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Tesla's Magnifying Transmitter: A
compilation of material on this amazing
device.
The question has often been posed as to whether Tesla's
magnifying transmitter could actually be constructed, today. This
webpage will attempt to gather available data, from a historical
perspective and offer an opinion.
From: A Museum At Wardenclyffe -
The Creation Of A Monument To Nikola Tesla:
The year was 1900 and following 9 productive months
of wireless propagation research in Colorado, Nikola Tesla was
anxious to put a mass of new found knowledge to work. His vision
focused on the development of a prototype wireless communications
station and research facility and he needed a site on which to
build. In 1901 he cast his eyes some 60 miles eastward to the
north shore village of Woodville Landing. Only six years before
the north branch of the Long Island Railroad had opened, reducing
travel time to the locality from a horse drawn five hours to less
than two.
Seeing an opportunity in land development a western
lawyer and banker by the name of James S. Warden had purchased
1400 acres in the area and started building an exclusive summer
resort community known as Wardenclyffe-On-Sound. With an
opportunity for further development in mind, Warden offered Tesla
a 200 acre section of this parcel lying directly to the south of
the newly laid track. It was anticipated that implementation of
Tesla's system would eventually lead to the establishment of
a "Radio City" to house the thousands of employees
needed for operation of the facility. The proximity to Manhattan
and the fairly short travel time between the two, along with the
site's closeness to a railway line must surely have been
attractive features and Tesla accepted the offer.
The Wardenclyffe World Wireless facility as envisioned by
Tesla was to have been quite different from present day radio
broadcasting stations. While there was to be a great
similarity in the apparatus employed, the method in which it was
to be utilized would have been radically different. Conventional
transmitters are designed so as to maximize the amount of power
radiated from the antenna structure. Such equipment must process
tremendous amounts of power in order to counteract the loss in
field strength encountered as the signal radiates out from its
point of origin. The transmitter at Wardenclyffe was being
configured so as to minimize the radiated power.
The energy of Tesla's steam driven Westinghouse
200 kW alternator was to be channeled instead into an extensive
underground radial structure of iron pipe installed 120 feet
beneath the tower's base. This was to be accomplished by
superposing a low frequency base-band signal on the higher
frequency signal coursing through the transmitter's helical
resonator. The low frequency current in the presence of an
enveloping corona-induced plasma of free charge carriers would
have pumped the earth's charge. It is believed the resulting
ground current and its associated wave complex would have allowed
the propagation of wireless transmissions to any distance on the
earth's surface with as little as 5% loss due to radiation.
The terrestrial transmission line modes so excited would have
supported a system with the following technical capabilities:
Establishment of a multi-channel global
broadcasting system with programming including news, music,
etc;
Interconnection of the world's telephone and telegraph
exchanges, and stock tickers;
Transmission of written and printed matter, and data;
World wide reproduction of photographic images;
Establishment of a universal marine navigation and location
system, including a means for the synchronization of precision
timepieces;
Establishment of secure wireless communications services.
The plan was to build the first of many
installations to be located near major population centers around
the world. If the program had moved forward without interruption,
the Long Island prototype would have been followed by additional
units the first of which being built somewhere along the coast of
England. By the Summer of 1902 Tesla had shifted his laboratory
operations from the Houston Street Laboratory to the rural Long
Island setting and work began in earnest on development of the
station and furthering of the propagation research. Construction
had been made possible largely through the backing of financier
J. Pierpont Morgan who had offered Tesla $150,000 towards the end
of 1900.
By July 1904, however, this support had run out and
with a subsequent major down turn in the financial markets Tesla
was compelled to pursue alternative methods of financing. With
funds raised through an unrecorded mortgage against the property,
additional venture capital, and the sale of X-ray tube power
supplies to the medical profession he was able to make ends meet
for another couple of years. In spite of valiant efforts to
maintain the operation, income dwindled and his employees were
eventually dropped from the payroll. Still, Tesla was certain
that his wireless system would yield handsome rewards if it could
only be set into operation and so the work continued as he was
able.
A second mortgage in 1908 acquired again from the
Waldorf-Astoria proprietor George C. Boldt allowed some
additional bills to be paid, but debt continued to mount and
between 1912 and 1915 Tesla's financial condition
disintegrated. The loss of ability to make additional payments
was accompanied by the collapse of his plan for high capacity
trans-Atlantic wireless communications. The property was
foreclosed, Nikola Tesla honored the agreement with his debtor
and title on the property was signed over to Mr. Boldt. The
plant's abandonment sometime around 1911-1912 followed by
demolition and salvaging of the tower in 1917 essentially brought
an end to this era. Tesla's April 20, 1922 loss on appeal of
the judgment completely closed the door to any further chance of
his developing the site.
Nikola Tesla, as quoted from the New York
Times, March 27th, 1904 -
"Much has already been done towards making my system
commercially available, in the transmission of energy in small
amounts for specific purposes, as well as on an industrial scale.
The results attained by me have made my scheme of intelligence
transmission, for which the name of "World Telegraphy"
has been suggested, easily realizable. It constitutes, I believe,
in its principle of operation, means employed and capacities of
application, a radical and fruitful departure from what has been
done heretofore. I have no doubt that it will prove very
efficient in enlightening the masses, particularly in still
uncivilized countries and less accessible regions, and that it
will add materially to general safety, comfort and convenience,
and maintenance of peaceful relations."
"It involves the employment of a number of plants, all of
which are capable of transmitting individualized signals to the
uttermost confines of the earth. Each of them will be preferably
located near some important center of civilization and the news
it receives through any channel will be flashed to all points of
the globe. A cheap and simple device, which might be carried in
one's pocket, may then be set up somewhere on sea or land,
and it will record the world's news or such special messages
as may be intended for it. Thus the entire earth will be
converted into a huge brain, as it were, capable of response in
every one of its parts. Since a single plant of but one hundred
horsepower can operate hundreds of millions of instruments, the
system will have a virtually infinite working capacity, and it
must needs immensely facilitate and cheapen the transmission of
intelligence."
