Two days after Keely's death, a newspaper wrote that Keely "left a great mass of manuscript relating to the progress of his experiments, which is the property of his estate, and can only be disposed of in the administration of his effects."14
More allusions to the existence of his papers kept cropping up in the days after his death. A newspaper stated that "we did find Keely's voluminous diary covering his experiments, his successes and failures, from hour to hour and day to day through long, torturing years, from 1872-73 up to the time of his last illness. It is a complete record and exceedingly interesting. In view of this daily detailed and minute history of his experiments with his motors there is every reason for believing that Keely was honest and told the truth about his inventions."15
At the time of Keely's death, there were other documents in existence as well, such as those that were kept in the corporate office of the Keely Motor Company in the attic of a brick building on Walnut Street above Ninth in Philadelphia. The place was tenanted by Schuellerman. "The office is uncarpeted and almost destitute of furniture. There are no shades on the windows, and the light that enters them throws its rays upon a strange variety of photographic blueprints, working drawings and queer mechanical designs which illustrate the early and later stages of Keely's researches in the mysteries of molecular and atomic forces," a reporter wrote.16 The whereabouts of these documents are not known.
Three days after Keely's death, B.L. Ackermann, president of the Keely Motor Company, visited Anna Keely upon her request by telegram. He told a reporter that "On my arrival at Mrs. Keely's house... I found her so prostrated that she was unable to more than state that Mr. Keely had left in her possession a manuscript of 2,000 pages, which explains the whole system and the work he has done."17
Two days later, a Philadelphia newspaper wrote that, "It is not at all impossible.. .that litigation may result over possession of Mr. Keely's papers and the machine, which he left uncompleted. Mrs. Keely is unable to be seen and has not in any way signified as yet her intentions with respect to the disposition of her husband's papers." Perhaps the Keely Motor Company had some dark misgivings, for the article continued that, "In case she should elect to refuse any members of the company access to the papers, and that she may adopt this course has already begun to be hinted at, the matter will be taken into court." Collier seized the opportunity to repeat that he was "in possession of much information on the subject of the motor," and that he was "confident that he knows enough about it to construct a machine similar to Mr. Keely's." Collier was in fact "now engaged in preparing for the press a work bearing on Keely's invention, which he expects, will occasion a great revival of scientific interest in Keely's work." The article ended with Collier's optimistic statement that neither he nor Thomas expected "any refusal on Mrs. Keely's part to hand over all her husband's papers and the contents of the laboratory."18
On November 24, only two days after the first mention of Keely's manuscript in the press, and a day after his funeral, the first strange contradiction occurred. That day Mr. Schuellerman said that, "he did not know anything one way or the other about the alleged manuscript which it is said Mr. Keely left with his wife. That would be known after the conference with Mrs. Keely."
It would become even stranger. President Ackermann, who mentioned two days earlier that he had heard from Keely's widow about me existence of the manuscript, now told an entirely different story when he was asked how he knew that Mr. Keely left in his wife's custody a manuscript describing his discoveries in detail: "...he said that Mr. Keely had told him he had written such a paper several times in the last twenty-five years. Mr. Ackermann said he had not read it but Mr. Keely had pulled out a drawer of his desk and pointed out papers as the manuscript, so he was sure it existed."19
Another newspaper meanwhile remarked on the same day that, "The future of the Keely motor depends on the manuscript of 2,000 pages which, it is said, the dead inventor left his widow."20
On November 25, the word was out, and intrigue was to be expected: "A lively legal contest is expected between Mrs. John W. Keely, widow of the inventor... and the Keely Motor Company, over the possession of all papers left by the dead man bearing on the mysterious apparatus, the alleged secret of which he alone knew."
