The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1897-02-19
TESLA'S GRAND VISION.
Electricity Now mt Work Transforming
tho Worlds Affairs.

the "OTiu'b AualrSs
A sketch of the famous electrician,
Nikola Tesla, concludes with the state
ment of his belief that the development
Of applied electricity will be the email
cipation of mankind; that the labor
saving devices which may be operated
by the mysterious energy will reduce
the necessary hours of labor and level
the difference between the rich and the
poor. To that end he is bending his
energies and using his wonderful tai
ents for invention and investigation.
His purpose is great and noble one;
his belief is sublime-perhaps some will
say it is impracticabe and foolish.
1t is fact, however, that the achieve
ments of the era that began with Amer
lean independence and the untran-
meled opportunity of man have made
it possible for twice as many people to
live comfortably within given area
as before that time. The capacity for
production has been so enlarged and the
processes so cheapened that the fear
of overpopulating the earth has been
forgotten, and that, too, in the face CT
the most rapid increase of population
within historic times.
We are all accustomed to note the
tremendous increase in population in
this country, a large portion of which is
due to immigration, but it is not so COM
mon to recognize the fact that the pop
ulationS of the lands from which our
immigrants are drawn are increasing
more rapidly than they were a century
or half century ago. Yet such is really
the fact. Great Britain, Germany,
France, Italy, Austria, Belgium and
Holland, which were considered crowd
ed and in need of new lands to which
the surplus population might emigratc
century ago, now contain double the
population of that time and are not
overcrowded as they then seemed to be.
This wonderful change has been
wrought by the invention of labor
saving machinery, by the development
of applied steam power. The contrast
of wealth and poverty has not been
abolished by any means, but the poor
have been made to enjoy some of the
comforts that could only be afforded
by the very wealthy century ago. The
discovery Of new applications for cleo
trical energy has already added ma
terially to the worlds resources, and it
is as certain as anything human can be
that this power will develop in many
more useful directions in the future.
1t is probable that 1t may do vastly more
than has been done by steam to support
added population, if not to wipe out the
differences Of wealth.
Robert Fulton's invention for the ap~
plication of steam power for useful pur-
poses has not only made it possible to
produce from given area the necessi-
ties and comforts for doubly dense
population, but it has made accessible
vast regions that svcre formerly mac,
cessible. 1t has made it possible for all
the people of the earth to exchange
commodities; it has opened the interior
of the American continents to the world,
and is rapidly opening the almost I'M
known regions of Africa and Asia to
production and commerce. The ST.
berian railroad alone-made possible by
this American invention-has opened to
settlement region capable, with pres
emit devices, of supporting a popula-
ton twice as great as that the Russian
empire contains at present.
But all that steam has done to ad-
vance civilization and contribute to the
wants of mankind may be eclipsed by
the young giant, applied electricity. 1t
is possible that discovery of processes
for generating the current direct from
coal and means of conserving the gen
GRATED energy may so cheaper light,
heat and power that all mankind may
be supplied with the necessities and
comforts of life almost without labor
That is Mr.. Tesla's thought. To the
man unfamiliar with what has been
accomplished in the field of applied cleo
tricity it may seem like hazy dream
of the unattainable. But to Mr.. Tesla
deep in the mysteries of q wonderful
energy that seems to pervade the whole
universe, it is the distinct perception OF
that from which he is divided by only a
thin veil, and which he might view face
to face if he could but find the means to
rend the curtain.-Pittsburgh Dispatch.