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The Complete Nikola Tesla
BY FRANK GERMANO
[FRANKS Site Index]
"Things were created rather in
the minds of angels, than in Nature, I.e. angels had all things clear in their
minds and thoughts before they got a real existence." Words by Augustine
Blessed cited by H.P. Blavatskaya In her book Secret doctrine
I will not work for the
present no more, I am working for the future- said Tesla more
than seven decades ago,to
journalists gathered in New York City . The
future is mine! Nikola Tesla; Inventor of alternating current polyphase engines and
generators, reversible magnetic fields, radio, teleautomatics, an inventor, on whose
patents the energy of the Twentieth century and beyond is based, worked alone on the explanation
of cosmic processes during the decades, having a desire to combine the material and
the spiritual theoretically like he did in his practical discoveries. Mentioning
Nikola Teslas name now mainly connects one with the Tesla coil,
inductive engine and the international unit symbol "t" to measure the force of a magnetic
field. Many facts of his life and his extraordinary creative gift are
forgotten.
The most productive and creative periods of Tesla's life was spent in USA. He
had patented more than 300 inventions in different countries. Many of
them were not put into practical use; for example, the radiant energy receiver.
We know nothing definite about its principle of operation besides that of it
being a transformer of energy produced by cosmic rays. In the period from 1899
until 1900, he devoted himself to the research of electromagnetic oscillations
of very low frequencies in his specially built laboratory in Colorado Springs.
Two years later he began to build a world relay station on Long Island near New
York City (Wardenclyffe, at Shoreham, Long Island) and never finished it. This experiment was financed by American steel
magnate, J.P. Morgan, Teslas friend. This project was closed in 1905. Tesla, up
to his death, preferred to work alone, far from peoples sight. This period was
not without new discoveries. Being a
mature scientist, he came to fundamental conclusions, which will become a new
milestone in future science. We know from history that when scientific thought
finds itself at crossroads, the scientists address the past seeking
support and inspiration. Lets try to answer some important questions.
How Nikola Tesla came to his discoveries
These discoveries are:
-
How was Tesla able to use the
influence of super-low-frequency electromagnetic waves on biological systems,
especially the work of the cerebrum, coalescence of energy structures, the so
called fire balls from an inductive field of primary and secondary
electromagnetic coils, superconductivity of natural and artificial mediums,
the so-called wireless transmission of energy, and so on?
-
What are the main axioms of
Teslas cosmology?
-
How do they follow from his
metaphysics?
-
How did he apply them in his
physical experiments?
-
Why are theorists and empiricists
of modern physics of time so interested in the reconstruction of Teslas missing
theory of physical reality and his view on electromagnetic phenomena?
-
Why Tesla did not formulate his
scientific theory and publish it?
-
Can Teslas sight on the ethical aspect
of scientific discoveries help to ennoble modern natural science, especially
physics, which is in crisis of ideas now?
-
What can we expect in the near
future from studying Teslas concepts?
-
Whether it will be an
overstatement
to say that Tesla, in 1900 founded the possibility of global
information-oriented society in his famous project - World-wide Wireless System
at Wardenclyffe?
-
Whether it is actually the
technical and technological basis of what we now call the New World order?
-
Shall we consider Tesla to be a
spiritual precursor of a new scientific and technological civilization named
as Tesliana? The Technology of time design
rules in Tesliana, where the time-shift or rather asynchronicity of various
levels of physical processes will be the only and inexhaustible energy source.
Teslas research methods
Lets return to the middle XIX century, to the little village Smilyan in Lika,
which was Austrian-Hungarian province. In this village on July10, 1856 Milutin
Tesla, a Serbian Orthodox priest, saw the birth of his forth child, Nikola Tesla.
Teslas family didnt want him to study at the Polytechnic Institute, especially
his
father, who (required) wanted him to be a priest. Nikola felt a deep and
insatiable vocation to be an electrical engineer and he felt sick due to this
disagreement. When a crisis came and it became evident that Nikola might die
(from illness), his father finally agreed
with the desire of his son. Soon Tesla recovered as if it was a miracle and was
absorbed in inventive fantasy. After strenuous mental efforts, he began to suffer from a
strange phenomenon. He saw clear visions sometimes accompanied by a strong
light flash. It is the ability of people who have parapsychological power -
"In my boyhood I suffered from a peculiar affliction due to the appearance
of images, often accompanied by strong flashes of light, which covered the sight
of real objects and interfered with my thought and actions....When a word was
spoken to me the image of the object it designated would present itself vividly
to my vision and sometimes I was quite unable to distinguish whether what I sow
was tangible or not."
