Nikola Tesla: Magnifying Transmitter ~ Articles & Patents


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**[rexresearch.com](../index.htm)**

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 **Nikola TESLA**

**Magnifying Transmitter**

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**[Nikola Tesla: *My Inventions*
(Chapter 6: The Magnifying Transmitter)](#myinv6)**   
**[*The New York Times* (27 March, 1904)](#nytimes)**
  
**[N. Tesla: US PAtent # 1,119,732 ~
Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy](01119732.pdf)**   
**[N. Tesla: US Patent # 593,138 ~
Electrical Transformer](00593138.pdf)**   
**[N. Tesla: US Patent # 645,576 ~ System
of Transmission of Electrical Energy](00645576.pdf)**   
**[N. Tesla: US Patent # 685,958 ~ Method
of Utilizing Radiant Energy](00685958.pdf)**   
**[N. Tesla: US Patent # 787,412 ~ Art of
Transmitting Electrical Energy through the Natural Mediums](00787412.pdf)**
  
**[Photographs](tmtphoto.htm)**

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***My Inventions: The Autobiography of
Nikola Tesla***   
**by Nikola Tesla**

**Chapter 6**

**The Magnifying Transmitter**

No subject to which I have ever devoted myself
has called for such concentration of mind, and strained to so
dangerous a degree the finest fibbers of my brain, as the
systems of which the Magnifying Transmitter is the foundation.
I put all the intensity and vigor of youth in the development
of the rotating field discoveries, but those early labours
were of a different character. Although strenuous in the
extreme, they did not involve that keen and exhausting
discernment which had to be exercised in attacking the many
problems of the wireless.

Despite my rare physical endurance at that
period, the abused nerves finally rebelled and I suffered a
complete collapse, just as the consummation of the long and
difficult task was almost in sight. Without doubt I would have
paid a greater penalty later, and very likely my career would
have been prematurely terminated, had not providence equipped
me with a safety device, which seemed to improve with
advancing years and unfailingly comes to play when my forces
are at an end. So long as it operates I am safe from danger,
due to overwork, which threatens other inventors, and
incidentally, I need no vacations which are indispensable to
most people. When I am all but used up, I simply do as the
darkies who "naturally fall asleep while white folks worry."

To venture a theory out of my sphere, the body
probably accumulates little by little a definite quantity of
some toxic agent and I sink into a nearly lethargic state
which lasts half an hour to the minute. Upon awakening I have
the sensation as though the events immediately preceding had
occurred very long ago, and if I attempt to continue the
interrupted train of thought I feel veritable nausea.
Involuntarily, I then turn to other and am surprised at the
freshness of the mind and ease with which I overcome obstacles
that had baffled me before. After weeks or months, my passion
for the temporarily abandoned invention returns and I
invariably find answers to all the vexing questions, with
scarcely any effort. In this connection, I will tell of an
extraordinary experience which may be of interest to students
of psychology. I had produced a striking phenomenon with my
grounded transmitter and was endeavoring to ascertain its true
significance in relation to the currents propagated through
the earth. It seemed a hopeless undertaking, and for more than
a year I worked unremittingly, but in vain. This profound
study so entirely absorbed me, that I became forgetful of
everything else, even of my undermined health. At last, as I
was at the point of breaking down, nature applied the
preservative inducing lethal sleep. Regaining my senses, I
realized with consternation that I was unable to visualize
scenes from my life except those of infancy, the very first
ones that had entered my consciousness. Curiously enough,
these appeared before my vision with startling distinctness
and afforded me welcome relief. Night after night, when
retiring, I would think of them and more and more of my
previous existence was revealed. The image of my mother was
always the principal figure in the spectacle that slowly
unfolded, and a consuming desire to see her again gradually
took possession of me. This feeling grew so strong that I
resolved to drop all work and satisfy my longing, but I found
it too hard to break away from the laboratory, and several
months elapsed during which I had succeeded in reviving all
the impressions of my past life, up to the spring of 1892. In
the next picture that came out of the mist of oblivion, I saw
myself at the Hotel de la Paix in Paris, just coming to from
one of my peculiar sleeping spells, which had been caused by
prolonged exertion of the brain. Imagine the pain and distress
I felt, when it flashed upon my mind that a dispatch was
handed to me at that very moment, bearing the sad news that my
mother was dying. I remembered how I made the long journey
home without an hour of rest and how she passed away after
weeks of agony. It was especially remarkable that during all
this period of partially obliterated memory, I was fully alive
to everything touching on the subject of my research. I could
recall the smallest detail and the least insignificant
observations in my experiments and even recite pages of text
and complex mathematical formulae.

