Tesla's Tower

Amazing Scheme of the Great Inventor to Draw Millions of Volts of Electricity Through the Air From Niagara Falls and Then Feed It Out to Cities, Factories and Private Houses from the Tops of the Towers WITHOUT WIRES.

An enormous mushroom-shaped tower, a photograph of which is reproduced on this page, has just been completed at Wardenclyffe, Long Island, N. Y., by Nikola Tesla, the distinguished electric inventor. From this tower Mr. Tesla is now preparing to put into operation the most daring and amazing scheme ever conceived In the development of wireless telegraphy.

For over four years Mr. Tesla has been hard at work almost day and night expertmenting and endeavoring to make his marvellous theory practicable. From time to time during that period he has intimated vaguely at the immensity of his plan, and the equally tremendous results that would follow its introduction, and now, at last, he has announced his preparedness to put his theories to their first practical test.

Briefly explained, Mr. Tesla's assurances of what we may surely expect within the next year or so are as follows:

A perfect system of world-wide wireless telegraphy through which widely separated friends will be able to converse instantaneously and without the slightest danger that their wireless conversations will be overheard by a third person.

Little instruments about the size and shape of a watch, to be carried in the vest pocket and which will record market quotations, races and Important news features In very much the same manner as the familiar "stock ticker" does at present. These vest pocket newsgatherers will enable the wearer to tell at a glance the condition of the stock market, etc.; even though he be thirty miles out at sea or as far distant inland from the nearest news paper, "ticker," telephone or telegraph office.

Another little watch-like instrument, with a dial face by means of which the wearer can transmit and receive wireless messages to and from friends many miles away, watches of both sender and receiver being keyed to a certain pitch to prevent their communications from going astray or falling into the watches of disinterested third persons.

Wireless Trains and Trolleys.

A ceaseless day and night service of millions upon millions of volts of electricity from the Canadian Niagara Power Company's electric power plants at Niagara Falls to the Wardenclyffe tower, the electric power being forwarded from there by Tesla's wireless system to New York City for the purpose of Illuminating the entire metropolis, running elevated and subway trains and street cars, operating elevators, automobiles, trucks and ferryboats, furnishing heat and even winding up clocks and making them keep perfect time by a system of half-hourly regulation.

The erection of Tesla towers similar to the one now at Wardenclyffe, at convenient places everywhere for the purpose of distributing wireless telegraphy to be used for Illumination, power and heat. Only such towers as are erected within a given distance from Niagara Falls will be supplied from the power plants there with electricity. Each other tower will derive its own power from a generating plant erected alongside or between the main uprights, and each will distribute about ten thousand horse power of wireless electricity under a tension of one hundred million volts. Mr. Tesla declares that he is able to produce and handle that much with perfect safety from one tower. Each tower will be capable of transmitting heat, power and light to cities, factories and private houses within a radius of thirty miles or more. Eventually Mr. Tesla proposes the extension of this tower system until practically the whole North American continent is dotted over with them, spaced about sixty miles apart, so that practically every inch of ground is covered by the new wireless service.

The woodsman, yachtsman or Summer resort visitor, wherever he or she may be can be communicated with instantly through the medium of one of the little watch tickers. The point of a parasol held aloft a mast or short pole as the case may be, will ensure the complete "picking up" of the wireless message after the watch bas ticked off the first signal in the pocket.

In short, as, Mr. Tesla has frankly admitted possibilities of his amazing engine are simply boundless. He has not been able to realize to what extent it may be developed in the future.

The Wardenclyffe tower is 185 feet high from the ground to the top of the cupola. The smallest dimension across the base of uprights is 97 feet. The height to ledge of cupola Is 153 feet, while the cupola itself Is 65 feet in diameter. The tower has eight sides, with a staircase and lift for reaching the cupola platform. It Is there that the wireless vibrations are received and shot out again in the voltage desired to given points scattered over a very wide radius.

Newspaper Printed in Vest Pocket.