He also described his spontaneous mind traveling: "Then, instinctively, I
commenced making mind trips beyond the limits of the small world of which I had
knowledge and I saw new scenes. These were at first very blurred and indistinct,
and would flit away when I tried to concentrate my attention upon them but, by
and by, I succeeded in fixing them; they gained in strength and distinctness and
finally assumed the concreteness of real thing. I soon discovered that my best
comfort was attained if I simply went on in my vision further and further,
getting new impressions all the time, and so I began to travel - of course in my
mind. Every night (and sometimes during the day) when alone, I would start on my
journeys, see new places, cities and countries, live there, meet people and make
friendships and acquaintances and, however unbelievable, it is a fact that they
were just as real and dear to me as those in actual life and not one bit less
intense in their manifestations. This I did constantly until I was seventeen,
when my thoughts turned seriously to invention." from "My Inventions;
Nikola Tesla's autobiography."
Tesla was satisfied to notice that he could clearly visualize his discoveries,
didnt need experiments, models or drawings. In such a
way he developed his own methods to give material form to creative ideas. Tesla
sharply distinguished ideas, which were coming into his mind as visions, and
those, which appear due to analytical mind clearance. Tesla explained: The
moment when somebody designs an imaginary device is connected with a problem of
transfer from raw idea to the practice. Thats why any discovery made this way
has lack of details, and usually it is inferior. Tesla used another method. He
did not hurry nor follow up with an empirical check. When an idea appeared, he immediately began
to elaborate on it in his imagination. He would change its design, improving it and
would switch on the device to begin its operation in his head. For him, it did
not matter whether he tested his invention in the laboratory or in his mind. He
even had time to notice if something would prevent his invention from working properly
in the same way he could develop a perfect idea without any physical touch. Only then
would he give a concrete look for this final product of his mind. All his
inventions were developed by this method - with no exceptions, during twenty years
"There is hardly any scientific discovery that can't be foreseen
mathematically, without visualization Introduction of unfinished, crude ideas
to the practice is always a waste of energy and time."
Studying the mechanisms of his mental life, Tesla found that a number of visions
from virtual reality always had certain connection with events of true
reality. He had an ability to realize this causation. He was glad to
understand that even his thoughts were the result of the influence of external
impressions. He noted that not only thoughts, but actions, also appear in the same
way. Some time passed, and it became clear to him that he was only a kind of
automaton of cosmic forces endowed with abilities to move, respond to
irritations of the sense organs and thoughts. His Invention of teleautomatic
control was a result of this conclusion many years later. He understood the laws
of this control through a clear feeling and external conditioning of his own
behavior.
Nikola Tesla used imagination as a psychological precursor of well-ordered
disclosure made by mathematical methods. We can say nothing of this
about his contemporary, inventor Thomas Edison, because having a weak knowledge in
mathematics, Edison at first was guided by long and laborious experiments. In his
records, Tesla often speaks about his predisposition to the mental processes.
These processes corresponds to the same principles, which Nature should follow.
He considered this inborn gift to be given as a diffused pressure, which calls
a sense to make another invention, because the experiment of a previous
researcher was lacking something. Here he sees not only a source of
invention in general, but also some proof that the law of different realities
affects the man. Briefly, Tesla considered creative imagination
thresholds of a conscious discovery act.
According to Tesla, certain conclusions were born in his mind spontaneously, in
the form of geometric images. Then followed the understanding of the discovery and its physical interpretation. Only
then, mathematical formalization took place, followed by finding the necessary
technical properties and material essential for a continuous operation of the
constructed physical model. The work he understood at first as a
struggle for mental clarification, i.e. elimination of secondary ideas and
sensible details, which blur imaging principles and complicate the approach to
the real nature of relations between fundamental geometrical elements.
