the dominant etheric sixths, 8,100,000,000; and on the inter-etheric
ninths, 24,300,000,000; all of which can be demonstrated by sound
colours.
In such fields of research, Mr. Keely finds little leisure. Those who
accuse him of "dilly-dallying," of idleness, of "always going to do
and never doing," of "visionary plans," etc., etc., know nothing of
the infinite patience, the persistent energy, which for a quarter of
a century has upheld him in his struggle to attain this end. Still
less, if possible, is he understood by those who think he is seeking
self-aggrandizement, fame, fortune, or glory.
The time is approaching when all who have sought to defame this
discoverer and inventor, all who have stabbed him with unmerited
accusations, all who have denounced him as "a bogus inventor,"
"a fraud," "an impostor," "a charlatan," "a modern Cagliostro,"
will be forced to acknowledge that he has done a giant's work for
true science, even though he should not live to attain commercial
success. But history will not forget that, in the nineteenth century,
the story of Prometheus has been repeated, and that the greatest mind
of the age, seeking to scale the heavens to bring down the light of
truth for mankind, met with Prometheus's reward.
Note.--Dr. Hartmann, in a report, or condensed statement, in reference
to Keely's discovery, writes as follows: "He will never invent a
machine by which the equilibrium of the living forces in a disordered
brain can be restored."
As such a statement would lead the reader of the report to fancy
that Keely expected to invent such an instrument, it is better to
correct the error that Dr. Hartmann has fallen into. Keely has never
dreamed of inventing such an instrument. He hopes, however, to perfect
one that he is now at work upon, which will enable the operator to
localize the seat of disturbance in the brain in mental disorders. If
he succeeds, this will greatly simplify the work of "re-adjusting
opposing conditions"; and will also enable the physician to decide
whether the "differential disaster" has taken place which prevents the
possibility of establishing the equation that is necessary to a cure.
According to Keely's theories it is that form of energy known as
magnetism--not electricity--which is to be the curative agent of
the future, thus reviving a mode of treatment handed down from the
time of the earliest records, and made known to the Royal Society
of London more than fifty years since by Professor Keil, of Jena,
who demonstrated the susceptibility of the nervous system to the
influence of the natural magnet, and its efficacy in the cure of
certain infirmities.
As Cheston Morris, M.D., has well said in his paper on "Vital Molecular
Vibrations," "We are entering upon a new field in biology, pathology,
and of course, therapeutics, whose limits are at present far beyond
our ken."
"The adaptability of drugs," says Dr. Henry Wood, "to heal disease
is becoming a matter of doubt, even among many who have not yet
studied deeper causation. Materia Medica lacks the exact elements of
a science. The just preponderance, for good or ill, of any drug upon
the human system is an unsolved problem, and will so remain.... After
centuries of professional research, in order to perfect "the art
of healing," diseases have steadily grown more subtle and more
numerous.... Only when internal, divine forces come to be relied upon,
rather than outside reinforcement, will deterioration cease. Said
Plato, 'You ought not to attempt to cure the body without the soul.'"
CHAPTER VIII.
1888.
HELPERS ON THE ROAD, AND HINDERERS.
Blindfolded and alone we stand,
With unknown thresholds on each hand:
The darkness deepens as we grope,
Afraid to fear, afraid to hope.
Yet this one thing we learn to know
Each day more surely as we go:
That doors are opened, ways are made,
Burdens are lifted, or are laid
By some great law unseen and still
Unfathomed purpose to fulfil.
"Not as I will."
The next "helper on the road" was an Austrian nobleman, the Chevalier
Griez de Ronse, who printed a series of papers on Keely's discoveries
in a journal in Vienna, then owned by him--The Vienna Weekly News. One
of these articles mentions that the attention of Englishmen of science
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," says
The Vienna Weekly News, "claims on behalf of science the right to
prosecute its investigations until a mechanical explanation of all
things is attained. The public are still but the children of those
who murdered Socrates, tolerated the persecution of Galileo, and
deserted Columbus. This remark is now illustrated by the imprisonment
with felons last month of Inventor Keely in Moyamensing Prison,
Philadelphia, where Judge Finletter committed him for contempt of
court, without the shadow of an excuse in the opinions of men who
had followed the proceedings against him.
Under the heading, "Keely's Sunday in Jail," says a Philadelphia
journal, Inventor Keely spent a quiet Sunday in Moyamensing Prison. The
outside iron doors of his cell were thrown open, when the religious
services of the morning began. The imprisoned inventor listened with
deep interest. The soft peals of the organ and the melody of the choir,
singing "Nearer, my God, to Thee," floated into the narrow cell. Keely
sat near the grated door while the minister read selections from the
Scriptures and preached his sermon. While the inventor was resting
in his cell, during the afternoon, a number of persons made inquiries
at the "Untried Department." They were all told that no one could be
admitted on Sunday, but a young man with a pallid face lingered. He
told the gate-keeper that he was an inventor himself, and had been
waiting for eight years for a patent from Washington; adding that,
when he read of Keely's commitment, he was reminded of Galileo who
was thrown in a dungeon because he said, "The world moves."
The following day Keely was released by order of the Judges of the
Supreme Court. His imprisonment exalted him, instead of degrading
him as "the unjust judge" hoped to do; drawing the sympathies to him
of all men who know what it is to be "persecuted for righteousness'
sake;" of all men, in all parts of the world, who are truth-loving,
justice-loving men.
The Keely Motor Company should learn a lesson in this
experience. Tyndall said, long since, that the community that severs
itself from great discoveries, that merely runs after the practical
application without reference to the sources of a discovery, would
by-and-by find itself at the end of its tether. This has been verified
in the fate of the Keely Motor Company, which was organized for the
purpose of reaping financial benefit from Keely's grand discovery
of an unknown force before his "work of evolution," in obtaining
mechanical results, had fairly commenced. This company has thrown
upon the discoverer's shoulders the burden of its stock-jobbing
operations, until Keely is looked upon by men of science, as well
as by men ignorant of the A B C of science, as a man working for
personal ends; instead of, as he should be regarded, a Prometheus
seeking to give to his fellow-men a costless motive force; and who,
whether he succeeds financially or not, is entitled to the admiration
of all who believe, with Browning, that "effort, not success, makes
man great." If the Keely Motor Company managers would profit by this
lesson, they will in future seek to find, among scientific men of
world-wide renown, some one man, broad enough in mind to care nothing
for the ridicule of the ignorant, who will investigate the nature of
Keely's discoveries, as demonstrated by his experiments, instead of
inviting reporters to witness the demonstrations, in their efforts
"to boom the stock" of their company, by a reporter's accounts of
the marvels he has witnessed. For years Keely had nothing to show,
beyond the generation of the force, the production of a 30 lb. vacuum
and the discharge of a gun. When once his giant mind had grasped
the knowledge, which again by seeming chance was imparted to him,
he made colossal strides across that unknown tract, the boundaries
of which others are now but beginning to explore. Colonel Le Mat was
no false prophet, Le Figaro was no untrustworthy herald, when the
announcement was made by this French inventor to Monsieur Chevreul,
and by this French journal to the public on the 1st day of September,
1888, that the chain which holds the aerial ship to the 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.
It has been supposed by many, Dr. Franz Hartmann among the number,
that it requires Keely himself, or another person constituted like
him, to set his machinery in motion. Therefore, it has been reasoned
that the commercial success of an engine is only possible in case
Keely is himself the engineer; or if another man possessing the same
seemingly abnormal power could be the engineer. For this reason,
says Dr. Hartmann, it is impossible for Keely to instruct any one in
his method, so as to enable that one to do what he does. There has
been ground in the past for such a statement, it is true, but not
now. Keely asserts that when his system is completed, the knowledge
of all that is needed for its commercial employment will be more
easily acquired than is the necessary skill demanded to enable one
to safely operate a steam-engine. When Dr. Hartmann's opinion was
made known to Keely, he replied, "Dr. Hartmann's whole conception,
in regard to other men being unable to control the operations of my
inventions on the sympathetic attractive system, is as incorrect as
would be the same conception in reference to operating an electric
battery by anyone but its inventor."
Let anyone imagine the years on years of research that would have been
necessary before Gilbert (who, after Thales, discovered electricity)
could have perfected a system which would have enabled men to
accomplish all that is accomplished in our age, with electricity as
a motive power. Keely's labours would be better understood by those
who accuse him of "always promising, and never performing," under
such a conception. The inventor must be sanguine of success; he must
day by day think that he is on the eve of perfecting his invention,
in order to keep up his courage to persevere to the end; otherwise,
how could he work, year after year, in the face of obstacle after
obstacle that seems, each one, to be insurmountable? After Keely's
imprisonment when, among the men who knew that he was incapable of
fraud, there was one so incensed by Keely's repeated failures to
perfect his engine that he had said he "hoped to live to see Keely
rotting in a gutter," Mr. R. Harte wrote: "And now that it has been
proved in a hundred ways and before thousands of persons competent to
judge of the merits of Keely's claims, that he has really discovered
previously unknown forces in nature, studied them, mastered some of
their laws, invented and is perfecting researching apparatus that will
make his discoveries of practical application in numerous ways--now
that he has actually done this, how does the world treat him? Does
Congress come forward with a grant to enable him to complete his
marvellous work? Do men of science hail him as a great discoverer,
or hold out the hand of fellowship? Do people do honour to the man
whose sole entreaty to them will be to receive from his hands a
gift a thousand times more precious to them than steam engine or
dynamo? It is a literal fact that if Keely fell exhausted to-day,
in the terrible struggle he has so long maintained, his failure to
establish his claims would be received with a shout of malignant
delight from nearly every lecture-hall, pulpit, counting-house and
newspaper office in the so-called civilized world. The world has hardly
ever recognized its benefactors until it has become time to raise a
statue to their memory, 'in order to beautify the town.' Jealousy,
stupidity, the malignity which is born of conscious inferiority, are
at this moment putting in Keely's road every impediment which law and
injustice can manufacture. Two hundred years ago he would have been
burned, a century since he would have probably been mobbed to death;
but thank God we are too civilized, too humane now to burn or mob
to death those who make great discoveries, who wish to benefit their
fellow-men, or whose ideas are in advance of their age--we only break
their hearts with slander, ridicule, and neglect, and when that fails
to drive them to suicide, we bring to bear upon them the ponderous
pressure of the law, and heap upon them the 'peine forte et dure' of
injunctions, and orders, and suits, to crush them out of a world they
have had the impertinence to try to improve, and the folly to imagine
they could save from suffering, without paying in their own persons
the inevitable penalty. Had it not been for the obligations incurred by
Keely, in accepting the aid of the Keely Motor Company--in other words,
had scientists, instead of speculators, furnished him with the means
necessary to carry on his work of evolution, the secrets which he has
so carefully guarded would now have been public property, so little
does he care personally for financial results. As it is, those who
have witnessed his beautiful experiments in acoustics and sympathetic
vibration were often too ignorant to comprehend their meaning, and,
consequently, even after expressing gratification to him, went away
from his workshop to denounce him as a Cagliostro; while others,
competent to judge, have refused to witness the production of the
ether, as Sir William Thomson and Lord Raleigh refused, when they were
in America a few years since. The company here mentioned has been a
thorn in the inventor's side ever since it was organized. It has been
'bulled and beared' by greedy speculators, in whose varying interests
the American newspapers for years have been worked, the results of
which the inventor has had to bear. For many years the Company has
contributed nothing towards Keely's expenses or support, and in the
opinion of many lawyers it is virtually dead. How far it is entitled
to his gratitude may be gathered from the fact, as stated, that 'when
Mr. Keely abandoned his old generator of etheric force, baffled in
his attempts to wrest from nature one of her most carefully guarded
secrets, harassed by his connection with the Keely Motor Company,
some of the officers and stockholders of which had instituted law
proceedings against him, which threatened him with the indignity
of imprisonment, he destroyed many of his marvellous models, and
determined that, if taken to prison, it should be his dead body and
not himself.
