(word processor parameters LM=8, RM=75, TM=2, BM=2) Taken from KeelyNet BBS (214) 324-3501 Sponsored by Vangard Sciences PO BOX 1031 Mesquite, TX 75150 There are ABSOLUTELY NO RESTRICTIONS on duplicating, publishing or distributing the files on KeelyNet! June 28, 1991 KEELY2.ASC -------------------------------------------------------------------- This file is from the December 3, 1898 Scientific American. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The Death of John Keely With the death of John W. Keely, one of the most curious delusions of the nineteenth century passes away. Over thirty years ago Keely announced that he had discovered a mysterious power of immense capabilities of industrial application, and ever since that time he has been more or less in the public eye. For a generation scientific men have laughed at the news of the wonders of Keely's discoveries, but Keely died before he had ever given a satisfactory demonstration that his ideas could be successfully adapted to commercial use. (??? B.S) One part of Keely's invention was certainly practicable. He understood thoroughly the art of getting money upon schemes which would have turned the head of that early adventurer, John Law, in his Mississippi Schemes. The capitalization of the Keely Company was $5,000,000, and so far as his counsel knows, no statement has been left by Keely that discloses the secret of his motor, and the only legacy of the corporation may be the mechanical apparatus in the Keely workshop, minus the secret by which it might be operated. In some respects Mr. Keely was a remarkable man. He was an expert in the theory and art of MUSIC, and he was not only an instrumentalist, but a composer as well, and was, by reason of his attainments in this line, enabled to find the primary element of his alleged discovery. This was supposed to be a relation or affinity between the forces of nature and harmonic forces. He said he discovered a sympathetic vibration CONNECTING THE WAVES OF SOUND WITH THE DISTURBANCE IN THE MOLECULES OF MATTER, and also found in the process of this peculiar disturbance an energy unkown to the sphere of dynamics. His first experiments were made with drops of water in a vacuum. The first mechanical property he developed from this series of experiments was the force of ADHESIVE ATTRACTION, which he assumed, in his own statements, to be RELATED TO THE POLAR CURRENTS OF THE EARTH. Page 1 Next he alleged that he had developed the FORCE OF PROPULSION, revealing a POSITIVE as well as a NEGATIVE energy. Just as the chemical separation of the molecules of water produce electro-magnetism, he adopted the theory that he could DISINTEGRATE MOLECULES by the SYMPATHETIC VIBRATION OF TONES producing a subtle and HIGHER FORCE CORRELATED WITH MAGNETISM. He made startling propositions relative to the rotation of the planets, etc., and many other equally wild and chimeric ideas. About twelve years (1886) ago he abandoned his experiments upon the molecules of water as the basis of his texts and directed his attention to the molecules of the air. He stated that he could produce a dynamic energy of 10,000 pounds to the inch in a Torricellian vacuum. He gave some experiments at the Sandy Hook Proving Grounds, in 1888, in the presence of a number of skeptics. Keely declared he could exhaust the air from a tube, getting a vacuum very nearly perfect, and could thus generate a force that could fire a gun or move tons of matter. Whatever the substance was that Keely carried in his steel tube, it was apparently INEXHAUSTIBLE, which MILITATED AGAINST THE IDEA THAT HE USED COMPRESSED AIR. (how do we downplay this, they ask???) Keely devised an enormous number of mechanisms to aid in convincing skeptics that this mysterious atomic energy could be put to practical use. He died without effecting this purpose, and whether the mass of the manuscript which he left will be of any value or not, remains to be seen. Keely surrounded himself with a halo of mystery and worked for a long time in the most absolute secrecy, making extravagant claims and promises as to the miracles which he would perform with his mechanism, the "inter-etheric liberator." Here is a specimen of one of the bulletins which regularly emanated from the laboratory. In 1875 he proposed, in about six months, to run a train of thirty cars from Philadelphia to New York, at the rate of a mile a minute, with ONE SMALL ENGINE. He said: "I will draw the power all out of as much water as you can hold in the palm of your hand. A bucket of water contains enough of this vapor to produce a power sufficient to move the world out of its course. An ordinary steamship can be run so fast with it that it would be split in two." Keely used to give astonishing exhibitions at his laboratory, which mystified everyone. The wand of the prestidigitator and the slate of the medium were exchaned in his person for a couple of tuning forks and a violin bow. He struck his tuning forks and set a brass ball running at 600 revolutions a minute. He would rasp a violin bow over a tuning fork and the apparatus would RAISE A HEAVY WEIGHT, the power exercised, he said, being equal to a pressure of 25,000 pounds to the square inch. Page 2 Some of those present at the seances, which occurred in 1885, thought they had witnessed miracles, others concluded that they had been humbugged. Some of the stockholders were not satisfied that they had not been duped, and very naturally, they wanted the mysteries explained. Legal proceedings were instituted, and on November 17, 1888, Keely was committed to jail for contempt of court in refusing to obey an order to explain the workings of his machine to a committee of experts. (assuming they could even comprehend it...) He did not, however, remain in jail very long. To the very last he never failed to get financial support, which enabled him to live very comfortably and pay for all his experiments. The SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN regularly took up the claims of Keely and exposed the fallacy of the principle upon which they were based. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Vangard notes... In the light of modern scientific discoveries, the work of Keely is shown to have been far ahead of even our time. A pity that magazines wrote such negative and obviously biased articles without investigating in depth. Many of the scientists who visited Keely, including Hertz and Tyndall, declared that Keely had discovered a force beyond their ability to comprehend, let alone duplicate. -------------------------------------------------------------------- If you have comments or other information relating to such topics as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page. Thank you for your consideration, interest and support. Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet -------------------------------------------------------------------- If we can be of service, you may contact Jerry at (214) 324-8741 or Ron at (214) 242-9346 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Page 3