"The first of these central plants would have been already
completed had it not been for unforeseen delays which,
fortunately, have nothing to do with its purely technical
features. But this loss of time, while vexatious, may, after all,
prove to be a blessing in disguise. The best design of which I
know has been adopted, and the transmitter will emit a wave
complex of a total maximum activity of 10,000,000 horsepower, one
percent of which is amply sufficient to "girdle the
globe." This enormous rate of energy delivery, approximately
twice that of the combined falls of Niagara, is obtainable only
by the use of certain artifices, which I shall make known in due
course.
"For a large part of the work which I have done so far I am
indebted to the noble generosity of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan, which
was all the more welcome and stimulating, as it was extended at a
time when those, who have since promised most, were the greatest
of doubters. I have also to thank my friend Stanford White, for
much unselfish and valuable assistance. This work is now far
advanced, and though the results may be tardy, they are sure to
come. Meanwhile, the transmission of energy on an industrial
scale is not being neglected. The Canadian Niagara Power Company
have offered me a splendid inducement, and next to achieving
success for the sake of the art, it will give me the greatest
satisfaction to make their concession financially profitable to
them. In this first power plant, which I have been designing for
a long time, I propose to distribute 10,000 horsepower under a
tension of 10,000,000 volts, which I am now able to produce and
handle with safety."
"This energy will be collected all over the globe preferably
in small amounts, ranging from a fraction of one to a few
horsepower. One of the chief uses will be the illumination of
isolated homes. It takes very little power to light a dwelling
with vacuum tubes operated by high frequency currents and in each
instance a terminal a little above the roof will be sufficient.
Another valuable application will be the driving of clocks and
other such apparatus. These clocks will be exceedingly simple,
will require absolutely no attention and will indicate rigorously
correct time. The idea of impressing upon the earth American time
is fascinating and very likely to become popular."
"There are innumerable devices of all kinds which are either
now employed or can be supplied and by operating them in this
manner I may be able to offer a great convenience to the whole
world with a plant of no more than 10,000 horsepower. The
introduction of this system will give opportunities for invention
and manufacture such as have never presented themselves before.
Knowing the far reaching importance of this first attempt and its
effect upon future development, I shall proceed slowly and
carefully. Experience has taught me not to assign a term to
enterprises the consummation of which is not wholly dependent on
my own abilities and exertions. But I am hopeful that these great
realizations are not far off and I know that when this first work
is completed they will follow with mathematical
certitude."
"When the great truth, accidentally revealed
and experimentally confirmed, is fully recognized, that this
planet, with all its appalling immensity, is to electric currents
virtually no more than a small metal ball and that by virtue of
this fact many possibilities, each baffling imagination and of
incalculable consequence, are rendered absolutely sure of
accomplishment; when the first plant is inaugurated and it is
shown that a telegraphic message, almost as secret and
non-interferable as a thought, can be transmitted to any
terrestrial distance, the sound of the human voice, with all its
intonations and inflections faithfully and instantly reproduced
at any other point of the globe, the energy of a waterfall made
available for supplying light, heat or motive power,
anywhere...on sea, or land, or high in the air...humanity will be
like an ant heap stirred up with a stick. See the excitement
coming!" "Cloud born Electric Wavelets To
Encircle the Globe: This Is Nikola Tesla's Latest Dream, and
the Long Island Hamlet of Wardenclyffe Marvels Thereat,"
New York Times, 27 March 1904.
How it Works:
Rather than acting as a radiator, the large metallic spheroid,
now known as an isotropic capacitance, which Tesla positioned
above the extra coil was intended only as a reservoir for
electrical charge. Another important component of Tesla's
Long Island apparatus was an underground array of iron pipes
which extended outward from the bottom of a deep shaft beneath
the transmitter tower. When coupled with the transmitter these
pipes provided a connection to the earth through which a powerful
oscillating electrical current would flow. Unlike a conventional
radio transmitter with an antenna that radiates dissipating
electromagnetic waves out into space, the magnifying
transmitter's extra coil excites a low-frequency ground wave
called the Zenneck surface wave. In this case the propagating
energy does not radiate into space but is concentrated near the
earth's surface. Furthermore, Tesla asserted that it is
possible to periodically disturb the equilibrium of the
earth's electrical charge and cause it to oscillate with his
apparatus. This would be accomplished by superposing an extra low
frequency baseband signal on the somewhat higher frequency signal
coursing through the resonator -- the low frequency current in
the presence of an enveloping corona-induced plasma of free
charge carriers produced by the oscillator in effect
"pumping" the earth's charge.
In Tesla’s own
words:
[Quote] "These and other inventions of mine, however, were
nothing more than steps forward in a certain directions. In
evolving them, I simply followed the inborn instinct to improve
the present devices without any special thought of our far more
imperative necessities. The "Magnifying Transmitter"
was the product of labours extending through years, having for
their chief object, the solution of problems which are infinitely
more important to mankind than mere industrial development.
If my memory serves me right, it was in November, 1890, that I
performed a laboratory experiment which was one of the most
extraordinary and spectacular ever recorded in the annals of
Science. In investigating the behavior of high frequency
currents, I had satisfied myself that an electric field of
sufficient intensity could be produced in a room to light up
electrode less vacuum tubes. Accordingly, a transformer was built
to test the theory and the first trial proved a marvelous
success. It is difficult to appreciate what those strange
phenomena meant at the time. We crave for new sensations, but
soon become indifferent to them. The wonders of yesterday are
today common occurrences. When my tubes were first publicly
exhibited, they were viewed with amazement impossible to
describe. From all parts of the world, I received urgent
invitations and numerous honors and other flattering inducements
were offered to me, which I declined. But in 1892 the demand
became irresistible and I went to London where I delivered a
lecture before the institution of Electrical Engineers.
It has been my intention to leave immediately for Paris in
compliance with a similar obligation, but Sir James Dewar
insisted on my appearing before the Royal Institution. I was a
man of firm resolve, but succumbed easily to the forceful
arguments of the great Scotchman. He pushed me into a chair and
poured out half a glass of a wonderful brown fluid which sparkled
in all sorts of iridescent colors and tasted like nectar.
