III. The Discovery of the Rotating Magnetic Field

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At the age of teered the Real Gymnasium which was a new and fairly well equipt institution. In the department of physics were various models of classical stific apparatus, electrical and meical. The demonstrations and experiments performed from time to time by the instructors fasated me and were undoubtedly a powerful iive to iion. I was also passionately fond of mathematical studies and often won the professor's praise for rapid calculation. This was due to my acquired facility of visualizing the figures and perf the operations, not in the usual intuitive manner, but as in actual life. Up to a certain degree of plexity it was absolutely the same to me whether I wrote the symbols on the board or jured them before my mental vision. But freehand drawing, to which many hours of the course were devoted, was an annoyance I could not ehis was rather remarkable as most of the members of the family excelled in it. Perhaps my aversion was simply due to the predile I found in undisturbed thought. Had it not been for a few exceptionally stupid boys, who could not do anything at all, my record would have been the worst. It was a serious handicap as uhe theing educational regime, drawing being obligatory, this deficy threateo spoil my whole career and my father had siderable trouble in railroading me from one class to another.

 In the sed year at that institution I became obsessed with the idea of produg tinuous motion thru steady air pressure. The pump i, of which I have told, had set afire my youthful imagination and imprest me with the boundless abilities of a vacuum. I grew franti my desire to harhis inexhaustible energy but for a long time I was groping in the dark. Finally, however, my endeavors crystallized in an iion which was to enable me to achieve what no other mortal ever attempted.

 Imagine a der freely rotatable on two bearings and partly surrounded by a re..gular trough which fits it perfectly. The open side of the trough is closed by a partition so that the drical segment within the enclosure divides the latter into two partmeirely separated from each other by air-tight sliding joints. One of these partments being sealed and once for all exhausted, the other remaining open, a perpetual rotation of the der would result, at least, I thought so. A wooden model was structed and fitted with infinite care and when I applied the pump on one side and actually observed that there was a tendency t, I was delirious with joy.

 Meical flight was the ohing I wao aplish altho still uhe discing recolle of a bad fall I sustained by jumping with an umbrella from the top of a building. Every day I used to transport myself thru the air to distant regions but could not uand just how I mao do it. Now I had something crete——a flying mae with nothing more than a rotating shaft, flapping wings, and—a vacuum of unlimited power! From that time on I made my daily aerial excursions in a vehicle of fort and luxury as might have befitted King Solomon. It took years before I uood that the atmospheric pressure acted at right ao the surface of the der and that the slight rotary effort I observed was due to a leak. Tho this knowledge came gradually it gave me a painful shock.

 I had hardly pleted my course at the Real Gymnasium when I rostrated with a dangerous illness or rather, a score of them, and my dition became so desperate that I was given up by physis. During this period I ermitted to read stantly, obtaining books from the Public Library which had been ed arusted to me for classification of the works and preparation of the catalogues. One day I was handed a few volumes of new literature unlike anything I had ever read before and so captivating as to make me utterly fet my hopeless state. They were the earlier works of Mark Twain and to them might have beehe miraculous recovery which followed. Twenty-five years later, when I met Mr. Clemens and we formed a friendship between us, I told him of the experiend was amazed to see that great man of laughter burst into tears.

 My studies were ti the higher Real Gymnasium in Carlstadt, Croatia, where one of my aunts resided. She was a distinguished lady, the wife of a el who was an old war-horse having participated in many battles. I never fet the three years I past at their home. No fortress in time of war was under a mid discipline. I was fed like a ary bird. All the meals were of the highest quality and deliciously prepared but short in quantity by a thousand pert. The slices of ham cut by my aunt were like tissue paper. When the el would put something substantial on my plate she would snatch it away and say excitedly to him: "Be careful, Niko is very delicate." I had a voracious appetite and suffered like Tantalus.

