The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1896-05-06
WORK or EDlsoN's RIVAL
Something About the Interesting
Career of NikOla Tesla.
WONDERS ACHIEVED AND TO BE
His Achievements In Electrical Research
Endless Possibilities of Problems us
is Now at Work upon-Experi.
meuts With ROentecu Rays.
From the New York Sun.

There have been magazine articles
about him and books about him, and.
since Professor Roentgen made known
his discoveries in X-ray photography
and Tesla followed up the discoveries
with experiments OF his own, the pa
pers from time to time have told how
Tesla had ''seen the human heart" and
had photographed the human brain"
and done other wonderful things. His
name has been on the tongues of many
people, but not one man in a hundred
could tell VIII. I Tesla had done for
science. or very little II anything about
him personally.
Tesla himself is responsible for the
lack of popular knowledge Of himself.
He isn't one of the kind to hide his
light under a bushel. but he let's the
light shine and hides himself. He
doesn't like to see his name in print.
He doesn't like to be praised for what
he has done or Is doing. He wants.
more than anything else to be let alone.
He discourages notoriety of any sort.
When newspaper men call on him to
ask him questions he Is the quintess-
ence Of courtesy and politeness. He Is
willing to tell them anything they want
to know about electricity or any of the
other subjects on which he Is well in
formed, but on one subjeCt--Tesla-he
ID silent When the Sun reporter
called on him early last week and told
him that he had been instructed to
write a story about Tesla and his in
vsntions, the inventor said:
Don't; there has been too much al
ready" and he said II In a way that
showed he meant II. 1t was only after
q second visit and much earnest urg-
ing that he would consent to the publi-
cation of anything, and he surrounded
his consent with conditions.
THINGS DONE.
He was asked to tell which OF his
many Inventions he considered the
most useful and satisfactory to him,
and he teplied that first In the list was
the transmission Of power with the help
of wires, This power was the alter
mating electric current now in use.
Next he mentioned the motor that made
possible the transmission Of power with
only a single wire. 1t used to be sup
posed that two wires were necessary to
complete circuit, one for the electric
ity to come back on. This motor does
away with the extra wire. and lessons
the expense and the waste. Third, ne
mentioned the thing which he hoped to
accomplish: Doing away with that
wire altogether, and using the earth.
In Q lecture delivered before the Ameri-
can Institute of Electrical Engineers
. In 1891. Tesla said:
F., we are whirling through endless
space with an inconceivable speed. All
around us everything is spinning. Ev-
'erything is moving. Everywhere Is en-
ergy. There must be some way of
aVaihng ourselves of this energy more
directly. With the power derived from
II, with every form of energy obtained
without effort, from the store forever
lnexhaustible, humanity will advance
with giant strides. The mere contem-
plation or these magnificent possibili-
ties expands our minds. strengthens
our hopes and fills our hearts with ex-
treme delight"
He had this third thing in mind when
he delivered the lecture. He has been
working now ten years to accomplish
IT, and he has had encOuragin success
with his experiments.
or his inventions. in this talk with
the sun reporter, he mentioned fourth
the perfecting of an apparatus for the
production Of electric vibrations: fifth.
the production Of light without any
carbon such as is required In the ordin-
airy incandescent lamp Light Is pro-
duced by the help Of electrical vibra-
non ny the method proposed 200
times the light can be had with the
same power. Sixth. he mentioned the
evolution of the oscillator, a work. on
which he has been engaged Ave or six
years and which Is about ready to BIZ
put into general use. Tesla says: :,
or the energy that goes to the max.
ing OF electric light IS per cent. il vast
ed The oscillator saves energy. 1t is
the steam engine and the dynamo com
oined and In use 1t means the saving OF
the enegry that Is now wasted"
PROBLEMS STUDIED,
or the problems he has worked or
Tesla said: "They affect humanity as
whole" The energy that is wasted
must be saved, he said. He spoke Of
the utilization Of the power of Niagara
rails and Of its possibilities and the
possibilities In nature elsewhere HI
said the existing faults of society coult
be reformed only by producing more
energy; that energy was in nature ant
the problem Of getting control of Il
and OF utilizing 1t was the problem or
which he worked. He cared nothins
ior ordinary invention. He though
only of the great problems. He be-
!ieved that they would be mastered ant
the whole world would benefit.
Tesla Is man Of striking person
atty. He Is unusually tall and is thin
His head is large and is crowned will
Jet.biack hair. His manner Is quicl
and impulsive. In speech he Is earn
est. He wastes few. words His Who'll,
nearing impresses one with the fac
that he Is man Of action. He is onl,
~ years ola. He was born in smiljou
Lika, borderland region Of Austria
Hungary. Of the Serbrian race. Hi
rather was q clergyman in the Greel
church. His mother was a genius will
knack Of invention. Tesla got hi
early education at Gospich in a publi
school. and later spent three years Ii
the Hhigher Real Schulz at Carstatt
croatia. He saw his first steam en-
-gtne while at the latter school. H
inherited his mothers knack Of inven
ton. and when he left school in 1877
he went to experimenting with electri
city against the wish of his father, VIII
wanted him to enter the ministry. Tha
was out of the question, and then hi
father wanted him to become a colleg
professor of mathematics and physlc
and with that purpose sent him to tn
Polytechnic school at Gratz.
In this school there was q gramm
dynamo, and Tesla got the notion int
his head that dynamo could be ope
rated without commutator or brushes
such as this one was equipped with
and he began work then and there O
the ideas that later developed one q
his great inventions, a rotating fiel
motor.
The idea Of becoming q professor van
ished, and he took up the engineerin
curriculum For the next few years h
kept uD his studies. and succeeded 4
inventing several things In connection
with the telephone. Then he went t
Paris, where he saw wider field AT
ter a few years there In the course O
which he met many Americans, VIII
told him of opportunities In his fiel
OF investigation here. he came to Amer
lea. He hunted out Thomas A. Edi
son, and went to work In his labora
tory. In Thomas Commerford Martin
book, 1.-THE Inventions, Researches an
Writings of Eesla." Tesla's connectio
with Edison is mentioned. and the au
thor says:
..i4 ,,.n, l,,uaaSiiale hoIvavor thnt ,,.iA