[Big snip - thanks for the info Jerry - great stuff!]
I`d like to zero in on something you said:
>I think any good magician realizes this foible with
>human perception and takes advantage of it to produce
>difficult to explain effects.
Jerry, several times in this list we have both stressed that _verification_
of alternative energy claims is all important.
In the context of Keely I would say this:
Personally I know little of the man or his claims, and have generally gone
along with the seeming assumption on this list that he was genuine and that
he discovered effects that can`t be explained by orthodox science and that
his discoveries might be significant for the free energy enterprise.
Today, it came as an eye opener to read in an old copy on Scientific
American (January 1968, pp115 ff) an article written by Stanley Angrist on
"Perpetual Motion Machines". At the end of the article it discusses Keely`s
later developments and the Keely Motor Company. He writes:
"Keely and his associates formed the Keely Motor Company, capitalised at $1
million. They raised much of the money from gullible New York businessmen.
As the years passed, although no engines other than the first one were ever
built, Keely`s showmanship became more polished. By 1881 he had begun to
attribute the production of vapour to 'vibratory energy,' and he would
'vivify' the energy during demonstrations with a giant tuning fork. By 1884
he had so mastered what he now called the 'interatomic vapour' or
'interatomic aether' that he demonstrated a new device: a canon, complete
with a 'vibrator' near the breech, that was capable of propelling a ball
500 yds with a muzzle velocity of 500 feet per second."
So far so good, then he goes on to say:
"Keely died in 1898. The son of one of his major backers promptly rented
his house and explored the premises in the company of reputable witnesses,
seeking evidence of fraud. Under the floor of the house they found a
three-ton metal tank that had evidently served as a reservoir for
compressed air. In the walls they found quantities of brass tubing and a
false ceiling suggested the means by which Keely and his associates had
conducted the compressed air to his generator."
So an obvious nest of questions comes to my mind:
Was Keely a fraud?
If "yes" then why do we have a mailing list named after him to
facilitate the discovery of genuine alternative energy???
If "No" then why hasn`t someone laid these claims to rest and forced
Scientific American to retract what is clearly libel?
I don`t know enough to answer these questions.
But I do wonder how it is that even though Keely (it is claimed)
demonstrated various free-energy devices we don`t have any surviving ones
that can clearly show a) he was genuine and b) it is possible.
Not even _one_ as far as I am aware......
And what did happen with his Keely Motor Company????
What were the final findings when it was wound up - was a legal judgement
made as to the genuineness of the original claims?
Thanks - looking forward to the replies....
Nick Hall
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