Here is the second part of the two part interview from the year 1905, again it is from Australia. Thanks to the National Archives in Canberra, regards Arto.
The Daily News (Perth, WA) Monday 3 April 1905
NIKOLA TESLA.
(By Frank G. Carpenter in the Los Angeles “Illustrated Weekly Magazine.”)
II.
TESLA’S NEW INVENTIONS.
And , now to Mr. Tesla’s latest discoveries. If he has what he thinks he has he will revolutionise labor and give man greater benefits than have come from any inventor since the world began. Indeed, the statements made me tonight in the mouth of any other man would be a fair test of in sanity. But many of Tesla’s wild statements of the past have been verified by great working inventions. He said he could harness Niagara, and through his experiments in tho rotary magnetic fields Niagara is now furnishing a power equal to that of tens of thousands 0f horses, and electrical works are being run by the same principle all over the globe. The New York subway, for instance, is founded upon it, Tesla demonstrated that wireless telegraphy could be done in 1893, and it is a question whether his inventions in that field are not prior in those of Marconi or De Forrest.
Tonight he told me that he had almost completed inventions by which he could send electrical power lo any distance, without wires, and that in any quantity, small or great. Said he :—
“I have proved that power can be thus transmitted. Let us suppose I have my plant at Niagara and you are running a sugar factory in Australia ; by my discoveries ii will be possible to send you 100, 500, or 1,000 horsepower for your factory, and to supply the same regularly, by the force furnished from Niagara Falls. Suppose you are travelling in the wilds of the Andes and make your camp on the shores of Lake Titicaca. By the outcome of this principle you may have telegraphed to you the instantaneous reports of the news of tho world as it happens from time to time. You may cook your dinner over an electric fire thus transmitted, and you may have the same at will on any part cf the globe. We shall be able to send power from place to place at will, and that at such a small cost that it will be industrially profitable.”
THE TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY WITHOUT WIRES.
“How did you discover that this might be done, Mr. Tesla ?” I asked.
“I have been for years working on the transmission of electrical energy, and, in 1898 established a laboratory on the edge of the Rocky Mountains, near Colorado Springs, My laboratory, there was over 6,000ft, high, higher than the top of Mount Washington, and I had extraordinary conditions for my experiments. Colorado is famous for its natural displays of electrical force. The earth at times is alive with electrical vibrations, and the air is full of electricity. I have seen 12,000 lightning discharges with in two hours, and all within a radius of 30 miles of my laboratory. These discharges were of great violence, some of them looking like trees of fire on the heavens. It was among such discharges that I had my electrical instruments, and studied the principles of electricity transmission through the earth and air. One day while watching the lightning I noticed that the discharges afar off often affected the instruments in my laboratory more than those near by. Upon examination I found that this could not be caused by the difference of intensity in the individual charges.”
“What could it be ?”
“Through instruments made for the purpose I tested the matter from time to time and finally came to the conclusion that the vibrations caused by the lightning moved around the world, and that there were stationary waves, I could gauge the discharges near the laboratory and see them fade away, and, after a certain fixed period, find them returning almost with no loss of power. In short, this planet, big as it is, was acting as a conductor, and I became convinced that upon it not only telegraphic messages, but also the modulations of the human voice and electrical power in unlimited amounts, could’ be carried around the entire globe, and sent to any part of it with hardly any perceptible loss. With my transmitter I actually sent electrical vibrations around the world and resolved them again, and I then went on to develop my machinery. I had, as I have told you, been studying and inventing along the lines electrical transmission, and was ready to take advantage of my discovery. I have since so improved the means of individualisation and isolation that such energy may be sent in any amount to any fixed place without danger of its going elsewhere or affecting others, and I believe the individualisation can be carried out to almost any degree.”
NIAGARA FOR THE WORLD.
“Will this enable the power of Niagara to be sent anywhere over the world ?”
“Yes, I have been experimenting at my laboratory on Long Island. I have machinery and buildings there which have cost in the neighborhood of £70,000, and the results show me that a plant could be erected at Niagara which can transmit its force to any place, desired. I am designing such a plant now at my laboratory, and would have had it completed had it not been for unforeseen delays, which have nothing to do with its technical features. The design which I have adopted will have a transmitter which will emit a wave complex of a total maximum activity of 10,000,000 horse- power, one per cent, of which is enough to girdle the globe. This enormous rate of energy delivery – it is twice, as much as the force of Niagara Falls – is obtainable only by the use of certain artifices which I shall make known some time in the future.
“We have been offered 10,000 horse- power from the Canadian Power Company. What I want to do is to build machinery there and transmit this power to various parts of the globe. The value of that amount of horsepower would be about £40,000 per year, and a plant erected to take advantage of it will pay large dividends.”
“How much would the plant cost?”
“It might cost in the neighborhood of £400,000, but its value would be enormous, and its success would revolutionise the working forces of the globe. It would result in other plants being erected at other places, and in the utilisation of all the great waterfalls for the work of man.”
MOTHER EARTH PUT TO WORK.
“By this invention every live part of mother earth’s body would he brought into action. Energy will be collected all over the globe in amounts small or large, as it may exist, ranging from a fraction of one to a few horsepower or more. Every waterfall can be utilised, every coalfield made to produce energy to be transmitted to vast distances, and every place on earth can have power at small cost. One of the minor uses might be the illumination of isolated homes. We could light houses all over the country, by means of vacuum tubes operated by high frequency currents. We could keep the clocks of the United States going and give everyone exact time; we could turn factories, machine shops and mills, small or large, anywhere, and I believe could also navigate the air.
THE TRANSMISSION OF INTELLIGENCE.
“One of the most important features of this invention,’ said Mr. Tesla, “‘will be the transmission of intelligence. It will convert the entire earth into a huge brain, capable of responding in every one of its parts. By the employment of a number of plants, each of which can transmit signals to all parts of the world, the news of the globe will be flashed to all points. A cheap and simple receiving device, which might be carried in one’s pocket, can be set up anywhere on sea or land, and it will record the world’s news as it occurs, or take such special messages as are intended for it. If you are in the heart of the Sahara, your wife can telegraph to you from Washington, and if the instrument is properly made you alone will get the message. A single plant of a few horsepower could operate hundreds of such instruments, so that the invention has an infinite working capacity, and will cheapen the transmission of all kinds of intelligence.”
Artojh's Renderings 