Apparently his widow had foreseen all this, for she hired an attorney named John G. Johnson. She had "surprised" the directors of the Keely Motor Company on the day of the funeral. What the surprise was, we may never know, but the directors went straight to Collier. Collier, we learn, was no longer a member of the company, and had made a sudden turn of loyalty: "It is said that Dr. Thomas and Mr. Collier were both friendly to the interests of Mrs. Keely, and that should a legal fight come up they will be on her side... .There are other interests involved, and it is asserted that Mrs. Keely will resist any attempt by the company to deprive her of what she considers to be her lawful inheritance."21
A day later, Keely's grief-stricken widow refused to see anyone, and reporters were not able to communicate with the directors of the Keely Motor Company, therefore "no formal request has yet been preferred by those interested for permission to examine any papers Mr. Keely may have left."22
By November 29, the situation had not changed, and "So far as known no will has been found, but certain manuscript is said to be in the possession of Mrs. Keely. She is said to have made a search of the inventor's workshop for valuable papers, but the result of this is not known. All the machinery, tools, etc. in the shop are the property of the company, Mr. Collier stated...The keys of the workshop are still held by Mrs. Keely."23
On the same day, Mr. Schuellerman also said that, "Until Mrs. Keely's position and intentions are known, and until something definite is known about the manuscript, which, it is said, Mr. Keely left, describing his secret and his discoveries in detail, no action.. .can be taken by the directors of the company. "24
Indeed, the Keely Motor Company did not fare well under these setbacks. The monthly meeting on November 29 was canceled, and "neither the secretary nor Charles B. Collier... were able to state just when the meeting would take Place. Inquiry at Mrs. Keely's house at 17th and Oxford Sts. failed to elicit any information."25 In reply to a reporter, Johnson said that "complications have arisen, which make it impossible for him to represent Mrs. Keely." Those complications were not specified.26
Doubts among those interested in Keely's legacy arose once more: "The late inventor Keely's mysterious secret is just as securely locked up today as when he was alive, and none of the directors of the motor company or the many stockholders know what Keely has left in the way of papers or models."27 And some days later Scientific American wondered, "whether the mass of the manuscript which he left will be of any value or not, remains to be seen."28
On December 1, Keely's will did turn up; perhaps it was found during Mrs. Keely's search of his workshop. Keely's widow was made sole legatee and testatrix of an estate of $10,000. The will made no mention whatsoever of his motor.29
By December 5, the Board of Directors of the Keely Motor Company were in high hopes again. Much was expected from a conference to be held between Ackermann, Schuellerman who represented the company, and Charles S. Hill, attorney for Mrs. Keely.30
Nothing substantial was reached; Ackermann had his "short conference" with Hill. The discussion turned to the rights to the manuscript which Keely left, "and will be continued today." Ackermann did say that Mrs. Keely would "surrender the manuscript for an interest in the company."31 On the same day, an anonymous stockholder confided to a reporter that according to him, "The talk about that manuscript is all nonsense. Keely made some copious notes for his own benefit, but how could he commit to paper that which he could not understand himself?"32
Precisely a week later, on December 14, the annual meeting of the Keely Motor Company was planned, but it was not expected that a quorum would be present to transact any business: "The by-laws of the company require that 50,000 shares of stock shall be represented at the meeting and it is no
t expected that this requirement will be met.... Another reason for the postponement of the meeting is due to the fact that the representatives of the company have reached no conclusion with Mrs. Keely." It also appeared that Ackermann and the attorney of Keely's widow held several meetings, but were unable to "come to an understanding."33
The meeting was postponed due to the "small attendance." Of the 50,000 shares, only 3,500 were present. Ackermann was not present, but he drew up a five point letter that Schuellerman read. In it, Ackermann again changed his statements concerning Keely's manuscript. Now he alleged that Keely had informed him that the manuscripts were in the possession of Mrs. Keely. Point five related to the Keely manuscript and projected a gloomy view of the future of the Keely Motor Company in case of an everlasting absence of his paper: "Knowing, or, at least presuming, that with such manuscripts in the possession of the company, in addition to the devices, machinery, and so forth, there would exist a very favorable chance in attaining the same results, and that without such, or the same papers in possession of unfriendly or hostile persons unknown to us, the condition under such hypothesis, appeared to me very problematical of ever getting at results, or if so at any time, only in the far future."34
And now, a month after Keely's death, the conclusion was reached, but it would not be in the most harmonious of circumstances. Amidst the fights, the scandal, the accusations, and the further dissolution of the Keely Motor Company, we also learn more about the fate of Keely's alleged 2,000 page manuscript.
