their first
inspection the scientists proposed "a
conclusive test" - sealing up the
workroom with the wheel in motion.
They set no definite period, and they
reserved the right to re-enter at a
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����8�&�Z�1�	ve��=�/cw�d�6�d�2{@a	h�����<8( $G�ight - back into the
obscurity from which he came, a wild
yet pathetic creature.  There is
little doubt that he was mad - a
monomaniac.  But it does not follow
that he was a brilliant invemtor.

{5What was inside the wheel?  What was
the secret which in 1718 lay so near,
and yet so far - hidden from human ken
only by a thin layer of oiled cloth?

{7Clockwork perhaps?  No - any
clockmaker will tell you that stored
power in the weight of weights and
springs would not have provided such a
fast acceleration.  Nor could it have
kept such a huge wheel turning at
twenty six revolutions per minute for
eight weeks.  The same applies to
theories based on magnetism...

{4There are many sources for our
evidence - eighteenth century
pamphlets, prints, scientific papers
and correspondance.  But nowhere do we
find even an attempt to explain the
workings of the wheel.

{5Strange to think that if Orffyreus
had kept his temper the industrial
revolution might have come to this
world a century sooner, and in a very
different form.  Today we might be
living in Utopia, masters of machines
that need no fuel, no operators.  For
only infinite potentialities of atomic
power can compare with the vast
importance of perpetual motion - the
lost secret of the "Wheel of
Eternity", which modern science rules
as an absolute impossibility.

{6OK.  Thats the story!  At the end of
the book the author, Valentine Dyall,
gives possible solutions to the
mysteries presented.  This is what it
has to say about the Wheel of
Eternity...

{4Following the broadcast of a
dramatised version of this mystery by
BBC television in the spring of 1952,
I received scores of diagrams, models,
blueprints, letters and treaties from
mechanics, engineers, carpenters and
amateur handymen and inventors, each
one convinced that he could explain
the principle of Orffyreus` machine.
Aided by experts I tested every
system.  None was workable.  With
something of a shock I found that
ninety percent of my correspondents
were still chasing the same old grey
goose - the theory of the
"overbalancing wheel", exploded
centuries ago.

The "overbalancing wheel" is a
contradiction in terms.  A wheel with
weights attached will not overbalance,
no matter what strategy or devices are
introduced:  it will move until it is
{3balanced{4, then stop - but it will
not revolve.  The distance of the
weights from the centre of the wheel
is immaterial.  The Patent Offices of
a dozen countries are cluttered with
contraptions based on this fallacious
principle - all utterly useless.  The
inventors would have been as gainfully
employed had they set their minds to
the production of square circles.

No doubt the viewer-theorists were
misled by the rythmic, thumping sounds
which came from within the wheel while
it was in motion.  Obviously this was
caused by falling weights - but
unfortunately they immediately assumed
that weights must be the {3direct
{4driving force.

Let me admit here and now that I am
still without a really comprehensive
answer to the riddle; but if I do not
know what it was that drove the wheel,
at least I know it was {3not {4any
system of falling weights!  this does
not mean that weights were not used
{3as part of the gearing, or as
"governors" in this mechanism.

{4It is impossible to beleive that
Orffyreus, even if we credit him as a
brilliant illusionist and trickster
(in which case why didn`t he become
rich and famous in that field?), could
have fooled two of Europe`s most
brilliant scientists who had already
exposed many "perpetual motion"
frauds.  Unless we assume that the
eccentric and unschooled inventor was
generations ahead of his time and had
constructed a small electric motor, we
are forced to concede that he did
discover some entirely new and still
unknown source of power.

My own feeling - and I agree it is the
purest guesswork - is that, wandering
in the byways of science, he stumbled
ona system of "controlled gravitation"
- a means of utilising the Earth`s
cohesive force by changing its
direction of "pull" and perhaps
varying its strength.

Having set down this speculation I
feel strangely akin to Orffyreus - a
layman rushing in where experts fear
to tread.  But perhaps my imprudence
will sting into action better
qualified investigators, and lead to a
more practical solution.

{2T{3H{2E {3E{2N{3D

{6Well there you have it.  A true,
unsolved mystery.  I decided to use
this mystery as the author gives no
reasonable possible solution, which
leaves you wondering just how it was
done...

Next time I will copy out another
mystery, in the meantime why don't you
send us your opinions on this
mystery?!?

{1({4Blimey!  {1An unsolved mystery if
I've ever heard of one.  I'm sure that
right now there are ten thousand
German readers jumping up and down
shouting `Ha Ha!  He wasn't an English
inventor!' Big deal!  Perpetual motion
is easy compared to getting {2Satanic
Rites {1out!  Our small team of
inventors beat Orffreus anyday! And 
you wouldn't catch an English
inventor smashing his latest work! Let
us know your opinions on this type of
article by dropping a line to the
author at:  {6Metal/Destiny, 25,
Spencer Road, Wigan, Greater
Manchester.  WN1 2PW {1and who knows?
We may run with another intrigue
article in the next issue.  - Ed.)