Nikola Tesla

Tesla's Controlled Earthquake

TESLA'S CONTROLLED EARTHQUAKE *

Power Through Earth

A Startling Discovery

Nikola Tesla, father of radio and of the modern method of electric power transmission, observed his 79th birthday yesterday by drinking a quart of boiled milk and outlining the latest of his many startling discoveries.

While reporters ate turkey at a birthday luncheon given in his honor at the Hotel New Yorker Tesla described what he called his "greatest achievement in the field of engineering."

This is an apparatus by which energy can be transmitted through the ground to any part of the earth, with practical possibilities in the navigation of ships, discovery of ore deposits and determination of the physical properties of the earth's interior.

Cosmic Ray Studies

He announced also the successful passage of an induction current with a varying flux through a circuit without the use of a commutator - a feat believed impossible since the days of Faraday. And he revealed studies of the cosmic ray which, he said, exposed many of the major tenets of the theory of relativity as falacious.

The eminent Jugoslavian physicist, who was laughted at when he announced… …'90's, talked to the reporters for more than three hours.

His experiments in transmitting mechanical vibrations through the earth - called by him the art of telegeodynamics - were roughly described by the scientist as a sort of "controlled earthquake."

The rhythmical vibrations pass through the earth with almost no loss of energy, he said, and predicted the system in time will be universally adopted, since it furnishes an "unfailing means of communication." He asserted:

"It becomes possible to convey mechanical effects to the greatest terrestrial distances and produce all kinds of unique effects of inestimable value to science, industry and the arts."

The invention could be used with destructive effect in war, he said, by exploding bombs thousands of miles away which had been equipped with apparatus to receive the vibrations.

"Incredible as it seems, I am able not only to produce current of one direction in a circuit by induction without a commutator, but also I can make this current almost as steady and continuous as that from a battery. I can obtain any tension I desire within reasonable limits by merely employing a greater number of turns in the circuit."

He expressed the hope the invention could be applied as electric drive in automobiles and trucks.

Dr. Tesla dealt harshly with the relativity theory, calling it "a mass of error and deceptive ideas wrapped in a magnificent mathematical cloak." He declared: "Its exponents are very brilliant metaphysicists rather than exponents of positive science. Not a single one of the propositions of relativity have been proved."

OCR by: Varsányi Péter (Pepe) www.tesla.hu. Verzió: 1.00 (2004-01-15)

* New York American — July 11, 1935