Nikola Tesla Says We Will Soon Be Talking Clear Around the World

Replies to Wizard Edison in Vigorous Fashion — Beating the Lightning Flashes — His Compliments to His Rivals.

The article to which Mr. Tesla refers in the following letter was on interview with Thomas A. Edison, in which, in reply to The World reporter's question, "Do you believe with Tesla that we shall be able to talk around the world one of these days?" Mr. Edison said: "No, I do not look for developments in that line. The wonderful thing that well be more and more developed is wireless telegraphy. Marconi is all right, and is bound sooner or later to perfect his system." Mr. Tesla's letter is as follows:

New York, June 30, 1905

To the Editor of The World:

Sir — My attention has been called to an article in The World of last Sunday, announcing in an interview that I am wrong in any wireless propositions. Such statements, authorized or not, are apt to produce erroneous impressions regarding my work as well as the state of the art. For my protection and yur readers' enlightenment, I only need to quote the following passage from one of my specifications watch was filed five years ago in the United States Patent Office and is descriptive of some results attained by me about that time:

"In the course of certain investigations which I carried on for the purpose of studying the effects of hining discharges upon the electrical condition of the earth I observed that sensitive receiving instruments arranged so as to be capable of responding to electrical disturbances created by the discharges at times failed to respond when they should have done so, and upon inquiring into the causes of this unexpected behavior I discovered it to be due to the character of the electrical waves which were produced in the earth by the lighting discharges and which had nodal regions following at definite distances the shifting source of the disturbances. From data obtained in a large number of observations of the maxima and minima of these waves I found their length to vary approximately from twenty-five to seventy kilometers, and these results and theoretical deductions led me to the conclusion that waves of this kind may be propagated in all directions over the globe, and that they gated in all directions over the globe, and that they may be of still more widely differing lengths, the extreme limits being imposed by the physical dimensions and properties of the earth. Recognizing in the existence of these waves an unmistakable evidence that the disturbances created had been conducted from their origin to the most remote portions of the globe and had been the ace reflected.

Beat Lightning Flashes.

I conceived the idea of producing such waves in the earth by artificial means, with the object of utilizing them for many useful purposes, for which they are or might be found applicable. This problem was rendered extremely difficult owing to the immense dimensions of the planet, and consequently enormous movement of electricity or rate at which electrical energy had to be delivered in order to approximate, even in a remote degree, movements or rates which are manifestly attained in the displays of electrical forces in nature, and which seemed at first unrealizable by any human agencies; but by gradual and continuous improvements of a generator of electrical oscillations, which I have described in my patents... I finally succeeded in reaching electrical movements or rates of delivery of electrical energy not only approximately, but, as shown in comparative tests and measurements, actually surpassing those of lightning discharges, and by means of this apparatus I have found it possible to reproduce whenever desired phenomena in the earth the same as or similar to those due to such discharges. With the knowledge of the phenomena discovered by me and the means at command for accomplishing there results I am enabled not only to carry out many operations by the use of known instruments, but also to offer a solution for many important problems involving the operation or control of remote devices which for want of this knowledge and the absence of these means have heretofore been entirely impossible. For example, by the use of such a generator of stationary waves and receiving apparatus properly placed and adjusted in any other locality, however remote, it is practicable to transmit intelligible signals or to control or actuate at wi any one or all of such apparatus for many other important and valuable purposes, as for indicating; wherever desired the correct time of an observatory, or for ascertaining the relative position of a body or distance of the same with reference to a given point, or for determining the course of a moving object, such as a vessel at sea, the distance traversed by the same or its speed; or for producing many other useful effects at a distance dependent on the intensity, wave length, direction or velocity of movement, or other feature or property of disturbances of this character."

A Bit of Sarcasm.

Permit me to say on this occasion, that if there exist, to-day, no facilities for wireless telegraphic and telephonic communication between the most distant countries, it is merely because a series of misfortunes and obstacles have delayed the final summation of my labors, which might have been completed three years ago. In this connection I shall well remember the efforts of some, unwise enough to believe that they can gain an advantage by throwing sand in the eyes of people and retarding the progress of invention. Should the first messages across the seas prove calamitous to them, it will be a punishment regrettable but fully deserved. In my article in the Century of June, 1900, and subsequent publications in a technical journal (Electrical World and Engineer), I have carefully and conscientiously prepared them for the impending revolution.

I may add that any expert, not a blacksmith or woodchopper in electrical experiments whose cheeks are covered with horn-back alligator skin, and who is thus enabled to make use of my patented devices without my permission and public acknowledgement can easily enough girdle the world with wireless messages, and in Smardis's fashion achieve fame and distinction, cheap and unprofitable. With these marvelous appliances an engineer possessed of knowledge and skill not greater than my own can throw this planet out of its orbit.

NIKOLA TESLA