Keely and His Discoveries: Aerial NavigationMoore, Bloomfield H., Mrs.
Religion
Keely and His Discoveries: Aerial Navigation
Moore, Bloomfield H., Mrs.
Keely motor; Keely, John Ernest Worrell, 1827-1898
Under the heading, "Keely's Sunday in Jail," says a Philadelphia
journal, Inventor Keely spent a quiet Sunday in Moyamensing Prison. The
outside iron doors of his cell were thrown open, when the religious
services of the morning began. The imprisoned inventor listened with
deep interest. The soft peals of the organ and the melody of the choir,
singing "Nearer, my God, to Thee," floated into the narrow cell. Keely
sat near the grated door while the minister read selections from the
Scriptures and preached his sermon. While the inventor was resting
in his cell, during the afternoon, a number of persons made inquiries
at the "Untried Department." They were all told that no one could be
admitted on Sunday, but a young man with a pallid face lingered. He
told the gate-keeper that he was an inventor himself, and had been
waiting for eight years for a patent from Washington; adding that,
when he read of Keely's commitment, he was reminded of Galileo who
was thrown in a dungeon because he said, "The world moves."
The following day Keely was released by order of the Judges of the
Supreme Court. His imprisonment exalted him, instead of degrading
him as "the unjust judge" hoped to do; drawing the sympathies to him
of all men who know what it is to be "persecuted for righteousness'
sake;" of all men, in all parts of the world, who are truth-loving,
justice-loving men.
The Keely Motor Company should learn a lesson in this
experience. Tyndall said, long since, that the community that severs
itself from great discoveries, that merely runs after the practical
application without reference to the sources of a discovery, would
by-and-by find itself at the end of its tether. This has been verified
in the fate of the Keely Motor Company, which was organized for the
purpose of reaping financial benefit from Keely's grand discovery
of an unknown force before his "work of evolution," in obtaining
mechanical results, had fairly commenced. This company has thrown
upon the discoverer's shoulders the burden of its stock-jobbing
operations, until Keely is looked upon by men of science, as well
as by men ignorant of the A B C of science, as a man working for
personal ends; instead of, as he should be regarded, a Prometheus
seeking to give to his fellow-men a costless motive force; and who,
whether he succeeds financially or not, is entitled to the admiration
of all who believe, with Browning, that "effort, not success, makes
man great." If the Keely Motor Company managers would profit by this
lesson, they will in future seek to find, among scientific men of
world-wide renown, some one man, broad enough in mind to care nothing
for the ridicule of the ignorant, who will investigate the nature of
Keely's discoveries, as demonstrated by his experiments, instead of
inviting reporters to witness the demonstrations, in their efforts
"to boom the stock" of their company, by a reporter's accounts of
the marvels he has witnessed. For years Keely had nothing to show,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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