"Now," said he, "you are sitting in
Faraday's chair and you are enjoying whiskey he used to
drink." (Which did not interest me very much, as I had
altered my opinion concerning strong drink). The next evening I
have a demonstration before the Royal Institution, at the
termination of which, Lord Rayleigh addressed the audience and
his generous words gave me the first start in these endeavors. I
fled from London and later from Paris, to escape favors showered
upon me, and journeyed to my home, where I passed through a most
painful ordeal and illness. Upon regaining my health, I began to
formulate plans for the resumption of work in America. Up to that
time I never realized that I possessed any particular gift of
discovery, but Lord Rayleigh, whom I always considered as an
ideal man of science, had said so and if that was the case, I
felt that I should concentrate on some big idea. At this time, as
at many other times in the past, my thoughts turned towards my
Mother's teaching. The gift of mental power comes from God,
Divine Being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we
become in tune with this great power. My Mother had taught me to
seek all truth in the Bible; therefore I devoted the next few
months to the study of this work.
One day, as I was roaming the mountains, I sought shelter from an
approaching storm. The sky became overhung with heavy clouds, but
somehow the rain was delayed until, all of a sudden, there was a
lightening flash and a few moments after, a deluge. This
observation set me thinking. It was manifest that the two
phenomena were closely related, as cause and effect, and a little
reflection led me to the conclusion that the electrical energy
involved in the precipitation of the water was inconsiderable,
the function of the lightening being much like that of a
sensitive trigger. Here was a stupendous possibility of
achievement. If we could produce electric effects of the required
quality, this whole planet and the conditions of existence on it
could be transformed. The sun raises the water of the oceans and
winds drive it to distant regions where it remains in a state of
most delicate balance. If it were in our power to upset it when
and wherever desired, this might life sustaining stream could be
at will controlled. We could irrigate arid deserts, create lakes
and rivers, and provide motive power in unlimited amounts. This
would be the most efficient way of harnessing the sun to the uses
of man. The consummation depended on our ability to develop
electric forces of the order of those in nature.
It seemed a hopeless undertaking, but I made up my mind to try it
and immediately on my return to the United States in the summer
of 1892, after a short visit to my friends in Watford, England;
work was begun which was to me all the more attractive, because a
means of the same kind was necessary for the successful
transmission of energy without wires. At this time I made a
further careful study of the Bible, and discovered the key in
Revelation. The first gratifying result was obtained in the
spring of the succeeding year, when I reaching a tension of about
100,000,000 volts -- one hundred million volts -- with my conical
coil, which I figured was the voltage of a flash of lightening.
Steady progress was made until the destruction of my laboratory
by fire, in 1895, as may be judged from an article by T.C. Martin
which appeared in the April number of the Century Magazine. This
calamity set me back in many ways and most of that year had to be
devoted to planning and reconstruction. However, as soon as
circumstances permitted, I returned to the task.
Although I knew that higher electric-motive forces were
attainable with apparatus of larger dimensions, I had an
instinctive perception that the object could be accomplished by
the proper design of a comparatively small and compact
transformer. In carrying on tests with a secondary in the form of
flat spiral, as illustrated in my patents, the absence of
streamers surprised me, and it was not long before I discovered
that this was due to the position of the turns and their mutual
action. Profiting from this observation, I resorted to the use of
a high tension conductor with turns of considerable diameter,
sufficiently separated to keep down the distributed capacity,
while at the same time preventing undue accumulation of the
charge at any point. The application of this principle enabled me
to produce pressures of over 100,000,000 volts, which was about
the limit obtainable without risk of accident. A photograph of my
transmitter built in my laboratory at Houston Street, was
published in the Electrical Review of November, 1898.
In order to advance further along this line, I had to go into the
open, and in the spring of 1899, having completed preparations
for the erection of a wireless plant, I went to Colorado where I
remained for more than one year. Here I introduced other
improvements and refinements which made it possible to generate
currents of any tension that may be desired. Those who are
interested will find some information in regard to the
experiments I conducted there in my article, "The Problem
of Increasing Human Energy," in the Century Magazine of
June 1900, to which I have referred on a previous
occasion.
I will be quite explicit on the subject of my
magnifying transformer so that it will be clearly understood. In
the first place, it is a resonant transformer, with a secondary
in which the parts, charged to a high potential, are of
considerable area and arranged in space along ideal enveloping
surfaces of very large radii of curvature, and at proper
distances from one another, thereby insuring a small electric
surface density everywhere, so that no leak can occur even if the
conductor is bare. It is suitable for any frequency, from a few
to many thousands of cycles per second, and can be used in the
production of currents of tremendous volume and moderate
pressure, or of smaller amperage and immense electromotive force.
The maximum electric tension is merely dependent on the curvature
of the surfaces on which the charged elements are situated and
the area of the latter. Judging from my past experience there is
no limit to the possible voltage developed; any amount is
practicable.
On the other hand, currents of many thousands of
amperes may be obtained in the antenna. A plant of but very
moderate dimensions is required for such performances.
Theoretically, a terminal of less than 90 feet in diameter is
sufficient to develop an electromotive force of that magnitude,
while for antenna currents of from 2,000-4,000 amperes at the
usual frequencies, it need not be larger than 30 feet in
diameter. In a more restricted meaning, this wireless transmitter
is one in which the Hertz wave radiation is an entirely
negligible quantity as compared with the whole energy, under
which condition the damping factor is extremely small and an
enormous charge is stored in the elevated capacity. Such a
circuit may then be excited with impulses of any kind, even of
low frequency and it will yield sinusoidal and continuous
oscillations like those of an alternator.
Taken in the narrowest significance of the term,
however, it is a resonant transformer which, besides possessing
these qualities, is accurately proportioned to fit the globe and
its electrical constants and properties, by virtue of which
design it becomes highly efficient and effective in the wireless
transmission of energy. Distance is then ABSOLUTELY
ELIMINATED, THERE BEING NO DIMINUTIONS IN THE INTENSITY of the
transmitted impulses. It is even possible to make the actions
increase with the distance from the plane, according to an exact
mathematical law. This invention was one of a number comprised in
my "World System" of wireless transmission which I
undertook to commercialize on my return to New York in 1900.