According to Tesla, the principle was considered finished and ready to apply,
when the connection between geometrical objects was stated. Thus, discovery
appeared at the moment when correspondence of the elements and their physical
manifestations was defined, so we can find a physical law, which rules in the
real world, in the algorithm itself. For Tesla, an idea found its manifestation
in the act of creative thinking. Only then, the operating parameters of a
specific device took place,
following from general understanding. The result can be a design of an inductive
engine or a model of rotating magnetic field. As he told it, a
method of mental improvement was polished to such great extent, making even
minute corrections of the discovery in my mind, without any physical check,
would assure it correct operation. It can open an
illusive secret to his work, amounting to a great volume, taking into
consideration all of his scientific and technical innovation; it is a remarkable fact.
Tesla also made a hypothesis on the extraordinary effect of external irritants
on human thinking and memory. Referring to Rene Decarts theory, he concluded that
subjective human work and human life, as a whole, has such features as automatism,
which is stipulated, by space. According to Teslas evidence, creativity can be
the consequence of automatic operation of the brain (appearance of unknown visual
ideas), thats why he developed an additional supposition about the reversible effect
of the brain's visual centers on the retina. Here, he saw a reason for the appearance of his
images, which led to discoveries. Thus, though the human brain processes information
about external irritants, it can create new images and relations between
the phenomena of the real world reflected in it and images of the imaginary world. And
finally, it was Teslas opinion that thought, memory, and motion are feedback
processes, thats why we should mention that with an attempt to understand his
inborn gift of invention, he also understood the role of cybernetics as a
reflection of cosmic principles of material and informational organization.
Believing that the Universe is alive and people are automates in some extent,
acting according to the Creators plans, Tesla made an original theory of
memory. He considered that the human brain does not have the ability to remember
in the way that we consider it (biochemical or rather biophysical way) and
memory is only a reaction of the human brain's recurring external irritants. It
is unusual that Tesla, who had a very good memory (he spoke seven or eight
languages) and had the ability for eidetic imagination, was sure that there was no human memory.
It is more important that as author of a few hundred scientific discoveries,
Tesla didnt
consider his creativity to be his own, and surely stated, it is only a conductor
of ideas, which come from the world of ideas to the world of people and
practice. All this is not contradictory if we remember that Tesla, being the
son of a priest, answered the question about his religion, believing in the only God. Later Tesla himself became closer to
Buddhism, he even went in for yoga, watched after nutrition, meditated, and, the
last years before his death he lived as an ascetic in New York City (like an Indian guru
or Orthodox saint).
,
At twelve, Tesla could override his visions by act of will and change
them to other visions. However, as he noted, he couldnt override the light flashes.
Usually these flashes appeared in certain dangerous situations or when he was
greatly excited. He wrote: In some certain moments I noticed that all air
around me was full of tongues of real flame. Intensity of these tongues grew
after a number of years instead of falling and reached maximum at the age of
Twenty-five. Once I had a feeling that my brain was enveloped in flames and a
little Sun shines in my head. Tesla wrote when he was 65: These
light phenomena sometimes still appear, especially when some new idea shows me
unprecedented possibilities, but their intensity is relatively weak.
Over a long period of time, Tesla tried to solve the question of death and attentively
looked for any manifestations of death in real life. Tesla wrote: Only
once in my present existing I experienced something that looked like
supernatural. It happened during my mothers death. I was ill and exhausted with
fever, and was lying in the bed. Suddenly I thought that if my mother dies far
from me, she possibly will give a sign. Two or three months later I was in
London with my now the late friend, English scientist sir William Crookes, where
there was a discussion about spiritism. I was impressed by his case and
remembered his work on radiant matter, which I read when I was a student. Due
to this work, I understood my vocation to be an electrician. I thought that
prerequisites for looking beyond were favorable since my mother was a woman
with extraordinary intuition. All night every fiber of my brain was strained in
expectation, but nothing happened until morning, and only when I felt asleep or
may be began to nod, I saw a cloud, which carried cherubic figures of divine
beauty. One of them looked on me with love, and little by little I recognized in
it my mother. The ghost was flying along the room slowly, and finally
disappeared. I abruptly woke up with the sound of indescribable pleasant voices.
In this moment a confidence, which cannot be described by any words, came over
me: I knew that my mother died. And it was true.
The same day Tesla sent a letter to Crookes under the influence of this vision
and while still being ill. These two scientists were in correspondence for many years,
but Teslas letters to Crookes disappeared together with Crookess archives, in
1918. Crookess huge scientific material contains numerous records of
spiritistic seances, held in a strictly scientific and experimental nature, and
gives clue to many
hundreds of pictures with materialized ghosts from different historical epochs.
