Nikola Tesla's Inventions

As time passes, Mr. Tesla's discoveries in electrical matters assume greater and greater importance. Cassier's Magazine, special Niagara number, just issued, de cribes at length and in detail the work that has been done at Niagara Falls for the commercial utilization of the great power that has so long gone to waste, and in connection with this work Mr. Tesla is quoted as saying that Niagara Falls power can be transmitted to New York and Chicago and there sold in competition with steam power generated from coal.

Much has been written concerning the discoveries of Mr. Tesla in connection with the development of light in a manner that seems startling and mysterious; but it is fair to predict that his greatest inventions will prove to be those in connection with the transmission of power by alternating currents over long lines; for, without such discoveries, the cost for transmission would be so great that capitalists would be unwilling to undertake the development of great water flowers.

At the present time much attention is given to the discussion of the replacing of the steam locomotive by the electric motor of standard railways. It is already apparent that such results are possible only by reason of Tesla's discoveries, for, with the continuous current apparatus, such as is used commonly by street railway companies, it would be most difficult to make such undertakings profitable.

To carry out Tesla's inventions requires generators of special construction — that is, generators capable of producing two alternating currents of electricity at the same time, in such relation to each other that one current is at its highest voltage while the other is at Its lowest voltage. These currents can be produced by the generators at any required voltage, or they can be raised from a couple of thousand volts at the generator to ten, twenty, or thirty thousand volts by means of transformers and then led out on lines of very small diameter, and consequently low cost, and an be carried any required distance. At the point of use these currents can be again transformed to the low voltage required for the safe operation of motors. Tesla's great discovery was in the form of motor for the utilization of these double, or, as they are called , two-phased currents. Prior to his time all motors required a revolving part, or armature, having a complicated device called a commutator, upon which were pressed the brushes or collectors. This armature revolved within a frame having inward projections wound with wires, which was termed the field of the with generator, or motor. Tesla found that by winding a portion of the field with wires taking currents from one of the circuits of the two-phase generator, and the other portion from the other circuit, he could cause the armature within these fields to rotate without using commutators or brushes, the armature of the motor being so wound that the appropriate currents were induced as a result of those acting through the two sets of wires in the field.

In the operation of a railway it will often happen that fully 1,000 horse power of electricity will be required to be transferred from the trolley line to the locomotive, and to transmit this 1,000 horse power a considerable distance, at 1,000 volts which is the utmost limit for the continuous current, would take 100 times as much copper wire for the transmission lines as would be required in the Tesla system with a voltage of 10,000; and 400 times as much as would be required If Tesla carried the current on his transmission lines at 20,000 volts, which has already been proved practicable. It will be noted in reading the accounts of the work at Niagara Falls that a commission of eminent scientists was created to determine the proper method for the carrying of Niagara's power, and this commission, after two years, of investigation, finally determined upon the use of the two-phase generators, which was an acknowledgment that Tesla's method was the only practicable way of distributing the electric current for commercial purposes; and, in the technical description given by the several writers in Cassier's Magazine, the induction, or Tesla motor is always referred to as the device for the utilization of the power generated at the Falls.

That much is to be heard of the Tesla inventions in the future is a foregone conclusion, because Tesla was the pioneer discoverer of the most practicable method for the transmission of electricity for power purposes. He has patented his inventions, and has sold his rights to the Westinghouse Company of Pittsburg, which concern has taken steps to enforce its exclusive rights under the Tesla patents, At the same time, the General Electric Company and the Stanley Company, in a minor way, are making Tesla motors and Installing them. Litigation is already far advanced, and is bound to keep Tesla's name prominently before the public, for an unusual patent struggle must result over the exclusive right to manufacture and sell electrical apparatus which will within short time exceed in value all other kinds of electrical machinery manufactured by the great electrical corporations of the country. If a prominent Director and official of the General Electric Company is reported correctly, he expects some arrangement to be effected which will enable his company also to manufacture legally apparatus under the Tesla inventions.

When Tesla's discoveries were first announced, the electricians of the country and the world at large conceded their novelty and pioneer character, and for several years confined themselves to the forms of apparatus operated by continuous currents, and it was only after the Cataract Construction Company had finally determined that it was by means of Tesla's inventions alone that its operations could be carried out that the actual copying of his work was begun in various quarters. There could be no better evidence of the practical quality of his inventive genius.