ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE

THE FLYING BOAT STARTINGThe latest aeroplane is here seen cutting through the water preparatory to ascending into the air.

THE FLYING BOAT STARTING

The latest aeroplane is here seen cutting through the water preparatory to ascending into the air.

THE CURTISS FLYING BOATThis is the very latest development in the hydro-aeroplane, and moreover it is claimed by its inventor, Glenn Curtiss, to be the first absolutely safe aeroplane.

THE CURTISS FLYING BOAT

This is the very latest development in the hydro-aeroplane, and moreover it is claimed by its inventor, Glenn Curtiss, to be the first absolutely safe aeroplane.

GLENN CURTISS ALLOWING HIS HYDRO-AEROPLANE TO FLOAT ON THE WATER AFTER ALIGHTING

HYDRO-AEROPLANE AT MONTE CARLOAt the hydro-aeroplane meet at Monaco practically every well-known type of biplane was equipped with pontoons and entered the contest.

HYDRO-AEROPLANE AT MONTE CARLO

At the hydro-aeroplane meet at Monaco practically every well-known type of biplane was equipped with pontoons and entered the contest.

The Blériot Canard or "duck" is one of the latest developments of the pioneer constructor, and the chief difference between it and the other Blériotmachines is that the body extends out in front of the main plane instead of behind, something like Santos-Dumont's first machine. The main plane has a spread of 29 feet, and has a total supporting surface of 129 square feet. At the forward end of the body is placed the horizontal elevating rudder, while two small vertical rudders, placed on the top of the outer ends of the main plane and working in unison, serve to steer it from side to side. The balance in this machine is preserved by large hinged ailerons at the outer rear edges of the main plane. The pilot sits in front of the engine underneath the plane, which is a military advantage, giving him ample chance for looking down and observing everything over which he is passing.

ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE

No machine that ever was flown has excited more admiration from those on the ground than the graceful Antoinette monoplane, designed by the famous French motor-boat builder, Levavasseur. Its great tapering wings and long fan-shaped tail give it the appearance of a huge swallow or dragon-fly as it sails through the air, and whenever this type has appeared at the American meets it has received tremendous applause.

The two best known models of the Antoinette are the type used by Latham in this country, and the "armoured" type, entered in the French militarytests. The bow of the first-mentioned machine is shaped very much like the prow of a boat with the 50 to 100 horsepower 8-or 16-cylinder water-cooled Antoinette engine occupying the extreme forward part. The propeller is set in front of this, and is of the tractor type, drawing the machine through the air behind it. In the recent models of the Antoinette, the main plane, set at a slight dihedral angle, spread a little more than 49 feet (compare this with the spread of 28 feet of the Blériot). The two sides of the main plane taper from the body of the machine, but have an average depth from front to rear of 8 feet, which gives a fairly high aspect ratio of about 6. The total area is 405 square feet. The main plane also tapers in thickness, being nearly a foot through close to the body and tapering down to a few inches at the outer tips. The graceful tail at the rear has both vertical and horizontal surfaces gently tapering to the height and width of the elevating and direction rudders. The elevating rudder is a single horizontal triangular surface at the rear controlled by cables running to a pilot wheel at the operator's right hand. It has an area of 20 square feet. The direction rudder is composed of two triangular surfaces with an area of 10 square feet each. One is above the elevator and the other below, but both are worked in unison by wires connecting with a foot lever. The machine is balanced by a warping system much like that on the Wright biplanes we knowso well. This is accomplished by wires connecting with a steering wheel at the pilot's left hand, so that he uses his right hand to steer his machine up or down, his feet to steer from right to left, and his left hand to maintain the balance. Of course, in making a sharp turn he uses his warping wheel as well as his direction wheel, because, as previously explained, it is necessary to incline the machine over toward the inside of the curve desired to be made. The pilot sits in the framework, above and a little back of the supporting plane.

The "armoured" Antoinette, which was designed for military purposes, is entirely enclosed, even increasing the already great resemblance to a bird, while the direction rudder is made of a single surface, and the elevating rudder of two rhomboid-shaped rudders. The pilot sits in a cockpit with only his head and shoulders protruding above and has a view below through a glass floor. Its most important feature is the total elimination of cross wires, struts and the like. The resistance is greatly decreased, but the weight increased. In addition, a peculiar wing section is used, flat on the under side and curved on the upper side. The wings are immensely thick, being entirely braced from the inside. At the body the wings are over two feet thick. Their thickness decreases toward the tips, which are about eight inches thick. The shape of each wing is called trapesoidal, and they are set at a large dihedralangle. The motor is a regular 100-horsepower Antoinette.

