Tesla Talks and Confirms His Astounding Story

Tall, spare man entered from the side door. He had a keen face - the dome of the head seeming to overbalance the sensitive chin.

This was the man who jounced the reading world out of its usual apathy several days ago by declaring that war would be abolished - the means being an invention of his, by which a torpedo or boat could be controlled from shore, although entirely cut off from ordinary means of communication - the governing impulses to be sent through the air.

“You must excuse me,” he said, with a pleasant foreign accent, “but I cannot be interviewed. There is so much put down that I do not say, and the subject is of too great importance to be treated lightly.”

“But, Mr. Tesla, am I to understand that your invention remains to be perfected, or is now ready for operation?”

“It is now!” he answered, eagerly. “Within three days can be made ready a launch, torpedo boat, or what you will. There are four - five - men in the world who could apply these principles - not more - but they, by taking a piece here and something there, now that I have disclosed my idea, could utilize the invention at once. I do not care to make it quite so strong for publication, as every new idea arouses antagonism, and many people may call me fanatic, for that statement, but it is true.”

“Could not a man-of-war have your sending apparatus on board, and thereby defeat the object of the people on shore, who send out the torpedo-boat?”

“No, they cannot thwart me. If they send signals they do it blind - as if shooting in the dark. Were there no protection but that, I should be safe, but I have a protection beyond that. It is an arrangement whereby the apparatus will recognize no signal but my own. If they attempt to thwart me they only hasten their own destruction, and, more than this, should they by any chance destroy the, boat - what harm? Send out another four - ten - why not?”

“Would it not be difficult to hit a man-of-war at a distance of, say, twenty miles? It would be a good target close at hand, but a slight divergence caused by an ocean current, a draft of wind or any one of a number of things might cause your torpedo-boat to miss her mark.”

“Great accuracy is not of necessity. A boat loaded with five hundred pounds of gun-cotton would shake a vessel sorely by exploding within five hundred yards of her - think, then, of exploding five hundred tons! The size of my vessel is not limited. Why, it would raise a wave four hundred feet high - sufficient to sink any ship afloat, more surely a man-of-war; they are all top-heavy.”

“Then you think that this invention is a practical thing at the present time?”

“Yes, sir. It is so. I think, also, that it is the greatest discovery of the age. There is a something artistic - an appeal to the imagination in it that the telephone, phonograph and other fine inventions lack. Think of the abolishment of war! And the means of doing it - by a vessel which I can control merely by a touch on an instrument not connected with it in any way. No wire - nothing! More than that, I do not have to touch the instrument.”

“Now there’s something, Mr. Tesla, that brings us to the psychological part of it. The papers quoted you as saying that you -

“Could control the apparatus by an effort of will,” broke in the inventor. “There it was they perverted my meaning. Now listen - I can stand two metres away from that instrument, and by a mere stiffening of my muscles cause it to send a signal. It is so delicate in its adjustment that the disturbance of the electrical equilibrium caused by my muscular action affects it. Inasmuch as Sir William Crookes, that distinguished scientist and my good friend, has not hesitated to state openly his belief in telepathy, it is a reasonable flight of fancy for me to say that my machine - so sensitive - may be affected by the human will. But that is all it is - merely a pleasant speculation, founded on logical grounds. I have no evidence to support it, but I have a perfect right to state it - understand me - as a possibility - no more.”

“But is not an apparatus of such extreme delicacy little suited to the rough-and-ready usages of warfare?”

“No - that is provided for. True, it would take experts to handle it, but they could do it. It is a great invention. Had I nothing else to show for a life-work, this would put the laurels of everlasting fame on my head. The people at the Patent Office were astonished that so simple and reasonable an idea had not occurred to someone before. I am sick with working on it; but it is complete. It is strange, but when I have an inspiration, always it seems to me as if my mother were near me - at my bedside - during my work - all the time. She was an inventor. She invented a weaving machine, attending to all details herself. Yes, and many things of more importance. My father was a mathematician and linguist. He was a man of note in both studies, but from my mother comes the inventive faculty, and now, though she is dead, when the pressure of thought of some new idea is on me, I feel her presence. But, concerning the invention. It is my idea to have a submerged vessel, having two rods sticking above water, or two puffs of smoke coming out, whereby to steer it; then it would be safe from the projectiles of the enemy.

“My device can also be used to propel lifeboats - Oh! of course, for any kind of boat. It is a thing of the present time and a thing that will work a revolution of the politics of the whole world. At first the smaller nations may have a desire to bully in their new-found strength, but that will adjust itself - and now, as I am very busy -”

“Just one moment - What is your nationality, Mr. Tesla?”

“I am a Servian - not from the Kingdom of Servia, but from the outskirts - near Montenegro. And now I must say good-morning.”