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This is perhaps Tesla's greatest and most approachable, visionary papers, discussing solar energy, wireless transmission of power, robotics, and much else. Published by the Century Company, New York, volume LX, May - October, 1900. Bound in the publisher's original decorated and stamped cloth. A lovely copy in the original, not usually seen in such good condition as "Century" was a widely-read and popular magazine, and given the size/bulk of the bound volumes, they didn't fare well. The Tesla article occurs on pp 175-211, with 1o photo illustrations, "illustrated by the writer's electrical experiments, now first published" plus four diagrams. |\| Tesla introduces problems and then some solutions, as follows: Problem 1, how to increase the human mass the burning of atmospheric nitrogen' 2nd, how to reduce the force retarding the human mass, the art of the Telautomatics; 3rd, how to increase the force accelerating the human mass the harnessing of the sun's energy. Then a section on the source of human energy, the three ways of drawing energy from the Sun. Then, "great possibilities offered by iron (and) the enormous waste in iron manufacture, encompassing a new method of producing iron. This is followed by a section of obtaining more energy from coal, the cold-coal battery and the gas engine.|\| Tesla then addresses the transmission of energy through the atmosphere via one wire without a return wire; and then, in two pages, a discussion of "wireless" telegraphy (showing "errors in the Hertzian investigations"), and the transmission of electrical energy "to any distance without wires". |\| "Of all the endless variety of phenomena which nature presents to our senses, there is none that fills our minds with greater wonder than that inconceivably complex movement which, in its entirety, we designate as human life; Its mysterious origin is veiled in the forever impenetrable mist of the past, its character is rendered incomprehensible by its infinite intricacy, and its destination is hidden in the unfathomable depths of the future. Whence does it come? What is it? Whither does it tend? are the great questions which the sages of all times have endeavored to answer." "Modern science says: The sun is the past, the earth is the present, the moon is the future. From an incandescent mass we have originated, and into a frozen mass we shall turn. Merciless is the law of nature, and rapidly and irresistibly we are drawn to our doom. Lord Kelvin, in his profound meditations, allows us only a short span of life, something like six million years, after which time the suns bright light will have ceased to shine, and its life giving heat will have ebbed away, and our own earth will be a lump of ice, hurrying on through the eternal night. But do not let us despair. There will still be left upon it a glimmering spark of life, and there will be a chance to kindle a new fire on some distant star. This wonderful possibility seems, indeed, to exist, judging from Professor Dewar's beautiful experiments with liquid air, which show that germs of organic life are not destroyed by cold, no matter how intense; consequently they may be transmitted through the interstellar space. Meanwhile the cheering lights of science and art, ever increasing in intensity, illuminate our path, and marvels they disclose, and the enjoyments they offer, make us measurably forgetful of the gloomy future."--from the Tesla article.
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