Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-12-06

KELLY AND HIS MOTOR
failed TO develop into commercial engine
that would perform the 'rorl, Of electricity
or steam. Furthermore, Kccly guards tho
secret Of his machine with jealous vigil
t'"cc. He win not take ont a patent on
II. He refuses to permit experts to look it
over at will and satisfy themselves that
clever trickcrv and not primitive atomic
motion is the secret of the mysterious
force he claims to have discovered and
chained.
Notwithstanding these facts, however
kccly las succeeded in pcrSuading capital
lists to turn over to him hundreds of thou
sands of dollars for experimental work.
and one capitalist at least is yet furnishing
him with means to continue his work.
Renewed interest in Kccly and his in
vrntion was aroused recently by the re-
port that John Jacob Astor, who is of a
mechanical turn of mind. had acquired II
block of stock in the Kccly enterprise and
expected to profit largely when the motor
began to "motc." Aston, at the solicita-
tiun of Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, the wealthy
woman who has for number of years
past furnished Kccly with all the money
ne needed, visited Philadelphia and saw
the motor IN operate ion, but no explanation
of it, workings was vouchsafcd ny The in
Nentor. kcriy told the young muitimil-
lonairc that the machine was not quite
completed YVt-it has been in the same ad-
Vnuccd state for about 20 years-and AS
tor. it is understood, declined To invest
Inventor Kcclv was born i'm Phiadel-
phia Sept. 3, 1881. He ATTENDED the pub
lie .chuols until ne was IL years of are and
then became carpenter ; apprentice. He
continued To he II carpenter until he was
30 years old bat meantime became inter
estDd i'm ~pcculutions concerning physical
forces and originated many remarkable
theories. The vibrations of windows and
glass dishes in response to the sounding of
various musical chords led him to believe
that the waves of sound and light could be
chained by science and made to perform
the work that is now done by steam and
electricity. He claimed that with six drops
of water and pint of air he could produce
and store in very few minutes IA force
called interatomic ether. This force was
released from the mir and water by means
of vibration, and the vibration was pro-
duccd by IA blow upon metal, by the tap
ping Of u tuning fork, by tine scraping Of
a fiddle bow, the twanging of "a either and
in many other similar ways.
In 1872 kocly succeeded in interesting
Motor company was formed In - years
over 5000 600 was advanced to him Tor cx-
perlmcntal work by the stockholders
krely invented what he called "hydro-
pneumatic pulsatng vacuo machine, 4"
whose action, he alleged, was produced by
forces obtained from water and air by
means of sound vibrations. These forces
he claimed, cXerted pressure of 800
pounds to the square inch. During the 10
years Keely constructed 1874 engines and
finally declared that he was able to pro-
duce his mysterious force by means of air
and vibration alone. He also invented a
motor gun, from which bullets were cx-
PEELED by his mysterious force, and SUCCESS
full tests were made at the government
range at Sandy Hook.
As the years passed and the stockholders
saw none of their money coming back
they became very impatient, but Kecly de-
Clared that the machine was "almost fin
ishod. Fora time this statement quietcd
them, but thoY finally ceased supplying
him with money, and proceedings were
brought 10 compel him to explain to a
committee of experts the workings of his
machine. The courts commanded him To
do 50, but he refused. Judge Finlcttrr of
Philadelphia committed him for contempt
Of court ana on Nov H. 1883, Kccly was
incarccratcd in Moyamcnsing prison. A
few days later he was released on "a writ OF
habeas corpus Finally the court APP
pointed IA scientist acceptable to Nccly and
the stockholders, and to this expert, under
strict pledge of secrecy, kecly explained
the mysterious workings of his motor
The expert reported to the Stockholders
that keely really had IA good thing and
| was not an impustOr This was all very