Keely had the honor of exhibiting his Musical Globe at the World's Fair in the late 1880's. The Musical Globe was a spherical device which had one side painted white and the other painted black. When properly tuned, it could be excited by the simple act of playing a harmonica. This would cause the Globe to slowly spin under its own power which was derived from an arrangement of vibrating components within the sphere.John Jacob Astor and his entourage were visiting the various exhibits and had seen little of novelty or interest. However, they did find Keely's exhibit intriguing. Keely immediately recognized who Mr. Astor was (and the extent of his fortune) and spoke with him in private. Keely told Mr. Astor that the "good stuff" was in his laboratory and he would be only too happy to demonstrate a fascinating experiment if Mr. Astor could manage to visit the lab. Being bored with the rest of the fair, Mr. Astor decided to take Keely up on the offer and went to the lab.
Now there is a picture taken in Keely's lab which has been of interest since we first saw it. There is no description or explanation of what the device is but this story seems to have something relating to it, as you can clearly see when looking at the device in the photo. Shown is a large metal sphere supported in a circular ring. An outer ring surrounds the inner and supports a number of various sized smaller spheres.
Keely asked that Mr. Astor stand back and watch closely. He then went to one of his compound devices and began making adjustments. When the siren or whatever type of excitation he used was engaged, the large sphere began to slowly spin on its axis in the inside. Within minutes, the smaller spheres each began to spin on their axis at rates proportionate to their diameter. In addition, the smaller spheres began to orbit the larger central sphere. The smaller ones spun faster, the larger ones slower, and all seemed to be related to the large sphere spinning on its axis in the center ring.
After a few minutes of this, the large sphere began to slowly rise into the air and with it, the smaller spheres also rose, all the while spinning on their own axis and orbiting the large sphere. There seemed to be some sort of equator generated by the large sphere which supported the smaller spheres. At a certain spot, the large sphere stopped rising and continued to spin while the smaller spheres of varying size began to fan out. Each reached a specific orbit which appeared to be a DIRECT ANALOGUE to our SOLAR SYSTEM.
Just picture this, Keely standing there operating his machine, John Astor standing with his mouth open, both of them watching this miniature version of the solar system floating about the room. Astor reached up and grabbed hold of one of the smaller globes. It held him off the floor and continued to orbit about the central sphere with no diminution of speed or height, Astor laughing gleefully as he spun about the room. He eventually let go and walked over to Keely to ask about how this miracle was done. Keely said that he had indeed modelled the solar systend that each sphere was harmonically related in size and frequency to the planets and sun of our system. When his instrument was properly adjusted and excited, a natural sympathetic response was generated in each of the spheres to generate the same effect which makes the worlds move.
Astor asked what would happen if one of the spheres were to lose control. Keely assured him that the chance of this happening was as remote as if one of the planets in our system were to drop out of orbit. However, Keely had anticipated such a problem and an experiment had been done to see what the effect might be. An enharmonious chord was set in to the compound instrument which would cause the sphere representing the Earth to lose its "tether" to our central sun.
When the chord was played, the Earth sphere slowly moved in a straight line, creating a hole through the wall of the lab and disappeared from site. Seconds later, Keely readjusted the machine to an orderly pattern which caused the sphere to retrace its path and return to the proper orbit.
Astor was dumbfounded by the entire experience. We have no further information on this particular story, so we don't know if Keely got funding or whatever.
(Source: Keely-Net BBS / Vanguard Sciences}
