"...and after my patents are taken out, I will devote the remainder of my life to aerial navigation, for I have the only true system to make it an entire success."
John Ernest Worrell Keely, 1884
"...thanks to apergy, the force whose existence the ancients suspected, but of which they knew so little, all things were possible."
John Jacob Astor,
A Journey In Other Worlds, 1894
During the quarter of a century that Keely experimented with his unique devices, it is alleged that he accidentally discovered a means to disintegrate matter, and built several devices for an astonishing series of antigravity experiments. Scattered throughout the articles are a few obscure references that he not only discovered a method to disintegrate matter, but at one time was involved in actual experiments with disintegration and had even constructed a device to do so at will.
One story by theosophist R. Harte has it that Keely, with the help of a small machine, was able to disintegrate a reef of quartz: "... twelve 'solid men' — millionaires — met by appointment in a laboratory in Philadelphia to witness an exhibition of the disintegration of quartz by a new method. They were mining magnates who had a tremendous interest in getting the gold out of quartz rock quickly and cheaply. The inventor obliged them by simply touching some blocks of quartz with a little machine he held in his hand, and as he touched each block it instantly crumbled into atomic dust. The specks of gold it contained stood out like boulders in a bed of sand. Then the twelve men solidly said: 'Mr. Keely, if you will in the same manner disintegrate some quartz for us in its natural place, we will each give you a check for — dollars.' So off they all went to the Katskill [sic] mountains, and there the twelve solid men pointed out a reef of quartz on the side of the mountain, as solid as themselves; and Mr. Keely took out his little machine and said: 'Gentlemen, please take the time.' In eighteen minutes there was a tunnel in that quartz mountain eighteen feet long and four and a half feet in diameter. ...All these men bound themselves to secrecy; and this is the first time that this incident has been made public. How was the quartz disintegrated? That is one of Keely's secrets."1
It was not true that this was the first time that this incident appeared in print; almost a year before, a newspaper had already published the tale of the alleged mysterious meeting at the Catskill Mountains, of which we get none the wiser: "Let me add that recently, in the presence of several gentlemen interested in mining operations, Mr. Keely bored with his engine eighteen feet in eighteen minutes sheer into the quartz rock of the Katskill [sic] Mountains."2
At one time, Keely allegedly also directed his disintegration research to experiments with dead tissue. Blavatsky assured her readers on two occasions that Keely somehow was able to disintegrate a "dead bullock" into a "heap of ashes" or even into "atoms,' in just "a few seconds."3 While she states this as a fact, at the same time her statements are of the shortest and vaguest kind; for instance, she does not tell when this particular experiment took place or how Keely achieved it. It is therefore impossible to establish whether Blavatsky's statements were based on hearsay, were meant as an embellishment of an already incredible career, or were based on accounts of an actual experiment.
