Charlatan Uses Science-Sounding Gibberish to Hoax Millions Out of Investors
One of the 19th century’s most fascinating hoaxes was perpetrated by John Ernst Worrell Keely (1837 – 1898). Keely had tried his hand at many occupations in his youth, and by turns became a carpenter, painter, carnival barker, member of a theatrical orchestra, and a mechanic. His true calling however was as a conman. 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 with unlimited power.
At the time, there was a widespread and mistaken belief that space was filled with something called a “luminiferous ether” – a hypothetical material that scientists thought was necessary for the movement of light or electric waves. Keely was no scientist, but he read about the luminiferous ether somewhere, then claimed to have figured out how to tap into and extract energy from it.
Keely declared that he had unraveled the secrets of the luminiferous ether, and could tap into the power of atoms in water. As he explained it, atoms were in a state of constant vibration, and by harnessing and channeling water’s vibrations in his revolutionary Keely engine, people could draw upon limitless energy. By getting the water’s atoms to vibrate in unison in accordance with the principles of the luminiferous ether, you could use its “etheric force” to power motors. In other words, the Keely Engine was a perpetual motion machine – an impossibility under the basic laws of physics, because it would violate the first or second laws of thermodynamics.
However, Keely demonstrated a prototype to guests in his workshop that convinced them that he was on to something. In the demonstration, Keely would pour water into the engine, then play a musical instrument to activate the machine with sound vibrations. The engine would come alive, providing pressures of up to 50,000 psi on display gauges. By harnessing that power, Keely demonstrated that iron bars could be bent, twisted, and snapped in two; thick ropes could be torn apart, and bullets could be driven through twelve inches of wood.
Keely made up scientific-sounding terms to describe the principles of his invention. He termed his engine a “vibratory generator”, and told observers that they were witnessing “quadruple negative harmonics”. Gullible investors were told that they would grow filthy rich off Keely’s “hydro-pneumatic pulsating vacu-engine”. If a listener sounded skeptical, Keely would swamp him in a flood of science-y sounding phrases such as “vibratory negatives”, “atomic triplets”, “etheric disintegration”, and “atomic ether vibrations”.
The terms were pseudo-scientific gibberish, but they were effective. Within a short time, Keely convinced investors to hand over the equivalent of $20 million in 2017 dollars as startup capital, which he used to found the Keely Motor Company. In subsequent years, investors coughed up the equivalent of an additional 100 million dollars in today’s money for a stake in Keely’s company.
Keely closely guarded the secret of his invention, and for more than two decades, he refused to share its details with anybody. But he strung his investors along, by promising them that the perfection of a commercial version of his engine was right around the corner. During that time, gullible investors kept throwing money at him, despite the consensus of physicists that Keely was a charlatan, and that perpetual motion such as he promised was physically impossible. It was only after Keely died in 1898 that the secret of his engine was revealed. It had not been powered by water vibrations, but by a compressed air machine hidden two floors below, and connected to the Keely engine by concealed pipes and hoses.