As to the immediate purposes of my enterprise, they
were clearly outlined in a technical statement of that period
from which, I quote, "The world system has resulted from
a combination of several original discoveries made by the
inventor in the course of long continued research and
experimentation. It makes possible not only the instantaneous and
precise wireless transmission of any kind of signals, messages or
characters, to all parts of the world, but also the
inter-connection of the existing telegraph, telephone, and other
signal stations without any change in their present equipment. By
its means, for instance, a telephone subscriber here may call up
and talk to any other subscriber on the Earth. An inexpensive
receiver, not bigger than a watch, will enable him to listen
anywhere, on land or sea, to a speech delivered or music played
in some other place, however distant."
These examples are cited merely to give an idea of
the possibilities of this great scientific advance, which
annihilates distance and makes that perfect natural conductor,
the Earth, available for all the innumerable purposes which human
ingenuity has found for a line-wire. One far-reaching result of
this is that any device capable of being operated through one or
more wires (at a distance obviously restricted) can likewise be
actuated, without artificial conductors and with the same
facility and accuracy, at distances to which there are no limits
other than those imposed by the physical dimensions of the earth.
Thus, not only will entirely new fields for commercial
exploitation be opened up by this ideal method of transmission,
but the old ones vastly extended. The World System is based on
the application of the following import and inventions and
discoveries:
1) The Tesla Transformer: This apparatus is
in the production of electrical vibrations as revolutionary as
gunpowder was in warfare. Currents many times stronger than any
ever generated in the usual ways and sparks over one hundred feet
long, have been produced by the inventor with an instrument of
this kind.
2) The Magnifying Transmitter: This is Tesla's best
invention, a peculiar transformer specially adapted to excite the
earth, which is in the transmission of electrical energy when the
telescope is in astronomical observation. By the use of this
marvelous device, he has already set up electrical movements of
greater intensity than those of lightening and passed a current,
sufficient to light more than two hundred incandescent lamps,
around the Earth.
3) The Tesla Wireless System: This system comprises a
number of improvements and is the only means known for
transmitting economically electrical energy to a distance without
wires. Careful tests and measurements in connection with an
experimental station of great activity, erected by the inventor
in Colorado, have demonstrated that power in any desired amount
can be conveyed, clear across the Globe if necessary, with a loss
not exceeding a few per cent.
4) The Art of Individualization: This invention of Tesla
is to primitive Tuning, what refined language is to unarticulated
expression. It makes possible the transmission of signals or
messages absolutely secret and exclusive both in the active and
passive aspect, that is, non-interfering as well as
non-interferable. Each signal is like an individual of
unmistakable identity and there is virtually no limit to the
number of stations or instruments which can be simultaneously
operated without the slightest mutual disturbance.
5) The Terrestrial Stationary Waves: This wonderful
discovery, popularly explained, means that the Earth is
responsive to electrical vibrations of definite pitch, just as a
tuning fork to certain waves of sound. These particular
electrical vibrations, capable of powerfully exciting the Globe,
lend themselves to innumerable uses of great importance
commercially and in many other respects. The "first World
System" power plant can be put in operation in nine months.
With this power plant, it will be practicable to attain
electrical activities up to ten million horsepower and it is
designed to serve for as many technical achievements as are
possible without due expense.
Among these are the following:
- The interconnection of existing telegraph
exchanges or offices all over the world;
- The establishment of a secret and
non-interferable government telegraph service;
- The interconnection of all present telephone
exchanges or offices around the Globe;
- The universal distribution of general news
by telegraph or telephone, in conjunction with the
Press;
- The establishment of such a "World
System" of intelligence transmission for exclusive private
use;
- The interconnection and operation of all
stock tickers of the world;
- The establishment of a World system -- of
musical distribution, etc.;
- The universal registration of time by
cheap clocks indicating the hour with astronomical precision and
requiring no attention whatever;
- The world transmission of typed or
handwritten characters, letters, checks, etc.;
- The establishment of a universal marine
service enabling the navigators of all ships to steer perfectly
without compass, to determine the exact location, hour and speak;
to prevent collisions and disasters, etc.;
- The inauguration of a system of world
printing on land and sea;
- The world reproduction of photographic
pictures and all kinds of drawings or
records..."
I also proposed to make demonstration in the
wireless transmission of power on a small scale, but sufficient
to carry conviction. Besides these, I referred to other and
incomparably more important applications of my discoveries which
will be disclosed at some future date. A plant was built on Long
Island with a tower 187 feet high, having a spherical terminal
about 68 feet in diameter. These dimensions were adequate for the
transmission of virtually any amount of energy. Originally, only
from 200 to 300 K.W. were provided, but I intended to employ
later several thousand horsepower. The transmitter was to emit a
wave-complex of special characteristics and I had devised a
unique method of telephonic control of any amount of energy. The
tower was destroyed two years ago (1917) but my projects are
being developed and another one, improved in some features will
be constructed.
On this occasion I would contradict the widely circulated report
that the structure was demolished by the Government, which owing
to war conditions, might have created prejudice in the minds of
those who may not know that the papers, which thirty years ago
conferred upon me the honor of American citizenship, are always
kept in a safe, while my orders, diplomas, degrees, gold medals
and other distinctions are packed away in old trunks. If this
report had a foundation, I would have been refunded a large sum
of money which I expended in the construction of the tower. On
the contrary, it was in the interest of the Government to
preserver it, particularly as it would have made possible, to
mention just one valuable result, the location of a submarine in
any part of the world. My plant, services, and all my
improvements have always been at the disposal of the officials
and ever since the outbreak of the European conflict, I have been
working at a sacrifice on several inventions of mine relating to
aerial navigation, ship propulsion and wireless transmission,
which are of the greatest importance to the country. Those who
are well informed know that my ideas have revolutionized the
industries of the United States and I am not aware that there
lives an inventor who has been, in this respect, as fortunate as
myself, -- especially as regards the use of his improvements in
the war.
I have refrained from publicly expressing myself on this subject
before, as it seemed improper to dwell on personal matters while
all the world was in dire trouble. I would add further, in view
of various rumors which have reached me, that Mr. J. Pierpont
Morgan did not interest himself with me in a business way, but in
the same large spirit in which he has assisted many other
pioneers. He carried out his generous promise to the letter and
it would have been most unreasonable to expect from him anything
more. He had the highest regard for my attainments and gave me
every evidence of his complete faith in my ability to ultimately
achieve what I had set out to do. I am unwilling to accord to
some small-minded and jealous individuals the satisfaction of
having thwarted my efforts. These men are to me nothing more than
microbes of a nasty disease. My project was retarded by laws of
nature. The world was not prepared for it. It was too far ahead
of time, but the same laws will prevail in the end and make it a
triumphal success." [End Quote] Nikola Tesla - My
Inventions, Ch. 5 & 6 (in part)
Pretty darn powerful words from Tesla. So, we now
know that TESLA thought it was possible. Let's see what else
we can discover.
