Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1899-04-06
kEElN AND HIS CoSMlC FORCE
tbs Obscure Explanations and Can.
tiouS Exhibitions.


keely as the peculiar phyaseology en-.
ployed by him and By his CHAMPION
Mrs, Bloomfield Moore Mrs. Moore.
In raphsodIc effusion entitled 'srhs,
Veil withdrawn" printed In a maya.
Hine more than three years ago. had a.
good deal to say about Sympathetic,
physics, polar negative attraction"
the latent current OF the triune polar
dow," celestial outreach." etc, The,
reader felt at moments as II there.
might possibly he some sense to this
sort or thing. There would be glim.
merIngs OF an Idea hero and there In.
this singular talk. but by those who
were accustomed to the use OF terms
whose Significance was well under
stood By the persons addressed. such,
language was naturally received with
Impotence, Moreover. Keely himself
seemed to change his ground from time
to time, his explanations and appara-
tus varying more or less at successive
exhibitions
hut, reduced to plain English. hts
pretonse was this II one piece OF ma
chincty were devised that would pro-
duce vibrations, and another that was,
sensitive to vibrations. the latter
might be made to respond to the OK
element OF the former Now, within,
certain limits. this was Ineligible and,
reasonable tank. Tho principle or
resonance" In sound and electricity To-
we'll established, Maraconl uses appa-
ratus to produce electro ma gnettc.
waves, and another device, a "coher-
er," picks them up ut n distance. And,
that Is tho essence OF wireless teleEra-
ply, Again, tho musician sets up two,
tuning forks whose rates of vibrations
are exactly alike, and when no strikes
one the othor Immediately emlts the
same note, In sympathy,
But there Ia one unique point OF dir
ference between these two instances
of sympathetic vibration" and Keely'a
The Marconl apparatus and the tun-
Ing fork do not develop more force
than Is employed IN the exciting pro.
cess, There Ia merely n transfer or
energy. and, usually, with more or less
loas; but Koely pretended to think
that he obtained a vastly greater
amount Of force than ho used to start
his machinery. In other words. he
assumed the existence OF an additional
store Of energy In tho ether, and al
legged that his mechanism liberated
the stored-up force. Putting the gen
orator. or trnnsmitter. OF his appara-
t,,o Ia, ten h.,
trigger of loaded gun. The results
were entirely dlsproportlonate TO the
effort required to Ignite the cartridge.
and depended upon something already
confined. as II were. under pressure.
and needing only some trlfiing vibras
tory excitement to release It.
Sometimes Koely's language sug-
gesled tho idea that this force resided
In the ether ltBelf and as physicists
have been accustomed to think OF the
ether M merely medium for tho
transmission of energy light from
the sun to the earth. for Instance. or
the attraction OF gragitation from one
mass to another--they were indisposed
to accept, without proof, tho theory
that the ether was a reservoir OF ener-
Ky, too. Even had the suggestion OF
Lord Kelvin and IclmhoItz. that the
ether was attenuatcd matter, In the
form OF vortex rings. been demon
stTated to be fact. II would still be n
question how any OF that motion could
be extracted from the rings.
There have been hints that keely
might get his force from tho yibra-
lions OF atoms Of matter; and. as the
notion that atoms are In a constant
state OF vibration. in both solids and
liquids, Ia looked upon with favor by
many chemists, superficial consider
alton OF that doctrine would encour-
age the superstition that this motion
might somehow be translated into mo.
chanical power. But no one has at
alton could be conducted. And In a
very recent statement OF his theory
made last March. Keely himself ig
nored the ether and the vibrations
Of atoms as source OF energy, and
explained the effects which he pro-
duced by calling In "the earth's polar
negative currents" whatever these
may be. He never told anyone what
they were, though he insisted that his
cosmic force was altogether different
from electricity, magnetism and gray
ity.
II does not seem probable that Keely
was more dishonest than the majority
- t.. ha.F tAA
to certain tricks as temporary subter-
fuges, and he doubtless experienced
many dlsappointments in his efforts 10
harness what he believed to be force
never before recognized. But, grant
ing the mans sincerity, 1t Is credible
that he was deceived by phenomena
which he did not fully understand.