Sympathetic Vibratory Physics

THE SECRET OUT.

4/25/1881 - There is no longer any secret as to the Keely motor, except in connection with the mere details of the affair. A lecture was delivered in this City some little time ago in which the motor was fully described. The diagrams by which the lecture was illustrated were of the most complicated and convincing character, and any who saw them and noticed the innumerable pipes and cocks of the generator, and the imposing simplicity of the engine, could not help being convinced that the Keely motor is as genuine and satisfactory as the ablest perpetual motion machine ever patented. Unfortunately, the enthusiasm with which the public staid away from the lecture prevented it from attracting general attention, but a scientific journal has just reproduced the lecture, diagrams and all, and the vindication of the Keely motor is now complete.

The distinguished inventor has always maintained that his motive power was derived from the expansion of a cold vapor obtained from water. Scientific persons have mocked at this claim. They said they were acquainted with a hot vapor derived from water and called steam, and also with a cold vapor popularly known as fog, but that Keely's vapor was not steam, for the reason that it was alleged to be cold, and could not be fog, because fog does not expand, and a fog engine would be ridiculous. But they did not dream of the effect produced upon water by vibration. Mr. Keely has discovered that by causing water to vibrate at a certain rate he can convert it first into small pieces of the kind usually known as chunks, and finally into its ultimate globules, which when separated occupy a far greater space than when united, and, of course, exert a pressure upon whatever vessel may contain them. In his generator half a pint of water passes through the successive steps of chunk, spray, and mist, until it becomes a highly elastic vapor, exerting a pressure of ninety thousand pounds to the square inch, which is obviously pressure enough to work a moderate-sized engine. Precisely how the vibratory movement is communicated to the half-pint of water and how the water is finally converted into an elastic vapor consisting of minute globules are question of detail. The important fact is that Mr. Keely does convert his half-pint into cold vapor by mean of vibration, and that with this vapor at a pressure of ninety thousand pounds he can keep in motion a beautifully simple engine. The generator contains so many cylinders, tubes, and fine steel spiral springs that any man who is not a born infidel must believe in it as soon as he looks at it.

The battle between Mr. Keely and the scientific persons will now rage over the question whether vibration can convert water into cold vapor. There are many facts which prove that vibration can exercise an immense influence in altering the status of solid substances. There is an experiment in this connection which has been made with great success by thousands of mothers, and can be repeated at any time. You take a small and solid child and subject him to the vibrations of a slipper wielded by a strong hand. In the course of less than ten seconds that child will be dissolved in tears. The experiment has never been pushed far enough to secure the complete dissolution or deliquescence of the child, but it has sufficiently demonstrated the influence which vibrations can produce on the most compact and coherent infant. To cause any part of him to dissolve into tears is to show the power of a vibrating slipper, and to essentially demonstrate the truth of the principle of the Keely motor. Were the child on whom the slipper experiment has been made to be handed over to Mr. Keely, there is not least doubt that he could place that child in his generator and subject him to vibrations which would finally convert him into cold vapor. Of course, the Keely motor will be fed with water instead of infants, the former being much the cheaper sort of fuel; but what a grand field for the utilization of surplus infants Mr. Keely's invention has opened!

Since the principle of the Keely motor was first discovered the inventor has made half a dozen different engines, each one of which has been simpler and better than its predecessors. In its present shape the engine contains "one hundred and fifty pints in a descending vibratory scale."

"six tuning forks" - though five would probably be sufficient - "a compound vitalizing medium," a "vibratory elliptic," a "positive wave plate," a "spiraphone box," together with several "positive and negative tubes," and as many sets of "triple vibratories" as are necessary for transmitting "simpathies."

There is no possible deception here. The parts of the engine above described will command the attention of every engineer. The man who could not only discover the principle of the Keely motor, but could discover all these names and apply them to real pieces of iron and steel, cannot be regarded as an impostor. Let no man say that an engine so tremendously scientific in the nomenclature of its parts and withal so wonderfully simple will not work. Not only will it work a pressure of ninety thousand pounds, but there is good reason to believe that a pressure of not more than seventy-one thousand pounds would put it in motion, and produce at least three revolutions per minute.

There will be no more delay in furnishing Mr. Keely with funds to perfect his invention. It is now in a condition to do all that he has ever claimed that it would do, but he has seen his way to carrying certain of its details to a still higher degree of perfection. He wants to add a "compound deodorized vaporized shaft" to the generator and to enlarge the"antinomian cylinder" of the engine by prolonging it at the end and inserting in its "negative casing" a "monophysite tube," studded with thirty-six "sabellian holes," and terminating in a "galvanic manichuan chamber." With this improvement he expects to obtain seven hundred additional revolutions per minute, and to reduce the supply of water needed in the generator to five-sixths of a pint. By all means let the money for this grand improvement be forthcoming, and we shall soon find the steam engine and the corn-fed horse superseded by the new motor, and our wives and children will cry for it. [Published: June 3, 1881
Copyright © The New York Times]

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