The
Tesla museum in Belgrade keeps Crookess letter to Tesla of 1893, where Crookes
thanked Tesla for a special electromagnetic spiral coil Tesla sent to him. This spiral
coil created a field, which made the contours of ghosts clearer and at the same
time it had good effects on the mediums condition, making an experiment easier.
At the same time when Crookes began his scientific study of spiritistic phenomena
in London, Mendeleev began to do the same in Saint Petersburg in 70-s of XIX
century. A committee of specialists formed in Saint Petersburg and after a short
time,
about ten s�nces later concluded that it is just a superstition.
English and Russian science is subdivided on the conclusions, or secrets,
calling them "factitious" (including
Teslas physics of ether).
Tesla as a physicist
In the theoretical and experimental physics of XXth century, we can mark three
different styles of thinking. Quantum mechanics, relativism
(near-light speeds) and traditionalism, to which Tesla belonged (although he is not
recognized as such). Tesla tried to find truth, i.e. the
real nature of time, space and especially - the essence of motion. Before we go into Teslas
metaphysics, namely into the world of the fundamental processes of his physics,
lets try to pinpoint the place, which Tesla ranked in the world of modern
scientific systems.
Planks Constant (uncertainty of relations) by Heisenberg, Pauli Principal, and Wave
Function, by Shredinger, were the main theoretical instruments of quantum and
mechanical approaches to the cosmic phenomena during Tesla's time. The main goal of quantum
mechanics, which is to discover fundamental or elementary particles of matter,
is still not realized to this day. In spite of the great success in studying the
process of chain reactions, physics of atomic nucleus, processes of
formation of nuclei of heavy elements from nuclei of light elements, etc., many
things are still mysterious and they are beyond technical control. We can make a
conclusion that the productive basis for the notions of quantum-mechanical
physics are exhausted. It becomes evident that we should research such categories as time and space again,
at a deeper level of realization, at an ontological level, to determine the true
nature of physical processes. The Theory Of Relativity by Albert Einstein, published in 1905 in
the German magazine Annalen der Physik marked the second milestone in theoretical
physics and used the four-dimensional space-time continuum by Minkovsky, as a model
of physical reality.
The third method to understanding physical reality relating to Teslas ideas is
to start from works by M. Faraday and D. Arago from one hand, and L. Galvani
and A. Volta from the other hand. Tesla created his own original theory of
the world on the basis of the theory of acoustic resonators by Helmoholz and
modified
ether model by lord Kelvin. This theory gave outstanding results in his experiments.
The initial axiom of his theory was that universal energy of one physical system is
based on the laws of resonance of vibrations, on the coincidence of oscillations of
a
systems parts. He considered that the Theory Of Ether cannot be excluded from
physics, because matter and space cannot at all be completely and strictly
separated.
(Notes by Alexander V. Frolov: You can find this simple and important aspect in
a letter of M. Faraday to R. Tailor. It is Faraday's opinion about the nature of
matter. In his letter to Richard Tailor of June 25, 1844, M. Faraday wrote:
"So,
matter anywhere is continuous... it is not necessary to assume the difference
between atoms of matter and some intermediate space. The forces around centers
provide these centers with properties of matter..." M. Faraday
considered this aspect to make a conclusion of the nature of electric conductivity and
insulation. However, his point of view can be developed in gravitational aspects,
also. Atoms, and the space around an atom is the same matter in different states
and the difference is in the opposite directions of the time flow for "inner
cosmos" of matter and "spatial cosmos" between atoms.)
It was Teslas opinion that the electrified state is a fluid-state, based on the
substance having the properties of perception and elements of consciousness.
In mathematics, Tesla was follower of the realistic approach, holding the idea
that properties of mathematical and physical objects directly correspond. In
experiments, to solve problems, Greek mathematician Archimedes, served
as an example to him. Archimedes stated that time should be excluded from
physics as an excess phenomenon. It should be noted that even in XIX century
scientists H. Hertz and DAlamber tried to create theoretical physics without
notion of force, but this attempt failed. Russian scientist N.A. Kozyrev
followed, but his theory didnt achieve the level of practical
application. The problem of relations between force and time in physics is still
unsettled.
