Keely then demonstrated his vaporic gun by leading the force from the receiver "by the same kind of flexible copper tube, attaching one end of it to the breech of the gun."22 Then, "He took some vulcanite and rubber wafers for packing, and then rammed a leaden bullet, one and one-half inches in diameter, into the cannon with a broom handle. An iron plate was passed outside of the back door. The cock from the given point tube was opened and the bullet went whizzing through the panel of the door and flattened itself on the iron plate. There was a report about as loud as the sound made by firing off a revolver when the bullet left the cannon. There was no recoil of the gun, and the barrel was about the same temperature as the atmosphere. Three bullets were fired in quick succession, and Mr. Keely said that there was sufficient power in the tube to shoot 500 more bullets. .."23
The famous Keely motor of which the world had heard and read so much, "a smooth hollow sphere of metal about two feet in diameter," and which consisted in a 25 horsepower rotary engine, was also run with his etheric vapor. "What is most astonishing about the rotation of this sphere, by simply turning on the vapor," a witness remarked, "is the fact that there is no escape for the gas anywhere, after it has done its work, nor any outlet or exhaust-pipe for such escape, as is well known to be absolutely necessary in the use of any gas, liquid or vapor known to mechanics, and by which engines are readily driven."24
A description of Keely's "200 horsepower engine," on which he had been working "for some time," has also survived: "It is encased in copper and is full of brass resonants. It looks like a patent washing machine. Mr. Keely says it will be working in a machine shop on Vine Street below Sixth inside of 60 days, and that then he will be ready to take out patents. The machine can be put in any shop or factory, and will run machinery of 200 horsepower. With one expulsion of the Liberator of one-eight of a second the machinery will run all day. Mr. Keely claims that by simply charging the tubes daily with the vibratory power the machinery in a big factory can be run without even having a Liberator from which the mysterious power is originally produced."25
Towards the end of 1886, Keely was hard at work on his vibratory generator. He would enjoy his first vacation in years,26 and would still be giving his regular demonstrations. On September 24, 12 persons witnessed his experiments "calculated to demonstrate the power of sympathetic vibration as applied to dynamics." "For the purposes of these experiments," a witness later wrote, "we were shown into an upper room about 12 by 14 feet in size, across one end of which extended a plain workbench. Upon this bench, extending more than half the length of it, were stretched two wires, tensioned to vibrate when agitated, the first wire giving forth a low note, the second a tone considerably higher." From this wire a small steel rod ran "really consisting of three sections, so arranged that the ends touched," and ended against a heavy plate of glass. At the end of the bench, a smooth, copper sphere of about a foot in diameter had been hung in a circular frame. The sphere was "expected to revolve by the force of sympathetic vibration."27
One axle of the sphere ended in a rubber bulb, "like a small syringe." The sphere was placed between the thick plate of glass against which the steel rod ended, and a similar plate resting against the wall. The four legs of the circular frame also rested on a glass plate. On the bench were also two large tuning forks, 'fixed upright in their moveable spine resonant cases, standing some three feet apart, and the nearest one that distance from the sphere." Between the tuning forks was a small brass object resembling a snail shell mounted on a pedestal, which was called a resonator.28
At the opposite end of the room, "thrown carelessly upon the floor," was a flat ring about one inch wide, with a diameter of about forty inches. Fixed into this ring was a large tuning fork at right angles with its flat surface. Attached to the inner edge, and extending entirely around the ring was a brass tube half an inch in diameter. The two ends of the tube ended in a small sphere, "about the size of an apple." Resting on the floor, between the ring and the bench, was a small iron receiver that Keely called "double compressor." A small copper pipe led from this receiver to the little ball or sphere of the brass tube on the inner side of the flat ring. Another copper pipe was attached to the receiver and went into the next room to the Liberator. Through this long pipe, and through the double compressor and the short pipe went the vapor that charged the brass tube in the ring on the floor.29
