Harry E. Maule

“ Every one who reads this has seen at the picture-theatre films of things that he knows perfectly well never could have happened—men walking on the ceiling, fairies the size of a match acting on a table beside a man, a saw going through a board, a piece of furniture assembling itself, a man run over by an automobile, his legs cut off, and then stuck on again all within a few minutes, marvellous railroad wrecks, and a thousand other things which could not happen or which the motion-picture photographer probably never could catch in his lens. ”

“ Down through the little hole the thermit, that a minute before had been only a coarse dark gray powder like metal filings, seemingly the last thing on earth that would catch fire, flows into the pouring gate of the mould in a steady stream of white-hot liquid steel. The white glow from the metal is brighter than any electric light. It is so intense that although the workmen wear heavy dark goggles, they shade their eyes and turn their heads away. ”

“ To ask Doctor Tesla to tell us the whole story of this invention would be to ask him to tell us in detail the whole history of his life work—and that would take several volumes, for he is one of those men who have worked incessantly, day and night, sacrificing himself and overcoming his natural desire for leisure and amusement. ”

“ It was significant that at the celebration of Edison's sixty-fifth birthday, February 10, 1912, the great American inventor should sit at the head of the table surrounded by his family and associates facing a perfect model of one of his poured cement houses. The chair in which he sat, to all appearances was beautiful mahogany, but in reality was cast in a mould of Edison concrete at the Edison plant. At the place of each guest was a bronze paperweight, appropriately engraved, with Edison's favourite motto:
"All things come to him who hustles while he waits." ”

“ Of the machine Curtiss says: "I believe the hydro-aeroplane represents one of the longest and most important strides in aviation. It robs the aeroplane of many of its dangers, and as an engine of warfare widens its scope of utility beyond the bounds of the most vivid imagination. The hydro-aeroplane can fly 60 miles an hour, skim the water at 50 miles and run over the earth at 35 miles." ”

“ He only heard a little hissing as the metals battled for the precious oxygen.
There was no explosion, there was no violent scattering of molten particles, and there were no noxious life-destroying gases such as come from the explosion of gunpowder, dynamite, or even the burning of coal. And yet the seething, molten metals in the crucible reached a temperature second or third to the highest ever registered by man. Five thousand four hundred degrees—think of it!—more than half as hot as science tells us is the sun which makes this world of ours habitable. ”

“ What Tesla had discovered, and soon announced to the scientific world, was the existence of stationary terrestrial waves of electricity, and its meaning was that an impulse sent into the earth was carried on these waves to the other side of the earth and rebounded without any loss of power. He had, in fact, discovered and turned to man's use the very heartbeats of our earth.
"Whatever electricity may be," he continued, "it is a fact that it acts like a fluid, and in this connection, we may consider the earth as a great hollow ball filled with electricity." ”

“ We have aviation because man learned how to utilize the fact that air gives support; we have wireless telegraphy, and we will have the wireless transmission of power, because man learned that Nature has her own perfect system of carrying electrical currents when they are properly delivered to her, without any cumbersome system of wires; we have the Tesla turbine because its inventor found out that Nature gave steam, gas, water, and even air, certain properties that are intangible, and yet stronger far than mere brute force ”

“ From this it was to Edison but a step to a practicable projector, and nothing remained but to improve its mechanical working.
Getting motion pictures is the adventurous part of the business, for this work requires operators and actors who are athletes and who do not know the meaning of fear. As pictures of scenery and events are taken in every corner of the world—in the jungles, in the arctic ice, on mountains and in deserts, the photographers all can tell absorbing stories of the strange places and things they have filmed. ”

“ Indeed, more than four million horsepower of waterfalls are harnessed by Tesla's alternating current system. That is the same as forty millions of untiring men working without pay, consuming no food, shelter or raiment while labouring to provide for our wants. In these days of conservation, it is interesting to note that this electrical energy derived from water power saves a hundred million tons of coal every year. Our trolley roads, our subways, many of our electrified railroads, the incandescent lamps in our homes and offices, all use a system of power transmission of this man's invention. ”

