WEBVTT - Vibe Criming: John Ernst Worrell Keely 0:00:00.480 --> 0:00:02.720 Ridiculous crime. It is a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.640 Zaren Elizabeth Zarn. How are you? 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:09.560 I'm really good good. I'm happy to say that. 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:10.840 You really are really good. 0:00:10.960 --> 0:00:11.480 Yeah. 0:00:11.520 --> 0:00:12.440 Oh, thank goodness. 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:13.520 How about you? How you feeling? 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:15.040 How you doing all right? I'm alright? 0:00:15.120 --> 0:00:15.800 How you be? Girl? 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:18.800 You know what? Above ground and getting paid? I like 0:00:18.960 --> 0:00:23.119 to say, that's me h. Do you know what's ridiculous? 0:00:23.360 --> 0:00:26.000 Yes? I do. Oh have you ever heard of the 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:27.160 Kentucky meat shower? 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:29.760 Is that like a euphemism? 0:00:29.960 --> 0:00:31.000 No, it's a thing. 0:00:31.120 --> 0:00:33.120 It's an actual, literal thing. 0:00:33.280 --> 0:00:37.080 Between eleven am and noon on March third, eighteen seventy six, 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:40.600 uh huh, chunks of meat fell from the sky over 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:45.040 Olympia Springs in Bath County, Kentucky. And it was like 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:47.920 big chunks of meat, like we're talking. 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:49.040 Like stew beef. 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:52.959 Yeah. This this apparently this farmhouse farm wife she went 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:55.800 outside and her husband thought it was like an a 0:00:55.920 --> 0:00:58.080 sign of God, right, and he said that it was 0:00:58.160 --> 0:01:02.000 snowing meat. That's how he described it was. The pieces 0:01:02.040 --> 0:01:04.679 of meat were two by two inches or five centimeters 0:01:04.680 --> 0:01:06.959 by five centimeters, and one of them was at least 0:01:06.959 --> 0:01:09.920 four inches by four inches or ten centimeters by ten sameters. 0:01:09.920 --> 0:01:12.600 These are big chunks of meat. Yeah. Some people thought 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:14.319 it was beef. Some people thought it was lamb, some 0:01:14.319 --> 0:01:16.880 people thought it was dear. Two men who tasted it, 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.240 they judged it to be lamb or deer. They tasted 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:25.280 the meat. They no, they just picked it up and 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:28.120 let me taste that little. It tastes like deer to me. 0:01:28.720 --> 0:01:33.880 So accordingly this guy, doctor Allan McLain Hamilton from the 0:01:33.880 --> 0:01:36.240 medical record, he stated that the meat had been identified 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.840 as lung tissue from either a human being or a 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.360 human in or from a human so either a whole 0:01:43.440 --> 0:01:44.080 course or human. 0:01:44.160 --> 0:01:44.280 Right. 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.800 Yeah, so he said about the structure of the organ 0:01:47.840 --> 0:01:51.160 in these two cases being almost identical. Right. So the 0:01:51.200 --> 0:01:53.880 New York Times described it as cosmic meat because that's 0:01:53.880 --> 0:01:55.960 what some of the locals were kind of joking about. 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.360 So some humorous. This guy, the Kurt Goda, apparently he 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:01.960 had this theory that it was cosmic meat. Others locals 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:04.160 they thought the meat would have been vomited by either 0:02:04.560 --> 0:02:07.240 black or turkey vultures. So black vultures or turkey vultures, 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:09.280 and because apparently they do that when they're stressed, they 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.040 vomit up but what they just raised so they could 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.000 fly right, just so we could all know that's science. 0:02:15.200 --> 0:02:17.400 And they didn't even say it was what it was. 0:02:17.520 --> 0:02:22.000 They got it wrong. It was like human lung, totally 0:02:24.120 --> 0:02:24.720 like medicine. 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:26.680 You know. Some people also pointed out that it could 0:02:26.680 --> 0:02:28.960 have been like had like send you also that, so 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:31.120 it could have been like, uh, you know, basically human 0:02:31.200 --> 0:02:34.239 gristle and and what have you. So I have a theory, 0:02:34.720 --> 0:02:35.600 thank you for asking. 0:02:35.960 --> 0:02:36.840 It was desperate to. 