Teslas experiments mainly consisted in ascertaining the joint properties of
physical systems, and how they may be brought into resonance. Evidence suggests his
complex electromagnetic oscillator, Wardenclyffe Tower (built at Long Island
near New York in 1901-1905) was soles based on resonance. He could make
simultaneous vibrations in
the ionosphere and the globe by means of this tower. In mathematics as well
as in physics, Tesla was the follower of strict determinism. He held sacred
mathematics, but also considered that physical processes could be described
further, and not just by mathematical methods, alone. It was Teslas opinion
that control shall be made by foresight; just as foresight provides control. Such a position is
radically different from the theory of relativity. According to this theory,
objective (immediate) cognition is impossible and reality is recognized by
mathematical calculation.
The views of Tesla and Einstein on the problem of physical reality are fundamentally
different. According to Einstein, human experience is relative, fictitious and
doesnt correspond to true physical reality. For Tesla, physical reality is
universal and penetrates all levels of cosmic existence, i.e. nobody in any way
can avoid certain cognition of the truth. According to Einstein, Ether is not a
real category, but exists as a result of fallacious scientific opinions. For
Tesla, Ether is a joint undifferentiated field, which consists of time, space,
energy, and the formation of matter and is a result of the resonant processes IN
Ether.
According to Einstein, Time is only a rank phenomena; it is not a substantial
physical entity nor category and it is registered only by means of
measurements with reference to every system. For Tesla, Time is a real algorithm
of materialized Mathematics. Matter is created from Ether due to
time-resonance of physical systems, and returns to Ether. According to Einstein,
maximum speed
is achieved in a Vacuum; the speed of light equal to 300 000 km/sec. For
Tesla, the speed of electromagnetic waves was not limited, and experiments and
calculations were made and showed that the transfer of waves and energy at any
distance were possible in principle and the speed of mechanical and electrical
waves penetrating the Earth, highly exceeds the speed of light in a vacuum!
Speaking to his friends, Tesla often refuted some of Einsteins statements,
especially those, which were related with the curvature of space. He considered that
it breaks the law of action and counteraction and if the roundness of space is
formed due to the huge gravitational fields, than it should become straight due
to the counteraction. Einstein was a pure theorist and Tesla was mainly
an experimenter. There exists no information about contacts and talks between
these two scientists. Nevertheless, Einstein congratulated Tesla at his 75
anniversary. He underlined Teslas important merit in science, his multiphase
system of generators and alternating current motors, which is to all appearances
one of his least important discoveries. Tesla believed: We shall have no
need to transmit power at all. Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be
driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe... Throughout space
there is energy...
Teslas views on new world order
There is no doubt that Tesla had a great feeling of uniformity of terrestrial
nature and cosmic processes. He brought the essence of his World system
announced in 1900, to 12 positions, which reflect the very essence of technical
and technological network of modern world telecommunications. This system is
also a technological basis to establish a global informational society. Tendencies
of this society to the universal unification manifests in many things.
Teslas World order was constructed starting from principles of his own
inventions. Lets enumerate some of them. These are Teslas Transformer Motors,
i.e. device for creation of electrovibrations with specific properties;
Step-up Transformer - specially designed to excite the Earth (this device
with its electrical transmission is analogous to a telescope in astronomy).
Teslas Wireless System - including certain devices, now
considered to be an untouched method to transmit electrical current without
wires. Device For Individualization Of A Signal, which in comparison with a
primitive method to match signal means the same as advanced language in
comparison with inarticulate mumbling. Due to this device, it is possible to
transmit secret signals both in passive and in active form, because they do not
jam other transmissions and cannot be jammed by them. Any transmission is unique
in its rhythm and has individual features; actually, it is an unlimited quantity
of stations and instruments, which can act on one or two frequencies and at the
same time they would not cause any mutual jamming. One more invention is Wave
Processes In Earths Ionosphere; in popular explanation, this discovery means
that field of the Earth reacts on electrical vibrations of a given frequency in
the same way as a tuning fork resonates with a certain length of a soundwave. These
electrical vibrations can have a strong influence on the field of the Earth.
Such resonant effects can be used by different ways to change the universal
energy system.
