The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-07-31

| danger TO life and limb. The large
tunnel at Niagara Falls through which
the water of the recently-eStab lished
water company flows from the turbine
wheels was bored in an almost incon-
eelvable short space of time by the use
OF rock drills run by compressed air.
The tunnel IS something over seven
thousand two hundred feet long, and,
IN round figures. twenty feet in diam
eter inside of its brick walls. This
enormous hole was rushed through the
ground by those compressed air rock
drills In six months. at a cost of some
thing like four hundred thousand dol
lars. Where frequent air shafts are
possible a tunnel ten miles long can be
made with compressed air power as
quickly as the same tunnel one mile
long can be bored with any other kind
OF applied energy. Oh, yes: when it
comes to the consideration of motive
power it will not do to leave the elastic
atmosphere out of the question, for its
power IS incomprehensible when II is
applied in the proper way.
Iou have heard. of course. of Keeley,
has made many preposterous claims for
his motor, and the principle which he
asserts is involved in his invention is
its power 70 release the inherent force
of nature by which the atoms that
form matter are held together, and
then TO apply this force to mechanics
under restricting guidance. Several
years ago committee of the most en-
inent engineers in the east were select
ed to visit Keeley's workshops and re-
ceiye a practical illustration of the
power of his motor. 1t would take a
week to describe all the wonderful
proceedings that occurred on the occa-
sion of that visit. The interior of the
building was cut into various apart
ments; there were wires running every
where, and glass sounding tubes and
metal contra ptions of the same sort, of
different sizes and lengths, scattered
all over the place. Hung upon one
side of one apartment was an immense
tuning fork, and Kelley would draw
bass violin bow across this instrument
and produce heavy sound, then rush
around like a mailman, tapping the
various sounding tubes and listening
intently to the effects, ever and again
running from one room to another and
turning cocks and keys and doing all
sorts of mysterious things. He ex-
planned that certain harmony was
needed before the power that he was
seeking to release conld burst its
bounds and pass to his control When
everything was arranged according to
Mr.. keeley's ideas the members of the
committee were taken into an apart
ment, in the center of which was a
transparent glass cylinder filed with
water. At its bottom was a large
piece of steel. The experiment was ex-
pected to result in causing the force
that held the atoms OF a drop of water
together to become released and then
to be used to make the metal rise TO
the surface of the water. Kelley la
sored for a long time with his various
mysterious appliances, but failed to
accomplish the desired result.
Mr.. Charles II. Cramp, the we'll
known ship builder, was a member of
the committee, and the others were
men equally well known and eminent
in the world of mechanics. Mr.. Cramp.
/ believe it was, tapped one of the nu-
merous wires which gridironed the
workshop, and discovered that it was
hollow. keeley'S attention was called
to it, and he said that such was the
case and that he had had them made
that way. It was the opinion of sew
eral of the committee that Kelley was
nsing compressed air, by means of
these wires in the experiments that
appeared TO be SO wonderful to pro-
spective purchasers of the motor stock,
but that he was afraid to apply IL in
the presence of such a committee for
fear it might be discovered, and the
mysterious character of his invention
and its consequent power to secure the
financial support of wonder-seelzers de-
stroyed,