The beginning of the actual experiment was marked by the strangeness of it all; Keely obtained what he called "the mass chord" of those willing to participate in the experiment. He determined this mass chord by putting a steel bolt in the hands of the volunteers. It, which he called a "sensitizer," resembled a "car coupling pin, but shorter, and having a one-quarter inch hole through its length." From this sensitizer ran a 10-foot "hair-like" wire that ended in a reed whistle. Then Keely dropped the whistle into the snail-shell resonator on the bench. This produced a certain sound by which he could determine whether or not the volunteer held the right sensitizer. If not, a smaller or bigger one was handed. No two persons used the same size. After this unusual ritual, the brass tube within the ring on the floor was "charged with the force. A sheet of vulcanized rubber in the top of the double compressor was blown out "with a report that indicated great power, and, as Keely had stated that this rubber sheet would only yield to a pressure of 2,000 pounds, it caused "some of the brave savants present to seek positions in the remote corners."30
Keely then went to the next room, where his Liberator stood, as well as another curious device called the "140 octave resonator." This was a brass tube of about four and a half inches in diameter and some eight inches deep. This mechanism was "supposed to be full of 'resonators,'" and the top "suggested an old-fashioned candle-mold." With this device, Keely claimed to be able to give 140 octaves.31 One of the volunteers then went within the circle upon the floor, within his hand the steel pin of his mass chord. Other volunteers then bowed the tuning forks at the command of Keely. The sphere "away across the room," began to revolve. "Slowly at first, but with an increasing speed as the forks continued to vibrate. When the volunteer stepped out of the circle, the sphere stopped at once; stepping back in the circle, the sphere 'immediately responded.'" Collier, who was present, tried it. To him this experiment was also entirely new.32
The witnesses were greatly impressed; "The entire absence of careful preparation, for the gathering, as shown by Mr. Keely's repeated search for objects needed at various points, that should have been gathered and placed where wanted beforehand; the change made on the instant by the substitution of one article for another, that was found to be misfit or would not work, etc., all added force to the results shown."33 This strange demonstration clearly showed that Keely had traveled a long way since the days that he wrested energy out of enormous engines.
In September 1886, an article appeared in Philadelphia's Lippincott's Magazine entitled "Keely's Etheric Force." It was the first article accepted by any Philadelphia editor, setting forth Keely's claims on the public "for the patience and protection which the discoverer of a force in nature needs, while researching the unknown laws that govern its operation. Up to this time Keely had been held responsible for the errors made in the premature organization of the Keely Motor Company, and the selling of stock before there was anything to give in return for the money paid by its investors," Bloomfield-Moore remarked.34 A month later, two Philadelphia engineers, J.H. Linneville and W. Barnet LeVan, made a thorough examination of Keely's Liberator, and the lever by means of which the energy of the force that was generated by the Liberator was measured. Both devices were completely dismantled for that purpose. The outcome of the examination was that the engineers both certified that a weight of 550 pounds was raised on the end of the lever during the test, showing a force of 15,751 pounds to the square inch. It was noted that the highest pressure possible to obtain through compressed air was 5,000 pounds to the square inch.35
Elaborate etchings of his various devices were printed in a magazine the next year.36
Reinforced by, or perhaps in spite of, eyewitness accounts of experiments, demonstrations and the occasional examination such as described above, the controversy became heated once more.