Tesla defines the goals of Worldwide system in such a way that it becomes
clear: Establishment of a dense communicational network of all kinds and levels
should serve to humanize scientific technology. In this sense in the very
beginning of XXth century he was a prophet of XXI century, since real metaphysical
problems began to penetrate theoretical physics only now, together with the
problems of cosmogony, origin of the Universe, time and space. Therefore, even
in 1900 Tesla considered that the following things would be necessary (they
are already realized):
1. Establishment of connection between existing telegraph stations or centers
all over the world;
2. Organizing of secret state telegraph service without a possibility of jamming
(it was not realized due to the fact that inventions by Marconi were used
instead of Teslas patents on radio transmission. Marconi's inventions required
a separate frequency for every synchronous transmission);
3. Establishment of connection between existing telephone centers or stations on
the Earth;
4. United diffusion of common gazette news by means of telegraph and telephone;
5. Organizing of service with principles of Worldwide system to transmit
private information (it was realized by the worldwide computer web, Internet);
6. Establishment of interconnection of all telegraph systems in the world;
7. Uniform timing mark by means of clock, which mark seconds with an astronomic
accuracy;
8. Transmission of signs, words, sounds and so on as well as typewritten and
hand-written texts (it is an exact description of telex);
9. Creation of service to record music;
10. Organizing of worldwide service for needs of mercantile marine, which should
help in navigation, in compassless voyages? It will help to determine location
and speed, to prevent collisions and accidents and so on;
11. Introduction of worldwide printing system;
12. Reproduction of photos and all kinds of drawings or hand-written texts with
a possibility to send them over the world.
Though development of modern science and technology mainly confirmed Teslas
oracular ideas, it didnt match with them in the fundamental sense, namely all
forethought ideas Tesla wanted to realize by means of transmission through the
Earth, but not from surrounding orbits. Due to the same reasons, which made him stand up against using atomic energy
(dangerous to people because of their
ignorance of real structure of matter), Tesla considered that any infringement of
cosmic space, or the magnetic field of the Earth, was an infringement of harmony inherent
to natural laws. In addition, it is a consequence of negative influences of
peoples free will, which becomes destructive in the absence of ethical components
in science. Free will can be creative only with kindness, which accompanies the
higher understanding and conscious selection of positive intentions. He
considered that humankind living on the Earth should understand all kinds of
natural alliances with the planet - otherwise people will be deprived of it.
In 1892-3 in London, Tesla read his famous lecture to the Royal Scientific Society
of Great Britain. Together with the above-mentioned experiments he demonstrated many
others, for example, lighting of lamps by wireless transmission of energy.
Really, he only placed a vacuum-filled neon tube near the field of one of his transformers and the
lamp illuminated. Due to these wonderful lectures (Light and other high
frequency phenomena), Tesla gained a good reputation and acquired many friends, among
them, scientists, William Crookes, Sir Oliver Lodge and J.J. Thompson - lord Kelvin.
When Tesla returned to USA in 1893, he was absorbed in the problems of radio techniques, telecontrol,
and wireless transmission of energy over long distances without loss.
He made successful experiments with direct electromagnetic fields of the Earth
and wireless transmission of energy at Colorado Springs. Though his journal of
this period of work was kept safe and was published, he didnt advertise his
most important scientific results. However, all achievements brought him to the idea of
universal system of wireless transmission of energy and information.
Planetary transmission should be based on such extraordinary inventions as
Teslas resonance transformer (without an iron core) and Teslas Magnifying
transformer. It was a particular transformer
made for exciting the Earth. By means of this transformer he made very
powerful electromagnetic discharges at Colorado Springs. This discharge exceeded
atmospheric lighting and Tesla got electricity, which made two hundred lamps placed miles away
white hot. For Tesla, it was an
irrefutable proof that his concept of wireless transmission of energy (action in
distance) was true.
After (the) experiments at Colorado Springs in June 1900, he returned to New
York where he prepared the first universal system of wireless transmission,
Wardenclyffe Tower, which he successfully tested three years later. Technical
specifications of Teslas transmitting station are still unknown, and we cannot
state with certainty, what its real destination was
After the (unusual) night of July15, 1903 when he fired (shot lightning bolts
from the tower) the sky not only above New
York but above all the vast area of the eastern Atlantic Ocean... in 1905 Tesla suddenly left his
laboratory without a clear reason and left all things untouched. As we know, he
never crossed the threshold of Wardenclyffe, never visited it, again. It was very strange, he didnt take any calculation, drawing,
document, nor paper. Lost in time are suppositions that Tesla was the
man who caused a
strong and strange (by its consequences) explosion in Siberia in the region of Podkamennaya
Tunguska in 1908! It was considered that this explosion was caused by
a meteorite, but there has still not been found the faintest fragment of it.