My belief is firm in a law of compensation. The
true rewards are ever in proportion to the labour and
sacrifices made. This is one of the reasons why I feel certain
that of all my inventions, the Magnifying Transmitter will
prove most important and valuable to future generations. I am
prompted to this prediction, not so much by thoughts of the
commercial and industrial revolution which it will surely
bring about, but of the humanization consequences of the many
achievements it makes possible. Considerations of mere utility
weigh little in the balance against the higher benefits of
civilization. We are confronted with portentous problems which
can not be solved just by providing for our material
existence, however abundantly. On the contrary, progress in
this direction is fraught with hazards and perils not less
menacing than those born from want and suffering. If we were
to release the energy of atoms or discover some other way of
developing cheap and unlimited power at any point on the
globe, this accomplishment, instead of being a blessing, might
bring disaster to mankind in giving rise to dissension and
anarchy, which would ultimately result in the enthronement of
the hated regime of force. The greatest good will come from
technical improvements tending to unification and harmony, and
my wireless transmitter is preeminently such. By its means,
the human voice and likeness will be reproduced everywhere and
factories driven thousands of miles from waterfalls furnishing
power. Aerial machines will be propelled around the earth
without a stop and the sun's energy controlled to create lakes
and rivers for motive purposes and transformation of arid
deserts into fertile land. Its introduction for telegraphic,
telephonic and similar uses, will automatically cut out the
static and all other interferences which at present, impose
narrow limits to the application of the wireless. This is a
timely topic on which a few words might not be amiss.

During the past decade a number of people have
arrogantly claimed that they had succeeded in doing away with
this impediment. I have carefully examined all of the
arrangements described and tested most of them long before
they were publicly disclosed, but the finding was uniformly
negative. Recent official statement from the U.S. Navy may,
perhaps, have taught some beguilable news editors how to
appraise these announcements at their real worth. As a rule,
the attempts are based on theories so fallacious, that
whenever they come to my notice, I can not help thinking in a
light vein. Quite recently a new discovery was heralded, with
a deafening flourish of trumpets, but it proved another case
of a mountain bringing forth a mouse. This reminds me of an
exciting incident which took place a year ago, when I was
conducting my experiments with currents of high frequency.

Steve Brodie had just jumped off the Brooklyn
Bridge. The feat has been vulgarized since by imitators, but
the first report electrified New York. I was very
impressionable then and frequently spoke of the daring
printer. On a hot afternoon I felt the necessity of refreshing
myself and stepped into one of the popular thirty thousand
institutions of this great city, where a delicious twelve per
cent beverage was served, which can now be had only by making
a trip to the poor and devastated countries of Europe. The
attendance was large and not over-distinguished and a matter
was discussed which gave me an admirable opening for the
careless remark, "This is what I said when I jumped off the
bridge." No sooner had I uttered these words, than I felt like
the companion of Timothens, in the poem of Schiller. In an
instant there was pandemonium and a dozen voices cried, "It is
Brodie!" I threw a quarter on the counter and bolted for the
door, but the crowd was at my heels with yells, "Stop,
Steve!", which must have been misunderstood, for many persons
tried to hold me up as I ran frantically for my haven of
refuge. By darting around corners I fortunately managed,
through the medium of a fire escape, to reach the laboratory,
where I threw off my coat, camouflaged myself as a hardworking
blacksmith and started the forge. But these precautions proved
unnecessary, as I had eluded my pursuers. For many years
afterward, at night, when imagination turns into specters the
trifling troubles of the day, I often thought, as I tossed on
the bed, what my fate would have been, had the mob caught me
and found out that I was not Steve Brodie!