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.520 It was a time traveler who got their coordinate's wrong, 0:02:39.639 --> 0:02:43.240 and you just got just destroyed across the atmosphere and 0:02:43.240 --> 0:02:45.640 they fell down in bits and pieces. Cause if you 0:02:45.680 --> 0:02:47.440 think about it, the planet's moving, and say you do 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:49.359 some time travel, if you don't get your cord, it's 0:02:49.400 --> 0:02:51.600 exactly right. You could en end up in the atmosphere. 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:53.520 You could end up in the defense center of the Earth. 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.600 You're not going to necessarily land on the surface. Got 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:58.880 to be the whole planet's moving, So I mean, you 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:00.840 got to really get your cord. And it's right. So 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.360 you're off by just a little bit, maybe early experimentation. 0:03:03.400 --> 0:03:05.120 All of a sudden you just slid a person across 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:06.600 the atmosphere and you got a meat shower. 0:03:06.840 --> 0:03:10.320 Yeah, I think that's the only explanation. I mean, my 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:15.480 time travel, my theory. I mean it's not as as like, oh, 0:03:15.919 --> 0:03:17.720 you know, it's right in front of us. Why didn't 0:03:17.720 --> 0:03:21.720 we think it? Is that there was an inventor in 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.680 the area who invented the first wood chipper, oh like. 0:03:25.639 --> 0:03:30.559 A meat cannon, and fell into it and then broke. 0:03:30.280 --> 0:03:34.040 It while it was spraying him all over making and 0:03:34.080 --> 0:03:36.400 then no one could find it. So you know, you 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:38.680 had to go all that time so you could get 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:40.440 the wood schipper reinvented. 0:03:40.600 --> 0:03:43.680 Now, I love that theory, and I cannot promise you 0:03:43.760 --> 0:03:46.840 that I will not in the future comically refer to 0:03:47.080 --> 0:03:51.040 as a euphemism a Kentucky meat shower sounds like the 0:03:51.040 --> 0:03:52.200 old Kentucky meat shower. 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:55.920 Yes, so what that would be a euphemism. 0:03:55.320 --> 0:03:58.120 For probably something I order at a restaurant that I 0:03:58.160 --> 0:04:01.040 go to. What is this Kentucky No, that's like. 0:04:01.000 --> 0:04:04.280 When you're eating a burrito, but it's like one of 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.160 those disgusting like something no offense to those who like it. 0:04:08.200 --> 0:04:12.920 But the ground beef burrito and you trip spills down 0:04:12.960 --> 0:04:18.960 the sidewalk out that's Kentucky meat because like you know, 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.239 it's it's like sort of gringo to do ground beef 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:22.960 and a burrito. 0:04:23.680 --> 0:04:25.680 I don't know, I don't know. 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:27.800 That's just what I'm hearing in my earpiece right now. 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:33.360 That's ridiculous. I love that. Thank you. Do you want 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.880 to know what else is ridiculous? Being powered by vibes? 0:04:38.640 --> 0:05:02.960 Yeah, this is This is Ridiculous Crime, a podcast about 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.360 absurd and outrageous capers, heists, and cons. 0:05:06.760 --> 0:05:09.880 It's always ninety nine percent murder free and one hundred 0:05:09.920 --> 0:05:12.159 percent ridiculous. 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.800 This I know you done herd have yes? Uh? 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:18.679 Con men right. 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:21.760 Yeah, those are especially when they aim up. 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:23.320 They traffic in vibes. 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:25.880 This is true. It's a good way of putting in Yeah. 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.080 Let's just put that out there. They create vibes that 0:05:28.160 --> 0:05:31.839 get people engaged. People want in on vibes. 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:32.880 They're vibe criming. 0:05:33.080 --> 0:05:36.400 They're total vibe criming. I you know, it's interesting because 0:05:36.440 --> 0:05:38.760 on Tuesday you were talking about scientists death. 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:40.080 This is true, and our. 0:05:40.000 --> 0:05:44.400 Cycles have synked once again. Yes, yeah, I have a 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:45.640 scientist for you. 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:46.920 Really look at us, girls. 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:51.600 We're an old timey con man and he used both 0:05:51.760 --> 0:05:58.080 vibes in his behaviors. And in his con itself. Oh zaren, 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:01.320 meet John whirl Keihley. 