Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • 42

HOW IT WAS DONE. THE SECRET OF THE KEELY MOTOR. (Copyright, 1899, by W. B. Hearst.) W11E IE rMltfflf THE body of stockholders in the Keely Motor company ,0 to the many wh have believed' that Mr.

Jveeiy mu nprsecuted: to his personal friends who loyally defend a hour of his death and who alo looked, for LABORATORY second Floor THE fOTOR Grea? "Keelv MR. KEELY'S WORLD FAMOUS MIRACLES. ward to the final completion of his work In accordance with his last wishes, the Information embodied In. the following UU-ment will come as a most unwelcome surprise. But to none beyond the circle of his home can it he more bitter than wa the revelation, to those who discovered the facts, when they began to investigate the remains of the work left behind by Mr.

Keely. The first discovery of fraud was mad in. the laboratory by Mr. T. B.

Klnraide Just preceding: the annual stockholders' meeting of the Keely Motor company. Dec. 20, 1898. Owin.to the interest and reputations at stake, it was finally decided! to give Mr. Keely the benefit of a possible doubt.

The wltnssesof what had been discovered knew how he had been continually hounded for exhibitions. The stock-boomer as well as his victim; the distinguished scientist; the persistent curiosity seeker, and. the ever-present reporter, for twenty-five years had made his Mfe miserable demanding or begging for one more chance to see his motor In motion. To fall to give the exhibition often meant no funds for the expensive work he was engaged in; to give them, as Mr Keely frequently complained, was to waste most valuable time in unnecessary setting up and graduating his machines, then taking them flown again when he should have kept at his work of trying to perfect their parts. The exhibition, itself was a small matter compared with, this labor.

Perhaps Mr. Keely had yielded to the temptation to save, by one bold though unscrupulous move, his time as well as the sources of his Income Hadi he accomplished this by rigging up an exhibition with some of his cast-off machines which would require but one setting-up and one graduation," and which always would go at a moment's notice? It was decided that Mr. Keely was entitled to the benefit of the doubt. It was agreed unanimously that the Information at hand did not warrant the destruction forever of Mr. Keely's reputation and.

honor, with the additional sorrow and the shame that would come to his widow and his friends, as well as the absolute disintegration of the Keely Motor company. It wasde-cided) not to act hastily, to keep silent, andi.to ascertain beyond question or possibility of controversy the whole truth before taking action. In the meanwhile, it was deemed wise to remove as soon as possible all traces of what had been found In the first investigation. The evidence, however, has been preserved. In addition to the three Boston witnesses, Mr.

Klnraide. who had! been selected by Mr. Keely to carry on his work, and two others, a New York member of the board of directors was called in to view the facts. His written statement will be found In another column, also a statement from Mr. Hill, who was attorney for Mrs.

Keely. Further and complete Investigations have demonstrated that the whole truth, the last word concerning the secret of the Keely motor, should be told. It was agreed that the writer, one of the four witnesses, should write the report. This he has- done at the earliest moment consistent with an accurate and impartial examination of everything connected with the matter. The result seems to Justify Mr.

Keely's honest reply to an intimate friend In Philadelphia, who. within the year, said to him: John, what do you want for an epitaph?" Mr. Keely thought a moment, and, looking his questioner full in the face, replied: Keely, the greatest lionibae of the nineteenth cen- THEKEELY MOTOR. CONFESSION BY MRS. KEELfC IN a certain way the cccompanying fr fraud unmistakably speaks for f'i John W.

Keelv. the lo-nl .1 1 until u.c uni'i acjusimcntof tate and the Keely Motorcntr.r.an-.'."' with Mr. Klnraide of the causes for Mr It my duty to outline the reasons fn.v. At me very omst i 01 my connection a rut a-, .1. -i stated to airs.