Now the engineer who lately gave an account
before a technical body of a novel remedy against static based
on a "heretofore unknown law of nature," seems to have been as
reckless as myself when he contended that these disturbances
propagate up and down, while those of a transmitter proceed
along the earth. It would mean that a condenser as this globe,
with its gaseous envelope, could be charged and discharged in
a manner quite contrary to the fundamental teachings
propounded in every elemental textbook of physics. Such a
supposition would have been condemned as erroneous, even in
Franklin's time, for the facts bearing on this were then well
known and the identity between atmospheric electricity and
that developed by machines was fully established. Obviously,
natural and artificial disturbances propagate through the
earth and the air in exactly the same way, and both set up
electromotive forces in the horizontal, as well as vertical
sense. Interference can not be overcome by any such methods as
were proposed. The truth is this: In the air the potential
increases at the rate of about fifty volts per foot of
elevation, owing to which there may be a difference of
pressure amounting to twenty, or even forty thousand volts
between the upper and lower ends of the antenna. The masses of
the charged atmosphere are constantly in motion and give up
electricity to the conductor, not continuously, but rather
disruptively, this producing a grinding noise in a sensitive
telephonic receiver. The higher the terminal and the greater
the space encompassed by the wires, the more pronounced is the
effect, but it must be understood that it is purely local and
has little to do with the real trouble.

In 1900, while perfecting my wireless system,
one form of apparatus compressed four antennae. These were
carefully calibrated in the same frequency and connected in
multiple with the object of magnifying the action in receiving
from any direction. When I desired to ascertain the origin of
the transmitted impulse, each diagonally situated pair was put
in series with a primary coil energizing the detector circuit.
In the former case, the sound was loud in the telephone; in
the latter it ceased, as expected, the two antennae
neutralizing each other, but the true static manifested
themselves in both instances and I had to devise special
preventives embodying different principles. By employing
receivers connected to two points of the ground, as suggested
by me long ago, this trouble caused by the charged air, which
is very serious in the structures as now built, is nullified
and besides, the liability of all kinds of interference is
reduced to about one-half because of the directional character
of the circuit. This was perfectly self-evident, but came as a
revelation to some simple-minded wireless folks whose
experience was confined to forms of apparatus that could have
been improved with an axe, and they have been disposing of the
bear's skin before killing him. If it were true that strays
performed such antics, it would be easy to get rid of them by
receiving without aerials. But, as a matter of fact, a wire
buried in the ground which, conforming to this view, should be
absolutely immune, is more susceptible to certain extraneous
impulses than one placed vertically in the air. To state it
fairly, a slight progress has been made, but not by virtue of
any particular method or device. It was achieved simply by
discerning the enormous structures, which are bad enough for
transmission but wholly unsuitable for reception and adopting
a more appropriate type of receiver. As I have said before, to
dispose of this difficulty for good, a radical change must be
made in the system and the sooner this is done the better.

It would be calamitous, indeed, if at this time
when the art is in its infancy and the vast majority, not
excepting even experts, have no conception of its ultimate
possibilities, a measure would be rushed through the
legislature making it a government monopoly. This was proposed
a few weeks ago by Secretary Daniel's and no doubt that
distinguished official has made his appeal to the Senate and
House of Representatives with sincere conviction. But
universal evidence unmistakably shows that the best results
are always obtained in healthful commercial competition. there
are, however, exceptional reasons why wireless should be given
the fullest freedom of development. In the first place, it
offers prospects immeasurably greater and more vital to
betterment of human life than any other invention or discovery
in the history of man. Then again, it must be understood that
this wonderful art has been, in its entirety, evolved here and
can be called "American" with more right and propriety than
the telephone, the incandescent lamp or the airplane.

Enterprising press agents and stock jobbers
have been so successful in spreading misinformation, that even
so excellent a periodical as the "Scientific American,"
accords the chief credit to a foreign country. The Germans, of
course, gave us the Hertz waves and the Russian, English,
French and Italian experts were quick in using them for
signaling purposes. It was an obvious application of the new
agent and accomplished with the old classical and unimproved
induction coil, scarcely anything more than another kind of
heliography. The radius of transmission was very limited, the
result attained of little value, and the Hertz oscillations,
as a means for conveying intelligence, could have been
advantageously replaced by sound waves, which I advocated in
1891. Moreover, all of these attempts were made three years
after the basic principles of the wireless system, which is
universally employed today, and its potent instrumentalities
had been clearly described and developed in America.

No trace of those Hertzian appliances and
methods remains today. We have proceeded in the very opposite
direction and what has been done is the product of the brains
and efforts of citizens of this country. The fundamental
patents have expired and the opportunities are open to all.
The chief argument of the Secretary is based on interference.
According to his statement, reported in the New York Herald of
July 29th, signals from a powerful station can be intercepted
in every village in the world. In view of this fact, which was
demonstrated in my experiments in 1900, it would be of little
use to impose restrictions in the United States.

