Tesla the Wonder

An unlimited source of practically costless power. That is what Nikola Tesla’s latest invention in the field of electricity promises. This latest advance is described as an apparatus for the production of great electric power, and for the collection and utilization of that power at a point distant from the seat of its production after the power, or the electric current in which it is comprised, has traversed without wires the intervening atmosphere at an altitude such that the rarefaction has made the air of that stratum a conductor of the electric fluid. The invention, Nikola Tesla points out, was based upon the observations made by him of the conducting power of rarefied air in a closed vessel. In brief, Nikola Tesla’s invention may be described as turning the upper and rarefied strata of the atmosphere into an immense electric power storage reservoir, which may be tapped by any trolley wire long enough to reach up to its level. His apparatus consists of a part for generating a high pressure of electrical energy, together with an earth connection, another “terminal at an altitude where the rarefied atmosphere is capable of conducting the particular current produced,” and another part to provide another terminal, at or about the same elevation, to “receive the current and convey it to earth through suitable means for transforming and utilizing it.” Nikola Tesla says: “It will be understood that either or both of the coils or transformers and terminals may be movable, as, for instance, when carried by vessels floating in the air or by ships at sea.” The practical application of this young electrician’s marvelous discovery will revolutionize the power world of to-day. In the instance of steamships alone; to be able to drive power for lighting, heating and propelling the transatlantic liners by means of a trolley wire or conductor from the upper strata of the air, will make a vast difference in the history of ocean travel. Here is also unlimited power for airships, overcoming the great difficulty in the problem of aerial navigation — the means of obtaining unlimited power without making the airship heavy to the point of impracticability. The simple — comparatively simple — mechanical problem of raising the terminals to the required altitude will not be much of an obstacle in the path of a man who can do what Nikola Tesla has already achieved.