"Those who argue, if Keely had really obtained knowledge which
contributes towards making man master of the material world, that
science would hail the glad tidings with great joy, know but little
of modern science and its votaries. An Anglican bishop never ignored
a dissenting preacher with more dignified grace than the professor
of orthodox science ignores the heterodox genius who has the audacity
to wander beyond the limitations which 'received opinion' has placed
upon the possibilities of nature. The fact is that men of science have
persistently ignored, and know absolutely nothing about, the great
department of nature into which Keely penetrated years ago, and in
which he has now made himself at home. Not long ago a Fellow of the
Royal Society of Edinburgh, Major Ricarde-Seaver, went to Philadelphia
to convince himself as to the nature of Keely's discovery. He returned,
saying that Keely was working with, and had the apparent command over
forces, the nature, or even the very existence, of which was absolutely
unknown to him, and, so far as he is aware, to modern science.
"Beyond disintegration lies dispersion, and Keely can just as easily
disperse the atoms of matter as disintegrate its molecules. Disperse
them into what? Well,--into ether, apparently; into the hypothetical
substratum which modern scientists have postulated, and about whose
nature they know absolutely nothing but what they invent themselves,
but which to Keely is not hypothesis, but a fact as real as his own
shoes; and which ether, indeed, seems to be 'the protoplasm of all
things.' As to the 'law of gravity,' it appears in the light of
Keely's experiments, but one manifestation of a law of very much
wider application--a law which provides for the reversion of the
process of attraction in the shape of a process of repulsion.
"While Major Ricarde-Seaver, F.R.S., [6] was in Philadelphia, Keely, by
means of a belt and certain appliances which he wore upon his person,
moved single-handed, a 500 horse-power vibratory engine from one
part of his shop to another. There was not a scratch on the floor,
and astounded engineers declared that they could not have moved
it without a derrick, the operation of which would have required
the removal of the roof of the shop. Of course it is but a step in
advance of this to construct a machine which, when polarized with a
'negative attraction,' will rise from the earth and move under the
influence of an etheric current at the rate of 500 miles an hour,
in any given direction. This is, in fact, Keely's 'air ship.'
"When the history of his discoveries and inventions come to be written
there will be no more pathetic story in the annals of genius than that
of John Worrell Keely. The world hereafter will find it hard to believe
that in the last quarter of the 19th century a man with an insight
into the secret workings of nature, and a knowledge of her subtler
forces, which, whenever it is utilized, will relieve mankind from
much of the grinding toil that now makes bitter the existence of the
vast majority, that such a man should have been left unaided, because
in all the ranks of science there was not found one man capable of
understanding his colossal work--because in all the ranks of religion
there was not found one man able to realize the enlarged conception of
Deity immanent in Keely's great thoughts--because in all the ranks of
commerce, of speculation, of literature, of art, there was not found
one man large enough, generous enough, unselfish enough, to furnish
money for a purpose that did not promise an immediate dividend."
Again in 1888, more than ever was Keely held up to ridicule by all
those men who possess the instinct of the brute to hound down its
prey, and his supporters came in for their share of abuse. Among
this class, or of it, were men so ignorant of Keely's claims,
and of the object of his researches, that they represented him as
"a seeker of the impossible," a "perpetual motion crank," throwing
upon his character other odium which the speculating managers of
"The Keely Motor Company" were justly responsible for. One of these
communications alone is enough to show the quality of the weapons
used against him. It appeared in The New York Daily Tribune.
THE KEELY MOTOR CRAZE.
A Donkey-Cabbage Race.
HOW MUCH LONGER WILL THE CLEVER JUGGLER BE ABLE TO DELUDE HIS VICTIMS?
To the Editor of "The Tribune."
Sir,--The success with which Keely has deluded his victims by
appealing to their credulity with a mystery, and to their cupidity
with a promise of "all the kingdoms of the earth," which would not be
of greater value than the monopoly of infinite power without cost,
which he dangles before their astonished vision, makes him and his
antics subjects of unusual interest. His last performance appears to be
an issue of 5,000,000 dols. of new stock representing a new discovery
veiled in mystery, which is to far outstrip his former one, on which
5,000,000 dols. of stock was issued and is now held by his dupes. Two
of these new millions are to go to the old holders as a compensation
to them for their disappointment in not realizing perpetual motion
under the old discovery; two more to go to Keely to be sold to the
public; and the remaining one million is in the treasury to be sold
for the benefit of Keely and the others, half and half.
For fifteen years the donkey has been ridden by Keely with the cabbage
on a pole held just in front of his hungry mouth, and now the donkey
is told that the cabbage after all is only sham, but that the new
cabbage is real, and if he will only consent to run fast enough and
far enough he certainly will reach it and grow fat.
It would seem that the donkey ought to pause and consider before he
begins another fifteen-year race after perpetual motion, and it is here
proposed to assist him in his reflections by a few facts. More than
fifteen years ago Keely made himself known to the public by exhibiting
an apparatus in which a great pressure was manifested, which, he said,
resulted from the discovery by him of a new force the nature of which
was his secret. Several people, as usual, were astonished at the show,
and bought and paid for shares in the patent which was promised. To
give colour to the pretence, Keely applied for a patent before 1876,
but did not assign to the purchasers their shares; whereupon some of
them protested against the issue of the patent unless their shares
were recognized in the grant. The Patent Office replied to these
protests that it could not recognize the rights claimed unless there
was a written assignment filed in the office, which the claimants did
not have. The Commissioner, however, called upon Keely to furnish a
"working model" of his invention, which, of course, he could not do,
and his application was rejected. The specification and drawings of
this apparatus show a very silly form of the common perpetual motion
machine, of which there are thousands. It was open to the public for
some years, when, under a new rule of the office, it, along with all
other rejected applications, was withdrawn from inspection; but it is
in the office, together with the protests of those who had paid Keely
for a share in it. I examined it years ago, and informed Mr. Lamson,
and others of Keely's stockholders, of it. Mr. Lamson told me that he
had charged Keely with deception, because he had always said that he
never had applied for a patent, and that Keely explained it by saying
that he had purposely concealed his invention from the Patent Office
in that application to which he had made oath.
Keely, however, finding the perpetual motion trick profitable,
extended his operations and became well known to many influential
people by his exhibitions. In the winter of 1875-76 he produced two
metallic spheres, one about thirty inches in diameter, hung like
an ordinary terrestrial globe, which, he said, would revolve with
a force equal to two horse-power, and would continue to run when
once started as long as the Centennial Exhibition should be open,
and until the thing was worn out by friction. In starting it Keely
used to have a blackboard in the room, on which he would write a few
figures in chalk in the presence of his dupes, and would say that at
a certain time the globe would start--and it did, and would revolve
as long as the lookers-on remained to see it. Keely pretended to
explain this phenomenon by a string of unintelligible jargon; but the
point of it all was that he said the thing ran in consequence of its
internal mechanical arrangement--or, in other words, that by combining
pieces of metal in a certain way power was generated without any other
expense than that required to construct the apparatus. Naturally he
refused to show the interior construction which did the miracle;
but if his statements were true, it existed inside of that globe,
and could be produced indefinitely with the result of producing an
indefinite amount of horse-power without current expense.
The stock about this time rose to a great price--about 600 per
cent.--as it well might if this ball was an "honest ghost." Some of
the stockholders had sense enough to see that if Keely's story were
true, nothing more could be desired, for it must at once supersede
coal and all other means of producing power, and its novelty could
not be doubted. It was in effect, "all the kingdoms of the earth,"
which Satan once offered. But, on the other hand, if Keely's story
were not true, then he was simply an impostor who had been defrauding
the stockholders out of their money; and they demanded of Keely
that he should proceed at once to patent this miraculous machine,
which could create power by a peculiar-shaped hole in a sphere of
iron. Of course Keely refused to comply with this reasonable request,
and many of his stockholders sold out and left him; since which time
the stock has gradually declined down to the present time, when its
value is admitted to be nothing.
In view of these facts the curious question is why the donkey goes
on any further. The revolving ball is a fact known to hundreds of
the stockholders. It is either a real cabbage capable of feeding
the donkey with a perpetual feast, like the widow's cruse of oil,
or it is only a sham such as any good mechanic could construct
and operate as Keely did. Why doesn't the donkey balk and insist on
biting into the cabbage? If it is real the Keely stock is worth untold
millions. It would put an end to steam engines and electric batteries
for ever. One of those balls in the corner of a room would make all
the heat and light which could be used, and have power to sell; and
all that would be needed would be to learn Keely's cabalistic signs
on the blackboard in order to make it start, and to stop it when it
had done enough. But if the ball is only a trick, then, of course,
Keely could be sent to prison, and his victims could close their
accounts and be sure that they would lose no more by him.
Without going any further into the history of this remarkable delusion,
which is full of similar tricks too numerous to mention now, it seems
clear that these facts ought to be used to bring to an end in one
way or the other the Keely craze.
Edward N. Dickerson.
New York, Nov. 30, 1888.
It is difficult to understand how anyone could concoct and put together
such a tissue of fabrications as this, when the sole foundation for
such a tissue lay in the fact that it was at this juncture that Keely
made the announcement that he had proved the uselessness of building
engines to employ the ether as a motive power; which could only be
used as the medium for the power which he had discovered, namely,
a condition of sympathetic vibration, associated both positively and
negatively with the polar stream.
The statement made of the issue of new stock is absolutely untrue. The
revolving globe was never created to be "the source of power," and the
representation of the manner in which the globe was made to revolve,
and that Keely affirmed he could produce with it "an indefinite
amount of horse power without current expense," is denied. The
suggestion that Keely could be sent to prison was welcomed by those
who eventually acted upon it, with the result that Judge Finletter
committed Keely to Moyamensing Prison, for contempt of court, but
not for fraud. Mr. Keely, at that time, wrote of those who called
him a perpetual motion seeker:--"I console myself by thinking that
if they were not ignorant of the grand truths which I am devoting my
life to develop into a system, they could never bring forward such
an absurd charge. Perpetual motion is against nature, and it is only
by following nature's laws that I can ever hope to reach the goal I
am aiming to reach."
The Supreme Court reversed and set aside the order of the court
committing Keely for contempt, and released him from custody, upon
the writ of habeas corpus taken out on his behalf, within three days
of his commitment.
The Chief Justice, in delivering his opinion, made some remarks
which fully vindicated Mr. Keely's character. After alluding to the
proper procedure which ought to have been taken in the court below,
the Judge continued:--
"Instead of so proceeding, a commission of experts was appointed to
examine the defendant's machine, and the order of April 7th was made,
by which the defendant, in advance of any issue, was not only required
to exhibit his machine, but also to operate it and explain the mode
of its construction and operation, although it clearly appeared that
it would require considerable expense to clean the machine, put it
together and operate it. The defendant appears to have been willing
to exhibit it, and in point of fact did so. That he might have been
compelled to do so at a proper stage of the case is conceded. But
to make an order not only to exhibit it, but to operate it, the
practical effect of which was to wring from him his defence in advance
of any issue joined, was an improvident and excessive exercise of
Chancery powers. We are of opinion that the order was improvidently
made. It follows that the learned court had no power to enforce it
by attachment. The relator is discharged."
It was in this year, 1888, that a woman, interested in all branches of
science, who had proved to her own satisfaction the value to humanity,
as well as to science, of Keely's discoveries, was deprived of legal
and maternal rights on account of the delusions that she was very
generally believed to be under. A journalist, wishing to obtain
information concerning Keely's work, called upon this woman, by
appointment, and at the close of the interview said,--
"May I venture to ask you if it is true that you have furnished
Mr. Keely with large sums of money as rumour declares; and that you
have invested largely in the stock?"
