No High-Speed Limit, Says Tesla

SPEEDS GREATER THAN THAT OF LIGHT, which are deemed impossible by the Einstein theory of relativity, have been produced by Dr. Nikola Tesla, it is asserted by Dr. Tesla in an interview with Hugo Gernsback, published in Everyday Science and Mechanics (New York).

Asserting that the Einstein theory is in many respects erroneous, Dr. Tesla stated that as early as 1900, in his patent 787,412, he showed that the current of his radio-power transmitter had passed over the earth's surface with a speed of 292,830 miles a second. The highest possible speed in the universe according to the Einstein theory is that of light, 186,300 miles a second. Mr. Gernsback adds:

"Dr. Tesla informs me further that he knows of speeds several times greater than that of light; and he has designed apparatus with which he expects to project so-called electrons with a speed equal to twice that of light.

"It is one of the principal tenets of the relativity theory that the mass of a body increases with its speed, and would become infinite at the speed of light. Therefore no speeds greater than light are possible."

Tesla also disagrees with the part of the Einstein theory which states that the mass of an object increases with its speed. The mass of a body is unalterable, contends Dr. Tesla, according to the article, "otherwise energy could be produced from nothing, since the kinetic energy acquired in the fall of a body would be greater than that necessary to lift it at a small velocity."