A MODERN WIZARD.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXII, Issue 52, 2 March 1901, Page 3 (Supplement)

A MODERN WIZARD.

"THE GREATEST THING OS EARTH.'

Some ten years ago. in a lecture to the Royal Institution. Mr Tesla showed that if an electric current he reversed a great number of times a minttte it will develop powers immensely In advance of anything we can produce by other means. Acting on this principle, he has succeeded In producing what is really an induction coll with 100.000 alternations of current per second. With this huge "oscillator," as he calls it, the ordinary spark of a few inches becomes a roaring blaze 70 feet across, while It produces such a disturbance of the electrical equilibrium m surrounding objects that, when at work. sparks an inch long can be drawn from a water main at a distance of .100 feet from the laboratory. Moreover, he lias discovered a way of so "tunning" It that another coil similarly tuned will respond to its vibrations ,-it a distance which', he believes, may be infinite, but which in practice does not seem to have been tested beyond 000 miles. He thus has at his disposal a means of convoying electric energy of millions of volts (two thousand volts will kill a man) to a great: distance In any direction he

pleases, and. of course, without any connecting wires. No known substance or power can stop or insulate this current, which can travel indifferently through the eartli or the air, nor can anyone tap or avail himself of it; unless he possesses a coil exactly tuned to the vibrations of tho oscillator. ITS MARVELLOUS POWERS.

What this extraordinary machine can do outstrips all the stories of mediaeval magic. By Its use Mr Tesla claims that lie can double the food supply of tho world. For It offers the best and most economical means of fixing the nitrogen which, as Sir William Crookes has told us. is the life of plants, and he can, therefore, make two ears of corn grow where one grew before. It can produce Iron in vast quantities by a cheaper process than any hitherto attempted. It can also control at enormous distances an automatic machine, as, for Instance, a erowloss boat, which shall carry Its own propelling and steering power, nnd yet be as entirely under the control of the operator seated in his study hundreds of miles off as an organ Is under the control of the player at the keyboard, finally, though Mr Tesla does not tell us so hi this article, the battery can so "electrify"— to use the word in Its popular sense—a room that, an exhausted glass tube will glow with radiant light whenever It is brought within a certain distance of the floor or ceiling. If it does what its Inventor expects of It, light and power should at „o very distant date be within the reach of all, while the problem of feeding our increasing millions should be greatly simplified. MOKE MIRACLES PROMISED.

The facts so far have been proved by actual experiment, and may, therefore, be taken, io use the French phrase, as definitely acquired by science. Rut when Mr Tesla goes ou to tell us what, he thinks the result of his discoveries will be, one does

not wonder that an American biographer depicts him as much elated at bis successes. He says that it will soon be possible to draw our supplies of electric force not, as now, from magnets rotated by steam engines, or, still more expensively, by the decomposition of chemicals, but from the upper strata of the atmosphere. By these means we shall command a practically unlimited supply of power, and we can set about transforming the face of Nature In real earnest. War will, of course, be done away with, or rather it will be reduced to a contest of machines, at which the nations will be "simply interested, ambitious spectators." Then machines which are now made of iron or copper will be made of aluminium—n theory, by the way, anticipated in "The War of the Worlds"—

with the result that flying machines will be of daily nse. These .".re in fact, according to him, already en the way, and he prophesies that "the next year will see the establishment of an 'air-power,' and its centre may not be far from New York." At a later date will arrive "a self-acting machine deriving energy from the ambient med'tun," which will really, hut for the wear and tear of its parts, come as -near perpetual motion as can be. Then will come a time when earth will be too small to hold us, and we shall get more anxious than most of us are at present to establish communications with the other planets. When this happens, we shall Hud Mr IVslu ready and able to oblige us. -'.My measurements .'Wid calculations have shown that it is perfectly practicable to produce on our giobe, by the use of those principle;,, an electrical movement of such magnitude thai, without the slightest doubt its effect will be perceptible on some of our nearer planets, such as Venus and Mars." What will happen if the Venusites and Martians should turn out, when we do make their acquaintance, to be

armed with powers as formidable as even Mr Tesla's oscillator he does not. stop to inquire. But it is to be hoped that all this will be carefully gum- into before he is allowed to make his signal.

PROBABLE TRUTH OF THE STORY

How much of this will stand further investigation remains to he seen. Although born in Hungary, Mr Tesla has been domiciled for some time in America, where the desire for "the greatest thing on airth" shows no signs of abatement. Hence we may consider that between some of Mr Tesla's calculations and their fruition there is yet a step or two, and that these last may present difficulties as yet unthought of. Is it certain, for instance, that because the atmosphere of our globe offers no bar to the progress of Mr Tesla's alternating current the medium—if there is any—that occupies the inter-planetary space will be equally obliging? Or can he renlly prove that the sun, as he seems to assume, is the source of all the electrical energy ot the earth? Some have thought that: the electromotive force of lightning, to take only one example, is developed by the friction of one cloud upon another when driven by strong winds; and the theory has much to recommend It—"Pall Mall Gazette."