Wireless power:
The drawing for Tesla's wireless power patent looks like the
earlier power-by-wire patent except now spherical antennas
replace the transmission lines, which are dropped out of the
picture almost as if they were redundant. The ball antenna is
peculiarly Tesla, as is the toroid, and you wonder why nothing
like them have appeared since. In this 1900 patent, wireless
power is not represented as an earth-resonant system. Here Tesla
talks about transmission through elevated strata. The patent
contains much discussion of how rarefied gases in the upper
atmosphere became quite conductive when there is applied many
hundred thousand or millions of volts. Balloons are suggested to
send the antennas aloft. Appreciate that Tesla in this patent has
invented nothing less than the principles of radio.
Tesla recognizes only a quantitative difference between sending
radio signals and broadcasting electric power. Both involve
sending and receiving stations tuned to one another by means of
Tesla coil circuits. Tesla's wireless power would be the
ultimate centralized electric system, a capitalist dream, but for
the fact that the technology is too simple. Just raising an
antenna, planting a ground, and connecting simple tesla coil
circuitry in between could achieve reception of power.
Although Tesla himself patented a couple of electric meters for
high frequencies, it would be all too easy for consumers to tune
in for free, just as many today bootleg pay TV signals using
illicit equipment far more sophisticated. It is no wonder, then,
that the electric power establishment didn't welcome this
invention. This was one problem. Another was that the established
electric power system would have to be relegated to another great
pile of scrap, and maybe the established system of political
power as well.
Tesla's announced dream was to use hydra sources where
available and through wireless power broadcast that energy around
the planet, thus liberating the world from poverty. Such a scheme
would not be readily embraced by powers that sustain their rule
by keeping populations poor and weak. Centralized control of
energy, as well as other resources, is, of course, believed to be
essential to civilized rule, at least as far as thinking on that
subject has progressed in this era. Moreover, no multinational
political system was in existence, or is now for that matter,
that could implement a technology of such global implications.
Tesla was blind to such considerations.
His commitment, his overriding priority as a technological
purist, was to take machine possibilities to their logical
conclusions. Today, if wireless power were seriously proposed,
there would no doubt be at least one political problem that would
not have arisen in Tesla's time: resistance from
environmentalists. What would an environmental impact report have
to say about biologic hazards? A Navy submarine communication
system that uses extremely low frequency (ELF) waves, down to
below 10 cycles, has been challenged by environmentalists, as
have microwave and 60 cycle high-voltage transmission
lines.
Engineering
details:
Patents normally don't give many quantitative specifics, but
Tesla's wireless power patent does give some about the big
prototype power-transmission Tesla coil (which was, incidentally,
used to conduct a demonstration before skeptical patent
examiners). A 50,000-volt transformer charged a capacitor of .004
mfd., which discharged through a rotary gap that gave 5,000
breaks per second. The eight-foot diameter primary had just one
turn of stout stranded cable. The secondary was 50 turns of
heavily insulated No. 8 wire wound as a flat spiral. It vibrated
at 230-250,000 cycles and produced 2 to 4 million volts. This
coil evolved into the huge experimental magnifying
transmitter
Tesla describes in his Colorado Springs notes. Housed in a
specially built lab 110 feet square, the device used a 50,000
volt Westinghouse transformer to charge a capacitor that
consisted of a galvanized tub full of salt water as an
electrolyte, into which he placed large glass bottles, themselves
containing salt water. The salt water in the tub was one plate of
this capacitor, the salt water inside the bottles the other
plate, and the bottle glass the dielectric. Various capacities
were tried, incremental changes being made by connecting more or
fewer bottles. A variable tuning coil of 20 turns was connected
to the primary, which consisted of two turns of heavy insulated
cable that ran around the base of the huge fence like wooden
secondary framework. The secondary had 24 turns of No. 8 wire on
a diameter of 51 feet Various extra coils were tried, the final
version being 12 feet high, 8 feet in diameter, and having 100
turns of No. 8 wire.
The antenna was a 30-inch conductive ball adjustable for height
on a 142-foot mast. The huge transmitter could vibrate from 45 to
150 kilocycles. Even with the big transformer, this bill of
materials does not seem inaccessible to enterprising people, and
the technology does not seem so abstruse, so it is no wonder that
people have gotten together to build magnifying transmitters and
experiment with wireless power without support from corporations
or government.
One such group was the People's Power Project in central
Minnesota in the late 70's. This group, largely farmers,
objected to high voltage power lines trespassing on their land
and set out to build an alternative. Limited by the sketchy
information then available, the project was not successful.
Another attempt, called Project Tesla, is being set up in
Colorado. Endowed with more precise calculations and more
experienced personnel, Project Tesla will try to repeat
Tesla's wireless-power experiment and verify his theory by
taking measurements at various remote locations.
Earth Resonance:
Among the appealing features of Colorado Springs for Tesla were
the region’s frequent and sensational electrical storms.
For Tesla, lightning was a joyous phenomenon. Biographers report
that, during storms back East, Tesla would throw open the windows
of his New York lab and recline on a couch for the duration,
muttering to himself ecstatically. In Colorado Springs he tuned
in and tracked lightning storms using rudimentary radio receiving
equipment. He thereby determined that lightning was a vibratory
phenomenon, which set up standing waves bouncing within the earth
at a frequency resonantly compatible with the earth's
electrical capacity. This earth-resonant frequency, he reasoned,
was the ideal frequency for wireless power transmission, and he
tuned his ultimate magnifying transmitter accordingly.
The literature contains various reports on exactly what this
frequency is. Some say 150 kilocycles, which would be at the
upper range of the Colorado Springs transmitter. Others give
frequencies considerably lower, 11.78 cycles, 6.8 cycles,
frequencies Tesla's transmitter may have achieved
harmonically. With reinforcement from the earth resonance, the
power would actually increase in the process of
transmission.
