The Tesla Motor

To the Editor of Electrical Review:

I desire to call your attention to an interesting statement to the effect that Tesla's alternating current motor is anticipated by Varley's automatic electric clock system in operation in the Royal Institution, London, England, as I am advised. I am informed by a prominent English electrician, that the Standard Clock has a bob carrying a bobbin which, as the pendulum vibrates, is carried back and forth over permanent magnets, thus generating alternating currents at each of its vibrations. The outlying local clocks are connected by wires through the bobbin circuit of the pendulum, and the motors of these clocks are constructed in almost identically the same manner as those covered by Tesla’s inventions. I give you this for what it is worth, and you are at liberty to use it in your journal if you desire.

Very truly yours,

New York, June 20.
C. J. Kintner.

We fail to see the anticipation. Tesla's motor depends upon two separate currents, differing in phase by one-quarter period, and a pendulum bob is hardly capable of generating that particular kind of currents. It is more likely to be a step-by-step motor at the outlying clocks operated by the reversal of the generated currents. However, in the absence of details from our correspondent, only guesses can be made.