I discovered what can now split the earth itself.

Split it as a boy would split an apple -- and forever end the career of man. "The vibrations of the earth, have a periodicity of approximately one hour and forty-nine minutes. That is to say, if I strike the earth this instant, a wave of contraction goes through it that will come back in one hour and forty-nine minutes in the form of expansion. As a matter of fact, the earth, like everything else, is in a constant state of vibration. It is constantly contracting and expanding. Now, suppose that at the precise moment wh en it begins to contract, instead of exploding a ton of dynamite, I simply groun d on the city water main a bolt of my manufactured lightning that consists of th e same explosive energy as the dynamite which provided the same result. That ac celerates the contraction and, in one hour and forty-nine minutes, there comes an equally accelerated wave of expansion. When the wave of expansion ebs, suppose I explode another ton of dynamite or once aga in simply ground on the city water main a bolt of my manufactured lightning that consists of the same explosive energy as the dynamite, thus further increasing the wave of contraction. And, suppose this performance be repeated, time after time. There are no doubts now as to what happens. The ear th would be split in two. For the first time in man's history, he has the knowledge with which he may interfere with cosmic processes. Months might be required; perhaps a year or two... "But in a few weeks," he said, "I set the earth's crust into such a state of vibration that it rose and fell hundreds of feet, throwing rivers out of their beds, wrecking buildings, and practically destroying civilization. "The principle can not and did not fail. It is as powerful when applied to the earth as it is when applied to a [violin note shattering a] wineglass, a [boy pushing a man on a] swing, or a steel bar. Any one who doubts should only bear in mind the illustration of the swing. A small boy, by each time adding a pound to the force with which a 200-pound man swings, can soon set the man swinging with the force of 500 pounds. It is necessary only to keep adding a little force at the right time." I ordered from a steel company a steel bar, two feet long and two inches thick, of the best quality strong enough to bear a weight of hundreds of tons. I attached to this bar an electric vibrator, no larger than an alarmclock, but so constructed that the frequency of the vibrations could be altered at will. He set the vibrator to going and then began to vary the vibrations for the purpose of getting the vibrator in "tune" with the bar. For a long time, nothing happened -- the vibrations of the bar and of the earth did not chance to coincide. But at last he got them together, the great steel bar began to tremble, increased its trembling until it dilated and contracted like a beating heart -- and finally broke! Sledge hammers could not have done it; crowbars could not have done it, but a fusillade of taps, no one of which would have harmed a baby, did it. Tesla was pleased. He had learned something. He wanted to learn more. He put his little vibrator in his coat pocket and went out to hunt a half-erected steel building. Down in the Wall Street district, he found one -- ten stories of steel framework without a brick or a stone laid around it. He clamped his vibrator to one of the beams, and fussed with the adjustment until he got it. "In a few minutes", he said, "I could feel the beam trembling. Gradually, the trembling increased in intensity and extended throughout the whole great mass

of steel. Finally, the structure began to creak and weave, and the steelworkers came to the ground panic-stricken, believing that there had been an earthquake. Rumors spread that the building was about to fall, and the police reserves were called out. Before anything serious happened, I took off the vibrator, put it in my pocket and went away. But if I had kept on ten minutes more, I could have laid that building flat in the street. And, with the same vibrator, I could drop Brooklyn Bridge into the East River in less than an hour."