0:06:01.960 --> 0:06:04.080 Oh what a mouthful name. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:10.680 Yeah, so Keeley, that's his stepsister. 0:06:11.040 --> 0:06:12.400 Okay, So. 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:16.240 I'm going to call him Keeley like when you yell 0:06:16.279 --> 0:06:23.120 at yourself and say Brenette. Okay. So he was someone 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.240 referred to me in an email today as just Dunton. 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:28.640 Really yeah, and I was like, Dunton did you read that? 0:06:29.279 --> 0:06:29.599 I did? 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:30.960 Actually? Uh? 0:06:31.160 --> 0:06:37.279 So okay. Keilley born eighteen thirty seven in Pennsylvania. He 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:40.080 was raised by his grandparents, because you know, he was 0:06:40.200 --> 0:06:43.520 orphaned young. Not a lot of information out there otherwise, 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:45.960 but what we do know is that he was raised 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:49.640 in really modest circumstances, and he had only a very 0:06:49.839 --> 0:06:53.760 limited formal education. So he wasn't like one of your 0:06:53.880 --> 0:06:57.120 high falutin scientists who goes off to MI I T 0:06:57.600 --> 0:07:00.960 and Dartmouth and what have you? This guy and the 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:03.640 whatnots and the who's it's. So he had a bunch 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:06.240 of different jobs in his early adult years. He was 0:07:06.279 --> 0:07:11.040 a carpenter kind of like Jesus. He was a painter 0:07:11.360 --> 0:07:15.040 kind of like you. He was a carnival barker kind 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:18.440 of like Day and then he was a musician who 0:07:18.440 --> 0:07:21.880 played in various orchestras in and around Philadelphia, which is 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:26.640 a turn who saw that kind of like precisely. So 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:32.000 these gigs established him in two skills that would absolutely 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:37.480 become indispensable in his later let's call them fraudulent enterprises. 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:42.880 He had this dexterity with mechanical apparatus and say that 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.440 was you know, musical instruments and tools. And then he 0:07:46.520 --> 0:07:50.320 had this crazy charisma and he could beguile even the 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:58.560 most skeptical observer. Oh my god. Like Riz City. That's 0:07:58.800 --> 0:08:01.720 is that the new grand theft auto? 0:08:02.200 --> 0:08:03.960 Rizz City? 0:08:04.600 --> 0:08:07.240 What's your Raccoon Escape from Raccoon City or whatever? 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:07.440 Oh? 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.000 Yes, what was that? Welcome to Raccoon City. 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:14.800 Yeah, but it was like a video game movie. I 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:21.720 don't know whatever it was. Riz City. So to understand Kihley, 0:08:21.960 --> 0:08:28.120 we have to understand Philadelphia in the mid nineteenth century. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:31.720 You have to know Philly as was the city that 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:38.400 was absolutely electrified by technological progress. This is the age 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:43.520 of steams. Oh yes, it had transformed industry. And then 0:08:43.679 --> 0:08:46.600 all these inventors are popping up. They want attention and 0:08:46.640 --> 0:08:52.400 they want money, they want that capital. Enter John Ernst WHORL. Kiley. 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.200 So he had this boldness and it kind of like 0:08:55.320 --> 0:08:59.160 bordered on the theatrical in the way that he presented. 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:01.640 Me, thinking like P. T. Barnum, like where he's like 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:04.080 got the you know, Carnival Barker. 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:07.679 It's more like flourishes in my mind. 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:09.000 Okay, like this. 0:09:09.520 --> 0:09:13.200 So he was this large like mountain of a man, 0:09:13.400 --> 0:09:18.320 powerfully built. He had this really commanding physical presence and 0:09:18.360 --> 0:09:24.600 a booming, deep sonorous voice. Yes, and that magnetic self assurance, 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.959 the confidence that everyone trusted him. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:28.719 Okay. 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:33.120 So around eighteen seventy two he starts attracting attention because 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:37.400 he claimed that he had discovered an entirely new, an 0:09:37.440 --> 0:09:39.560 inexhaustible source of energy. 