"Were I not glad of the opportunity to answer this question in justice
to Mr. Keely, I might have said that this is a subject which is of
no interest to the public; but I have heard the amount estimated as
nearly 100,000l. too often not to be willing to have the truth made
known. What I have given to Mr. Keely has been saved by economies
in my expenses; and, if not given to him, would have been given to
others; as I believe in those who have the most doing all that lies
in their power for those who have less. In regard to investments in
Keely Motor stock, I have bought no stock excepting to give away."
"There is one other question I should like to ask you," said our
representative, "Is Mr. Keely a spiritualist? I use the word in its
ordinary sense. Does he claim that he has bridged the gulf between
the finite and the infinite?"
"When Mr. Keely first commenced his wonderful investigations he would
have scouted the idea of being in any way whatever associated with
so-called spiritualism, but of recent years, and especially during
the last few months, he has made such startling progress that he now
admits--as I told him a long time ago he would come to admit--that
if not in actual experiment, at least in theory he has passed into
the world of spirit."
The interview being ended, our representative took his departure, after
expressing his thanks for the information so willingly given. How far
this lady's anticipations of the inventor's success will be realized,
or how far her confidence in his integrity is justified, we must leave
our readers to judge for themselves. The whole subject is enveloped in
much mystery, but it is full of interest, and if half that is narrated
of Mr. Keely be true, he is indeed a wonderful man!--The Tatler.
CHAPTER IX.
1889-1890.
KEELY SUPPORTED BY DISTINGUISHED MEN OF SCIENCE. AERIAL NAVIGATION.
Is not ether infinitely more rare and more subtle than air,
and exceedingly more elastic and more active? Does it not
easily penetrate all bodies? And is it not by its elastic
force diffused through the universe?--Sir Isaac Newton.
In 1889 a series of short articles were written, which, for the
first time, made known to the public that Keely had theories which
he was able to sustain by mechanical demonstration: and once more
an attempt was made to have men of science acquaint themselves with
the theories, and witness the demonstrations. Capitalists also
were appealed to, to convince themselves of the existence of an
unknown force, and of Mr. Keely's honesty in his efforts to control
it for commercial purposes; money being required to enable him to
complete his researches for science, and to protect him from those
who were harassing him in such a way as to impede his progress at
every step. The appeal to capitalists might as well have been made
to stone walls; but among the men of scientific and philosophical
attainments who were invited, the late Professor Joseph Leidy, M.D.,
of the Pennsylvania University, and James M. Willcox, Ph.D., author
of "Rational Philosophy," and other works, accepted the invitation
and attended a series of Keely's researching experiments. For years
Mr. Keely's experiments were confined to the production of the force;
the raising of a lever; the firing of a cannon; and the showing of a
vacuum greater than had ever been produced. Since 1888 he has pursued
his researches on a line which enabled him to show uninterrupted
progress year after year: so that now he never repeats his experiments;
but, discarding or improving his researching instruments, after he has
gained the results which his theories lead him to expect, he continues
his investigations, thereafter, from the solid basis which he has
attained by those researches. The result of the attention given by
Professor Leidy and Dr. Willcox is best set down in their own words:--
"April 8th, 1890.
"After having had the opportunity of witnessing a series of experiments
made by Mr. John Keely, illustrative of a reputed new motor power,
it has appeared to me that he has fairly demonstrated the discovery
of a force previously unknown to science. I have no theory to account
for the phenomena observed, but I believe Mr. Keely to be honest in
his attempt to explain them. His demonstrations appear to indicate
great mechanical power, which, when applied to appropriate machinery,
must supersede all ordinary appliances.
"Joseph Leidy."
"Philadelphia, April 8th, 1890.
"After having witnessed, on several occasions and under favourable
circumstances, Mr. Keely's experiments in what he terms sympathetic
vibration, I am satisfied that he has made new and important
demonstrations in physical science. He has made manifest the existence
of natural forces that cannot be explained by any known physical laws,
and has shown that he possesses over them a very considerable control.
"James M. Willcox."
Shortly after these announcements were made public, with the consent
of the writers, Anglo-Austria contained two papers on the subject,
from which, principally, the article on Etheric Philosophy is taken.
S. Zolver Preston, in his "Physics of the Ether," says: "A quantity
of matter representing a total mass of only one grain, and possessing
the normal velocity of the ether particles, that of a wave of light,
encloses a state of energy represented by upward of one thousand
millions of foot tons. Or the mass of one single grain contains an
energy not less than that possessed by a mass of 70,000 tons, moving
at the speed of a cannon ball (1200 feet per second); or, otherwise,
a quantity of matter, representing a mass of one grain, endued with the
velocity of the ether particles, encloses an amount of energy which,
if entirely utilized, would be competent to project a weight of 100
tons to a height of one mile and nine-tenths of a mile."
Etheric philosophy has a scientific basis in fact; and in the light
of Keely's progressive demonstrations, his views are no longer
abnormal to the scientific mind which is willing to admit the
possibility of a discovery in which it has had no part. To discover
an unknown power is one thing; to subjugate it is quite another
thing. The one may be stumbled over; the other can only be attained
after laborious investigation. No one who has followed Keely in his
"dead work," during the last ten years, can doubt that he has been,
and still is, dealing with the same force which, as Professor Hertz
has disclosed to us, is already imprisoned, without our knowledge,
in electro-magnetic engines. If thus, unknowingly, it has been made
the servant of man, in machinery not especially constructed for its
use, may it not also have been imprisoned by one who is adapting his
inventions to its special requirements? Keely demonstrates, with
what he calls vibratory machinery, that all corpuscules of matter
may be subdivided by a certain order of vibration, thus showing up
new elements; and having demonstrated what he asserts, by releasing
the various orders of ether from the suspension in which it is always
held in our atmosphere, he has answered the sceptical demand "Give us
some bread." It has been said that as men penetrate deeper and deeper
into a knowledge of the wonderful laws which govern the universe they
may find mysterious forces which remain still undiscovered. Keely's
discoveries promise to burst upon the world of science as the one
mighty and complete revelation of the universe. There are more things
in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in the materialistic science
of our age, or in our philosophy. "All we have cognizance of around
us are results, the causes of which are supersensuous. Of the nature
which we behold around us, the cause is supernatural."
The Reverend Albert H. Plumb, of Roxbury, Mass., who has followed
Mr. Keely's efforts, to obtain control of the unknown force which he
discovered more than twenty years ago, up to his present successful
demonstration before scientists, says: "Neither theological science
nor any department of physical science, as it lies in the divine
mind, is exactly expressed in any human system; yet no knowledge is
to be decried nor despised, least of all in the highest realms of
thought. The agnostic makes the mistake of confounding exhaustive
knowledge with positive knowledge in declaring both unattainable. We
can know positively that a thing is, if not how or why it is. As
Gladstone says, 'Our hands can lay hold of truths which our arms
cannot embrace. We can apprehend what we cannot comprehend.' If Keely
should die, I fear no one could understand his writings. Every day we
read of distinguished men dying. The other day a man carried with him
into the grave his secret for the cheap production of aluminium. No
one man entrusted by Providence with high interests has a right
to allow a possibility of their sinking back, perhaps for ages,
into the void of the unknown. Why not confine attention strictly to
making the discovery practically intelligible to others, and thus
securing to mankind the first steps by which the new force is evoked
and controlled, and leave to later leisure the subtler relations of
this power to the divine mind and to life?"
For years Mr. Keely did "confine attention" to efforts to prove his
discovery by practical methods, without making any advance; and it was
not until he was led into the spiritual or philosophical bearings of
his discovery that he himself gained "practically intelligible" ideas
of its nature. To Dr. Macvicar's "Sketch of a Philosophy," from which
Mrs. Moore compiled "Ether the True Protoplasm," and to Mrs. Hughes'
book on the evolution of tones and colours, Mr. Keely is indebted for
the pregnant germs which, falling from their writings upon his mind,
took him from the line of experiment which he was pursuing, into the
only line of research which can lead to scientific and commercial
success. The hour in which he reaches one he reaches both; nor can
one be gained without the other being gained. This should teach us
that, though "the heart of man deviseth his way, the Lord directeth
his steps." God never hurries, and He chooses His own instruments,
employing them after a manner that is inscrutable to us, in our weak
impatience for results. Admitting the truth of all that Dr. Plumb
has said, but understanding fully the impossibility of directing
Mr. Keely's steps, until he himself gains more control of the force
that he has discovered, we must "wait upon the Lord," who is revealing
to him "the deep mysteries of Creation." In the meantime, those in whom
narrowness of mind has not caused stubbornness will hold themselves
in readiness to prove all things and hold fast to the truth. We do
not easily believe what is beyond our own knowledge, but faith in the
claims of Keely as a discoverer, if not as an inventor, is steadily
increasing. The following from a foreign publication about the Keely
Motor will be of interest to all who have watched the progress of
that enterprise. The correspondent writes:--"In the following brief
article I purpose placing the latest aspect of Mr. Keely, perhaps
the best abused man in America, and his investigations before the
readers of Anglo-Austria;" continuing,--
"Under the heading of 'The Keely Motor Again,' Invention, of London,
on October 19th, printed a communication, mentioning the leading
scientist of America, Dr. Leidy, of the University of Pennsylvania,
as supporting Mr. Keely's claims as a discoverer of an unknown force,
as follows:--Dr. Leidy having expressed the wish that Professor
Barker should again visit Mr. Keely and witness the experiments
which had convinced himself that Keely had discovered a new force,
has received the following letter:--
"909, Walnut Street, Philadelphia, October 4, 1889.
"Dr. Leidy. Sir,--Referring to our conversation of a few days since,
and the suggestion of another visit to the workshop of Mr. Keely,
by Professor Barker, I would say that I have presented the matter to
Mr. Keely and he acquiesces in what I stated to you. That is to say, if
Dr. Barker desires to visit Mr. Keely's workshops again, and will make
this known to him in writing or through yourself, for the purpose of
further observation and of having confirmed or removed from his mind,
as the case may be, the conclusions or impressions arrived at by him,
and published in the columns of the Ledger, of this city, in 1878;
and on condition that he will, if his further observations satisfy
him that he did injustice to Mr. Keely, forthwith publish that fact
through the same channel, the Ledger: he being, of course, at full
liberty to confirm by further publication his previous condemnation,
if satisfied with the correctness of that conclusion; then Dr. Barker
will be cordially received by Mr. Keely, and a series of experiments
will be conducted for him at an early day, say, Saturday, 12 inst. And
in the event of the engagement being made, I shall request the pleasure
of your presence, and that of Dr. McCook. I leave the matter in your
hands for such action as you in your wise discretion may think proper
to take. Very truly yours,
"Charles B. Collier."
Nothing could be fairer than Mr. Keely's proposal, and the result of
Professor Barker's visit will be watched for with the keenest interest
by all scientists on both sides of the Atlantic. [7]
"Professor Barker, after due consideration, concluded not to accept
the invitation, and declined it on October 11th, suggesting Professor
Goodspeed, his associate in physics, as one who would probably be
disposed to witness the series of experiments about to be given;
showing the neutralizing or overcoming of gravity and the separation
of metallic plates by vibration. After the date upon which these
latter experiments were to have been made, and which I may mention,
en passant, had been repeatedly made in the laboratory of Mr. Keely,
this cablegram was sent from London to Philadelphia:-- 'Ask Dr. Leidy's
permission to announce here his conviction that Keely has discovered
a new force.'"
The answer was returned as follows:--
"Having had the opportunity of seeing Mr. John Keely's experiments,
it has appeared to me that he has command of some unknown force of
most wonderful mechanical power.
"Joseph Leidy."
Invention, in commenting upon the communication, says: "We wish
to make it quite clear that we do not identify ourselves with any
of the opinions which are expressed in this communication. It is
certainly desirable that the motor should be thoroughly tested, and
particularly that all the secrecy, which has hitherto been practised
in connection with it, should be abandoned. There can be no reason
why this invention, if invention it be, should not be published to the
world as long as it is fully protected by patents. We agree, however,
so far, that Professor Barker's report, if his visit be paid, will
be of considerable interest."
