Wireless Transmission of Energy - Dream or Possibility Page 34

images can be transmitted in such a way, and so on, and a knowledge of form actually established.

“Seeing by means of a wire” — continuation

I spoke of this in an article in Collier’s Weekly. The best way of realizing this discovery, according to my present knowledge, is to construct on the transmitting side a control plate which contains numerous isolated points, close enough to form a practically uniform surface. The individual elements on this surface, or plate, should be selenium cells in the case of the transmission of an image. The elements should form small squares or, still better, hexagons. The individual selenium cells will control a corresponding transmission circuit which has certain resonant peculiarities, or is formed in a special way by the method of individualization. When the image is projected onto the surface with the cells, the corresponding transmitters begin to act. The cells will control the transmitters so as to establish a variable intensity of the oscillator current in proportion to the action of the light on the cell.

On the receiving side there will be receiving elements, of which there is a corresponding number according to the number of transmitting circuits. The receiving circuits will be connected in some way with apparatus which consists of elements arranged similarly to those in the transmitter, so as to form a plate or surface. Today there are many ways of establishing a projection or an image, from this surface, on paper. The image must be as on the transmitting side, because the elements of the image are arranged in the same way as on the transmitting side. Color effects will make the formation of the image possible. By this method and apparatus the transmission of an image is certainly possible. As for the transmission of characters, that is easy. In this case the selenium cells do not have to be obligatory elements for transmission, for ordinary contacts, for example, can now be used as transmitters. There is no need for synchronous motion in these!

To anyone who knows something of the formation of an image in the transmission of pictures (facsimile), or the transmission of a television image, this entry speaks a great deal for itself. I think that we could study it in detail and only then perceive what Tesla saw in this short description of the apparatus and the method for the transmission of an image. His method of analyzing an image by means of selenium cells is such as is met with in television. The difference in the transmission of the image is that today we use serial transmission of the elements of the image, unlike Tesla’s parallel transmission. But Tesla’s parallel transmission is not at all impossible, for he connected it with his procedures for the transmission of coded parallel signals over the same channel, which is the basis of the multiplex which is used today in telecommunications. And so on; one could still enumerate and explain the essence which is concealed behind this method of Tesla’s. Unfortunately there are no data that Tesla tried to patent this invention, and whether he spoke of it to anyone we do not know. It is astonishing how he knew how to formulate the problem and sketch the solution. He included in it many others of his inventions, so that it cannot be expected that everything will be clear and intelligible to someone who does not know Tesla’s other inventions more closely. To the reader who wishes to become more closely acquainted with the method of “individualization,” as Tesla calls it, we suggest that he consult one of Tesla’s patents of 1903, under the title “System of Signaling,” issued on 14 April 1903, under No. 725,605.

Aleksandar Marinčić