John Ernst Worrell Keely

Background

John Ernst Worrell Keely was born on September 3, 1827 in Chester, Pennsylvania, United States. Both his parents died while he was an infant and he was raised by his grandparents in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Career

Keely was for a time leader of a small orchestra and in certain more or less apocryphal stories he figured as a circus performer. In 1872 he was a journeyman carpenter, but in the following year, when he announced the discovery of a new physical force, he seems to have ceased that occupation for the rest of his days, and for a quarter of a century he was a public character, maintained by the contributions of those who believed in the future of the inventions based on his discovery. The supposed new force was explained by Keely as resulting from the intermolecular vibrations of ether. His problem was to construct a machine to respond to the vibrations and in that way produce power.

In 1874 he had advanced far enough in the fabrication of such a machine, or engine, to permit exhibitions at his workshop. Such results as he could show amazed the general public, but physicists and engineers declared that the same results could be obtained by employing known forces, and until Keely would prove the exclusion of such known forces from his experiments they would refuse to believe in his discovery. Nevertheless, the Keely Motor Company was incorporated and the stock was taken in large amounts throughout the country. As time passed without the perfection of Keely's motor or the securing of patents, the stockholders grew impatient and by 1880 payments to the inventor virtually ceased and the bills he had incurred remained unpaid. When bankruptcy was facing him a wealthy Philadelphia woman, Mrs. Clara S. J. Bloomfield-Moore, came to the rescue and financed his operations for many years. Meanwhile the Keely Motor Company brought suit to compel a disclosure of the secret and Keely's refusal to answer questions led to his imprisonment for contempt of court. A compromise was reached, however, without the divulging of the secret, and Keely was released. In 1887 experiments were conducted for the United States government at Fort Lafayette. The Keely Motor Company retained its faith in the inventor and continued to market stocks.

In 1895 Professor Lascelles-Scott, the English physicist, spent a month in Philadelphia for the purpose of investigating Keely's work, at the request of Mrs. Bloomfield-Moore. His report was never published, but after his return to London Keely's patroness withdrew her assistance. Keely was now an old man, afflicted with Bright's disease. At his death, on November 18, 1898, the Keely Motor Company had more than 3, 000 shareholders. In their interest the company's officers arranged with the widow, Anna M. Keely, to have a thorough examination made of all the apparatus left in Keely's workshop. The ensuing investigation, friendly in motive, resulted in the uncovering of tubes in the form of hollow wires by which compressed air had been applied to the machinery claimed to have been operated by the mysterious new force. In some instances compressed air had been used to start clockwork, but more generally hydraulic power, derived from a water motor. The exposure was complete and unanswerable. A Philadelphia newspaper suggested that the "motor" be exhibited to the public, but no one had the heart to act on the suggestion. Keely's secret was out at last. But nothing short of his death kept the public from trusting him.

Achievements

• Keely was known for his discovery of a powerful new force which was originally described as "vapor" or "etheric" force, and building the machine that harnessed that force, by vibrating molecules at an atomic level.

Views

Quotations: "Matter is capable of infinite subdivision. .. All matter is in a state of perpetual activity [motion], whether the substance under consideration be inanimate or animated, visible or invisible. .. There is no dividing of matter and force into two distinct terms, as they both are ONE. FORCE is liberated matter. MATTER is force in bondage. "

"There is a celestial mind-force, a great sympathetic force which is life itself, of which everything is composed. "

References

• Keely and his Discoveries; Aerial Navigation