Richmond dispatch. volume (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, July 28, 1886, Page 4, Image 4 « Chronicling America « Library of Congress (loc.gov)

John Worrell Keely, the motor-man, gave an exhibition yesterday afternoon in his workshop, at 1422 north Twentieth street, of hie big engine, which has just been completed after a year of experiments. Inventor Keely has been giving mysterious entertainments to capitalists, scientists, and others for the
past dozen of fifteen years, but none of the former exhibitions were so mysterious or so wonderful as the scientific reception of yesterday. Mr. Keely used all the terms known to science and a little scientific vocabulary of his own in explaining to his audience of thirty how the thing was done. The audience, like former audiences, nodded their heads in approval and looked wise and, as usual, knew just as much about Keely's secret when the show was over as they did before it began. Mr. Keely told those present that it was the first trial of his newest and biggest engine, and that he was just experimenting, and didn't know whether the engine would run or not. As he wiped the trickling perspiration from his face he added that his brain was all confused, but he guessed everything would go all right, as he had the chord of a mass and had made two ejectments of atmospheric pressure from the big tube and had secured an introductory impulse.
The scientists and capitalists looked at each other helplessly and then smiled at Mr. Keely, and a number said in chorus : " Oh, yea, certainly."

RUNNING THE BIG ENGINE

Inventor Keely has heretofore given his exhibitions with small machines, and the funny-looking copper globe forty eight inches in diameter filled with “resonators," which he used yesterday, is about three times larger than any machine he has ever used. He said that he could produce 250-horse power with what looked more like a washing machine than anything else. A hum of wonderment ran through the little
workshop, and then Mr. Keely put rosin on his fiddle-bow, tuned the forks on the drum of the "liberator" connected a copper tube six feet long and one eighth of an inch in diameter with a seven-pint cylinder and then connected another copper tube a thirty-second of an inch in diameter and ten feet long with the engine from the seven-pint cylinder.
The sound liberated from the drum of the "liberator" passed through the first tube into the cylinder and then into the smaller tube and into the copper globe of the new machine. The bottled chords of the mass which Mr. Keely had chosen for his power yesterday would run the machine, he said. Something did run it.
The big copper globe revolved faster than any flywheel or bit of machinery ever seen in motion in a machine-shop. The copper globe, forty-eight inches in diameter, made seven revolutions every second, and an independent belt-wheel at one end of the copper globe, which Mr. Keely said ran from the sympathy of sound, made three hundred revolutions a minute, and its velocity frightened everybody in the room, including Keely, who danced around the shop and told everybody to keep out of the way.

A TREMENDOUS VELOCITY.

The belt-wheel and the copper globe went around so fast that they made noise like the spinning of a huge top. The noise sounded, too like the rushing, howling of a furious wind as tho copper globe cut the atmosphere and turned it into dripping water on the floor underneath. The hot little workshop was chilled in two minutes, and then as Keely, greatly excited, turned the cock of the vibrating-tube and made the copper globe calm down to almost a standstill, the capitalists and scientists clapped their hands and took off their hats.
"Ain't that fine, gentlemen? " asked Keely smiling.
"Greatest thing on earth," answered Albert R. Edey, the president of the Keely Motor Company.
"Wonderful," came from a dozen mouths, and then Mr. Keely started the copper globe off again with all its fury. lt shook the little workshop from cellar to ceiling and rattled the window panes.
"I can make the screw of a steamer make six thousand revolutions a minute with this machine," shouted Mr. Keely through the howling of the globe and the belt-wheel.
Then we'll be able to go to Europe in one or two days before long," remarked a man in the audience. Mr. Keely stopped the engine again, and then made the globe revolve in either direction, just as he pleased. The bottled sound in the "liberator" was just as strong when he stopped as when he began, and be said the machine would run on all day without charging the "liberator" again with a sound from drawing the fiddle-bow over the tuning fork.
Several tests were made with the lever, which have been described frequently. When the exhibition was concluded L.H.Taylor, Jr., the broker, moved that a vote of thanks be tendered Mr. Keely. Everybody shouted "Aye," and a ringing applause followed. Mr. Keely will go away tomorrow for ten days' rest; then he will return and study out some vibratory sounds, as that he will have the machine more thoroughly under his
control. He doesn't know how long it will take him or what the next step will be, but he said the public would hear from him very soon.

THE MEN WHO WERE PRESENT.

Those present were Jacob H. Linville, ex-president of the Keystone Bridge Company and now president of the Electric Telegraph Company; Dr. Strawbridge, Dr. D. F. Woods, William Bockel, F. A. Holmes, Colonel J. E. Peyton, M. Richards Muckle, Jr.; T. C. Smith, of the Westinghouse Air-Brake Company; W. W. Perkins, John S. Muckle, L H. Taylor, Jr., Henry Smyzer, P. S. Dooner, Edward A. Green, Charles B. Collier, and Secretary Shuellerman, of the company - all of this city; and the following from New Yolk city; Albert R. Edey, president of the Keely Motor Company; Dr. Wilfred Hall and Dr. Hudson, of the Scientific Arena; Dr. George Evans, F. G. Green, C. K. Dutton, Dr. C. M. Richmond, W. Lawty, Augustus Stein, and T. Harper.
When the visitors had left Mr. Keely told the reporter that by laying little tubes under ground connected with his engine, if be built a large one, he could ran all the machinery in every factory in Philadelphia by simply drawing his fiddle-bow once every morning and letting the sound into the copper globe.

See Also

Copper Globe, 48 inches in diameter
Keely Spinning Motor
19.05.06 - New York Times - Keely Spinning Motor
Yellow Journalism