Tesla's Wireless Transmission of Power

For a number of years past Nikola Tesla has been devoting all his time to the development of wireless transmission of power. He now claims that he has advanced his wireless transmission of electrical energy to the point of practical application. With wireless messages girdling the globe it is a bold pessimist who will insist that the next step, the wireless transmission of power, is an impossible commercial proposition, and yet it seems incredible that the known laws governing the transmission of power for long distances are all to be set at naught by Tesla. But Tesla says he has made discoveries that revolutionize all previous theories on the transmission of electric energy, and not only can an electrical current be passed through the earth with undiminished intensity, but under certain conditions its force will be even augmented with distance. At his great experimental plant on Long Island he has secured actual and satisfactory results in wireless power transmission that go far toward making for Its early and successful introduction into commercial and industrial uses. When all the details of his transmitting system are complete, and the world at large shall adopt wireless power in its general utilities, the wonders of science and invention, of dynamics and mechanics, the arts and the social scheme, that we employ and enjoy today will appear as the antiquities of a primitive age. Tesla says:

"It is difficult for the average citizen to comprehend or to form an adequate idea of the tremendous significance of this marvelous revelation of Nature, or the stupendous possibilities that the development and perfection of this discovery assure as a heritage to humanity. The full development of a possible twenty-five hundred millions of horsepower from the waterfalls and streams of the United States has been materially handicapped and restricted by the limited area over which hydroelectric energy may be practically transmitted by wire. The falls of Niagara alone could be made to supply a fifth of all the power used at present by industry and the railroads. At some remote day their power may be entirely utilized by diverting the full volume through tunnels to turbines at night, charging immense storage batteries with its energy for use during the next twelve hours, and again turning the water over the falls during the day to satisfy the sentiment of the people.

"Aside from Niagara, however, most of the great power sites of the country are so distant from the centers of population that it has been impracticable to transmit their energy to localities containing the heart of our Industries, and in many instances, particularly among the Western mountains, they are so inaccessible as to make it difficult or inconvenient to establish industries about these sites or within reach of electric power transmission. But with wireless transmission of power the energy of the waterfall of the Columbia river — which by the way, amounts to seven or eight million horsepower — can be employed to run the motors of industry, to light and heat homes and cook food on the Atlantic seaboard as readily as on the Pacific; in Portland, Maine, as well as In Portland, Oregon; or the five million horsepower from the Sacramento river, in Manila as easily as in San Francisco. There is millions more than enough horsepower going to waste in the streams of the North Pacific group to turn every wheel of industry and move the traffic of every railroad in the country; and with the advent of wireless power it will be developed, along with other millions of hydroelectric power otherwise, as consumption creates a demand for it.

The greatest power site in the world, Zambezi Falls, was recently discovered in the until then unexplored heart of Africa. Over its brink has gone to waste thirty-five million horsepower every minute of each day for centuries, enough energy to provide a large part of the world with power, thore than enough to supply the commerce and Industry of the United States. Because of its isolated location it is useless to mankind. and will be until wireless power makes it possible te not the wheels of a thousand industries splaning anywhere on earth with its magnificent energy."