TESLA’S PROMISES

Evening Star, Issue 18623, 2 May 1924, Page 2

TESLA’S PROMISES

WHAT HE IS GOING TO DO WITH ELECTRICITY.

Nikola Tesla, whose project , for utilising tho earth as a raediuiu lor the transmission of electricity is again being boomed in the American Press, lust, promised us this marvel nearly _ twenty years ago. That was at tho tamo the two Danish electricians, I’oulsqn and Pederson, were experimenting with the problem of transatlantic wireless telephony. lie was very contemptuous of those experiments, and in a sense warned them and ail other dabblers in wireless that he had already patented “all the. essential processes oi and appliances for the generation, tiansmission, transformation, distribution, direction, storage, regulation, control and utilisation of wireless electricity —a fairly complete monopoly. Tho attempt, said Tesla, to achieve wireless propagation of electricity in any form by moans of Hertzian waves in tho ether was doomed to failure; there were no such waves in existence. His method was to use the earth itself. *• a, perfect transmitter of electrical years later, about 1910, Tesla announced that, with the exception of a lew trifling details, ho had perfected a wireless receiver, costing a tew shillings, by means of which anyone anywhere could “ hear, say, an opera performed thousands of miles an ay. Tho receiver could be carried in tho pocket and used at any time—in the homo or in tho street—to pick up signals sent by his system through the earth. ... But those who believed in tho Hertzian waves went steadily on with their experiments, and they have now achieved what Tesla declared to he impossible, while tho world still awaits tho far more marvellous things be promised twenty years ago. Nikola Tesla is undoubtedly a great authority on tho science of electricity. A Sori) "by birth, ho acquired his first knowledge of electricity in the telegraphic service of Austria, and when quits a young man—he is now sixtyseven years of age—he went to the United' States and became Edison’s assistant. But since ho ceased Ins association with Edison he has put forward so many remarkable schemes, few of which have survived the tncorotical stage, that few qualified to judge now take him seriously. boon after ho first announced his discovery that tho earth was ideal for wireless propagation, ho turned his attention to tho planet Mars, the people of which, ho said, were sending wireless messages to tho earth. Given a feu hundred million horse-power, lie explained, lie could get an acknowledgment across tho gulf between ns, and he sot about erecting a huge station for the purpose at Wardenclyffe, Long Island. He relied for his few “ hundred million horse-power” on co-operation between tho big electric power com.panies at Niagara, but, apparently, they were unable to supply the energy he needed, and tho Martians are still listening for the first message from tho earth. Subsequently, Tesla announced his “ electric telautomaton,” ’ _ which, operated from the shore, could cause a mighty tidal wave which would sink “ a whole navy of dreadnoughts ” many miles away; a torpedo with an accurate range longer than the biggest gun ; and a method of exterminating disease germs by electricity. But none of these lias yet materialised, and with a record of so .much promise and so little performance, Tesla can scarcely wonder if those who have followed his career are a little sceptical of his revived scheme of transmitting kinds of electrical energy through the earth itself.— 1 Observer.’