These remarks of our English contemporary are based upon quite
wrong premises. The motor cannot be tested nor patented until it
is completed. Mr. Keely's work is one of experimental research. His
machine for the production and liberation of the power is in daily
operation. He has made many failures in constructing his commercial
engine, but each failure has brought him nearer to perfection.
When he has succeeded in building an engine in which he can regulate
the speed, control reversions and govern its operations, as completely
as the steam engine is now governed, then he will be ready to test
its action publicly, take out patents for the same, and make known
to the world the nature of his discovery. Up to the present time
Mr. Keely's inventions have been principally devices, enabling him
to experiment with the force which he has discovered and to obtain
control over it. For years he was impeded by the frequency of the
explosions which took place, breaking his ribs, paralyzing his left
side for six weeks at one time, and frequently bursting iron tubes
as if they were pipe stems.
Little by little he learned the laws which governed the unknown force,
and now he never has an explosion. Mr. Keely has not preserved any
secrecy with regard to his experiments, but on the contrary he has
lost much time in exhibiting the production of this force to those
who desire to see it. For instance, some years ago he stopped his
work on the graduating of his engine to take his liberator to pieces,
in order to show its interior construction to Sir William Thompson
and Lord Raleigh: these gentlemen, misled by Professor Barker's
assertion, that Keely was deceiving his dupes with compressed air,
refused to witness his experiments. This was in 1884.
There is no "secrecy to be abandoned," therefore. The question to be
settled was not one of secrecy, but whether Mr. Keely should continue
his experimental research, unimpeded by exhibitions, until he should
succeed in perfecting a commercial engine; or whether he should first
convince scientists that he is not a modern Cagliostro as he has been
called, and that he is a discoverer of an unknown force.
The ground taken by those who urged the latter course was that the
interests of the Keely Motor Company would thus be better served;
reasoning that, when scientists have been convinced that Mr. Keely's
researches are in a field comparatively unknown to them, the cries
of execration would be drowned in the applause which would resound
throughout the world as the result of his stupendous labours became
better known.
For this end several scientists were invited to witness the present
stage of experiment, which Mr. Keely had reached in his efforts to
provide his provisional engine with a governor, and Dr. Leidy was
one of the number who, after witnessing the experiments on May 28th,
1889, confessed himself convinced that Keely was dealing with some
unknown force.
When we call to mind Watt's persevering efforts during thirty years,
before he succeeded in his attempt to invent a governor for the steam
engine, we can afford to be more patient with Mr. Keely than we have
been. Taking into consideration the marvellous advance which Mr. Keely
has made in the past five years in perfecting his liberator, we should
not be surprised to hear at any moment that he has also perfected
his commercial engine, the so-called "Keely Motor," thus overcoming
his sole remaining obstacle to financial success. Those who talk of
"testing" the motor, or of patenting it in its present condition,
are not aware of the exertions which have been made by Mr. Keely
to bring the motor to its present stage of development; nor that,
although the motor now seems to be approaching perfection, the work
of evolution will not be completed until it is in a patentable form.
In 1759 James Watt made his first model of a steam carriage. In
1784 he took out a patent. In 1803 the first engine was built, but
it was not until 1824 that the experiment of running a locomotive
from Liverpool to Stockport was made. Until Mr. Keely's commercial
engine is perfected and patented, now that scientists are beginning
to support him as the discoverer of an unknown force, ridicule should
give way to sympathy; for we know that nature never reveals one of
her tyrant forces without at the same time showing how this force is
to be transformed into the slave of man, and that complete success
is only a question of time.--Anglo-Austria, March, 1890.
SOME RECENT EXPERIMENTS. [8]
Copy of a Letter addressed to Professor Dewar of the Royal Institution
of Great Britain.
Dear Professor Dewar,--As I have already informed you, I carried
out your wishes in reference to Professor Rowland of the John
Hopkins University, as far as extending to him an invitation to
witness some of Mr. Keely's experiments in sympathetic vibration
was concerned. Professor Rowland was not able to witness any
demonstration whatever, on account of an accident which happened to the
disintegrator, and he could not fail to have formed an unfavourable
opinion of Mr. Keely from all that transpired on that occasion. I
next renewed the invitation to Professor Barker, which had already
been extended to him by Professor Leidy, both of these gentlemen
being Professors in the Pennsylvania University. Professor Barker
was not able to be present. The series of experiments which have
been given for scientists, mechanical engineers, and others since my
return, closed on the 12th. The steady progress from week to week,
since the accident to the disintegrator was repaired, has given
beautiful evidence of the wisdom of the plan adopted by Mr. Keely
in the winter of 1888-89, which led him to turn his attention to a
class of experiments of quite a different nature from those which,
up to that time, had been made for commercial ends; experiments which
have not failed to convince all who attended the entire series that
Mr. Keely is dealing with an unknown force, the laws governing which
he is still in partial ignorance concerning. He admits now that he
cannot construct a patentable engine to use this force till he has
mastered the principle; and a fund, with the approval of scientists,
has been appropriated for this end, upon the condition that he will
waste no more time upon what is known as the Keely Motor Engine
until he has demonstrated his ability to control reversions and in
all points to govern the revolutions.
His last engine was built to exhibit the practical nature of
his discovery to capitalists, the managers of "The Keely Motor
Company"--which company died a natural death years since--hoping
thereby to raise the price of its stock, and in this way to furnish
Mr. Keely with the funds that he needed. But the exhibition of this
engine was premature and did not succeed. There will be no further
need for such exhibitions in future, for it is, as it always has been,
in the interest of stock-holders that the stock should not rise until
the system is completed, when it will rise to remain raised. From
this time the interests of stock-holders will not be sacrificed to
the interest of stock-jobbers. The experiments conducted on Saturday
last surpassed preceding ones in the purity of the demonstrations,
the instruments being in better condition.
In demonstrating what seems to be the overcoming of gravity for aerial
navigation, Mr. Keely used a model of an air-ship, weighing about eight
pounds, which, when the differentiated wire of silver and platinum
was attached to it, communicating with the sympathetic transmitter,
rose, descended, or remained stationary midway, the motion as gentle
as that of thistledown floating in the air.
The experiment illustrating "chord of mass" sympathy was repeated,
using a glass chamber, forty inches in height, filled with water,
standing on a slab of glass. Three metal spheres, weighing about
six ounces each, rested on the glass floor of the chamber. The
chord of mass of these spheres was B flat first octave, E flat
second octave, and B flat third octave. Upon sounding the note B
flat on the sympathetic transmitter, the sphere having that chord of
mass rose slowly to the top of the chamber; the positive end of the
wire having been attached, which connected the covered jar with the
transmitter. The same result followed the sound of the note in sympathy
with the chord of mass of the other spheres, all of which descended
as gently as they rose, upon changing the positive to the negative.
J. M. Willcox, Ph.D., who was present, remarked,--"This experiment
proves the truth of a fundamental law in scholastic philosophy,
viz., that when one body attracts or seeks another body, it is not
that the effect is the sum of effects produced by parts of one body
upon parts of another, one aggregate of effects, but the result of
the operation of one whole upon another whole."
The experiments on the 12th closed with the disintegration of water,
twelve drops of which we saw dropped, drop by drop, into the small
sphere attached to the disintegrator after exhausting the air
by suction. A pressure of over 20,000 pounds to the square inch
was shown to the satisfaction of all present, and when Mr. Willcox
accepted Mr. Keely's invitation to take a seat on the arm of the lever,
adding his 260 pounds to the weight, applause broke forth. Mr. Keely
showed control of the ether, inter-atomic subdivision, by graduating
the escape of the residue, as he allowed it to discharge itself with
a noise like the rushing of steam to an expulsion as gentle as the
breathings of an infant. The three subdivisions acted simultaneously,
showing instantaneous association and disassociation. The sympathetic
globe was operated upon, 120 revolutions a second, ceasing the instant
that the wire was detached.
I regret to say that Professor Ira Remsen was prevented, I fear
by Professor Rowland, from witnessing any one of this series of
experiments as he intended doing; nor have I been able to get the
opinion of any physicist in whom I felt any confidence; but Mr. Keely
is satisfied to have the support of such men as J. M. Willcox, Ph.D.,
and Professor Leidy, LL.D. Dr. Leidy was awarded the Lyell Medal in
1884, when in London, and the Cuvier Prize in 1888, from the Academy
of Sciences in France. He is known in America not only as possessing
the broadest of minds and the gentlest of natures, but as holding in
his heart that love for, and reverence of, truth and justice which
alone can confer the power of forming a correct and a just judgment.
I would like to have you make known in England that Mr. Keely
is indebted to Macvicar's Sketch of a Philosophy for turning his
attention, in 1884, to researches on the structure of ether, and to
Mrs. F. J. Hughes (not Mrs. Watts Hughes), for the suggestions in her
work on Harmonies of Tones and Colours Developed by Evolution, which
led him into the line of experiment that will enable him to show on
a disc the various colours of sound, each note having its colour, and
to demonstrate in various ways Mrs. Hughes' own words "that the same
laws which develop musical harmonies develop the universe," etc., etc.
On the 10th of June, 1890, the Rev. John Andrew, of Belfast, whose
pendulographs illustrate the ratios which rule in the domain of
atmospheric vibrations, in which audible music has been located by the
great numberer, wrote: "I think that now, at last, Keely's labours
are about to be honourably recognized by the world of science. May
he live to rejoice in his triumphs." Mr. Andrew, who was the friend
of the late Dr. Macvicar, was instrumental in bringing "A Sketch
of a Philosophy" to Mrs. Moore's notice, and has maintained great
interest in Keely's researches since he first heard of them. Miss
Mary Green, a governess in the family of Lord Wimborne, was another
instrument used to make known to Keely the important nature of the
energy he had liberated from the suspension in which it is always
held in our atmosphere. About this time Professor James Dewar, who
had been following Keely's claims as a discoverer since 1884, wrote:
"If Mr. Keely succeeds in making his discovery practically useful, as
it is said that he is demonstrating to scientists his ability to do--if
this information be true, it is strange to contrast the past history of
science with the present. Fancy the discoverer of electricity having
succeeded in inventing the modern dynamo machine! Such a fact would
mean the concentration of hundreds of years of scientific discovery
and invention into the single life of one man. Such a result would
be simply marvellous."
At this time a number of the leading journals in various parts of
the United States announced that, although Keely's methods and his
failures had combined to engender distrust and arouse ridicule,
it could no longer be denied that he had discovered what no other
man has discovered. Still "penny-a-liners" continued to employ those
"weapons of small souls and narrow minds," sneers and ridicule and
calumny, which Lavater's allegorical vignette so well depicts: A hand
holding a lighted torch is stung by a wasp, and the gnats that swarm
around it are consumed in its flame. Underneath are these lines:--
And although it singes the wings of the gnats,
Destroys their heads and all their little brains,
Light is still light;
And although I am stung by the angriest wasp,
I will not yield.
Every defender of the truth, at whom shafts of ridicule are levelled,
should recall these words. Never, for one moment, has Keely turned
aside from his work to answer his assailants.
It is not to be wondered at that the magical nature of his
demonstrations, more inexplicable than any feats of legerdemain, should
have brought upon him the suspicion of fraudulent representation,
concerning the production of the force and its manipulation; but his
persistency alone in seeking to unravel the mysteries of nature, ought
to have brought around him sooner men who, like the revered and great
Leidy, were able to appreciate his researches in sympathetic vibration,
the laws of which govern everything in creation, from the movements of
the planets, down to the movements of atoms. From the time in which it
was made known to Keely that the same principle underlies harmonies
and the motion of heavenly bodies, as announced by Pythagoras, his
grasping intellect conceived the idea that planetary bodies have
a nerve-system, subject to conditions which govern it and keep it
under control, just as our human mechanism is controlled by the law
which governs its operation. In Keely's theories all is mechanical in
nature. A molecule of steel, a molecule of gas, a molecule of brain
matter are all of the one primeval substance--the Ether.