According to Bloomfield-Moore, in 1878 Keely discovered his means to disintegrate matter while he was working on his vibratory lift: "while experimenting on the improvised multiplication by this medium, he had occasion to put a piece of marble, weighing twenty-six pounds, on a steel bar to hold it in place, when then and there his first discovery of the disintegration of mineral substance took place."4
However, she dates the true genesis of this most unusual discovery as far back as 1875, when he was experimenting on his hydro-pneumatic-pulsating-vacuo engine, when, "accidentally, the first evolution of disintegration was made."5 Some confirmation as to the accidental nature of his discovery comes from Harte, although he gives a different version: "The disintegration of rock is, however, a very small and accidental effect of that tremendous force that lies behind the 'secret.' Indeed, that particular application of the force was a chance discovery. One day the inventor was studying the action of currents of ether playing over a floor upon which he had scattered fine sand, — the ether was rolling the sand into ropes, — when a block of granite, which was used for fastening back a door, disintegrated under his eyes. He took the hint, and in a few days he had made a 'vibratory disintegrator.'"6
While Harte would want his readers to believe that Keely built his device in a few days, Keely himself stated that it took a much longer time: "I have been repeatedly urged to repeat my disintegration of quartz rock; but it has been utterly out of my power to do so. The mechanical device with which I conducted those experiments was destroyed at the time of the proceedings against me. Its graduation occupied over four years, after which it was operated successfully. It had been originally constructed as an instrument for overcoming gravity; a perfect, graduated scale of that device was accurately registered, a copy of which I kept; I have since built three successive disintegrators set up from that scale, but they did not operate. This peculiar feature remained a paradox to me until I solved the conditions governing the chords of multiple masses; when this problem ceased to be paradoxical in its character."7
After these intriguing but slight references and Keely's admission that he was not able to reproduce the disintegration process, we hear no more of this line of research, even though Keely admitted that he had solved the underlying problem. Although an elaborate theoretical expose found its way into Bloomfield-Moore's book,8 Keely very probably never pursued this line of research any further, and his disintegration of "rock into impalpable powder" became quite legendary in 1894, and was by then remembered as a "wonder" that he had done in the past.9
Likewise, his experiments with antigravity, then referred to as levitation, or "vibratory lift" or "vibratory push-process," as he called it, are shrouded in uncertainties. There is no indication of a specific date or year in which he started these experiments. A view of his early antigravity experiments (before 1890) can only be reconstructed with the greatest difficulty. If he took notes while experimenting, these are now lost. He built several devices with which to manipulate gravity, but although several of these sketchy descriptions have survived, it is not known how many antigravity devices he actually built. The only documentation that we have consists of inaccurate and superficial contemporary newspaper articles, several theosophical sources, a maze of entangled accounts — often gratuitously and distortingly copied by other writers — tantalizing hints and remembrances by people often trusted to paper as much as 10 years after the time period.
In addition, a suspicious cloak of vagueness and secrecy surrounds this area of his research. This vagueness and the dubious quality of the sources make a reconstruction of his antigravity experiments all the more difficult.
In 1878, Keely started experimenting with his system for vibratory lift, of which a method of disintegration branched. There is a slight but highly intriguing reference that three years later his system for vibratory lift may have led to a completed device of some sort. In October 1881, a reporter visited Keely's workshop, "at that time Keely had most of the lower apartment tightly boarded up, and the reporter, who thought an able mule or other source of mechanical power was concealed in the enclosure, tried in vain to induce Keely to open it. Keely said the enclosure contained a secret device that he invented for a California gentleman to lift heavy weights. Although this invention was said to be perfected at the time, there is reason to doubt the accuracy of Keely's statement, as no record exists unto this day (1885) of the application of the machine."10
Even if this is a correct account we may probably never know what Keely was hiding from view, who the unnamed gentleman from California was or why he felt the need to keep this particular device secret. We could speculate that this "secret device to lift heavy weights" was in fact a completed and fully operational antigravity device. We could further conjecture that, since the device wa
s "secret," of course no record of its use existed. As we will see in chapter 12, there are several reasons to attach more value to this slight but puzzling reference.
Whatever the true nature of this device that he carefully kept secret, in 1884 he obviously foresaw the ultimate possibilities that his experiments might yield: ".. .after my patents are taken out, I will devote the remainder of my life to aerial navigation, for I have the only true system to make it an entire success in the vibratory lift and the vibratory push-process."11 The term "push-process" evolved out of his philosophy concerning gravity: "As to the 'law of gravity,' it appears in the light of Keely's experiments, but one manifestation of a law of very much wider application — a law which provides for the reversion of the process of attraction in the shape of a process of repulsion."12
But there, Keely's visionary mind did not stop; the force that propelled his engines was "the sympathetic attractive, — the force which, according to his theories, draws the planets together. While in his system of aerial navigation, should he live to perfect it, he will use a negation of this force, — the same that regulates the motion of the planets in their recession from each other."13
In 1887, a newspaper mentioned that Keely "has been making a flying machine...," a description unfortunately so vague that nothing can be learned from it, although the article published "a part of his explanation of its principle": "This machine will be capable of making a sympathetic outreach of a distance great enough about itself to not only neutralize the effects of gravitation, but to permit the engine and its equipment, no matter how heavy or heavily burdened, to keep it."14
More reports of his antigravity experiments before 1890 can be found in a small number of theosophical publications. Blavatsky, for instance, wondered what it was that "acts as the formidable generator of invisible but tremendous force, of that power which is not only capable of driving an engine of 25 horsepower, but has even been employed to lift the machinery bodily?"15 Although Blavatsky devotes several pages to Keely and his theories, on the point of his antigravity research, such as his disintegration of dead tissue, she unfortunately is not specific.
