Tesla's Latest Marvels

Based on the Wireless Transmission of Electrical Energy Direct from Natural Sources Throughout the Entire Globe.

By Arthur Wynne.

His space has been reserved for a serious, scientific treatise on recent important de velopments and discoveries in the field of wireless transmission of electrical energy. But let us forget all about that for the time being and take a pleasure trip instead to the land of Make Believe. It will be far more entertaining; and besides, when the journey is ended, we may know more about the subject than if we travelled concatenated tuned circuits, or lost ourselves in a maze of kilowatts. statics and radiations, or ventured beyond our depth in Hertz waves.

It is summertime in the land of Make Believe, and we are off for a fishing trip in a big pleasure boat. There is plenty of room aboard for a party of twelve or more. There is a roomy cabin, noticeably free from the smell of gasoline and machinery oil. In fact, the only machinery aboard is an electric motor coupled to the driving shaft of the propeller. We are making ten knots an hour and we are out for a good time, so why worry ourselves with questions as to where that motor gets its energy? There are no storage batteries on the boat. One insulated feed wire runs from the motor to the ceiling of the cabin and from there up the mast to a bright metal ball at the top. It stops there. When we reach the fishing ground we stop the motor by pressing a button. We anchor, or drift, catch fish, eat and enjoy ourselves until it is time to go home. Then our well-behaved craft carries us back to the pier without mishap.

Next day we go up in a Make Believe airplane. It looks much like an ordinary airplane, but the wing spread is less. The reason for this, we are told, is because the airplane is much lighter than an ordinary plane. due to the fact that our plane has no engine — nothing but a lightweight motor, a twin brother of the motor we saw on the pleasure boat. The motor drives the propeller blades, but we cannot see what is driving the motor. An insulated wire leads from the motor to a ball above the higher plane, and that is all.

Anyway, we have faith in the thing, and we climb aboard. The pilot presses a button, the motor begins to hum and the propeller to spin, and we are off.

"Suppose the motor stops while we are above the clouds," "we suggest. "What's going to hap pen?"

"We'll glide," is the comforting assurance of the pilot.

Sure enough, the motor does stop, and we glide until it starts again.

And that night, seated in the Make Believe club house, we read by electric light which looks familiar and home-like. The club electrician may show us, if we are interested, the electric light meter in the basement, and he will help us to trace the feed wire right from the meter to the roof of the club house where it terminates in a metal ball perched on the top of the small round flagstaff.

Next morning we leave Make Believe land and NEX pay a visit to South America. In British Guiana there is a mighty river called the Petara. At one place, Kaieteur, the river makes a clear drop of 822 feet, and at the foot of the cataract the waters of the Potara branch off in various directions. The Kaieteur cataract is the show place of British Guiana.

Twenty-eight thousand cubic feet of water pass over the edge of the cataract every second. This vast volume of water, properly applied, would be capable of furnishing four times as much power as we derive to-day by the harnessing of Niagara Falls. At Niagara the fall of water is eighteen million cubic feet er minute, but a flow of only fifteen thousand feet per second is diverted above the falls and harnessed for the use of man.

Although everybody is familiar in a general way with the meaning of the term "harnessing Niagara," it will not hurt to refresh our memory. At Niagara the motive power which furnishes electric light, power and heat to many municipalities, including the city of Buffalo, is not derived directly from the Falls themselves, but from the water of the Niagara River drawn off by an enormous tunnel at a distance of about one mile above the Falls. The tunnel is 6807 feet long, 21 feet high, 18 feet 10 inches wide at its widest part and 14 feet wide at the base. In shape it resembles a gigantic horseshoe. This tunnel was cut through solid rock. It took 1,000 rock men three years to make the excavation. The tunnel leads out of a pit 178 feet deep, 40 feet long and 18 feet wide, and has an outlet below the Falls. The enormous hydraulic pressure in a pit 178 feet deep drives the water through the tunnel with a force that may be considered almost irresistible. The tunnel has a slight grade, from 4 to 7 feet per 1,000 feet. The water rushing through the tunnel turns wheels geared to electric generators. It has been estimated that the 18,000,000 cubic feet of water which flow over the Falls every minute are capable of furnishing 7,000,000 horsepower, sufficient to furnish light to 25 cities of the size of New York.

Now we can pay another visit to the great Kaieteur cataract in British Guiana and visualize the harnessing of all its enormous water power by the tunnel and water wheel process employed at Niagara. And, having seen how all that energy, theoretically 2,100,000 horse power, is obtainable, we may be curious to know what connection it has with the mysterious force which propelled our Make Believe pleasure boat and airplane and illuminated the Make Believe clubhouse. Here is where day-dreaming ends and we begin to study this subject from the materialistic point of view.

As far back as 1898 several scientific journals published an announcement credited to Dr. Nikola Tesla, in which the assertion was made that he had found it possible to send out from an aerial terminal an estimated electrical pressure of 2,500,000 volts which would be effective at an unlimited distance. The Electrical Review, in commenting on that matter, said at that time:

"Tesla now proposes to transmit without the use of any wires, through the natural media — the earth and the air — great amounts of power to distances of thousands of miles. This will appear a dream — a tale from the Arabian Nights. But from the extraordinary discoveries Tesla has made during a number of years of incessant labor, it is evident that his work in this field has passed the stage of laboratory experiment and is ready for a practical test on an industrial scale. The success of his efforts means that power from such sources as Niagara will become available in any part of the world, regardless of distance."

That was twenty-one years ago, when wireless telegraphy was still in the land of Make Believe. Tesla made certain experiments and got certain results.

And a few days ago he explained to me his perfected plan for applying harnessed energy to the world-wide operation of the wheels of industry, including our little Make Believe pleasure boat and airplane, and even the illumination of the club house.

Briefly explained, the plan is to generate electrical energy at the source of supply, Niagara, Kaieteur or Rjukan, for instance, and transmit it by wireless to the nearest receiving stations in other countries. Distance will be no impediment to the transmission of this energy, but various conveniently situated receiving stations can be established for storage and supply. This energy is not to be scattered promiscuously to the four winds of heaven for the free use of all who care to "tap" it. It will be controlled, Dr. Tesla said, by a secret key or combination like that of a safe, so that only those for whom the power is intended will get it.

"Some experts, whom I credited with better knowledge," said Dr. Tesla, "for years contended that my proposals to transmit power without wires were sheer nonsense, but I note that they are growing more cautious every day. These men labor under the impression that the energy flows in all directions and that, therefore, only a minute amount can be recovered in any individual receiver. But this is far from being so. The power is conveyed in only one direction, from the transmitter to the receiver, and none of it is lost elsewhere.

"It is quite practicable to recover at any point of the globe energy enough for driving an airplane, or a pleasure boat, or for lighting a dwelling. I am very sanguine in regard to the lighting of isolated places, and believe that a more economical and convenient method can hardly be devised. The future will show whether my foresight is as accurate now as it has proved hitherto."

Dr. Tesla declared that he and all his followers believe that nothing can stop now a tremendous development in the wireless transmission of power, provided the Government does not impose restrictions which will hamper the enterprises and discourage capital.