The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-10
MAY TALK WITH STARS
TESLA SUCCEEDS IN SENDING MES
SAGEs WITHOUT WIRES.
Has the Only System Which He be-
Iieves Will Ever Permit of Inter-
stellar Communications.
New York Journal.

communication without the AID or wires.
This, the fruit of years of toll and study,
is the most startling and most important
contribution yet made to electrical science.
If Tesla lives, as he has hope and likelihood
of doing, to the extreme limit of intel
lectual activity, and if he continues during
his remaining years the rate of progress
already attained in scientific accomplish
ment, his old age will see distance annihi-
lated.
Electricity will, within the next half GEN.
fury, be set wholly free from the trammel
of wires. and force as we'll as intelligence
be transmitted from one point of the globe
to another with the electricity which dur
ing all the ages the gray old world has
harbOred within itself. The thing has been
done. The theory upon which Tesla has
been working through toilsome years has,
in secret been proven true, and the dis
covery puts him for the time at the head of
the whole army of electrical Investigators
Concerning the minute details of the means
which he has employed to reach the re-
suit so long striven for, the inventor is
secretive. 1t is his way. Ever since his
first appearance on the stage of electrical
invention Tesla has worked in secret and
omitted the blowing of his own trumpet
Now he merely announces that he has sue
ceeded in telegraphing over a limited dis
lance without the aid of wires. But he
does not hesitate to declare that ultimately,
by means of his system, communication
may be perfected across any space what
soever, and the nations of the world
brought into perfect unison so far as the
interchange of thought is concerned.
He goes even further. He says that
power, too, may be transmitted, and, mod
estly barring the presence of the incredu-
lous that some time before the Judgment
the people of earth may be communing
with the inhabitants of other worlds, only
utilizing the currents, which the universe
has up TO this time kept secret This is
any sense, as was that of the law of gray
tation by Newton. 1t is an idea in which
Tesla has for many years reposed implicit
faith, and which he has wrought at with
slaVish industry. Years ago, smothering
the fear which he afterward admitted had
possessed him, of being laughed at by
a Jules Verne for his flight of imagination,
Tesla proclaimed, at a gathering of scien-
fists, his theory and his belief in it, He
said:
CONCEIVED YEARS AGO.
I'm connection with resonance, effects
and the problem of transmission of energy
over single conductor, 1 would say a few
words on a problem which constantly fills
my thoughts and which concerns the well
fare of ALL I mean the transmission of
Ineligible signals. or, perhaps, even pow
err, to any distance without the use of
wires. l am daily becoming more convinced
of the practicability of the scheme, and
though 1 know full we'll the majority of
scientific men will not believe that such
results can be practically and Immediately
realized, 1 think that all consider the de-
Velopments of recent years by number OF
workers to have been such as to encourage
thought and experiment in this direction.
NV conviction has grown so strong that
l no longer look upon this plan of energy
or intelligence-transmiSsi as mere the
lem in electrical engineering which must
be carried out some day. The idea of
transmitting intelligence without wire Is
the natural outcome of the most recent re-
suits of electrical Investigations. Some en-
thusisasts have expressed their belief that
telephoning to any distance by INDUCTION
through the air is possible. l cannot stretch
my imagination so far, but do firmly be-
leve that it is practicable to disturb by
means of powerful machines, the electro
static conditions of the earth, and thus
transmit ineligible signals and perhaps
power. -.
ing out of such a scheme? We now know
that electric vibration may be transmitted
through a single conductor. Why, then, not
try to avail ourselves of the earth Tor this
I'VE need not be frightened by the idea
of distance To the weary wanderer count
ing the mile posts the earth may appear
very large; but to that happiest of all
men, the astronomer, WHO SdASS dl ltiS
heavens and by their standard judges the
magnitude of our globe, it appears very
small. And so l think it must seem to the
electrician; for when he considers the
speed with which an electric disturbance
is propagated through the earth all his
ideas of distance must vanish tis1 ros,a se+ ~
work upon the task over which he has now
triumphed The powerful :. machine o
took place in the. electrical world and was
known "Tesla's oscillator.
Now" said Mr.. Tesla to Journal re-
porter II have devised machines which
will transmit messages through the earth
for upward of twenty miles. have given
them many practical tests; 1 have both
given and received ineligible communica-
lions with them, and l have no hesitation
in saying that they solve the problem
''They are, of course. rudimentary, but I
shall begin al once the construction of
other apparatus which will still further do
away with the obstacle of distance and
enable me to hold intercourse with any
part of the globe. An apparatus can only
machine will conduct sound through the
earth for a distance of twenty miles there
is no insuperable obstacle to prevent that
distance from being ultimately multiplied
to a seemingly infinite degree
OBTAINED ENORMOUS POWER.
''When Professor Helmholz, after hearing
my theory, said it was possible, but would
REQUIRE enormous power, l was vastly
pleased, because, though 1 did not inform
him of it, had already overcome that diff
ficulty."
Tesla's "oscillator' has been devised spe-
cially with a view to the solution of this
his pet problem. The layman need only
know, in relation to this marvellous ma
chine the the multiplied interruption and
restoration Of a simple electric current mui-
tiplies it's power. This interruption had been
accomplished only by limited appliances
m I'D
fected it to a degree where the current
would be interrupted many millions OF
times in a second.
1.-THE static electricity of the earth" said
Mr.. Tesla, can be set in notion and what
was necessary to effect telegraphic COM
munication in accordance with this system
was to devise machine which would catch
and record these disturbances. These ma
chimes | have at last secured"
What manner OF devices these are with
which he has thus bound the earth to his
service. the scientific magician will not say.
The magnitude of the discovery and it's inn
portance in the doings of the world he re-
allies keenly. 1T will he said, bring
the nations closer together. The perfection
Of the system Will not, as people are so
prone to imagine, necessarily do away with
the use of wires for Geographic commune
cation but for the dissemination of general
information, rather than private communi-
cation, they will be useful
But viii not the utilization of the
earth's electricity by one ut these systems
or lines prevent the operation of any other
machine at the same time? VIII not the
communication of different systems be
Jumbled and coufused?"
use without one interfering with another
Their chief usefulness would. however be