"Much has already been done toward making my system commercially available in the transmission of energy In small amounts for specific purposes as well as on an industrial scale," said Mr. Tesla. "The results attained by me, have made my scheme of intelligence transmission easily realizable. It constitutes I believe, in its principle of operation, means employed and capacities of application, a radical and fruitful departure from what has been done heretofore. I have no doubt that it will prove very efficient in enlightening the masses, particularly in still uncivilized countries and less accessible regions, and that it will add materially to general safety, comfort and convenience, and maintenance of peaceful relations. It Involves the employment of a number of plants, all of which are capable of transmitting individualized signals to the uttermost confines of the earth. Each of them will be preferably located near some Important centre of civilization, and the news it receives through any channel will be flashed to all points of the globe. A cheap and simple device, which might be carried in one's pocket, will accurately record the world's news or such special messages as may be intended for it. Thus the entire earth will be converted into a huge brain as it were, capable of response in every one of its parts. Since a single plant of but one hundred horse-power can operate hundreds of millions of instruments the system will have a virtually infinite working capacity, and it must needs immensely facilitate and cheapen transmission of intelligence.

"The first of these central plants is al ready completed. The best design of which I knew has been adopted, and the transmitter will emit a wave complex of a total maximum activity of 10,000,000 horse power, one per cent of which is amply sufficient to "girdle the globe." This enormous rate of energy delivery, approximately twice that of the combined falls of Niagara, is obtainable only by the use of certain artifices.

"For a large part of the work which I have done so far I am indebted to the noble generosity of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, which was all the more welcome and stimulating as it was extended at a time when those who have since promised most were the greatest of doubters.

Wireless Clocks and Light.

"Meanwhile, the transmission of energy on an industrial scale is not being neglected. The Canadian Niagara Power Company has offered me a splendid inducement. In this first power plant, which I have erected at Wardenclyffe, I propose to distribute 10,000 horse-power under a tension of 100,000,000 volts, which I am now able to produce and handle with safety.

"One of the chief uses will be the illumination of residences. It takes very little power to light a dwelling with vacuum tubes operated by high-frequency currents and in each instance a terminal a little above the roof will be sufficient. Another valuable application will be the driving of clocks and other such apparatus. These clocks will be exceedingly simple, will require absolutely no attention and will indicate rigorously correct time. There are innumerable devices of all kinds which are either now employed or can be supplied, and by operating them in this manner I may be able to offer a great convenience to the whole world with a plant of no more than 10,000 horse power. The introduction of this system will give opportunities for invention and manufacture such as have never presented themselves before.

"Knowing the far-reaching Importance of this first attempt and its effect upon future development, I shall proceed slowly and carefully. Experience has taught me not to assign a term to enterprises the confirmation of which is not wholly dependent on my own abilities and exertions. But I am hopeful that these great realizations are not far off, and I know that when this first work is completed they will follow with mathematical certitude.

"Toward the close of 1898 a systematic research, carried on for a number of years with the object of perfecting a method of transmission of electrical energy through the natural medium, led me to recognize three important necessities: First, to develop a transmitter of great power; second, to perfect means for individualizing and isoIating the energy transmitted; and, third, to ascertain the laws of propagation of currents through the earth and the atmosphere. Various reasons determined me to select for my experimental investigations the large plateau at Colorado Springs, two thousand metres above sea level, which I reached late in May, 1899.

Tesla's First Important Discovery.

"I found the earth was literally alive with electrical vibrations, and soon I was deeply absorbed in this interesting investigation. No better opportunities for such observations as I Intended to make could be found anywhere. Colorado is a country famous for the natural displays of electric force. In that dry and rarefied atmosphere the sun's rays beat the objects with fierce intensity. I raised steam, to a dangerous pressure, in barrels filled with concentrated salt solution, and the tinfoil coatings of some of my elevated terminals shriveled up in the fiery blaze. An experimental high-tension transformer, carelessly exposed to the rays of the setting sun, had most of its insulating compound melted out and was rendered useless. Aided by the dryness and rarefaction of the air, the water evaporates, as in a boiler, and static electricity is developed in abundance. Lightning discharges are, accordingly, very frequent and sometimes of inconceivable violence. On one occasion approximately twelve thousand discharges occurred in two hours, and all in a radius of certainly less than fifty kilometres from the laboratory. Many of them resembled gigantic trees of fire with the trunks up or down.

