Some months after his death, a magazine revived a passing memory of what was perhaps the greatest of Keely's ideas: "It should not be forgotten that Keely predicted that the flying-machine, for which the century has been waiting, would come to pass the moment his motor stood completed."53
Nevertheless, it had been an original and innovative concept and such a legendary endeavor! And in time, legend it would become. Keely's antigravity experiments would be adorned with all the qualities and distortion that legends are made of. And so it became written, although suitably vague, that Keely "... successfully demonstrated a gravitational device to leading scientists of that time,"54 probably meaning but without saying so, Keely's weights-in-jars demonstrations as witnessed by Prof. Leidy and others.
Sometimes the facts would be mixed together into an entirely different story: "In November 1874 John Worrell Keely exhibited in Philadelphia a fuel-less motor without any apparent source of power, now believed to have been a novel, antigravity device; he was said to have been mysteriously silenced, his invention destroyed."55
Recently it was written that he "demonstrated a free-energy flying platform to the bewildered representatives of the American War ministry in 1862... he could get out of his contraption free-energy propulsion..."56
Notwithstanding the enthusiasm of these claimants, it needs to be pointed out here that this time period is adequately reconstructed in chapter 1, and that Keely at that time was still a year away from his work on an engine that he called a "reacting vibratory motor." As far as is known, he never demonstrated a free-energy flying platform to United States representatives.
The allegation that in 1896 he demonstrated an aerial craft on an open field to representatives of the United States War Department and several members of the press is relative to time periods more on the mark, but based on the documentation that is at hand, unfortunately equally unfounded and at best speculative.57 We have seen, based on contemporary sources, that Keely was still perfecting his system for aerial navigation in 1897, and 1896 would see no accounts in the press of such a demonstration, which, considering the state of affairs in the Keely history, would certainly have drawn headlines. Then again, the very same year would see the beginning of the great 19th century airship wave, during which thousands of Americans claimed to have seen those inexplicable aeroforms often equipped with bright lights. We will see in chapter 12 how this strange UFO wave is connected to Keely in a very subtle way.
What Keely did unknowingly accomplish was to become a forerunner and practical exponent of those who stood at the very base of antigravity research. While I have not discovered in the texts of these early theoreticists any proposition of applying or using their various principles for a system of flight — which sets Keely apart from this coterie — their search for a different approach of the phenomenon of gravity and the booklets that resulted from it form the theoretical foundations of what has become the quest for antigravity. This theoretical underground was a small, exclusive group that denied that gravity was a pulling force. It was in fact a pushing force, a quality that Keely had always maintained could be delivered from gravity.
Not much is known of this line of thought, except that its members were individuals. As far as I have been able to ascertain, they did not belong to any organized whole, although by naming them as a group might suggest otherwise. What they did was often refer to each other's writings, and by lack of huge amounts of like-minded studies to draw upon, sometimes traversed into the areas of fantastic literature where such concepts as antigravity or the manipulation of gravity was often used as a literary vehicle.
One of the first instances of the manifestation of this line of thought in printed form seems to be an obscure booklet published in 1905 in Holland called "The Push Force,"58 by A.A.C. Belinfante. In it, Belinfante denies the theory of gravitation as we know it and substitutes this theory with the concept of "ether pressure from above."
