8. The Conman “Inventor”
John Ernst Worrell Keely (1837 – 1898) had many faults, but sloth was not one of them. He always hustled to get ahead, and among the jobs, he worked as a young man were painter, carpenter, member of a theatrical orchestra, carnival barker, and mechanic. It was while tinkering as a mechanic that he came up with the idea that would make him one of history’s greatest “inventor” con men. In 1872, Keely declared that he had come up with a new engine that would revolutionize the world, by drawing its energy from a new physical force that held limitless potential power.
Back in the nineteenth century, there was a widespread although mistaken belief that all space was filled with something called a “luminiferous ether“. It was a hypothetical substance thought necessary for the movement of light or electric waves, and without which those things would be impossible. Keely claimed to have figured out how to tap into and extract energy from this (actually nonexistent) substance. Having unraveled the secrets of the luminiferous ether, Keely claimed that he could now tap the power of atoms in water to furnish energy.