AERIAL NAVIGATION.
The instrument devised by Mr. Keely for bringing the air-ship under
control in its ascent and descent, consists of a row of bars, like
the keys of a piano, representing the enharmonic and the diatonic
conditions. These bars range from 0 to 100. At 50 Mr. Keely thinks
the progress of the vessel ought to be about 500 miles an hour. At
100 gravity resumes its control. If pushed to that speed it would
descend like a rifle-ball to the earth. There is no force known so
safe to use as the polar flow if, as Mr. Keely thinks, that, when
the conditions are once set up, they remain for ever, with perpetual
molecular action as the result, until the machinery wears out. In
the event of meeting a cyclone, the course of the vessel, he teaches,
can be guided so as to ascend above the cyclone by simply dampening
a certain proportion of these vibratory bars.
The instrument for guiding the ship has nothing to do with the
propelling of it, which is a distinct feature of itself, acting by
molecular bombardment; moving the molecules in the same order as in
the suspension process, but transversely. After the molecular mass
of the vessel is sensitized, or made concordant with the celestial
and terrestrial streams, the control of it in all particulars is
easy and simple. In ascending the positive force is used, or the
celestial, as Keely has named it, and in descending the negative
or terrestrial. Passing through a cyclone the air-ship would not be
affected by it.
The breaking up of cyclones will open a field for future research,
if any way can be discovered for obtaining the chord of mass of the
cyclone. To differentiate the chord of its thirds would destroy it; but
to those who know nothing of the underlying principle, on which Keely
has based his system, all such assertions are the merest "rubbish."
For a few months following the announcement of Professor Leidy's
and Dr. Willcox's opinions, Mr. Keely continued his researches
under favourable circumstances; but, in the autumn of 1890, he was
again threatened with suits-at-law and harassed by demands to give
exhibitions in order to raise the price of stock. A subscription
was started to raise funds for the prosecution. These threats made
it necessary to make public the history of Keely's connection with
an organization which was supposed by many to have been formed for
speculative purposes, before the stock of the company possessed any
value other than prospective; but to which company, notwithstanding,
the world is indebted for supplying Mr. Keely with the means to
continue his work, at a time when it was impossible for him to gain
the recognition of science or the aid of capitalists. The discovery
would in all probability have been lost, but for the help which
this organization gave, at a time when Keely needed help; he had
made a discovery, and these shrewd business men, totally ignorant of
physics, knew enough to comprehend its financial importance. Never
doubting that Keely would be able to master the difficulties at once,
in the way of its subjugation, and not realizing the width of the
gulf that lies between discovery and invention, they expected him to
leap it with one bound; and when he failed to do so they threw upon
him all the odium which befell the enterprise. Keely, who had twice
destroyed his researching instruments, when harassed and threatened
by the managers of the company, first in 1882, and again in 1887,
was now placed by their threatened proceedings in a position where
he had to choose between continuing his researches with the end in
view of completing his system; or diverting his course and resuming
his efforts to perfect an engine, to continue exhibitions for the
purpose of raising the stock of the company.
At this juncture an attempt was made to have circulated among the
stock-holders a narrative setting forth facts to show that their
interests would be better served by a continuance of the researches
that had led to the results attained within the last two years; and
which were of so important a character as to justify Keely in saying
that he had learned more of the law, governing the operation of the
force he was dealing with, in that time, than in the many preceding
years during which he had been scarcely doing more than liberating the
ether. The effort to have the narrative circulated failed; and, as a
last resort, the history of the company was made public in a pamphlet,
entitled The Keely Motor Bubble; which contained the Minority Report of
Mr. John Lorimer, made, in 1881, when he was a member of the Board of
Directors of "the now defunct Keely Motor Company;" giving a masterly
analysis of the situation at that time. Mr. Lorimer's faith in,
and loyalty to, Mr. Keely, has never been questioned. He is probably
the best and most disinterested adviser that Mr. Keely has ever had;
among those who are interested solely in the commercial aspect of
the discovery.
CHAPTER X.
1881-1891.
THE KEELY MOTOR BUBBLE. MACVICAR'S LOGICAL ANALYSIS.
For it is well known that bodies act upon one another by
the attraction of gravity, magnetism, and electricity; and
these instances show the tenour and course of Nature and make
it not improbable that there may be more attractive powers
than these. For Nature is very consonant and comfortable to
herself.--Sir Isaac Newton.
The Scotch author, Macvicar, from whose "Sketch of a Philosophy" has
been compiled "Ether the True Protoplasm," published this year in the
New York Home Journal, says in his "Enquiry into Human Nature," written
in 1852, "Modern science is certainly on the way to the discovery that,
so far as is cognizable by us, throughout the whole universe the same
laws are at work and regulate all things. The mécanique céleste of
mind is still waiting its Newton to disclose them to us."
Looking upon the discoverer of etheric force as the Newton, whose
coming was forecast by Macvicar, it is satisfactory to see that Keely,
in his field of research, eventually adopted the methods which his
forerunner advocated nearly forty years ago; but not until after
many years of blind grappling with the mechanical difficulties which
he encountered, in his efforts to control the unknown Genii, which
he himself declares that he stumbled upon in quite another field
of research. Keely was experimenting in 1875 on what he called
a hydro-pneumatic-pulsating-vacuo engine, when, "accidentally,"
the first evolution of disintegration was made. The focalization of
this quadruple force, acting on one general centre of concentration,
produced partial molecular subdivision, resulting in a pressure of some
three thousand pounds per square inch. Mr. Keely was himself amazed
at this evidence of the energy which he had evoked, and at once turned
his attention to researching its nature, with the result that he came
to the conclusion that he had partially resolved the gaseous element
of water by crude molecular dissociation. This was his first step,
and the necessary introductory one, towards the elimination of ether;
but at that time, to use his own words, he had not the remotest idea of
the etheric element proper. Since then he has constructed innumerable
machines to subdivide or dissociate the molecular; but it was not until
he had instituted certain acoustic vibratory conditions that he began
to realize the magnitude of the element that he is now controlling
with his vibratory disintegrator. Yet, even this instrument was only
the stepping-stone towards polar-sympathetic-negative-attraction.
In 1878 Mr. Keely conceived and constructed an instrument which he
called a "vibratory lift," and, while experimenting on the improvised
multiplication by this medium, he had occasion to put a piece of
marble, weighing twenty-six pounds, on a steel bar to hold it in
place, when then and there his first discovery of the disintegration
of mineral substance took place. From that time progressive research
of the most arduous nature has brought him to his present standard
in vibratory physics. In the winter of 1881-82, when threatened
with imprisonment by the managers of the Keely Motor Company for not
disclosing his secret to them, which then would have been like pricking
a bubble, he destroyed his vibratory lift and other instruments that
he had been years in perfecting. At this time so hopeless was Keely,
that his plans were made to destroy himself, after destroying his
devices. At this critical juncture he received unexpected aid. Again,
in 1888, before he was taken to a felon's cell in Moyamensing Prison
by decree of Judge Finletter for alleged contempt of court, he broke
up his vibratory microscope, his sympathetic transmitter, and some
devices, which have taken much of his time since to reconstruct. It
would seem to be incomprehensible that a man who believes he has been
specially endowed by Providence to convey great truths to the world,
should have destroyed instruments which were the result of the labour
of many years of research; but Schopenhauer tells us that genius
possesses an abnormally developed nervous and cerebral system that
brings with it hyper-sensibility, which in union with intensity of
will-energy, that is also characteristic of genius, occasions quick
changes of mood and extravagant outbursts. Schopenhauer also explains
why it is that men of genius are ignored by the age in which they
appear:--"The genius comes into his age like a comet into the paths
of the planets, to whose well-regulated and comprehensible order its
entirely eccentric course is foreign. Accordingly he cannot go hand
in hand with the existing regular progress to the culture of the
age, but flings his works far out on the way in front (as the dying
Emperor flung his spear among the enemy), which time has first to
overtake. The achievement of the man of genius transcends not only the
power of achievement of others, but also their power of apprehension;
therefore they do not become directly conscious of him. The man of
talent is like the marksman who hits a mark the others cannot hit;
the man of genius is like the marksman who hits a mark that the sight
of others cannot even reach." In one sense this truth applies to all
men, for, says Cicero, no man is understood excepting by his equals
or his superiors.
Admitting all that has been said of the difficulties attendant upon
the comprehension of a genius by the age in which he lives, it does
not require genius to understand the blunders which, perpetrated
by the managers of the prematurely organized Keely Motor Company,
have placed Mr. Keely, as well as themselves, in false positions with
the public; leaving him since the winter of 1880-81 to bear the whole
burden of the infamy brought about by their having offered stock for
investment which could possess no tangible existence in the shape
of property until the laws governing the unknown force that he was
handling had been studied out and applied to mechanics in a patentable
machine. To those informed that this company ceased to hold annual
meetings as far back as 1881 it will be a matter of surprise to hear
that, sitting up in its coffin, seven or eight years after its burial,
it called another annual meeting, and that now its managers are again
applying the thumb-screw, as in past years; pressing their claims and
threatening a suit for obtaining money under false pretences, unless
Mr. Keely renounces his plan of progressive research, and gives his
time to the construction of engines for the Keely Motor Company. This
requirement, as was said in 1881, of a similar effort, is as sensible,
under existing conditions, as it would be to require Keely to devote
his time to growing figs on thorn trees. It is from the "Minority
Report to the Stockholders of the Keely Motor Company from the Board of
Directors" (made by a member of that board in 1881, John H. Lorimer),
that the material is gleaned for disclosing facts which it is due
to Mr. Keely should now, since this last attempt to intimidate him,
be given to the public. The stock of that company is not lessened
in value by the mismanagement of its officers and directors; for
Mr. Keely's moral obligations to its stockholders are as sacred to
him as if the company had not long since forfeited its charter. When
Mr. Keely became financially independent of the company last March,
speculation in the stock of that company received its death blow,
and the "Keely Motor Bubble" burst, leaving to the stockholders all
that ever had any tangible existence in the shape of property in a
more valuable position than it had ever been before. Mr. Lorimer is
a gentleman of Scotch birth, who was elected a director of the Keely
Motor Company in 1881, and who resigned in 1882, because he was "unable
to carry the enterprise," and unwilling to fall in with the policy of
the old directors. Before resigning, he set himself to studying the
position of affairs with a view to forming for the Board a definite
plan of action which ordinary business principles would justify.
This course resulted in a thoroughly business-like letter to Mr. Keely
in which, under nine heads, Mr. Lorimer set down the conclusions he
had reached as to the cause of the difficulties that had culminated
in a threatened law suit, and Mr. Keely was ordered to ask that a
special meeting of the Board should be called at once, to consider any
proposition he should see fit to make towards settling the question
whether he should proceed with the company's work or be permitted
to defer it, as he so much desired, until he had fully developed the
adaptations of his power already known to him or hereafter possible
of discovery by him. Mr. Lorimer added:--"And now, in conclusion,
I may say to you that the above deductions from the history of your
motor are the result of patient and laborious inquiry on my part,
and I am truly at a loss to understand how, or in what manner, other
than that herein suggested, you can honourably vindicate your position;
and as no one I have met connected with the enterprise, or personally
acquainted with you, hesitates for an instant in crediting you with
the most unswerving integrity, I have no hesitation in offering the
above suggestions for your consideration; and I trust you will so
far adopt them as to enable the active portion of your friends to
bring the organization rapidly into harmonious accord with you in
the development of what all seem to think is the greatest wonder of
our civilization, the early completion of which will lift you to the
highest pinnacle of fame as a scientist, and make them co-dispensers
with you of the God-given wealth of which you hold the key." The date
is 10th of February, 1881.
