The following is a description of a recent trip I made to visit John Keely'slab site and do some historical research..........................>>> Jerry I recently had an opportunity to be in the Rochester, New York area for a twoweek training seminar related to my job. Since the seminar was scheduledduring the weekdays, I was free for the weekend, so decided to drive downto Philadelphia to see what damage I could do.John Worrell Keely, as you might suspect, is the patron of KeelyNet and I havelong wanted to have the chance to visit his old stomping grounds and see what,if anything, I could turn up.The 1st week of class ended Friday afternoon on the 7th of October, I drovedown to Philadelphia that evening and arrived about midnite with no clue as towhere I was in the city. I ended up over near Market Street in decidedlyresidential surroundings and was quite surprised by the very large numbers ofpeople walking around. There seemed to be block parties with lots of youngfolk having a good time. Eventually I found a Best Western motel off Route 1,but they were full up, so I ended up in a sleazy motel that still got me for50 for a one night stay.Saturday morning, I checked out of the sleaze motel, bought a MapsCo type bookof the Philly area and found the Franklin Institute address and several of theolder library locations. A bit of driving and I ended up down aroundIndependence Hall and swung left to find the Franklin Institute. It was aphenomenally large building and was outfitted as a science museum. They alsohad an OmniMax theater and another activity, but I wanted to check out theirlibrary and science exhibits to see if there was anything related to Keely.The information attendant said there WAS a library of Franklin Institutematerial but this was not generally available to the public. However, itcould be studied by appointment. So, that is an option for another visit.Since it was about 11AM, I bought a ticket for the science museum and foundseveral entertaining displays, one being a very large Rube Goldbergarrangement of golf balls and a maze of rails down which these balls moved.In their motion, they were redirected and otherwise deflected to produce allsorts of actions you would expect of the cartoons drawn by Goldberg.An electric show was going on which involved the usual static electricity,except this was generated from a glass drum, spun at high velocity to producea minor spark. The rest of the experiments were classic and not really uniqueenough to warrant more time spent watching, so I wandered over to look at themany antique radio circuits.Eventually, it was time to go upstairs where I came on a demonstration in theMechanics and physics section relating to 'Perpetual Motion' machines. Theyhad several of the more common devices, but most intriguing of all was a modelof the Redheffer machine which was proven to be operated by a twisting cordhidden within the machine supports. The model was of wood and very well made.(See files PMOTION1, PMOTION2 and PMOTION3 on KeelyNet for details of variousperpetual motion claims including Redheffer in PMOTION2)Most disturbing to me, NO mention of Keely or his role in either this sectionor the acoustic section. Note that Keely specifically DENIED that he had EVERclaimed to have developed a 'perpetual motion' machine, but many people stillmisrepresent the facts because they have not read his writings, what little wehave been able to find.At any rate, I think it is worth putting together a packet of materialfrom KeelyNet which might induce the Franklin Institute planners to add Keelyto the display. I have little doubt they have much more information on thesubject because Charles Bloomfield Moore and his wife, Clara, both wereHEAVILY involved as patrons of the Franklin Institute for many years.A bit more wandering around and it seemed I could better spend my time in thePhiladelphia Free Library located across the street from the Institute. Itwas established in 1922 and had an extensive microfilm section. This microfilmquest included several hours of perusing the Philadelphia Inquirer and thePhiladelphia Press from the 1872 through 1898 time period. The papers arevery tedious to wade through and I found nothing of real interest beyond oneshort mention. The library closed about 5PM, so I found another hotel andchecked in. A two hour drive to familiarize myself with the city was veryinteresting and showed the many cultural sights around the city. But I washere for purposes which were not that of the tourist, so decided to get someearly sleep.The next morning (Sunday), I checked out and since it was such a beautifulday, figured it would be a perfect time to check out Keely's lab location.The library opened at 1PM, so I cruised around looking for 1420 North 20thStreet. I found it to be in a very distressed part of the city, with thebuildings dilapidated and falling apart. Dale Pond had come to the sitea few years earlier and told me the lab site