Another visitor wrote that, "The 'sympathetic etheric force' which Mr. Keely claims to have discovered may be best described as coming nearer to the primal force of willpower of nature than any force yet liberated from her storehouse. Its inventor seems to claim for it that it is that primal force itself; he speaks of the breath of life which God breathed into man's nostrils at the creation of the world. Whether Mr. Keely's force is itself elementary or not, who shall say? He claims that at least it is the last and greatest step in the analysis of matter."37
In the meantime, news of Keely's doings stretched out across the Atlantic. In 1887, in England a series of articles appeared in The British Mercantile Gazette, its June issue devoting more than eight columns to the progress and position of Keely and his discovery of the etheric force.38
Keely, who by now had totally abandoned water as the basis of obtaining the power, directed his attention solely to air as a basis. As a result, he announced in a circular dated June 9, 1887, that he would only use a wire instead of a tube as the connecting link between the sympathetic mediums to evolve the ether and operate his machinery.39
Apparently this would lead Keely into a whole new land of discoveries and possibilities, the exact nature of which we can now only speculate. A newspaper for instance wrote that Keely was involved in "making a flying machine,"40 and on December 14 a new statement by Keely, a "voluminous report," was read by Collier during a meeting of the stockholders of the Keely Motor Company at Sherer's Hall at Eight and Walnut Streets. In it, Keely reviewed his efforts and experiments since 1882, when he was engaged in the construction of a generator for the purpose of securing a vaporic or etheric force from water and air. When the device was completed, he soon found out that it was "impracticable owing to the impossibility of securing graduation." After a series of interesting but laborious experiments, Keely built a Liberator in March 1885, which he operated together with the generator. Although he considered this "a stride in advance of anything accomplished hitherto," he also claimed that, "Meanwhile new phenomena have unfolded to him, opening a new field of experiment."
As a result, Keely became "possessed of a new and important discovery," and he would not need his generator nor his Liberator anymore. "His operations will be conducted without either the vaporic or etheric force which heretofore played such an important part in his exhibitions. What name to give his new form of force he does not know, but the basis of it all, he says, is vibratory sympathy. It may be divided too, into negative and sympathetic attraction, these two forms of force being the antithesis of each other. As to the practical outcome of his work.. .Mr. Keely could make no promises. He had no doubt that he would sooner or later be able to produce engines of varying capacity, so small as to run a sewing machine and so large and powerful as to plow the sea as the motive force in great ships. Among the work yet to be done is the construction of a sympathetic machine of a very delicate character. While this will be a perfect vibratory structure itself, its function is to complete the work of graduation or governing the force, but as to what length of time it will take to complete the work he cannot say."
Keely's report was accepted, but a newspaper shrewdly remarked that "The most important fact contained in Mr. Keely's report was suppressed. The part that was not read to the meeting informed the stockholders that he had in contemplation the formation of a new company and that he had already sold a number of obligations for the new issue of stock in order to raise money to prosecute his experiments." And indeed, Keely told a reporter the same day that the obligations called for between 30,000 and 50,000 shares of stock, and that "the new capitalization would be on a basis of $15,000,000." He furthermore stated that his old shareholders would receive share for share of the new issue. He would retain about 40,000 shares.41
The year 1888 saw the publications of both a curious pamphlet and a remarkable book. In July, the pamphlet "Keely's Secrets," written by Bloomfield-Moore, came to light. The pamphlet, which had "a wide circulation,"42 was both a theoretical expose and a defense against Keely's critics. In its pages, she trusted Keely's visionary ideas of employing his discoveries for a system of airflight on which he had started working the year before, and of a possible application of his discoveries in the cure of disease. The pamphlet was published by the Theosophical Society in London, who also published The Secret Doctrine, written by Helena Blavatsky, Russian-born mysticist, occultist and founder of the Theosophical Society. In the huge tome, she devoted an entire chapter to Keely and his discoveries, and spoke out in favor of him. From that time on, theosophists and occultists who were not already doing so would direct their attention to the enigmatic inventor from Philadelphia.
