Tesla's New War Wonder

Has Model of Ship Operated by Magnetic Waves from Shore

Applies Principle of Electrical Transmission Without Wires to New Invention - Magnet Controls the machinery - Can Direct Balloon or Wagon in Same Way

Nikola Tesla, whose original discoveries in electrical science during the last ten years have placed him in the foremost ranks of science, and whose applications of his discoveries have made him recognized as one of the world’s greatest inventors, makes public to-day his latest discovery and invention, which he believes is also his greatest one. In brief, Mr. Tesla believes that this invention will not only answer many useful purposes in ordinary life, but that it would make war so terrible, as well as expensive, as to make it prohibitory, and thus to assure peace between all the nations.

Mr. Tesla’s latest invention consists of a combination of his devices for producing and projecting into the air currents of electricity of enormous voltages which will reach out for many miles, and a means for using electric waves thus projected for controlling the driving, steering and other machinery of a moving body. By fitting out a vessel, a balloon, or a wagon with his special mechanical devices. Mr. Tesla can control their movements on land or sea or in the air by the projection without wires of currents of electricity to great distances. If desirable that such a vessel should carry great quantities of explosives, bombs or other destructive devices, the operator at the distant point can direct discharge and explode them at will.

The idea of the invention came to Mr. Tesla years ago, and he has never lost sight of it since, but it was not until the war with Spain came and stirred him with patriotism - for Mr. Tesla is American to the backbone - that the scheme took definite form and shape. Then the idea completely possessed him and gave him no rest until the problem was worked out in its entirety.

“Years ago,” said Mr. Tesla, in explaining what led to this latest invention, “I used to argue that the human organism was but a thermo-electric machine, whose operations were controlled by the impressions which came to it through the medium of the eye, the ear, the nose, the palate or the touch. Light falls upon the retina, I would argue, and conveys an impression to certain nerves, and these transmit a signal to some part of the mechanism further back, which sets in motion certain muscles or perhaps sends signals further along. Could I but make a machine which could receive impressions as does my eye, my ear or my other organs of sense, then I could make it do anything, which I wished almost as if it were a sensate being which could reason as well as act.”

That is what Mr. Tesla has succeeded in doing. In his laboratory in West Houston street stands the working model of a vessel whose every movement Mr. Tesla can control by the simple turning of a crank in another part of the room, with no other connection between him and the vessel than that formed by the atmospheric air or the wooden floor. At one turn of the crank the vessel’s screw begins to revolve, her rudder swings until it is in whatever position Mr. Tesla desires, and then with another touch the rudder remains fixed while the screw drives away. Another touch and the rudder moves either way, little or much as desired, and at the will of the operator signal lights flash out from staffs on the vessel to tell just what position the rudder is in. A green light tells that it is to port, a red light that it is a-starboard; and the flash of red and green together gives true word that it is amidship. The lamps remain dark unless their signal warning is ordered by the operator’s touch, or they flash for a second or remain glowing, just as is desired. At another touch a white light forward glows or flashes, as may be desired, without interfering in any way with the other operations, and this is used by Mr. Tesla to signify that a giant charge of guncotton has been projected or exploded, or that any other operation that might be needed has been performed . When, with Mr. Tesla’s guiding hand to help, one looks into the interior of the three-foot model vessel, and sees how these operations and the stopping of the machinery or regulation of its speed to either of three degrees of speed are produced, it is at once apparent that there is no operation which goes on aboard the greatest warship or merchant vessel, in a fort or workshop, where automatic machines could replace the hand of man that could not be controlled by the master hand at the tiny crank with as much certainty and precision as if that hand were on board the vessel and in direct touch with a master machine there. There might be a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand operations to be done, and all would be under the entire control of the operator miles away as certainly as the quartermaster steers our great ships, by the touching of a mechanism so frail that it breaks like a toy, or as surely as the men aboard a modern warship turn and handle her enormous turrets by the pressing of a key or turning of a stopcock.

Air, earth or water is all that is needed to make the connection between the operator and the moving mechanism, be it vessel, wagon or whatever, and even some of these might be done away with under certain circumstances. In the model which Mr. Tesla has the power which controls the moving mechanism is electricity, and Mr. Tesla declares that he can exercise the control from as far away as a telescope could enable the operator to keep watch of the vessel. But it is not necessary to use electricity even to exercise such control. With devices which any expert mechanic could make the same control could be exercised by the notes of a whistle, or by other means which would produce measurable vibrations. Electricity is, however, the necessary agent by which the primary control of the machinery within the controlled object is made obedient, although beyond the primary device steam, compressed air or any other source of power can be used. In the model vessel Mr. Tesla uses a combination of storage batteries and clockwork to produce the movements. The use of these, however, is but a minor detail of mechanics. Balloons can be controlled and directed as readily as any other vessel and sent hither and yon at will, or caused to drop explosives whenever the operator might desire, and yet be free from earth.

The possibilities of the new invention are thus modestly described by Mr. Tesla in the application for a patent which he filed at the Patent Office at Washington on July 1:

“The invention which I have described will prove useful in many ways. Vessels or vehicles of any suitable kind may be used, as life, despatch, or pilot boats, or the like, or for carrying letters, packages, provisions, instruments, objects or materials of any description, for establishing communication with inaccessible regions and exploring the conditions existing in the same, for killing or capturing whales or other animals of the sea, and for many other scientific, engineering, or commercial purposes. But the greatest value of my invention will result from its effects upon warfare and armaments, for, by reason of its certain and unlimited destructiveness, it will tend to bring about and maintain permanent peace among nations.”