It is also true that Wardenclyffe Tower was a success in a technical sense and Tesla
passed energy through the earth and could accumulate and discharge
simultaneously a huge quantity of energy at any place of the planet. It fully
matched the results of his work of many years standing on studying of Earths
properties as a medium for propagation of electromagnetic waves.
Missing Theory
Tesla didnt give us his own physical theory but with numerous experiments, he
created a basis for a new, resonant understanding of electromagnetism. He
considered that the world is a uniform continuous electromagnetic medium and matter
is one of the manifestation of organized electromagnetic oscillations described by
a mathematical algorithm. He considered that resonance is the most general
natural law, which eliminates time and distance, and that all relations between
phenomena are established only by mean of various simple and complex resonances,
i.e. coordinated vibrations of physical systems, which have an electromagnetic nature.
Finally, instead of Newtons integrals, Leibnizs differentials and Maxwells
theory lying in his calculations, Tesla used simple mathematics of
Ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes, first making an analogy between
mechanics and electromagnetism. It is not possible to fully evaluate the
significance of such method of thinking, which directly points out the necessity
of full physical interpretation of elementary mathematical notions.
Obviously, the study of Teslas heritage is not related only with history of
physics. We shouldnt look for technological aspects; its essence is in
miraculous human creativity in science. Teslas scientific ways need
understanding and following. We need analysis of Teslas evidence relating with
creativity lying in the base of new physical and technical processes discovered
by him. It leads to opening a new way of cognition. It is important to
understand the original scientific and research methods of Tesla and
non-developed cosmic principles (relation), which are realized, with the world
of ideas. Tesla could create visual images competitive with images perceived by
the eyes. He changed the usual direction of nervous impulses in the opposite
direction, from brain to retina, eliminated external images and substituted it
with eidetic one. Tesla sent his impulses from inside. He called it his
mental laboratory. In addition, it was his main method of experimenting. He had
an ability to transfer mathematical, abstract notions into visible images, give
them geometrical interpretation, and than transfer them into a form that could
be physically realized, and form working models for realization of each device.
He made corrections and adjusted a device for operation in his mind. Later,
when this device was made, of wire or another material, it always worked. As
Tesla said, there was not a case when such invention didnt correspond to
nature, i.e. didnt work as a physical prototype. His method was unique in
comparison with other scientific prodigies, for example, Michael Faraday, or
Albert Einstein. Tesla, who felt a kinesthetic premonition in the moment of
discovery (it was pressure and motion in peritoneum region), had some kind of mental stress in
the moment when an idea appeared. Dmitry Mendeleev dreamed of the periodic table
in three dimensions colored with bright almost fiery red colors like it is in
all prophetic dreams. However, this is very rare, with few people and only at
certain moments. Tesla was in this condition all his life, and had trained during many decades to maintain his spiritual and creative activity.
Tesla was a man, whose main philosophy and axiomatic didnt belong to the modern
world. We can attribute him to the epoch before Socrates, from ancient
philosophy. It was not an accident that he was born on Balkan Peninsula. Ancient
civilization appeared in the southern part of this peninsula. Probably, the
reason is a different geomagnetic informational field, or an algorithm, which is general
to the evolution of neural structures of the brain, and possibly and explanation
to the creative and brilliant minds of Pythagoras, Plato, Zenon and Tesla.
Teslas physics requires a quite different understanding of mathematics, in some
extent it is sacral in the spirit of Pythagoras. Pythagoras considered that
numbers and subjects are interrelated. They correspond to each other in
property due to informational and mathematical aspects of
matter existing as one of the manifestations of the Divine Logos. Attentive
researchers can immediately notice that there are no infinitesimal or
differentials in Teslas works. Tesla knew James Maxwell, creator of the
theoretical electromagnetism. He told (Maxwell) that his elegant differential
equations are as poetry. One could find Maxwells works in Teslas
library; these works were published when Tesla was twenty and he was a student
in Graatz. There is no reason which allows to explain why Tesla didnt
use them except one: Tesla discovered a more simple and more
effective way and more felicitous physical interpretation of mathematical
notions. By means of these notions, he foretold the course and results of his experiment.
It is evident that he was a man of such strength and astuteness that he could
keep away from conclusions of science, its systems, notions and mathematical
apparatus, which were far from perfection. It is not accidental that Tesla
didnt publicize his diploma. It was an indication of his spiritual
independence for him, but not idleness or revolt as it can be some times.
