Nikola Tesla - Free-Energy Devices

CHAPTER XXVI.EXPEEIMENTS WlTH ALTERNATE CURRENTS OF VERY HlGH FRE-QUENCY AND THEIR APPLICATION TO METHODS OF ARTIFICIALILLUMINATION. JTHERE is no subject more captivating, more worthy of study,than nature. To understand this great mechanism, to discoverthe forces which are active, and the laws which govern them, isthe highest aim of the intellect of man.Nature has stored up in the universe infinite energy. Theeternal recipient and transmitter of this infinite isenergy theether. The recognition of the existence of ether, and of thefunctions it performs, is one of the most important results ofmodern scientific research. The mere abandoning of the idea ofaction at a distance, the assumption of a medium pervadingallspace and connecting all gross matter, has freed the minds ofthinkers of an ever present doubt, and, by opening a new horizonnew and unforeseen possibilities has given fresh interest tophenomenawitli which we are familiar of old. It has been agreat step towards the understanding of the forces of nature andtheir multifold manifestations to our senses. It has been forthe enlightened student of physics what the understanding ofthe mechanism of the firearm or of the steam engineis for thebarbarian. Phenomena upon which we used to look as wondersbaffling explanation, we now see in a different light.The sparkof an induction the coil, glow of an incandescent lamp, the manifestationsof the mechanical forces of currents and magnets areno longer beyond our grasp instead of the;incomprehensible, asbefore, their observation suggests now in our minds a simplemechanism, and although as to its precise nature all is still conjecture,yet we know that the truth cannot be much longer hidden,and instinctively we feel that the understanding is dawningupon We us. still admire these beautiful phenomena, these1. A lecture delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers,at Columbia College, N. Y., May 20, 1891.