NYT - 12/15/1887 - Very likely it did not occur to Mr. Keely when he calmly announced to the stockholders of his Motor Company yesterday that he had long since abandoned his notion of utilizing his mythical "etheric" and "vaporic" forces, and was engaged in developing an entirely new force which he had discovered, based on "vibratory sympathy," that he was confessing that he had been receiving money on false pretenses ever since the abandoned his original plans. Yet that is precisely what this adventurer in the field of invention has been doing. The confiding stockholders have been paying their money to secure the development of a force which Keely claimed to have discovered, and about which they understood about as much as he did, and he had no legal or moral right to divert funds so contributed to experiments in any other field, without calling the contributors together and asking their consent. THE TIMES has for years denounced this man as a bogus inventor, but his financial backers have stood by him, and now he calmly tells them himself that he has been deceiving them for months and that he has given up the Keely motor, as it is known to the world, as a bad job. In other words he admits what this paper has all the time charged that his "etheric force" and his "vaporic force" are humbugs.
But Mr. Keely has another scheme on hand to develop a motor different from that on which he has claimed to have been engaged for so many years, and his stockholders, still trustful in spite of his confessed breach of their confidence, apparently mean to go on and continue to pour their money into his lap. Now he is engaged in constructing a "sympathetic machine," based on "vibratory sympathy," which is to revolutionize the motive forces of the world. He has kept this scheme from his nearest friends until now, and not three months ago the English papers were being "worked" in the interest of the old motor, no hint of its having been abandoned being given at that time. At the meeting yesterday the Treasurer reported a balance on hand of but $24, proving that English capitalists had not bitten very greedily at the bait, and this may possibly account for Keely's sudden change of base and frank confession to his stockholders. He has had a "sympathetic machine" in the shape of a gullible public for so many years that it seems a pity that he should now go to the trouble of constructing a home-made article. But the "vibratory sympathy" has evidently "petered out," and Keely was obliged to claim some new "discovery" or go to work and make his living. It will be curious to note how long this new dodge remain productive and how soon Mr. Keely will be called on to "discover" a new "force." (The New York Times) 12/15/1887
Published: December 15, 1887
Copyright © The New York Times
See Also
Keely Chronology
Etheric Force Identified as Dynaspheric Force
Eye Witness Accounts
Keely Motor Company
Keelys Accomplishments
The Keely Motor