To Outdo Marconi

WHAT NIKOLA TESLA CLAIMS FOR HIS WIRELESS SYSTEM.

Telegraph Messages to Be Sent Through Earth as Well as Air — Big Plant Installed on Long Island, Operations Soon to Begin.

Marconi, who has recently aroused so much interest in the scientific and commercial world by his experiments in wireless telegraphy, must look to his laurels. He has a powerful rival in the field. Nikola Tesla, the Servian electrical inventor, will soon begin a series of experiments which, he thinks, will east the operations of Marconi in the shade.

Mr. Tesla's work and plans in this direction have been surrounded by much mystery. He has been experimenting for several years. Some of his experiments were conducted on the top of Pike's peak, which gave rise to a report that his sending and receiving stations were to be located at very high altitudes.

Last August Mr. Tesla purchased 200 acres of land at Wardenclyffe, N. Y., about sixty-five miles from New York city, and announced that his principal station on this side of the Atlantic would be located there. The first of these great power houses has just been completed and is being fitted with new and expensive electrical apparatus. With the completion of a 216 foot tower and a 500 foot well Mr. Tesla will be ready for work. This will be in about two months.

Marconi has so far found only one way to send messages by wireless telegraphy — through the air. Tesla will try two methods. By means of his great tower he will send messages through the air, and by means of his great well he will send messages through the ground.

It is the latter method that. Tesla thinks will achieve the greatest success. His belief in it is so great that he has declared in confidence to his friends that ten years from now Wardenclyffe will be the great telegraph and cable center of America.

The principle on which Tesla will send wireless messages through the ground is, as explained by a friend, that a straight line through the earth, say between New York and London, is shorter than a line around the earth, like the one Marconi would employ.

The most interesting building in process of erection at Wardenclyffe is the tower, from which wireless messages will be sent and received. When completed, it will be 216 feet high. The diameter at the base is 100 feet; at the top, 80 feet. It is constructed of wood and iron. The secrets of the interior of the tower are closely guarded. It is known, however, that at the base of the structure there is an entrance to a well 500 feet deep, with a staircase leading down into it. From the bottom of the well there will be four tunnels, each 100 feet long, which are now being excavated. Most of the electrical apparatus, a portion of which is already in position, will be located at or below the surface of the ground.

Mr. Tesla bas recently taken out patents on several new devices for receiving wireless messages. The purpose of his new instruments is to increase the force of the impulses produced by the Hertz waves. Speaking of his system, be said:

"The current which I will use will be of the familiar alternating type. The energy which is generated in that form will be stored in a condenser, but after its discharge therefrom the intensity of the vibrations will be magnified 10,000 times. These vibrations will be of the kind best calculated for transmission through the earth, which is my real conductor. At the receiving station I will provide means for magnifying the force of the incoming vibrations a quarter of a million times."