The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-10-01
VOLTS TO KILL 400
PASS THROUGH NICOLA TESLA
WITHOUT CAUSING A TREVOR.
The Professor of Electrical Magic
Transforms Himself Into n Living
Mass. IF Electric Fireworks.

New York Recorder.
The ladies and gentlemen of the Electro
Therapeutic Association. who make a liv-
ing by pumping health into sick folks with
dynamos and things. were the guests last
evening of Nicola Tesla in his queer work
shop on South Fifth avenue. The great
electrician and inventor. the man who has
astonished the scientific world by permit
ting $4,000 volts of electricity to pass
through him without harm. who has learned
the art of transmitting electricity without
a wire, and who promises TO make sun
shine as soon as he discovers how TO. safely
care for the 5000, 900 volts necessary for
that purpose. was in the best of humor and
gave his guests a series Of experiments.
which flied their electro-therapeutical
souls with strange delight and their sys-
TENS with electro static force until they all
felt like well-charged batteries. which. in
deed, they were.
Eight hundred thousand volts were let
loose from the intricate apparatus. and
whirled about the big and grimy machine
shop on coils fastened TO the walls. Tn
air hummed and throbbed with the tremen-
dous energy. Voices were drowneo, cas-
were dinned and the visitors were filled so
full of static electricity that sparks came
when they touched knuckles, and little arc
laitDo Ol lotl4 &h1Ql hSAo wv
head were Illuminated simply by holding
them parallel with the coils about the room.
And then the room was darkened, and
the magician gave his visitors a taste OF
what he humorously calls electric fire
works. He filled glass rods with soft and
beautiful light without bringing them into
direct contact with any circuit, but simply
by filling the room SO full of static force
that it gathered in the pretty crystal zig
gags and made them luminous. AS one of
the learned doctors put Ii in terms poetical,
it was a molecular bombardment, and about
the ~prettiest thing in e~lectrics that one
could well imagine.
A MAGICAL GLASS ROD.
Then the professor passed round a sheaf
of long glass rods about the thickness of
maccaroni. but twice as long; and filling
a great ball hanging from the ceiling with
the wondrous and mysterious force, which
men are just beginning to learn about. and
which the wise ones say is the sunlight
and the source of all life, he soon had his
guests making fireworks. each on his own
account, for each rod was filled with the
throbbing, phosphorescent light, and the
darkened room was turned into a veritable
fairyland.
And, would you believe it, the learned
ladies' of the Electro-Therapeutical Society,
who knew more about anatomy and physi-
ology and the healing power of electricity
than q whole library of books, and who
can talk in four syllabies without a tremor,
giggled and screamed, and would not touch
the instruments that gave funny little
shocks until they had been gently taken in
hand by the masculine electro-therapeutics
just as IL they were mere school girls
learning the A b Cs OF electricity instead
OF learned doctors and professorines,
But the browning compliment which Mr..
Tesla gave to his guests was TO show them
his latest and most useful invention. the
ocuiatOr by name-a very revolutionary af-
fair. which he claims must take the place
Of the dynamo. because it does the dyna-
mos work at half the expense, and wish
out the dreadful wear and tear which
~ ~ yInrk Of h AcA s..t,rr
ment. for manufacturing electricity. 1t was
the first time that he has ever shown the
little instrument. As a matter of fact. he
has just brought 1t to perfection.
The oculator is a small affair, and SEEM
ingly as Simple as Columbus's egg. There
IS a piston rod, which works by a combi-
nation of steam and electricity. and which
runs in and out Of its socket just 800 times
TO the second. 1t is hard for the mind to
conceive of such rapidity of motion, but
there the little fellow is, hard at work, in
plain sight. and looking almost like a solid
the best of it u.s." says the inventor, as he
| looks with parental pride upon the offspring
of his genius. lit works absolutely without
feet of the dynamo. So precise is 1t in its
action that / can maintain the same speed
within a thousandth part Of a second for
dous possibilities of economy" The cleo
tro-therapeutics all said they did. for they
were well stored already with electric lore.
ANTE-CHAMBER OF DISCOVERY.
I'VE have only reached the ante-cha mber
of electrical discovery said the tall and
handsome Montenegrin. who doomed above
the tallest doctor present at least six inches,
but we are making giant strides in the
way of knowledge. We are going to use
electricity for almost everything. We are
| going to know all about it and, above all.
We are going to know how to control IL.
Even now It is the safest motive power We
employ. If the steam boiler in a large
factory bursts 1t is likely to Kill a score
perhaps a hundred-people. A horse run
ming away with a carriage full of people
Kills more than one man at a time. A live
wire in this room might kill one man, but
hardly two men,. ELECTRICITY is like a rat
time. But 1t will not long be possible for
1t TO kill anybody. We are going to har-
ness 1t and make it absolutely safe. AS a
motive power it will be safer than engines
or horses, because 1T will never get out of
harness. Just as soon as We learn how to
harness 1t so as to secure perfect safety
and / think that time is not far distant
electricity will take the place of fire and
steam. and will be the only agent employed
to light, and heat, and move the entire
world.
When / stand before an audience and
receive into my body a charge of electric
ity of 10000 voltage power L do it TO show
how harmless this agent can be made with
proper handling. L am enabled to accom-
plish this feat by the use of alternating
currents, and any able-bodied man not I'm.
usually sensitive to electric force can per
form the same feat il he will use the same
machine that j do. / have simply learned
how to put the harness on that amount of
electricity. But 2.oc0 volts from any other
machine would kill me as quickly as n
killed Kemmler at Sing Sing. / have de.
voted my life to electrical research. and
my only ambition is TO discover how this
wonderful power may be harnessed and
made to do the work of man safely and