"That is one of the things we had to guard against right from the very first, and I can tell you that lightning will not bother us a bit, although I cannot give you the details of our method of avoiding it. "When we are using the plant at night, however, there will be a display far more beautiful than lightning, all about the cupola in the form of a great halo of electric light visible for miles around." Before we leave this fascinating subject of the wireless transmission of power let us ask Doctor Tesla about the effect of his invention on war. "The wireless transmission of power will first be a big factor in promoting world peace, as I said before, because through the great improvement in communication it will lead to a better understanding between nations and break down many of the old prejudices that have lived for so many thousands of years. It will facilitate travel and commerce so that a citizen of the United States will find it as simple and cheap to travel abroad as he now finds it to travel in the neighbouring state. His commercial interests also will spread to foreign countries, and the nations will be so linked with one another socially and commercially that war will be out of the question. "However, in case war should break out between the nations it will be a conflict of such gigantic proportions, and carried on with such tremendous death-dealing machines, that it will surpass our wildest dreams. "For one thing, the new art of controlling electrically the movements and operations of individualized automata at a distance without wires will soon enable any country to render its coast impregnable against all naval attacks. "I have invented a number of improvements of this plan, making it possible to direct a telautomaton torpedo, submersible at will, from a distance much greater than the range of the largest gun, with unerring precision, upon the object to be destroyed. What is still more surprising, the operator will not need to see the infernal engine or even know its location, and the enemy will be unable to interfere, in the slightest, with its movements by any electrical means. One of these devil-telautomata will soon be constructed, and I shall bring it to the attention of governments. The development of this art must unavoidably arrest the construction of expensive battleships as well as land fortifications, and revolutionize the means and methods of warfare. The distance at which it can strike, and the destructive power of such a quasi-intelligent machine being for all practical purposes unlimited, the gun, the armour of the battleship, and the wall of the fortress, lose their import and significance. One can prophesy with a Daniel's confidence that skilled electricians will settle the battles of the near future, if battles we must have.