The oddest feature of this type is the landing gear, which is entirely enclosed to within a few inches of the ground; the landing wheels at the front are six in number, three on each side of the centre, enclosed in what is called a "skirt." At the rear are two smaller wheels.

The dimensions are roughly as follows: Spread, 52-1/2 feet, wings, 602 square feet; length over all, 36 feet; depth of wings (from front to rear) at tips, over 9 feet, increasing to almost 13 feet at the centre. The total weight is nearly 2,400 pounds.

NIEUPORT MONOPLANE

The Nieuport monoplane is one of the newer machines that has attracted a great deal of attention for its speed with low-powered engines. Among the achievements of this monoplane was Weyman's winning of the James Gordon Bennett Cup and prize in England in 1911, and the demonstration of its remarkable passenger carrying abilities. The Nieuport also is a wonderful glider, for Claude Grahame-White took his new one up 3,000 feet at Nassau Boulevard, Garden City, during the 1911 meet there and glided down the whole distance without power, the downward sail taking him nearly as long as the upward climb.

THE WRIGHT BIPLANEBaby Wright model. Orville Wright is in front of seat, while Wilbur Wright is holding back on the fuselage.

THE WRIGHT BIPLANE

Baby Wright model. Orville Wright is in front of seat, while Wilbur Wright is holding back on the fuselage.

STANDARD CURTISS BIPLANEFor reliability and stability the Curtiss biplane is one of the best known models.

STANDARD CURTISS BIPLANE

For reliability and stability the Curtiss biplane is one of the best known models.

CURTISS STEERING GEARSitting in front of the engine the aviator controls the ailerons by straps over his shoulders, and the direction and elevation rudders by the steering wheel.

CURTISS STEERING GEAR

Sitting in front of the engine the aviator controls the ailerons by straps over his shoulders, and the direction and elevation rudders by the steering wheel.

The passenger machine has a spread of 36 feetwith a length of about 24 feet from front to rear. This machine is generally equipped with a 50 or 70 horsepower Gnome motor, although the plane with which Weyman won the Gordon Bennett contest was equipped with a 100-horsepower Gnome motor. The smaller machine has a spread of 27 feet, 6 inches and a length of 23 feet. An engine of the 3-cylinder Anzani type is usually mounted on this monoplane.

The body of the flier gracefully tapers to a point at the rear where are placed the elevating and steering rudders.

The chief characteristics of the Nieuport are strength, simplicity in design, and great efficiency of operation. The smaller machine, which is equipped with an engine of from 18 to 20 horsepower, has acquired a speed of 52-1/2 miles an hour. The Nieuport is constructed along original lines throughout. The wings are very thick at the front edge, while the rear edges are flexible so that in gusts of wind they give a little.

The fuselage, or body of the machine, which is extraordinarily large, and shaped like the body of a bird, is entirely covered with canvas.

The weakest part of the Nieuport monoplane is the alighting and running gear, which is so designed as to eliminate head resistance, but unfortunately this simplicity is carried to an extreme which makes the machine the most difficult one to run along theground, and to this construction may be traced most of the accidents which have occurred to the Nieuport machines.

The Nieuport control differs from that of the majority of other machines inasmuch as the wing warping is controlled by the feet, while hand levers operate the vertical and elevating rudders.

MODEL AEROPLANES

After having taken in such a lot of information about aeroplanes the scientist's young friend considered himself fairly well equipped to build a flier.

"Why couldn't I build a little model aeroplane?" he said one day.

"No reason why young couldn't," answered his friend in the laboratory. "You have a little workshop at home and your own simple tools will be plenty. You will have to buy some of your materials, but they are all cheap.

"There is no sport like model aeroplane flying, but to the average American boy the flying is not half so much fun as meeting and overcoming the obstacles and problems entailed in making the little plane. These days nearly any boy would scorn to enter a model aeroplane tournament with any machine that he did not make himself, and a great many of the amateur aviators even prefer to make their own designs and plans.

"When we begin to take up the construction of aglider or an aeroplane, we must, like the Wright brothers, reluctantly enter upon the scientific side of it, because in model building we cannot simply make exact reproductions of the great man-carrying fliers, but must meet and overcome new problems. The laws that govern the standard aeroplanes apply a little differently to models, so it is necessary for the model builder to figure things out for himself.

