Nikola Tesla FBI Files - Page 160

- ● - 2Crack pilots do not suddenly become rank hams and bungle in handling a ship. Nor do the three motors (or even two) on the large airliners, stop simultaneously without extremely sufficient reason. Th ese things might happen once or even twice in a lifetime. They do not happen six and eight times a year. It is not logical that they should. To digress for a moment, I recall reading an article in a magazine a year or two ago, written by NikolaTesla, the inventor. The article dealt with a new Invention of Mr. Tesla's a giant induction coil which would project power (high voltage) through the atmosphere without the use of transmission wires. Mr. Tesla devoted some space to the possible social benefits that would result to the public should his invention be perfected and become practical. I have not heard of Mr. Tesla now in two or three years. Perhaps he has left the country. Perhaps he is still here. He might still be working on the invention described in the above-mentioned article. It might have been stolen from him. In any case, his views on the ideas presented by these two unconnected subjects, would be well worth while having. And if I had the money and the time, I should certainly make an effort to smoke him out myself. The thing is simply this: if one man can make an instrument that will project power through the air for even so short a distance as 500 yards (the thenpractical limitations of Mr. Nikola's device) it is entirely possible for another to project power for several hundreds of miles. And the effect of such uncontrolled power on metallic objects in its path is entirely unpredictable. Please do not think me a "crank" letter writer. I have never before written a letter of this type to anyone. But the idea seems to me so within the bounds of possibility that I most sincerely feel it will bear some practical study. (2(2)() 1 Yours very respectfully, Letter Arb. + R. Commerce Bu Avi ee 2.2737 160