Wilmington daily commercial., 1875-10-02
Contributed. for the Commercial.
ALONE WITH A MOTOR FIEND,
A Terrible Hours Experience The Soap Power
Let Loose.

Since the first public mention WAS made Of
! the "Keeley Motor" there seems to have been
given to invention new impetus, and mechan-
ical genius promises to develop novelties, at
least in the application Of power il not in actual
ly producing forces hitherto unknown to the sci
entific world.
The ground upon which the assertion is made
was an exhibition of which We were recently the
sole, and almost an unfortunate, Witness At
the request of the inventor, no description has
yet been given.of his machine by the many prac-
tical men who have seen it but now that he is
assured Of it's SUCCESS he permits us to break the
seal of silen 70 and publish an account, though
necessarily an imperfect one, of what must prove
formidable rival of the Keeley apparatus.
Calling at our friends residence to ascertain
why and where he had been hiding we were ad-
mitted by himself, wlo in his wan and emaci-
ated appearance WAS almost unrecognizable.
He explained that he had been working &C.
crety, day and night for weeks, with but little
food or rest, upon what when announced to the
world. would starte every scientific mind and
eclipse the astonishment which the Keeley Mo-
tor had awakened Upon his invitation we pro-
ceeded to a room next the roof, fitted up with
appliances and tools for machine work; and we
entered expecting to zee boiler and net work
Of pipes entangling, as it were an elaborate
ly constructed and complicated piece of mech
anism. Expressing our disappointment, our friend
merely smiled and pointed to corner Of the
room where stood modest looking little object
of brass and iron upon two strong, duInpy
feet. 1t consisted OF body or generator"
about the size of small watermelon, egg
shaped, with point uppermost. This rested I'M
mediately upon the feet and was surmounted
by flattened sphere called the head or .'con-
tainer" in which were arranged set OF small
valves inserted through two circular openings
which were then closed by two polished brass
plugs screwed in. These plugs were at the
front OF the sphere near the top and looked not
unlike pair OF eyes, which likeness wac ".
creased by sort OF nasal projection between
and just below the plugs. This was the stem to
a valve within called the "Starter," and Just be-
low this again WAS an obong cover screwed over
an opening the shining heads OF the screws re-
sembling two rows OF rather widely spread teeth
in grinning mouth this sphere, with its at
tachments presented the oldest caricature Of
head and face that one could imagine. 1t was
secured to the body or generator by short,
thick pipe which was very appropriately termed
the "neck."
To tho body, on each aide was attached by
ball and socket a long arm-ike pipe, thick a
mans wrist and provided in the middle Of its
length with joint like elbow, which enabled
it to be extended. or reyolved IN all directions.
At the lower ends Of these arms, which rested
upon the floor some inches in front of the ma
chine they were provided with "T"ends, cont aim
ing valves whose office we cannot now describe,
although minutely explained by the inventor
One Of these pipes was called the ''respirator"
and the other the "pulsator."-
Altogether, the apparatus presented the ap-
pearance of prodigious strength OF construction;
but az we viewed 1t we could only with difficulty
suppress a smile of incredulity and contempt for
the insignificant locking object, bearing, it did
a singuarly grotesque and comioal resemblance
to a short-legged dwarf with Its rotund and dis
proportioned body, clad as it were, in a stout
front, closely studded with many bolts as
there were buttons once worn on the breast of n
court-pages livery. Its small head, with the two
shining plugs turned up to our face like pair
of eyes wearing an imprudent expression, which
seemed to say" Well, what do you think of
me ?" The handled stem OF the Starter, " the
mouth-like cover, and the jointed arm-like pipes
at the sides, completed the almost human anat-
omy Of this strange looking figure. In the res
pirator," pipe near the body. was cavity
through winch the ,"generator' was supplied
and then covered with screw cap.
We requested to be shown the operation of
the apparatus, and by our united effort We NOV
cd it into the middle of the floor, and while the
inventor prepared for his experiment. we assumed
the popular Office role of intt7Uieoer and put
numerous questions to him, his replies to which
we will endeavor to condense as follows You
observed the weight of this generator greatly
dsproportionate To it's size this s caused by the
great thickness Of the metal which leaves but a
to contain the diaphragm plates and
series of small bent tubes which fill up
tho interior. You would be surprised to see
its simplicity of construction and when L assure
you that the generator Is perfectly empty OF
every element from which the force is developed
YOU will be still more astonished to learn that
this tumbler full of water. which you saw me
draw from the hydrant, is the only fluid used in
the apparatus have only TO unscrew this cap
in the respirator pipe pour in the water and in
sert in the cavity a piece of this substance
which, from its odor, you will at once pronounce
and quite correctly, nothing but the commonest
bro,cn sodp-the porst is the best (Which by
the by is somewhat contradictory If soap
should not be available then any fatty substance
such as pork. piece of talow candle, ham-sand-
wich, cheese, (Schwetzer is good)
will answer rs well Indeed l
have run the machine for twenty'four hours
with a scrap of stale bread and butter, which
one of the children left on my workbench, and
which curiosity led me to try. From which we
must conclude that bread-especially stale
bread-contains latent force truly wonder
ful. But / forgot that this power-this
strength-might have been in the butter, 30
that the bread may not be essential. have
thought that supply OF short-cake in this
generator would about equal the effect PRO-
duced by Keeley's apparatus. That, ,however,is to
be tested. But to proceed with our experiment
~ will screw on the cap andiwhile we wait a
few minutes for the pressure to accumulate,
will tell you that many scientific and wealthy
gentlemen have waited upon me Offering me
every inducement to become superintendent Of
a company they wished to incorporate for the
manufacture and sale Of my apparatus.
'I can have my choice of a number Of hand
somely furnished brown stone houses in any
part Of New York city.
"The company starts with acspital OF five mil
lion dollars and the amount of stock to be un-
limited. NY salary as Superintendent guaran-
teed to be fifty thousand dollars per annum.
But, with all the splendid prospect,s 81 say. Gen
tlemen, wait t;-within one month will have per-
fected my plans and then it will bs time 60 ap-