American Notes - A Recent Patent of Nikola Tesla

New York, November 18.

A Recent Patent of Nikola Tesla. - The daily papers within the past week, by means of startling headlines, announced that Mr. Nikola Tesla would make war so horrible that no nation would care to undertake it. The basis of the story rested on a patent issued to Mr. Tesla on November 8th. The facts, as set forth in the patent, are in brief as follows: - Hitherto the only practical means of controlling the movements of a vessel, such as a torpedo or torpedo boat, at a distance, has been by the use of a cable, the disadvantages of which are obvious. The plan proposed by the inventor is to provide any such craft with a coherer connected between the hull and an elevated terminal, and to so arrange the propelling and steering mechanism which is motor-driven with storage battery supply, that it can be controlled by various relays and auxiliary devices actuated through the agency of the Hertz waves. A single coherer is used. It possesses some elements of novelty designed to yield a more uniform decohering action. It consists of a metal cylinder, with insulating ends and a metal rod passing lengthwise through it. The cylinder normally stands with its axis vertical, and the decohering action consists in inverting it, throwing the particles, which occupy one-fifth of its length, from one end to the other. According to the patent, these granules are manufactured by a special tool, insuring their equality in size, weight and shape, and are uniformly oxidised. This secures equal conductivity of their surfaces, and stops their further deterioration, thus preventing a change in the character of the gas in the space in which they are enclosed. The auxiliary devices consist of ordinary relays, actuating a multiple step-by-step escapement wheel, which, in turn, rotates the brushes and commutators, affecting the various internal circuits of the boat.