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.280 Oh yes, energy story. 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.760 And he called this etheric force. 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:48.920 Oh yes, I'm familiar. I've seen this reference. Well. 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.720 So the term, like he it evoked what was really 0:09:51.760 --> 0:09:58.440 current at that time, this scientific concept of luminiferous ether yes, 0:09:58.800 --> 0:10:02.960 hypothetical medium through which light waves were believed to propagate. 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:08.600 So Keeley was like, I can manipulate the vibrational properties 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:10.920 of water and air, look at me, look at me now, 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:15.520 wash me cook, and I can release a force of 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.760 like unimaginable power from virtually any substance. 0:10:19.960 --> 0:10:22.439 You think lightning's cool, and you know all. 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:26.120 Powered by vibes, that all vibes is there in the 0:10:26.160 --> 0:10:31.360 clay was staggering, staggered. So he said that, Okay, He's like, 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:34.000 with this single quart of water and he would hold 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:37.920 something up, he'd do his process on it, he'd do 0:10:38.000 --> 0:10:38.640 his whole thing. 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:41.160 Alecazoo. 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:46.920 Yeah, vibes, vibes, and then he could generate enough pressure 0:10:47.000 --> 0:10:50.280 to drive a locomotive. Wow, and not just like a 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.440 few feet down the track. I'm talking like a long trip. 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.360 Yeah. He's like, I'm creating nuclear energy out of this water. 0:10:55.559 --> 0:11:01.600 Yes. Yes, So his spiel was like this infection of 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:06.760 invented terminology. Love that and like half baked scientific concepts. 0:11:06.840 --> 0:11:09.520 I am so jealous. I've always wanted to invent terminology 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:14.319 and half so good, come on, so good, let me cook. 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:15.960 In the eighteen eighties, so he talked. 0:11:15.720 --> 0:11:23.920 About vibratory sympathetic transmission, quadruple negative harmonics. This is like 0:11:23.960 --> 0:11:27.600 when people talk like this, my eyes glaze over. So 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.679 I'm just like, yeah, I totally understand what you're saying. 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:37.720 Polar and depolar differentiation, Okay, etheric disintegration, like dozens of 0:11:37.760 --> 0:11:38.520 these totally. 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:41.000 This guy's are like a glossy So. 0:11:40.880 --> 0:11:44.880 To the uninitiated people like me, they're impressed, like that's technical. 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:45.760 A lot of. 0:11:47.280 --> 0:11:53.319 Actual physicists and engineers they're like, this is nonsense, babble. 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:59.040 Absolutely so ps, you're violating the laws of thermodynamics. 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:01.120 Newton would be tear his hair cuts. 0:12:01.000 --> 0:12:05.440 Up on that. Yeah, so Keeley, he wasn't talking to physicists. 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.160 He was talking to fat cat because. 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:11.640 They're critical, Elizabeth, they are faking, they've read books. 0:12:11.720 --> 0:12:16.040 Yeah, so he No. Keeley is like, hey, wealthy industrialists. 0:12:16.120 --> 0:12:19.679 You guys are investor. 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:21.640 And you know, people who just have money burning a 0:12:21.679 --> 0:12:23.320 hole in their pocket and they want to get in 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:27.120 on this like miraculous solution to the world's energy problems. Yes, 0:12:27.240 --> 0:12:31.280 sounds familiar. They're like, we're in, you know, count us in. 0:12:31.440 --> 0:12:32.760 Have my money, please me. 0:12:32.840 --> 0:12:33.040 Well. 0:12:33.160 --> 0:12:36.840 The cornerstone of his public demonstrations was this machine that 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:43.280 he called the hydro pneumatic pulsating vacuo engine, and this 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:50.000 evolved into different iterations. Sometimes he called it the vibratory generator, combulator, combobulator, 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.880 vibratory generator, Okay, the liberator, that was when he was 0:12:53.880 --> 0:12:56.319 like trying something like more marketing forward. 