 But I lived in an atmosphere of refi and artistic taste quite unusual for those times and ditions. The land was low and marshy and malaria fever never left me while there despite of the enormous amounts of quinin I ed. Occasionally the river would rise and drive an army of rats into the buildings, dev everything even to the bundles of the fierce paprika. These pests were to me a wele diversion. I thiheir ranks by all sorts of means, whie the unenviable distin of rat-catcher in the unity. At last, however, my course was pleted, the misery ended, and I obtaihe certificate of maturity which brought me to the cross-roads.

 During all those years my parents never wavered in their resolve to make me embrace the clergy, the mere thought of which filled me with dread. I had bee intensely ied iricity uhe stimulating influeny Professor of Physics, who was an ingenious man and often demonstrated the principles by apparatus of his own iion. Among these I recall a devi the shape of a freely rotatable bulb, with tinfoil coatings, which was made to spin rapidly when ected to a static mae. It is impossible for me to vey ae idea of the iy of feeling I experienced in witnessing his exhibitions of these mysterious phenomena. Every impression produced a thousand echoes in my mind. I wao know more of this wonderful force; I longed for experiment and iigation and resigned myself to the iable with ag heart.

 Just as I was making ready for the long journey home I received word that my father wished me to go on a shooting expedition. It was a strange request as he had been always strenuously opposed to this kind of sport. But a few days later I learhat the cholera was raging in that distrid, taking advantage of an opportunity, I returo Gospi disregard of my parents' wishes. It is incredible how absolutely ignorant people were as to the causes of this sce which visited the try in intervals of from fifteen to twenty years. They thought that the deadly agents were transmitted thru the air and filled it with pu odors and smoke. In the meahey drank the ied water and died in heaps. I tracted the awful disease on the very day of my arrival and altho surviving the crisis, I was fio bed for nine months with scarcely any ability to move. My energy was pletely exhausted and for the sed time I found myself at death's door.

 In one of the sinking spells which was thought to be the last, my father rushed into the room. I still see his pallid face as he tried to cheer me in tones belying his assurance. "Perhaps," I said, "I may get well if you will let me study engineering." "You will go to the best teical institution in the world," he solemnly replied, and I khat he meant it. A heavy weight was lifted from my mind but the relief would have e too late had it not been for a marvelous cure brought about thru a bitter deco of a peculiar bean. I came to life like another Lazarus to the utter amazement of everybody.

 My father insisted that I spend a year ihful physical outdoor exercises to which I relutly sented. For most of this term I roamed in the mountains, loaded with a hunter's outfit and a bundle of books, and this tact with nature made me stronger in body as well as in mind. I thought and planned, and ceived many ideas almost as a rule delusive. The vision was clear enough but the knowledge of principles was very limited. In one of my iions I proposed to vey letters and packages across the seas, thru a submariube, in spherical tainers of suffit strength to resist the hydraulic pressure. The pumping plant, inteo force the water thru the tube, was accurately figured and designed and all other particulars carefully worked out. Only orifliail, of no sequence, was lightly dismist. I assumed an arbitrary velocity of the water and, what is more, took pleasure in making it high, thus arriving at a stupendous performance supported by faultless calculations. Subsequent refles, however, on the resistance of pipes to fluid flow determined me to make this iion public property.

 Another one of my projects was to struct a ring around the equator which would, of course, float freely and could be arrested in its spinning motion by reaary forces, thus enabling travel at a rate of about ohousand miles an hour, impracticable by rail. The reader will smile. The plan was difficult of execution, I will admit, but not nearly so bad as that of a well-known New York professor, who wao pump the air from the torrid to the temperate zones, entirely fetful of the fact that the Lord had provided a gigantic mae for this very purpose.

 Still another scheme, far more important and attractive, was to derive power from the rotational energy of terrestrial bodies. I had discovered that objects on the earth's surface, owing to the diurnal rotation of the globe, are carried by the same alternately in and against the dire of translatory movement. From this results a great ge in momentum which could be utilized in the simplest imaginable mao furnish motive effort in any habitable region of the world. I ot find words to describe my disappoi when later I realized that I was in the predit of Archimedes, who vainly sought for a fixt point in the universe.

