Nikola Tesla Talks of the Future of the Greatest Problems Now Confronting the Scientific World

To begin, will you tell me, Mr. Tesla, which, of the modern discoveries or inventions do you think will have the greatest effect on the future development of human interests?

There is no limit to human ingenuity and the possibilities of accomplishment. New advances, one more astonishing than the other, are being announced in rapid succession, each contributing to our comfort, convenience and safety of our existence. It Is not impossible that some stupendous discovery might he made of greater effect on human life than any that has gone before, but, judging from what we know at present, I have no doubt that the perfection of the wireless art and its application for innumerable purposes to which it lends itself will be of greater significance in our future development than any other technical advance. This departure naturally means to me more than most others, for just at this moment I am enjoying the supreme satisfaction and happiness in seeing the principles I discovered and the ideas for which I fought, against the most violent opposition generally recognized and adopted.

Q. This new invention is certainly wonderful, but why should it be so much more important than others?

It is not new, and it is not an invention, in the ordinary acceptance of the term. The art is as old as the memory of man: only the methods and devices are novel. It is not a single invention, as commonly believed, but the result of a number of discoveries and improvements. It is revolutionary and far-reaching because of the fact that the greatest impediment to human progress is the immensity of the globe on which we live and consequent difficulty of bringing individuals in close contact, conducive to mutual understanding and harmony. In this is to be found the principal cause of most of our troubles and conflicts. This also is the chief reason for our limitations and the existence of conditions retarding our advancement. The telescope has enabled us to explore other worlds. The microscope has revealed to us many of nature’s mysteries. The benefits we have derived from these inventions are inestimable. The wireless art gives still greater promise. It will be the means of completely annihilating distance and thereby affording unprecedented opportunities for intellectual and material advancement.

Wireless Art in Its Infancy

Q. Would you not more clearly indicate how this is to be brought about?

By its universal application for all purposes in the three great departments of human activity which are: The transmission of intelligence, the transport of our bodies and materials and the transmission of energy necessary to our existence. Such great change will naturally consume considerable time. So far we have seen only the first and crude beginnings, confined to the field of intelligence transmission. But the experts have now freed themselves of illusionary ideas, which have delayed practical consummation, and it may be confidently expected that the time is not distant when signals, written characters, pictures, musical plays and spoken words will be conveyed from one to any other point of the globe and our facilities of communication and exchange of thought immensely improved. As regards transportation, the applications will come more slowly because they involve installments of plants on a large scale and the vanquishing of greater engineering difficulties. With the increasing skill and number of experts and commercial encouragement, which will naturally come when the rationality of such undertakings is practically demonstrated and their possibilities appreciated, the obstacles will be finally overcome and a new epoch in transport and travel will be inaugurated.

It is in the third department that the greatest revolution will be wrought, however, for cheap power will become available at any place in the world. This will put an end to a sinful waste of energy which is now going on in this country perhaps more so than in any other. Think only that in the manufacture of iron and steel in America the coke ovens and blast furnaces discharge through the flues excellent fuel sufficient to develop at least 20.000,000 horse power, which could yield a revenue of $300,000,000 a year. The natural gas and oil wells are another instance of such barbarous waste, particularly the former. In many places enormous quantities of gas are permitted to escape uselessly into the air when they might be employed for the production of power and manufacture of valuable compounds. In the mining, transportation and use of coal, on which we are now absolutely dependent, the losses incurred are appalling. But, however great the economies effected through the extensive use of this art, they are of small consequence as compared with its advantages in connection with a great many problems for which it offers ideal solutions.

To Illuminate The Ocean.

Q. Can you illustrate this by specific examples?

Certainly. Consider, for instance, the safety of ocean travel. In the terrible disaster of the Titanic wireless messages have proved instrumental in saving life. This is gratifying enough, but the calamity might have been entirely avoided through the scientific application of the same underlying principles. Numerous devices have been proposed to prevent collisions with icebergs, and I have myself invented not a few, but after years of thought and reflection, with due consideration of these later developments, I have come to the conclusion that the best, if not the only radical remedy, is to illuminate the ocean. This can be done through wireless transmission of power. It is my earnest hope that in the near future a concerted effort will be made to this end. To name another instance, I may refer to the operation of aeroplanes and dirigibles by this method. The purely mechanical solution of the problem, on which all experts are concentrating their efforts, can lead to but limited success on account of the necessity of carrying fuel or other store of energy. A wireless flying machine, besides being simpler, could maintain itself indefinitely in the air. The civilizing potency and practical importance of this improvement alone are inestimable.

To mention other examples, I might dwell on various uses of a stationary waves. This unique terrestrial phenomenon was discovered some years ago. Popularly explained, it is based on the sympathetic response of the earth to electrical oscillations of great intensity and definite pitch. The phenomenon manifests itself through the presence of electrical forces or activities in perfectly fixed positions in space. When such conditions obtain distance, in the transmission of electrical energy; ceases to have a meaning and many results of the greatest scientific and commercial importance become readily attainable. Vessels can be guided along any route without a compass and with unfailing precision, the speed of a moving object and its distance with reference to another point can be determined, and the diameter of the earth and many other geographical data ascertained with great accuracy and without the employment of the usual means of observation and measurement.