had been paved over and was now aparking lot, and in a rough section of town to boot.A church was located around 1433 and only one house had an address, 1411 withthe name Darden under the numbers. I kept driving around the block, lookingfor a parking lot, but nothing of the kind was found. You can imagine thelooks I got, a white guy, cruising around these fallen buildings on a Sundaymorning, but I was on a mission from God.....Finally, I just pulled over to the curb, got out my two disposable cameras andwalked down the street. One of the cameras was a regular 135 and the other apanoramic. The lot that looked most promising, got several photos taken ofit, but I took pictures of just about every lot in the area, since I wasunsure where the laboratory/workshop had actually stood at that time.This all took place from about 11AM to about 12:30PM, so there were peopledriving by from the nearby church. As luck or guidance, depending on yourpoint of view, would have it, a car drove up to the house address across thestreet and a black man and woman got out of their car and began taking thingsfrom the trunk. I walked over, excused myself for disturbing them and askedif they could tell me where 1420 North 20th Street was. The man appeared tobe unwilling to speak with me, but the lady was very nice and said she and herhusband lived at 1411 and the empty lot aross the street was 1420.The lady said there used to be a 2 story building there, (which her husbandlater corrected to 3 stories) but it burned down about 3 years ago. I askedif she had ever heard of Keely or that a workshop and laboratory used to bethere but she had never heard of it. She was trying to get her packagestransferred to the house, so I thanked her for the assistance and informationand went over to the lot to soak in the amibience and take some pictures.I wandered around there for about 30 minutes, all the while aware of thepossibility of being robbed or otherwise accosted, but checking out the sitewas more important to me. About 11:30, I noticed the man across the streetwas standing in his door watching me. He began walking across the street andsaid he never had heard of any laboratory in this area.Since he seemed to be a nice fellow, I explained what I was looking for and hesaid yes, this was in fact, 1420, that all even numbered buildings were onthis side of the street and that the building still standing was 1416. Thelot I was standing on was therefore 1418 and/or 1420. Next to this lot was asmall concrete paved lot about 20 foot wide. In the rear, it had a fallenbrick wall in a U-shape, still standing end supporting an iron I-beam to holdup a decayed roof.So this must have been the parking lot Dale talked about. From the ScientificAmerican investigation of the lab on Keely's death, we know there was abasement and pictures of the lab showed it to be much larger than the pavedlot building.Turns out, the fellow who I was talking with was named Steve Darden. He wasborn right around the corner, and has lived in this immediate area for all ofhis 43 years. Like I said, Steve turned out to be a very nice fellow and wasvery helpful.He says the 3 story building used to have sheet metal panels on the windowsand had really burned down about 5 years ago. That would be about 1990. Hesaid the site was all collapsed and quite a mess, with some fellow dumpinggarbage on it. Only about 3 days earlier, the city had sent out a graderto bulldoze the lot of much of the trash. (very coincidental to my trip,don't you think?). Steve said he had to go but offered advice that I shouldtake care because some of the young boys in the neighborhood might be temptedto rob me. He then left and I hung around for about 15 minutes more.Steve said the building that existed on the 1418 site was unusual because ithad a kind of balcony in the back, making the building not quite as long ashis house at 1411. As we were trying to positively identify the site of thelab, Steve pointed out that there had been a walkway or easement between thebuildings, as still existed between the still standing 1416 and the chain linkfence on the adjacent lot, now a wrecking yard for old automobiles.The remains of the building with the paved lot was most likely 1420 and wasdefinitely attached to the now burned out building at 1418. The puzzle isthat the space between 1416 (the still standing building) and the paved lotbuilding is MORE than twice the width of 1416. Steve said some of these lotswere double lots, having only one address. You can clearly see where thepaved lot building was attached to the building on the south side of it.Since I have no circa 1870-1900 pictures or description of the building whichhoused the lab, I am of the opinion that there were two buildings that made up1420, the paved lot and the building which was once attached to it. This willhave to be checked out when I have more time to do the research unless someoneelse helps out or might have some details.Something