Nikola Tesla
“It is necessary for us to assume a universal medium for the transmission of force. This results from the necessity of explaining the action of bodies at a distance. Energy transmitted from the sun to the earth through some very attenuated medium. To show how such medium may be used under certain conditions I may refer to a feat I once accomplished of converting a column of gas into a solid body by the application of electricity in a certain manner. The gas became rigid and vibrated like a steel wire. Scientific men have not noticed the importance of this as yet. Again, I have produced a solid body in the air on the end of a wire. I made a flame which consumed nothing and which showed signs of solidification, for it offered resistance to the passage of bodies through it.” [Nikola Tesla, “Tesla’s Visit To Chicago.” Western Electrician, May 20, 1899]
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