Nikola Tesla

“ What is most to be regretted in the present war regime is that the effort of so many exquisite intelligences must be uneconomically applied, since it cannot be entirely governed by the wavering struggle of opposing principles. ”

“ He is unaffected by the shower of particles shooting through his body of cloud and the hurricane of finer substance rushing through him with the speed of light. He is unconscious that he is being whisked through space at the fearful rate of 70,000 miles an hour. ”

“ Those who have encountered a tidal wave must have observed that the sea rises rather slowly, but the descent into the trough is steep. This is due to the fact that the water is lifted, possibly very slowly, under the action of a varying force, great at first, but dying out quickly, while the raised mass is urged downward by the constant force of gravity. ”

“ The time is not far distant when all the tremendous wastes of war will be stopped, and then, if there are battles, they will be fought with water-power and electrical waves. That humanity is moving fast towards this realisation is evident from many indications. ”

“ The gaseous pressure against the surrounding water will be 20,000 atmospheres, or 140 tons per square inch. When the great bubble has expanded to twice its original volume it will weigh as much as the water it displaces, and from that moment on, its lower end tapering more and more into a cone, it will be driven up with a rapidly-increasing force tending towards 20,000 tons. Under the terrific impulsion it would shoot up the surface like a bullet were it not for the water resistance, which will limit its maximum speed to 80 ft. ”

“ A mechanism is being perfected which without operator in control, left to itself, will behave as if endowed with intelligence of its own. It will be responsive to the faintest external influences and from these, unaided, determine its subsequent actions as if possessed of selective qualities, logic, and reason. It will perform the duties of an intelligent slave. ”

“ The telautomatic art is the result of endeavors to produce an automaton capable of moving and acting as if possessed of intelligence and distinct individuality. Disconnected from its higher embodiment, an organism, such as a human being, is a heat — or thermodynamic engine — comprising: — (1) a complete plant for receiving, transforming, and supplying energy ”

“ The average person is not aware of this constant dependence on his environment; but a trained observer has no difficulty in locating the primary disturbance which prompts him into action, and continued exercise soon satisfies him that virtually all of his purely mechanical motions are caused by visual impressions, directly or indirectly received. ”

“ In attack it could alone annihilate a nation’s fleet. It is equally effective in defence. If equipped with proper acoustic and electrical appliances it has little to fear from a submarine, and an ordinary torpedo will scarcely hurt it. That is why the first of these monsters, built in England, has been name Dreadnought. ”

“ Just at this time, when all efforts towards peaceful arbitration notwithstanding, the nations are preparing to expend immense sums in the design and construction of monstrous battleships, it may be useful to bring to the attention of the general public a singular means for naval attack and defense, which the telautomatic art has made possible, and which is likely to become a deciding factor in the near future. ”

“ A machine of such inconceivable complexity as the body of an organised being, capable of an infinite variety of actions, with controlling organs supersensitive, responsive to influences almost immaterial, cannot be manufactured by man ”

“ Everything points to the development of a small vessel with internal combustion engines, extreme speed, and few weapons of great destructiveness. But the new leviathan is admirably adapted to the practical requirements of the day. ”

“ An individuality implies a number of characteristic traits which, though perhaps extant elsewhere, are unique in that particular combination. Here again the animated automaton, with its nerve-signal system, was coarsely imitated. ”

“ It has taken years of study and experiment to develop the necessary methods and apparatus, and five inventions, all more or less fundamental and difficult to practice, must be employed to operate successfully and individualized telautomaton. ”

“ Taking, to be conservative, 38 per cent, instead, there will be the total potential store about 25 million foot-tons obtained in mechanical energy.
How the Enemy would be Engulfed. Otherwise stated, 25,000,000 tons — that is, 860,000,000 cu. ft. of water, could be raised 1 ft., or a smaller quantity to a correspondingly greater elevation. The height and length of the wave will be determined by the depth at which the disturbance originated. Opening in the center like a volcano, the great hollows will belch forth a shower of ice. Some sixteen seconds later a valley of 600 ft. ”

“ These figures are so incredible that astronomers unacquainted with the marvelous appliance have naturally doubted the practicability of signaling to Mars. In reality, by its means the seemingly visionary project has been reduced to a rational engineering problem. ”

“ It would take 3,300 H.P. more than a minute to accumulate its mechanical energy. Bear in mind, however, that all this energy is imparted to the projectile while it is being urged through the gun-barrel with a mean force of 1,100 tons. If the barrel is 50 ft. long and the average velocity through it 1,500 ft. per second, the whole energy is transferred to a moving mass in 1/30th of a second ”