Fluid Instead of Wire

It is stated in the Buffalo Express that Nikola Tesla has perfected a means of conducting the electric current through a fluid in a tube, by which he claims that electricity can be transmitted from Niagara Falls to New Orleans and successfully compete with steam at the latter place. The fluid he uses in the tubes costs scarcely more than water, and loses so little electricity in transit that the cost of transmission is little more than interest on the cost of putting up the poles.