Sjack Abeling Gravity Wheel and the Worlds first Weight Power Plant

[mondrasek]

I think it's a bug in WD2D that when you remove the motor the structure falls apart..  So I have to rebuilt them..

You should be able to delete the motor and replace it with a pin joint.  I do it all the time.

FWIW, I will usually construct a wheel using a pin joint for an axle first.  If I want to force rotation to visualize the motion during rotation, I put a motor on top of the pin joint.  Then when you delete the motor the pin joint axle is still there.

Omni, if you can point me to just which sim file you want the motor removed from, I can do it if you have not been able to.  Also, please PM me any questions you have with how to use WM2D and I'll answer as best I can.  Or maybe we should start a WM2D users thread with tips and Q&A?   I recommend that everyone at lease take the 15 minutes to do the tutorials as well.  Very basic, but it gets you going.

M.

[mondrasek]

I have a different idea as to how this wheel works, so here is a video as to how I think it works:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jh7GAUYg_E8&feature=channel_page

Over this weekend I'm going to build a unit and see if my theory is correct.

Dusty, good luck with your idea! 

I wanted to reiterate that any system like this should work with only two weights at 180 degrees apart on a wheel as you have stated.  But once you have a positive torque due to one pair (and a self starting and running system), you would want to add more pairs.  This increases the amount of usable output torque.  So if you get an output torque of say 1 N.m from one pair, you would get 8 x 1 = 8 N.m from eight pairs.

Likewise, if it doesn't run with one pair, you actually have a resisting torque.  Adding more pairs will  increase the amount of resiting torque.  So adding additional pairs will cause a wheel to spin even less when an identical impulse is used to give it initial motion.

Therefore, the most expedient test method would be to model or build only one weight pair per test.  I agree that Abeling's wheel in the video appears to have been testing different slot profiles.  But then his production model would use as many pairs of the optimal slot profiles as he could assemble on the wheel.

M.

[Grimer]

I've come across quite a nice suggestion of how the Bessler wheel could work

http://www.orffyre.com/speculation.html

This represents the essence of the device I feel. If the attachment of the weights was more flexible and a barrier hangs down so they are drawn up vertically to get the full d³/dt³ action, then we have the Abeling arrangement.

Two comments worthy of note:

His Highness, who possesses all the qualities that a great prince should have, has always had consideration for the inventor, and will not use the machine in any way for fear of the secret being discovered before the inventor had received a reward from foreigners. His Highness, who has a perfect understanding of mathematics, assured me that the machine is so simple that a carpenter's boy could understand and make it after having seen the inside of this wheel, and that he would not risk his name in giving these attestations, if he did not have knowledge of the machine...' - letter from Joseph Fischer to J.T. Desaguliers, 1721.

Orffyreus commented that when the secret is revealed, he is afraid that people will complain that the idea is so simple it is not worth the asking price.

This latter comment has been echoed by Sjack Abeling.

[Omnibus]

Sorry, @AquariuZ, didn't know you started that idea. Didn't follow the thread too closely so I've missed the exact sequence of events. What we need now is a working model and we should all put our heads together. Good luck.

[Omnibus]

@mondrasek,

Thank you very much for your willingness to help in sorting out the issues with WM2D. Could you please remove the motor in @Cherryman's KAD9 and KAD10 and replace it by a pin. How do you actually do that? Thanks in advance.