Kci iy, whom I believe With this official confession by the representatives of the Keely estate the world-famous Keely motor passes into history as the monumental fraud of the century. For twenty-five years John W. Keely astounded the most eminent scientists of Europe and America with his experiments succeeded, in fact, in convincing the most skeptical investigators that he had found the great secret force of nature which controlled the solar universe, governed the planets in the heavens, and ruled the vegetable and animal kingdoms of this earth. Mr. Keely from time to time welcomed doubting stockholders and threw open the door of his laboratory in Philadelphia to scientific experts.

He handed them his motor; he begged them to test every portion of his machinery for magnetic attraction and to sound every wire for the faintest trace of an electric current Then, before the astonished ees of the investigators, the miracles began. The Tribune today, for the first time, is able to explain to the learned scientists and wondering stockholders, in minutest detail HOW Mrl Keely produced rotation of a non-magnetic substance, such as a match hung on the end of a compass pivot. HOW he produced a pull of hundreds of pounds on a disk which showed not the slightest trace of magnetism or affinity to a magnet. HOW he made his motor work when it was insulated on all sides by heavy plates of glass and carried from one part of the room to another, and even worked when held in the hands of a skeptic, Mr. Keely starting and stopping it at will.

HOW Mr.i Keely produced a pressure of 15,000 or more pounds to the square inch in his vibratory lift. HOW Mr. Keely, standing beside the window gazing vacantly out over tpe city, played "Home, Sweet Home," on a harmonica until he struck a certain note which instantly set in motion the entire machinery of his workshop. The explanation of Mr. Keely's miracles is a story of fraud so bold, so skillful, and so perfect that his death alone unveiled the mystery.

Keely himself died last month with a lie upon his lips. "The full explanation of my great discovery you will find recorded among my papers," he whispered on his deathbed. But it was not so. The attorney for Mrs. Keely.

the executors of the estate, and the directors of the company searched the laboratory in vain for the record of his discovery. What they found was the marvelously ingenious mechanism hidden in the walls and floors which had perpetuated Keely's audacious fraud for twenty-five years and put into his pockets half a million dollars of his stockholders' money. Many guesses and many wise exposes have from time to time been oublished as the secret of the Keelv motor. nocent of any dishonesty in her husUsfjlT whole thing was owrntially randu'ent 1 IV' concealment, and that I conceived lttsVfr from being imposed upon ar.y I requested to be relieved from the abletohtr. I was not released, and in the twonorv pry doubt I have had been Fweptrntl to Boston is palpably fraudulent.

tmOt BOX II' mands immediate explanation. SevsnJ in the stock of tho Keely Motor Compaq 1 edge, which, if would mapt The discovery of concealed wires, brass tubes, and especially an iron globe in the laboratory, has afforded material for all sorts of guesses from electric currents to compressed air. But the real secret of the Keely motor has never until the moment been revealed. On Feb. 24, 1872, in Philadelphia, John W.

Keely assigned to James S. Yarnall and four others an invention for ahydro-pneu-matic-pulsating-vacuo engine and entered into an agreement with the assignees to form a joint stock company. This was the first appearance before the public of the Keely motor. Since then it many times has changed its form, but never in all its protean transformations did it lose the magical charm of a wonder worker which first made it famous, or did It betray the secret of its power. For over twenty-five years it worked miracles at Mr.

Keely's command when funds ran low. As its fame spread and after the Twentieth street Philadelphia laboratory was erected, an endless procession of investigators. 5TORD ROOM IRST Fi-O0S and unwise, came to see for themselves, for seeing is believ buyer parted with his money for a worst ation. Two different books treatisg point of view that It was hone r. I fjc preparation at a great expense.

Such tfcsS entuil both financial loss and social rife prevented. fc" Then, again, under date of Jan. 16, IS Board of Directors of the Keely Motor -own statement in a communication Jas I Frederick G. Dussoulas. counselor at in which he says: Appreciating the great of the stockholders you rerrefpr.t.ctv;t:! rectors somewhat during this of the enterprise by inducing jour treasury warrants which we are sfUirsfeu: and necessary expense of the ccmpanj.e I expenses, secretary's salary, ar.d solcrl! ciate any result you may obtain." The above also makes it imperatir? tti to fraud practiced by Air.

