After having stated that the story of "that sphere of steel having been carefully buried under the floor of Mr. Keely's laboratory is a fabrication," Schuellerman also gave more details about the object: "...the sphere of cast steel... was made many years ago by the Chester Steel Casting Company, and was made to serve as a reservoir for an invention that Mr. Keely was then constructing called a multiplicator or generator. The ball whose diameter is 42 inches is hollow, having a space inside 30 inches in diameter, where the power which was formed by the generator was stored. The weight of this steel sphere is 6,625 pounds, and the entire weight of the multiplicator, including the reservoir was just 6,800 pounds."4
Schuellerman then told how Keely worked from time to time on the perfection of this device, until "at last an entirely new invention on the same plans as the old machine, but much smaller in size, was constructed." Keely sold the machine as scrap iron, but kept the globe "as a weight, to be used in tests with other inventions."5
It would be very convenient for opponents to say that Keely planned this all along and that he was merely masquerading the construction of a compressed air chamber by the so-called building and then discarding the device, but keeping the globe. But Schuellerman had more to say about the object. According to him, the globe was never really hidden, it just stood in the back room of the two apartments which he used as his laboratory, and about "sixteen or seventeen years ago, Mr. Keely used it in showing the wonderful lifting powers of a new invention which he called a vibratory lift. I saw him myself raise that ball, weighing so many hundreds of pounds, upon an iron tripod six feet high, without the slightest trouble, and many others viewed this remarkable feat at the same time."6
Schuellerman also claimed that after the experiments, the sphere remained in the backroom for several years, "covered with dust and surrounded with broken bits of iron, until at last, Mr. Keely gave another exhibition of the strength of this new discovery, the vibratory lift." According to Schuellerman, one afternoon before an audience of scientific men, instead of lifting the heavy sphere, "the direction of the strange force was reversed, and forced the heavy ball into the ground below the flooring of his laboratory, and since that time the sphere has been in that position, with about four inches of its surface protruding through the floor in plain sight." Schuellerman also claimed that Keely often told him that he was planning on lifting the object again. The trap doors in the floor were another matter: "I want to say that the only trap door in that floor leads to a hole under the floor where Mr. Keely stored coal, and can easily be lifted, for it is a crude affair at best." Schuellerman added, almost as an afterthought, that "When the multiplicator, of which I spoke, stood in the room it was found that owing to its immense weight, the ground under its base was sinking, and an excavation was made and the dirt banked up."7
Hill, Anna Keely's attorney, also made a statement concerning the globe: "The piece of machinery buried in the ground in Philadelphia, and recently unearthed by workmen, is a portion of Mr. Keely's first engine. That was the first engine he ever made. It was made in 1874, and was of enormous size. The machine was built by Mr. Keely at an expense of $60,000. The original scheme to obtain power by the disintegration of water was abandoned. A new system was adopted, and with the innovation came the utter uselessness of the old machine. It was so big and unwieldy that he was at a loss where he could deposit it. For various reasons he did not want other machinists to get hold of it, so he determined to bury it. He dug a big hole in the ground and covered it all but the top with earth. There was no intention to hide it. It was simply put in the ground to get it out of the way. When, after his death, I went to Philadelphia with Mr. Kinraide, we readily found the buried multiplicator. We sounded it all around and came to the conclusion that it was too big to be transported to Boston. I can positively state that it had no wire communication with any other apparatus in the Keely works."8
A letter also professed doubts about the compressed air theory: "...what I wish to say in regard to the strong cylinder or globe, or whatever it may be, that is said to have been so carefully hidden. I remember distinctly that newspapers 10 or 15 years ago told of the making of such receptacles for the wonderful ether. There was then no secret about his using such appliances."9
Not surprisingly, Schuellerman's viewpoint was also shared by Collier, who also told a reporter that the original device, of which the globe had been a part, cost no less than $60,000. An anonymous person who "has been associated with the Keely interests until recently," alleged that he too knew of the iron sphere, and that Keely had used this ball "many years ago as a storage battery for his new dynamic force."