On December 20, the last remnants of solidarity between members of the Keely Motor Company now completely crumbled, and a newspaper ironically mentioned that, "Round one of the Keely Motor Company stockholders fight ended at 2:00 by a sudden adjournment which just saved Charles Collier, Jr., from an impending knockout at the hands of B.L. Ackermann and C.L. Schuellerman." Ackermann accused Collier of pocketing large sums of money, "and the mere mention of money aroused the thirty stockholders present." Young Mr. Collier.. .shouted to Mr. Ackermann, "That's a lie! That's a lie!" Ackermann himself faced accusations of having secured large quantities of stock by unsigned letters.35 All in all, the Keely Motor Company was in a disgraceful state and its members a sorry lot - but the worst was yet to come.
A month had now passed since Ackermann alleged that he had heard of Keely's manuscript. At the meeting, Hill, Anna Keely's attorney, demonstrated that he had studied the financial proceedings of the company very well, and he said that the history of the relations between the late John W. Keely and the Keely Motor Company was "a tangled web of unfulfilled promises, broken contracts, grievous misunderstandings and mutual recriminations."
Hill pointed out that, "if any business operations are to be carried on, having the Keely discoveries as their basis, the present Keely Motor Company is not in an advantageous position to do so. A body of men attempting to exercise corporate powers where there is a question as to the validity of their existence as a corporation per se, would subject itself to unlimited litigation which otherwise might be avoided."
Hill could therefore easily enforce his position by stating: "If you force me to the point where I disclose certain things, I don't think the Keely Motor Company will ever do much more business."
So it seemed that the rumors about financial fraud that had always surrounded the Keely Motor Company were devastatingly true. But what about Keely's mysterious manuscript? Did it really exist? If so, where was it, and what happened to it?
Hill stated: "The reports concerning immense quantities of manuscript left behind him are so far as I am aware untrue." A little later Hill said, "...I do not think that Mr. Keely's secret is written down,"36 which, of course, was a strange statement from someone who according to Ackermann had previously said that Keely's widow would turn in the manuscript in exchange for a substantial share in the Keely Motor Company.37 Hill also stated that "he had made a careful examination of the effects of Mr. Keely and that no detailed manuscript had been found."38
According to Hill, "A few scraps of memoranda in the form of a diary, possibly 500 or 600 words, giving no clue to anything whatsoever, half completed drafts and letters written by him on business, and other such unimportant papers comprise the bulk of all that I have been able to find." Then Hill said ambiguously: "The whole thing is as uncertain a state as ever."39
All this of course did not end the controversy surrounding the manuscript, which by now had attained an almost mythical status. Collier maintained a day after the meeting, that Keely "did prepare a manuscript pertaining to his experiments." Collier said that "some time previous to Keely's death he spoke to him regarding the preservation of the results of his work. Keely told him that he had manuscript, and showed it to Mr. Collier. Mr. Collier read part of it at the time."40
Later, Hill would claim that not only manuscripts had been found and that the bulk of these had been published in Bloomfield-Moore's book, but furthermore that, "Previous to his death Mr. Keely repeatedly asserted that all of his secret formulas by which his wonderful experiments were performed had been committed to writing so fully and completely that were he to be taken away the work could go on uninterruptedly. He had given tantalizing glimpses of great piles of MSS to some of the officials of the company. ...Such things as these naturally led me to hope for the existence of some valuable papers."41
The strange story of Keely's manuscripts and papers relating to his inventions does not end here. There was also another alleged storage of documents pertaining to him and his discoveries. Bloomfield-Moore left "immense files of writings concerning the motor, including a hundred letters to herself from Mr. Keely."42 But the story of what happened with these "immense files" is as strange, confusing and inconclusive as what happened with Keely's alleged 2,000 page manuscript.