R. Harte, another theosophist, is specific though. We've already seen how Harte suitably forgot to mention that his account of Keely's disintegration was published before, and again he is vague to the point of total absence in citing sources or circumstances. In 1888, the same year that The Secret Doctrine was published, Harte referred to a demonstration: "One of Keely's scientific experiments is to put a small wire around an iron cylinder that weighs several hundred weight, and when the force runs through the wire, to lift the cylinder up on one finger and carry it as easily as if it were a piece of cork."16
Five years later, the continuation of Harte's description found its way into Bloomfield-Moore's book about Keely, but without the graphic description about iron cylinders attaining the weight of "cork" or the mention of Harte as the source, even though she asserted that the demonstration was witnessed by Ricarde-Seaver. Ricarde-Seaver, who might also have been Harte's source, saw how "... Keely, by means of a belt and certain appliances which he wore upon his person, moved a 500 horsepower vibratory engine single-handed from one part of his shop to another. There was not a scratch on the floor, and astounded engineers declared that they could not have moved it without a derrick, which to bring into operation would have required the removal of the roof of the shop. Of course it is but a step in advance of this to construct a machine which, when polarized with a 'negative attraction,' will rise from the earth and move under the influence of an etheric current at the rate of 500 miles an hour, in any given direction. This is, in fact, Keely's airship."17
According to Bloomfield-Moore, Keely also either built a scale model of his airship or used a model of an airship that was not of his design and conducted experiments with it: "In demonstrating what seems to be the overcoming of gravity for aerial navigation, Mr. Keely used a model of an airship, weighing about eight pounds, which when the differentiated wire of silver and platinum was attached to it, communicating with the sympathetic transmitter, rose, descended, or remained stationary midway, the motion as gentle as thistledown floating in the air."18
Unfortunately she too, cites no source and no exact date, nor does she elaborate on the exact design of the airship model. As far as is known, no photo was ever taken of his model, or of what must have been a spectacular demonstration. From her statement it is not clear if she herself witnessed the demonstration, or if it was just hearsay. We are thus left dangling in mid-air, and only have her word for it that this demonstration actually took place as described. No newspaper referred to this experiment. Since this wonderful description was bound to stimulate the imagination, writers later copied this passage without mentioning Bloomfield-Moore as their source.19
Around 1889, Keely was still lifting objects of immense weight. When the enormous metal sphere was found that signaled the coming exposure, Jefferson Thomas stated that Keely had used it for one of those experiments, "over ten years ago" before Thomas' statement was published by a Philadelphia newspaper in 1899. He gave a short description, analogous to Harte's account: "He attached a small wire to the sphere and connected the other end of the wire with his hat or the lapel of his coat, or some other article or apparel, on his person, where he always had a small vibratory apparatus. He would then, by this force, lift the 6,000 pound sphere."20
While no description of this demonstration was published in the 1889 newspapers, 1890 would mark Keely's often-publicized experiments with the lifting of weights-in-jars that contained water,21 which, contrary to the demonstration with his model airship, were photographed. As far as is known, Keely would never repeat his demonstration with the small scale model of an airship, although Bloomfield-Moore considered his weights-in-jars demonstrations as a repetition of that particular experiment.22
Perhaps the start of his weights-in-jars experiments in the spring of 189023 prompted Bloomfield-Moore to print a pamphlet in London the same year, suggestively entitled "Aerial Navigation," meant for distribution among shareholders in the United States. She had always been fascinated with the prospects of achieving flight. She knew early aviation pioneer Hiram Maxim, and Keely readily acknowledged that she helped steer the application of the results of his antigravity research towards a system of flight.24
