“And this puts me in mind of Tesla’s scheme to transmit power wirelessly. To transmit power to run machinery and to control power at a distance by wireless are two entirely different things. Since wireless waves tend to radiate in all directions parallel with the surface of the earth from an aerial, it is a very difficult matter to transmit enough energy wirelessly in any one direction to have a sufficient quantity left after it has passed through even a short distance to do useful work such as running a motor.
“As early as 1905 Tesla took out patents for a system of wireless transmission of power in which he proposed to use the free ether of space instead of the ether in and around a wire to guide and carry it. He built a great tower at Wardencliff, Long Island, New York, for the purpose of radiating power but nothing came of the experiments he made and after some years the tower was torn down.”
“You don’t believe then that it will ever be possible to transmit energy for power purposes by wireless?”
“On the contrary, I believe it is possible but other discoveries must be made before it can be done successfully and this is also true of many other things which have been and are still looked upon as physical impossibilities. As to controlling apparatus at a distance by wireless that is, of course, just as easy as sending a signal, in fact it’s the same thing.
“Tesla was the first to control the movements of a boat at a distance by wireless and after him came many others. Even submarines have been so equipped and controlled but since the surface of the sea reflects most of the energy of the waves and absorbs the rest of it the boat must have its aerial above the surface at all times or the waves will not reach it.
“Attempts to control airships by wireless have been made time without number but to no useful purpose for no effective distance can be had between an airship and the sending station. Even sending wireless messages from airplanes as you said yesterday is only done over a very short distance and these limits are quickly reached because there is no way of grounding it.”
“How do you think the distance could be increased?” Jack wanted to know.
“You are asking a hard question, my boy. It might be done by finding a certain length of wave that would have a carrying capacity through the ether comparable to that of light, yet be longer than a light wave and shorter than the wireless waves we use for transmitting over land and sea. But this is sheer speculation on my part. Well, Jack, we’re all done and you see it wasn’t such a hard job as you thought. Before we go, though, I should like to know just what you expect to do in the future.”
“Really, I don’t know, Mr. Collins, though I’ve been thinking pretty hard about it lately, too. You see, I’ve reached an age where I’ve got to boil down to business and make some money, but I don’t want any of that swivel-chair-at-a-desk-on-the-’steenth-floor-of-an-office-building for mine. I’d get into the airplane game but there’s no more money in it than there is in wireless.
“My one best thought is to get a little party together, go down to Brazil and open up a diamond mine,” and he looked fondly at the glittering stone in his ring.