Keely I have therefore countenanced the rf matter by 3Ir. Bridge. It is a rase beH must in importance transcend the comftr At Mr. Keely's deceftsc the publicirMi as it had been in life. Many mourned L-right.

God-fcarirg man. win had oIith science: not a few looker! upon hinssi- wn before he was to IcaJ a ps'Ient fcorSec; hoped-for promised land. But after 1. is death the next qaestwBi waited an was. Did Sir.

him?" or had it forever vanirned. tafci? i many, many stcekncld. rs? Previous asserted ail his secret cierful experiments performed, had V. If so fully and completely that were fa go on uninterruptedly. He had given tantalizing of the officials of the company.

C.nfcis: is friend, air. Kinraiuc, to take up his tion. Such things cs these natural kc ence of some valuable pnpf rs. A week j. cess to his papers was secured for tie ig bundle wuk unrolled and eian reared.

Fragmentary MSS. In the it; ii. letters, proof s-hr-cts of matter ultinattlysfC, field Moore' lok. Keely and KisDiSif. Hbundancc.

but no revelation. It benx-p. hope was that ome man versed in meehf as practically, might take the niailiiE.tir: careful inductive reasoning finally eoia tJ Mr. Keely would explain that this motion could be kept up until the machine wore out a costless, inexpensive power. The miracle was accomplished before the eyes of the distinguished guests.

The day before they had examined the various parts of the engine; they had seen the spherical transmitter apart and had admired the wonderful collection- of Chladni plates, resonators, graduated adjustment screw, and other paraphernalia that came out of it, had looked at the wire, even clipped it, and been given a piece by Mr. Keely. It was solid, usually of German silver, about the size of a knitting needle. After the motor was in motion they were allowed to test for electricity or magnetism; not a trace. Without a doubt, Mr.

Keely had discovered a new force. So has thought many a stockholder who now deserves the honest sympathy of the reader, for there will be no Keely motor stock worth thousands of dollars per share. However, the memory of the Keely Motor company is likely to outlast the present generation. THE DISCOVERY OP FRAUD. When Mr.

T. Burton Kinraide took charge of Mr. Keely's laboratory, one of the first discoveries was how Mr. Keely did this particular experiment just described. He could vary the initial performance in a dozen ways, but the principle was always the same.

In taking down the posts which held the stationary axis on which revolved the hub of the motor, with its arms, the first fraud was discovered. This framework had no apparent connection with the engine, beyond serving as a support for the stationary-shaft or axis which passed through the hub of the motor. A false box, a hollow post, and a hole extending down through the floor led to a careful investigation. Under the floor, between it and the ceiling of an unused storeroom beneath, always kept locked, was found running through the timbers supporting the floor an iron shaft with a small pulley on It. The pulley and the' hole in the floor were directly under the hollow post of the engine.

The Iron shaft was followed to the side wall. At its termination was another pulley. Directly beneath this, but just above the ground floor of the room, another Iron thaft came through the wall, also with a pulley on it. A small, well-worn belt was found, which fitted over and exactly connected these two pulleys. Going into the email Tear room, mostly filled with old Junk and the floo.

of which was raised considerably above that of the middle room, there was discovered beneath a box and an oilcloth-spread out on the floor a trap door. This trap opened over the shaft, which came through the wall. Here it was found that the shaft connected with a small water motor of peculiar construction, the water being supplied by a lead pipe coming in from the outside of the building. Extending from the water motor was a small hollow rubber tube. It was found that by attaching a rubber bulb to this tube the water motor be started in motion by pressing the bulb and would stop when the pressure was released.

This water motor is now in the laboratory of Mr. Klnraide, In Boston. The This was one of Mr. Keely's fa-orito exhibitions. No scientist has ever explained it.

Mr. Keely has. By bringing the compass within the influence of the "enharmonic" current of the triple flow from his transmitter the phenomena of rotation would arise from the harmonic interaction of the dominant and enharmonic elements of the flow, or of those vibrations which bear the proportions to each otheiof 33 To bring the compass within the influence of the enharmonic aspect of the pater stream Mr. Keely generally used what he calic a test-medium. One form of this was a brass tube about six Inches In height and four in diameter, and supported on a heavy brass base containing a bristling row of steel pins jutting out from the base similar toi thosp in the dominant scale on the base of the transmitter.

