Nikola Tesla Articles
To Turn Earth into One Gigantic Dynamo
The Wireless Wonders That Tesla’s “World System” May Perform.
- Television, making it possible to see any object at any distance.
- Universal twenty-four-hour daylight by wireless illumination.
- Instantaneous transmission of typed or hand-written characters all over the world.
- Operation of flying machines by wireless power.
- Navigation of ships through fogs and channels by wireless “tuned” compasses.
- Communication with Mars.
- Operation of all manufacturing and transportation machinery.
- Every clock and watch in the world set and regulated by wireless at certain time each day.
- Universal telephony, making it possible to speak to any distance.
- A Perfect government secret signal service by exclusive wireless waves.
- Simultaneous operation of all stock-tickers throughout the world.
- Universal system of musical transmission on atmospheric currents.
- Irrigation and fertilization of arid lands by wireless power.
- The magnetizing of enemy’s battleships to attract torpedoes.
- Reproduction of drawings and photographs at any distance.
- Absolutely exclusive telegraphy and telephony.
How Man May Derive His Power in the Ages Still to Come.
A couple of years ago James J. Hill, the railroad magnate, declared that before the end of the present century the available fuel supply of the country will be practically exhausted. This state of affairs will be brought about as a result of the destruction of our forests and the overproduction of coal.
How far this contingency might interfere with Nicola Tesla’s remarkable plan to convert the earth into a huge dynamo to do the work of the universe depends entirely upon the available substitutes for coal and wood for the generation of heat. When our coal and wood are all gone, where will we get the energy to run the great earth dynamo?
In this connection, several plans which have been presented from time to time suggest themselves.
Perhaps the most remarkable is that of M. Camille Flammarion, the great French astronomer and physicist, who suggested boring a hole through the crust of the earth to sap the inexhaustible supply of heat believed to exist in its centre.
This plan is particularly interesting, because so little is known as to exact conditions to be found within the crust of the earth. The deepest shaft ever built penetrated but a mile and a quarter below the surface an insignificant distance compared with the four thousand miles between the surface and the centre.
It has been estimated that on an average the tempature increases one degree centigrade for every four yards in depth. On this basis a depth of two feet would bring us to the boiling point, while the tempature at the centre of the earth would be no less than two hundred thousand degrees! According to Flammarion, it would be necessary to bore not more than four miles before an inexhaustible supply of heat emitted might be applied to industrial purposes were real.
How would we proceed to dig this four-mile shaft?
“Besides being very deep,” says Flammarion, the shaft ought also to be of considerable diameter - say two hundred to three hundred yards, supported by a heavy thick, cast-iron lining.
“The excavated earth would most conveniently be disposed of by throwing it into the sea, to which it would be transported by railway.
“But, it will be asked, what of the insurmountable obstacles which will be encountered in the excavation of such a shaft? What of subterranean rivers? What of the landslips and the caving-in of the inside of the shaft?
“The reply is simple. These things can be forseen and provided against. The use of freezing mixtures, now so well understood, would here play a considerable part by freezing the moist and moving earth into rigidness and immobility.”
Flammarion believes that his plan is practicable and possible, and, if so, it would, no doubt, provide the energy necessary for Tesla’s great “world system.”
Another project which would prove equally effective, if feasible, is that of harnessing the rays of the sun. The heat radiating from the great solar body is sufficient to run the world-dynamo for millions of years, but how can we avail ourselves of it?
Sun-machines of various descriptions have been announced from time to time by ambitious inventors, but have proved either absolute failures or capable of generating only an insignificant amount of energy.
The scientists of the world have been diligently working on this problem for years, however and there seems to be no reason to believe that success will not ultimately be attained.
The newly discovered properties of radium likewise hold out great promise in this connection. At the present time, of course, the available supply of this element is too small to be of much service, but there is no doubt that it exists in almost inexhaustible quantities and scientific research will eventually discover a method of obtaining it in any amount desired, indeed. Flammarion has suggested that his plan of boring a hole through the earth, if it had no other result, would probably reveal the existence of enormous radium mines in the bowels of the earth.
With all these possible sources of energy the state of future man on this globe would seem to be assured.
