Free Energy Pioneer- John Worrell Keely Read online

  Apart from working as a carpenter's apprentice, Keely also held other jobs to sustain his living in his pre-motor-fame days. A Philadelphia newspaper, while admitting that of Keely's early life, "little is publicly known," wrote: "He was born in this dear town of ours, and when he was 10 years of age, was thrust out in the world to battle alone. He had two hobbies, music and mechanics. He was a cabinetmaker and musician by turns. The shop in which he worked at the former, some say, was on Market Street, while others claim it was on Jayne Street...."21

  During these early years Keely also worked from time to time as a physician, a pharmacist, "and in other occupations...,"22 as an upholster or a cabinetmaker.23 Keely "worked at many trades to which he had not been apprenticed. He was a plumber, plasterer, carpenter, mason and many other things combined...,"24 and elsewhere it was added: "He is said to have been employed in various business establishments in this city, where it was noticed that he had an inventive genius and gave much more attention to mechanical problems than to his employment...."25

  When Keely was about 20 years of age, and it is asserted that he showed in his youth "great interest in physics and chemistry and a wonderful desire for adventure," he went to work in a drugstore in Philadelphia, where he remained for a few years. He then left this job to become a locomotive engineer on the Pennsylvania Railroad, where he "passed several years in an engineer's cab." In 1850, he returned to be a druggist's clerk, but "When the Indian troubles in the West excited the country he joined the army..."26 There he led a life of adventure for a time, until he was wounded during an uprising of the Native Americans and was sent to a hospital. After his recovery, he returned to Philadelphia and played in an orchestra.27 Possibly this was around 1856, when Keely was "a varnisher by trade, and in addition a flutist and writer of music..."28

  That Keely at one time was a flutist, but not the leader in an orchestra as is so often alleged, stems from the recollection of a certain W.D. who wrote about the time "long before the Keely motor was known."29 The author claimed to have spent "many nights in a musical way" with Keely: "He appeared to me to fall into deep thought during the intervals of our performances, and it was no uncommon thing to have to rouse him from his abstraction. At times he would turn to me, who sat next him, and with great animation explain some improvement, or satisfactory result about an experiment regarding machinery. As I knew nothing of the subject, I could only politely congratulate him."

  If the memory of the writer was correct, this again is a hint that Keely, long before his invention of the device that brought him fame, was deeply involved in similar pursuits. The writer gives other interesting details of his early life: "I remember that our party performed at Atlantic City on one occasion, and the next day, seated in the shade with a friend, I saw Keely in a black frock coat buttoned across his breast and a high silk hat, walking along in the sun in an absorbed manner. The heat was terrible — I think about 98 degrees — and when I made a remark about Keely to my companion, he said: 'Oh, John don't know anything about the heat: his brain is busy with some jimcrank about an engine.' His instrument was the flute, upon which he had a remarkable degree of execution; in fact, he was constantly introducing turns and trills, to the annoyance of our professor. On one occasion we were about to play the 'Immortal Waltzes,' and our leader took occasion to speak of the beautiful simplicity of the first movement; but Keely was deep in thought, and when he played his part introduced the most florid turns, at which the professor rapped fiercely and shouted: 'For heaven's sake, John Keely, stop your infernal frills!' This reproof was taken calmly, and the offense was not repeated. A most pleasant and agreeable man he was socially, although subject, even in those days, to fits of deep and intense thought."30

  There is also a rumor that in his early life Keely was a sleight-of-hand performer and a circus performer.31 That he worked in a circus was already doubted in his time: "... Keely in earlier life was a cannon-ball tosser and went around the country with a circus throwing cannon-balls in the air, and catching them in his hands.... That story has since been denied."32 But although denied, doubts remained: "I think there must be truth in it, for away back in the early seventies... it was my great privilege... to have an introduction. ... I was told by the friend who did me this favor, and who had a close intimacy with Keely as a neighborhood-born companion for years, that for a certain time he was connected with a travelling circus...."33

  This doubt has remained ever since, and current conventional historical sources consider Keely's circus career as more or less apocryphal.34 The general confusion at that time, the lack of biographical data and the various anecdotes, similar or different, substantiated or unsubstantiated, would also influence later writers about him.35

  To reconstruct Keely's early life, we must therefore include a biographical sketch of him, that — although colorful — is probably loosely based on such sources as referred to above, and remains unsubstantiated as well: "He worked as a carpenter, played violin in a small orchestra, showed amazing dexterity with card tricks and other paraphernalia of the magician's trade. John longed for adventure and joined a group of trappers who spent three years in the Rockies. Badly wounded by an Indian arrow, John came home to the relative safety of Philadelphia." It was there that he befriended mechanics and professors and "within a few years had acquired smatterings of the fundamentals of both science and machinery."36