"One may understand," writes Belinfante, "that the ether in the universe is no pulp, no fluid and no solid substance but the storage of all force."59 In Belinfante's theory, the ether-atom is "forty times smaller than the hydrogen-atom,"60 a viewpoint remarkably similar to Keely's, and ether is to be found in abundance at the poles, since Belinfante considers gravity on the earth as "the pressure of ether on the earth, reduced with the pressure of the centrifugal force against the ether-pressure."61 And since the centrifugal force at the poles is "zero," it is there that the ether flows to: "Much ether penetrates the poles, which in the center of the globe is being intensified through the pressure ofboth the poles," Belinfante writes.62
Possibly Bel infante's endeavor was fueled by news of Keely's antigravity experiments, as he formulated his unusual theories concerning the nature of gravity. While Belinfante fails to mention Keely in his text, information about Keely and his antigravity experiments certainly was available in the Dutch language from 1893 through theosophical sources.63 Belinfante writes that he began to declare his theory, verbally at first, in 1894 and subsequently in a small publication in 1897 which he sent to Dutch professors.64 Also, a Dutch translation of Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race appeared 20 years before. That strange tale of vril, the exotic source of tremendous power which propelled flying machines and wings,65 and which had a strange connection to Keely's work, we will treat in the subsequent chapter. In addition, occult initiate Rudolf Steiner, who was quite impressed by Bulwer-Lytton's novel, and who had much to say about Keely on several occasions, lectured in Holland in 1904.66
What makes it likely that Belinfante might have read or learned of Keely's theories about gravity, possibly through Blavatsky's or Bloomfield-Moore's writings, is that Belinfante was a close friend of J.K. Rensburg, who was deeply immersed in occult doctrine. Rensburg was a brilliant writer with opposing leanings who pondered over the meaning of the Grail, wrote about the existence of god-like beings on other planets and about radio-contacts with Mars. He referred to Belinfante's booklet in the foreword to a collection of poetry about Atlantis published in 1923.67
In connection with Belinfante's "Push Force" theory, Rensburg also mentioned Blavatsky's The Secret Doctrine, in which Rensburg, and through him possibly Belinfante, certainly learned of Keely. What makes this more plausible is that Rensburg, as he himself wrote, had "borrowed the idea of the existence of higher, superhuman beings" from Belinfante, an idea also present in both Blavatsky's and Bulwer-Lytton's writings. What Rensburg also wrote about was the booklet "There Is No Gravity" by Hans Goldzier, who penned it down under the nom-de-plume of "Th. Newest,"68 clearly meant as a parody on Newton. Newest in turn referred to other booklets on the same subject, while supporting his theory.69
But apart from the theoreticists of antigravity, there is another stratum, another strange trail through which we may add to our knowledge of what Keely was ultimately aiming at. Aside from being a forerunner and practical exponent of a philosophical current that searched for alternative theories concerning gravity, he also influenced several writers of imaginative fiction of his time, a strain that in some instances is easy to discern. It is likely that one of those writers, Percy Greg, was influenced by news of Keely's researches, and in turn influenced William Colville and possibly Keely.
At the time that Greg's book was published, Keely's antigravity research was in its early stage, and news of his experiments or futuristic extrapolations would still be some eight years away. But in the light of the incredible 19th century social potpourri with its unique fm de siecle flavor that Keely and the writers were living in, and in which science, literature and occultism often met and sometimes mingled in a diffuse whole, the connection to Keely is certainly there in the instance of the book Across the Zodiac, written by Percy Greg (1836-1889). The book was published in 1880 in a two-volume edition by the same London firm that coincidental published Bloomfeld-Moore's book about Keely 13 years later.
The story of Across the Zodiac is considered to be an important early interplanetary novel that also features an idea
l society,70 and the book was destined to popularize the Mars theme in the early science fiction stories. Science fiction historian Sam Moskowits writes: "Never before had a space voyage ventured so far into the galaxy based on such sound scientific evidence. ...The book's major status derives from its detailed, meticulous exposition of some important scientific theories and speculations of the day, and to its explanations of the scientific rationale behind these ideas."71
Although it is stated that it is likely that Greg borrowed the concept of antigravity either from the 1863 book A Voyage to the Moon by Gystostum Trueman, or the 1827 book Voyage to the Moon by George Tucker,72 the very use of the word "apetgy," together with the graphic descriptions of the space vessel, the method of its propulsion and a very detailed description of the steering apparatus in Greg's book, point towards a close connection between Greg and Keely's avant-garde ideas. Interestingly, science fiction historian E.F. Bleiler notes the influence of Bulwer-Lytton's The Coming Race on Greg's book.73
Aside from uncovering the fact that a connection between Keely and Greg exists, it is impossible to establish the direction of the currents of influence with any exact degree. The trouble encountered while sorting out this genealogy of influences is with the usage of the term "apergy," a term that was applied for the first time in Greg's novel and which also became grafted on Keely's force.
