In 1882 a lady, conversing with Mr. Keely, said, “You have opened the door into the spirit-world.” He answered, “Do you think so? I have sometimes thought I might be able to discover the origin of life.” At this time Mr. Keely had given no attention whatever to the occult bearing of his discovery; and it was only after he had pursued his researches, under the advantages which his small Liberator afforded him for such experiments, that he realized the truth of this woman’s assertion. It was then, in 1887, that a “bridge of mist” formed itself before him, connecting the laws which govern physical science with the laws which govern spiritual science, and year by year this bridge of mist has solidified, until now he is in a position to stand upon it, and proclaim that its abutments have a solid foundation—one resting in the material and visible world, and the other in the spiritual and unseen world; or, rather, that no bridge is needed to connect the two worlds, one law governing both in its needed modifications.
“The physical thing,” writes a modern scientist, “which energizes and does work in and upon ordinary matter, is a separate form of matter, infinitely refined, and infinitely rapid in its vibrations, and is thus able to penetrate through all ordinary matter, and to make everywhere a fountain of motion, no less real because unseen. It is among the atoms of the crystal and the molecules of living matter; and, whether producing locked effects or free, it is the same cosmic thing, matter in motion, which we conceive as material energy, and with difficulty think of as only a peculiar form of matter in motion.”
The President of the British Association, Sir Henry Roscoe, in his address before that body, said: “In nature there is no such thing as great or small; the structure of the smallest particle, invisible even to our most searching vision, may be as complicated as that of any of the heavenly bodies which circle round our sun.” As to the indivisibility of the atom, he asks this question: “Notwithstanding the properties of these elements have been studied, and are now known with a degree of precision formerly undreamt of, have the atoms of our present elements been made to yield?” He continues: “A negative answer must undoubtedly be given, for even the highest of terrestrial temperatures, that of the electric spark, has failed to shake any one of these atoms in two.”
This is an error, for it is well known by those who are fully acquainted with the principle involved in Keely’s inventions that the intense vibratory action which is induced in his “Liberator” has accomplished what the retort of the chemist has failed to do, what the electric spark has left intact, and what the inconceivably fierce temperature of the sun and of volcanic fires has turned over to us unscathed. The mighty Genii imprisoned within the molecule, thus released from the chains and fetters which Nature forged, has been for years the tyrant of the one who rashly intruded, without first paving the way with the gold which he has since been accused of using in experiments with reckless and wanton waste! For more than a score of years has Keely been fighting a hand-to-hand fight with this Genii; often beaten back by it, paralyzed at times, even, by its monstrous blows; and only now so approaching its subjugation as to make it safe to harness it for the work that is calling for a power mightier than steam, safer and more uniform in operation than electricity; a power which, by its might and beneficence, will ameliorate the condition of the masses, and reconcile and solve all that now menaces our race: as it was never menaced before, as has been said.
The structure of the air molecule, as believed in by Keely, is as follows:—Broken up, by vibratory action, he finds it to contain what he calls an atomic triplet. The position of a molecule, on the point of a fine cambric needle sustains the same relation to the point of the needle that a grain of sand sustains to a field of ten acres.
Although, as Sir H. Roscoe has said, “In nature there is no such thing as great or small,” the human mind cannot conceive such infinitesimal minuteness. We will, then, imagine a molecule magnified to the size of a billiard ball, and the atomic triplet magnified to the size of three marbles, in the triangular position, within that molecule, at its centre; unless acted upon by electricity, when the molecule, the billiard ball, becomes oblate, and the three atoms are ranged in a line within, unless broken up by the mighty force of vibratory action. Nature never gives us a vacuum; consequently, the space within the molecule not occupied by the atomic triplet must e filled with something. This is where the Genii—“the all-pervading ether”—has made its secret abode through untold æons, during which our world has been in course of preparation for its release, to fulfil its appointed task in advancing the progress of the human race.
Step by step, with a patient perseverance which some day the world will honour, this man of genius has made his researches, overcoming the colossal difficulties which have raised up in his path what seemed to be insurmountable barriers to further progress: but never before has the world’s index finger so pointed to an hour when all is making ready for the advent of the new form of force that mankind is waiting for. Nature, always reluctant to yield her secrets, is listening to the demands made upon her by her master, necessity. The coal mines of the world cannot long afford the increasing drain made upon them. Steam has reached its utmost limits of power, and does not fulfil the requirements of the age. Electricity holds back, with bated breath, dependent upon the approach of her sister colleague. Air ships are riding at anchor, as it were, waiting for the force which is to make aerial navigation something more than a dream. As easily as men communicate with their offices from their homes by means of the telephone, so will the inhabitants of separate continents talk across the ocean. Imagination is palsied when seeking to foresee the grand results of this marvellous discovery when once it is applied to art and mechanics. In taking the throne which it will force steam to abdicate, dynaspheric force will rule the world with a power so mighty in the interests of civilization, that no finite mind can conjecture the results.
In 1746, when Franklin’s attention was drawn to the phenomena of electricity, little more was known on the subject than Thales had announced two thousand years before. Von Kleist in Leyden, Collinson in London, and others in as widely-separated cities in Europe, were experimenting in the same field of research. What our last century has done toward subduing this tyrant which Franklin succeeded in bringing down to earth, from the clouds, the next century will see surpassed beyond man’s wildest conjectures, should Keely’s utilization of this unknown force of nature bestow upon humanity the costless motive power, which he anticipates it will. Reynolds predicted that those who “studied the mysteries of molecular vibration would win the victorious wreaths of successful discovery.” After such discoveries as Mr. Keely has made in this field of research, it matters not to him whether he succeeds commercially or not. His work of discovery commenced when, as a boy of twelve, he held the sea-shells to his ear as he walked the shore and noted that no two gave forth the same tone. From the construction of his first crude instrument, his work of evolution progressed slowly for years; but within the last five years he has made giant strides towards the “Dark Tower” which is his last fortress to take. When he is ready, “Dauntless the slug-horn to his lips” he will set; and the world will hear the blast, and awaken from its slumber into new life.
Molecular vibration is thus seen to be Keely’s legitimate field of research; but more than once has he had to tear down portions of the vibratory scaffolding which aided him in the building up of his edifice of philosophy; therefore, he is ever ready to admit that some of the present scaffolding may have to be removed. The charge of “abandoning his base,” recently brought against him by one of the editors of The New York Times, could only have been made by one who is utterly ignorant of the subject upon which he writes. Under the heading “A Cool Confession,” this editor asserts that Keely has “given up the Keely Motor as a bad job,” and that he admits that he is a “bogus inventor” and a “fraud.” This is not true.
What Keely does admit is that, baffled in applying vibratory force to mechanics, upon his first and second lines of experimental research, he was obliged either to confess a commercial failure, or to try a third departure from his base or principle; seeking success through another channel of experiment. While experimenting upon this third line, until his efforts were crowned with success, he kept his secret from all men; with the approbation of the one who furnished the money for these experiments. There is a time when silence is golden; and the charge made by the same editor that Keely had been “receiving money from the Keely Motor Company on false pretences from the time that he abandoned his original plans,” could only have been made by one who knows nothing of the facts of the case: for years have passed away since the Keely Motor Company broke its contract with him, and since it has furnished him with any money for his experiments.