The Boy's Book of New Inventions

by Harry E. Maule

It was a good many days before the whole thing had been talked over, and the boy understood the series of inventions, but we will follow through a part of our scientist's explanation and the visit to Tesla's laboratory and plant.

Although Tesla's plan is one of the most astounding ever proposed by science, it has been proved possible by experiments of such hair-raising nature that the inventor has been called a "daredevil" a "demon in electricity" and a "dreamer of dynamic dreams." In his experiments he has produced electrical currents of a voltage higher even than the bolts of lightning we see cleaving the sky during the worst thunderstorms. These currents he has harnessed to his own use and made them tell him the inmost secrets of the earth—in fact of the palpitation at the very core of the globe—the heartbeats of our sphere. He has given exhibitions in which he has caused currents of inconceivably high power to play about his head as if they were gentle summer breezes, and while working in the mountains of Colorado, he has brought forth electrical discharges which caused disturbances in the wireless telegraph apparatus in all parts of the globe.

In short, Nikola Tesla plans to make artificial lightning, and so harness it to the use of man, that it can be sent anywhere on or above the earth, without wires.

To scientists and electrical engineers, Tesla's plan offers a field for limitless study and discussion, but to the boy who is interested in electricity it offers one of the most fascinating subjects for reading and thinking in all the realm of science. Just reflect that with the wireless transmission of power, and the development of an art that Tesla calls "telautomatics," the navigators of wireless power-driven airships and ocean liners will know their exact speed, position, altitude, direction, the time of night or day, and whether there is anything in their path, all through the wireless "telautomatic" devices for registering such impressions.

Tesla declares that the terrible Titanic disaster never would have occurred had his system been in effect last April, for he declares that the Titanic's captain would have known of the iceberg he was approaching long enough in advance to slacken speed and get out of its way. Moreover, he declares that with the wireless transmission of power, the wireless telegraph becomes a very simple matter, and that immediately after the accident, had the ship struck an obstacle in spite of warnings, the captain could have been in wireless telephone communication with his offices in London and New York, and with all the ships that were on the seas in the vicinity of the ill-fated liner.

But making air and sea navigation safe, sure, and speedy, are only the first steps Tesla intends to take in the wireless transmission of power. After that he hopes to light the earth—to carry a beautiful soft bright light to ranchmen far out on the deserts, to miners in their cabins or deep in the earth, to farmers, and to sailors, as well as to people in their homes in the cities all over the world—Australia as well as the United States.

Wireless electrical power, according to Tesla, will be one of the greatest agencies in war, if there is any, but it first will be an argument for universal peace. "Fights," says the inventor, "whether between individuals or between nations arise from misunderstandings, and with the complete dissemination of intelligence, constant communication, and familiarity with the ideals of other nations, that international combativeness so dangerous to world peace, will disappear."

If Tesla's plan were carried out in full it would completely revolutionize the industries of the world, for all the power of Niagara or any other waterfall in the world could be sent without wires to turn the wheels of the industries in China or Australia, while the power of the Zambesi Falls in Africa could be transmitted to run trains, subways, elevateds, and all other forms of industry in the United States. There is practically no limit to the possibilities of the scheme, because through Tesla's invention, distance means nothing, and the power instead of losing force with distance as is the case when power is transmitted through wires, retains practically the same voltage as at the outset.

We will visit Doctor Tesla at his office and laboratory in the Metropolitan Tower in New York with the scientist and his young friend to see what kind of a man it is who has invented machines for creating and handling such tremendous voltages.

Tesla sits at a wide flat-topped desk in the centre of his sunny office surrounded by books, a few models of inventions, and a few pictures of some of his most remarkable electrical experiments. He is very tall and slight, with a mass of black hair thrown back from his intellectual forehead. His piercing gray eyes sparkle as he smiles in greeting, and his thin pointed face lights up with an expression of pleasure and kindness that cannot help but make the great electrician's visitors feel that he is a good friend. Although he was naturalized more than twenty years ago, and has been an American citizen ever since, his English still shows some slight traces of his foreign birth. He looks no more than forty-odd and he is as interested in everything that is going on in the world as a young boy, but he has passed his fiftieth year.