0:12:56.440 --> 0:12:57.800 These are the people who made it hard to be 0:12:57.880 --> 0:13:01.080 Nikola Tesla. He's like, look, I got this, and vibrates 0:13:01.080 --> 0:13:01.480 that are. 0:13:01.360 --> 0:13:05.600 Like no, and then he finally settled on sympathetic transmitter. 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:13.120 That's like, that's my favorite radiohead. So these devices, they're 0:13:13.200 --> 0:13:18.120 just absolute marvels of mechanical complexity. There's just tubes and 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:21.680 valves and gauges and like resonating chambers. I don't know what 0:13:21.800 --> 0:13:25.160 that is. So Keiley would run the machines and they 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:30.960 would produce impressive phenomena, like the gauges would show crazy pressure, 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:34.880 and metal bars looked like they were just bending by 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:41.920 invisible forces. Weights were like lifted and thrusted. They vibrated, 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:47.960 They're like pulsing. It was so loud. Witnesses were always 0:13:48.000 --> 0:13:51.000 just like I'm amazed and I'm convinced, Like that's what 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.240 they would say, So pretty soon and I'm going to 0:13:53.240 --> 0:13:59.280 stand back, I've got steambirds. Pretty soon Kihi incorporated the 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.680 Kili Motor Company and offered shares to the public, and 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:06.400 the response was over the top. Rich folks, regular citizens. 0:14:06.400 --> 0:14:09.559 Everyone's throwing money at him. Everyone wants in. Uh, they 0:14:09.720 --> 0:14:13.560 dumped five million dollars into it. UPU opening real. 0:14:13.520 --> 0:14:16.760 Scientist must have been losing. Oh god, which is like getting. 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.840 One hundred and thirty three million today? Are you getting 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:23.560 to day's dollars? If I'm like, I've got a combobulator 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:25.720 and they're like, have one hundred and thirty three million? 0:14:26.120 --> 0:14:26.680 Thinks guy? 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:28.880 Unbelievable. 0:14:29.400 --> 0:14:32.600 So the most significant of his investors over the years 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:36.520 was this woman. This is Clara Jessup Bloomfield more. 0:14:36.680 --> 0:14:38.720 Does everybody have crazy names? This is amazing. 0:14:38.800 --> 0:14:41.800 It's how you get that's your price of admission at 0:14:43.560 --> 0:14:47.520 this rich Philadelphia widow. She's a woman of letters. She's smart, 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:50.400 She's really smart. She was a wonderful philanthropist. I had 0:14:50.440 --> 0:14:51.280 all these asiums. 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:52.720 She's curious about the cutting edge. 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:56.440 Yeah. So she became his greatest champion and patron from 0:14:56.480 --> 0:15:01.480 the early eighteen eighties onward. She to start one hundred 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:04.960 thousand dollars plus a monthly salary for him of two 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:06.160 hundred and fifty dollars. 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.960 So let's convert that, please, I need a converted. 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.160 That's a three million dollar investment. And she was given 0:15:12.200 --> 0:15:15.640 him like eight grand a month. I know I know. 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:17.760 I'm telling you, it's so much more fun of your comment. 0:15:18.040 --> 0:15:21.160 So you hear it, right, Yeah, it's fun and easy. 0:15:21.720 --> 0:15:25.600 So she wrote articles defending him in scientific journals. Oh lord, 0:15:25.760 --> 0:15:28.480 she wrote with all these like scientists like on his 0:15:28.640 --> 0:15:32.200 behalf approached them. She published a full length book in 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:36.600 eighteen ninety three called Keighley and his Discovery's Aerial Navigation, 0:15:37.520 --> 0:15:40.000 and she was like, this is a this is a breakthrough. 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:45.080 Please everybody understand this, Franklin. Yeah, her advocacy gave him 0:15:45.120 --> 0:15:49.520 this like social and intellectual respectability that he couldn't get 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:52.520 all by himself. So now, like we do need to 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:56.080 know that her support was not unconditional. It's like, over 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:00.000 the years she got really frustrated because he couldn't produce 0:16:00.120 --> 0:16:04.080 use like a commercially viable engine, and she would she'd 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:06.440 be like, what's going on here, pal, it's shaken and 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:10.400 making hold on, hold on, And he'd reassure her because 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:13.920 he's this crazy manipulator, and so he'd give her just 0:16:14.120 --> 0:16:17.000 enough evidence of progress to calm her down. And it 0:16:17.120 --> 0:16:18.840 was like, I'm he's always on the. 