Nikola Tesla, His Work and Unfulfilled Promises Page 7

it at command, to arrest it in its flight and call it back, and to send it out again and explode it at will; and, more than this, it will never make a miss." The editorial comment follows: "When we are expected, wide awake and in our sober senses, to accept in silence such an utterance as that quoted above, or that which describes as 'a possibility' the operation of a distant torpedo boat by the mere exercise of the will, we refuse point blank, and we are willing to face the consequences." The significance of this comment lies in the fact that this paper had always been so ardent a supporter of Mr. Tesla that it had been said to have made him and his reputation, and from the pen of its editor-in-chief had come only four years previous the greatest tribute Tesla ever received. "Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla," by T. C. Martin.

It was of this torpedo boat invention that Tesla said ("Criterion," November 19, 1898): "Had I nothing else to show for a life-work, this would put the laurels of everlasting fame on my head." It was of this same invention that Prof. Brackett, of Princeton, said ("Electrical Engineer," Vol. 26, p. 491): "The shortest, most correct and most complete criticism which I can make in reference to this bold boast is that, what is new about it is useless, while that which is useful had all been discovered by other scientists long before Tesla made this startling announcement." It was of this invention that Prof. Dolbear, of Tufts College, said ("Electrical Engineer,' Vol. 26, p. 491): "This last so-called invention of Nikola Tesla's is a very pretentious affair, and it is so incredible that the story is not to be believed until the work is actually done. The announcement is most amazing, and, coming as it does from Tesla, scientists are all the more chary about accepting it. During the last six years he has made so many startling announcements and has performed so few of his promises that he is getting to be like the man who called Wolf! wolf!' until no one listened to him. Mr. Tesla has failed so often before that there is no call to believe these things until he really does them." Lack of time and space forbids more than a passing reference to the Tesla engine which was to revolutionize steam engineering; the "discovery" of the variation of capacity with elevation, which was to necessitate the rewriting of all electrical literature ("Electrical World," Vol. 37, p. 201); the torpedo boat, which was to be manipulated at the Paris Exposition from Tesla's laboratory at New York, but which failed to appear; the Tesla oscillator, which was to enable central stations to dispense with wires ("Century Magazine," June, 1900); the method of insulation by refrigeration, which was to give the highest efficiency to transmission with wires ("Western Electrician," Vol. 27, p. 122); and eyen the message actually received from Mars (New York "Sun," January 3, 1901) must be passed by with merely the comment made by Prof. Fessenden ("Electrical World," Vol. 37, p. 165) that "only the crassest ignorance could attribute any such origin" to the so-called signals. From the mass of imaginative literature that has recently issued from Tesla's ever-ready pen a single one is here selected for comment. It is chosen both because it includes a large number of Tesla's vagaries, and also because its publication in a magazine of some standing drew more attention to it than was bestowed on others appearing in the more sensational daily press. "In the 'Century Magazine' for