Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 58.djvu/445

Rh profitable to again go over the ground covered by the articles just mentioned, but readers are referred to them in passing.

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. Tesla'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 commercial 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 permissible to wait for results. We wish Mr. Tesla every success in these investigations. 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 electrical 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. Tesla's scientific standing, he has not adduced a scrap of evidence to prove it. It is of a piece with the 'twenty or twenty-five planets' he ascribes to the solar system. It would be interesting if there were so many. There is no evidence of it save Mr. Tesla's assertion, and assertions—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 intelligent 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 extreme caution. His electrical experiments being directed towards commercial uses must be judged by proved commercial success. His speculations on science are so reckless as to lose an interest. His philosophizing is so ignorant as to be worthless. X.