"For instance," explained the scientist, "most amateurs have decided that monoplane models fly much better than biplanes. The reason for this is probably that with the miniature makes the air is so disturbed by the propeller that its action on the lower plane tends to make it unsteady rather than to give it a greater lifting capacity. This could be avoided by placing the two planes farther apart, but they would have to be so far separated that the machine would be ungainly and out of all proportion. Moreover, the second plane, with the necessary stays and trusses, adds to the weight of the machine, and this is always bad in models.

"There are as many different types of model aeroplanes as there are of the big man carriers, but you had better make a small flier first, experiment with it, and then work out your own variations just as you think best."

"Will you help me build one?" asked the boy.

"No, for you don't need my help and you will have more fun doing it alone. I will tell you how to goabout it, and with what you know of the principles of aviation from our conversations it will be easy to make a successful model."

Then taking a piece of paper and a pencil the scientist began to draw rough plans for the building of a little model monoplane something like the Blériot, except that it was driven tail first, with the propeller at the rear. As he worked he explained how the plan shown below should be followed, saying that the beginner would find that a length of about one foot would be the most convenient for this first model. Later on he can make the big ones with a spread of wings of three feet, and a length of forty or more inches.

A SIMPLE MODEL AEROPLANE

First, the three main parts of the model should be made. Those are the two main planes and backbone. The simplest way of making the planes for a model of this kind is to use thin boards of poplar or spruce, which will not split easily and which can be worked with a jackknife. The large plane shouldbe rectangular, with a spread of eight inches and a depth of two inches, while the smaller plane should be the same shape, four by one inch. They should be one eighth of an inch or less in thickness. Plane and sandpaper them down as thin and as smooth as possible without splitting them, and round off the corners just enough to do away with sharp edges. Now draw a line parallel with the side that is eight inches long, three quarters of an inch from the edge. Measure off two inches toward the centre from the outer edges, along this line, and draw lines parallel with the edges that are two inches deep. At the corners which are to be the rear we find the lines make two rectangles three quarters of an inch by two inches, and these corners are to be cut away in a graceful curve from the corners of the rectangles. When it is done the main plane will be shaped like a big D with the curved edge to the rear. The front edge of the small plane also should be curved, but not nearly so much as the larger plane. This done, the planes can be steamed or moistened with varnish, and given a slight curve or camber by laying them on a flat board with a little stick underneath and weights at the front and back to hold down the edges while they dry and set. The sticks should be about one third of the way back from the front edges, from there tapering down to the level of the rear edge. Of course, in this process great care must be used not to split the delicate planes.

STANDARD FARMAN BIPLANENote the box tail and the single elevating plane.

STANDARD FARMAN BIPLANE

Note the box tail and the single elevating plane.

FARMAN PLANE WITH ENCLOSED NOSEThis type is sometimes used in Europe, and it led to the Farman "canard" with the box tail in front.

FARMAN PLANE WITH ENCLOSED NOSE

This type is sometimes used in Europe, and it led to the Farman "canard" with the box tail in front.

A MODERN BLÉRIOTThis machine has the enclosed fuselage and other recent improvements. Note the four-bladed propeller

A MODERN BLÉRIOT

This machine has the enclosed fuselage and other recent improvements. Note the four-bladed propeller

A STANDARD BLÉRIOTThis is the regular type of Blériot made famous by long over-water flights.

A STANDARD BLÉRIOT

This is the regular type of Blériot made famous by long over-water flights.

PASSENGER-CARRYING BLÉRIOTThis type has tremendous capacity for carrying great weights.

PASSENGER-CARRYING BLÉRIOT

This type has tremendous capacity for carrying great weights.

There are many other ways of making planes. If one does not care to round off the edges, he can make very light wooden rectangular frames of the size indicated, and cover them with cloth, or silk, afterward varnishing them to make them smooth and air-tight. It is difficult to give such planes a camber, but if the framework is made of strong light wire, such as umbrella ribs, and then covered, the camber can be obtained by putting light wire or light wooden ribs in the planes, much like on the big standard makes. Plane building can be developed to a high art, and after a boy makes one or two models he will see any number of ways that he can make them lighter, stronger and more professional looking.

With the planes finished, the next work is to make the backbone of the machine by planing and sandpapering a light strong stick one foot long and not more than a quarter of an inch square. Cut out a neat block of the same wood, the same thickness as the backbone, and one inch square. Glue it to the end of the backbone and reinforce it by wrapping it with silken thread moistened with glue or varnish. Be sure to have the grain of this block, which is the motor base, run the same as the backbone. Three quarters of an inch from the backbone, and parallel with it, bore a little hole for the propeller shaft or axle. Unless you are sure of your drill, heat a thin steel wire and burn the hole, rather than risk splitting the block.