In September of the same year, Blavatsky published an article on Keely in a French theosophical magazine.43 The same month in Paris, Le Figaro printed the expectations of French inventor Colonel Le Mat saying that "the chain which holds the aerial ship to earth would be broken asunder by Keely's discovery. The nineteenth century holds in its strong arms the pledge, that sooner or later the aerial navy, so long waited for, will traverse the trackless high roads of space from continent to continent."44
Farther away in the Austrian city of Vienna, an Austrian nobleman, the Chevalier Griez de Ronse, printed a series of papers on Keely's discoveries in a Viennese journal called The Vienna Weekly News, of which he was the owner. One of these articles mentioned that the attention of English scientists had been drawn to Keely's claims, in regard to having imprisoned the ether, by Professor Henri Hertz's experiments in ether vibrations at the Bonn University. "Keely, like the late Dr. Schuster, claims on behalf of science the right to prosecute its investigations until a mechanical explanation of all things is attained." The Austrian nobleman was well informed; obviously he had read the pamphlet of Bloomfield-Moore, whom he might have known personally, and he was also aware of Keely's imprisonment in a jail in Philadelphia which had happened the same year.45
The year 1888 would also be overshadowed by legal matters. Keely would be sent to jail, this time because Bennet C. Wilson reappeared to claim what he thought was rightfully his. Wilson had a curious tale to tell. He claimed that he had sponsored Keely's first machines some 22 years ago.46
Wilson financially supported Keely's experiments from 1863 until 1872, and he provided him with a workshop on Market Street. But as the years past, and Keely's experiments met with little or no success, Wilson got tired of advancing money. He further claimed that, late in August 1869, Keely said that his device would soon be ready for sale, but he needed funds. Keely then made an assignment in writing of his whole right and title with all interest in the motor which, according to Wilson, was called a "reacting vibratory motor."
Wilson's patience was "exhausted when his fortune was exhausted, and Mr. Keely turned to new pastures, and with new names for the machine he had in mind, he found new patrons." From 1871 until 1878 Wilson had not been able to get "satisfaction out of Mr. Keely." In 1878, Wilson secured access to Keely's shop and, he claimed, there stood the machine "upon which Keely was experimenting for his newest and latest motor company," and it was the same with which he had "practiced on in the old Market Street machine shop." So now, Wilson's bill claimed that these assignments Keely made to him entitled him to all the patents that Keely had taken out for the perfection of his motor.47
The only thing that Keely could do was to prove that it was an entirely different engine that he had been working on. In all this legal confusion, it was somehow overlooked that Keely had not obtained any patent on any engine that had resulted from his line of research after 1871. Strangely, while always quick to bring that aspect under attention, the press fell silent over this important detail. This was unfortunately not the only legal case that Keely became entangled in. Sadly, the other case was once again directed by a faction of the Keely Motor Company,
the very company that had originally been founded to support him. The case was a reflection of what had happened to Keely in 1882. In July, the same month that Bloomfield-Moore's pamphlet was published, four directors of the New York branch of the Keely Motor Company brought a suit against him in order to force him to "turn over his property to surrender patents, and to disclose his secret to some one appointed by them."
This suit was against the will of the three Philadelphian directors, who on September 8 organized a meeting at Keely's request. That afternoon, 60 stockholders met in the third-story room at Eighth and Walnut Street. Keely also issued a circular in which he stated that he had reason to believe the majority of the stockholders were opposed to the suit against him, "but he wanted to know definitely what they were going to do about it, as his own policy would thereby be shaped."
Not surprisingly, the New York directors were absent from the meeting, as was Keely, but he did sent a letter to the meeting, which was read. In it he wrote that he had received a number of replies from stockholders, "residents of New York and elsewhere, all of whom deprecate the revival of the suit against me and express themselves in favor of the proposition of reorganization of the company as submitted by me to the stockholders. I have also been requested, verbally and in writing, by many stockholders to take into my confidence Mr. J.H. Linnville and Mr. W. Barnet LeVan in connection with Mr. Boekel, and avail myself of their aid and advice in the matter of applying for my letters patent on my invention, and I shall exhibit myself of their aid and advice in the matter of applying for my letters patent on my invention, and I shall exhibit to them from time to time progressive experiments and explain the same to them."
Free Energy Pioneer- John Worrell Keely Page 9
