"By the art of telautomatics, which is a part of the broad scheme for the wireless transmission of power, many of the worst dangers of air and water navigation will be avoided, which is right in line with the modern tendency of preventing trouble rather than waiting for it to happen before remedying it." He then went on to enumerate the various telautomatic devices that will be carried by ocean liners and airships of the future, as mentioned in the early part of this chapter. "Just for instance, how could telautomatics have saved the _Titanic_?" the inventor was asked. "You understand, of course," answered Tesla, "that the devices I propose would be of almost inconceivable sensitiveness. They would be the centre of electrical waves, and, as soon as the iceberg got into the path of these waves from the wireless transmission plant to the ship, it would cause the electricity to register an impression of danger ahead. Of course mariners would become so expert in the reading of these danger signals that they could tell the meaning of each one, and alter their course or reverse their engines according to the needs of the case." "How much have you accomplished in telautomatics at this time?" "I have made a little submarine boat that will answer to every necessary impulse. The boat contained its own motive power in a storage battery and gear for propulsion, steering sidewise, or upward or downward, and all other accessories necessary for its operation. All of these were worked from a distance by wireless impulses, sent by an oscillator to the circuit in the boat through which magnets and other devices operated the interior mechanism. "This proved to me the possibility of a high development of telautomatics. When my system is complete, a crewless ship may be sent from any port in the world to any other port propelled by wireless energy from a power plant anywhere on the face of the earth, and controlled absolutely by telautomatics." Tesla's plan for aerial navigation is even more startling than that for crewless ocean liners. He thinks that the airships of the future will be propelled by wireless power and that they will have, neither planes nor other supporting surfaces, such as we are so familiar with nowadays. Neither will they be supported by gas bags like balloons and dirigibles. The inventor thinks they will be compact and just as airworthy as ocean liners are seaworthy. They will be tightly enclosed, so that the terrific rush of air through the high altitudes will not strangle the passengers and crew. He sees no reason why the airships of the future should not travel at a rate of several hundred miles an hour, so that you could leave San Francisco in the morning and be in New York in time for a six o'clock dinner, and the theatre, or cross the Atlantic in a night. "How will these airships be propelled?" the boy asked.