May Signal Stars - Electrical Envelope of the Earth, Nikola Tesla Says, Will So Be Used

DETACHED ELECTRIC LIGHTS.

These as Well as the Problem of Heating Will Be Solved by His Electric Oscillator.

IT IS NEARING COMPLETION.

Great Inventor Speaks Modestly but Hopefully of Nea Possibilities. of Electrical Science.

Nikola Tesla stood in the outer room of his laboratory. at No. 48 East Houston street, yesterday afternoon, and smiled as he said: — "My electric oscillator is nearing completion. I have spent years in experiments, and have been alternately encouraged and discouraged by the results. But now there is everything to promise success. It seems to be close ahead."

Mr. Tesla's remarks were occasioned by inquiries concerning the truth of a rumor that he was perfecting an instrument for commmunicating with the planets by means of electrical waves. The inventor nodded his handsome head and remarked: —

"Perhaps, in time. But not yet. We have to begin with little things before we can accomplish great ones. I am confident that the principles upon which I have been working are correct. How soon they will be demonstrated of course I cannot say. The perfection may come in ten minutes and perhaps not for years. But that it will be possible to signal all parts of the earth instantaneously, and that from the logical development of this it will be possible to signal the stars by electrical disturbances here I have ro doubt whatever.'

HIS RECENT EXPERIMENTS.

Years ago, in St. Louis, I delivered an address before the National Academy of Sciences. I then declared it would be possible. to use economically the electricity in the atmosphere for lighting and heating, and, of course, for communication between different parts of the earth's surface. The problem was the conservation of electrical energy at the least possible cost to the other elements. That problem, I was confident then, I could solve by my oscillator. At present I am sure it can be done. From my most recent experiments I am convinced that within a very short time we shall be independent of the clumsy methods of generating electricity now in vogue. The electrical fluid in the atmosphere will give energy enough. The same electric envelope of the earth will enable us to send messages from one part of the globe to all other parts In an instant of time. The same element, which, I believe. finite and is not confined to this atmosphere, may be used to communicate with the other planets."

"Can you give any description of this apparatus?" I asked.

"I regret very much to say that I cannot at present. It is rather a tool than an appa- ratus. My experiments are made scientifically, on a small scale, for I have neither the money nor the space at my disposal to do But it is readily admitted that if I prove my principle in this minor way, and I am able to do what I am sure can be done with electricity in a limited fashion, it will only need an extension of method to accomplish the greatest results. Simultaneous announcements may then be made in all parts. of the world. In case of disaster, of pestilence, of atmospheric disturbances, in all events which are international in their character, the word may be sent from any place to all other places. The principle is the same as that which was so generally discussed some time ago in regard to the possibility of signalling at sea, telephonically or otherwise, between ships or with the shore and without wire."

APPLIED TO LIGHT.

"Will the work accomplished by the oscillator be suited to the sending of messages of this kind?" I inquired.

"No, not at all," Mr. Tesla replied, "It will realize the possibility of generating light so that the means we now use will at once appear old fashioned. Electric light will be exceedingly cheap, and so will electric heat. The principle will be applied to all lines of necessity in which the use of the force is now important. In photography I have already achieved results from the experiments with the oscillator on the Roentgen principle at a distance of forty feet, and have secured photographs that are much more elaborate in detail than any others I have seen or that I have heard described."

The principle of lighting to which Mr. Tesla referred and which is a part of the discoveries which he declares he has made, will enable one to use electric lights unattached to any dynamo by wire or other medium, They may rest upon your drawing room table unilluminated, and by merely grasping them you may generate conditions which will make them glow and shed light.