The propeller is the next thing to make, while the glue on the backbone is drying, and the camber of the plane is setting. Some models have metal propellers, but most boys prefer to make wooden ones, either from blocks of their own cutting or from blanks that can be purchased. The blank should be four inches in diameter an inch wide, and half an inch thick. It can be cut away very thin with a sharp knife, and a fairly good whittler can make a propeller that looks as businesslike as the great gleaming blades on the big machines. A wire then should be run through the dead centre of the propeller and bent over so that when the wire shaft turns the propeller also turns. As a bearing or washer the simplest device is a glass bead strung on the shaft and well oiled to lessen the friction, between the propeller and the propeller base. The shaft is then run through the hole in the motor base and bent into a hook for the rubber strands that drive the propeller. Great care should be taken in mounting the propeller and making the hook that the shaft is kept in an absolutely straight line, and at an accurate right angle with the propeller, so that the screw can turn free and true with as little friction as possible, and no wobbling or unbusinesslike vibration. Next a wire hook should be placed at the other end of the backbone upon which to hook the other end of the rubber strands. This hook can either be imbedded in another block the same size as the motor base or canbe set out by some other ingenious device, so that the strands will turn free of the backbone, and will make an even line parallel with it. Both hooks should be covered by little pieces of rubber tubing to protect the rubber strands. Any friction whatever in a model is bad, but it is worst of all upon the rubber strands of the motor.

With the parts in hand the next step is attaching the planes to the backbone. In this machine the motor should be above the planes, so that the planes should be affixed to the upper side of the central stick, with the rubber strands above them. The propeller is at the rear, so the small front plane should be placed at the front, with the slightly curved edge to the rear. It should be about an inch from the tip of the stick and the front edge should be elevated slightly to give the necessary lifting power. The main plane should be placed about an inch from the rear tip of the backbone, with the curved edge to the rear and the front slightly elevated. The planes should be affixed with rubber bands so that it is possible to move them forward or back, because the little monoplane might be lacking in fore and aft stability and the rearrangement of the planes might correct it. It might even be found more satisfactory in some models to change the order and let the propeller, base, and strands of the motor come below the planes instead of above them. Your own experience will tell best.

THE ANTOINETTE MONOPLANENew armoured Antoinette shown in the large picture, while the small insert shows the old-style machine.

THE ANTOINETTE MONOPLANE

New armoured Antoinette shown in the large picture, while the small insert shows the old-style machine.

Photo by Philip W. WilcoxTHE NIEUPORT MONOPLANEComparatively a new make, the Nieuport monoplane has sprung into great favour for its speed and passenger-carrying capacities.

Photo by Philip W. Wilcox

THE NIEUPORT MONOPLANE

Comparatively a new make, the Nieuport monoplane has sprung into great favour for its speed and passenger-carrying capacities.

Of course, the planes must be placed on the backbone exactly evenly or the airship will be lopsided, a fatal fault. By experimenting, the boy can tell just how high the front edges should be elevated, or, in other words, what angle of incidence he should give his plane. A rudder, to keep the machine in a straight course, can be added underneath the centre of the main plane. It should be about two inches square, but shaved off to a curving razor edge. Also light skids of cane or rattan may be added. They should be glued to the under side of the backbone and curved backward like sled runners. The front one should be two and a half to three inches high, while the rear one should be about an inch to an inch and a half less.

After trying out the model as a glider by throwing it across a room and making sure it is well balanced both laterally and longitudinally, or from side to side, and fore and aft, the rubber strands can be put on, and the motor wound up. About four strands of rubber one eighth of an inch square, such as is sold for this purpose, would suffice for good flights of more than one hundred feet, if the machine were of the same weight and proportions as the model from which this description was written. In models, however, there are many little details that can change the conditions, and a boy can only experiment, locate his mistakes, and try it over again.

This is one of the simplest and easiest model aeroplanes that can be made. A trip to one of the model aeroplane tournaments will reveal dozens of more elaborate ones, which will give any ingenious boy ideas for development of the principles he can learn from the simpler type. Probably the next step of the average boy would be to build a machine with two motors, which can be done by elaborating the single stick backbone or by making a backbone of two or three sticks well braced with cross pieces at each end and in the middle. Then there are interesting experiments with the size of planes, number of planes, their aspect ratio—that is the proportion of their width to their depth—ailerons for automatic stability, and rudders for keeping the machine on a straight course. There are always new things to be done with the motors, because, though the rubber motors have driven models close to half a mile, there are now on the market miniature gasoline motors to drive models, and experiments are being tried with clockwork and compressed air. Indeed the model aeroplane field is as broad in itself as that of the man-carrying machines.