The body of the test medium was filled with the usual assemblage of small resonating tubes, the ends being fius-h with the top of the outside case, and open, except the central collection, which were supposed to be filled with sensitized powder. These were arranged lengthwise around the inside of a brass tube or box the top of which as scaled by a brass cap to prevent the lessef the powder. A similar box without the cap andi containing tha empty cartridges fully explained the arrangement of the concealed small tubes. Attaching his transmitting wire to the base of this test medium, placing a compass on the brass cap, covering the central collection of tubes in the test medium, as described then finding the proper note on the dominant scale of the transmitter away would go the compass needle, rotating so fast the eve couli not follow it. THE TEST MEDIUM.

A dissection of the test medium shows that the central tubular box. on the cap of which the compass was placed, did not contain a collection of smaller tubes, as shown in the duplicate offered te. investigators for examination. What it did contain was an Inner brass tube or large cartridge with a brass top. This tube was by a long brass hood.

The brass base of the test medium was hollow and contained a small air receptacle connecting with the aperture or binding post into which the transmitting ire was inserted. The top of this air chsmber was covered by a rubber diaphragm. The Inner tube mentioned contained a clockwork mechanism of a type common in some French lamps to run a small fan. to force a draft into the flame. This was run bv a spring and wound up at the bottom by an key.

On the upper face of this arrangement was a thin but powerful steel magnet hung on its center, and which the clockwork, when wound, caused to revolve. When this mechanism was in place in the test medium the revolving magnet came just below the compass placed on the top of the test medium. The long brass hood fitted loosely over the mechanism containing the clockwork, the top of the hcod resting on the magnet and acting as a brake to keep it from moving when the clockwork was wound and in place. The bottom of the diaPh'raSm- Inflating the air chamber and raising the diaphragm would raise the hood. Mr Ktelv would force air through the hollow wire from his transmitter and raise the rubber diaphragm of the concealed air chamber in the same way that he set his water motsr in motion.

As soon as the magnet was released It began to revolve-the clockwork running It being wound-and the steel magnetized needle of the compass over It followed in sympathy-a genuine instance of sympathetic attachment. 1 THE VITALIZED DISK. A Boston gentleman, whom the Philadelphia Inquirer dr scribed as an eminent scientist." gave to that paper the followml de- BOX Covering TRAP DOOR FALSE FLOOR Ing out tr.p wteh of Mr. Keely ar.J his exerteel towtfrel recuilr.g the harnKnuoa Motor company in the matter of piacas raido's hands. It was arranged between the company and myself that on Dec.

20,15 stockholders, giving my yie a best course to pursue. Shortly after ing, and went away looking for Keely motor stock, which they always found. Among the number were scientists and learned professors, shrewd and successful business-men and financiers, ministers, doctors, lawyers, women of wealth and position. Behind the closed doors of the laboratory they had seen the wonderful motor start Into life when Keely touched a zither or played on his harmonica a bar of Home, Sweet Home." They had tested the motor's i.trength. They had seen known laws of physics violated, suspended pieces of wood non-magnetic, behaving like magnetized compass needles when brought under the influence of the machines, which ran with no explainable reason for going.

They had seen iron balls swimming' on water and various other phenomena which left them awe struck and dum-founded. They went away satisfied that the music of the spheres could drive an engine or be made to do galley slave work in the harness which Keely had all but perfected. His triune polar currents with their wonderful celestial outreach were Indisputable facts. Only a few unimportant improvements in the magic harness and all the machinery of the world could be driven by the costless power, a power which flowed in resistless strength from the depth of the infinite mind eternal volition. Money what was money in the fact ot this miracle? Hard earned savings, checks from the wealthy, drafts from the grateful in foreign countries poured in a steady stream into the hopper of the motor company anl disappeared as completely as though Keely's disintegrator had taken their chord mass.