This letter was followed by another dated February 11th, in which
Mr. Lorimer submitted certain conclusions, arrived at after meeting
in New York with several members of the Board of Directors, one of
which reads:--"It seems to be generally understood that without your
hearty co-operation and good will, the company cannot realize value
upon any existing contracts, or any they may hereafter make with you."
At this time Mr. Lorimer states that he had the opportunity presented
of studying, semi-officially, the very peculiar man whose genius held
his friends so spell-bound that they lost their power (if such they
possessed) to adapt business methods to the enterprise. "To meet him
socially in his shop," Mr. Lorimer writes, "after his day's work, was,
I think, invariably to be impressed with his earnestness, honesty of
purpose, and above all, with confidence in his knowledge of the plane
of science he was working in (acoustics), and, at the same time to
be impressed with the folly of basing calculations for the government
of the business details of the organization upon the statements made
by him while contemplating the possible result of his researches."
With the hopeful spirit of an inventor, Mr. Keely always anticipated
almost immediate mechanical success, up to the hour in which he
abandoned the automatic arrangement that was necessary to make his
generator patentable. From that time his line of perspective extended,
and he began to realize that he had been too sanguine in the past. He
had been like a man grappling in the dark with a foe, the form of
which had not even presented itself to his imagination; but when,
in 1884, Macvicar's work on the structure of ether came like a torch
to reveal the face of his antagonist, what wonder that he, with the
enthusiasm of Paracelsus, felt his
... "fluttering pulse give evidence that God
Means good to me, will make my cause His own;"
and, as in 1881, again rashly bound himself anew, by fresh promises,
made to those who had the power to give or to withhold the sinews
needed in the warfare he was waging?
To return to the report. During the negotiations which followed,
facts in the history of the company were developed which convinced
Mr. Lorimer that Mr. Keely was totally unable to measure time, or
define his plans, because of the ever-changing results attained by
him, in researching the laws governing the force he was trying to
harness. At this time the treasurer of the company was proposing to
bring over from New York to Philadelphia a number of capitalists
to witness an exhibition of the production of the force, in order
to dispose of 500 shares at 25.00 dollars a share. To this plan
Mr. Lorimer objected, writing to the treasurer, "I fear that you would
be putting yourself in a false position with the friends you might
induce to take stock at the figures named," and Mr. Keely himself
at first refused to give the exhibition, but upon the application
of the thumb-screw, kept in readiness, it took place. At this time
Mr. Lorimer wrote to the president of the company, "If Keely gives
us the benefit of his discoveries, it will require all our energies
to guide our enterprise; and, on the other hand, if he dies or is
forestalled, it will need all our care and attention to take care
of our reputations.... The fact that the Board has some delicate and
important work to perform, brings us to the question, Are we properly
organized to perform our part? If we are, let us show it by our acts,
and, if not, let us act like men, worthy the important trust before
us. If I am overestimating the character and importance of this
work, you can show it to me; and per contra, if I am correct, you
can and will accept the responsibilities of the position you hold,
no matter how unpleasant, no matter how irksome, if understood by
you and honourably supported by us."
Mr. Lorimer then prepared this summary, or analysis of the situation.
SUMMARY.
26th July, 1881.
"First.--The existence of a discovery or invention which from
evidences of its adaptability (when complete) to the industrial
arts and sciences, may be esteemed the most valuable discovery
of civilization in modern or in ancient times, inasmuch as it
revolutionizes all known methods of generating power.
"Second.--The retention by the discoverer and inventor of all the
secrets whereby these discoveries can be utilized by the public, thus
making their future existence, so far as the Keely Motor Company is
concerned, depend entirely upon his life and goodwill.
"Third.--The existence of a corporated company, organized for the
purpose of furnishing funds for the development and completion of the
discovery, and for the final control of certain specified inventions,
in certain specified localities.
"Fourth.--The contracts under which the above-mentioned control of
certain inventions is vested in the Keely Motor Company, being mere
evidences of intention, have no real value until the inventor has
received his patents and verified the contracts by transfer of the
same to the company.
"Fifth.--If any conflict should arise between the company and the
inventor, in which the latter felt justified in withholding the
transfer, the existing contracts might be a good foundation to build
litigation upon but not good for investment in.
"Sixth.--The uncertainty of the future of the enterprise, as thus
indicated, must of necessity invite speculative management; and while
speculation under some circumstances is legitimate and laudable,
under other conditions it may become illegitimate and reprehensible.
"Seventh.-- The existence of a speculative management in Keely Motor
affairs has, of necessity, developed two interests--one which holds
that the completion of the discovery in all its possible grandeur
should ever be the sole object of its management, and the other,
believing that on account of the human uncertainty of the completion
of the invention, they are in duty bound to make quick recoveries
on their investments, so that they may be safe financially, in the
event of a failure by Keely to perfect his inventions."
It is not necessary to pursue this summary farther, as the manner in
which Mr. Lorimer has set down the facts already given, makes clear the
nature of the conflicting interests that brought about the antagonism
which he attempted to subdue, bringing such a spirit of fairness and
justice into his efforts as must have crowned them with success,
supported as he was by Mr. Keely, had it not been that those who
advocated following a policy which, at best, aimed no farther than
at the recouping of losses to themselves, were in the majority. It
was at this time that Mr. Keely manifested his willingness to assume,
on the one hand, all the responsibility of the proper development of
his discovery; or, on the other hand, all the disgrace accompanying
failure by his offer to purchase a controlling interest in the stock,
fifty-one thousand shares of which, in order to prevent speculation,
he agreed to lock up for five years, and to give the company a bond
restraining him from negotiating or parting with a single share of it
in that time, the stock to be paid for as soon as certain deferred
payments had been made to him. This proposition of Mr. Keely to the
Board of Directors, October 25th, 1881 (and laid upon the table by a
large majority as unworthy of consideration), was made from his earnest
desire to control the presentation of his life's work to the world
in a just and honourable way; having recognized, with Mr. Lorimer,
the utter impossibility of reconciling the numerous interests created
by mistakes of himself and the mismanagement of the Board, unless he
could thus obtain the power to deliver an unencumbered enterprise to
the world. In the opinion of Mr. Lorimer, during the negotiations which
he conducted between the management and Mr. Keely, the latter was the
only one who had manifested any consistency or strength of purpose,
so far as the facts gave evidence, which were brought before him, of
the history of the company. When the validity of the contracts made
with Mr. Keely while he was president, or director of the company, were
disputed, he was called upon to resign, which he did; and yet no steps
were taken to ascertain the value of the existing contracts, which
had all been made with him while he was both president and director,
and which were therefore illegal. Proceedings in equity were commenced
against Mr. Keely, by the Committee of the Board of Directors having
the matter in charge, late in the year 1881, while Mr. Lorimer's report
was still in the hands of the printer. "The spectacle of a Board of
thirteen Directors, composed of business men," writes Mr. Lorimer,
"claiming that they have been foiled in their business calculations
by a man whose mind has been so thoroughly absorbed in researching
the problems presented by his wonderful discoveries that he could
not possibly compare with any of them in business tact, is truly
a phenomenon which is not easy of explanation on any hypothesis,
but the one that their visions of prospective wealth have been so
overpowering as to undo their prudence; and then having in due process
of time discovered their error, it certainly is an edifying spectacle
to see them now trying to throw all the blame on one poor mortal wholly
absorbed in his inventions, and by these efforts disturbing that mental
equilibrium of both the inventor and themselves, which is absolutely
necessary to ultimate success. When boys, in early summer, pick unripe
fruit and eat it, because of their unwillingness to await the ripening
thereof, they sometimes suffer acutely for their haste. Yet no one
ever thinks of punishing the tree because of their sufferings; nor
is it deemed necessary to justice to preserve the fruit of the tree,
when ripe, for the sole use of the impatient ones as a recompense for
their early sufferings! So it has been with the Keely Motor Company;
undue haste to gather the golden fruit that was to come from it, has
led to a great deal of suffering financially among a few impatient
believers. Still it does not seem to me to be wise to curse the
inventor, or his inventions because he has not given us the fruit
when we expected it would be ripe."...
The effort to force Keely to divulge his secrets failed, for at
that time he had nothing of a practical nature to divulge, and though
possessing no business qualifications, he was too shrewd to cut off any
of his resources for supplies, necessary to enable him to persevere
in his efforts to attain some practical result, as he surely would
have done, had he said, "I know very little more than you know of
the laws governing the force I have discovered. I can only control
their operation by experimental research, and the more time that
is wasted in building engines, until I have made myself acquainted
with these laws, the longer will you have to wait for your golden
fruit." Mr. Keely was no more able at that time to give the faintest
idea of the present stage of his researches than Professor Leidy or
Dr. Wilcox could now, after witnessing the experiments in sympathetic
attraction, write out a clear formulation of its governing law, and
an inductive substantiation of it. Even were it possible, no reader
could understand it because the discovery made by Mr. Keely is not
in accordance with any of the facts known to science. Mr. Keely's
experiments in disintegrating water prove that incalculable amounts
of latent force exist in the molecular spaces; but in the opinion
of scientists, molecular aggregation is attended with dissipation
of energy, not with absorption of energy. If the men of science are
right, then there must be an absolute creation of energy, for only by
admitting its absorption in aggregation, could molecular dissociation
supply the force witnessed. Keely, of course, denies any creation
of energy, claiming only that he can produce an indefinite supply by
the expenditure of an infinitesimally small amount of energy. Every
new discovery necessitates a new nomenclature. The vocabulary coined
by Mr. Keely, to meet his requirements in formulating his hypotheses
into theories as he progresses, conveys as little meaning to those
who read his writings, as the word "electricity" conveyed 200 years
ago. Professor Crookes remarked that reading Mr. Keely's writings was
like reading Persian without a dictionary. Another learned professor
said that they seemed to him to be composed in an unknown tongue, so
profoundly unintelligible had he found the extracts sent to him. One
must be familiar with Mr. Keely's instruments and their operation,
in order to comprehend even the nature of his researches.
An author of philosophical works, who was present at some experiments
illustrative of varying chords of mass, and whose theories had
not been in unison with those of Mr. Keely on that subject, sat
for some time after the demonstration with his eyes fixed upon the
floor, wearing as serious an expression of countenance as if he were
looking on the grave of his most cherished views. The first remark
that he made was, "What would Jules Verne say if he were here?" The
rotation of the needle of a compass, the compass placed on a glass
slab and connected with the transmitter by a wire, 120 revolutions in
a second, had the same effect upon the scientists present, one of awe;
so completely were they transfixed and unable to form a conjecture
as to the mysterious influence from any known law of science. There
was only one professor present, a very young man, who ventured the
whispered suggestion of concealed mechanism under the pedestal; and
as Mr. Keely soon after had occasion to wheel the pedestal across the
room, showing that it was not stationary, and could have no concealed
connection within or without, the young professor took up another
line of conjecture. As Macvicar says, it has grown to be the fashion,
to a marvellous extent, to give predominance in education to physical
and mathematical studies over moral and mental. Hence a very general
and growing prepossession in favour of material nature. Astronomy,
natural philosophy, chemistry, natural history, geology, these and
the like are in our day held to be everything. He continues:--
Now, all these branches of study, however various in detail, agree
in this, that they exclude the conception of a true self-directive
power from the field of thought. They offer for consideration nothing
but figures, movements, and laws. And thus they tend to form the
popular mind to the habit of looking for figures, movements, and laws
everywhere, and for rejecting all other conceptions as intruders. But
of all such other conceptions, there is nothing so difficult and so
intractable, under physical modes of investigation, as self-directive
power. It therefore runs a great risk of being rejected, and thus
the mind, from its first training, having been in physics, carrying
out here, as it usually does everywhere, its first love into all its
after thoughts, shuts up the student surreptitiously with materialism
as his philosophy. Thus it is easy to see how materialism should
come to be a current opinion, when the popular education runs all
in favour of physical pursuits. But if philosophy must yield to the
demands of the logical faculty for an extreme simplicity, unity,
identity, at the fountain-head of nature, it were more logical to
regard those phenomena and laws named physical, such as the laws of
motion, elasticity, gravitation, etc., as manifestations, when existing
under certain limiting conditions, of substances or beings which have
also in them, when not so limited, and when existing under certain
conditions, ability to manifest self-directive power. That every body
is compounded, constituted, or made up of molecules, is universally
agreed. Every body is therefore a fit subject for analysis. But when
any body is submitted to analysis in reference to its mere corporeity
or bodily nature, that is, its extension and impenetrability, what do
we ultimately arrive at? Do we not, in reference to the attribute of
extension, arrive at particles, of which the physical limit is that
they have at least ceased to be extended, and are but mere points
in space? And as to the attribute of impenetrability, what do we in
the last analysis arrive at, but the idea of a substance that can
resist the intrusion into its place of other similar substances,
and, therefore, ultimately, a centre of force. And thus, under a
logical analysis, which must be admitted to be legitimate, it may
be maintained that a body or chemical element resolves itself into a
system of centres of force balancing each other at certain distances,
and thus rendering the whole molecule or mass extended, as body is
known to be. The elements of body, therefore, are things of which
these attributes are to be affirmed in the first instance, that
they possess unextended substance and extensive power. But, if so,
do they not touch upon the confines of the spiritual world to say
the least? asks Macvicar; and the Newton whom he anticipated would
give a mécanique céleste to mankind, solves the problem, answers the
question by his discovery of the cerebellic stream or will-flow.
