The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-12-06
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be looked on as either an experiment or as wonder. for 1t has become 90 common that 1t has ceased to excite disbelief or increduiity. So. too. we have of late been hearing much. of a wireless telephone service, but so far 1t has not developed into anything like certainty. But now comes Nich- oias Tesla. who. according to The Kansas City Journal, has just an nounced the perfection of system of wireless telegraphy and telephony which differs greatly from anything now in use. AS transmitting asen- cy it does not utilize the waves of the sair, but employs the inherent con ductivity of the earth itself. thus en- tirely disregarding the factors of time. space and the clements. This wonderful invention is about ready for commercial exploitation. says Mir. Tesla, and its marvels will bring a new era to mankind.
 "The Tesla invention, so he claims. will make 1t possible for person to talk around the world, or to any part of 1t, with perfect ease. As distance Is no consideration, he observes that the man with a dollar instrument could so connect it and set 1t that he could hear grand opera in Vienna while he was sitting In his home in Colorado. Great scientific achieve ments are mysterious as we'll as won derfui. They cannot be readily com prehended ins the average mind. We are living in an age of marvcls. On every side the genius of scientists is marked by monuments that we ac- eept without being able to understand them. We have settled ourselves down in world made fairy-like. com pared with the world of our fathers. Life has been robbed of many of its -asperities and still science goes on evolving new wonders day by day"
 What is the outcome of this new and latest plan for doing away with wires remains to be seen. Tesla Is a really great scientist along some lines, and has made some notable dis coveries and Improvements in elec- tricity and its allied lines of develop ment. He may have invented or dis covered satisfactory and generally applicable method of doing away with wires and other troublesome applian- ces and letting the earth itself act as the medium for message-sending.
 As all must admit this will prove great thing if it works out as claimed. The telephone is a wonder ful and convenient part of our life these days. It saves a vast deal of time and expense. and has come to be looked on as one of the common ne- cessities of life. But the telephone has its worries. as most of us know. Sometimes when one wants to talk in a hurry the line Is busy. Sometimes "Central' is temporarily engaged else- where. Sometimes the wires break, 'get crossed. or otherwise refuse to do their work satisfactorily. In short with the very best care and attention that can be devised there are weak nesses and aEgravations in the sys- tenn as now used.
 But Mfr. Tesla is promising us something quite different and of alto gether more satisfactory nature. let us hope. When his invention Is per- fected and generally introduced--if It ever is-telephoning will be as sim pie as calling the cows. All that will be required will be to hitch yourself to the instrument and say things. One will not have to call up "Centrar or any other agency. but all can talk when they please, to whom they please and as much as they please if we properly understand what is prom ised.
 That will all be very nice and con- venient, all must admit, but never theless there looms up one disturbing thought that we have not seen ex- plaihed, and that is the possibility that there may not be anything like privacy about 1t. If one takes up his talker and fires a message at an- other a long way off how can he know that others are not catching his conversation on the wing, as it were? If. for example. man wants to send a strictly private and confidential message to his friend. his banker or his girl 1t would be disturbing to suspect that others were reading 1t and enjoying 1t in various parts of the earth. Perhaps Tesla has pro- vided against this difficulty and will so arrange 1t that no one can hear a message except the one to whom it is sent. If he does this all will be satisfactory.