As throwing light on this point, I may mention
that only recently an odd looking gentleman called on me with
the object of enlisting my services in the construction of
world transmitters in some distant land. "We have no money,"
he said, "but carloads of solid gold, and we will give you a
liberal amount." I told him that I wanted to see first what
will be done with my inventions in America, and this ended the
interview. But I am satisfied that some dark forces are at
work, and as time goes on the maintenance of continuous
communication will be rendered more difficult. The only remedy
is a system immune against interruption. It has been
perfected, it exists, and all that is necessary is to put it
in operation.

The terrible conflict is still uppermost in the
minds and perhaps the greatest importance will be attached to
the Magnifying Transmitter as a machine for attack and
defense, more particularly in connection with Telautomatics.
This invention is a logical outcome of observations begun in
my boyhood and continued throughout my life. When the first
results were published, the Electrical Review stated
editorially that it would become one of the "most potent
factors in the advance of civilization of mankind." The time
is not distant when this prediction will be fulfilled. In 1898
and 1900, it was offered by me to the Government and might
have been adopted, were I one of those who would go to
Alexander's shepherd when they want a favor from Alexander! At
that time I really thought that it would abolish war, because
of its unlimited destructiveness and exclusion of the personal
element of combat. But while I have not lost faith in its
potentialities, my views have changed since. War can not be
avoided until the physical cause for its recurrence is removed
and this, in the last analysis, is the vast extent of the
planet on which we live. Only though annihilation of distance
in every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport
of passengers and supplies and transmission of energy will
conditions be brought about some day, insuring permanency of
friendly relations. What we now want most is closer contact
and better understanding between individuals and communities
all over the earth and the elimination of that fanatic
devotion to exalted ideals of national egoism and pride, which
is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism
and strife. No league or parliamentary act of any kind will
ever prevent such a calamity. These are only new devices for
putting the weak at the mercy of the strong.

I have expressed myself in this regard fourteen
years ago, when a combination of a few leading governments, a
sort of Holy alliance, was advocated by the late Andrew
Carnegie, who may be fairly considered as the father of this
idea, having given to it more publicity and impetus than
anybody else prior to the efforts of the President. While it
can not be denied that such aspects might be of material
advantage to some less fortunate peoples, it can not attain
the chief objective sought. Peace can only come as a natural
consequence of universal enlightenment and merging of races,
and we are still far from this blissful realization, because
few indeed, will admit the reality that God made man in His
image in which case all earth men are alike. There is in fact
but one race, of many colors. Christ is but one person, yet he
is of all people, so why do some people think themselves
better than some other people?

As I view the world of today, in the light of
the gigantic struggle we have witnessed, I am filled with
conviction that the interests of humanity would be best served
if the United States remained true to its traditions, true to
God whom it pretends to believe, and kept out of "entangling
alliances." Situated as it is, geographically remote from the
theaters of impending conflicts, without incentive to
territorial aggrandizement, with inexhaustible resources and
immense population thoroughly imbued with the spirit of
liberty and right, this country is placed in a unique and
privileged position. It is thus able to exert, independently,
its colossal strength and moral force to the benefit of all,
more judiciously and effectively, than as a member of a
league.

I have dwelt on the circumstances of my early
life and told of an affliction which compelled me to
unremitting exercise of imagination and self-observation. This
mental activity, at first involuntary under the pressure of
illness and suffering, gradually became second nature and led
me finally to recognize that I was but an automaton devoid of
free will in thought and action and merely responsible to the
forces of the environment. Our bodies are of such complexity
of structure, the motions we perform are so numerous and
involved and the external impressions on our sense organs to
such a degree delicate and elusive, that it is hard for the
average person to grasp this fact. Yet nothing is more
convincing to the trained investigator than the mechanistic
theory of life which had been, in a measure, understood and
propounded by Descartes three hundred years ago. In his time
many important functions of our organisms were unknown and
especially with respect to the nature of light and the
construction and operation of the eye, philosophers were in
the dark.