Body and spirit, one at the fountain-head, when rising into
existence, form, as it were, the first breath of creation; for,
as Sir Wm. Thompson says: "Life proceeds from life and from nothing
else." They are the opposite poles of being and constitute the two
principles by the harmonious interweaving of which the beautiful
system of creation is constituted, and its economy worked out. Such a
view, far from being contrary to the canons of science, is even the
necessary complement of science. That unity, which is the last word
of science, must always include two objects, existing in contrast
after all. The law of couples, of opposites, of reciprocal action
between two contrasted yet homogeneous and harmonizing elements, each
of which opens a field for the other, and brings it into action, is
of universal extent. In the organic world, also, no less than in the
purely physical and chemical, all is framed according to the same law
of couples. In the sphere of sensibility, in like manner, everything
turns on the antagonism of pleasure and pain, and in the moral sphere
of good and evil. Nor is the world of pure intellect exempt from this
law, but on the contrary displays its influence everywhere. Hence faith
and sight, identity and difference, finite and infinite, objective and
subjective, space and time, cause and effect, the world of realities
and the world of ideas. In a word, every system of thought and of
things, when complete, present as its basis two co-ordinate elements,
the reciprocals of each other; or one parted into two reciprocally,
and by the harmonious antagonism of both the beautiful web of nature
is woven. If we are to be consistent, mind and matter ought always to
be viewed as distinct, and the opposite poles of being; inertia, or
unvarying submissiveness to the laws of motion being the characteristic
of the one; self-directive power the characteristic of the other.
The universal analogy of science sanctioned Macvicar in the
characteristic he thus arrived at as that of animated nature, for if
inertia, or the obedience to pressures and impulses from without,
be the characteristic of matter, then that which is needed as the
other term to complete the couple is just what has been insisted
on, viz., self-directive power, the power to cause pressures and
impulses. Here is shown the symmetrical relation in which this power,
when viewed as the characteristic of the whole animal kingdom (which
plainly points to man, and culminates in human nature), places the
animal in relation with the vegetable and the mineral kingdoms. Of
minerals or crystals, the characteristic is simply self-imposing
or self-concreting power. They are, so to speak, merely insoluble
seeds without an embryo. To this, self-developing power is added in
plants, and forms their acknowledged characteristic. While of animals
the characteristic, according to the view here advanced (the same
seed-producing, self-developing, powers continuing) is self-directive
power superadded. This relationship between these three kingdoms of
nature is as homogeneous and symmetrical as is necessary to appear
to be legitimate, and is a true expression of the order of nature.
Granting these two principles, the inert and the self-directive, the
necessary and the free, we obtain the materials for a universe, without
disputing the fact of human liberty and bringing into suspicion even
the possibility either of morality or immorality. If man be really
free as well as under law, in this union of body and spirit, then in
human nature heaven and earth truly embrace each other; and no reason
appears why, as the ages roll on, our own free thought may not have
the run of the universe.... What study then can be more replete with
interest, what researches can possess more of fascination, than those
which Mr. Keely's discoveries are preparing the way for?
The discoveries of Mr. Keely (demonstrated--as he is now prepared
to demonstrate them) cannot be disputed, though his system may
be called in question. With the humility of genius, he calls his
theories hypotheses, and his hypotheses conjectures. The solidity
of the principles, as laid down by himself, cannot be decided upon
by others until he has brought to light the whole system that grows
out of them. But it is time the public should know that the odium
thrown upon him by the Keely Motor Company, he does not deserve. It is
time that the Press should cease its sneers, its cry of "Crucify him,
crucify him!" morally speaking, and extend to him that discriminating
appreciation of his work and encouragement which the New York Home
Journal, Truth, Detroit Tribune, Chicago Herald, Toledo Blade,
Atlanta Constitution, The Statesman, and Vienna News have been the
first to do. Let the Press contrast the past history of science with
the present position of Keely, as Professor Dewar has done. Only such
a man who knows from experience the labour, the difficulties, the
uncertainties, attendant upon researching unknown laws of nature is
able to appreciate all that is now being concentrated in the single
life of one man. It is time that capitalists should step from their
ranks to protect Keely from the selfish policy of the managers of
a speculative company, which has long since forfeited all claims
upon him, to continue mechanical work for it, even admitting that it
ever possessed that right; and, more than all else, it is time that
science should send her delegates to confer with the broad-minded
men who have had the courage to give testimony, without which Keely
could not have stood where, this year, he stands for the first time,
fearless of threats, pursuing his researches on his own line, to
acquire that knowledge of the laws governing his discoveries by
which alone he can gain sufficient control of machinery to insure
financial success. Meanwhile, are there no men who are able to feel
an interest (without reference to commercial results) in a discovery
which sweeps away the débris of materialism as chaff is swept before
a whirlwind?--giving indisputable proof that, as St. Paul teaches, "we
are the offspring of God; "or, as Aratus wrote, from whom he quoted:--
"From God we must originate,
Not any time we break the spell
That binds us to the ineffable.
Indeed, we all are evermore
Having to do with God: for we
His very kind and offspring be:
And to His offspring the benign
Fails not to give benignant sign."
From New York Truth, 3rd July, 1890.
"I think it is safe, for even the most conservative and pig-headed of
scientists, to admit that Keely, the contemned, the scoffed at, the
derided, the man whom every picayune peddler called charlatan because
he could not harness the hitherto undiscovered forces of ether in less
time than one might hitch up a mule, is the most original and the most
straightforward of inventors, and that in his own good time he will
give to the world a power that will throw steam and electricity into
disuse, open the realms of air as a public highway for man, and send
great ships careering over ocean with a power developed by sound. His
theory of etheric vibration is now conclusively established, and it is
only a question of time and material that delays its use as a servant
to man. The fact is patent, so that he who runs may read, but the ox
must have the yoke, the horse the collar, the engine the cylinder, and
the dynamo the coil, ere they can work their wonders. While Keely was
hampered by mere tradesmen, who only looked to the immediate recoupment
of their outlay, men more anxious for dividends than discoveries, he
could do little save turn showman, and exhibit his partial control of
the harmonies of nature as springs catch woodcocks, and was forced to
open his crude contrivances to divert the eternal will of the cosmos
to work-a-day uses, that he might coax from the greed and credulity
of mere mammon-worshippers the sorely grudged means to continue his
exploration of the infinite. His genius was prisoned in a test tube,
and only let out to play monkey tricks before muddle-headed merchants,
who could see the effect, but not the means, and so the greatest
discovery of the age was turned into a raree show, and the eternal
music of the spheres was set, figuratively speaking, to play tunes
to attract custom like a barrel organ before a dime museum."
CHAPTER XI.
VIBRATORY SYMPATHETIC POLAR FLOWS.--KEELY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE.
"Evermore brave feet in all the ages
Climb the heights that hide the coming day,--
Evermore they cry, these seers and sages,
From their cloud, 'Our doctrines make no way.'
All too high they stand above the nations,
Shouting forth their trumpet-calls sublime,
Shouting downwards their interpretations
Of the wondrous secrets born of Time."
... Who can say what secrets the now unread 'fairy tales of
science' may have to tell to those who live in this later
age?--The Globe.
The question has often been asked, "How much energy does Keely
expend in the production of the force he is handling?" or again,
"Can Keely show that a foot-pound of vibratory sympathy can be more
easily developed from the resources of nature, than a foot-pound of
good honest work?"
In the economy of nature profit and loss must balance in mechanical
conditions; but Keely is not dealing with mechanical physics. There
is an immense difference between vibratory physics, in which field
Keely is researching, and mechanical physics. The consumption of coal
to expand water for the production of steam power, in the operation of
engines, cannot be compared to a force which is yielded in sympathetic
vibration or by sympathetic flows. In mechanical physics, no matter
what the nature of the force may be, its production must necessarily
be accompanied by a corresponding expenditure of force in some form
or other. The amount of force covered by a human volition cannot be
measured, yet it produces the wonderful effects that are exhibited
on the human frame in its overt actions. Something like this is the
difference between sympathetical and mechanical force. The force of
will cannot be multiplied by mechanical means, making it give pound
for pound. This would annihilate both the mental and the physical,
were it possible.
In his researches, Mr. Keely, who is dealing entirely with VIBRATORY
SYMPATHETIC and POLAR flows, is hopeless in regard to convincing
the scientific world of the value of his discoveries until he has
compelled its attention by commercial success. To the question,
"What does the supply cost in dollars and cents, per horse-power
developed?" he answers, "It costs nothing more after the machinery
is made, than the vibratory concordant impulse which associates it
with the polar stream." The twanging of a taut string, the agitation
of a tuning-fork, as associated with the resonating condition of
the sympathetic transmitter, is all that is necessary to induce the
connective link, and to produce this "costless motive power." As
long as the transmitter is in sympathy with the sympathetic current
of the triune polar stream, the action of the sympathetic instrument
or engine continues.
Again, mechanical conservation of energy is one thing; sympathetic
conservation is another, and we cannot expect Keely will reveal what
he has discovered concerning the forces that he is dealing with
until he has himself acquired that full knowledge of their action
which will protect the rights of those who are interested in the
"dollars and cents" part of "the enterprise."
Macvicar said that "if extreme vicissitudes of belief on the part of
men of science are evidences of uncertainty, it may be affirmed that
of all kinds of knowledge none is more uncertain than science;" but
slow as mankind is in the progress of discoveries bearing upon unknown
laws of nature, men of science are still slower in recognizing truths
after they have been discovered and demonstrated. Two centuries
elapsed between the discoveries of Pythagoras and their revival
by Copernicus. Tycho Brahe opposed the Pythagorean system until
his death; Galileo, adopting it and demonstrating it in all its
purity, suffered for his support of it at the hands of bigots. And so
history now repeats itself. Were it possible to convince scientists
en masse of the grandeur of Keely's work, they would protect him
from the interruptions and law-suits which have so retarded his
progress that now it looks very much as though he would never be
permitted to complete his system. The world is full of inventors,
but there is but one man able to unfold, to this age and generation,
the wonderful mysteries attendant upon vibratory physics, while there
are thousands who, when a mastery of the principle has been gained,
can invent machinery to apply it to commercial uses. Macvicar asks,
"Who that goes so far as to make a question of all, or almost all, the
data of common sense can legitimately refrain from making it a question
whether the laws of phenomena which men of science discover may not
be laws of thinking, merely imposed upon nature as her laws? Nay, who
can refrain from admitting with Kant that they can be nothing more?"