The pamphlet did not contain clarifications concerning Keely's antigravity research. It merely stated that "...he has now turned his attention to aerial navigation, for which the force he has discovered can be used without an engine." The remainder consisted of reprints of articles about Keely and the text of the contract between him and Bloomfield-Moore. Collier, however, refused to distribute the pamphlet amongst the stockholders.25
Also in 1890, Professor Joseph Leidy witnessed Keely's experiment in raising a weight by striking a "sympathetic tone": "Dr. Leidy was asked this question: 'doctor, is it true that this unknown force has actually before your eyes overcome the force of gravity with which we are familiar?' And the answer, slowly, deliberately, was: 'I see no escape from that conclusion.'" Keely stated in plain language that he expected "to solve the problem of aerial navigation... for I can already move a weight up and down in the atmosphere, or even in vacuum. ...What is the force with which I do this? The same sympathetic, attractive force that holds the planets together."26
At the beginning of the demonstration, Keely attached one end of his platinum-silver wire to his transmitter. The other end was fastened in the metal cap that covered a glass jar. ".. .This was a glass jar such as chemists use, set on a heavy wooden table about five feet away from the transmitter. Upon examination, the jar proved to have a solid glass bottom. It was about 40 inches high and 10 inches in diameter. It was filled with what looked, smelled and tasted like Schuyikilli water. On the bottom of the jar, clearly visible through the water and resting directly on the glass, lay three iron disks, a two-pound, a one-pound and a half-pound weight, such as one sees in the scales of a grocery store. The weights wer
e examined and weighed by several of those present, and were found to be what they purported to be."
Keely took "a bit of string out of his pocket," and wound it around the little brass spindle in front of the cylinder on the top of his transmitter, then "jerked the loose end and set the spindle whirring." Then he "sat down by the transmitter and began striking the strings of what looked like a harp in the cupboard-like base of the transmitter. ...While one hand was playing on the strings of this 'harp,' the other was moving tentatively about on the resonant rods on tops of the base of the transmitter, just beneath the cylinder where the spindle was whirring. Keely claimed that when the same note on both rods and harp strings was struck, the •force was at that instant... generated, or set in action...' All depended on the exact note, for perhaps there was a false note. The mass of weights at the bottom of the jar of water only quivered: one of them toppled off and fell to the bottom. Then all remained motionless."
He again sounded the "harp" in the cupboard and the resonant bars on top of it, explaining to Leidy that he was trying "to get the mass-chord of those weights. Every aggregation of molecules or of matter has a sympathetic chord, through the medium of which I can operate my vibratory force." The chord was not found for some minutes. Again the spindle was spun by the help of the twine and "its whiz was distinct in the silence of the room. The search for the mass-chord continued on the 'harp' and the resonant rods. A deep, clear note resounded from both at the same time, and at the instant it broke on the ear the weight that lay on the bottom of the j ar by itself quivered and then slowly but steadily moved up through the water, as if impelled by some irresistible force, until it impinged on the top of the jar."27
A year later in 1891, Keely once again confidently stated that, "I see no possibility of failure as I have demonstrated my theories are correct in every particular, as far as I have gone and if my depolarizer is perfect, I will be prepared to demonstrate the truth of disintegration, cerebral diagnosis, aerial suspension and dissociation, and to prove the celestial gravital link of sympathy as existing between the polar terrestrial and equation of mental disturbance of equilibrium. "28
Free Energy Pioneer- John Worrell Keely Page 26