More than half a century after his death and the ensuing tumult over his legacy, his nephew was located and interviewed. He was an old man at that time, and professed that he never had much confidence in Keely's experiments, but he recalled how Bloomfield-Moore sent "many of Keely's secrets" to Count von Rosen, Commander-Captain in the Swedish Navy, then living in Scotland. He apparently sent this material to Stockholm in 1912, and nothing more was heard of these "secrets," although in 1972 a ring-bound volume was published there in which the foreword suggested that the book consisted of these materials, to which claim there is some circumstantial evidence.43
What these secrets originally consisted of, Keely's nephew did not care to explain. We are by no means sure that, given that Count von Rosen did indeed send the secret materials via Scotland to Sweden, that these were the "immense files" purportedly in possession of Bloomfield-Moore. Count von Rosen was a grandson of Bloomfield-Moore; his father married Ella Carlton, the daughter of Bloomfield-Moore in 1864.44 While he was the executor of her estate, he was but one of the executors of her will. She left her manuscripts to "another grandson," his cousin Harold de Bildt, who acted as her literary executor.45
Von Rosen told a reporter that Bloomfield-Moore "had no papers of which I know giving any idea of Keely's secret. Her papers are all here in the Fidelity Trust Company's care, and include the stock that she held in the motor company." He furthermore said that, when she learned of Keely's death, she "expressed a hope that he had imparted his secret to some one before he died."46 Based on his statements, although made long before he allegedly sent the secret materials to Sweden, we are left to assume that her files contained nothing of importance concerning, and directly relating to his inventions.
Nevertheless, this may have given rise to the claims of Keely's nephew. The Count, while staying in Philadelphia, was "making some inquiries in regard to the motor, and says he will probably visit the old laboratory where Keely did his work before leaving the city."47
It is also alleged that a Philadelphia occultist, Isaac Meyer, who wrote a learned treatise on the cabala may have held some files on Keely. Meyer apparently willed the New York Public Library 36 boxes of notes, books, translations and bibliographies. Most of this
material concerns the research he did on the cabala. Although a large portion is said to have included collections on Keely and his inventions, nothing was found during a search.48
And there the matter rests. Keely's mysterious manuscript disappeared into nothingness. The fate of the manuscript became shrouded in such an impenetrable mist so soon after the announcement was made that he left such materials, that one may even doubt if it ever existed at all. For even this is not entirely certain or conclusively proven, although as we have seen, it was suggested many times that it did indeed exist. His 1887 book is nowhere to be found; the ultimate fates of Bloomfield-Moore's "immense files" and Keely's "hundred letters" are equally shrouded in the same impenetrable mist.49
There were also Keely's engines, which by this time had also disappeared. It was stated on several occasions that Keely constructed and discarded 129 different models of his wonderful engines,50 while Keely himself once said that he had made "2,000 of them!"51
Many of the engines were no longer in existence because they were sold as "scrap iron" as Schuellerman stated. Babcock wrote: "many tons of these have been sold from time to time as old iron, brass and copper. One apparatus thus disposed of weighed twenty-two tons. Several similar ones, though somewhat lighter, have likewise gone to the scrap-heap. From this source money has often been raised by the inventor."52 With these funds, he was able to continue his researches at a time when the Keely Motor Company left him without any financial support. Not that he earned much money from the sale of his discarded devices. At one time Collier lamented that, "Our generator, which cost us $60,000, we were forced to sell for $200 as old form."53 Keely, or the companies that built his devices destroyed his older prototypes whenever a new, smaller and better one was built.54 This was customary from the beginning, and in 1881 Babcock remarked that, "had they all been preserved, (they) would make an interesting museum of mechanical curiosities."55
Free Energy Pioneer- John Worrell Keely Page 16
