Theos-Talk Archives (February 2002 Message tt00863)

In September 1888 the same year the SD was also published where she 
wrote about Keely, Blavatsky published an article on Keely in Le
Lotus a French theosophical magazine . The same month in Paris, Le 
Figaro printed the expectations of French inventor Colonel Le Mat saying 
that "the chain which holds the aerial ship to earth would be broken 
asunder by Keely's discovery. The nineteenth century holds in its
strong arms the pledge, that sooner or later the aerial navy, so long 
waited for, will traverse the trackless high roads of space from continent 
to continent. 

Farther away in the Austrian city of Vienna, the Chevalier Griez de 
Ronse, printed a series of papers on Keely's discoveries in a
Viennese journal called The Vienna Weekly News, of which he was the 
owner. 
One of these articles mentioned that the attention of English
scientists had been drawn to Keely's claims, in regard to having 
imprisoned the ether, by Professor Henri Hertz's experiments in ether 
vibrations at the Bonn University. "Keely, like the late Dr. Schuster, 
claims on behalf of science the right to prosecute its investigations until 
a mechanical explanation of all things is attained." The Austrian 
nobleman was well informed; obviously he had read the pamphlet of 
Bloomfield Moore, whom he might have known personally, and he was 
also aware of Keely's imprisonment in a jail in Philadelphia which had 
happened the same year."

The year 1888 would also be overshadowed by legal matters. Keely 
would be sent to jail, this time because Bennet C. Wilson reappeared
to claim what he thought was rightfully his. Wilson had a curious tale
to tell. He claimed that he had sponsored Keely's first machines some 22 
years ago. 

Wilson financially supported Keely's experiments from 1863 until
1872, and he provided him with a workshop on Market Street. But as the
years past, and Keely's experiments met with little or no success, Wilson
got tired of advancing money. He further claimed that, late in August
1869, Keely said that his device would soon be ready for sale, but he
needed funds. Keely then made an assignment in writing of his whole 
right and title with all interest in the motor which, according to Wilson, 
was called a "reacting vibratory motor."

Wilson's patience was "exhausted when his fortune was exhausted, and 
Mr. Keely turned to new pastures, and with new names for the machine 
he had in mind, he found new patrons." From 1871 until 1878 Wilson 
had not been able to get "satisfaction out of Mr. Keely. " In 1878,
Wilson secured access to Keely's shop and, he claimed, there stood the 
machine "upon which Keely was experimenting for his newest and latest 
motor company," and it was the same with which he had "practiced on 
in the old Market Street machine shop." So now, Wilson's bill claimed 
that these assignments Keely made to him entitled him to 0 the
patents that Keely had taken out for the perfection of his motor."

In 1896 during a theosophical conference in New York, "a high regard 
for Keely" was being exhibited. During the convention, acting
president of the Theosophical Society J.D. Buck read a paper in which he 
stated that, "No one holding firmly to the mechanical theory of the 
universe has advanced a single step in any real discovery or 
apprehension of the essential truths of cosmic or human evolution. The 
single exception is J.E.W. Keely of Philadelphia. J.E.W. Keely seems to 
combine the intuitions of the seer with the practical knowledge of 
mechanics, and is at once a scientist and a philosopher. Though he has 
nowhere completely formulated the old philosophy to which I have 
referred,his conception of the constitution of matter and the correlation 
of force is in complete harmony with it. In his apprehension of the 
working powers of nature he has no equal in his generation. "

And a month later, during a marriage ceremony, English Theosophical 
President Hargrove alluded to Keely in connection with ancient
Egyptian knowledge, which was now theosophical doctrine: "In those 
days they understood the meaning of vibration. ...Remember too, that 
the sounds you will hear ... are vibrations, and they, too, belong to the 
magic of antiquity, which it will before long become our duty to revive."
Eventually through Blavatsky's writings the whole occult world
learned about Keely. Even today those wishing to learn more can read 
Blavatsky's comments side by side with Bloomfield Moore's statements 
about him in The Secret Doctrine. The passages about Keely are still
to 
be found in its pages. The Theosophical Society was to become Keely's 
domain after his death, but his alleged exposure would cause ripples
on the serene lakes of theosophical content even there.

Apart from contemporary newspaper accounts, it is in the slowly 
yellowing pages of theosophical pamphlets and magazines like Lucifer 
and The Theosophist that an interesting change in tone may be 
gathered from these writings about Keely. After his alleged exposure
by Clarence Moore, Keely was to become temporarily degraded to a 
marginal and humiliating footnote in the writings of the theosophical 
superstars.

When news of his alleged exposure reached the theosophical camp, 
Olcott was quick to write an apology for Blavatsky's favorable
writings about him, for these had become a big problem. The exposure 
led several French esoterists and from this we have a confirmation that 
information about Keely was not only available but also studied by
some of the French occult scene 4o question the veracity of Blavatsky's 
writings; certain theosophists of the French section demanded to know 
how it was possible that the discovery of Keely's discredited inter
etheric force was treated in the The Secret Doctrine as "a great fact, "
whereas it was a complete swindle; and how far this contradicts the
declaration that the book was "inspired, directed and corrected by the 
Masters of Wisdom. "

Bri.