In one memorable experiment with the Colorado Springs
transmitter, Tesla shot from the antenna ball veritable lightning
bolts of 135 feet, producing thunder heard 15 miles distant, and,
in the process, pulled so many amperes that he burned out the
municipal generator. In another experiment he lit up wirelessly,
at a distance of 26 miles from the lab, a bank of 10,000 watts
worth of incandescent bulbs. Two years after Colorado Springs,
Tesla applied for patent for the far more refined magnifying
transmitter shown at the opening of this chapter, a patent that
was not granted until a dozen years later.
In this patent he no longer speaks of energy broadcast through
the upper strata of the atmosphere but of a grounded resonant
circuit. Tesla predicted that his magnifying transmitter would
prove most important and valuable to future generations, that it
would bring about an industrial revolution and make possible
great humanitarian achievements. Instead, as we shall see, the
magnifying transmitter became Tesla's Waterloo.
Lighting Up The
Sky:
Hold a fluorescent tube near a Tesla coil and it will light up in
your hand. This is true of any tube or bulb with vacuum or
rarefied gas. A more efficient way is to ground one end of the
tube and put a length of wire as a sort of antenna on the other.
Better yet, put a coil of wire that resonates with the secondary
in series with the tube and ground and you have the optimal
wireless power arrangement.
Tesla conducted many experiments with different arrangements like
this, using on some occasions the widely available Edison
filament incandescent, which lighted up more brilliantly than
usual because of the effects of high frequencies on the bulbs
rarefied interior. Inside his New York lab Tesla strung a wire
connected to a Tesla coil around the perimeter of the room.
Wherever he needed light he hung a gas tube in the vicinity of
this high frequency conductor.
Tesla had a bold fantasy whereby he would use the principle of
rarefied gas luminescence to light up the sky at night. High
frequency electric energy would be transmitted, perhaps by an
ionizing beam of ultraviolet radiation, into the upper
atmosphere, where gases are at relatively low pressure, so that
this layer would behave like a luminous tube. Sky lighting, he
said, would reduce the need for street lighting, and facilitate
the movement of ocean going vessels. The aurora borealis is an
electrical phenomenon that works on this principle, the effects
of cosmic eruptions such as those from the sun being the source
of electric stimulation. I, for one, am grateful that this
particular Tesla fantasy never materialized since it is difficult
enough to see the stars with existing light pollution, and there
might be undesirable biological impacts as well.
The Rotating
Brush:
Tesla took an evacuated incandescent type lamp globe, suspended
within it at dead center a conductive element, stimulated that
element with high voltage currents from an induction coil, and
thus created a beam-like emanation, a brush discharge that was so
eerily sensitive to disturbances in its environs that it seemed
to be endowed with an intelligent life of its own. The device
works best if there is no lead-in wire. In the bulb shown, every
measure has been taken to construct it so it is free from its own
electrical influence. The bulb could be stimulated inductively by
applying energy to metal foil wrapped around its neck. Thus
excited, intense phosphorescence then spreads at first over the
globe, but soon gives place to a white misty light, observes
Tesla. The glow then resolves into a directional brush or beam
that will spin around the central element. So responsive is it to
any electrostatic or magnetic changes in its vicinity that the
approach of an observer at a few paces from the bulb will cause
the brush to fly to the opposite side. A small, inch-wide
permanent magnet will affect it visibly at a distance of two
meters, slowing down or accelerating the rotation according to
how it is held relatively to the brush.
Tesla never patented the rotating brush or used it in any
practical application, but he believed it could have practical
applications. He saw one use in radio where the device could
conceivably be adapted to being a most sensitive detector of
disturbances in the medium. The rotating brush appears to be a
precursor of the plasma globe toys now in fashion; these are
sometimes called Tesla globes. Tesla's new lighting was
famous in its time. Tesla, the promoter, saw to it. He conducted
demonstrations at lectures before the electric industry
associations, before large audiences in rented halls, and before
select groups of influential New Yorkers in his Manhattan
lab.
His articles about the new lighting were published in the popular
scientific press and it was reported in the newspapers. Still, it
did not catch on with the powers-that-be who no doubt saw in it
Tesla's perennial pile-of scrap problem. But, I wonder, would
the whole electric distribution system have to be scrapped to
implement the efficiencies of Tesla lighting? Conceivably, the
new lighting could be run off of local oscillators at the
consumer end, the old power distribution system remaining intact.
This is still a possibility, as it has been for about one hundred
years.
A Better Way:
Tesla patented both his spark-gap oscillator and his Tesla coil
specifically as power sources for a new lighting system that used
currents of high frequency and high potential. Lest you get the
impression that a lone genius named Tesla invented this new form
of lighting out of the blue, you should know that others before
him had used high frequencies to stimulate light, and others,
like Sir William Crookes, had done the same with high potentials,
but Tesla was the first on record to put the two together.
In Jules Verne's 1872 novel A Journey to the Center of the
Earth, the narrator tells of a brilliant portable battery
lamp used by the underground explorers. The device was powered by
a Ruhmkorf coil; a high voltage buzzer-type induction coil
(step-up transformer) popular among early electrical
experimenters. The Ruhmkorf coil stimulated a lamp (type
unspecified but probably a gas tube), which produced the light of
an artificial day. The lamp had such a low current draw that the
battery lasted throughout the subterranean adventure. Verne
evidently was drawing, at least in part, on experimental
knowledge of his day for what he calls this ingenious application
of electricity to practical purposes.
Perhaps somebody should reinvent such a high potential lamp to
replace today's flashlight, which seems to exist for the
purpose of enriching the Eveready division of Union Carbide.
Modern neon lighting is high potential at 2,000 to 15,000 volts.
(Neon sign transformers are good for powering Tesla coils, but a
low-frequency, high voltage device: caution.) Neon, as well as
its cousin, 7,500-volt cold cathode (filament's) fluorescent,
which is used in some industrial lighting, is as close as we get
to Tesla lighting today.
