Vibrational pseudoscience has defrauded large sums through fake energy machines.

Evidence

At the end of the nineteenth century, crackpots and charlatans such as John Worrel Keely made vague appeals to the vibratory universe and cited Chladni patterns as a way to tap into hidden powers. Millions of dollars were lost by gullible investors. After his death, Keely’s magical energy machines, witnessed by hundreds over the years supposedly channeling vibrations of some vague sort, were found to be powered by a more prosaic source of compressed air in his basement. — Eric J. Heller, Why You Hear What You Hear- An…, 1385

Categorization

Category: Factual Claims

• SHARE: Keely’s compressed-air fraud is a perfect anecdote for a friend interested in the history of 19th-century quackery or acoustics.
• XREF: Relates to the recurring theme of pseudoscientific appeals to ‘vibration’ energy, echoing modern free-energy conspiracy lore.

Related

• Vibratory pseudoscience exploited Chladni patterns to defraud millions. (similarity 0.94)