He also detailed Keely's levitation experiment, while giving the wrong estimate of its weight: "...he would attach a string of wire to the immense mass of iron. Then he would lift it from its trunnions and cause it to settle gently into an iron tripod six feet high." After the construction of smaller devices, Keely simply "twisted his wire and caused the six-ton weight to bury itself in the ground."10
Thomas, who the day before made his statement, now also "mentioned the names of men who, with him, had seen the act performed." He added a strange detail: "He said in explanation of the curious sounds heard when the sphere was struck sharply that the globe contained a vibratory mechanism inside that might produce the startling noises that frightened the workmen out of the building."11
A reporter who gained entrance to the workshop noted that the floor was torn up over the iron ball, which still rested in its bed of earth. "The mysteries of the various trap doors and underground arrangements of the building are still unsolved, as no one is allowed to search the deserted laboratory of the late inventor." That had to wait until Dorey, the owner of the building, received a reply from President Ackermann of the Keely Motor Company. The company had leased the building for that year, but the lease was "recently canceled by mutual agreement." Around that time, Keely's devices were already stored on North Broad Street and the workshop was more or less empty.12
The opponents had their say as well; a Carl Herring of 929 Chestnut Street — although admitting that he had never visited Keely's workshop, and stating that he based his judgment on "quite a number of descriptions" given to him by "able engineers," — thought that Keely's machines "could have been run by compressed air." He thought one of his devices was easily recognized to be "nothing more than a Cartesian diver," and another of the machines, which was described before the Engineer's Club was, "of a nature that it could well have been operated by compressed air."
Naturally Herring thought that the hollow sphere, "evidently designed to withstand very great pressures," and considering that "a very little air at a very great pressure can develop considerable power" that could be led through "extremely fine tubes," was in effect a compressed air chamber.13
In speaking of the finding of what was now referred to as a "spherical tank," Professor H.W. Spangler of the University of Pennsylvania, was in his own words, "not at all surprised." He claimed that he had attended quite a number of Keely's experiments but, "I could never see anything strange in what he did on any of the occasions." Surely, Spangler was willing to give his opinion to the reporter of the Philadelphia Press. It not so much reflected his thoughts about the strange globe, but rather his vaporic gun: "I remember... when he fired a cannon by so-called hitherto unknown and mysterious force. ...Keely had the machine moved along the platform as a practical proof, as he called it, that it was in no way attached to anything in the floor. ...The machine was moved all right and Keely took some water, which he said was the force used, and emptied it into the machine; but at the same time I saw him deftly lift from the floor a little piece of what looked like wire, but which in reality was a tube, threaded at the ends to screw into a larger tube which was on the floor underneath where the machine rested, and before he fixed the shots, he stooped down and put this tube in position. This may have been put in a tube running from the very spherical tank... .However that may be, I believed and still believe t
hat the cannon was fired by means of compressed air and not by the mysterious force, a knowledge of which he said possessed."14
When additional details were released, contradictory elements cropped up. While at first the newspapers related how Dorey's workmen had found the globe, it was later written that "It was stumbled upon by Mr. Williams, who went to the property, at 1422 North Twentieth Street, with its owner, Daniel Dory."
