Wireless Lighting, Tesla's Discovery

Radio Miracle Worker

In telling of his life achievements, the distinguished inventor makes the surprising declaration that "Hertzian waves" do not exist and that speech can be transmitted through the earth.

Noted Inventor Announces He Can Transmit Power Through Ether —Could Run Ships

READY TO BUILD PLANT

Nikola Tesla, inventor and pioneer in the radio field, broke his silence of years today and announced his perfection of a system of transmitting power without wires.

By this means, he said. It would be possible to transmit power for the operation of ships and aircraft, illumination and machinery to the greatest terrestrial distance with smaller losses than now obtain in relatively short metallic circuits. He is already preparing to erect such a power station.

Professor Tesla explained his system as comprising an electrical generator which delivers its energy into the earth, whence it can be unlocked, so to speak, by anyone having the proper electrical key.

Achieves His Life's Aims

Wireless transmission of energy has been the life aim of the inventor, an aim he now claims to have achieved at the age of sixty-seven. But while working on this constantly in his laboratories he has brought out invention after invention, from high-frequency generators to steam turbines of radical design.

For the last few years Professor Tesla virtually has secluded himself in New York, living a retired life to be able to devote all his energies to the development of his power transmission system.

Not only will power be transmitted over wide stretches without the use of wires, he asserted, but by directing the energy In a beam, he expects it will be possible to explode distant stores of explosives, in arsenals and warships.

Born in Serbia. Prof. Tesla came to the United States in 1884 and took out naturalization papers. He was educated at the University of Prague, and received honorary degrees from Yale and Columbia Universities and from the Polytechnic in Vienna.

In discussing the possibility of transmitting power without wires in sufficient quantities for the operation of air craft, ships, and all kinds of machines, he said: "Not only is this possible, but I am confidently expecting that by far the largest amount of energy will be transmitted in this manner.

Energy Not Lost

"The system has been developed fully and demonstrated experimentally, but most of the experts are still at see. They claim that the power would be transmitted in all directions and consequently most of It would be lost, the same as in the operation of wireless receivers.

"That if a fundamental mistake.

"It is true that my transmitter produces an effect all over the globe, but it is only force that is conveyed to every point, not energy. It is only the machine properly constructed and adapted that is capable of collecting the energy.

"To make this understandable to a non-technical man, suppose that the earth were a hollow reservoir into which water is forced by a pump. It does not require much scientific knowledge to perceive that the pressure will exist everywhere, yet no energy will be consumed.

"But the moment this reservoir is tapped and the water permitted to drive an engine energy is derived from the pump.

"In my system the energy is released by something like a combination lock, and only those who have the combination can draw upon the source.

"Since my original experimental improvements and can now definitely announce that the love in the transmission to the greatest terrestrial distance — say 12,000 miles — will not amount to more than one-quarter of 1 per cent. This, of course, does not take into account certain unavoidable losses in the transmitter and receiver, which will amount to about 4 per cent in the aggregate.

Less Waste Than by Wire

"In the present method of conveying energy through wires the loan amounts often in 20 per cent or more and the distances are limited."

When Professor Tesla was asked if such plant could be constructed and put into operation immediately, he replied: "Most certainly, for I have developed all the details."

He declared he expected to commence construction "in the very near future, relying entirely on my own resources."

He was asked if the energy transmission was accomplished by the use of Hertzian waves.

"It is quite Impossible," he answered, "to transmit any appreciable amount of energy by such means if it were not but for one reason that waves such as Herts thought to have discovered do not exist.

"It is true that some kind of energy in radiated from the wires, but it is not in the form of transverse waves in the ether. Moreover, this energy is irretrievably lost.

"Let me illustrate by an example: Suppose that two wires are led from a generator of alternating currents and need to light an incandescent lamp, at some distance. If the alternations of the current are very slow there will be virtually no energy radiated from the conductors.

"Imagine now that the currents are made to pulsate faster and faster. Then, In the same measure, more and more of the so-called Hertz waves will be emitted and it will be found that ever so much more power will be required to light the lamp.

"Hertzian Waves" Useless

"But the lamp is operated only by the currents which pass through the filament, and all the energy that is radiated in the form of 'Hertzian waves' is entirely lost and useless for the purpose.

"The first departure I made in my investigations was to use one wire instead of two. My first demonstration at Columbia University in 1891 excited considerable attention. Further work in this direction led me to consider the idea of substituting the earth for the wire, and then my real work in the transmission of energy without wires began.

"At that time it was believed that there was, above the insulating air stratum surrounding the earth, a shell of rarefied atmosphere which was highly conductive; and if such was the case, then this planet was an electrical condenser of enormous capacity, through which only very slow impulses could be transmitted and to a small distance, precluding extensive commercial application, especially for such purposes as wireless telephony.

"It is well known that telephonic-communication through Atlantic cables has been found impracticable, although their capacity is relatively small.

"But I made the marvelous discovery that the planet responded to the currents impressed upon it exactly as though it were completely insulated in space without any conducting envelope whatever.

"In other words, whatever be the electrical properties of the atmosphere at high altitudes, there was no heavyside layer, a name given to the outer gaseous envelope of the earth, supposed to be rendered conductive through ionization, caused by the sun's rays.

Transmitted Through the Earth

"This discovery showed that the most complex and rapid electrical oscillations — human speech and even power — could be transmitted through the earth far better than through any artificial cable or conductor. Experiment proved this to be the case."

"If this is so," he was asked, "do you expect that wireless transmission will eventually supplant cables?"

"I would say, yen, eventually. But so long," he added smilingly, "as the art develops along the present lines my friend Mackay needn't worry about his cables."

Professor Tesla was asked what, in his opinion, the immediate application of wireless power would be.

"I have devoted years of thought to the subject," he rejoined, "and I think that one of the most desirable uses of the power will be for the lighting of isolated homes by vacuum tubes, which will consume little energy, require no connecting wire, and last indefinitely.

"My laboratories were usually lighted by lamps of this kind, and it was so economical that a comparatively small amount of energy would be sufficient for the purpose.

"Of course, this is not, by far, the most valuable application. The operation of flying machines without fuel will be of ever so much greater domestic and international importance."