The Tesla Oscillator (Jan. 21, 1896)

It is said that the apparatus upon which Tesla stakes his application for the gratitude of mankind is designed to cure all forms of organic disease. His name for the device is the oscillator, and it is supposed to effect cures by a thorough shaking up of the human system, working through a series of electro-mechanical vibrators. The shaking up it gives is mild yet thorough, and when it begins to get in its work, disease folds its tent like an Arab and silently steals away. Bacilli, streptococci, ascococci, diplococci, microbes, germs and all the rest of the deadly family turn and run away. It matters not whether they are chromogenic, zymogenic, or pathogenic; whether they can withstand cold or heat, or are indifferent to all the drugs in the pharmacopœia. When Tesla touches the button they recognize that it is time for them to take a rest, skip out, skedaddle, vamoose, run, fly or swim.

The principle upon which the oscillator is constructed was announced by Tesla several years ago. An Austrian scientist grasped it, and in a crude way put it to practical use. Later he communicated with the electrician, declaring that he had tried it with wonderful success, even in cases of consumption. Tesla has not experimented with that disease, but from the observation of the Austrian he is confident that the much-dreaded ailment is as powerless as are all other ills when brought into contact with the oscillator.

The thought which first occurred to Tesla was that most physicians prescribe exercise for the relief of many diseases. Coupling with this the value of electricity as a remedial agent, the inventor put his wits at work and evolved the oscillator. The machine does its work by means of a series of slight but effective electric shocks which come at the rate of about 100 a second. In half a minute the patient receives as much benefit as he would derive from a day on horseback supplemented with a period of electrical treatment. At the same time the danger of over-exertion is avoided. It is reported that, the other day, ex-Mayor Abram S. Hewitt dropped into Tesla’s laboratory in New York, and incidentally mentioned that his liver was a little off and refused to respond to persistent treatment. Tesla placed him on the oscillator, turned on the current, and in a minute or so had banished the ex-Mayor’s ill.