Tesla to Use Niagara to Disseminate Power?

Said to Have Plan to Adapt Strength of Great Falls to Commercial Purposes.

BY WAY OF WARDENCLYFFE, L. I.

Big Plant There Is Being Developed More and More Every Day — Nothing Like it Elsewhere in the Wide, Wide World.

To draw mechanical power from Niagara and distribute it from a great power station is said to be a scheme for which Nikola Tesla is working. His plant at Wardenclyffe is being developed day by day, and while Tesla and his forty assistants take especial pains to keep their plans from the public there is good reason to believe that the well known electrician is endeavoring to work out an idea different from anything yet attempted. There is also excellent authority for the statement that it is the power of the great waterfall at Niagara which Tesla proposes to distribute in a commercial way.

Neither Mr. Tesla nor any of his high salaried assistants will say anything of that sort at any one time. Put together the statements made to a Brooklyn Times man by Mr. Tesla himself at different times and combine them with the story let slip by a workman at the plant at Wardenclyffe one day this week, and you have a pretty direct insight into the scheme.

Mr. Tesla has said that his gigantic plant at Wardenclyffe, on the north side of Long Island, in Suffolk County, is different from anything else in the world. He has planned it to keep abreast of the times for fifty years. It is now far in advance of present systems. He proposes to transmit not only messages without wires, but power as well. He has said that he will run machinery in distant cities from his plant at Wardenclyffe. The machinery installed at Wardenclyffe at present is not capable of generating more than a few hundreds of horse power according to ordinary practise. He has said to the Brooklyn Times representative for publication that he intends to develop the power of the waterfalls of the Scandinavian peninsula for the purpose of driving machinery throughout Great Britain This, he claims to be able to do without the use of any metallic connection, using the earth alone as a conductor.

In view of these claims it is not unreasonable to assert that he will try to utilize Niagara's wonderful amount of energy by means of his station on Long Island. The geographical location does not seem to worry him a bit. He says it is easy to communicate between any two points which have ground connection, but only by means of apparatus which he has patented throughout the civilized world. He says he can drive the presses in many cities and convey the news from point to point by the use of the ground connection. There are no ether waves through the air in his plan of operation. Mother Earth is a good enough conductor for him. He proposes to have his plant at work on a commercial basis before long, and until the proper times comes he does not want to talk.

The plant at Wardenclyffe is unlike anything else in the world. It is entirely from Mr. Tesla's own designs. It is said to have cost half a million dollars. There are several departments, which are explained in a general way as the generating plant, the machine plant, the tower and the well. A remarkable feature is an immense tower of timber, surmounted by a dome-shaped structure. This tower is directly over a very deep well, sunk into the ground and fitted with a subterranean chamber, the use of which is not explained to the curious public. In fact, the prying reporter, who approaches the spot is respectfully but firmly informed by zealous employees: "Sorry, air, but it's contrary to orders to allow any one to go down the stairway. This way out, please."

To the visitor, who has a chance to stand at the foot of the tower, it seems that Tesla must be a disciple of the black art. From the base of the tower it seems to ascend to heaven, while the great cavern in the earth apparently descends to the other place which is prominently mentioned in the Scriptures.

As Tesla says, when the proper time comes these things will all be explained to the interested public. Until then, it is a good guess that the European electrician is planning to harness the greatest waterfall in the world, and transmit its power to customers in many cities, by means of his power station out on Long Island.