http://www.keelynet.com/energy/bessler.htm
…A native of Zittau, Saxony, Bessler was thirty-two years of age when
he exhibited his first “self-moving wheel” at Gera in 1712. It was a
wheel about three feet in diameter and four inches thick, capable
(according to witnesses) of keeping itself in motion for an indefinite
period without visible assistance.
Once the wheel was started with a gentle push, it would accelerate to
about twenty-six revolutions per minute and would maintain that speed
without further assistance.
Furthermore, the wheel could be geared to lift small weights by means of
a rope curled around its axle.
…The following year be brought to Leipzig another and larger version
of his wheel. This second model was six feet in diameter and a foot
thick, covered with heavy cloth, which was oiled and tightly stretched
from rim to rim. Like its predecessor, the wheel needed but a slight
shove to set it in motion.
Once under way, it quickly picked up speed until it reached its maximum
velocity of about twenty-six turns per minute, which it could apparently
maintain indefinitely, unassisted.
Observers agreed on one thing: as the wheel turned, they could hear
weights of some sort tumbling about inside it, concealed by the heavy
oiled cloth stretched drum-tight from rim to rim.
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There are many sites on the net now about Bessler but John Collins site
seems to have started it all, check it out at;