It was when Cervera’s fleet took refuge in Santiago harbor that the invention assumed form in Mr. Tesla’s mind. Almost by inspiration, he says, the thing shaped itself into a complete whole, embodying in the complete device the use of a number of his previous discoveries and inventions and the accepted science of the world.

“I was prepared,” said Mr. Tesla yesterday, “to go to Santiago then and make such a demonstration as would have astounded the world and have made it impossible for an intelligent man like Cervera to have stood out for a day after he saw what could be done. It was not my idea to kill any one, but to send word to Cervera that at a certain time, despite all he might do to prevent it, we should produce such a destructive effect right under the guns of the fleet and fortifications and within the harbor would as would if otherwise directed have destroyed his entire fleet or the town. I proposed to send a submerged vessel into the harbor carrying perhaps 10,000 pounds of wet guncotton and explode it. No intelligent commander, knowing that his enemy had at command such forces, would be justified in holding out for a day afterward. I was delayed for a few days in getting ready to explain and demonstrate what I could do to President McKinley, and then Cervera’s fleet made the attempt to escape and was destroyed by Admiral Sampson’s fleet . With victory already on our side, I decided to do nothing more at that time, but I went on and completed my arrangements for the making of such a demonstration at Havana in case we had to take that city. Fortunately for the country we were saved from having to take Havana, and so the necessity for the demonstration ceased.”

Mr. Tesla declares that almost every part of the working devices for putting afloat a fleet of automatic vessels of war can be bought in the markets, and that in the case of a war, for instance between France and England or any of the other great powers, it would take but a few days or weeks for any of these nations to have ready quantities of engines of war that would make the guns and armor of the war fleets useless for offence and defence. One fast, unarmored vessel, without a gun aboard her, but supplied with a fleet of little vessels whose movements could be controlled by an operator aboard of the big vessel, could destroy the fleet of any enemy without ever coming anywhere within the range of any of the destructive engines of present warfare, or could send vast quantities of explosives into a hostile harbor where their explosion would be almost as destructive as an earthquake. Such are the visions which Mr. Tesla sees of the possibilities of his invention, and these he believes would insure a universal peace.

If war came it would be a war with machines on none of which was there a man. His moving automatons could be made, it needed, to discharge at the will of the operator, bombs, cannon, torpedoes, or any other offensive weapons. With a fleet of such little vessels directed from one vessel, each would answer to the signals meant for it alone, and it would be impossible for the enemy to control any of them, because each would be attuned to answer only to certain definite electrical vibrations, which could be known only to the proper operator. An attempt to interfere with their operation by others would be like the attempt of a burglar to find the combination of a safe lock.

In his application for a patent Mr. Tesla describes the various ways which have been heretofore used to control such moving objects as automobile, torpedoes, and says:

“In a broad sense, then, my invention differs from all of those systems which provide for the control of the mechanism carried by a moving object and governing its motion in that I require no intermediate wires, cables or other form of electrical or mechanical connection with the object save the natural media in space. I accomplish, nevertheless, similar results and in a much more practicable manner by producing waves, impulses or radiations which are received through the earth, water or atmosphere by suitable apparatus on the moving body and cause the desired actions, so long as the body remains within the active region or effective range of such currents, waves, impulses or, radiations. These actions necessitated the designing of devices and apparatus of a novel kind in order to utilize to the best advantage various facts or results which, either through my own investigations or those of others, have been rendered practically available.”

He then describes a number of ways, well known to electricians, by which an electric effect could be transmitted to a distance without direct connection and says: “But by adopting such means as I have devised, that is, either by passing through the conducting path currents of a specially designed high frequency alternator, or, better still, those of a strongly charged condenser, a very high rate of change may be obtained, and the effective range of the influence thus extended over a vast area, and by carefully adjusting the circuit on the moving body so as to be in exact electro-magnetic synchronism with the primary disturbances, this influence may be utilized at vast distances.”

The device which he has adopted for his model demonstration consists of currents of enormous voltage, which can be projected in waves at the will of the operator by the turning of a little crank. Two waves go forth at each half turn. The effect of these is like that of the vibrations produced by the voice in a telephone. On the little vessel to be controlled is a broken electrical circuit, loose particles of a metallic oxide being at the point of separation. A current is always endeavoring to pass through these, but fails. The magnetic waves produced by the operator bring together by magnetic action those particles, which thus have power to conduct an electric current. When the operator sends out his signal, this current is enabled to pass through the oxide, and does so, bringing down an armature upon a magnet. With the first move of the armature a clockwork starts and prepares to set the machinery of the vessel into action by closing other electric circuits as soon as it may be released. A second magnetic wave moves the armature again and the vessel’s machinery begins to move. Then by special devices combinations of impulses coming from the operator are made to operate each and every part of the machinery in the vessel at the will of the operator.

Among the new things designed by Mr. Tesla in carrying out his purposes is an agitator for shaking up the metallic oxide at the end of each impulse, to break its conductivity, and a new way of making the powder to insure its uniformity of composition and size of its grains. A vessel built after the manner described could be made to dive or rise at will and could be directed by a chart and kept out of sight if desired. If it were desired to watch her progress, and still have her under water, her position could be determined by a slender rod poking up above water in the daytime or at night by flashes of light made up into the air at the will of the operator.