September 2nd, 1899 letter from George Scherff to Nikola Tesla

New York, Sep. 2nd, 1899
46 & 48 E. Houston Str.

Nikola Tesla, Esq.,
Colorado Springs, Colo.

Dear Mr. Tesla:

The work of the shop is on the pulley and shaft, the pump, cover, armature, disk and teeth and wings for fan of the third independent break.

Mr. Uhlman sends herewith a sketch of the pump and explains as follows:

"The pump which we have been working on is for the independent break. The flow of the mercury is regulated by inserting a suitably shaped plug into the pump. The mercury thus comes out in a solid stream at slow speed; the mercury leaving the pump is caught up by a suitable receptacle to insure a steady feeding of mercury into the grooves of the pulley, thus giving a steady flow from the pump.

The overflow feature without pump is adopted in the design of oscillator I am working on, but not in the independent breaks just finished. In June I sent a sketch of an oscillator with design and features of the independent break embodied.

The inclosed letter from Melbourne, Australia, was forwarded by the Pearson Publishing Company, whom I have thanked for their courtesy.

I inclose also a bill from Mr. Habirshaw and a statement of the expenses for the past week.

Permit me to again inquire about your health and the success of the experiments. I saw a notice in a technical journal a few days ago that Clark had been making some experiments in New York Bay. He succeeded in telegraphing three and a half miles, at a distance of five miles the signals were no longer intelligible.

Respectfully,
Geo. Scherff