The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-04-16
Is Ce$la a fraud?
Tow Hefnal Performance
COMPARES Wifb Promise.


sages between England and France with
out wires, has directed attention to Mr.
Telsa's own record. Telsa said in effec
MarconfS system was not new, that Others
had done it before, and that Maroon
would not be able to carry on the trans
mission Of messages without wires if Ger
tain obstacles which Telsa suggested wer,
placed in his way. Telsa even asserted
that he had done long ago substantially
the same thing which the Italian expert
menter has just successfully accomplished
TO the wonder of the whole world
Now, the public has listened to Telsa'!
wonderful announcements for a dozer
years or more, and for just so long has il
patiently waited for the fulilment of hi.
wonderful prophecies. One of them, indeed
has just come true, but through no agency
of the imaginative Montenegrin. 1t wa:
left to young Italian. whom Telsa, per
haps dsdainfully, calls an experiments
and not an inventor" to put into practica.
effect the thing which Telsa has so long
asserted he could do.
Telsa, indeed, is a student constant and
assiduous and persistent in experiment
| ing, but the kindliest critic must saw that
with him reality has been lost in the gilt
! tering clouds of prophecy That this does
! not do the man who has gained wide
fame on account of his electrical expert
ments injustice, one has only to examine
his record to prove.
Although Telsa came to America in 1884
and worked a while with Edison, his fame
did not become so widespread until 1898,
when he addressed a large convention of
| electricians at st. Louis. He had been at
the head of a couple of companies before
| that, and had lectured in London. but he
was not hailed as a wonder till st. Louis
event Telsa then astonished his audience
by making an incandescent light without
the use Of wires and by receiving into his
body electricity to the strength, it was
asserted, of 100000 volts.
At that time, too, in interviews, he de-
clared the possibility of transmitting cleo
trical energy for commercial purposes
through the air to enormous distances. At
that time he is also quoted as saying:
'One Of the problems which is of great
Importance, and the solution of which we
are likely 10 witness in a few years, is the
transmission of intelligence to any dis
lance without connection. From present
experimental evidence it can be quite
safely concluded that an attempt to trans
NIT ineligible sounds through the earth
from here to the European continent with
out any cable will succeed beyond
doubt"
1t will be seen, therefore, that sixteen
years ago Telsa was talking about the
transmission of messages and energy with
out wires but there is no record of his
ever having done the thing in practice out
side of his laboratory.
1t would be tedious to trace in success
sion the effervescent outpourings of Mr..
Telsa's imagination, so plain statement
of what he has really accomplished and
what he has talked of being able to do is
here made.
The sole. concrete, practical result Of
Tesla's discoveries is the "multphase
motor" This designation embraces the
'commutator'' and alternating current
and other ideas. By this Telsa motor light
and power currents are derived from the
same dynamo, thing which cannot be
done by what is called the direct" sys-
tenn. Telsas motor is used by the West
inghouse company. 1t is the system in use
at the big plant at Niagara Falls.
Now follow some shadowgraphs which
Telsa's inventive mind has traced on the
screen of fancy, which have never been
fitted with the skeleton of fact, by him at
least:
March, 1877 am convinced that I can
today send message to ship at sea and
that those on board can understand it.
If cannot 1 am willing to lay my head
on the guillotine."
May, 1S96-Asked regarding the reported
discovery OF a practical way Of electric
lighting with vacuum tube in field ex-
cited by rapidly vibrating currents of high
voltage: 'It is true have succeeded. No
carbon is used. The electricity vibrating
furnishes the light. The bulb can be at
tached to ordinary electric light wires"
March, 1896, speaking of his experiments
with X rays-"I am getting more and more
convinced that we have to deal with a
stream of material particles. Should this
be verified it may be possible by these
strange appliances to project a suitable
chemical into any part of the body"
December, 1896, in the Electrical Review
with currents produced by perfected
ozone IS so abundant that it is sufficient
to turn on the current for a few seconds
and ozonize strongly the atmosphere of a
large hall The currents are also capable
of bringing about chemical combinations
OF which the chief is that of the nitrogen
Of the atmosphere. and an immense pos
sibiity which 1 have been following up for
a long time is opened up-namely: the
combination Of the nitrogen Of the atmos-
phere on an industrial scale by prac-
tically no other means than electrical pow
er. If merely fertilizers of the soil should
be manufactured in this manner the bene-
fits to humanity derived therefrom would
be incalculable"
Some time in 1897 Telsa was interviewed
on the possibility of the transmission OF
sight by wire, and. If correctly reported.
said he conceived an idea regarding it and
continued: Il have searched for means OF
carrying it out and close analysis OF these
has led me to believe that my idea VIII
probably be carried out. Finally, after a
long study, mostly experimental, OF all the
means and conditions, I have arrived at a
few precise facts-enough to make an sp-
proximate estimate of all the elements in
VOWED IN practical demonstration, and
here I am sticking
Another possibility OF his oscillstor,
which Telsa made known in 1857, was that
immense areas Of upper air might be IL
Illuminated so that they would shed q faint
moonlight sufficient for ordinary street
and town illumination. a distance OF a
hundred miles might thus he lighted
October. ISS7-TeIsa described an cleo
tricai apparatus he had made for killing
the germs which infest the human skin