EXPOSURE OF KEELEY'S MOTOR

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 76, 1 April 1899, Page 5 (Supplement)

EXPOSURE OF KEELEY'S MOTOR

The ingenious imposter is always a person that can be admired for certain of his qualities, and as a rule thQ worst that is said against him is that he has displayed abilities and resources worthy of a better cause. Such will certainly be the verdict on the famous Dr. Keeloy. of Chicago, and his motor. It will be remembered that this gentlemen, some years ago, introduced to the notics of his admiring countrymen an invention which seemed to set all preconceived ideas uC dynamics topsey-turvey. By the i'.se of such abstract wonders as 'sympathetic negative attraction' and 'sympathetic positive propulsion' he was able to make wheels revolve, and engines go. In n word, he pretended that he had discovered an entirely new method of force cv 'secret force," as he was pleased to term it, and of course to the speculative Yankee here was something well worth forming a 'corner' in. To have a monopoly of secret force was indeed to possess something 'richer than Pluto's mine, dearer than gold.' As a result the ingenious Dr. Keeley soon found himself in possession of ample means for exploiting his wonderful discovery. Unlike many an honest inventor who has produced something of real value to mankind, Keeley, in a few years, has had passed into his hands some five millions of dollars, and now the gaff is blown; Keeley is a fraud, and a rank one at that. All his marvellous mechanical effects were produced by nothing more mysterious than compressed air, but the way in which he secretly made use of this element was certainly so clever as to entitle the imposter to a certain amount of credit. People, are usually gulled by high-sounding phrases and strange words Of obscure meaning, and if they will shovel their dollars into the hands of any clever swindler—well, then it is a matter between them and him. That seems to be the commonsense view of such an imposition as the Keeley motor.