The case of Orffyreus was very different. The real name of this inventor was Jean Ernest Elie-Bessler, and he is said to have manufactured the name Orffyreus by placing his own name between two lines of letters, and picking out alternate letters above and below. He was educated for the church, but turned his attention to mechanics and became an expert clock maker. His character, as given by his contemporaries was fickle, tricky, and irascible. Having devised a scheme for perpetual motion he constructed several wheels which he claimed to be self-moving. The last one which he made was 12 feet in diameter and 14 inches deep, the material being light pine boards, covered with waxed cloth to conceal the mechanism. The axle was 8 inches thick, thus affording abundant space for concealed machinery. This wheel was submitted to the Landgrave of Hesse who had it placed in a room which was then locked, and the lock secured with the Landgrave's own seal. At the end of forty days it was found to be still running. Professor Gravesande having been employed by the Landgrave to make an examination and pronounce upon its merits, he endeavored to perform his work thoroughly; this so irritated Orffyreus that the latter broke the machine in pieces, and left on the wall a writing stating that he had been driven to do this by the impertinent curiosity of the Professor! I have no doubt that this was a clear case of fraud, and that the wheel was driven by some mechanism concealed in the huge axle. As already stated, Orffyreus was at one time a clock maker; now clocks have been made to go for a whole year without having to be rewound, so that forty days was not a very long time for the apparatus to keep in motion. Professor Gravesande seems to have had some faith in the invention, but then we must remember that it would not have been very difficult to deceive an honest old professor whose confidence in humanity was probably unbounded. The crowning argument against the genuineness of the motion was the fact that the inventor refused to allow a thorough examination, although a wealthy patron stood ready with a large reward if the machine could be proved to be what was claimed. And now comes up the question which has arisen in regard to other problems, and will recur again and again to the end of the chapter: Is a perpetual motion machine one of the scientific impossibilities?