“ SO INTERESTED in aviation had our young friend become that he forgot all other inventions in his enthusiasm for flying. He never missed a chance to go to the aviation field, and sometimes his scientist friend would go with him. These days were rare treats indeed, for the boy always learned some new and important points from their conversations.
With them we have seen how the science of aeronautics has been divided into two great departments: balloons, or lighter-than-air fliers, and all other machines that are not maintained in the air by hot air or gas. ”

“ THE AEROPLANE HOW A SCIENTIST WHO LIKED BOYS AND A BOY WHO LIKED SCIENCE FOLLOWED THE FASCINATING STORY OF THE INVENTION OF THE AEROPLANE.
WHEN, with engine throbbing, propellers whirling, and every wire vibrating, the first successful aeroplane shot forward into the teeth of a biting December gale and sailed steadily over the bleak North Carolina sand dunes for twelve seconds, the third great epoch in the age of invention finally was ushered in. First, man conquered the land with locomotive, electricity, steam plow, telegraph, telephone, wireless and a thousand other inventions. ”

“ But making air and sea navigation safe, sure, and speedy, are only the first steps Tesla intends to take in the wireless transmission of power. After that he hopes to light the earth—to carry a beautiful soft bright light to ranchmen far out on the deserts, to miners in their cabins or deep in the earth, to farmers, and to sailors, as well as to people in their homes in the cities all over the world—Australia as well as the United States. ”

“ Throughout the meet at Garden City in 1911, Earle L. Ovington and Beck carried mail over a regular route
Blériot's flight over the English Channel was one of the most dramatic that ever has been made by an aviator, as he encountered perils that no birdman ever before had faced. He had as a contestant one of the daring young aviators who has made the history of aviation read like a novel. This was Hubert Latham, who used the Antoinette monoplane, one of the most beautiful machines ever designed, and which is described fully later on. ”

“ As every boy knows, kite-flying was one of the early methods of experimenting with air currents and greatly aided the scientists in their exploration of the ocean of air that surrounds the world, eddying and swirling up and down, running smoothly and swiftly here, coming to a dead stop there—but always different from the minute before. ”

“ All this time two American inventors had been at work on the two most perplexing problems in animated photography at that time, and it was through their achievements that the first practical motion-picture machine was given to the world, just as it was through the achievements of the Wright brothers that the first practical aeroplane was given to the world. ”

“ The next great feat of the aeroplane is the crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, and that may not be far distant, for at the time of writing half a dozen aviators are planning the attempt, but even more important than that, even more important than the development of the aeroplane for war scouting, is the development of the aeroplane as a faithful servant of the people who are quietly going about their own everyday business. ”

“ If the officials of the firm decide that a film is below their standard, parts must be cut out, and new parts photographed over again until the whole thing suits requirements. Sometimes one scene must be done over many times before it suits exactly, and several hundred feet of film wasted. At a cost of about three cents a foot, it is plain that the waste in film alone is great, but when a big scene with a hundred or so actors in it has to be done over again, the cost of assembling the company, paying their salaries and other expenses is enormous. ”

“ James Watt discovered and put to work the expansive power of steam, by which the piston of an engine is pushed back and forth in the cylinder of an engine, but it has remained for Nikola Tesla to prove that it is not necessary for the steam to have something to push upon—that the most powerful engine yet shown to the world works through a far simpler mechanism than any yet used for turning a gas or a fluid into the driving force of machinery. ”

“ With the fact clear in mind that cinematography is simply a series of snapshots of figures in motion, taken at high speed and thrown on a screen at a similar rate so that the human eye is tricked into sending to the brain an impression of moving figures rather than a series of still photographs, the various machines necessary in cinematography will not be difficult to understand. ”

“ Nothing is too difficult for the motion-picture man, and he has never proposed a feat so daring but what he could find plenty of actors willing to take the necessary parts. Battles, scenes from history, sessions of Congress, railroad wrecks, earthquakes and hundreds of other spectacles have been planned, staged and acted out by the makers of cinematograph films, while, of course, all the plays that we see on the screen are planned and carefully rehearsed before they are photographed. ”

“ Just as 1910 was the year for record-breaking aeroplane contests, 1911 was the year that proved the aeroplane a machine with a greater and more important use than that of a very exciting and a very expensive sport. Probably the most astounding developments in the world of aviation in 1911 were the experiments of the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, which showed that man has come very near to solving the problem of true soaring flight. ”

