The times., 1898-12-27

long years of thought and labor. To
hold up the apparatus required in the
higher regions of the air large balloons
were suggested. and then according TO
the Electrical Review. power from such
sources as Niagara will become available
in any part of the world. regardless of
distance" The electrical press in gem
eral has piled merciless ridicule on tn 5
scheme. ard London Lighting speaks OF
1t as so improbable as to be due eithe- 10
an irresponsible reporter or an unEinse /
intellect"
Supplementary to this. and appearing
within a few days OF il. was Mr.. Tesla ;
announcement that he had abolished war
by a new dirig!be torpedo operated by
what is universally known among eec-
tricians as the MaTconi wireless syst III
OF telesraphy, or in other words. he pro-
posed to use Hertzian waves. travelling
through space, 10 affect as a re'ay. a
''coherer" employed on to-redo-boat
and thus close and operate the electrical
circuits on it. Guns were fired in this
way, however. At the Madison Square
Garden at the Electrical Exhibition last
May, and floating torpedoss o@n no
daily in the tanks there TO illustrate what
might be done. and American army Off
GERS experimental last year in the oper-
alton of distant machinery with the Mar
conf system. So that the idea is familiar
and old in electrical circ,es. but all whom
the reporter has interviewed say that the
insUperab,e difficulty remains of insuIing
reliability Of the delicate coherer and o.
preventing other adverse .'coherers" On
the enemy's ships from frustrating at VIII
the plans of those behind the attacking
torpedo boat.
Mr. Tesla announced in the Herald
that this Invention must enforce uni
Versai peace at once. and he described
England as reduced to nOthinCness and
France as correspondinsiy jubilant. In
the Sun of November q Mr.. Tesla ap-
piled the idea to artillery, wiping out
modern guns. and said: We shall be
able. awaiting ourselves of this advance
to send projectile at much greater dis
tance. IT will not be limited in any way
by weight or amount Of explosive charge.
We shall be able TO submerse it at COM
mand. to acrest 1t in its fight, and call 1t
out and send ii out again. and explode it
at willard more than this il will never
make a miss In several interviews. Mr..
Tesla has also expanded the possibilities
of his torpedo boat. saving that this
power can be eXerted at any distance by
an agency OF so delicate, 50 impalpable n
quality, that | feel / am justified in pre-
dieting the time when 1t can be called into
action by the mere exercise Of the human
Will" When interrOsated about the me.a-
physical invention, Mr.. Tesla has reaf-
firIned his belief in its .'pos sibility." This
is repeated in the Criterion Of November
10. Mr. Tesla expressing The h5pe that ad-
verse criticisms have not shaken the faith
of journal In him. says: IF feel Ger
tain OF anything. il is that / have given 10
the world an invention which will desig-
nate the beginning OF a new epoch. and
profoundly affect the relations between
nations
These latest declarations of Mr.. Tes,a
seem to have strained scientific confidence
in him TO the utmost. and it is hard to fini
today any electric authority who does not
believe either that Mr.. Tesla's Imagination
has run away with him or that close ap-
plication to his laboratory has strained
his good judgment.