Circa 1900, Tesla experimented with luminous tubes bent into
alphabetic characters and other shapes. Although today's neon
is simplistic Tesla, being driven by 60-cycle high-voltage
transformer power alone without the benefits of high-frequency
excitation, it should suggest to us the amazing efficiency of
high-potential lighting, since a single 15,000-volt neon
transformer drawing only 230 watts can light up a tube extending
up to 120 feet. How superior is the economy of Tesla high
potential, high frequency lighting over Edison incandescent?
Tesla says certainly 20 times, if not more light is obtained for
the same expenditure of energy.
Tesla's Dreams Of
Tomorrow:
This is an entire quote from Tesla - [Quote] "There will be
enough wheat and wheat products to feed the entire world,
including the teeming millions of China and India, now
chronically on the verge of starvation. The earth is bountiful,
and where her bounty fails, nitrogen drawn from the air will
refertilize her womb. I developed a process for this purpose in
1900. It was perfected fourteen years later under the stress of
war by German chemists.
Long before the next century dawns, systematic reforestation and
the scientific management of natural resources will have made an
end of all devastating droughts, forest fires, and floods. The
universal utilization of water power and its long-distance
transmission will supply every household with cheap power and
will dispense with the necessity of burning fuel. The struggle
for existence being lessened, there should be development along
ideal rather than material lines.
Today the most civilized countries of the world spend a maximum
of their income on war and a minimum on education. The
twenty-first century will reverse this order. It will be more
glorious to fight against ignorance than to die on the field of
battle. The discovery of a new scientific truth will be more
important than the squabbles of diplomats. Even the newspapers of
our own day are beginning to treat scientific discoveries and the
creation of fresh philosophical concepts as news. The newspapers
of the twenty-first century will give a mere "stick" in
the back pages to accounts of crime or political controversies,
but will headline on the front pages the proclamation of a new
scientific hypothesis. "It will be possible to destroy
anything approaching within 200 miles. My invention will provide
a wall of power," declares Tesla.
Progress along such lines will be impossible while nations
persist in the savage practice of killing each other off. I
inherited from my father, an erudite man who labored hard for
peace, an ineradicable hatred of war. Like other inventors, I
believed at one time that war could he stopped by making it more
destructive. But I found that I was mistaken. I underestimated
man's combative instinct, which it will take more than a
century to breed out. We cannot abolish war by outlawing it. We
cannot end it by disarming the strong. War can be stopped, not by
making the strong weak but by making every nation, weak or
strong, able to defend itself.
Hitherto all devices that could be used for defense could also be
utilized to serve for aggression. This nullified the value of the
improvement for purposes of peace. But I was fortunate enough to
evolve a new idea and to perfect means which can be used chiefly
for defense. If it is adopted, it will revolutionize the
relations between nations. It will make any country, large or
small, impregnable against armies, airplanes, and other means for
attack. My invention requires a large plant, but once it is
established it will he possible to destroy anything, men or
machines, approaching within a radius of 200 miles. It will, so
to speak, provide a wall of power offering an insuperable
obstacle against any effective aggression.
If no country can be attacked successfully, there can be no
purpose in war. My discovery ends the menace of airplanes or
submarines, but it insures the supremacy of the battleship,
because battleships may be provided with some of the required
equipment. There might still be war at sea, but no warship could
successfully attack the shore line, as the coast equipment will
be superior to the armament of any battleship.
I want to state explicitly that this invention of mine does not
contemplate the use of any so-called " death rays."
Rays are not applicable because they cannot be produced in
requisite quantities and diminish rapidly in intensity with
distance. All the energy of New York City (approximately two
million horsepower) transformed into rays and projected twenty
miles, could not kill a human being, because, according to a well
known law of physics, it would disperse to such an extent as to
be ineffectual.
My apparatus projects particles which maybe relatively large or
of microscopic dimensions, enabling us to convey to a small area
at a great distance trillions of times more energy than is
possible with rays of any kind. Many thousands of horsepower can
thus be transmitted by a stream thinner than a hair, so that
nothing can resist. This wonderful feature will make it possible,
among other things, to achieve undreamed-of results in
television, for there will be almost no limit to the intensity of
illumination, the size of the picture, or distance of projection.
I do not say that there may not be several destructive wars
before the world accepts my gift. I may not live to see its
acceptance. But I am convinced that a century from now every
nation will render itself immune from attack by my device or by a
device based upon a similar principle." [End Quote]
Nikola Tesla
J. P. Morgan "Sinks"
Tesla:
Tesla's ambitious World System came to an end when its
principal financier, J. P. Morgan pulled the plug on funding.
Morgan, the financial giant behind the formation of many
monopolies in railroads, shipping, steel, banking, etc., was a
major conduit of European capital into U. S. industrial
development in the Robber Baron era. He looms large in
Tesla's life. Morgan money was in the Niagara Falls project.
He backed Edison, too. It was Morgan's pressure on
Westinghouse, whom he also financed, that caused the cancellation
of Tesla's dollar-a-horsepower contract and the loss of
millions in royalties to Tesla for his poly phase.
When Tesla's lab burned down (arson was suspected), one of
Morgan's men promptly arrived with aid, as well as with the
offer of a partnership with Morgan interests. Acceptance would
have put Tesla firmly under Morgan's control. Tesla refused.
And Tesla succeeded in preserving his autonomy until he became
possessed with overwhelming ardor to fulfill the dream of his
World system. Tesla was ready to sell his soul to finance
Wardenclyffe, and J. P. Morgan was right there to buy it.
In 1901, Tesla signed over to Morgan controlling interest in the
patents he still owned, as well as all future ones, in lighting
and radio. Morgan then put about $150,000 startup funding into
Wardenclyffe. Later he invested more, just enough to bring the
project within sight of completion. Morgan then became elusive.
Tesla tried desperately to communicate with the investor, but to
no avail. When word was out on Wall Street that Morgan had
withdrawn support, no one would touch the project. This finished
Tesla as a functioning inventor. Work on the Wardenclyffe tower
came to a halt. Left to dereliction, the tower remained only as a
curiosity to passersby. During World War I, the tower was
unceremoniously dynamited to the ground.
An eerie prediction from Nikola Tesla that fits
right in with today's headlines...
