New-York tribune., 1898-11-27
er the man was clever fraud or the au'"o' -
some precious discovery
HIS PECULIAR PHRASEOLOGY.

,,.orio erusion entitled The Veil With
.r.,vn - printed in a magazine more than three
wears ago. had a good deal to say about sym
nathetic physics" polar negative at'ractIon'
the latent current OF the trunc polar now
celestial outreach" etc. Ihe rcauer ie' a'
moments as if there might possibly De some
sense TO this sort of thing. There "ou'u "e
rlimmerings Of an idea here and there III this
singular talk. but by those who were accuS-
toned to the use Of terms whose s'eh'"ca"ee
was well understood by the persons addressed,
such language was naturally received Win 'i.-
natience. Moreover, Keey himself seemed TO
change his ground from time to time, MS eA-
plantations and apparatus varying more or eS'
at successive exhibitions.
But. reduced to plain English. his pretence
u,,s this. II one niece N machinery were
devised that would produce vibrations, ana an
other that was sensitive to vibrations, the lat
ter might he made TO respond to the eXcitetheh'
of IN. former Now, within certain limits Ihis
was intcuigible and reasonable talk. The prin-
ci,lo of 'r,sonance' in sound and electricity -
well established Marconi uses apparatus 10
,roduce electromagnetic waves ana aho-he'
deyice a "cohcrer" picks them up AT diSla"oe
And that is the essence OF wireless 'ecS'ap"'
Arain. the musician sets up two tunihs'orAs
whose rates of vibration are exactly aHHe' a"'
when ne strikes the other Immediately
c,nits the same note, in sympathy.
ETHERIC FORCE
p,, tboro 10 one unique point Of difference
between these two instances of synpatheI'S
vibration" and Keely's. The Marconl appara-
tus and the tuning fork do not develop Hore
force than is employed in the exciting process
There is merely a transfer of energy ahd' usu-
alIv with more or less loss; but heeiy pre-
tended to think that he obtained 'aS'S
greater amount Of force than ne useu 10 s'ai.
his machinery. In other words, ne assu'ne"
the existence Of an additional store OK energy
In the ether. and alleged that ms mechah'si"
liberated" the stored-up force Puttihg tne
penerator or transmitter of his apparatus In
operation was like pulling the trigger Oh .
loaded gun. The results were entirely dispro
portionate to the effort required TO ignite tne
cartridge and depended upon something al
ready confined, as it were, under pressure, ana
needing only some trfling vibratory excitement
to release it.
Sometimes Keely's language suggested the
idea that this force resided in the ether itseiF;
and as physicists have been accustomed 10
think of the ether as merely medium for the
transmission Of energy-light from the sun 10
the earth for instance, or the attraction OF
|
were indisposed to accept without proof, the
theory that the ether was reservoir OF energy.
too. Even had the suggestion Of Lord Kelvin
and Helmholtz, that the ether was attenuated
matter in the form Of vortex rings, been dem
onstrated to be a fact. 1t would still be
question how any Of that motion could be ex-
tracted from the rings.
There have been hints that Keely might get
his force from the vibrations Of atoms of mat
ter: and, as the notion that atoms are in con-
slant state Of vibration, In both solids and
| LIQUIDS IS looked upon with favor by many
chemists n superficial consideration Of that
doctrine would encourage the suppostion that
this motion might somehow be translated into
| mechanical power. But one has attempted
| TO indicate how such an operation could be con-
Quoted And in a very recent statement OF his
theory made last March, Keey himself ignored
the ether and the vibrations Of atoms as q
source Of energy, and explained the effects
which he produced by calling in the earth's
polar negative currents" whatever these may
| be. He never told any one what they were
though ne insisted that his cosmc force was all
together different from electricity, magnetism
and gravity
| 1t does not seem probable that Keely was
more dishonest than the majority Of inventors
He may have resorted to certain tricks as tenn
porary subt.rfuges. and he doubtless expert
enced many disappointments In his efforts to
harness what he believed to be force never
before recognized. But, granting the mans
| sincerity, II is credible that he deceived
| by phenomena which he did not fully under
stand. Whether he really got hold Of agent
| bum m m