Light of the World

Under the above alluring title, the daily Press of New York and London have been discussing Signor Tesla's latest pronouncement on his achievements in the development of lighting by electricity. Having regard to the great amount of work that has been done in the way of testing various gases stored in air-tight glass globes for the production of some phenomena equivalent to incandescence (as in the case of mercury vapour lamps), and also the not altogether unsuccessful experiments of transmitting electricity by means of air-borne waves to filament lamps placed at a distance, one must hesitate to declare the clever Italian to be a visionary. We must, however, await an official statement from the inventor before attaching great importance to the subject in its present phase. All that Signor Tesla requires are hermetically sealed glass bulbs enclosing a rarified gas, and a central station where electricity would be generated, and then sent by means of his special "wireless" transmitter through the air, in order to energise the imprisoned gas into emitting light. His light would be diffused light, as soft and generalised as the sun rays.