A Wonderful Machine Port Fairy Gazette (Vic. : 1890 - 1922), Tuesday 31 July 1900, page 3
A WONJJERFUE MAEJ6INE.
" The Criming Race," w 1 1 >j Wel's, in "The War of tire wr , and " When tIle Sleeper Wakes, both drawn rricturei of
what the world will be like when tho scieutiuc inventor really lets himself go. An article that Mr Nikola Tesia has con-trihuted to the Century shows that these forecasts of which Lord Lvr ton's, at least, must have been a pure child of the imagination — were singularly accurate, and are now very likely to be realised. If Mr Tesla succeeds in making half his discoveries available fur daily use, we shall havo everything at our command that the Vrilya had, and shall have gone a long way towards acquiring the amazing forces of the Martians. Some 10 years ago, in a lecture to the Royal Institution, Mr Tesla showed that if an electric current bo reversed a great number of times a minute, it will develop powers immensely in advance of anything we can produce by other means. Acting on this principle, he has eucceeded in producing what is really an indue ion coil with 150,000 alternations of current per second. W'i h this huge 'oscillator," as lie calls it, tile ordinary spark of a few inches besomes a roaring blaze 70 feet across, while it produces such a disturbance of thu electrical equilibrium in surrounding obj-cts that, when at work, sparks an inch long can be drawn from a water main at a distance of 300 feet from the laboratory. Moreover, he has discovered a way of so " tuning " it that another coil similarly tuned will respond to its vibrations at a distauce which lie believes may be infinite, but which in practice does not seem to have been tested beyond GOO miles. He thus has at his disposal a means of conveying electric energy of millions of volts (N.B.— Two thousand volts will kill a man) to a great distance in any diioction he pleases, and, of course, without any connecting wires. No known substance or power can stop or
insuiatu tuts current, which can travel indifferently through the earth or the air, nor can anyone lap or avail himself of it unless he possesses a coil exactly tuned to the vibrations of the oscillator. What this extraordinary machine can do outstrips all the stories of mediaeval magic. By its use, Air Tesla claims that he can double the fond supply of the world. For it offers the boat and most economical means of fixing the nitrogen which, as S.r William Cro.-ke has told us, is the life of plains, and I10 can therefore make two ears oi corn grow where one
grew before. It can also produce iron in vast quantities by a cheaper process than any hitherto attempted. It can also control at enormous distances an automatic machine, as, for instance, a crewless boat, which shall catry its own propelling and steering power, and yet lie as entirely under the control of the operator seated in his study hundreds of miles off as an organ is under the control of the player at the keyboard. Finally, though Air Tesla does not tell us so in this article, the battery can so "electrify" — to use the word in i: s popular sense — a room that an exhausted glass tube will gluw with radiant light whenever it is brought within a certain distance of the flour or ceiling. If it does what i>s inventor expects of it, light and power should at no very distant date be within the reach
or an, wiuie t lie problem of feeding our increasing millions should be greatly simplified. The facts so far have been proved by actual experiment and may therefore be taken, to use the French phrase, as definitely acquired by scieuce. But when Air Tesla goes oil to tell ui what he thinks the result of his discoveries will be, one does not wonder that an American biugraper depicts him as much elated at his successes. He says that it will soon be possible to draw our supplies of electric force, not, as now, from magnets rotated by steam engines, or, still more expensively, by the dec-imposition of chemicals, but from the upper strata of the atmosphere. By these means we shall command a practicaily unlimited supply of power, and we can set about trans forming the face of Nature in real earnest. War will, of course, be done away with, or rather it will be reduced to a contest of machines, at which tho nations will bo " simply interested, ambitious spectators." Then machines which are now made of iron or copper will be made of aluminium — a theory, by the way, anticipated in "The War of the Worlds" — with the result that flying machines will be of daily use. These are, in fact, according to him, already on the way, and he prophesies that " 1 he next year " will see the establishment of an ' air power," and its centre may nut he far from New York. At a later date will arrive "a self-acting machine, deriving energy from the ambient medium," which will really, but for the wear and tear of its parts, come as near perpetual motion as can be. Then
will come a time when this earth will be too small to hold us, and we shall gat more anxious than most of us are at present to establish communications with the o'her planets. When this happens, we shali find Air Tesla ready and able to oblige us. "My measurements and calculations have shown that it is perfecily practicable to produce on our globe, by the use of these principles, ail electrical movement of such magnitude that, without the slightest doub', its effect will lie perceptible on some of our nearest planeis, such as Venus and Alars." What will happen if the Veuusites and the Alar ions Bliould turn out, when we do make their acquaintance, to be arintd with powers as formidable as even Air Tesla's oscillator, he doeB nut stop to inquire. But it is to be hoped that all this will he carefully gone into before he is allowed to m..ko his signal. How much of all this will stand further investigation remains to be seen. Although burn in Hungary, Air Tesla lias been domiciled for some time in America, where tha desire for " the greatest thing 011 airth " shows no signs of abatement. Hence wo may consider that, between some of Air Tesla's calculations and their fruition there is yet a step or two, and that these last may present difficulties as yet unthouglit of. Is it certain, for instance, that because the atmosphere of our globe offers no bar to tile progress of Mr Tesla's alternating curien', the medium— if there is any — that occupies' tho inter-planetary apace will be equally obliging 1 Or can he really prove that the sun, as he seems to assume, is the sourca of all Lho electrical energy of the earth ? Some have thought that the electro-motive force of lightning, to take only one example, is developed by the friction of one cloud upon another wilt n driven by strong winds ; and tho themy has much to recommend it. But when all this and some other rather wild theorizing is disposed of, there seems little doubt that Air Tesla has discovered a means of transmitting energy to a distauce, and also a new method of illumination, which probably surpasses anything we havo yet dreamed of. If this he so, and if— which is a large supposition — his invention can be made commercially valuable, his oscillator may really work as great-a change in the conditions of civilised life as did the steam engine. . One word may be said as to tho risk of handling tho enormous forces now revealed to us. One of the very oddest things about the whole matter i'e that these alternating currenis seem to be absolutely harmle.s to the living human organism. Those of us who remember Air Tesla's visit to this country early in his carter may remember liuw he then horrified ail assemblage of savants by transmitting through Ibis own body a current a hundred times that which in other circumstances would have caused instant Heath, ' He azures us that the
same immunity has attended his experiments throughout, and that neither ho . rior any of his assistants has over suffered inconvenience so long as the vibrations were sufficiently rapid and the potential sufficiently high. Ho now offers to transmit through his own body the entire energy of the 40,000 horse-power dynamos now worked by Niagara, and the offer is, if rather foolhardy, an undeniable guarantee of good faith. He also tells us that he has transmitted through his own hands discharges which have caused thick metal wires to melt and drop like wax, without feeling any pariicular sensation! As to the risk of lire, perhaps the less said about it the better The fire insurance companies will certainly raise their rates of premium if there is any chance of one of Mr Tesla's nnrronta
fetching loose.
— Pr ill Hall Gazette.