Aviation has been reduced to an exact science, but it is yet in its early growth, both in the field of models and in the field of the various kinds of man-carrying machines. Not only are the designers making great headway with aeroplanes, but also with dirigibleballoons so any one interested in aeronautics has a very wide field for his work. As we said in an earlier chapter, the boy model designer of to-day may be the inventor of to-morrow who gains undying fame by some now undreamed-of development of the aeroplane.

The designers of the man carriers are trying to make their machines stronger, safer, more reliable, capable of carrying more passengers, and they hope at last to bring them to a more practical use in the world than as a sport. The most thoughtful aviators do not favour exhibition flying so strongly as they do long cross-country flights, endurance tests, passenger-carrying tests, and other experiments that will develop aeroplanes beyond their present limitations.

The next great feat of the aeroplane is the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and that may not be far distant, for at the time of writing half a dozen aviators are planning the attempt, but even more important than that, even more important than the development of the aeroplane for war scouting, is the development of the aeroplane as a faithful servant of the people who are quietly going about their own everyday business. The time will come when the readers of this may send their mail by aeroplane, take pleasure rides in the aeroplane instead of the automobile, and even make regular trips on regularly established aeroplane routes, buying their tickets at the greatcentral aeroplane stations as they would buy railroad tickets in the Grand Central or the Pennsylvania stations to-day, taking their seats in comfortably arranged aero cars, and being whisked in a few hours from one part of the country to the other, and even from one side of the ocean to the other.

CHAPTER IVARTIFICIAL LIGHTNING MADE AND HARNESSEDTO MAN'S USE

OUR FRIENDS INVESTIGATE NIKOLA TESLA'S INVENTION FOR THE WIRELESS TRANSMISSION OF POWER, BY WHICH HE HOPES TO ENCIRCLE THE EARTH WITH LIMITLESS ELECTRICAL POWER, MAKE OCEAN AND AIR TRAVEL ABSOLUTELY SAFE, AND REVOLUTIONIZE LAND TRAFFIC.

"HOW would you like to send a signal clear through the earth with your wireless outfit and get it back again on your receiving instrument as clear and strong as at first, just about the same way you hear the echo of your voice when it rebounds from a mountainside or a big building?" asked the scientist one day while his young friend was telling him about his amateur wireless experiments.

"I don't see how I could," answered the boy.

"No, of course you don't," said the boy's friend, "for it took Nikola Tesla, 'the wizard of electricity' almost a lifetime to work out the invention by which he could do that, but if you like we will goand see Doctor Tesla and ask him to tell us about his wonderful experiments.

"You see this is a series of inventions by Tesla, and wireless telegraphy is only a small part of it. You remember the other day you told me of having read about aeroplanes equipped with wireless. Just think, Tesla's invention will make it possible for airships to be propelled and operated all by electricity sent without wires. The whole broad plan is called the wireless transmission of power, and that simply means that electricity can be transmitted without wires for all the uses we now have for it, as well as for a number of entirely new and hitherto unknown devices."

The boy was delighted with the prospect of seeing the great scientist Tesla, about whom he had read so much, and began to ask his older friend a thousand questions about the man, his work and life.

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 dynamicdreams." 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 terribleTitanicdisaster never would have occurred had his system been in effect last April, for he declares that theTitanic'scaptain 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 betweenindividuals 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 talland 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.

"For all that I am something of a boy still myself," says the inventor. "You see I could work for the present generation to make money. Of course that's all right, but I don't care what the present generation thinks of me. It is the growing generation—the boys of to-day that I want to work for, because they will live in an age when the world has advanced far enough in science to understand some of the deeper mysteries of electricity. The boys of to-day are the great scientists of to-morrow, and it is to them that I dedicate my greatest efforts."

All his life Tesla has been working with an eye to the future as well as to the present, and some of his inventions probably will be far better appreciated in twenty years than they are now, although to Tesla we owe our thanks for some of the mostimportant electrical machinery in use at the present time.

