G. A. Keel

G. A. Keel was an American mountain man who was reported to have invented a perpetual motion machine in 1902 while residing at Sand Mountain in DeKalb county, Alabama.

Press Coverage

• "PERPETUAL MOTION - A MOUNTAINEER CLAIMS TO HAVE THE REAL THING. WHICH HE WORKED ON FOR FIVE MONTHS ALL ALONE. Claims His Machine Has Already Been Running Eight Months by Itself.", Chattanooga News (Chattanooga, Tenn.): 4, 25 Oct. 1902, https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/604060716, "G. A. Keel is the name of a hardy mountaineer residing on Sand Mountain, in DeKalb county, Ala., who claims that he has at last solved the old mooted problem of perpetual motion[...] He says that he discovered the secret power of the invention by means of a fine sewing needling and a newspaper doubled eight times. Further than this he would not explain, saying that if he never reaps any benefit from his invention 'other fellers will have to think it out just like he did.' He says nobody knows anything about the machine but himself and 'little wife.' After thoroughly testing the machine and finding that it would 'run always,' he came to town yesterday and accosted one of the officials at the Chattanooga Plow Works, explaining to him that he had solved the problem, and that he wanted to sell him the right for manufacturing the machine and putting it to test. For some reason the two failed to agree on the terms, and the deal was called off. The backwoods inventor and solver of the problem that has puzzled the minds of all ages says that the machine can be so arranged that it will increase the speed of a locomotive from sixty to ninety miles an hour, and that it will run any kind of machinery."