TESLA.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9302, 31 July 1908, Page 2

TESLA.

THE PROPOSED MESSAGE TO

MARS.

Nikola Tesla is an electrician and an inventor, a native of Servia, but an American subject since 1882. He rei ceived a scientific education, in. Continental universities, and was employed by large electric lighting 'companies in Paris during 1881. For a time Edison, the famous American inventor, employed him at the Edison works ia New Jersey, after which Tesla became electrician to the Tesla Electric Light Company, New York, and established the Tesla laboratory for independent research. For years he experimented with high-pressure induction coils, and made remarkable statements as to the sensational results upon the universe that his discoveries would lead to. Later he made many experiments with discontinuous^ electric currents, • and proposed tliaf by chaining up the rivers and the falls of the United States of America he would cause steam power to become obsolete by supplying the States with electric power from 'a great central power chamber, the current to be transmitted to various receiving houses in di^erent districts by a wireless method. Experiments made by Tesla are said to have been the basis upon which the discovery of wireless telegraphy was made, and he is admittedly a thoroughly capable and original electrician. It may be put as a plain fact, however, that - Tesla's various gigantic proposals have never been justified by the results. Apart from the remarkable personality of the man who proposes to 6end a message to Mars there is the interesting question, "Will it be noted should it arrive? Its arrival at Mars is more than, probable, for the planet is at present not much more than 38,000,000 miles from the earth, having arrived at its nearest proximity in July last. Professor Masson explained recently, when interrogated on the point, that the luminiferou6 ether which it had to be presumed occupied the space between the earth and Mars would not prevent the passage onwards of the wireless telegraphic message. As the ether is a conductor of light and heat,/ it will also bo a conductor of aerial motions. -It may further be fairly presumed that Tesla would not undertake to send a message 38,000,000 miles unless he were confident that his proposed plant, supplied by 800,000,000 horse-power of electric current, was adequate for the task. The probabilities of the message being noted and interpreted may be regarded, however, as very, remote. The question of habitation is still one of the great modern mysteries. Presuming that there are inhabitants, they must, first, have reached or passed. our stage of civilisation, and be possessed of receiving stations for wireless telegraphic messages; and they must, secondly, be capable of reading the message and knowing that it was projected artificially from the earth. When questioned on the matter, Mr Baracchi, Government Astronomer, declared the scheme to be of the wildest possible nature, and refused to place a ny\ credence in at at all. While admitting Tesla to be a good electrician, Mr Baracchi refused to give him the power of transmitting any message to M&rs which that planet wiil take any notice of. On the other hand, it may be stated that Tesla declared in 1901 that his wireless telegraphic instruments had recorded pulses of energy which he believed had come from Mars. He produced no proof of cpntention. Jt has long been held by,Professor Lowell, an American millionaire astronomer, and the greatest modern student of Mars, that the planet of Mars is inhabited, and that the Martians have reached a high stage of civilisation. Sohiaparelli's discovery, in 1877, that Mars is irrigated by means of a magnificent system of canals, has been followed by endless investigations by astronomers, and expeditions equipped by Mr Lowell recently . obtained photographs of the planet showing this complete system of* canals, and. what is taken to, be vegetation on each side. Mr ,Lowell's explanation is that Mars, having a very tenuous pure atmosphere, resembling the terrestrial air at 15,000ft above sea-level, no clouds can form, and there is no rain supply. The inhabitants have, therefore, made the canals to carry .the melting snow of the polar regions to their fields. Many years ago it was proposed to draw the forty-seventh proposition of Euclid on a huge scale on ice, for the observation of the Martians, but this singular method of sending a message was never , attempted.