Greg only vaguely writes that the word is derived from the Greek words "apo" and "ergos," that he translates as "work — as energy."74 He further states that, although there were those who possessed the "secret of apetgy," they had never "dreamt of applying it in the manner I proposed," meaning, as a source of antigravity to be used for space travel. "It had seemed to them little more than a curious secret of nature," writes Greg, "perhaps hardly so much, since the existence of a repulsive force in the atomic sphere had long been suspected and of late certainly ascertained, and its preponderance is held to be the characteristic of the gaseous as distinguished from the liquid or solid state of matter. Until lately, no means of generating or collecting this force in large quantity had been found. The progress of electrical science had solved this difficulty; and when the secret was communicated to me, it possessed a value which had never before belonged to it. "75
This description brings Keely's procedures for the obtaining of vaporic substance to mind. Considering the time frame, Greg could certainly have read or heard about Keely's researches. Across the Zodiac contains 584 pages divided between two volumes, but the above passage is all that Greg chose to write about the force "apetgy." Although Greg never refers to Keely, the passage could easily fit a description of his research.
From Greg's use of the very word "apergy" we also get none the wiser; while it is not readily discernible in Keely's jargon, and a letter to a newspaper about Keely's force stated that he "didn't call it 'apergy,'"76 we read elsewhere that he sometimes did call his etheric force apergy,77 although the only indications in contemporary sources lead us to assume that this happened no sooner than or around 1895. According to one newspaper account of a visit made to Keely on November 9 of that year, the "moving force" was referred to as "apergy."78
The term also appeared in a letter by Bloomfield-Moore published in a newspaper in 18 9 5.79 The term apergy became grafted on Keely's force and became associated with his discovery in more recent times.80 But Bloomfield-Moore's letter was written during the time that she and Keely were negotiating with her acquaintance Astor, and it was from Astor that she obtained the peculiar term. She wrote: "John Jacob Astor stands alone as having penetrated nature's secret, when he named the counterpart of gravity, or its dual force as the force to be used in aerial navigation. Mr. Keely once gave me permission to name it and I propose to take Astor's name 'apergy,' and immortalize him if Keely contends."81
An article about Keely, also published in 1895 and titled "Apergy: Power Without Cost," again explaining the term as "the reverse counterpart of gravitation," also referred to Astor's A Journey In Other Worlds*2 - not surprisingly, since its writer had given Bloomfield-Moore the proof of his article that was originally titled "Keely's Discoveries." But, as she writes, "I have requested him to change (the title) to 'Apergy: Power Without Cost.'"83
It might very well be that Astor in turn obtained the term by reading Across the Zodiac, since science fiction historian Moskowits states that Greg's book indeed was an influence on Astor as witnessed in his use of the term "apergy."84
Greg's fictional Across the Zodiac conveniently begins in September 1874 with a visit to a spiritist seance in New York, just a month before Keely would give his historical demonstration in Philadelphia that led to the foundation of the Keely Motor Company. In Greg's tale, an Englishman received a coded manuscript found on an island somewhere in the Pacific. The manuscript was in a canister among the wreckage of an extraterrestrial object that struck the island with enormous force. The writer of the manuscript discovered the secret of apergy, here used as a repelling force that amounts to antigravity. He builds a space vessel called the "Astronaut" that is much like a ship. The space vessel has special features for maintaining life in space and chemicals for air supply: "On the further side of the machinery was a chamber for the decomposition of the carbonic acid, through which the air was driven by a fan. This fan itself was worked by a horizontal wheel with two projecting squares of antapergic metal, against each of which, as it reached a certain point, a very small stream of repulsive force was directed from the apergion, keeping the wheel in constant and rapid motion,"85 plant life for purifying the air, a thick hull to protect the passengers against the extreme cold of space, etc.
