John Ernst Worrell Keely (1837 – 1898) had plenty of moxie and hustle. As a young man, he worked as a painter, carpenter, member of a theatrical orchestra, a carnival barker, and a mechanic. He left his mark in history, however, when he turned to crime and fraud. In 1872, Keely declared that he had invented a new engine that would revolutionize the world, by drawing its energy from a new physical force that held limitless potential power. As seen below, it was all a scam.
The “Luminiferous Ether”
In Keely’s days, there was a mistaken belief that all space was filled with something called a “luminiferous ether”. It was a hypothetical substance thought necessary for the movement of light or electric waves. Keely claimed to have figured out how to tap into and extract energy from this (nonexistent) ether. Keely claimed that he had unraveled the secrets of the luminiferous ether, and could now harness the power of atoms in water to furnish energy.
As Keely explained it, atoms were in a state of constant vibration. By harnessing and channeling water’s vibrations in his revolutionary Keely engine, people could tap into limitless energy. Keely told the world that he had gotten water atoms to vibrate in unison in accordance with the principles of the luminiferous ether, and thus discovered how to use its “etheric force” to power motors. As seen below, that was just pure gibberish.
Stripped of the pseudoscience gibberish, the Keely Engine was a perpetual motion machine scam – a physics impossibility because it violates the first or second laws of thermodynamics. John Keely demonstrated a prototype to guests in his workshop. He poured water into its engine, then played a harmonica, violin, flute, or other musical instrument to activate the machine with sound vibrations.
To the amazement of the audience, the device soon began to gurgle, rumble, then come alive and provide pressures of up to 50,000 psi on display gauges. Harnessing that power, Keely arranged demonstrations in which thick ropes were ripped apart, iron bars were bent, twisted, and snapped in two, and bullets were driven through twelve inch wooden planks.
Keely Found Out That Gibberish Sells if Sounds Like Science
Keely made up science-y sounding terminology to describe the principles of his invention. Early on, he described his engine as a “vibratory generator”. Then he began to tell observers that they were seeing “quadruple negative harmonics”. At other times, he told gullible investors that he was going to make them filthy rich with his “hydro pneumatic pulsating vacu-engine”.
Keely discovered that what matters for most people is not what you say or whether it makes any sense. What matters is how confident you are when you say whatever you say, even if it makes no sense whatsoever. If a listener sounded a note of skepticism, Keely drowned it with yet more science-y sounding phrases. His go-to gibberish included “vibratory negatives”, “atomic triplets”, “etheric disintegration”, and “atomic ether vibrations”.
Conning Millions Out of the Gullible
John Keely tossed around fancy words that sounded impressive to non-scientists, but were actually pseudoscientific gibberish. Although dumb, it was nonetheless effective pseudoscientific gibberish. Keely convinced investors to give him the equivalent of $40 million in 2025 dollars as startup capital. He used that to found the Keely Motor Company. In subsequent years, investors forked over the equivalent of 150 million dollars in today’s money for a stake in Keely’s enterprise. Over two decades, he closely guarded the secret of his invention, refusing to share its details with anybody.
Keely constantly promised that the perfection of a commercial version of his machine was right around the corner. For years, gullible investors continued to give him more and more money. That happened despite the consensus of physicists that Keely was a quack and charlatan, and that perpetual motion such as he promised was impossible. Finally, when Keely died in 1898, the secret of his engine was revealed: the whole thing boiled down to his willingness to engage in the crime of fraud. The device had not been powered by water, but by a compressed air machine hidden two floors below, and connected to Keely’s engine by cleverly concealed pipes and hoses.
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Some Sources & Further Reading
Guardian, The, December 11th, 2003 – Keely’s Trickster Engine
History Halls – Politicians Who Couldn’t Keep it in Their Pants: Felix Faure
Museum of Hoaxes – Keely Motor Company