  On only very rare moments, Keely himself confided details of his early life to a reporter. While he denies ever having been a carpenter, we also perceive details of what must have been a most unusual career at times: "'Are you a spiritualist, Mr. Keely?' I asked him. 'That is one of many lies propagated about me,' he answered. 'It has been said I started life as a carpenter (though that is not a slander), but I didn't: I never was a carpenter. Instead of being a Spiritualist myself, I once exposed Spiritualistic mediums in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1857, 1859 and 1861, and I was nearly run out of town for doing so. Everything their mediums did in the dark, I did in the light, and that naturally enraged them. I do not believe in Spiritualism or in anything of the kind. I am, I hope, a Christian, and a regular member of the Methodist Church ...'"37

  While it is asserted that Keely made his discovery in his childhood, long before he announced it to the public, it is also claimed that this was accompanied by the construction of a number of curious devices or prototypes of engines. A theosophist wrote that Keely "...has worked since he was a boy, at times, upon various inventions before his discovery of ether...."38

  There is a description of what may be one of Keely's very first devices, but unfortunately no date or time period is given: "His earliest mechanism for noting the uniform force of sound vibrations was a steel bar set full of pins of various lengths, while his first 'resonator,' or 'intensifier,' consisted of a shingle screwed to two hollow wooden tubes. Keely's first rudimentary engine was 'a simple ring of steel with 300 pins set into it, and this first wheel ran in an open box, into and through which an observer was free to look while the wheel was in motion...'"39

  In 1856, Keely "had running and was experimenting with a toy engine, the boiler of which was fired by a 'burning fluid lamp' in his home on Fifth Street, five or six doors above Queen Street."40 In 1863, Keely became employed as a furniture varnisher at $10 per week in the furniture shop of Bennet C. Wilson.

  Wilson financed Keely's experiments and provided him with a furnished shop on Market Street in which to work. There Keely experimented "year after year" with an engine which he called a "reacting vibratory motor." This led to the construction of a device invented in 1869 that can be considered the forerunner of his Globe Motor.41

  It is alleged that Keely's motor began to attract attention as early as 1865,42 but around 1871 he started to try to put his discovery into practical, commercial use, for it is claimed that he announced his invention to the public in that year. Keely, who at the time was "a varnisher of furniture on Market Street, above Seventh," put an advertisement in a Philadelphia evening paper "rela
ting to a new motor, or motive power, which he alleged he had invented or discovered and was prepared to exhibit." This new motor was named the "Globe Motor," presumably because it consisted of a hollow sphere, which revolved at great speed and, as Keely declared, automatically. "It was seen in motion at different times by different persons, but always while in the presence and under the control of Keely. ...The motor attracted the attention of two gentlemen of capital in our city, who consented to advance money with the view of developing this invention and others which Mr. Keely claimed to have made...."43

  The recollection of another man who was also drawn to Keely's Globe Motor and who retold the incident 30 years later,44 seems to confirm other allegations that Keely had a globular motor in operation in 1871. In fact, if the 30-year period would be correct, it would mean that Keely had already constructed his device prior to 1869.

  The man who came forward after all these years was one Joseph Repetti, decribed as an "expert Vineland machinist and inventor" and "a Mason of excellent standing in the local lodge and a highly respected citizen, whose veracity and capabilities are well known in Vineland." Repetti stated that he knew Keely's much-talked-about secret, and that he was "the only person to whom Keely ever showed his complete motor." Of course this was nonsense; Keely built several devices, of which the Globe Motor was only one, but again it reflects something of the confusion that has always surrounded historical data concerning Keely, even in his day.

  Repetti, who lived in Philadelphia, remembered how he met Keely around 1869. According to him, "It had become noised about that a Mr. Keely, who then occupied rooms on Market Street, had accomplished perpetual motion. I became very much interested and, securing permission from my employer, decided to take a half-day off and visit the much-talked-of Keely at his place of work and have a talk. Accordingly I made a call. Mr. Keely was, to all appearances, carrying on a second-hand furniture business. I said: 'I am interested in the report that you have solved the problem of perpetual motion. I am a machinist employed in the city, at the shops of Vere, Camp & Leopold. I have also been working for some time on a machine for the same purpose and am interested in the subject. This is why I have called.' Mr. Keely replied: 'The machine to which you refer is not in running order, but if you will wait for a few minutes I will put it together and show it to you.' In a few minutes, Mr. Keely, who had retired to his workshop, called me to that apartment showing me a peculiarly constructed machine in the form of a globe, of about eight inches in diameter. The ball had a vertical rotary motion. I inquired: 'How long would the machine continue to revolve?' 'Until worn out,' replied Mr. Keely. I asked: 'Does the machine develop any power?' Mr. Keely, placing his finger on the revolving globe, stopped it, saying: 'This machine is too small to develop much power. I shall make a larger machine that will have power to run other machines.' Keely then stated that he had not begun the actual construction yet, but that he had decided the size of the machine, and that the ball would be 'between five and six feet in diameter.' Keely also stated that he didn't know when he would start the construction; that would depend on the help 'from the outside' that he could get. When Repetti asked how much help it would take, Keely's answer was, 'Something like one thousand dollars.'"

  At first, Repetti saw something in Keely's device, for he offered to build certain parts of his machine at the workshop of his employers, where he had access to the "proper tools." Keely's reply was enigmatic: "I cannot answer just now, but ifyou will call in a few days I will let you know what I will do."

