Chapter 15, Magnificent and Doomed; Chapter 16, Ridiculed, Condemned, Combatted Summary and Analysis

The next chapter opens with the author sharing a story about Tesla being met by the press. This leads into what is going to be a lengthy discussion of interplanetary signals. Again, the present technological perspective will help readers to understand both how Tesla was wrong and correct.

These chapters are devoted to the difference between radio signals and wireless electrical transmissions and end with a crucial remark by Tesla. Margaret Cheney emphasizes that these were separate projects, although they had a close association with one another. In the text itself, the material covered here are chapters 15 & 16.

Tesla believed that the radio signals he received from outer space were just that. He suspected Mars and Venus as the planetary sources because they are the closest and therefore...