In the Footsteps of Genius Page 9

a ten-story building in which only the steel skeleton had been set up. He connected the oscillator to one of the columns.

“In a few minutes I felt a slight tremor. With the increase of the intensity the whole steel mass began to shake from the foundation. Finally the building swayed. The workmen in a panic ran to the ground floor. They shouted that the building was collapsing and called the police. Before anything serious could happen, I switched off the vibrator, put it in my pocket and left. If I had waited another ten minutes, the building would have been leveled to the ground. In the same way, for the Brooklyn Bridge, it would have taken me less than an hour.”

That is not all. Tesla claimed that the oscillator could split the Earth in half — “as a boy splits an apple.” “The vibrations of the Earth,” he said, “recur in a period of one hour and forty-nine minutes. That means that if at this moment I strike the Earth, the wave of contraction will pass through it and return in an hour and forty-nine minutes in the form of an explosion. In fact, the Earth, like everything else, is in a state of continuous vibration. It is constantly contracting and expanding. Let us suppose now that at the moment when a contraction begins I cause an explosion of one ton of dynamite. This will accelerate the contraction and also cause an accelerated wave of explosion. Then I will explode still another ton of dynamite and again increase the wave of contraction. If this were constantly repeated, you can imagine what would happen. The Earth would split in two. For the first time in its history man would have become acquainted with the forces with which he can interfere in cosmic processes!”

They asked him how much time he would need to split the Earth. “Perhaps a few months, perhaps a year or two.” But, as for a few weeks, he said, the mountains and hills would move by ten meters up and down, the rivers would overflow their beds, buildings would collapse — civilization would practically cease to exist.

Perhaps… some other time

Why did Tesla talk about this? Did he suppose that some mad mind might misuse such an idea? Was it only the whim of a genius? In order to reassure people, he immediately explained everything to the end. Theoretically the premise is entirely correct, but it is impossible to establish the perfect mechanical resonance of the Earth. Perhaps… some other time.

It is clear that Tesla sometimes behaved like an exhibitionist. However, as always, behind his stories for the broad public there stood some scientific discovery. Then he endeavored to establish a new scientific discipline which he called “telegeodynamics” and from which he expected significant results. He saw that certain principles of vibration can be used for the detection of distant objects, submarines or ships, for example. With mechanical vibrations and the known constant of the Earth, he also hoped that he would discover a way of finding deposits of ore or oil. Thus he paved the way for modern techniques of underwater investigation.

Tesla supported the theory according to which, with a series of gyroscopes, placed in seismic regions, and the emission of weak vibrations, the continental plates could be relieved of pressure before a serious earthquake came about. Today seismologists are intensively studying this technique.

He described (and later tried to interest Westinghouse in the further development) a telegeodynamic machine with which from a depth of ten kilometers he could send mechanical waves, “of much smaller amplitude than earthquake waves.” In view of the fact that over the distance traversed they did not lose strength, with waves produced in this way messages could be sent throughout the world, and for reception one pocket apparatus would be sufficient. Another advantage is that weather conditions would not interfere with the waves.

The wizard of Menlo Park

When the journalists demanded that he describe the principle of operation of the apparatus, he consented to say only that it was made of the finest steel in the form of a cylinder, in which it floated with the help of an energy which had long been known, but here increased by a secret, new principle. The apparatus also had a stationary part. Strong impulses directed at the floating cylinder were transmitted to the stationary part, and through it to the ground.

Nothing ever came of this idea. Still, Tesla did not give up. He deeply believed in the possibilities of mechanical resonance. Since he did not succeed with scientific argumentation, he called fear to his aid. He told the New Yorkers that he was in a position in a short time to turn the Empire State Building into a heap of bricks and iron. Again he spoke of his little pocket oscillator.

Regardless of what he wished and of the manner in which he popularized his ideas — according to what he said and did, no one remained indifferent. He personally deeply felt that everything he did must have the public’s approval, to whom he always addressed himself, in a language intelligible to them, whenever something new happened in his laboratory.

Out of gratitude, they gave him a name such as only good friends give: the Old Wizard of Menlo Park.

Forerunner of the electric train

The year 1898, for Tesla and Edison, passed in the fiercest measuring of strength. Edison announced that he was ready to photograph human thought and thus drew the attention of the whole American public. In return, Tesla informed a journalist of the New Yorker that he was in a position to “tame the Sun.” With the help of a simple device he developed a “method for the production of steam with solar energy. The steam drives a steam engine, and the engine creates electricity.”¹³

That year he further worked on the creation of the most suitable source of artificial light for photography. “I am close to obtaining something which will be better than daylight, but for the present I have no time to carry the idea through to the end…” (Five years earlier Tesla was the first in history to make photographs with phosphorescent light.)¹⁴

Edison already had reason to feel envy, and then Tesla announced still another interesting concept: the development of the electric train. This was undoubtedly a great technical advance, but for Tesla this too remained only one of those inventions which he theoretically managed to solve and thus exhausted his reasons for giving them further