In recent years the progress of scientific
research in these fields has been such as to leave no room for
a doubt in regard to this view on which many works have been
published. One of its ablest and most eloquent exponents is,
perhaps, Felix le Dantec, formerly assistant of Pasteur.
Professor Jacques Loeb has performed remarkable experiments in
heliotropism, clearly establishing the controlling power of
light in lower forms of organisms and his latest book, "Forced
Movements," is revelatory. But while men of science accept
this theory simply as any other that is recognized, to me it
is a truth which I hourly demonstrate by every act and thought
of mine. The consciousness of the external impression
prompting me to any kind of exertion, physical or mental, is
ever present in my mind. Only on very rare occasions, when I
was in a state of exceptional concentration, have I found
difficulty in locating the original impulse. The by far
greater number of human beings are never aware of what is
passing around and within them and millions fall victims of
disease and die prematurely just on this account. The
commonest, everyday occurrences appear to them mysterious and
inexplicable. One may feel a sudden wave of sadness and rack
his brain for an explanation, when he might have noticed that
it was caused by a cloud cutting off the rays of the sun. He
may see the image of a friend dear to him under conditions
which he construes as very peculiar, when only shortly before
he has passed him in the street or seen his photograph
somewhere. When he loses a collar button, he fusses and swears
for an hour, being unable to visualize his previous actions
and locate the object directly. Deficient observation is
merely a form of ignorance and responsible for the many morbid
notions and foolish ideas prevailing. There is not more than
one out of every ten persons who does not believe in telepathy
and other psychic manifestations, spiritualism and communion
with the dead, and who would refuse to listen to willing or
unwilling deceivers?

Just to illustrate how deeply rooted this
tendency has become even among the clear-headed American
population, I may mention a comical incident. Shortly before
the war, when the exhibition of my turbines in this city
elicited widespread comment in the technical papers, I
anticipated that there would be a scramble among manufacturers
to get hold of the invention and I had particular designs on
that man from Detroit who has an uncanny faculty for
accumulating millions. So confident was I, that he would turn
up some day, that I declared this as certain to my secretary
and assistants. Sure enough, one fine morning a body of
engineers from the Ford Motor Company presented themselves
with the request of discussing with me an important project.
"Didn't I tell you?," I remarked triumphantly to my employees,
and one of them said, "You are amazing, Mr. **Tesla**.
Everything comes out exactly as you predict."

As soon as these hardheaded men were seated, I
of course, immediately began to extol the wonderful features
of my turbine, when the spokesman interrupted me and said, "We
know all about this, but we are on a special errand. We have
formed a psychological society for the investigation of
psychic phenomena and we want you to join us in this
undertaking." I suppose these engineers never knew how near
they came to being fired out of my office. Ever since I was
told by some of the greatest men of the time, leaders in
science whose names are immortal, that I am possessed of an
unusual mind, I bent all my thinking faculties on the solution
of great problems regardless of sacrifice. For many years I
endeavoured to solve the enigma of death, and watched eagerly
for every kind of spiritual indication. But only once in the
course of my existence have I had an experience which
momentarily impressed me as supernatural. It was at the time
of my mother's death. I had become completely exhausted by
pain and long vigilance, and one night was carried to a
building about two blocks from our home. As I lay helpless
there, I thought that if my mother died while I was away from
her bedside, she would surely give me a sign. Two or three
months before, I was in London in company with my late friend,
Sir William Crookes, when spiritualism was discussed and I was
under the full sway of these thoughts. I might not have paid
attention to other men, but was susceptible to his arguments
as it was his epochal work on radiant matter, which I had read
as a student, that made me embrace the electrical career. I
reflected that the conditions for a look into the beyond were
most favorable, for my mother was a woman of genius and
particularly excelling in the powers of intuition. During the
whole night every fibber in my brain was strained in
expectancy, but nothing happened until early in the morning,
when I fell in a sleep, or perhaps a swoon, and saw a cloud
carrying angelic figures of marvelous beauty, one of whom
gazed upon me lovingly and gradually assumed the features of
my mother. The appearance slowly floated across the room and
vanished, and I was awakened by an indescribably sweet song of
many voices. In that instant a certitude, which no words can
express, came upon me that my mother had just died. And that
was true. I was unable to understand the tremendous weight of
the painful knowledge I received in advance, and wrote a
letter to Sir William Crookes while still under the domination
of these impressions and in poor bodily health. When I
recovered, I sought for a long time the external cause of this
strange manifestation and, to my great relief, I succeeded
after many months of fruitless effort.

I had seen the painting of a celebrated artist,
representing allegorically one of the seasons in the form of a
cloud with a group of angels which seemed to actually float in
the air, and this had struck me forcefully. It was exactly the
same that appeared in my dream, with the exception of my
mother's likeness. The music came from the choir in the church
nearby at the early mass of Easter morning, explaining
everything satisfactorily in conformity with scientific facts.
This occurred long ago, and I have never had the faintest
reason since to change my views on psychical and spiritual
phenomena, for which there is no foundation. The belief in
these is the natural outgrowth of intellectual development.
Religious dogmas are no longer accepted in their orthodox
meaning, but every individual clings to faith in a supreme
power of some kind.

