TESLA'S TIDAL WAVE TO MAKE WAR IMPOSSIBLE 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 few remarks on this invention, of which the wireless torpedo is but a special application, are indispensable to the understanding and full appreciation of the naval principle of destruction. 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; (2) apparatus for locomotion and other mechanical performance; (3) directive organs; and (4) sensitive instruments responsive to external influences, all these parts constituting a whole of marvelous perfection. The ambient medium is alive with movement and energy, in a state of unceasing agitation which is beyond comprehension. Strangely enough, to most of this terrible turmoil the human machine is insensible. The automaton does not feel the weight of the atmosphere crushing him with a force of 16 tons. 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. But when gentle waves of light or sound strike him his eye and ear respond, his resonant nerve fibers transmit the vibrations and his muscles contract and relax. Thus, like a float on a turbulent sea, swayed by external influences, he moves and acts. 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. Using the Principles of Human Action. 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; but the mechanical principles involved in the working of the living automaton are also applicable to an inanimate engine, however crude. An automobile boat was first employed to carry out the idea. Its storage battery and motor furnished the power; the propeller and rudder, respectively, served as locomotive and directive organs, and a very delicate electrical device, actuated by a circuit tuned to a distant transmitter, took the place of the ear. This mechanism followed perfectly the wireless signals or comments of the operator in control of the transmitter, performing every movement and action as if it had been gifted with intelligence. The next step was to individualize the machine. The attunement of the controlling circuits gave it a special feature, but this was not sufficiently distinctive. 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.