As an inventor Tesla is best known as a pioneer in high tension currents. It was he who introduced to the world the great principle of the alternating current, as up to the time he carried out his experiments only the direct current was used. Indeed, more than four million horsepower of waterfalls are harnessed by Tesla's alternating current system. That is the same as forty millions of untiring men working without pay, consuming no food, shelter or raiment while labouring to provide for our wants. In these days of conservation, it is interesting to note that this electrical energy derived from water power saves a hundred million tons of coal every year. Our trolley roads, our subways, many of our electrified railroads, the incandescent lamps in our homes and offices, all use a system of power transmission of this man's invention.

As said before Tesla is a naturalized American citizen. He was born in Smiljan, Lika, on the Austro-Hungarian border, in 1857. He came by his scientific and inventive turn of mind naturally, for his father was an intellectual Greek clergyman, and his mother, Georgia Mandic, was an inventor herself as was her father before her. The boy attended the public schools of Lika and Croatia, where he was a leader among his playmates in sports where imagination and mechanical skill were required. There aremarvellous tales of the ingenuity of Tesla while a schoolboy, but with all his play he was a serious-minded student, and went through the Polytechnic in Gratz and the University of Prague in Bohemia with honours. While in the Polytechnic, Tesla saw the defects of some of the machinery that was used in the laboratory, and made suggestions for its improvement.

After finishing college Tesla began his practical career in Budapest as an electrical engineer in 1881. His first invention followed soon after in the form of a telephone repeater. He continued in electrical engineering in Paris until 1884, when he came to the United States. His first employment in America was with The Edison Company at Orange, N. J., but in 1887 he went into business for himself as an electrical engineer. From that time on he has been an important figure in the scientific world. He has made many addresses before various gatherings of experts and has written numerous papers on scientific subjects for the magazines. Of course the bulk of his time has been given to his inventions and the necessary research therefor.

LIKE A BOLT OF LIGHTNINGThe electrical discharge of this Tesla oscillator created flames 70 feet across, under the pressure of 12,000,000 volts and a current alternating 130,000 times per second.

LIKE A BOLT OF LIGHTNING

The electrical discharge of this Tesla oscillator created flames 70 feet across, under the pressure of 12,000,000 volts and a current alternating 130,000 times per second.

DR. NIKOLA TESLAWizard of electricity, and inventor of the wireless transmission of power.

DR. NIKOLA TESLA

Wizard of electricity, and inventor of the wireless transmission of power.

DOCTOR TESLA'S FIRST POWER PLANTFrom this oscillator Doctor Tesla sends out the electrical waves with which he hopes to revolutionize industry.

DOCTOR TESLA'S FIRST POWER PLANT

From this oscillator Doctor Tesla sends out the electrical waves with which he hopes to revolutionize industry.

Throughout his life Tesla has been more interested in the adventurous and scientific side of electricity than the commercial side, and all of his inventions smack of the marvellous. To name all his inventions would be almost like giving a list of the machines and devices that mark man's progress in the use ofelectricity. His invention for the alternating current dynamo, for instance, brought forth an entirely new principle, while his rotating magnetic field made possible the transmission of alternating currents from large power plants over great distances and is very extensively used to-day. High power dynamos, transformers, induction coils, oscillators, and various kinds of electric lamps all came in for his attention.

He became one of the foremost authorities on high tension currents and in 1889 invented a system of electrical conversion and distribution by oscillatory discharges which was a step toward his great goal, the wireless transmission of power. He was very near the prize when in 1893 he announced a system of wireless transmission of intelligence. His studies continued and finally, in 1897, he announced his famous high potential transmitter by which he claimed to be able to send power through the earth without wires. The art of telautomatics announced in 1899 was really a part of Tesla's invention for the wireless transmission of power, for the plan was to control such objects, for instance, as airships or boats, from a distance by electricity transmitted without wires.

Through that marvellous invention the boat or aeroplane dispatcher, sitting before a complex little wireless dispatching board could send his craft, at any speed, at any height, in perfect safety, and with exact precision to the place or port he desired it togo. It would not be necessary for the dispatcher ever to see the craft he was directing, for his instruments would show him everything in regard to its speed, direction, and location; nor yet would it be necessary for a craft to have a crew aboard, for all the operations in connection with sending it from one place to another would be controlled perfectly by telautomatics.

Such are the almost inconceivable inventions of Nikola Tesla. "Sometimes they call me a dreamer," says Tesla, "because I do not capitalize these inventions, start in manufacturing and make a big fortune. That is not what I care to do. I want to go further in this great mystery of wireless power, and if I am busy making money I cannot devote my best abilities to inventions that will be in use when the next generation is grown."