As a suggestion to those interested in psychological researches I
will mention that Keely has copied nature in all his instruments
from the Vibrophone, which is fashioned after the human ear, up
to the Disintegrator, in which the neutral centre represents the
human heart. With the system which Keely is unfolding to us we may
well say, with Buckle, "A vast and splendid career lies before us,
which it will take many ages to complete. As we surpass our fathers,
so will our children surpass us. Waging against the forces of nature
what has too often been a precarious, unsteady, and unskilled warfare,
we have never yet put forth the whole of our strength, and have never
united all our faculties against our common foe. We have, therefore,
been often worsted, and have sustained many and grievous reverses. But,
even so, such is the elasticity of the human mind, such is the energy
of that immortal and godlike principle which lives within us, that we
are baffled without being discouraged, our very defeats quickening our
resources, and we may hope that our descendants, benefiting by our
failures, will profit by our example, and that for them is reserved
that last and decisive stage of the great conflict between man and
nature, in which advancing from success to success, fresh trophies
will be constantly won; every struggle issuing in a conquest, and
every battle ending in a victory."
The force discovered by Keely--no, the force revealed to him--will rule
the earth with an influence mighty in the interests of humanity. The
completion of his system for science and commerce will usher in the
dawning of a new era.
While our leading men of science are everywhere occupying themselves
with the mysteries of electro-magnetic radiation, with the action
of the ether, with the structure of the molecule, the instruments
with which they are researching are, in comparison with those which
Keely has invented, for his researches, like the rudest implements
of the savage, compared to those developed by modern civilization. A
discussion has recently been carried on in one of our Reviews, as to
whether the energy which feeds the magnet comes from the atmosphere,
from gravity, from solar rays, or from earth currents. Nothing is more
simple than Keely's explanation, as proved by his demonstrations. The
energy of the magnet comes from the polar stream; and, though the
introductory impulse is so slight that it cannot be weighed any
more than can the flow of the mind, yet, if kept up for years, it
could not be computed by billions of tons in its effect. The magnet
that lifts pounds to-day, if the load of the armature is gradually
increased day by day, will lift double the amount in time. Whence
comes this energy? Keely teaches that it comes from sympathetic
association with one of the triune currents of the polar stream,
and that its energy will increase as long as sympathetic flows last,
which is through eternity.
The physicist tells you that "you cannot make something out of
nothing;" that "in the economy of nature profit and loss must balance;"
that "no matter what the nature of the force may be, its production
must necessarily be accompanied by a corresponding expenditure of
force in some form or other," etc., etc. But, in the prodigality of
nature, this energy flows, without measure and without price, from the
great storehouse of the Infinite Will. From the sympathetic portion
of the etheric field, all visible aggregations of matter emanate,
and on the same order that molecular masses of all living organisms
are vitalized by the sympathetic flow from the brain.
"Our most learned men," said Buckle, "know not what magnetism is,
nor electricity, nor gravity, nor cohesion, nor force." Keely shows
us, by mechanical means, what magnetism is. By neutralizing or
overcoming gravity, he proves to us that he understands its nature;
electricity he declares to be a certain form of atomic vibration;
and, in the disintegration of quartz, he demonstrates that cohesive
force, like gravity, is an ever-existing force, holding together all
molecular masses by the infinite velocity of its vibrations; which,
were these vibrations to cease for one instant, would fall apart,
molecules and atoms, and return to the ether in which they originated.
KEELY'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO SCIENCE. [9]
An infinitely subtle substance, out of which all other
substances are constituted, in varying forms, passes back again
into simplicity. The same principle underlies the harmonies
of music and the motion of heavenly bodies.--Pythagoras.
One of the most arduous problems is that of energies
acting at distances. Are they real? Of all those that appear
incontrollable, one only remains, gravitation. Will it escape
us also? The laws of its action incline us to think so. The
nature of electricity is another problem which recalls us
to the condition of electric and magnetic forces through
space. Behind this question arises the most important problem
of all, that of the nature and properties of the substance
which fills space,--the ether,--its structure, its motion, its
limits, if it possesses any. We find this subject of research,
day by day, predominating over all others. It seems as though
a knowledge of ether should not only reveal to us the nature of
that imponderable substance, but will unveil to us the essence
of matter itself and of its inherent properties, weight and
inertia. Soon the question set by modern physics will be,
"Are not all things due to conditions of ether?" That is
the ultimate end of our science; these are the most exalted
summits to which we can hope to attain. Shall we ever reach
them? Will it be soon? We cannot answer.--Prof. Henri Hertz,
in La Revue Scientifique, October 26, 1888.
In the long delay attendant upon the application to mechanics of the
unknown force which John Ernest Worrell Keely has discovered in the
field of vibration, the question is often heard, "What has Keely
done?" with the remark, "He has never done anything; he is always
promising to do something, but he never keeps his promises."
Let us see what Keely, in his researches, has done for science;
although, as yet, he has done nothing for commerce.
We are quick to forget the experiences of history, which show what
a length of time has invariably elapsed between the discovery of a
new force and its use in mechanics. Watt commenced his experiments
on the elastic force of steam in 1764, obtaining about forty pounds
total pressure per square inch. (It has been stated that it was thirty
years before he succeeded in perfecting his safety-valve, or governor,
which made it possible to use steam without running great risks.) Fifty
years later, in 1814, the first steam locomotive was built; but it was
not until 1825 that the locomotive was used for traffic--travelling
at a speed of from six to eight miles in an hour. Keely commenced his
experiments with ether in the winter of 1872-73, showing a pressure of
two thousand pounds per square inch. It does not look now as though
half a century would elapse before Keely's discovery will supersede
steam in travel and traffic. In experimenting with ether, he has shown,
from time to time, since 1873, a pressure of from twenty thousand to
thirty-two thousand pounds per square inch; but he was occupied many
years in his researches before he obtained sufficient control over
the ether to prevent the explosions which made wrecks of his machines,
bursting iron and steel pipes, twelve inches in circumference, as if
they were straws. He has now arrived at a stage in his experimental
research in which he can, without danger of explosions, exhibit to
scientists such manifestations of an unknown force as to place him
before the world where he would have stood many years ago, had it not
been for the calumnious attacks of those men of science who found it
easier to denounce him than to account for the phenomena which they
witnessed in his workshop.
Professor Ira Remsen, in his "Theoretical Chemistry," writes, "As
regards the cause of the phenomena of the motion of the heavenly
bodies, we have no conception at the present day. It is true we say
that these phenomena are caused by the attraction of gravitation;
but, after all, we do not know what pulls these bodies together."
Let us see what Keely knows on this subject?
1st. After a lifetime of research into the laws governing vibrations,
which develop this force, Keely is able to demonstrate partial control
of the power that he has discovered,--a power which he believes
to be the governing medium of the universe, throughout animate and
inanimate nature, controlling the advance and recession of the solar
and planetary masses, and reigning in the mineral, the vegetable,
and the animal kingdom, according to the laws that rule its action in
each, as undeviatingly as it governs the motions of the earth itself,
and of all the heavenly bodies in space.
Keely calls this power, which he is endeavouring to apply in mechanics
for the benefit of mankind, "sympathetic negative attraction,"--it
being necessary to use the word "attraction," as no other word has
yet been coined to take its place.
2nd. He has determined and written out a system of the vibratory
conditions governing the aggregation of all molecular masses, as to
their relation sympathetically one to the other, stating the conditions
to be brought about in order to induce antagonism or repellent action,
disintegration, etc.; but he has not yet been able to control the
operation of his Disintegrator so as to use it with safety to the
operator, for mining purposes, etc.
3rd. He has proved by demonstration that the subdivision of matter
under different orders of progressive vibration evolves by such
subdivision entirely new and distinct elements, too multiple
to enumerate. He has systematized the proper vibratory chords,
progressively, from the introductory molecular to the inter-etheric,
embracing seven distinct orders of triple subdivision. He has
elaborated a system of inducing sympathetic negative attraction on
metallic masses, with great range of motion, and instant depolarization
of the same, by vibratory change of their neutral centres. Keely
controls the transmission of these sympathetic streams by a medium
of high molecular density, viz., drawn wires of differentiated
metals, gold, silver, platinum, German silver, etc. In some recent
experiments he took apart, for inspection of its interior construction,
the instrument which he has invented for the production of the force,
cutting the wires with which he had operated in sympathetic attraction
and propulsion, and distributing the fragments to those who were
present, among whom was Professor Leidy, to whom the Geological
Society of London has awarded the Lyell Medal, and the Academy of
Sciences of France the Cuvier Prize.
4th. Keely has discovered that all sympathetic streams, cerebellic,
gravital, magnetic, and electric, are composed of triple flows; this
fact governing all the terrestrial and celestial orders of positive
and negative radiation. In gravity it would be more correct to speak
of triple connective links, as there is no flow of gravity.
5th. Keely has discovered and was the first to demonstrate that
electricity has never been handled; that it is in principle as
material as is water; that it is not merely a force or a form of
energy,--that it is matter; and that what we call electricity,
and have diverted for commercial use in electric lighting, is but
one of the triune currents, harmonic, enharmonic, and diatonic,
which are united in pure electricity; that the enharmonic current
seems to be sympathetically and mysteriously associated with the
dominant current; and that the dominant current can no more be brought
under control than can the lightning itself. The diversion of the
dominant current would mean destruction to any mechanical medium
used for that purpose, and death to the operator. The intense heat
evolved by the electric stream Keely attributes to the velocity of
the triple subdivision at the point of dispersion, as each triple
seeks its medium of affinity. Sudden unition induces the same effect;
but demonstration shows that the concentration of this triple force
is as free of percussion as is the breath of an infant against the
atmosphere; for the three currents flow together as in one stream, in
the mildest sympathetic way, while their discharge after concentration
is, in comparison to their accumulation, as the tornado's force to
the waft of the butterfly's wing. The enharmonic current of this
triple stream, Keely thinks, carries with it the power of propulsion
that induces disturbance of negative equilibrium; which disturbance
is essential to the co-ordination of its flow, in completing the,
triune stream of electricity. When this fluid is discharged from
the clouds, each triplet or third seeks its terrestrial concordant,
there to remain until that supreme law which governs disturbance
of equilibrium again induces sympathetic concordant concentration,
continuing to pass through its evolutions, positively and negatively,
until the solar forces are expended.
"My researches have proved to me," writes Keely, "the subtle and
pure conditions of the power of negative attraction and positive
propulsion."
6th. These same researches have enabled Keely to pronounce
definitely as to the nature of what is recognized as gravity, an
ever-existing, eternal force, coexistent with the compound etheric,
or high luminous, entering into all forms of aggregated matter at
their birth. Keely thinks that gravity is the source from which all
visible matter springs, and that the sympathetic or neutral centre of
such aggregation becomes at birth a connective concordant link to all
neutral centres that have preceded it and to all that may succeed it,
and that disturbance of equilibrium, like gravity, is an ever-existing
force. His researches in the vibratory subdivision of matter have
revealed to him some of the mysteries of the hidden sympathetic
world, teaching that "the visible world," as Coleridge wrote, "is
but the clothing of the invisible world;" that "true philosophy,"
as Professor George Bush said, "when reached will conduct us into the
realm of the spiritual as the true region of causes, disclosing new
and unthought-of relations between the world of matter and of mind."
Professor Thurston writes, in the January number of the North American
Review, "We are continually expecting to see a limit reached by the
discoverer, and by the inventor, and are as constantly finding that
we are simply on a frontier which is being steadily pushed further
and further out into the infinite unknown. The border-land is still
ahead of us, constantly enlarging as we move on. The more we gain,
the more is seen to be achievable."