"The truth of this has been borne out in
hundreds of instances and I am inviting other students of nature
to devote attention to this subject, believing that through
combined systematic effort, results of incalculable value to the
world will be attained. The idea of constructing an automaton, to
bear out my theory, presented itself to me early, but I did not
begin active work until 1895, when I started my wireless
investigations. During the succeeding two or three years, a
number of automatic mechanisms, to be actuated from a distance,
were constructed by me and exhibited to visitors in my
laboratory. In 1896, however, I designed a complete machine
capable of a multitude of operations, but the consummation of my
labours was delayed until late in 1897. This machine was
illustrated and described in my article in the Century Magazine
of June, 1900; and other periodicals of that time and when first
shown in the beginning of 1898, it created a sensation such as no
other invention of mine has ever produced. In November, 1898, a
basic patent on the novel art was granted to me, but only after
the Examiner-in-Chief had come to New York and witnessed the
performance, for what I claimed seemed unbelievable. I remember
that when later I called on an official in Washington, with a
view of offering the invention to the Government, he burst out in
laughter upon my telling him what I had accomplished. Nobody
thought then that there was the faintest prospect of perfecting
such a device. It is unfortunate that in this patent, following
the advice of my attorneys, I indicated the control as being
affected through the medium of a single circuit and a well-known
form of detector, for the reason that I had not yet secured
protection on my methods and apparatus for individualization. As
a matter of fact, my boats were controlled through the joint
action of several circuits and interference of every kind was
excluded.
Most generally, I employed receiving circuits in the form of
loops, including condensers, because the discharges of my
high-tension transmitter ionized the air in the (laboratory) so
that even a very small aerial would draw electricity from the
surrounding atmosphere for hours. Just to give an idea, I found,
for instance, that a bulb twelve inches in diameter, highly
exhausted, and with one single terminal to which a short wire was
attached, would deliver well on to one thousand successive
flashes before all charge of the air in the laboratory was
neutralized. The loop form of receiver was not sensitive to such
a disturbance and it is curious to note that it is becoming
popular at this late date. In reality, it collects much less
energy than the aerials or a long grounded wire, but it so
happens that it does away with a number of defects inherent to
the present wireless devices.
In demonstrating my invention before audiences, the visitors were
requested to ask questions, however involved, and the automaton
would answer them by signs. This was considered magic at the
time, but was extremely simple, for it was myself who gave the
replies by means of the device. At the same period, another
larger telautomatic boat was constructed, a photograph of which
was shown in the October 1919 number of the Electrical
Experimenter. It was controlled by loops, having several turns
placed in the hull, which was made entirely watertight and
capable of submergence. The apparatus was similar to that used in
the first with the exception of certain special features I
introduced as, for example, incandescent lamps which afforded a
visible evidence of the proper functioning of the machine. These
automata, controlled within the range of vision of the operator,
were, however, the first and rather crude steps in the evolution
of the art of Telautomatics as I had conceived it.
The next logical improvement was its application to automatic
mechanisms beyond the limits of vision and at great distances
from the center of control, and I have ever since advocated their
employment as instruments of warfare in preference to guns. The
importance of this now seems to be recognized, if I am to judge
from casual announcements through the press, of achievements
which are said to be extraordinary but contain no merit of
novelty, whatever. In an imperfect manner it is practicable, with
the existing wireless plants, to launch an airplane, have it
follow a certain approximate course, and perform some operation
at a distance of many hundreds of miles. A machine of this kind
can also be mechanically controlled in several ways and I have no
doubt that it may prove of some usefulness in war. But there are
to my best knowledge, no instrumentalities in existence today
with which such an object could be accomplished in a precise
manner. I have devoted years of study to this matter and have
evolved means, making such and greater wonders easily
realizable.
As stated on a previous occasion, when I was a student at college
I conceived a flying machine quite unlike the present ones. The
underlying principle was sound, but could not be carried into
practice for want of a prime-mover of sufficiently great
activity. In recent years, I have successfully solved this
problem and am now planning aerial machines *devoid of sustaining
planes, ailerons, propellers, and other external attachments,
which will be capable of immense speeds and are very likely to
furnish powerful arguments for peace in the near future. Such a
machine, sustained and propelled entirely by reaction, is shown
on one of the pages of my lectures, and is supposed to be
controlled either mechanically, or by wireless energy. By
installing proper plants, it will be practicable to *project a
missile of this kind into the air and drop it* almost on the very
spot designated, which may be thousands of miles away.
But we are not going to stop at this. Telautomats will be
ultimately produced, capable of acting as if possessed of their
own intelligence, and their advent will create a revolution. As
early as 1898, I proposed to representatives of a large
manufacturing concern the construction and public exhibition of
an automobile carriage which, left to itself, would perform a
great variety of operations involving something akin to judgment.
But my proposal was deemed chimerical at the time and nothing
came of it. At present, many of the ablest minds are trying to
devise expedients for preventing a repetition of the awful
conflict which is only theoretically ended and the duration and
main issues of which I have correctly predicted in an article
printed in the SUN of December 20, 1914. The proposed League is
not a remedy but, on the contrary, in the opinion of a number of
competent men, may bring about results just the opposite.
It is particularly regrettable that a punitive policy was adopted
in framing the terms of peace, because a few years hence, it will
be possible for nations to fight without armies, ships or guns,
by weapons far more terrible, to the destructive action and range
of which there is virtually no limit. Any city, at a distance,
whatsoever, from the enemy, can be destroyed by him and no power
on earth can stop him from doing so. If we want to avert an
impending calamity and a state of things which may transform the
globe into an inferno, we should push the development of flying
machines and wireless transmission of energy without an
instant's delay and with all the power and resources of the
nation." Nikola Tesla, My Inventions, Ch. 6 (in
part)
So, I leave you with this question - is it possible to re-create
Tesla's amazing Magnifying Transmitter? With all of
the documentation and notes, plus numerous historical records,
and patent information available, doesn't anyone find it a
little "odd" and dumfounding that this device has not
been put into use? Or, could it be, that in the same ways that
J.P. Morgan stopped Tesla...other forces, even more powerful and
money-hungry than Morgan he, are currently at work ensuring that
this device and others possibly like it, are never built. I leave
you all to your thoughts. May God Bless,
Sincerely,
Frank D Germano
President
Global Energy Technologies, Inc.
Honesdale, PA 18447
frank at
germano dot com
http://www.frank.germano.com
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