But let us try to fathom the mysteries of Tesla's scheme for the transmission of electric energy without wires. In the first place we must not try to think of it as being on the same basis as the radio, or Hertzian wireless telegraph, for, although the modern developments of the wireless telegraph take into consideration the central theory of Tesla's invention, they are not at all the same in their practical working.

Tesla's theory is based entirely on his discovery of what he calls stationary electrical earth waves which he sets in motion with his high potentialmagnifying transmitter, an electrical apparatus of tremendous power.

First, let us remember the three essential departments of Tesla's idea for world telegraphy, world telephony, and world transmission of power for commercial purposes.

Assuming that the power is created by Niagara or some other great waterfall—"white coal" as it is picturesquely called by many engineers—the first necessities are a transformer and a transmitter that will send the electrical energy, thus gathered, into the earth and air. The next necessity is a receiving instrument that will record the impulse, whether it be a voice, a telegraph click, or several million volts for driving factory wheels or lighting houses. Lastly, it is necessary to tune the currents so that millions of different impulses can be sent without causing confusion between them. In other words, there must be departments for sending, receiving and "individualizing."

To ask Doctor Tesla to tell us the whole story of this invention would be to ask him to tell us in detail the whole history of his life work—and that would take several volumes, for he is one of those men who have worked incessantly, day and night, sacrificing himself and overcoming his natural desire for leisure and amusement. It all started, Tesla explains, when he was a very small boy. He was troubled at that time with a strange habit. Whenever any onewould mention a thing to him, a vision of the object immediately would come before his eyes. He declares that this was very troublesome, and that as he grew older he tried to overcome it, thinking it some strange malady. With an effort he learned how to banish the images by putting them from his mind. On inquiring into the cause of the visions, the young scientist's penetrating brain brought him to the conclusion that every time he saw a vision, some time previous he had seen something to remind him of the object. The tracing back of the cause of his vision so frequently caused it to become a mental habit, and he declares that for many years he has done it automatically, and that he has been able to trace the cause of nearly every impression, even including his dreams. Reflecting on these things, as a mature scientist, Tesla came to the conclusion that he was an automaton, responding automatically to impressions registered on his senses from the outside.

"Why couldn't I make a mechanical automaton that would represent me in every way, except thought?" he asked himself. The answer to the question which came only after years of study and experiment was the art of "telautomatics," which Tesla declares can be developed just as soon as the wireless transmission of power is an accomplished fact.

In the course of his research into the realm of high tension currents Tesla reached the stage where itwas no longer safe nor convenient to experiment in the centres of population. Moreover, he desired to make a study of the action of lightning. Colorado, with its vast stretches of uninhabited plains and mountains, offered an ideal place for his laboratory, particularly because the high, dry climate of that state brings forth some of the worst electrical storms seen in the United States. Consequently, in the spring of 1899, Tesla built an experiment station on the plateau that extends from the front range of the Rocky Mountains to Colorado Springs, and began the experiments through which the secret with which he hopes to revolutionize the communication and transportation systems of the world, was revealed to him.

Besides his high power alternating current dynamo, Tesla set up an electrical oscillator with which he hoped to send out electrical waves, through the earth and air, that would prove to him the possibility of an extensive system of wireless communication, and telautomatic, or wireless control of airships, projectiles, steamships, etc. In his early experiments he used the oscillator at low tension, but as his success became more marked he increased the tension, until the oscillator was giving twelve million volts, and the current was alternating a hundred thousand times a second.

In regard to these high tension experiments in Colorado and elsewhere, Doctor Tesla said, "Ihave produced electrical oscillations which were of such intensity that when circulating through my arms and chest they have melted wires which have joined my hands, and still I have felt no inconvenience. I have energized, with such oscillations, a loop of heavy copper wire so powerfully that masses of metal placed within the loop were heated to a high temperature and melted, often with the violence of an explosion. And yet, into this space in which this terribly destructive turmoil was going on I have repeatedly thrust my head without feeling anything or experiencing injurious after effects."

Among the earlier experiments, which in themselves were wonderful enough, were the transmission of an electrical current through one wire without return, to light several incandescent lamps. Advancing further along the trail of wireless transmission of power, Tesla lighted the lamps without any wire connection between them and his transmitter.

The oscillator, though simple in its construction, is one of the most wonderful of all electrical devices. "You see," said Doctor Tesla, "all that is necessary is a high power alternating dynamo which generates a tremendous alternating current. For our oscillator proper, we make a few turns of a stout cable around a cylindrical or drum-shaped form, and connect its two ends with the source of electrical energy. Then, inside the big cable, or primary coil, we wind a lighter wire in spiral form. One end of thesecondary coil is sunk into the ground and connected with a plate, and the other is erected in the air. When the current is turned on, our oscillator sends these electrical impulses into the earth and air—or, as the scientists say, into the natural media. These oscillations create electrical waves and affect any device that is tuned to them—but (and this is very important) no device that is not tuned to them."