"In the latter part of the same month I noticed several times that my instruments were affected stronger by discharges taking place at great distances than by those near by. This puzzled me very much. What was the cause? A number of observations proved that it could not be due to the differences in the intensity of the Individual discharges, and I really ascertained that the phenomenon was not the result of a varying relation between the periods of my receiving circuits and those of the terrestrial disturbances. One night, as I was walking home with an assistant, meditating over these experiences, I was suddenly staggered by a thought.

"Once before it had presented itself to me, but I had dismissed it as absurd and impossible. Now I banished it again. Nevertheless, my instinct was aroused and somehow I felt that I was nearing a great revelation.

Experimenting with Stationary Waves.

"It was on the third of July — the date I shall never forget — when I obtained the first decisive experimental evidence of a truth of overwhelming Importance for the advancement of humanity. A dense mass of strongly charged clouds gathered in the west, and toward the evening a violent storm broke loose which after spending much of its fury in the mountains, was driven away with great velocity over the plains. Heavy and long persisting arcs formed almost In regular time Intervals. My observations were now greatly facilitated and rendered more accurate by the experiences already gained. I was able to handle my instruments quickly and I was prepared. The recording apparatus being properly adjusted, its indications, became fainter and fainter with the increasing distance of the storm, until they ceased altogether. I was watching in eager expectation. Surely enough, in a little while the indications again began, grew stronger and stronger and, after passing through a maximum, gradually decreased and ceased once more. Many times, in regularly recurring intervals, the same actions were repeated until the storm which, as evident from simple computations. was moving with nearly constant speed, had retreated to a distance of about three hundred kilometres. Nor did these strange actions stop then, but continued to manifest themselves with undiminished force. Subsequently, similar observations were also made by my assistant. Mr. Fritz Lowenstein, and shortly afterward several admirable opportunities presented themselves which brought out still more forcibly and unmistakably the true nature of the wonderful phenomenon. No doubt whatever remained: I was observing stationary waves.

Confidential Chats Across Oceans

"With these stupendous possibilities in sight, with the experimental evidence before me that their realization was henceforth merely a question of expert knowledge, patience and skill, I attacked vigorously the development of my magnifying transmitter, now how ever, not so much with the original intention of producing one of great power as with the object of learning how to construct the best one. This is, essentially, a circuit of very high self-induction and small resistance which in its arrangement, mode of excitation and action, may be said to be the diametrically opposite of a transmitting circuit typical of telegraphy by Hertzian or electromagnetic radiations. It is difficult to form an adequate idea of the marvellous power of this unique appliance, by the aid of which the globe will be transformed. The electromagnetic radiations being reduced to an insignificant quantity, and proper conditions of resonance maintained, the circuit acts like an immense pendulum, storing indefinitely the energy of the primary exciting impulses and impressing upon the earth and its conducting atmosphere uniform harmonic oscillations of intensities which, as actual tests have shown, may be pushed so far as to surpass those attained in the natural displays of static electricity.

"When the great truth accidentally revealed and experimentally confirmed is fully recognized it will be seen that this planet, with all its appalling immensity, is to electric currents virtually no more than a small metal ball, and that by virtue of this fact many possibilities, each baffling imagination and of incalculable consequence, are rendered absolutely sure of accomplishment. When the first plant is inaugurated it will be shown that graphic message, almost as secret and interferable as a thought, can be transmitted to any terrestrial distance, sound of the human voice, with all its intonations and inflections faithfully and instantly reproduced at any other point of the globe and the energy of a waterfall made available for supplying light, heat or motive power anywhere — on sea, or land, or high in the air"