Keely, John (Ernst) Worrell (1837-1898)

Founder of the Keely Motor Company, formed to promote his inventions powered by energy claimed to be derived from "vibratory etheric force" or cosmic energy. Keely was born in Philadelphia on September 3, 1837, the son of a musician. He worked as a carpenter before developing his famous inventions. The Keely Motor Company was incorporated April 29, 1874. The company spent $60,000 on experimental work on Keely's first engine, called "the Multiplicator." The company attracted investment, which Keely spent on research, but he had no practical motor to show for the money.

In 1881 the managers threatened Keely with imprisonment if he did not disclose his secret. He did in fact spend a brief period in jail, but was befriended by Clara Sophia Bloomfield Moore, a Theosophist, who provided further funds for Keely's experiments and defended him from criticism. She wrote a stirring defense of his work: Keely and His Discoveries (1893).

In addition to the famous motor, Keely also demonstrated other devices, including a "compound disintegrator," a "musical ball," a "globe engine," a "pneumatic rocket gun," and a model airship, all powered by the same mysterious etheric force. He wrote articles purporting to explain this force, but they were shrouded in such resounding pseudotechnical jargon that they only deepened the mystery. For example, he spoke of "Vibro-Molecular, VibroAtomic, and Sympathetic VibroEtheric Forces as applied to induce Mechanical Rotation by Negative Sympathetic Attraction."

There was no doubt about the startling demonstrations of force given in his laboratory in Philadelphia, however, and many scientists, professors, and businessmen were greatly impressed.

After Keely's death on November 18, 1898, startling evidence of fraud was uncovered, and it has since been assumed that all his inventions were fraudulent. The real motive force seems to have been compressed air, concealed in cylinders in a secret basement and conveyed to each apparatus by thin hollow wires. In spite of these findings, many individuals even today believe that any fraud Keely committed may have been merely because of the intense pressure to show practical results and that there may have been some genuine basis to Keely's lifework. However, there is no evidence that Keely ever discovered a more powerful force than the inspired jargon of his theoretical expositions.

A similar mysterious motor was built by John Murray Spear.

Sources:

Moore, Clara Sophia Bloomfield. Keely and His Discoveries. London, 1893. Reprint, New Hyde Park, N.Y.: University Books, 1972.