Continuing the explanation of his high tension experiments, Tesla tells us that the awe-inspiring electrical display, of which there is a picture on page136, was made by his oscillator which created an alternate movement of electricity from the earth into a hollow metal reservoir and back at a speed of 100,000 alternations a second. The reservoir is already filled to overflowing with electricity and as the current is sent back to it at each alternation the terrific force makes it burst forth with a deafening roar, as great as the heaviest lightning detonation. The electric flames shoot out in every direction searching for something on which they may alight, just as lightning sent from the clouds searches for a conductor upon which it may alight and escape into the earth. The induction coils in the picture are tuned to these tremendous electrical explosions, and the flames shoot direct to them, a distance of 22 feet.

The flames shooting from the coil of the oscillator pictured on page164were nearly 70 feet across,represented twelve million volts of electricity, and a current alternating 130,000 times a second. These hair-raising experiments created such electrical disturbances that it was possible to draw great sparks more than an inch long, from water plugs over 300 feet from the laboratory. One of the most marvellous things about these experiments is that any human being could remain in the vicinity. The absolute safety of these discharges when properly harnessed is well illustrated in the picture shown there as the man seen amidst the flames felt no ill effects from his experience, simply because this power was so thoroughly harnessed by the wizard Tesla, that it could go only to the device tuned to receive it. Every boy is familiar with stories of lightning striking one person, but yet leaving another person right next to him unharmed. Such is the action of Tesla's high tension currents, only he directs them by induction just as he wants them to go.

"But this is just like lightning!" exclaimed the boy.

"So it is," calmly answered Doctor Tesla with a smile. "I have often produced electrical oscillations even greater than the energy of lightning discharges."

These experiments were marvellous enough, but they were surpassed in a short time by his famous discovery of July 3, 1899, which showed him that he could send his wireless waves to the opposite side of the earth just as well as a hundred feet away.

This revelation, as the scientist calls it, came about through his study of lightning. The scientist had set up in his Colorado laboratory many delicate electrical instruments to register various different electrical effects. Tesla noticed, however, that strangely enough his instruments were just as violently affected by distant electrical storms as by nearby disturbances.

"One night when meditating over these facts," said Tesla, "I was suddenly staggered by a thought. The same thing had presented itself to me years ago; but I had then dismissed it as impossible. And that night when it recurred to me I banished it again. Nevertheless, my instinct was aroused, and somehow I felt that I was nearing a great revelation.

"As you know, it was on the third of July that I obtained the first definite evidence of a truth of overwhelming importance for the advancement of humanity. A dense mass of strongly charged clouds gathered in the west, and toward evening a violent storm broke loose which, after spending much of its fury in the mountains, was driven away with great velocity over the plains. Heavy and long persisting arcs formed almost at regular intervals of time. My observations were now greatly facilitated and rendered more accurate by the records already made. I was able to handle my instruments quickly, and was prepared. The recording apparatus being properly adjusted, its indications became fainter and fainterwith the increasing distance of the storm, until they ceased altogether. I was watching in eager expectation. Sure enough, in a little while the indications again began, grew stronger, gradually decreased, and ceased once more. Many times, in regularly recurring intervals, the same actions were repeated, until the storm, as evident from simple computations, with nearly constant speed had retreated to a distance of about two hundred miles. Nor did these strange actions stop then, but continued to manifest themselves with undiminished force.

"When I made this discovery I was utterly astounded. I could not believe what I had seen was really true. It was too great a revelation of Nature to accept immediately and unhesitatingly."

What Tesla had discovered, and soon announced to the scientific world, was the existence of stationary terrestrial waves of electricity, and its meaning was that an impulse sent into the earth was carried on these waves to the other side of the earth and rebounded without any loss of power. He had, in fact, discovered and turned to man's use the very heartbeats of our earth.

"Whatever electricity may be," he continued, "it is a fact that it acts like a fluid, and in this connection, we may consider the earth as a great hollow ball filled with electricity." He goes on to explain that when an impulse is sent into this ball of electricity it proceeds to the opposite wall of the earth inwaves and, finding no outlet it returns to the place it started, but in a series of waves exactly the opposite of the outgoing ones, so that the two cross and diverge at regular intervals as indicated in the diagram.

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