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INVENTIONS OF NIKOLA TESLA.

wire extending through the whole bulb may be used, and in thiscase the phenomenon would seem to be still more interesting.

From the above experiment it will be evident, that when ordi-nary lamps are operated by the converted currents, those shouldbe preferably taken in which the platinum wires are far apart,and the frequencies used should not be too great, else the dis-charge will occur at the ends of the filament.or in the base of thelamp between the leading-in wires, and the lamp might then bedamaged.

In presenting to you these results of my investigation on thesubject under consideration, I have paid only a passing notice tofacts upon which I could have dwelt at length, and among manyobservations I have selected only those which I thought mostlikely to interest you. The field is wide and completely unex-plored, and at every step a new truth is gleaned, a novel factobserved.

How far the results here borne out are capable of practicalapplications will be decided in the future. As regards the pro-duction of light, some results already reached are encouragingand make me confident in asserting that the practical solution ofthe problem lies in the direction I have endeavored to indicate.Still, whatever may be the immediate outcome of these experi-ments I am hopeful that they will only prove a step in furtherdevelopment towards the ideal and final perfection. The possi-bilities which are opened by modern research are so vast, thateven the most reserved must feel sanguine of the future. Emi-nent scientists consider the problem of utilizing one kind ofradiation without the others a rational one. In an apparatus de-signed for the production of light by conversion from any formof energy into that of light, such a result can never be reached,for no matter what the process of producing the required vibra-tions, be it electrical, chemical or any other, it will not be possi-ble to obtain the higher light vibrations without going throughthe lower heat vibrations. It is the problem of imparting to abody a certain velocity without passing through all lower veloci-ties. .But there is a possibility of obtaining energy not only inthe form of light, but motive power, and energy of any otherform, in some more direct way from the medium. The time willbe when this will be accomplished, and the time has come whenone may utter such words before an enlightened audience with-out being considered a visionary. We are whirling through