 At the termination of my vacation I was sent to the Polyteic School<q>..</q> in Gratz, Styria, which my father had chosen as one of the oldest a reputed institutions. That was the moment I had eagerly awaited and I began my studies under good auspices and firmly resolved to succeed. My previous training was above the average, due to my father's teag and opportunities afforded. I had acquired the knowledge of a number of languages and waded thru the books of several libraries, pig up information more or less useful. Then again, for the first time, I could y subjects as I liked, and free-hand drawing was to bother me no more.

 I had made up my mind to give my parents a surprise, and during the whole first year I regularly started my work at three o'clo the m and tinued until eleven at night, no Sundays or holidays excepted. As most of my fellow-students took thinks easily, naturally enough I eclipsed all records. In the course of that year I past thru nine exams and the professors thought I deserved more than the highest qualifications. Armed with their flatteriificates, I went home for a short rest, expeg a triumph, and was mortified when my father made light of these hard won honors. That almost killed my ambition; but later, after he had died, I aio find a package of letters which the professors had written him to the effect that unless he took me away from the Institution I would be killed thru overwork.

 Thereafter I devoted myself chiefly to physics, meid mathematical studies, spending the hours of leisure in the libraries. I had a veritable mania for finishing whatever I began, which often got me into difficulties. On one occasion I started to read the works of Voltaire when I learo my dismay, that there were close on one hundred large volumes in small print which that monster had written while drinkiy-two cups of black coffee per diem. It had to be done, but when I laid aside the last book I was very glad, and said, "Never more!"

 My first year's showing had wohe appreciation and friendship of several professors. Among these were Prner, who was teag arithmetical subjects ary; Prof. Poeschl, who held the chair of theoretical and experimental physics, and Dr. Alle, who taught integral calculus and specialized in differential equations. This stist was the most brilliaurer to whom I ever listened. He took a special i in my progress and would frequently remain for an hour or two in the lecture room, giving me problems to solve, in which I delighted. To him I explained a flying mae I had ceived, not an illusionary iion, but one based on sound, stific principles, which has bee realizable thru my turbine and will soon be given to the world. Both Professner and Poeschl were en. The former had peculiar ways of expressing himself and whenever he did so there was a riot, followed by a long and embarrassing pause. Prof. Poeschl was a methodical and thoroly grounded German. He had enormous feet and hands like the paws of a bear, but all of his experiments were skillfully performed with clock-like precision and without a mistake.

 It was in the sed year of my studies that we received a Gramme dynamo from Paris, having the horseshoe form of a laminated field mag, and a wire-wound armature with a utator. It was ected up and various effects of the currents were shown. While Prof. Poeschl was making demonstrations, running the mae as a motor, the brushes gave trouble, sparking badly, and I observed that it might be possible to operate a motor without these appliances. But he declared that it could not be done and did me the honor of delivering a lecture on the subject, at the clusion of which he remarked: "Mr. Tesla may aplish great things, but he certainly never will do this. It would be equivalent to verting a steadily pulling force, like that of gravity, into a rotary effort. It is a perpetual motion scheme, an impossible idea." But instinct is something which transds knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical dedu, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile. For a time I wavered, imprest by the professor's authority, but soon became vinced I was right and uook the task with all the fire and boundless fidence of youth.

 I started by first picturing in my mind a direct-current mae, running it and following the ging flow of the currents in the armature. Then I would imagine an alternator and iigate the processes taking pla a similar manner. I would visualize systems prising motors and geors and operate them in various ways. The images I saw were to me perfectly real and tangible. All my remaining term in Gratz assed in inte fruitless efforts of this kind, and I almost came to the clusion that the problem was insolvable.

 In 1880 I went tue, Bohemia, carrying out my father's wish to plete my education at the Uy there. It was in that city that I made a decided advance, which sisted iag the utator from the mae and studying the phenomena in this neect, but still without result. In the year following there was a sudden ge in my views of life. I realized that my parents had been making too great sacrifiy at and resolved to relieve them of the burden. The wave of the Ameri telephone had just reached the European ti and the system was to be installed in Budapest, Hungary. It appeared an ideal opportunity, all the more as a friend of our family was at the head of the enterprise. It was here that I suffered the plete breakdown of the o which I have referred.

