The Latest Progress in Spark Telegraphy - Editorial

In our issue of January 18th we described Prof. Slaby’s “tuned” system of wireless telegraphy, indicating the theoretical principles on which it is based. More recently Prof. Slaby has delivered another lecture on his method, and we publish an extract of this in another column, with diagrams of the connections employed — and employed with complete success. The conclusion of his article, with its allusion to the present work of Mr. Tesla, comes as a considerable surprise. No one will deny that Mr. Tesla possesses genius — his valuable work in connection with polyphase methods alone demonstrates this. But from the soil of his genius have sprung up two varieties of dangerous weeds — a craving for notoriety and dreams of ultimate possibilities, and these have grown so thickly that it requires a skilful gardener indeed to discover the fruit. If Prof. Slaby has patience enough to do this it redounds to his credit; for otherwise if the illustration in the professor’s lecture is a true picture of the condition of Mr. Tesla’s laboratory, it seems probable that the ultimate result of the séances held by the wizard of the Rocky Mountains may be merely another wildly imaginative article such as that written by Mr. Tesla in the Century Magazine a year ago, or a description of an elaborate attempt to inspire an appreciative personal notice in the sensational press of the Martians.