“ All the real jewels, diamonds, rubies, emeralds, amethysts, and so on, were formed by the terrific heat in the bosom of the earth millions of years ago when it was cooling down from gases hotter than anything we can possibly conceive of, to a molten ball, then to a solid redhot mass and then to a globe sufficiently cool on the outside to be crusted over. That they can be made in this little chemical furnace shows how far science has gone in imitation of the wonders of nature. ”

“ The motion-picture photographer takes pictures in the frozen North, and in the densest tropical jungles. He goes close to the craters of volcanoes in eruption to make a film of the terrifying flow of molten lava, and he sails the seas in the worst storms, that boys and girls who have never seen the ocean may understand its mighty upheavals. ”

“ Tesla was asked.
"You see," he answered, "while I was trying to solve the problem of aerial navigation by electrical means, the gasoline motor was perfected; and aviation as we know it to-day became a fact. I consider the aeroplane as it has been developed little more than a passing phase of air navigation. Aeroplaning 270 makes delightful sport, no doubt, but as it is now it can never be practical in commerce. Consequently I abandoned for the time being my attempts to find the ideal airship motor in electricity, and for several years studied hard on the problem as one of mechanics. ”

“ For heroic devotion to science in the face of danger and the scorn of their fellowmen, there is no class who have made a better record than inventors. Most inventions, too, are far more than scientific calculation, and it is the human story of the various factors in this great age of invention that is here set forth for boy readers. ”

“ The Chicago studio of this concern is one of the wonders of cinematography, for not only has it a great building in which indoor plays are filmed, but a great land reserve for outdoor productions. In one place are artificial hills built in the natural forest, and upon them artificial feudal castles. In another are log cabins for frontier scenes, and in yet another a barren stretch for other kinds of scenes. The Los Angeles company is close to the mountains, the ocean, and the Great American Desert, so that it can furnish material for an endless amount of exciting Wild West shows. ”

“ In other words, steel does not break nor stretch easily; that is, it has great tensile strength. Concrete has great strength under compression; that is, it will hold up an enormous weight without crushing. Thus, a concrete beam alone might crack on the bottom, because it has not as great tensile strength as steel. But, if we put steel rods into a concrete mould, an inch or so from the bottom, turn out a reinforced concrete beam, for instance, and place it in the building, with the reinforcement at the bottom, we use a beam in which the strength of the concrete and iron is combined. ”

“ To scientists and electrical engineers, Tesla's plan offers a field for limitless study and discussion, but to the boy who is interested in electricity it offers one of the most fascinating subjects for reading and thinking in all the realm of science. ”

“ There is a hiss, a puff of white smoke, a blinding glare from the hole in the top of the crucible, and that is all, beside a few sparks, to indicate that a heat second only to that of the sun is being generated within. ”

“ Thus we see that the pioneers whose work has counted for the most in the early history of aviation were Americans—that the science can almost be claimed as a development of American genius. True, Ader was the first man to fly in a power-propelled machine, and Lilienthal led the way in the science 48 of gliding, but it remained for Chanute, Langley, Montgomery, and the Wright brothers to gather all this scientific data together and put it to practical use so that the motor could be installed and power flight, or dynamic flight, as the scientists call it, begun. ”

“ With the inability of the eye to tell that the screen is merely exhibiting separate photographs, the appearance is of motion. In most persons this visual persistence is only about one twenty-fourth of a second, but that is long enough to allow animated photography to be a pleasing illusion to them, for it gives the shutter of the projector time to hide one picture while the mechanism moves the film down to the next picture, bring the film to a dead stop, and let the shutter open again to reveal the next stage of animation. ”

“ The public might at first look upon the perfection of such an invention as a calamity. We say that all inventions assist the criminal in his work. To-day the safe burglar despises the use of dynamite, turning to electrical contrivances to cut the lock from a safe. It is fortunate for the world, therefore, that 90 per cent. of its people are good, and that only 10 per cent. are evilly disposed: otherwise all invention might be turned more greatly to evil than to good. ”