Nikola Tesla Books
CHAPTER SEVEN I stopped and began to play with my cup. Across the table my friend smiled. 'I think that Schneider picked the right man. He's no fool.' I was surprised. 'What do you mean?" 'Well, he knew that you wouldn't give up so easily. You'd keep at it, just in case there's anything in it.' I tried not to smile; it was a compliment which I was sure was unjustified. 'You've got to realize that any research organization gets all sorts of cranky ideas,' I told him. 'People keep writing in with plans for crazy machines and new theories. They either want money or they'd like you to build the invention and test it for them. There just isn't enough time in a day to take it all seriously.' 'But Tesla wasn't that sort of a crank, was he? He made some very clever inventions.' I began to flounder. 'Well, I don't know. Maybe he ended up as a crank ...some of his later ideas...I just don't know.' My friend pressed on. 'Some people would say that you've had pretty farAn electrical oscillator discharging 12 million volts (the flame measures 65 feet across), created by burning nitrogen from the atmosphere. 66
