A study of the life and work of Johann Bessler (aka Orffyreus)who claimed that he had perfected a Perpetual Motion machine in 1712. The evidence for his claims is examined and proof of his sincerity is discussed. The previously unknown existence of a coded message is revealed and described and the possible way in which the machine was constructed is examined.

Drawing on recent scholarship on the history of Western esotericism and religious studies on the importance of millenarian thought in Early Modern Europe, this study provides an innovative re-examination of Peter the Great’s Court in early eighteenth-century Russia.

In this issue: Letters Alternative News Jeane Manning - Puzzles of New Energy and Perpetual Motion Michael Cremo Physics from Outside the Box - Is the Ruling Standard Model in Deep Trouble? God and the Big Bang - Does a Singularity Prove a Supreme Being Exists? Hitler’s Escape - New Evidence from a Pair of Best-Selling Researchers Jung and the Gnostics - Where Did the Great Psychologist Learn His Secrets? Mount Nemrut:Ancient Place of Initiation Kubrick’s Lunar Illusions The Veil of Manoppello - The Plot Thickens Technologies of the Gods - Miraculous Pre-Columbian Engineering in the Americas Was Jesus an Actual King? A Controversial British Author Says He Can Prove It Earth Energy and the Ancients - What Can We Still Learn from Megalithic Achievements?

The deceptively simple task of making a mechanism which would turn forever has fascinated many famous men and physicists throughout the centuries. In fact, the basic tenets of engineering grew from the failures of these perpetual motion machine designers. This work offers an illustrated overview of perpetual motion machines and their inventors.

This is an accurate reproduction of Johann Bessler's (aka Orffyreus) most professional publication, taken from the original book. In it he describes all of the examinations carried out upon his self-proclaimed 'Perpetual Mobile'. All the certificates relating to the examinations are included, as are the original drawings. After the original German and Latin text a full English translation is included.

Following the appointment of its first aristocratic Grand Masters in the 1720s and in the wake of its connections to the scientific Enlightenment, 'Free and Accepted' Masonry became part of Britain's national profile and the largest and most influential of Britain's extensive clubs and societies. The organisation did not evolve naturally from the mediaeval guilds and religious orders that pre-dated it but was reconfigured radically by a largely self-appointed inner core at London's most influential lodge, the Horn Tavern. Freemasonry became a vehicle for the expression of their philosophical and political views, and the 'Craft' attracted an aspirational membership across the upper middling and gentry. Through an examination of previously unexplored primary documentation, Foundations contributes to an understanding of contemporary English political and social culture and explores how Freemasonry became a mechanism that promoted the interests of the Hanoverian establishment and connected the metropolitan and provincial elites. The book explores social networks centred on the aristocracy, parliament, the learned and professional societies, and the magistracy, and provides pen portraits of the key individuals who spread the Masonic message. Foundations and Schism (Sussex Academic, 2013), have been described as 'the most important books on English Freemasonry published in recent times', providing 'a precise, social context for the invention of English Freemasonry'. Berman's analysis throws a new and original light on the formation and development of what rapidly became a national and international phenomenon.