Aerial Electric Line Across the Continent

 IT is possible that in the near future electric wires may be looked upon as a primitive method of carrying the electric current; it is likely that any transmitter except the air that surrounds us will become superfluous.

Mr. Tesla proposes to carry an electric current, with simply the earth and the air as his media, to distances of hundreds of miles, over mountains, over the sea — in fact, he will almost launch thunderbolts in the ether to distribute their energy under his guidance at the most remote points.

His work in this field has passed the stage of laboratory experiment, and he is ready for a test on an industrial scale.

His last invention is, to use Mr. Tesla's words, "an apparatus for the production of great electric power and for the collection and utilization of that power at a point distant from the seat of its production after the power or the electric current in watch it is comprised has traversed without wires the intervening atmosphere at an altitude such that rarefaction has made the air of that stratum a conductor of the electric fluid."

The invention was in part the outgrowth of observations well known, that air in a closed vessel, if rarefied, suffers an impairment of its insulating properties to such an extent as to become a true conductor of electricity, though one of high resistance. This much known, with the fact that the atmosphere high above the earth is exceedingly rare and that certain transverse waves of radiation may pass through the air, and have been found capable of effecting certain delicate receiving instruments at a limited distance from the source of the electrical disturbance, Mr. Tesla had the groundwork of his hypothesis, and from it developed the invention that is its demonstration.

The inventor's apparatus develops electrical energy of high pressure, then leads the current to the earth, and also to a terminal erected at an altitude where the air has become so rarefied as to be able to conduct the current produced.

In this way Mr. Tesla will surround the earth with one current generated from a vast central location, where water power, or possibly tide power, is plentiful.

The power-houses for such a current would have to be erected at places like Niagara falls and the great Falls of Labrador, where vast power could be obtained at the lowest possible cost.

There, a balloon with many wires attached would be sent as high into the air as possible, and from this station the inventor would be able to generate electrical pressure measured by millions of volts.

At distances of about three hundred miles apart other balloons would be sent into the air at an altitude equal to that of the balloon stationed at the central power-house, and these would receive the current generated from the central station.

Wires attached to these balloons would conduct the current to the earth, where it could be distributed and used. Mr. Tesla has invented a method by which he can safely conduct a current of any voltage and without melting the wires.

By means of the balloon receiving stations, which would be erected wherever required, the inventor would almost be able to control the elements. He could turn the Sahara desert into a most fertile plain by using vast power to pump water into it from the seat he could dispel the fog which is always hanging over London by furnishing it with electric heat and doing away with the use of soft coal.

As all this electric power would come from such natural sources as Niagara Falls, the cost of producing it and sending it around the globe would be far less than steam-made electricity now costs. And as it would, at the various distributing stations be carried back to the earth, everybody could use it at a small cost.

Mr. Tesla describes the apparatus which is to do all this, in brief, as follows:

"It consists of a transformer comprising a spiral conductor with many turns surrounded by a conductor with a very few convolutions, or in other words a coil of fine wire wound in many layers surrounded by a lesser coil of heavier wire, the former the secondary coil, the latter the primary. In the circuit of the primary is included the current source of the current.

"The outer terminal of the secondary coil is connected with the earth, the inner to a conductor which carries the current to a terminal up in the air, maintained there by such means as a balloon. At the receiving point there is a similar contrivance, the high terminal there receiving the current that has been conducted to it by the rarefied air. The coils there perform a reverse service, the long coil being the primary and the short one the secondary. In the circuit of the secondary are placed lamps or motors or such devices as may be desired to utilize the current.

"It should be understood that either or both of the coils or transformers and terminals may be movable, as for instance when carried by vessels floating in the air or by ships at sea."