We all must have an ideal to govern our conduct
and insure contentment, but it is immaterial whether it be one
of creed, art, science, or anything else, so long as it
fulfills the function of a dematerializing force. It is
essential to the peaceful existence of humanity as a whole
that one common conception should prevail. While I have failed
to obtain any evidence in support of the contentions of
psychologists and spiritualists, I have proved to my complete
satisfaction the automatism of life, not only through
continuous observations of individual actions, but even more
conclusively through certain generalizations. these amount to
a discovery which I consider of the greatest moment to human
society, and on which I shall briefly dwell.

I got the first inkling of this astonishing
truth when I was still a very young man, but for many years I
interpreted what I noted simply as coincidences. Namely,
whenever either myself or a person to whom I was attached, or
a cause to which I was devoted, was hurt by others in a
particular way, which might be best popularly characterized as
the most unfair imaginable, I experienced a singular and
undefinable pain which, for the want of a better term, I have
qualified as "cosmic" and shortly thereafter, and invariably,
those who had inflicted it came to grief. After many such
cases I confided this to a number of friends, who had the
opportunity to convince themselves of the theory of which I
have gradually formulated and which may be stated in the
following few words: Our bodies are of similar construction
and exposed to the same external forces. This results in
likeness of response and concordance of the general activities
on which all our social and other rules and laws are based. We
are automata entirely controlled by the forces of the medium,
being tossed about like corks on the surface of the water, but
mistaking the resultant of the impulses from the outside for
the free will. The movements and other actions we perform are
always life preservative and though seemingly quite
independent from one another, we are connected by invisible
links. So long as the organism is in perfect order, it
responds accurately to the agents that prompt it, but the
moment that there is some derangement in any individual, his
self-preservative power is impaired.

Everybody understands, of course, that if one
becomes deaf, has his eyes weakened, or his limbs injured, the
chances for his continued existence are lessened. But this is
also true, and perhaps more so, of certain defects in the
brain which drive the automaton, more or less, of that vital
quality and cause it to rush into destruction. A very
sensitive and observant being, with his highly developed
mechanism all intact, and acting with precision in obedience
to the changing conditions of the environment, is endowed with
a transcending mechanical sense, enabling him to evade perils
too subtle to be directly perceived. When he comes in contact
with others whose controlling organs are radically faulty,
that sense asserts itself and he feels the "cosmic" pain.

The truth of this has been borne out in
hundreds of instances and I am inviting other students of
nature to devote attention to this subject, believing that
through combined systematic effort, results of incalculable
value to the world will be attained. The idea of constructing
an automaton, to bear out my theory, presented itself to me
early, but I did not begin active work until 1895, when I
started my wireless investigations. During the succeeding two
or three years, a number of automatic mechanisms, to be
actuated from a distance, were constructed by me and exhibited
to visitors in my laboratory. In 1896, however, I designed a
complete machine capable of a multitude of operations, but the
consummation of my labours was delayed until late in 1897.
This machine was illustrated and described in my article in
the Century Magazine of June, 1900; and other periodicals of
that time and when first shown in the beginning of 1898, it
created a sensation such as no other invention of mine has
ever produced. In November, 1898, a basic patent on the novel
art was granted to me, but only after the Examiner-in-Chief
had come to New York and witnessed the performance, for what I
claimed seemed unbelievable. I remember that when later I
called on an official in Washington, with a view of offering
the invention to the Government, he burst out in laughter upon
my telling him what I had accomplished. Nobody thought then
that there was the faintest prospect of perfecting such a
device. It is unfortunate that in this patent, following the
advice of my attorneys, I indicated the control as being
affected through the medium of a single circuit and a
well-known form of detector, for the reason that I had not yet
secured protection on my methods and apparatus for
individualization. As a matter of fact, my boats were
controlled through the joint action of several circuits and
interference of every kind was excluded.

Most generally, I employed receiving circuits
in the form of loops, including condensers, because the
discharges of my high-tension transmitter ionized the air in
the (laboratory) so that even a very small aerial would draw
electricity from the surrounding atmosphere for hours. Just to
give an idea, I found, for instance, that a bulb twelve inches
in diameter, highly exhausted, and with one single terminal to
which a short wire was attached, would deliver well on to one
thousand successive flashes before all charge of the air in
the laboratory was neutralized. The loop form of receiver was
not sensitive to such a disturbance and it is curious to note
that it is becoming popular at this late date. In reality, it
collects much less energy than the aerials or a long grounded
wire, but it so happens that it does away with a number of
defects inherent to the present wireless devices.

