Wireless Telephony

Tesla Says It Is Merely an Incident in Wonderful Development.

Telephonic communication between continents is assured, said Nikola Tesla recently while discussing the achievement of Waldemar Poulsen in transmitting a spoken message 200 miles without the use of wires. It need not be discussed. My own experiments have demonstrated its practicability. The transmission of spoken messages by Poulsen between Berlin and Copenhagen should not be a subject of wonderment. The next surprise will be the utilization of electrical energy for the propulsion of airships, which will carry no batteries or other generators, and whose passage through the air will be controlled by electric waves generated on the earth planet.

To understand the significance of the new movement, which has begun practically with the transmission of wireless messages across the Atlantic, and wireless telephony in Germany, the reader must free himself from certain preconceived notions and ideas. Wireless telegraphy is not so wonderful as it appears. It is not an invention at all. It is simply the application of a principle already developed.

The most far-reaching result of this wireless departure is the entire elimination of distance. That is probably the hardest truth to grasp, and yet it is simple. I have erected a wireless plant on Long Island to be chiefly used for telephony. This plant will affect a telephonic receiver in Manila just as it would affect a receiver in Hoboken. Moreover, if the same plant were erected on a heavenly body as large as the sun it would transmit telephonic speech clearly to our earth and with exactly the same precision as from one point to another on this planet.

The new idea signifies the absolute annihilation of distance in all the departments of human activity, and the solution of the problem of aerial navigation. The annihilation of distance must needs lead to the establishment of universal peace and a universal language. The sending of a telephonic message between Germany and Denmark without wires is simply an incident.