The Latest Electrical Inventions and Discoveries of Nikola Tesla

First in importance among the contents of this number is the article on "The Latest Electrical Inventions and Discoveries of Nikola Tesla," by T. C. Martin, editor of The Electrical Engineer. It is a survey of all the electrical advances of the last fifty years, and a forecast of the work of the next fifty. Text and illustrations deal with lighting, power transmission, telegraphy without wires, means for obtaining illumination by phosphorescence, the feasibility of using lamps without life-giving members and in free space, the disturbance and manipulation of the earth's electrical charge, and a variety of unclassified phenomena. Of great importance among these discoveries is the "oscillator," which is "not simply a new practical device, but a new implement of scientific research." With it Mr. Tesla, "if he has not as yet actually determined the earth's electrical charge or 'capacity,' has obtained striking effects, which conclusively demonstrate that he has succeeded in disturbing it." The great inventor has aimed at manipulating this electrical charge of the earth itself, and, says Mr. Martin, "aside from their deep scientific import and their wondrous fascination as a spectacle, such effects point to many new realizations making for the higher welfare of the human race. The transmission of power and intelligence is but one thing; the modification of climatic conditions may be another. Perchance we shall 'call up' Mars in this way some day, the electrical charge of both planets being utilized in signals." Among the illustrations accompanying the article are several photographs, of Tesla himself, Mark Twain, Marion Crawford and Joseph Jefferson, taken by phosphorescent light. As is well known, Mr. Tesla's laboratory was destroyed in March, and this article is the only record of some of his most important discoveries. Mr. Tesla has gone to work undismayed to reconstruct his lost appliances and machinery.

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