Mr. Tesla in France

Nikola Tesla has made a profound impression abroad, and the lectures which he delivered in England and France last month were received with positive enthusiasm. In the latter country the reception was naturally of a more demonstrative character, and one of the French scientific journals in a frontispiece fairly represents Mr. Tesla as a prestidigitateur. The illustration is presented herewith. The engraving is supposed to illustrate the joint meeting of the Société de Physique and the Société Intenationale des Electriciens, which was held on February 20th. To quote from the journal in question, "The yourg savant is as thoroughly convinced as a forerunner, almost, we might say, as an apostle. There is so much enthusiasm and sincerity in his explanations and experiments, that faith is born within one, and he believes he is present at the dawn of a revolution in artificial means of illumination. * * * The warm plaudits that his lectures have received in England and France prove that he has excited the enthusiasm, if not the conviction of those men who are most capable to appreciate the grandeur and importance of his work. For the skillful experimenter we wish all success in the new field in which he is engaged. We trust that when next he comes to Europe the light of the future will have become the light of the present."

When his work excites such rapturous comments as this, and when he is regarded almost as a magician, Mr. Tesla must regard his trip abroad as decidedly successful.

While Americans do not perhaps indulge in such high-sounding phrases, they none the less appreciate the marvelous work that Mr. Tesla has accomplished, and are no less ready to give him the hearty and enthusiastic praise that he deserves. His lectures abroad are not merely repetitions of his paper before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, but are important developments of that remarkable production.