IN THE LABORATORY. There was a graa similarity in the frequent exhibitions which Mr. Keely gave of his motor and the various phenomena he claimed to produce by means of his triune polar currents. By special invitation the spectators would meet at the Twentieth street laboratory on a day set by the inventor. If theguests were of special Importance there Would sometimes be an introductory exhibition, say the da previous, at which the dismantled' machines would be shown and the functions of the different parts explained.

By the next day Mr. Keely would have the parts together again, graduated or sensitized," and his motor ready for operation. The motor plant consisted, as Mr. Keely explained It, of: 1. The transmitter.

2. The motor or engine. These were connected by a transmitting wire. The transmitter was a hollow brass sphere or ball, resting in a heavy brass base. In the last transmitter this ball had been reduced 'to about the size of an orange.

In the older transmitters it was some ten Inches In diameter. Around the base of the transmitter projected, horizontally, a circle of steel rods, which vibrated and sounded like a tuning fork when twangedlby the fingers. This, was ithe dominant scale of the instrument. The interior of the globe contained two or more Chladni plates and! a group of brass resonating tubes, looking like a bunch of empty brass gun cartridges. This collection of brass tubes was called the shifting resonator.

From one side of the globe projected a small ball or knob called the graduating shift, which held the head of a long screw which passed into the center of the globe and enabled the operator to shift the resonating tubes backward or forward. This transmitter was the generator or awake.ner of the vibratory etheric force which ran the motor. It was an acoustic device simply. By twanging the proper rode in the dominant scale at the base of the transmitter, the various resonating tubes, 'phones and Chladni plates took up the vibrations, carrying the note up the musical scale with Infinite rapidity, conserving, multiplying and intensifying it, reducing the wave lengths of the vibrations' until they became, so rapid or fine as to be synchronous with the vibratory impulses of the magnetic currents flowing toward the north pole. Mr.

Keely said this stream was of a triple nature, the result of sympathetic interaction among the planets of our solar system, and! constituted an endless closed circuit. This vibratory impulse was carried from the transmitter by the wire to the motor, where, acting on the polar and depolar disks, it set the motor in motion, as will be explained later. THE MOTOR. The motor Itself consisted of a heavy iron hoop or band firmly supported on a bed plate. Within this hoop and revolving freely on a stationary axis, supported by costs at each end waa a SHAFT inlnjthe laboratory.

Mr. KinraMe fr of fraud. Till that moment our confidftc fl and honor was as firm as any of h. fr i thousands. Hero was a new elements.

affecting, however, only one machine, tx fa we knew, any cither of the numerous a. ployed. 1 Why this first evidence was rrotatwv further Investigations have shown, ares-it story. Cellar A- GuudJt 20, Fj --ys vitalized rubber tubing was found also to extend between the walls and ceiling from the water motor to a point under the Keely motor, then up through the stationary post of the engine, and to terminate in the binding post or socket into which the end of the wire was inserted which connected the motor with the transmitter. Further Investigation revealed the fact that there were in the laboratory different sets of transmitting wire, exactly alike In external appearance, but or.e was hollow, the other solid, both, as mentioned, about the size of a knitting needle, and with connecting tips that made Itimpossible to tell which was hollow and which solid, except by cutting or trying to blow through them.

A DUPLICATE TRANSMITTER. A duplicate, an exact copy In external appearance, was found of the latest perfected, transmitter, "the gradual perfection of years of patient study and improvement." The duplicate transmitter exactly resembled Us mate, but upon opening it the Chladni plates and the resonators were lacking. Instead was a I have on tahij. a weight, a disk said to be comnosed of niinv It looks like steel, measures two and one-half inches by three- Boston, Jan. CONCEALED ftEBBSR TUBE BY WHICH WATER MOTOR WAS STARTED AND STOPPED ww PHOTOGRAPH OF THK LATE-' JOHN Copyright.