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:20.560 Verge of a I just need to attach a belt 0:16:20.600 --> 0:16:20.840 to this. 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:25.800 And two weeks away. He's always two weeks away, and 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:27.320 then two weeks comes and goes. 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.240 Lather idea for a carburetor exactly. 0:16:30.920 --> 0:16:35.800 So Keighley would demonstrate his fantastic machines to visitors, but 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:40.400 under these really controlled circumstances, and he never allowed independent 0:16:40.480 --> 0:16:43.920 examination of the machinery while it was in operation. So 0:16:44.040 --> 0:16:47.680 like visitors could watch, they could ask questions, they could 0:16:47.720 --> 0:16:50.560 record what they were seeing. They you write it down, 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:53.720 but they couldn't open the devices. They couldn't like trace 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.280 the flow of all the pressures. Certainly couldn't conduct like 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:59.280 physical measurements of anything. 0:16:59.040 --> 0:16:59.840 Proprietary of form. 0:17:00.640 --> 0:17:03.040 Yeah, in essence, these people are going to the theater. Yeah, 0:17:03.120 --> 0:17:03.920 like they can't. 0:17:03.680 --> 0:17:05.720 Do so it's like watching it a tom and On 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:06.359 played chess. 0:17:06.440 --> 0:17:08.720 Yes, but it wasn't a bunch of rubes that he 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:09.840 led into the workshop. 0:17:09.920 --> 0:17:10.359 I bet not. 0:17:10.440 --> 0:17:13.080 They're like smart professional. 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:14.520 Engineers, engineers, I was guessing. 0:17:14.200 --> 0:17:17.840 Physicians, journalists. So a lot of them came away totally convinced. 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.359 Some were like just really puzzled, confused. I mean it 0:17:22.400 --> 0:17:26.199 looked like his stuff was functioning. Gauges showed pressures in 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:28.959 like thousands of pounds per square inch. There was this 0:17:29.119 --> 0:17:34.760 large iron sphere that was like could reportedly restrain a 0:17:34.800 --> 0:17:35.760 team of horses. 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:37.720 Okay, so he's generating enough. 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:41.520 Yeah, the device called a globe motor that spun in 0:17:41.600 --> 0:17:46.200 perpetual motion. Everything was really physically impressive. 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:51.520 So Jewels Verne level technology. It's a lot of yeah, exactly, 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.600 vacuum tubes, vacuum. 0:17:54.840 --> 0:17:59.159 So the question that investigators like couldn't ever resolve was 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.119 the source of the energy driving this. 0:18:01.480 --> 0:18:02.200 That's my question. 0:18:02.359 --> 0:18:04.800 That's a good question. Thank you for asking. So Keiley 0:18:05.160 --> 0:18:08.159 had all these techniques to manage the skeptics. He would 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.439 refuse to operate the machines if the vibrations in the 0:18:11.520 --> 0:18:14.440 room were quote inharmonious. 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:17.360 Vibes, A bobs ain't right in his vibes are off. 0:18:17.680 --> 0:18:21.280 Shut down, vibes are off, same right, vibes are off. 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:25.320 He calls it off. Yes, So he limited his physical 0:18:25.400 --> 0:18:29.480 proximity of the visitors to the machinery, and he would 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:33.880 do these like acts of telekinesis or like force transmission 0:18:34.000 --> 0:18:36.880 using tuning forks and like strings. 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:39.480 Tuning forks are a while because you can pass a 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:41.399 vibration in the air. If you don't know, you're like, 0:18:41.640 --> 0:18:43.320 how did he get so. 0:18:43.480 --> 0:18:46.000 Obviously there's a lot of trickery going on, but people 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.760 wanted it to be true. They wanted miracle and wonder. Okay, 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.320 So by the late eighteen seventies, the shareholders in the 0:18:52.359 --> 0:18:56.560 motor company, they're getting impatient. He'd been promising commercial production 0:18:56.640 --> 0:18:59.040 of the engine for years, years at this point, yeah, 0:18:59.080 --> 0:19:02.640 but then nothing. Eighteen eighty one, a group of shareholders 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.680 brought legal action against him. They wanted to force either 0:19:06.080 --> 0:19:10.800 production of a working engine or accounting of the invested funds. 