Tesla Prepares to Send Messages to Mars

The Electrician Says That He Will Soon Be Able to Establish Communication with That Planet.

Believes Martians Have Signalled Earth and That Unintelligible Messages Have Been Received.

Expects to Have Definite Results at an Early Date — Marconi Thinks the Scheme Is a Feasible One.

But one idea dominates my mind. That — my best and dearest — is for for your noble cause. Brethren, we have a message from another world, unknown and remote. It reads: ONE-TWO-THREE. — Nikola Tesla in the Journal, January 1, 1901.

Any proclamation coming from Tesla will be received with considerable incredulity. His assertion is remote to the point of impossibility. — Professor S. I. Brown, United States Naval Observatory, January 3, in the Journal.

You can rest assured that it is imaginative and visionary. — Professor A. S. Skinner, United States Naval Observatory, January 3, in the Journal. I have read of the alleged discovery made by Tesla but would rather not speak of it. Professor T. J. J. See, United States Naval Observatory, January 3, in the Journal.

Nikola Tesla, the great electrical experimenter, is busy at work on a transmitter and a receiver that he believes will establish as an accomplished fact communication between this planet and Mars. When a reporter for the Journal saw him yesterday, in his laboratory, at No. 46 Houston street, he was drawing on paper zig-zag lines that looked like the teeth of an old-style up-and-down mill saw.

"I am preparing," he said, "for the greatest experiment that has ever been made on this planet. Sooner or later I shall establish communication with Mars. I am certain that the inhabitants of that planet have many times endeavored to signal this earth, but we have never had instruments of sufficient delicacy to receive their messages, nor instruments powerful enough to answer them. At last we have the former, and I will soon have the latter. "It will remain then only to decipher their messages and answer them.

"Martians More Advanced."

"It is more than possible that the Martians will read our messages to them before we can read theirs, because I believe they are a more advanced people than we are.

"Already I have a transmitter that is, I am certain, of sufficient power to send a message to Mars with strength enough to operate a delicate telegraph instrument. A beginning has been made and the great result will soon be achieved."

Signor Guiseppe Marconi, the inventor of wireless telegraphy, said to the London correspondent of the Journal yesterday:

"It is not impossible to realize telegraphic communication between the earth and Mars, provided Mars is inhabited. Electrical science is able to overcome the millions of miles that interpose between us. Mr. Tesla is, I believe, sure to succeed in his efforts to establish this communication.

"With regard to wireless communication between London and New York, and messages flashed across the ocean for a half-penny a word, I see no immediate prospect of such a consummation. At no very distant date, however, wireless communication between Europe and America will be a fact."

Only an Educated Guess.

Mr. Tesla shrugged his shoulders when a reporter for the Journal told him what Marconi had said.

"He knows nothing about what I have been doing, and if he has arrived at any conclusion it is but the conclusion of an educated guess. His wireless telegraphy has to do with this earth; mine deals with the stars. Let us both stick to our subjects.

"I see that Mr. Edison says he confines his thoughts below the apex of the Himalaya Mountains. Well, mine climb higher, and will reach their goal.

"Talking with Mars is not a new proposition, other men than myself have received on delicate instruments messages they could not understand. My task is to receive them, to understand them and to reply to them.

"I will have some definite results soon, and when I get them I will explain all about them to the Journal."

The last remark appears to indicate that Mr. Tesla expects to receive the messages here in New York. When pressed to say whether he expected to establish Martian communication in this city he declined to answer.