The inventor then travels through the solar system with the help of the antigravity device that operates on apergy. On Mars, he meets its inhabitants, the "Martials,"as Greg calls them. These Martials have electrically powered, wheeled carriages that move along paved streets. There are black and white, and color photocopy machines, microfilm, telephones, plastics, conversion of waste to fertilizer, electrically driven balloons, boats propelled by a jet expulsion of water that are capable of submerging, telegraphs for communication, gas guns and a wealth of other technological inventions.86 At the heart of the novel lies a secret society; the inventor learns of the existence of this society variously called "The Children of the Star," "The Children of Light" and "The Order of the Silver Star," into which he is initiated during a stunning ceremony. Many of centuries of study have provided its members with telepathy and the means of killing by thought force if their secrets are divulged to the uninitiated. The book is riddled with esoteric and mystical philosophies.87
Some passages from Across the Zodiac that describe the propulsion, the machinery and the steering method of the space-vessel are worth quoting, especially when compared to Bloomfield-Moore's and Colville's writings on the airship that Keely was contemplating: "I needed a repulsion which would act like gravitation through an indefinite distance and in a void - act upon a remote fulcrum, such as might be the Earth in a voyage to the Moon, or the Sun in a more distant journey. As soon, then, as the character of the apergic force was made known to me, its application to this purpose seized on my mind. Experiment had proved it possible.. .to generate and collect it in amounts practically unlimited. .. .But the vessel had to be steered as well as propelled; and in order to accomplish this it would be necessary to command the direction of apergy at pleasure. My means of doing this depended on two of the best established peculiarities of this strange force: its rectilinear direction and its conductibility. We found that it acts through air or in a vacuum in a single straight line, without deflection, and seemingly without diminution. Most solids, and especially metals, according to their electric condition, are more or less impervious to it -antapergic. Its power of penetration diminishes under a very obscure law, but so rapidly that no conceivable strength of current would affect an object protected by an intervening sheet half an inch in thickness. On the other hand, it prefers to all other lines the axis of a conductive bar, such as may be formed
of (indecipherable) in an antapergic sheet. However such bar may be curved, bent, or divided, the current will fill and follow it, and pursue indefinitely, without divergence, diffusion, or loss, the direction in which it emerges."88
"Therefore, by collecting the current from the generator in a vessel cased with antapergic material, and leaving no other aperture, its entire volume might be sent into a conductor. By cutting across this conductor, and causing the further part to rotate upon the nearer, I could divert the current through any required angle. Thus I could turn the repulsion upon the resistant body (sun or planet), and so propel the vessel in any direction I pleased. ...89 In the center of the vessel was the machinery, occupying altogether a space of about thirty feet by twenty. The larger portion of this area was, of course, taken up by the generator, above which was the receptacle of the apergy. From this descended right through the floor a conducting bar in an antapergic sheath, so divided that without separating it from the upper portion the lower might revolve in any direction through an angle of twenty minutes. This of course, was intended to direct the stream of the repulsive force against the Sun."90
Greg also gives a very detailed description of the steering device of his ship, which, when compared with Colville's description of his "small instrument with the three gyroscopes,' again yields remarkable similarities in thought and concept: "My steering apparatus consisted of a table in which were three large circles. The mid-most and left hand of these were occupied by accurately polished plane mirrors. The central circle, or metacompass, was divided by three hundred and sixty five lines, radiating from the center to the circumference, marking as many different directions, each deviating by one degree of arc from the next. This mirror was to receive through the lens in the roof the image of the star towards which I was steering. While this remained stationary in the center all was well. When it moved along any one of the lines, the vessel was obviously deviating from her course in the opposite direction; and, to recover the right course, the repellent force must be caused to drive her in the direction in which the image had moved. To accomplish this, a helm was attached to the lower division of the main conductor, by which the latter could be made to move at will in any direction within the limit of its rotation. Controlling this helm was, in the open or steering circle on the right hand, a small knob to be moved exactly parallel to the deviation of the star in the mirror of the metacompass."
Free Energy Pioneer- John Worrell Keely Page 28