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.480 And he was like, look, my discoveries are so delicate 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:19.679 and so sensitive to external vibrations that I can't demonstrate 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:21.840 them under adversarial conditions. 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.919 You guy, Yeah, there's my machines on there. 0:19:24.920 --> 0:19:27.480 You're harshing my mellow. How do you argue against that? 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:31.720 So they're like, we want blueprints or receipts, and he's like, no, bro, 0:19:32.160 --> 0:19:33.680 the auras are not right. 0:19:35.240 --> 0:19:38.200 Let's take a break, go to commercial. When we come back, 0:19:38.640 --> 0:19:40.560 we're going to see how he plays this all out. 0:20:00.960 --> 0:20:03.720 All right, Cesarin, he vibes. 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:04.840 Loving vibes. 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:05.920 The vibes are not off. 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.080 Right now, I feel really good. We can keep going 0:20:08.359 --> 0:20:10.200 back and forth and take. 0:20:10.320 --> 0:20:13.320 So Kiley right by the end of eighteen eighty one, 0:20:13.400 --> 0:20:16.560 his stockholders were over it. I bet they were done. 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.720 On December fourteenth, eighteen eighty one, they convened their annual 0:20:20.760 --> 0:20:24.840 meeting and they formally read into the record this report 0:20:25.359 --> 0:20:27.600 that outlined just how over it they were. 0:20:27.600 --> 0:20:31.240 Because they formed the basically corporation, I got stockholders stockholder. 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.080 So they're like, we still have faith in the inventions, 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:38.280 and that's okay. I don't know why exactly, but guys, 0:20:38.320 --> 0:20:41.919 we're irritated at how secretive this whole thing is and 0:20:41.960 --> 0:20:44.240 there's nothing to show for all of our patients. 0:20:44.320 --> 0:20:46.240 Yeah, this steampunk has given me nothing. 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:49.960 So steampunk. And another thing in the report was how 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:54.080 worried everyone was about what would happen if Keighley got 0:20:54.119 --> 0:20:55.639 incapacitated or died. 0:20:55.800 --> 0:20:56.760 Oh, because nobody knows. 0:20:56.800 --> 0:20:59.800 He has no assistance, no backup, no one can. 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:01.479 Look at anything legitimate concern. 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.600 Yeah. So the report made public what had previously just 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:06.960 been like whispers and private grumbles. 0:21:07.000 --> 0:21:10.800 Basically a wizard pretty much you don't nobody spell. 0:21:10.400 --> 0:21:13.439 You know, you don't step to the wizard. So that 0:21:13.600 --> 0:21:18.560 Keighley's secrecy was not the reasonable precaution of a careful inventor, 0:21:19.119 --> 0:21:22.360 but like this deliberate strategy of a man who had 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:27.200 something to hide. So early January eighteen eighty two, the stockholders, 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:31.159 they filed a bill of equity in Philadelphia's Cortacom and please, 0:21:32.000 --> 0:21:35.000 they wanted a court order that would force Keighley to 0:21:35.080 --> 0:21:39.320 disclose the principles and operating methods of his motors. 0:21:39.400 --> 0:21:41.160 Show you son, yes, okay. 0:21:41.440 --> 0:21:46.199 His response was immediate and totally on brand. It was 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:51.119 crazy technical in nature. Did not address the substantive merits 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:55.159 of their complaints. Instead, he just raised all these procedural 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:59.560 objections to the form and standing of the legal action itself. 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:02.040 And he had all these reasons why the court should 0:22:02.040 --> 0:22:04.960 decline to grant the plaintiffs the relief they saw it. 0:22:05.119 --> 0:22:06.280 The exciting patent laws. 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:10.280 Yeah, none of which engaged with the underlying question like 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:13.080 can you disclose your process? 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:14.200 And does this stuff work? 0:22:14.320 --> 0:22:17.679 So it goes to court on April first, eighteen eighty two, 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:23.280