 What I experienced during the period of that illness surpasses all belief. My sight and hearing were always extraordinary. I could clearly dis objects in the distance when others saw no trace of them. Several times in my boyhood I saved the houses of our neighbors from fire by hearing the faint crag sounds which did not disturb their sleep, and calling for help.

 In 1899, when I ast forty and carrying on my experiments in Colorado, I could hear very distinctly thunderclaps at a distance of 550 miles. Yet at that time I was, so to speak, stone deaf in parison with the aess of my hearing while uhe nervous strain. In Budapest I could hear the tig of a watch with three rooms between me and the time-piece. A fly alighting on a table in the room would cause a dull thud in my ear. A carriage passing at a distance of a few miles fairly shook my whole body. The whistle of a lootive twenty or thirty miles away made the bench or chair on which I sat vibrate sly that the pain was unbearable. The ground under my feet trembled tinuously. I had to support my bed on rubber cushions to get a at all. The r noises from near and far often produced the effect of spoken words which would have frightened me had I not been able to resolve them into their actal pos. The sun's rays, when periodically intercepted, would cause blows of such fory brain that they would stun me. I had to summon all my will power to pass under a bridge or other structure as I experienced a crushing pressure on the skull. In the dark I had the sense of a bat and could detect the presence of an object at a distance of twelve feet by a peculiar creepy sensat<samp></samp>ion on the forehead. My pulse varied from a few to two hundred and sixty beats and all the tissues of the body quivered with twitgs and tremors which erhaps the hardest to bear. A renowned physi who gave me daily large doses of Bromide of Potassium pronounced my malady unique and incurable.

 It is my eternal regret that I was not uhe observation of experts in physiology and psychology at that time. I g desperately to life, but never expected to recover. anyone believe that so hopeless a physical wreck could ever be transformed into a man of astonishing strength and tenacity, able to work thirty-eight years almost without a day's interruption, and find himself still strong and fresh in body and mind? Such is my case. A powerful desire to live and to tihe work, and the assistance of a devoted friend and athlete aplished the wonder. My health returned and with it the vigor of mind. In attag the problem again I almretted that the struggle was soon to end. I had so muergy to spare. When I uook the task it was not with a resolve such as men often make. With me it was a sacred vow, a question of life ah. I khat I would perish if I failed. Now I felt that the battle was won. Ba the deep recesses of the brain was the solution, but I could not yet give it outward expression.

 Oernoon, which is ever present in my recolle, I was enjoying a walk with my friend iy Park aing poetry. At that age I kire books by heart, word for word. One of these was Goethe's Faust. The sun was just setting and reminded me of the glorious passage:

 <var></var>"Sie ruckt u, der Tag ist uberlebt,

 Dort eilt sie hin und fordert neues Leben.

 Oh, dass kein Flugel mi Bode

 Ihr nad immer nach zu streben!

 Ein ser Traum indesseweicht,

 Ach, zu des Geistes Flugeln wird so leicht

 Kein korperlicher Flugel sich gesellen!"

 The glow retreats, done is the day of toil;

 It yonder hastes, new fields of life expl;

 Ah, that no wing lift me from the soil

 Upon its track to follow, follow s!

 A glorious dream! though now the glories fade.

 Alas! the wings that lift the mind no aid

 Of wings to lift the body bequeath me.

 As I uttered these inspiring words the idea came like a flash of lightning and in an instant the truth was revealed. I drew with a sti the sand the diagrams shown six years later in my address before the Ameri Institute of Electrical Engineers, and my panion uood them perfectly. The images I saw were wonderfully sharp and clear and had the solidity of metal and stone, so much so that I told him: "See my motor here; watch me reverse it." I ot begin to describe my emotions. Pygmalion seeing his statue e to life could not have been more deeply moved. A thousas of nature which I might have stumbled upon actally I would have given for that one which I had wrested from her against all odds and at the peril of my existence.

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