The Marquis of Worcester's Wheel

Perpetual motion wheels from the 17th and 18th centuries

The perpetual motion wheels of the Marquis of Worcester, and Johann Bessler (Orffyreus)

The above illustration is taken from the frontispiece of what is still one of the best books on early attempts to construct perpetual motion machines: Perpetuum Mobile;... by Henry Dircks, 1861. 

(By the way, I've noticed that some of my uploaded images, particularly screenshots of silux models etc, don't display as well as they should in Internet Explorer. So I'd say: use other browsers if possible).

The Marquis of Worcester's wheel

A description of the operating principle of the Marquis of Worcester's wheel and the circumstances under which it was exhibited is given in the 56th article of the Century of Inventions written by the Marquis of Worcester (MOW):—

Article 56 from the Century of Inventions

As we will see, there have been several re-publications of the Century of Inventions with the text modernised (i.e. changed). Since I always prefer original sources, I have tried to find an on-line version of either an original manuscript of this document, or else the first printed version of it, (by J Grismond, London 1663). However, I was unsuccessful, so I have transcribed it exactly from Dircks' book (p34). Dircks, who is a reliable author, assures us that his version is transcribed from a manuscript dated 1659.

They're wrong!

The above image, with its caption, appears on p68 of Perpetual Motion, The History of an Obsession, by Arthur Ord-Hume, 1977. What's more, an internet search will turn up quite a few websites, like http://mathapps.net/wheel/aaaindex.htm, all claiming, or at least implying, that this image portrays the MOW wheel's mechanism. But they are all wrong.

So where does that image come from? After some digging I found it in another book by Henry Dircks; one of the re-publications of the Century of Inventions. It is titled "The Century of Inventions, Written in 1655; by Edward Somerset, Marquis of Worcester. Being a Verbatim Reprint of the First Edition, Published in 1663. With an Introduction and Commentary."

Henry Dircks's re-publication of the Century of Inventions. This is included in his book titled The Life, Times and Scientific Labours of the Second Marquis of Worcester... See p 454 of this book for the image which I think was originally drawn by Dircks, and his comments on it.

In this book, Dircks provides that image specifically to show that "it may easily be demonstrated that the conditions stated [i.e. the written description of the MOW wheel] may be mechanically produced without any resulting motion."

I think that image was originally drawn by Dircks, specifically to show a non-working wheel. Dircks, an expert on the Marquis of Worcester, is generally sympathetic towards him, and he was not trying to suggest that he knew how the wheel worked. There are no known drawings of the MOW wheel's true mechanism, although it would be interesting to see whether research into the archives of the British monarchy might turn up some more details about the demonstration of the MOW wheel to King Charles I.

In presenting someone else's idea of what was always intended to be a non-working wheel, and then attacking the MOW wheel because of it, Ord-Hume and his followers are really setting up and attacking a straw man.


Another interpretation

Another interpretation of the MOW wheel — possibly a better fit to the description, and which obviously would work as a perpetual motion if it could be built as described

I've drawn here another possible interpretation of the MOW wheel. Each weight is raised by a foot whenever it crosses the vertical centerline. How it is raised I do not know, but perhaps the Marquis of Worcester did. It seems that not many perpetual motion enthusiasts have noticed the 99th article of his Century of Inventions, titled "A most admirable way to raise weights." Here I'll have to quote from one of the re-publications (printed by S Hodgson, Newcastle, 1813):—

"How to make one pound weight to raise an hundred as high as one pound falleth, and yet the hundred pound descending doth nothing less than one hundred pound can effect."

This is reminiscent of the more famous quote from Johann Bessler's Apologische Poësie:— 

"A great craftsman would be that man who can "lightly" cause a heavy weight to fly upwards! Who can make a pound-weight rise as 4 ounces fall, or 4 pounds rise as 16 ounces fall..."   (See John Collins' republication of AP p291).