DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



437 



profitable to again go over the ground 

 covered by the articles just mentioned, 

 but readers are referred to them in pass- 

 ing. 



The article in the Sun of January 

 3 bears the marks of authenticity. 

 Much of it is printed in quotation 

 marks. It gives an account of Mr. Tes- 

 la's work in Colorado during a part of 

 the year 1899. This work had, he says, 

 three objects: first, to transmit power 

 without wires, and second, to develop 

 apparatus for submarine telegraphy. 

 These two problems have a direct com- 

 mercial value. When they are solved, 

 by Mr. Tesla or another, we shall hear 

 of them through the Patent Office. As 

 we have not so heard of them it is per- 

 missible to wait for results. We wish 

 Mr. Tesla every success in these investi- 

 gations. He is entitled to all the time 

 he needs — a lifetime if necessary. If 

 his experiments forward our present 

 knowledge in any material degree he 

 will be entitled to the gratitude of all 

 mankind, and he will receive it. Until 

 they do pronunciamentos from him and 

 comments from us are not required. 



The third problem upon which Mr. 

 Tesla was engaged 'involves,' he says, 'a 

 still greater mastery of electrical forces.' 

 He will 'make it known in due course.' 

 In the meanwhile, however, he states 

 that he has noted "certain feeble elec- 

 trical disturbances .... which by 



their character unmistakably showed 

 that they were neither of solar origin 

 nor produced by any causes known to 

 me on the globe." These he supposes 

 may have been signals from intelligent 

 beings on Mars or some other of the 

 'twenty or twenty-five planets of the 

 solar system.' Mr. Tesla obviously 

 wants to figure in the newspapers. 

 Every one would be greatly interested if 

 it were true that signals are being sent 

 from Mars. Unfortunately for Mr. Tes- 

 la's scientific standing, he has not ad- 

 duced a scrap of evidence to prove it. It 

 is of a piece with the 'twenty or twenty- 

 five planets' he ascribes to the solar sys- 

 tem. It would be interesting if there 

 were so many. There is no evidence of 

 it save Mr. Tesla's assertion, and asser- 

 tions — Mr. Tesla's or another's — do not 

 count in science. There is no further 

 space for a notice of Mr. Tesla's latest 

 extravagant vagary. For men of science 

 no notice at all is needed. Any intelli- 

 gent reader who will consult the reviews 

 already mentioned and compare them 

 with Mr. Tesla's own words will see that 

 his vivid writings must be read with ex- 

 treme caution. His electrical experi- 

 ments being directed towards commer- 

 cial uses must be judged by proved com- 

 mercial success. His speculations on sci- 

 ence are so reckless as to lose an inter- 

 est. His philosophizing is so ignorant as 

 to be worthless. X. 



