The Scientific Romance - Tesla Has Built Big Tower

When my mother was a child, there wero no lucifer matches, no telegraphs, telephones, gas or automobiles. When my grandmother was young, we could travel no faster than Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob; and our means of illumination were more crude than those of Solomon. Since her day we have invented trains and trams and steamboats, and bicycles and women's clubs, and evolution, and stacks of things. You and I, gossips, are living in the most wonderful period of the world's develop ment. We are living in the era of rapid progress. of change from old to new, of unheard-of miracles, utterly incredible progress. No age ever made such discoveries as we have. Look back to the reign of Henry III., when the first charter was granted to the people of Newcastle-on-Tyne to dig for coal. It made so much smoke in London, that some complained of it to the King, aud its use was forbidden. In the following reign, a man was hanged for burning coal in London. And yet, there were good people, and wise people, in tho city of London, even in that day. But they were afraid of coal. Now we have advanced so far that we are giving up the use of coal and taking electricity, and we are obtaining electricity without burning coal; and we are sending electricity without wires, and a correspondent asks me if we are likely to see as much progress during the next century as we saw in the last? My word, we shall!

"We are living, we are dwelling
In a grand, an awful time;
In an age on ages telling,
To be living is sublime."

You know how we are sending messages without wires now, don't you? I sent one myself, from the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, to my mate. It nearly scared her to death, for she believed me to be far away from land, and yet here was a telegram! You see, we are slow to realise that things are, and that these miracles are taking place all about us. But that is where the trouble comes in. A few great thinkers lead and plan a scheme — here an Edison, there a Tesla, over yonder a Stephenson, beyond there a Watt, and so on; but the rest of us follow on dumbly and half unconsciously. We don't know where we are being carried to, and we half resent it, anyway. Deep down in all our hearts there is a strain of conservatism, a sense of protest against progress. Our fathers' way was a good way, and we would fain cling to the old way; but it's no use. The Juggernaut car is rolling along, and the world goes round and round, and the spirit of progress is stirring the hearts of men. We've got to hustle if we expect to sell hogs.

The last thing to come along is being developed by the money of Pierpont Morgan (at least, rumour has it so); and the man who finds the brain is Nikola Tesla, the electrician. Tesla has built a big tower at Wardenclyffe, Long Island, U.S.A., and from that tower he is going to do magic tricks, more terrible than ever an ancient seer attempted. It is too awful to think about, but I'll try and say it all slowly and carefully, so as not to alarm anybody. This tower is 185 feet high, and looks like a tall mushroom. It is for receiving power, without wires, from tho works of the Canadian Niagara Power Company at Niagara Falls. And the Falls are about 400 miles from Wardenclyffe! You don't have to believe that unless you like! I am not quite sure whether I believe it myself, in the sense of being able to give my belief an intellectual assent; but so many utterly unbelievable things have happened in my day, that I've grown sort of credulous. I won't deny anything. This Tesla is going to get electricity from Niagara into this big tower, and from there he is going to send it out to all the houses and towns and villages within thirty miles or so. By means of this force, which has come through the air all unseen, unobserved, harmless, he is going to light all the private houses more cheaply than by gas ar oil. The only fittings you will require in the house will be glass vacuum tubes, and a wire on top of the house to catch the waves of electricity!

Do you believe that? I've seen it done, and I'm inclined to believe my own eyes, but it isn't easy to believe. That ship on the Atlantic which I sent the message from, had a bit of a wire across one of the stays, and that caught the electrical waves from some place far away and invisible, and my message went all right. On the Cunard ships they publish a newspaper every day, crossing the Atlantic now, with from shore, so it must be true; but it isn't easy to believe, unless you are willing to believe without understanding. I news think that is the easiest thing to do. Let me tell you some more. Tesla proposes to run the railroads with this power, and the ferry boats, and the motor cars. He will furnish not only light, but heat and power; and you will be able to run your sewing-machine and cook your dinner, and light your house with it. Then you will be able to carry a thing like a watch in your pocket, and when you go out for a walk, you will be able to take that out of your pocket, ring up your wife, and hold a conversation by wireless telegraphy. In stead of having a telephone wire along the station fences. you will be able to talk to everybody, at any time, who nas one of the pocket instruments keyed to the same note as your own. Each man's pocket-instrument will have a registered ear-mark — as it were — so that nobody will be able to hear what he says except the one who holds that ear-mark. You don't need to believe that either, but, as far as I understand, it is quite true, and the developments of the next century will be greater than those of last century. We are only at the beginning of the world's development, and the things we have seen are as nothing to the things that we shall see; and yet there are people living to-day who think there is nothing going on. who have no idea of the miraculous age in which we are living. Are such people really living, or are they like the cabbages, only existing?