C. C. Collier. Philadelphia, Pa-i WATER MOTOR double-walled hub, or drum, from which eight spokes projected toward the hoop. On the end of each spoke was a vitalized disk.

On the outer side of the hoop were nine series of resonators and an equal number of vitalized disks on the inner side of the hoop. By having one more disk on the hoop than there were disks on the spokes a dead center was avoided. A pulley attached to the revolving hub served as a means to transmit the power by a belt. AN EXHIBITION. The company having duly assembled, Mr.

Keely would point cut, in place, the parts examined the day previous, and before commencing the exhibition would explain the working of his motor somewhat as follows: In the conception of any machine heretofore constricted the medium for inducing a neutral center has never been found If it had. the difficulties of perpetual motion seekers would have ended and this problem would have become an established operating fact. It would" only require an introductory impulse on such a device to cause it to run for centuries. I did not feck to attain perpetual motion; but a circuit is formed thatactually Mas a neutral center which is In a condition to be vivified by my vibratory ether or polar stream, and while so fed Is an indenendent motor, as you will see." Thereupon Mr. Keely would strn to b( trcmnu.

rubber diaphragm stretched across the sphere, dividing it vertically into two air-tight compartments. The long screw, with its head in the little bulb on the side of the pphere, and which the exhibition, transmitter regulated the position of the resonator, in the duplicate transmi tter worked in a fine- thread' through a small brass plate clamped, in the center of the diaphragm. By turning the knob the diaphragm could be thrown, backward or forward. By connecting" the motor and the real transmitter by means of the hollow wire, then turning the knob in the proper direction, the diaphragm would be thrown forward, the air forced through the wire and down through its various connections to the water motor, releasing an automatic cut-off and setting the" water motor in motion. A more careful Investigation of the Keely motor showed that the stationary axis was hollow.

Within this hollow shaft, which was only a dummy, the real axle revolved, over one end of which passed the belt which ran down through the hollow post to the pulley underneath on the end of the iron shaft described; This inner axle, run by the belt, carried the hub of the motor and caused the same to revolve when It revolved. How simple! Yet this device, has been too much for eome of the best mechanical experts in the country, to Bay nothing of the crowd of open-mouthed laymen. Mr. Keely would work oft his philosophy, screw up his transmitter a little, -and while the air was finding its way to the water motor he would findi the proper chord. Then, presto! away went the engine, run by the sympathetic negative attraction of th triune polar streanu" In Ills, operating: room the remnants of robber tabes between the floor and 'walls.

In various places, and also receptacles for rubber bnlbs told how be could do the trick from various locations by pressing bis foot on a rubber bulb concealed under the carpet or In some out of-the-war place. lie often wonld take a harmonica into the adjolnlnar front room. and. looklna throuvh the connecting window, play Home, Sweet Home." "When he track the rlsrht chord away- would ko the motor. He would then stop and start It at will, as he played.

This was particularly effective. On at least ot the larger ana discarded transmitters is still intact with the rubber diaphragm, and works to perfection la making the compass needle 1 Diagram showing' concealed shafts, pulleys, bulbs, and rubber tube between the walls, ceilings, and floors connect ing the hidden water motor with the famous Keely motor. A KEELY CERTIFICATE OF STOCK. hi M.ri i fcs' TlV-: -'feV Ii Met, pm-y: IT. 9ft dominant scale-the steel pins running around the base meanwhile turnine- tTi i-nnh ik $1,000.

i transmitter to get the correct adjustment of the resonator within, and would soon strike the right note. Then the. harmonic resonant impulse, which was transmitted along the wire to the motor from the tra emitter, would awaken in the seneitlzed disks of the motor, with reference to the nutn.irh nr I or dominant current of the polar stream, alternating conditions of tive ojr.upai.iicuu negative attraction" and "sympathetic nnai-propulslon." As anecessarv 6i revoive witnin tne rim of the machine, and revolve. j- 1. A.

KEEtt woToa cowrjrr inuu h-HE FAMOUS TRICK HARMONICA WHICH PERFORMED "MIRACLES." It I )T WIRE. i i Js.