  Repetti returned and Keely stated that he would go along with his offer, but only if Repetti would pay for the making of the machine, for which he was to receive "a half interest for doing so." Repetti agreed on the condition that he could see all the parts of the Globe Motor "in order to know if I can make them." Keely did not object to this, but told Repetti: "I cannot show them to you now. You will have to call some other time," which Repetti did, and within a few days. The machine had been taken apart and the parts were spread out on the table in the workshop. Keely said: "You can examine the parts and determine if you can make them." Repetti did this and said that he saw no difficulties. But then Keely said that he had a secret part that he could not show without Repetti's promise to oblige himself by oath not to tell anyone. Repetti agreed and Keely "went into another room and brought out the part and showed it to me, after which I said: 'I am very sorry, Mr. Keely, that I have put you to so much trouble, but I think that I will not go into this business any farther....'"

  What Repetti saw that changed his mind, he kept secret for 30 years offering no further explanation. Repetti's tale might be truthful in some respects: There is evidence that Keely indeed was living at Market Street around that time; he lived there in 1866, as he admitted.45

  In 1871, Keely pursued his investigations in the effort to work out his discovery, using water and air in connection with sound vibrations.46 In 1872, he allegedly made his discovery of an energy that he called "the force" by accident, while experimenting on vibrations. He then "imprisoned the ether" the same year and "commenced his experiments with ether in the winter of 1872-73.... "47 At first he had no idea what he had found, as he readily admitted; it would take him 12 years before he realized that he had "imprisoned the ether."48

  Between 1871 and 1875, he also constructed six different devices. At that time, 34 documents were in existence relating to the transfer of interests in inventions which were called the independent flywheel, the hydro-pneumatic-pulsating-vacuo engine, the Globe Motor, the dissipating engine, the multiplicator or generator and the automatic water lift. The first assignment was dated July 11, 1871, the last, February 15, 1875.49

  Keely's Globe Motor, although exhibited in operation around 1871, was never patented; what was found during an investigation in 1875 was "on record in Liber L, 18, page 370, of transfer of patents, U.S. Patent Office, an assignment of this so-called Globe Motor by Mr. Collier to the Keely Motor Company, this assignment bearing date February 15, 1875, and being recorded May 8, 1875." The patent office at that time also had an abstract of "all assignments, agreements, licenses, powers of attorney and other instruments in writing on record in the patent office in the name of John W. Keely since January 1, 1871."

  However, there does exist a patent by Keely, granted August 15, 1871, for his flywheel, an arrangement of gearing for causing a wheel to revolve at a greater speed than the shaft to which it is hung.

  In 1872, Keely constructed a new motor at his place in Market Street.50 This second motor was variously called the "hydraulic motor," the "hydro-vacuo engine," the "hydro-pneumatic vacuum engine" and the "hydro-pneumatic-pulsating vacuum engine."51 A New Yorker who claimed to have known him during that time later wrote that, "I was with him when the idea first entered his head that he could combine steam and water to run an engine. At that time he made a crude machine, which he actually ran for some time; and this was the model of the Pneumatic-Pulsating-Vacuo-Engine.... In those days I have known him to sell and pawn everything of value in his house to obtain means to continue his investigation with the money thus acquired."52

  This model was subsequently located at 1010 Ogden Street in Philadelphia, where Keely was then living. The model was described as an engine placed in a bathtub and run by a stream of water that passed through a goose quill. This device "...soon grew into the machine which he called a 'generator,' and which the world named the Keely motor, and in which power was produced from the vibratory qualities of water and air."53 Elsewhere it is claimed that the generator not so much evolved out of his hydro-pneumatic-pulsating-vacuo engine, but that after its construction, Keely "took a new departure," which culminated in the so-called Keely motor, or, as it has been termed, "a dissipating engine and multiplicator and generator."54

  While working with his generator one day in 1873, Keely "suddenly felt a cold vapor blow in his face. He tried to wipe away the moisture, but was surprised to find there was none upon his countenance... The curious phenomenon of a vapor that wa
s absolutely dry caused him to take up a new line of experiment."55

  This mysterious vapor was described as "a heretofore unknown gaseous or vaporic substance,"56 and it was the power on which the generator — also termed the dissipator or the Keely motor — worked. Keely, being "a poor man, but, having a wonderful degree of natural mechanical skill... devoted all his time for the past fourteen years to experiments with water with a view of procuring a motive power from it. He was engaged upon an idea of his own regarding the force of columns of water when he accidentally discovered the vapor which he has harnessed. He studied the subject, ascertained how it was generated, learned its power, and thenceforth applied himself solely to the perfection of this idea, working night and day for a number of years, until his efforts were crowned with success."57 Since the above quote is taken from an article written in 1875, this would imply that Keely was involved in this line of research since 1861.

  That it is successively claimed that he discovered the force in 1872 and 1873 is explained thus: Keely, while "experimenting with a hydraulic engine... according to his own statement... accidentally made his discovery of the tremendous and mysterious energy which he afterwards pronounced to be etheric force. Over a year passed in various experiments... before he was able to repeat its production at will."58