John Ernst Worrell Keelythe man, sourced.
John Ernst Worrell Keely was a Philadelphia inventor whose motor filled newspapers from the 1870s until late 1898. Pennsylvania lists the Keely Motor Company with an initial filing of 12/02/1874. The Library of Congress holds an 1879 incorporation print and stock certificate. Three newspapers reported that Keely was jailed in November 1888; the court docket is still missing. Birth and death certificates are not yet in this archive. This is a biography file. Device history lives at keelymotor.com.
Signature jacket
The Keely File
Six stamped sheets: identity, public life, company as biography, 1888 jail press, patronage, and gaps. Device history, demonstrations, and the 1899 exposé stay at keelymotor.com.
How to read this archive
The archive is structured by evidence type. Primary documents anchor every major claim. Contemporary press provides context. Later narratives are included only when clearly labeled. This is a preservation project, not a debate forum.
Official records, patents, court filings, institutional archives, and original scans.
19th-century newspapers and journals describing demonstrations and claims.
Secondary accounts and reinterpretations, always labeled as such.
Primary Artifacts (Selected)
A small selection of high-signal visuals from the archive. Each image is backed by a provenance entry in the sources log.