In demonstrating my invention before audiences,
the visitors were requested to ask questions, however
involved, and the automaton would answer them by signs. This
was considered magic at the time, but was extremely simple,
for it was myself who gave the replies by means of the device.
At the same period, another larger telautomatic boat was
constructed, a photograph of which was shown in the October
1919 number of the Electrical Experimenter. It was controlled
by loops, having several turns placed in the hull, which was
made entirely watertight and capable of submergence. The
apparatus was similar to that used in the first with the
exception of certain special features I introduced as, for
example, incandescent lamps which afforded a visible evidence
of the proper functioning of the machine. These automata,
controlled within the range of vision of the operator, were,
however, the first and rather crude steps in the evolution of
the art of Telautomatics as I had conceived it.

The next logical improvement was its
application to automatic mechanisms beyond the limits of
vision and at great distances from the center of control, and
I have ever since advocated their employment as instruments of
warfare in preference to guns. The importance of this now
seems to be recognized, if I am to judge from casual
announcements through the press, of achievements which are
said to be extraordinary but contain no merit of novelty,
whatever. In an imperfect manner it is practicable, with the
existing wireless plants, to launch an airplane, have it
follow a certain approximate course, and perform some
operation at a distance of many hundreds of miles. A machine
of this kind can also be mechanically controlled in several
ways and I have no doubt that it may prove of some usefulness
in war. But there are to my best knowledge, no
instrumentalities in existence today with which such an object
could be accomplished in a precise manner. I have devoted
years of study to this matter and have evolved means, making
such and greater wonders easily realizable.

As stated on a previous occasion, when I was a
student at college I conceived a flying machine quite unlike
the present ones. The underlying principle was sound, but
could not be carried into practice for want of a prime-mover
of sufficiently great activity. In recent years, I have
successfully solved this problem and am now planning aerial
machines \*devoid of sustaining planes, ailerons, propellers,
and other external\* attachments, which will be capable of
immense speeds and are very likely to furnish powerful
arguments for peace in the near future. Such a machine,
sustained and propelled "entirely by reaction," is shown on
one of the pages of my lectures, and is supposed to be
controlled either mechanically, or by wireless energy. By
installing proper plants, it will be practicable to "project a
missile of this kind into the air and drop it" almost on the
very spot designated, which may be thousands of miles away.

But we are not going to stop at this.
Telautomats will be ultimately produced, capable of acting as
if possessed of their own intelligence, and their advent will
create a revolution. As early as 1898, I proposed to
representatives of a large manufacturing concern the
construction and public exhibition of an automobile carriage
which, left to itself, would perform a great variety of
operations involving something akin to judgment. But my
proposal was deemed chimerical at the time and nothing came of
it. At present, many of the ablest minds are trying to devise
expedients for preventing a repetition of the awful conflict
which is only theoretically ended and the duration and main
issues of which I have correctly predicted in an article
printed in the SUN of December 20, 1914. The proposed League
is not a remedy but, on the contrary, in the opinion of a
number of competent men, may bring about results just the
opposite.

It is particularly regrettable that a punitive
policy was adopted in framing the terms of peace, because a
few years hence, it will be possible for nations to fight
without armies, ships or guns, by weapons far more terrible,
to the destructive action and range of which there is
virtually no limit. Any city, at a distance, whatsoever, from
the enemy, can be destroyed by him and no power on earth can
stop him from doing so. If we want to avert an impending
calamity and a state of things which may transform the globe
into an inferno, we should push the development of flying
machines and wireless transmission of energy without an
instant's delay and with all the power and resources of the
nation.

*The End*

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***The New York Times* (27 March, 1904) ~**


**"Cloudborne Electric Wavelets To Encircle
the Globe: This Is Nicola Tesla's Latest Dream, and the
Long Island Hamlet of Wardenclyffe Marvels Thereat"**

To gather in the latent electricity in the clouds and with the
globe itself as a medium of transmission to convey telegraphic
messages, power for commercial purposes, or even the sound of
the human voice to the utmost confines of the earth is the
latest dream of Nikola Tesla. In an article which appeared
recently in The Electrical World Mr. Tesla explains the theories
on which the world telegraphy system is founded and what he
expects to accomplish by it.

