This automata,controlled within the range of vision of the operator,were,however,the first and rather crude steps in the evolution of the Art of Telautomatics as Ihad conceived it.The next logical improvement was its application to automatic mechanisms beyond the limits of vision and at great distance from the center of control,and Ihave ever since advocated their employment as instruments of warfare in preference to guns.The importance of this now seems to be recognized,if Iam to judge from casual announcements thru the press of achievements which are said to be extraordinary but contain no merit of novelty,whatever.In an imperfect manner it is practicable,with the existing wireless plants,to launch an aeroplane,have it follow a certain approximate course,and perform some operation at a distance of many hundreds of miles.Amachine of this kind can also be mechanically controlled in several ways and Ihave no doubt that it may prove of some usefulness in war.But there are,to my best knowledge,no instrumentalities in existence today with which such an object could be accomplished in a precise manner.Ihave devoted years of study to this matter and have evolved means,****** such and greater wonders easily realizable.
As stated on a previous occasion,when Iwas a student at college Iconceived a flying machine quite unlike the present ones.The underlying principle was sound but could not be carried into practice for want of a prime-mover of sufficiently great activity.In recent years Ihave successfully solved this problem and am now planning aerial machines devoid of sustaining planes,ailerons,propellers and other external attachments,which will be capable of immense speeds and are very likely to furnish powerful arguments for peace in the near future.Such a machine,sustained and propelled entirely by reaction,is supposed to be controlled either mechanically or by wireless energy.By installing proper plants it will be practicable to project a missile of this kind into the air and drop it almost on the very spot designated,which may be thousands of miles away.
But we are not going to stop at this.Telautomata will be ultimately produced,capable of acting as if possessed of their own intelligence,and their advent will create a revolution.As early as 1898Iproposed to representatives of a large manufacturing concern the construction and public exhibition of an automobile carriage which,left to itself,would perform a great variety of operations involving something akin to judgment.But my proposal was deemed chimerical at that time and nothing came from it.
At present many of the ablest minds are trying to devise expedients for preventing a repetition of the awful conflict which is only theoretically ended and the duration and main issues of which Ihave correctly predicted in an article printed in the Sun of December 20,1914.The proposed League is not a remedy but on the contrary,in the opinion of a number of competent men,may bring about results just the opposite.It is particularly regrettable that a punitive policy was adopted in framing the terms of peace,because a few years hence it will be possible for nations to fight without armies,ships or guns,by weapons far more terrible,to the destructive action and range of which there is virtually no limit.Acity,at any distance whatsoever from the enemy,can be destroyed by him and no power on earth can stop him from doing so.If we want to avert an impending calamity and a state of things which may transform this globe into an inferno,we should push the development of flying machines and wireless transmission of energy without an instant"s delay and with all the power and resources of the nation.
