A Loss to Science

The Destruction of Nikola Tesla's Workshop May Affect the Inventor's Mind.

New York, March 14. — The destruction by fire of Nikola Tesla's workshop comes just when it was whispered in the scientific world that he was on the eve of one of the greatest of discoveries connected with the problem of improving the electric light. To the unscientific visitor, Tesla's shop was an incomprehensible maze of wires and strange devices; but to him these intricacies and their apparent mystery were plain as day. He worked at the shop early and late, harder than any of his men.

Tesla is a Serbian. He came to this country ten years ago and for a short time was associated with Thomas A. Edison. He recently received high honorary degrees from Yale and Columbia colleges.

It is feared that the loss of his apparatus may have a serious effect upon the Inventor. He has long been in a state bordering on exhaustion through overwork. Only the other day he said: "I am completely worn out, in fact, and yet I cannot stop my work. These experiments of mine are so beautiful, so fascinating, so important, that I can hardly tear myself away from them to eat, and when I try to sleep I think about them constantly. I expect I shall go on until I break down altogether."