His plans involve the establishment of stations for the
transmission of messages and power, "preferably near important
centers of civilization." Oddly enough, what Mr. Tesla proudly
designates as the first of his commercial "world telegraphy"
stations has been established at Wardenclyffe, L.I., which is
not in any sense an important "centre of civilization," but a
place described by train hands of the Long Island Railroad as a
way station where "a passenger alights occasionally."

Tesla's "Magnifying Transmitter", at Wardenclyffe, Shoreham, LI
(New York). The transmitting station is an octagonal tower,
pyramidal in shape, and some 187 feet in height. It consists of
huge wooden stilts, heavily braced, and reinforced, and
surmounted by a cupola of interlaced steel wires, bent so as to
form an arc. In the cupola there is a wooden platform occupying
its entire width. Mr. Tesla began work on his transmitting
station about eighteen months ago.

When he first came there, and it was understood that J.
Pierpont Morgan had become interested in his odd enterprise and
furnished him with financial assistance, a thrill of vague
expectancy ran through the little settlement, The Wardenclyffe
Land Company, which owns practically all the available ground in
the vicinity, gave the inventor a free grant of some 175 acres
of fine land, and then settled down to wait for the day when
Wardenclyffe would become the centre of the universe.

Some of the farmers who come to Wardenclyffe to send their
products to this city look at Mr. Tesla's tower, which is
situated directly opposite the railroad station, and shake their
heads sadly. They are inclined to take a skeptical view
regarding the feasibility of the wireless "world telegraphy"
idea, but yet Tesla's transmitting tower as it stands in lonely
grandeur and boldly silhouetted against the sky on a wide
clearing on the concession is a source or great satisfaction and
of some mystification to them all.

"It is a mighty fine tower," said one food farmer to a visitor
last week. "The breeze up there is something grand on a Summer
evening, and you can see the Sound and all the steamers that go
by. We are tired, though, trying to figure out why he put it
here instead of at Coney Island. " While the tower itself is
very "stagy" and picturesque, it is the wonders that are
supposed to be hidden in the earth underneath it that excite the
curiosity of the population in the little settlement.

In the centre of the wide concrete platform which serves as a
base for the structure there is a wooden affair very much like
the companionway on an ocean steamer. The tower and the
enclosure in which it has been built are being carefully guarded
these days, and no one except Mr. Tesla's own men are allowed to
approach it. Only they have been allowed as much as the briefest
peep down the companionway. Mr. Scherff, the private secretary
of the inventor, told an inquirer that the companionway led to a
small drainage passage built for the purpose of keeping the
ground about the tower dry.

But such of the villagers as saw the tower constructed tell a
different story. They declare that it leads to a well-like
excavation as deep as the tower is high with walls of mason work
and a circular stairway leading to the bottom.

From there, they say, tunnels have been built in all
directions, until the entire ground below the little plain on
which the tower is raised has been honeycombed with subterranean
passages.

They tell with awe how Mr. Tesla, on his weekly visits to
Wardenclyffe, spends as much time in the underground passages as
he does on the tower or in the handsome laboratory and workshop
erected beside it, and where the power plant for the world
telegraph has been installed.

No instruments have been installed as yet in the transmitter,
nor has Mr. Tesla given any description of what they will be
like. But in his article he announces that he will transmit from
the tower an electric wave of a total maximum activity of ten
million horse power. This, he says, will be possible with a
plant of but 100 horse power, by the use of a magnifying
transmitter of his own invention and certain artifices which he
promises to make known in due course. What he expects to
accomplish is summed up in the closing paragraph as follows:

"When the great truth, accidentally revealed and experimentally
confirmed, is fully recognized, that this planet, with all its
appalling immensity, is to electric currents virtually no more
than a small metal ball and that by virtue of this fact many
possibilities, each baffling imagination and of incalculable
consequence, are rendered absolutely sure of accomplishment;
when the first plant is inaugurated and it is shown that a
telegraphic message, almost as secret and non-interferable as a
thought, can be transmitted to any terrestrial distance, the
sound of the human voice, with all its intonations and
inflections faithfully and instantly reproduced at any other
point of the globe, the energy of a waterfall made available for
supplying light, heat or motive power, anywhere...on sea, or
land, or high in the air...humanity will be like an ant heap
stirred up with a stick. See the excitement coming!"

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