The Norfolk Virginian. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 186?-189?, 1896-07-10
ls'sselsnd Asffett Writes Of an laisrssilng
Chat With Tie Wizard Of Science.
METa0us Of WORK AND SOME OPINIONS
Ms We've ON work, sleep. Rccrea-
IS tim, Marriage nrd the RHsure Rx.
astence--sope Account OF Hi. Early
A.ife IN Ear Away Monte Negro :
sais Desosien to science.

S-1SN&t~t ttsOiSt hu0hlnS llTGO anu naEB0TO.
He greeted me with the kindly smile
snu strong grasp of the hand that are
nAturat to him, but saw by the pallor
OF his face and the troubled look in
his DARK eyes thet something had gone
wrong,
"a SHOCK OF THREE AND A HALF
MILLION VOLTS.
II am afraid" he said, you won't
End me Pleasant companion tonight.
The fact is was almost killed to-day"
This he said in quite n matter of-fact
tone. which did not prevent me from
showing the concern felt.
Yes" he continued, II got a shock
of about three and half million volts
from one OF my machines. The spark
Jumped three feet through the mir and
4 tell you It made me feel dizzy. II
my assistant had not turned off the
current Instantly it might have been
the end Of me. AS 1t was. ] have tO
show for it q queer mark on my. right
breast, where the current struck in and
burned heel in one of my socks where
1t left my body. OF course, the volume
of current was exceedingly small. other
wise It must have been fatal. You know
three and half million volts. Is no
Joke, however small the volume"
A great difficulty, and at the same
time q delight, in talking with Tesla,
I is the utter inability one feels TO under
stand what he Is saying, or lift ones
self to the plane on which he Is think
ing. What ordinary person could Crap
pie with the idea of three ana half
million volts or the electric contrivances
necessary to produce 1t! l knew per-
6 fectly we'll that 10000 volts is the po-
rental considered absolutely fatal In
the current used for execution. and yet
here was man, perhaps the greatest
electrician of his time, calmly deserih-
ing his sensations in receiving the shock
OF q current more than $50 times us
strong. 1t was plainly homeless to at
tempt any understanding of this anom-
ally, SO asked about something easier.
'I should have thought the spark
from such a. current would have jumped
FARTHER than three feet" / ventured,
$50 1t would II I had wanted 1t to.
have frequently had sparks from my
high tension machines jump the width
or length OF my laboratory, say thirty
or forty feet. Indeed there Is no limit
to their length, although you can't see
them except for the first yard or SO, the
& flash Is so quick. 1t is just like light
ming. The fact Is there would be no par
SECULAR difficulty in initiating lightning
4 with sparks say mile long, IL any one
chose ito pay for the Necessary appara-
tis Yes, am quite sure could make
q spark q mile long, and don't know
that 1t would cost SO much, either"
asked Mr.. Tesla II he had had many
accidents with electricity during all the
years he has been experimenting with
NO" he said. 81 have had very few
Y accidents. don't suppose I average
+ more than one Din q year, and no one
has ever been killed by one of my ma
chimes. ] always build my apparatus
80 that whatever happens 1t cannot kill
any one. The burning of my labora-
tory two years q go was the most serious
accident 1 have ever had. No onk
knows what I lost by that"
JOYS AND SORROWS OF THE
INVENTOR.
He shook his head and passed his
large hand across his brow in regretful
reminiscsnce.
You see" he went on, that is one
OF the sad things in an inventors life
So many ideas go chasing through his
Drain that he can only seize few of
them as they fly, and of these he can
only find the time and strength Ito bring
a few to perfection. And 1t happens
many times that another inventor who
has conceived the same ideas anticipates
I hEin an carrying out one of them. All,
4 tell you, that makes q fellows heart
ache. When my laboratory was burned.
there was destroyed with 1t
an apparatus I had devised for
aiquefyipg air by new meth
cd; was on the eve of success.
and in the months of delay that ensued
q German scientist solved the problem.
Just as I was about to solve IT, and left
me only the memory of whnt l might
have done. ! was SO blue and discour-
aged in those days that don't believe /
could have borne up but for the regular
electric treatment which administered
90 myself. You gee. electricity puts into
the tired body just what 1t most needs
life force. nerve force. Its a great doc
tor, can tell you, perhaps the greatest
\ of all doctors"
asked Mr.. Tesla If he often fell into
those periods of depression.
tPerhaps not often, but now and then.
Every man of artistic temperament
has relapses from the great enthusiasms
that buoy him up and sweep him for
ward. Ia the main my life IS very hap
Ply. happier than any life / can con-
scetye Of When was q student l have
known what 1t was to sit at the gaming
table forty-eight hours at a stretch.
thought that an intense emotion, the
Fascination Of play, and believe many
people regard 1t as the strongest emotion;
: but can tell you that for many years
all the allurements Of the game would
4 have seemed tame and insipid to me
compared with the tremendous, oyermas-
terIng excitement OF my life in the la
boratory. I do not think there is any
SthrHi that can go Through the huma
heart like that felt by the inventor as
+ he sees some creation of his brain ua-
folding TO success, as he watches some
crucial experiment. prove that through
Smcnths of waiting and hoping he has
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