On January 19, 1899, The Philadelphia Press published an illustrated article detailing an investigation made by the newspaper of Keely's workshop, in which the Press contended that the investigation had clearly proven Keely's motor to have been "a delusion and deception" and that its alleged mysterious forces were the result of trickery.

The investigation, which took a week, was assisted by consulting engineer Professor Carl Hering, Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania Professor Arthur W. Goodspeed, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania Lightner Witmer, and Doctor M. G. Miller, who superintended digging operations.
 Electrical engineer Clarence B. Moore, the son of Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, was an observer.
The scientists involved substantiated the report with signed statements.

The floors of Keely's workshop were taken up and a brick wall was removed.
Inside the wall they found mechanical belts linked to a silent water motor two floors below the laboratory.
In the basement there was a three-ton sphere of compressed air that ran the machines through hidden high pressure tubes and switches.
The walls, ceilings and even solid beams were found to have concealed tubes.
Journalists documented everything photographically to leave no room for doubt.
Hering and Goodspeed were of the opinion that the tubing and the large steel sphere in the basement indicated the use of normal forces and possible deception, and Hering said in his signed statement that Keely had probably lied and deceived, and was satisfied that he had used highly compressed air to power his demonstrations.

At a meeting of the Keely Motor Company's board on January 25, 1899, President B. L. Ackerman issued a statement denying the Philadelphia Press report.
The statement claimed that the tubes mentioned in the report had been discarded by Keely years before, and that in all his experiments since 1887 only solid wires had been used.
Up to that time, it was stated, Keely had been working on a theory of etheric or vaporic force, and used the tubes to convey this force, but after 1887 he was convinced that he had discovered what he called "vibratory sympathy".
A concealed electric wire discovered in Keely's workshop was described by Ackerman as the remains of the wires of a burglar alarm, and in no way connected with the force used by Keely's motor.
The statement denied all assertions that Keely was an imposter, and declared that there was no trickery in any of the results that Keely had claimed to have obtained.
On January 19, 1899, The Philadelphia Press published an illustrated article detailing an investigation made by the newspaper of Keely's workshop, in which the Press contended that the investigation had clearly proven Keely's motor to have been "a delusion and deception" and that its alleged mysterious forces were the result of trickery.
The investigation, which took a week, was assisted by consulting engineer Professor Carl Hering, Assistant Professor of Physics at the University of Pennsylvania Professor Arthur W. Goodspeed, Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania Lightner Witmer, and Doctor M. G. Miller, who superintended digging operations.  Electrical engineer Clarence B. Moore, the son of Mrs. Bloomfield Moore, was an observer. The scientists involved substantiated the report with signed statements.
The floors of Keely's workshop were taken up and a brick wall was removed. Inside the wall they found mechanical belts linked to a silent water motor two floors below the laboratory. In the basement there was a three-ton sphere of compressed air that ran the machines through hidden high pressure tubes and switches. The walls, ceilings and even solid beams were found to have concealed tubes. Journalists documented everything photographically to leave no room for doubt. Hering and Goodspeed were of the opinion that the tubing and the large steel sphere in the basement indicated the use of normal forces and possible deception, and Hering said in his signed statement that Keely had probably lied and deceived, and was satisfied that he had used highly compressed air to power his demonstrations.
At a meeting of the Keely Motor Company's board on January 25, 1899, President B. L. Ackerman issued a statement denying the Philadelphia Press report. The statement claimed that the tubes mentioned in the report had been discarded by Keely years before, and that in all his experiments since 1887 only solid wires had been used. Up to that time, it was stated, Keely had been working on a theory of etheric or vaporic force, and used the tubes to convey this force, but after 1887 he was convinced that he had discovered what he called "vibratory sympathy". A concealed electric wire discovered in Keely's workshop was described by Ackerman as the remains of the wires of a burglar alarm, and in no way connected with the force used by Keely's motor. The statement denied all assertions that Keely was an imposter, and declared that there was no trickery in any of the results that Keely had claimed to have obtained.
John Ernst Worrell Keely