To Fight Wars With Electricity

Q. What do you think will be the effect of the dirigible balloon and the aeroplane on warfare? Will advance in this direction ultimately result in doing away with wars?

For many years, and especially since the development of the more practical types of aerial machines, I have carefully followed the articles and discussions of experts in endeavoring to form my own opinion on this subject. Some military authorities belittle the possibilities of the aerial vessel in this respect, but we have seen in the recent conflict that the aeroplane has already exercised a marked influence on the tactics and general conduct of war. There can no longer be any doubt that a vessel on the plan of the Zeppelin dirigible would be a formidable instrument in a battle between armies as well as encounters at sea.

I believe, though, that there is absolutely no reason for a panic on that ground, for it should be borne in mind that in the same measure as we are perfecting aerial machines we are likewise improving the instruments for their destruction. There are already guns especially constructed for this purpose. Remember, however, that aerial machines will be equally available to both combatants, thus leaving the equilibrium undisturbed. It is difficult to say what the outcome will be in the next few years, but we may feel sure in making one prediction, namely, that the means of defense will always outstrip the means of attack. This is in the very nature of things, for it is a fundamental law that it takes less effort to disintegrate than to put in form.

Personally, I believe that wars in the distant future, if they do come, will be decided not by mechanical appliances but by electrical forces. I can see the day when it will be possible to direct from a power plant to any point on the globe, destructive energy of such intensity that the most terrible engines of war so far invented will be mere playthings in comparison. When this becomes possible, wars should cease. In the meantime, the enormous cost and sacrifice involved in warfare will be a powerful deterrent, compelling nations to choose the peaceful course.

Predicts New Storage Battery

Q. Is there any prospect that the electric motor will in the end displace the gasoline engine in the operation of automobiles?

That, of course, is a woman’s question. You are afraid of complication and believe that to simplify the apparatus is an essential requirement. The mechanical engineer does not look upon this in the same light. Although the present gasoline engine is far from being ideally simple, it has proved itself eminently practical, as is evidenced by the enormous extent of the automobile industry founded on its use. To replace this engine, and particularly the much improved type which is surely coming, will call for a new principle in primary or storage batteries. In these fields we have advanced but little since the discoveries of the early pioneers, but the announcement of a new principle may come any day, and it will be the death knell of the heat automobile engine, for no such machine can ever equal the electric motor in simplicity, safety and ease and perfection of control.

Q. Do you believe that printing will ever be replaced by a photographic process?

Photography, from its first inception, was a great triumph of invention. It has been of immense assistance in the study of all the phases and phenomena of nature. But while wonders have been achieved in this department, we are still far from replacing printing by photography. Printing machinery has been perfected to an incredible degree, as is well exemplified in the production of the daily papers. It is conceivable that by the use of a photographic method records could be made much quicker and cheaper. Photography seems to lend itself more especially to the reproduction of pictures, and in this particular line much is being done at present. A far-reaching improvement achieved of late years is color photography, and it is now a burning problem to devise a cheap and simple process for the reproduction of color photographs. The task is very difficult, but it will be undoubtedly accomplished.

Radium as Power Factor, a Dream

Q. How about the dictagraph?

This is not a great invention, though a very useful instrument. It is popular with people who are not worrying about the form of expression, but it will never supplant an intelligent secretary or stenographer. My interest in this and similar devices resides chiefly in the possibility of their use in connection with the wireless system. Very soon it will be possible to make such records at any distance, and then the full value of this improvement will be demonstrated.

Q. What do you think of radium and the prospect it opens for the future?

My views on the subject are probably not in agreement with those of many men of science who have devoted themselves to this branch of investigation. It may not be generally known that in my papers published in the Electrical Review of New York from 1896 to 1897, long before the discovery of radium by Mme. Curie, I demonstrated the existence and described the salient properties of emanations of the same nature. My views were received with skepticism nt that time, but I am glad to say that now they are adopted in their entirety. I see no reason for changing the opinions I then expressed. The so-called radium emanations are not an isolated phenomenon, but are universal. There is, according to my ideas, no such element as radium or polonium, although spectral analysis, the theory of Mendeleff, and various experimental observations, support this modern view. I believe, that as to this, scientific opinion is in error, as it was a century ago, in assuming that there was such a substance as phlogiston concerned in combustion until Lavoisier discovered oxygen. Similarly the radium manifestations are, in all probability, due to the action of a universal medium on certain volatile substances. Much of the speculation based on Mme. Curie’s discovery is necessarily erroneous, being in direct contradiction to well established principles. The claims of some enthusiasts that in radium lies the possibility of future power development are nothing but a dream. But solid fact is that we are in the presence of new and wonderful effects the study of which is leading us gradually to a better and deeper understanding of the mechanism of the universe.