It was further remarked that, "Why such a marvelous globe should have been ignomously buried as of no further use, is difficult to conceive. Doubters think it had a use just where it was found, no matter what it had been originally used for." And it was Mr. Williams who investigated the hollow globe more closely: "Mr. Williams says that it was tapped in several places with a small hole, reamed out at the surface to admit the flange of the plug, showing that it had been used to hold compressed air or gas..." and so the newspaper concluded that "it is more than probable that this globe has been in constant use ever since it formed a part of the laboratory equipment."15
Lingering doubts were rapidly growing out of hand, but possibly the best summary of the situation was given by a Philadelphia newspaper which noted ironically that, "The cast steel cylinder... may or may not have contained compressed air. The mere fact that Keely said it was a 'multiplicator' does not settle anything, nor is the mystery solved by the belief of various members of the Keely Motor Company that it was a 'multiplicator' or storehouse of energy, or mere dead weight of convenient size to demonstrate the value of his 'vibratory lift.' That a large number of Mr. Keely's associates knew the globe was there is altogether likely, but, as it seems such a handy thing to have around if you were going to work off a few 'apergy' experiments with a little compressed air, it is not to be wondered at that physicists and engineers may view its resurrection with considerable skeptic interest."16
This point of view was not always shared; a short letter sent to a newspaper professed its doubts about the compressed air explanation in connection with Keely's experiments; "I have frequently read in the newspapers of our scientists belief (some are positive) who have seen 'Keely's motor' that it was operated by compressed air being delivered to his motor through a 'thin' platina wire. The pressure exerted, I have seen stated, was anywhere from 20 to 100,000 pounds per square inch. I have not seen any statement, however, that Keely had any air compressing apparatus in his workshop, or conveniently located nearby."
How was it possible, the letter remarked shrewdly, to have manufactured such a hollow and thin wire of "considerable length" and "of such small diameter as to be flexible, as evidently Keely's wire was," and how could such a wire, be it made from platina, steel or any other material, have contained such a huge pressure "without bursting"? It also questioned how it had been possible for Keely "to compress air, without any apparatus, to such an enormous pressure, or cart it to his workshop for so many years without being discovered?" The answer by the editor was that it would be "foolish to speculate about things that might have happened, but did not, the maxim obviously applies to statements based upon pure guesswork. There is no evidence that Keely used compressed air, or that he manufactured it on the premises and concealed his apparatus." As for the wires, the editor gave the puzzling answer that "The imaginary 'wire' appears to have been made of 'compressed gas,' as an evidence of what fanciful theories people can make up when they have no facts to base them on."17
But the finding of the mysterious globe was only the beginning.
Around the same time when the discussions about the globe had become quite arcane, Clarence B. Moore, the son of Bloomfield-Moore and the spokesperson for the mysterious Kinraide, announced that he had taken a six months lease of Keely's laboratory on 1422 North Twentieth Street, for the purpose of making an investigation to determine, if possible, the truth of the Keely assertions. "The investigation is already under way, but the most important discovery, Mr. Moore says, is the great steel globe. ...Mr. Moore says that the chances of making a satisfactory investigation were greatly lessened by the dismantling of the machines previous to taking some of them to Boston."18
Moore had never been an impartial person, and in the midst of the preparations for his examination he confided to a reporter that he never had "any faith in the Keely pretensions, and this investigation has been started by me to see whether or not I was right in my opinion." The part that his mother, Bloomfield-Moore played in the Keely history, Moore declared, was his motive for undertaking the investigation of the workshop.19 When he realized that the memory of his mother was linked too closely to her interest in the Keely project, to which he had persistently been an antagonist, he resolved that "now or never was the hour for exposing the trickery which he was convinced lay at the bottom of the thing."20
And while lamenting the fact that the upcoming investigation would be greatly hampered since the place was dismantled, "if there was any connection with the machines it had been broken," we perceive another motive, quite like the one that had played a role in the withdrawal of Bloomfield-Moore's funding some years before: Moore was asked whether his investigations indicated that there was going to be a litigation over Bloomfield-Moore's will. To this he answered that Bloomfield-Moore had written several wills, and he did not know which was the last. He was sure though, that in one of her wills she left Keely her house at 1718 Walnut Street, valued at $60,000. "Of course she had time to make a new will after his death. I shall certainly not shun litigation, and rather than let the estate go into the hands of one incompetent to manage it I shall certainly combat the will," Moore said.21