of interest, there is a large broken concrete lump, almost like apartially flattened bubble about 40 feet from the road and closer to the pavedlot building. It is about 10 foot in diameter, at least what is exposed, andthe sides roll off as if partially collapsed. Wish I'd had a metal detectoras I wanted to think the 6600 pound iron sphere might be under there and ifyou know the story about the iron sphere, it makes you wonder what is mght bethere under this concrete. (see DANART1 on KeelyNet)You might ask what is the purpose of going to an old building lot where thebuilding has been destroyed? Because, it was where Keely did his experimentsand demonstrations and it won't be there forever. I guess it is kind of aMecca for me, as close as I've been able to get to Keely beyond pictures andtext. As a sort of touchstone, I picked out a brick to take home....god, ifthat brick could talk.I left the Keely lab site about 12:30PM and drove over to the PhiladelphiaFree Libarary and waited for it to open at 1PM. I went through ALL theLippincott magazines from 1871 through 1898 and copied all articles related toKeely. Though I have not read them all yet, they look almost identical tovarious chapters of Bloomfield Moores book, 'Keely's Discoveries'.While looking through the microfilm reels, I met a lady who was investigatingantique beer bottles as produced in early Philadelphia. As we talked, Iexplained what I was looking for and we got into a discussion of alternativescience approaches. When the topic went to gravity, she said she was aprofessional astronomer and she felt that many of the 'alternative' scienceresearchers were confused and needed to study science much more seriously.She said those who had not studied advanced physics were not in any positionto be doing experiments that confused not only themselves but other people aswell. I countered that Benjamin Franklin, Michael Faraday and a host of otherresearchers and great discoverers had not studied 'advanced physics', yettheir simple experiments and observations led to the developments from whichall of our technology and science had sprung. She looked at me with ahopeless look and sidestepped the entire argument from that point on.We talked for a few minutes more, but I could tell she had decided I must besome kind of a nutcase, probably because I don't buy into the church ofacademia with all their vested interests and closed minds.Before she left, I suggested she keep an eye out in the future for amazingtechnologies to spring from these 'alternative' science experimenters, naturalphilosophers as they were once called, because they learned by observingnature, not JUST from books, theories and other crystallized certainties thatlead many to mistakenly believe that our 'laws' are immutable.The library closed at 5PM, I had finished the Lippincott material and went tothe Science section looking for 'New Science Review', 'The Arena' and 'Reviewof Reviews', none of which they had. It was now 4:30PM and I could get intono more mischief in a scant 30 minutes, so chose to drive back to Rochester,arriving about 10PM and ready for the next week of the seminar.But I have my own BRICK, pictures (the best of which I will scan in later) andsome files that will be added to KeelyNet. So how was your weekend?
Just as a bit of curiosa, one of the FE (field engineers) I was attending theseminar with, said he was told a couple of years ago, that a Mike Douglas TVtalk show had a most unusual interview.He was told the interview took place around 1974 and that the tape of the showhad been taken by the military after the show aired. It seems a young boy hadbeen experimenting with paper airplanes, you know, the kind you fold out ofpaper and throw into the air.He apparently stumbled on a particular shape which when flown, would remainflying through the air, without falling, and as long as it didn't crash intosomething.As Frank remembered it, the boy folded one of these paper airplanes on theshow and threw it. The plane did indeed stay flying all around the studio,riding air currents as if seeking them out, until it hit a wall and crashed.So, if you know some way we can look up this tape, the kid shows how it wasfolded and it might lead to some serious changes in aerodynamics. I can'timagine a geometry which would be capable of seeking out air currents, thoughmaybe some kind of temperature differential system might work...where cool airindicates currents and warm air stillness, so if the plane captured the coolair on the front and channeled it to a lower pressure, warm and still zonetowards the rear, a sufficient thrust could be provided to keep the craftairborne.Think about it and if you come up with anything, please share it with all usKeelyNetters, thanks!..............................................>>> Jerry crete lump, almost like apartially flattened bubble about 40 feet from the road and closer to
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