Tesla Electrifies the Earth (August 20, 1897)

It is queer that the American inventors cannot dispense with sensational interviews. We sometimes are inclined to doubt whether an untechnical interviewer is always at fault. Thus the New York Journal announces the completion of Mr. Tesla's work for the transmission of messages from one point to another on the earth without the aid of wires. To give an idea of the high potential currents used in this work, he showed the interviewer a large disc, from the centre of which protruded a spherical electrode shooting forth long streams of ethereal flame. Mr. Tesla stated that the electrical disturbance thus created was felt throughout the globe.