There is more reason to suspect that Moore was not really that interested in Keely and his inventions, or in unmasking him as a fraud; of the coming investigation, he held the opinion that "in the near future disclosures will be made that will absolutely vindicate the course which he took toward the motor, and which led to serious disagreements between his mother and himself. "22 So perhaps Moore had considered the inventor as a mere pawn in the intricate power struggle that existed between him and his mother over his father's will and estate.23
What uncertain factor Keely represented to Moore, and how Keely in his turn aided and advised Bloomfield-Moore, we will probably never know. After all, Keely was well accustomed to a climate of slander, libel, and legal affairs, and it is quite possible that in the course of their acquaintance, more than matters of business directly relating to Keely's inventions were discussed. At this point, however, it is well to remember that Moore's investigation of Keely's workshop was the only one that was undertaken, and on which the verdict of history has come to depend. When Moore was asked who the people were with whom he would investigate Keely's workshop, he "declined to give the names of those who had been chosen to assist him in making the investigation."24
In the meantime, the controversy surrounding the mysterious sphere that was found in Keely's workshop, and the compressed air theory raged on. Even if the three-ton spherical shell was capable of resisting a bursting pressure of from 20,000 pounds to 100,000 pounds per square inch, an engineer questioned, "How did Keely get air under such enormous pressure in the sphere? Did he use a pump? If so, he must have used a boiler to generate the steam to run the pump. But he did not use a pump for the reason that a plant capable of delivering air under a pressure of 25,000 pounds to the square inch could not be well concealed, and even had it been concealed, there is nothing to indicate that either boiler or pump ever existed." The engineer also pointed out the difficulty of obtaining a pump capable of pumping against a pressure of 25,000 pounds to the square inch. The manufacture of such an extraordinary device weighing "at least a ton, and, perhaps, three" would have hardly stayed secret, if such a pump could be made at all.25
About the tubes through which Keely supposedly supplied the compressed air, the engineer noted that Hoadly, one of the country's leading compressed air experts, stated that steel bottles in his experiments with compressed air would not stand a pressure higher than 14,000 pounds to the square inch. At that pressure
the steel bottles burst into complete disintegration, so that not a trace of them could be found. "Mr. Keely must have been way ahead of Mr. Hoadly, for apparently he not only used a much higher pressure and carried it in absolute safety, but he did it over 25 years ago, when there was no means known to science by which such a high pressure could be measured," the engineer, who nevertheless considered Keely a charlatan, ironically remarked.26
Scientist or charlatan, that was what Moore was going to find out, at least that was what he told the press. On January 16 and 17, he was "carefully inspecting the premises." The place was left guarded by private detectives on Monday night, and on Tuesday, the inspection continued.27 The employment of the private detectives was probably necessary, since "an inquisitive crowd" hung around the place every hour of the day, "as if expecting to see the house crumbling or blow up."28
Moore now gave the names of those who assisted him: Professor Carl Herring, who was an electrical engineer; Professor Arthur W. Goodspeed, assistant professor of physics of the University of Pennsylvania; Professor Lightner Witmer, professor of experimental psychology at the same university; Dr. M.G. Miller, who was a specialist in exploration and mound digging; and Coleman Sellers, Jr.29
Moore also invited George W. Arnold, who was a carpenter and gas fitter, and engineer E.A. Scott, who had read a paper concerning Keely and his discoveries to the Engineer's Club of Philadelphia a year before.30 Scott knew the location of "every piece of apparatus exhibited there by Keely, and the object was, if possible, to see what evidences of hidden appliances had been left by the Keely Motor people, who carried off the machines.31
The workshop was devoid of any machinery, since at that time these had been removed to Kinraide's laboratory, while the heavy appliances were stored in a building at Broad Street and Fairmont Avenue. The investigators found "nothing but blank walls, board partitions, bare floors,"32 and of course that huge sinister looking sphere that still lay silently amidst the rubble. The team also allegedly found "many letters received by Keely," which for some reason had not been removed by the Keely Motor Company. The letters were written by "those who considered themselves his (Keely's) dupes and berated him for deceiving them."33
Free Energy Pioneer- John Worrell Keely Page 19
