Although his legendary work in electricity is not well known today, the reputation of Nicola Tesla, "The world's greatest electrician," was highly recognized back in 1898, so much so that the St. Tammany Farmer newspaper ran a large front page article about his goal in preventing future wars.
Here are the details from 124 years ago, December 31, 1898.
The text from the above article is as follows:
INVENTED BY TESLA.
A Device That May Render Fleets and Guns Useless.
It Is Alleged to Be a Powerful Destroyer, and Distance Is Said to Have No Effect on Its Magic Results.
St. Tammany Farmer Dec. 31, 1898 (Special New York Letter.] Nicola Tesla, greatest of living electricians, is still a young man. He was born in the ancient kingdom of Servia, 35 years ago, and combines with the enthusiasm of the Slav the dogged peristence of the same race.
Reared amidst congenial surroundings, and under the direct supervision of his mother, whose fame as an inventor of looms and other household devices is more than local; and assisted in his studies by his father, an eminent preacher of the Greek church, his natural love for mathematics and mechanics was given full play. While at school he mastered half a dozen languages, besides being recognized as the leader in technical studies; and consequently had no difficulty in securing a position in the Hungarian government telegraph engineering department at Budapest. Thy bureaucratic methods prevailing in the office where he was employed did not please him, however, and he drifted to Paris, and then to the United States, where he found employment in Edison's famous laboratory.
It is said—whether truthfully or not, I cannot tell, that the wizard soon grew jealous of the young man's genius and suggested that his room would be more agreeable than his company. Testa took the hint, and established a laboratory of his own at New York, where he has conducted a number or experiments which will forever give him a high place in the history of electrical science. A few years ago his workshop was destroyed by fire, and with It the results of years of research. This calamity, which would have discouraged most men, only served to fire the young inventor's ambition.
In patience he labored and toiled on lesser devices, which brought him the means of carrying on his greater operations.
And now he has broken his silence by announcing to the world the perfection of an engine which, if it does but half he claims for it, will revolutionize modern warfare and completely change the position of nations. In fact, the disarmament of the powers would be a necessity, and war would be so terrible that no country could sustain it even for a few weeks.
Mr. Tesla's invention, to describe it In a few words, consists in an application of electricity whereby, without interposition of any artificial medium of communication, one man can control and direct with absolute exactness the movements of any type of vessel, balloon or land vehicle at any distance that may be desired. From a station on shore or from the deck of a moving vessel a torpedo boat equipped with this device may be propelled either on or below the surface, maneuver at will in any direction and finally brought into contact and exploded at the side of a hostile ship at any point within the range of the operator. More marvelous yet, assuming that it were possible to locate the position of the warship to be destroyed, the torpedo boat could be directed to it, even if the vessel lay in a European harbor and the operator were stationed at Sandy Hook or Fort Monroe.
The result of this invention? Let Mr. Tesla speak for himself:
"War will cease to be possible when all the world knows that the most feeble of nations can supply itself with weapon which renders its coast secure and its ports impregnable to the assaults of even the united armadas of the world. Battleships will cease to be built, and the mightiest ironclads and the most tremendous artillery afloat will be of no more use than so much scrap iron. And this irresistible power can be exerted at any distance by an agency of so delicate, so impalpable a quality that I am justified in predicting the time will come, ncredible as it may seem, when it can be called into action by the mere exercise of the human will."
How does the new device work?
Hitherto the only means of controlling the movement of a vessel from a distance has been supplied through the medium of a flexible conductor, such as an electric cable, but this system, according to Tesla, is subject to many limitations, such as are imposed by the length, weight and strength of the conductor, by the difficulty of maintaining with safety the high speed of s vessel or changing the direction of its movements with rapidity, by the necessity of effecting the control from a point which is practically fixed, and from many other drawbacks which are inseparably connected with such a system.
Tesla's plan seems to involve none of these objections. He is enabled by the use of his invention to employ any means of propulsion, to impart to the moving body or vessel the highest possible speed, to control the operation of its machinery, and to direct its movements from either a fixed point or from a body moving and changing its direction, however rapidly, and to maintain this control over great distances without artificial connections between the vessel and the apparatus governing its movement and without such restrictions as these mast necessarily impose.
He requires no intermediate wires, cables or other form of mechanical or electrical connection with the object save the natural media in space. He accomplishes similar results, however, by producing waves, impulses or radiations which are received through the earth, water or at atmosphere by suitable apparatus on the moving body and causes the desired actions so long as the body remains within the effective range of such currents, waves, impulses and radiations.
Having made these experiments, Tesla proceeded to demonstrate his theories by means of a model which he exhibited to a representative of the New York Herald
Elevated on stools in the center of the inventor's laboratory was a model of a screw-propelled craft about four feet long. no attempt having been made to follow the usual sharp lines of a torpedo boat. The deck was slightly arched and surmounted by three slender standards, the center one being considerably higher than the other two, which carried small incandescent bulbs, a third bulb being fixed at the bow. The heel consisted of a massive copper plate, the propeller and rudder being in the usual positions.
The boat contained the propelling machinery, consisting of an electric motor actuated by a storage battery in the hold, another motor to actuate the rudder, and the delicate machinery which forms the functions of receiving through the central standard the electric impulses sent through the atmosphere from the distant operating station which set in motion the propelling and steering motors, and through them light or extinguish the electric lamps and fire the exploding charge in a chamber in the bow in response to signals sent by the operator.
"Now watch," said the inventor, and, going to a table on the other side of the room, on which lay a little switch box, he gave the leer a sharp turn. Instantly the little propeller began to revolve. "Now I will send the boat to starboard," he added, and another movement of the lever sent the helm sharp over, and another motion turned it back again.
"During the clay," explained Tesla. "we should steer our course by keeping the two standards in line. but at night we should depend on electric lights." and at a signal both the tiny bulbs were illuminated.
"Now we will assume," continued the inventor, "that the boat has arrived within striking distance of the vessel to be destroyed, and the bulb in the bow will serve to show that the explosion bas taken place." As he spoke he touched the lever again and the light flashed and was extinguished. "Imagine, if you can," concluded Tesla, "what an irresistible instrument of destruction we have in a torpedo boat thus controlled, which we can operate day and night, on the surface or below it. and from any distance that may be desired. A ship thus assailed would have no possibility of escape."
Mr. Tesla further claims that it is not even necessary to make a close approach to the vessel to be destroyed. At a distance of 100 feet the explosion of 200 pounds of dynamite will exert a shattering effect on a battleship, and 200 or 300 tons of the explosive, when exploded even a mile away would raise a wave that would overwhelm the largest and strongest ship ever built.
Mr. Tesla contemplates giving a public demonstration of his invention it the Paris exposition, where he intends to exhibit a model of a torpedo boat whose movements are to be directed from his office at New York.
End of article
So, in essence, Tesla was talking about radio-controlled torpedoes, or, had airplanes been invented by 1898, drone aircraft.
One of the reasons I found this article in the St. Tammany Farmer on Tesla so interesting was that just a month earlier I had finished writing a science fiction novel in which Tesla made a cameo appearance.
