In the World of Electricity

Since the reports reached Servia as to the work Mr. Tesla was doing, and the startling economies that he hoped to bring about in the production of power, several of his young fellow-countrymen have taken it for granted that he himself was to be the recipient of these many millions. The result of this misapprehension is that some of the more ardent of the Servian patriots have written to him with the burning eloquence that only a Slav can command, urging him to devote a little of this money to paying off the Servian national debt. These enthusiastic correspondents assume that the money is readily available, and is, in fact, already lying in bank awaiting disbursement. It is, of course, a pity that they should be disappointed, but even if Mr. Tesla were in possession of this dazzling pile it is a question whether he would use it to wipe out the burden incurred by the Heliogablian extravagances of King Milan instead of employing it in the furtherance of some of the many interesting experiments that he would carry out tomorrow if he only had the wherewithal. One of the first requirements of modern science is that it shall be self-supporting, and, as a general thing, the money that an inventor makes out of one idea he is inclined to expend in the trial of something else, which may or may not be a success. Mr. Tesla is peculiarly constituted this way, and is one of the Palissy type of men, so it is to be feared his Servian compatriots will not be gratified with any letters of credit on the Rothschilds for $10,000,000 or $20,000,000.