The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1896-02-18

THE SELF-SUPPLYING POWER MACHINE.
work ON this self-supplying power ma
chine for three years, and now has it
completed
The writer has not seen it, but Mr.. f.
A. Hersey, janitor of the Oxford building
has seen it, and he declares that the thing
works and that he believes in it, al
though he cannot explain it, He is a
friend of Mr.. Roher, the inventor, and
last summer visited him frequently while
he was building the machine. Mr.. Her.
sey Is a marine engineer and is of course
familiar with machinery. He visited
Long Island last Sunday ana describes
this second Keeley motor as follows:
The main feature of the machine is an
air compressor designated In the illustra-
tion by A. Exteriorly this is AN upright
cylinder of iron about IS inches in diane
ter ana "a inches in height. The inter-
Tor of this cylinder is the secret and the
mystery and the marvel of this wonder
full motor.
On top Of this engine are two wheels,
on an axle, to which is connected n
piston rod, B, that extends down into the
air com pressor. One of these wheels is
fly wheel. G, and the other is helt
wheel, D, connected by belt with u
tiny engine, E, just like any steam en-
CINE. 1t has cylinder about an inch by
an inch and half in dimensions. By
means of rubber pipe, B, this engine Is
supplied with compressed air from the
air compressor. This compressed air
| drives the engine just the same as steam
| would. The engine Of course turns the
wheel and that drives the piston up and
| down in the air compressor and supplies
| the compressed air. The compressed
air drives the engine and as Tommy
Traddles would say-'sthere you aren
But how do you start tho thing? Where
does the compressed air come from in the
first place? That is very simple. The
air compressor is supplied by hand air
pump that can be attached or detached
at will. Mr.. Roher pumps the air COM
pressor SO full of air that it indicates a
pressure of, say, 25 lbs, on the gauge and
them detaches the air pump. The air
compressor remains pumped up, just as a
bicycle tire does, or rather is supposed to
for bicycle tire always leaks. The air
compressor does not leak, because it is
made OF iron. Mr.. Roher turns a valve
and this 20 pounds of pressure is COM
inundated to the engine, which imme
diately begins to drive the piston, which
Immediately supplies additional COM
pressed air to tbs air compressor.
| EMF. Hersey says that last Sunday when
he saw the machine there was 2 pounds
of pressure on the air compressor. He
declares that he saw Mr.. Roher start up
the machine and that the engine supplied
compressed air so much faster than it
used it up. that the pressure went up five
pounds This happened in Mr.. Hersey' S
| presence and he is marine engineer and
he declares this to be true and says that
he believes that this engine supplies the
force that drives it, Mr.. Hersey &C
knowledges that this is a good deal like
| believing that man can lift himself by
his bootstraps, but nevertheless he was
forced TO believe his senses
| The motor was attached to some small
machinery that it drove, developing
4
about half horse power, Mr.. Roher
said. Mr.. Roher desired that it should
be stated in the PRESS that he has con-
tracted to supply Portland business
| firm, within three months, with a 90
horse power self supplying engine and
that he is going to organize a stock com
pany to manufacture these machines with
81, 0O0 900 capital.
He is backed by firm of Portland
bankers who do not wish their names to
appear.
| He does not claim that he has discoy-
cred perpetual motion, because OF oours-
the power of the machine cannot last
any longer than the material of which the
machine is made
| This is all age of maryels certainly.
Nobody would have said year ago that
it would be possible to photograph the
bones of living hand.