His method of work could turn him to the absolutely different direction. It
proved that he could control the essence of his psychic visions and other
conscious or unconscious manifestations that were the basis of his creation. In
the moment when he felt effects of impulses coming from outside, he could
override them, control and analyze. He could do impossible things. By
means of exercises, which he developed himself, he got up to the level of a man
who does not depend on impulses provided by the external world, but relies on his
own inner psychic states. This essence of his genius was that things
understood by him and that appeared in his subconsciousness under the influence of
an external field was nothing but a picture of cosmic processes or the same
natural laws. Because of it, he was distinctly different from other people.
Regarding the rotation of a magnetic field, with which the rotor of an engine began to
rotate under the influence and changes taking place in the external field, Tesla
said, Now
I know how the Cosmos works.
This is the source of Tesla's theory on people as "automates of cosmic forces."
If we add Teslas practical discovered axiom, that the energy of a system is derived from
its environment, than we will find the reason for his conviction that the entire Cosmos
acts on the principle of vibration and resonance. Finally, if we agree with the
fact that all energy of a system appears under the impact of external induction,
than it will be easy to fancy Teslas cosmological model as a series of circuits
of magnetic fields, which rotate concentrically. The Galaxy rotates,
the Solar System rotates around the center of the Galaxy, the Earth rotates
around the Sun, and molecules, atoms and electrons rotate All this is
nothing but a range of rotating magnetic fields, which can be described by only
one law, the same law that was responsible for starting Teslas inductive motor.
An open question is about Teslas real understanding of time and space
categories. We can say with certainty that his research of how low frequency
electromagnetic waves are transmitted through the Earth, Tesla didnt face
the problem of conjugation of force and space, as, for example, the General Theory
Of
Relativity. This theory has some complexities in its physical explanation of
differential equations, which describe the properties of curved space under the
influence of gravitational forces of differening power. According to this theory,
the constantly increasing attractive force can influence time itself, returning
events back and violating the principle of causality.
Rene Decart, in creation of his coordinate system, used the same geometrical
notion to picture abscissa and ordinate. They are two straight lines -
interminable in their lengths, which he interpreted as time and space, as if
there is no difference between them. Is it possible? It is hardly possible! You
know, space and time are different physical categories and we don't currently understood
their nature. Besides, abscissa and ordinate are divided by an angle,
which does not have a special physical interpretation. Thats why picturing
physical phenomena in so geometrical a way, we risk not taking into
consideration the criteria of reality in checking mathematical hypotheses.
There is no doubt that Tesla, by means of his physical research, discovered a
fundamental physical law, which is not clear yet, and applied it so easily and
with such astuteness, that a dilettante as well as a specialist could similarly
understand that he spoke about exact knowledge. But, it is hard to imagine
what these mathematical operations of division and
multiplication, natural algorithm or square root, taken separately, which are
significant in Teslas experimental works, actually WERE. Physical explanations of mathematical
methods, especially univocal, is situated on the boundary, from where we can see
the field of transcendental mathematics. However, it is evident that if all
physical reality can be reduced to the mutual relation of electromagnetic
fields, then this mathematics is a theory, which can express the essence of these
connections most effectively.
If electromagnetic oscillations correspond to the (mental plan) discovery made by
Tesla at Colorado Springs (and is still proved experimentally now), then it means
that this mental plan itself should have the same nature and follow the laws of resonance. A
conclusion arises that numbers are some programs of organization. Teslas
research, as it were, proved the Verity Of Cognition theory, by Plato. In his
theory, Plato stated that mathematics is a link between rhe world of ideas and
the world
of material phenomena. To be more precise, mathematical algorithms and
mathematical logic is properly a method to realize ideas. Finally, all old
innermost legends teach that matter is only a concentrated light, and it is
Teslas all-penetrating cosmic substance, Luminoferous Ether.
warships as time machines?
There is a story, several books and two movies, describing an event, in 1943,
when
the American
Navy made an unusual experiment to make one of its warships invisible. It was
necessary to make the ship create a strong field around itself using powerful
magnetic generators. This field should be able to change the direction of light
beams as well as to grade the radiation from radar sets and thereby hide its
location. It took place as recently as six months after Teslas death
(coinciding with the disappearance of
important scientific documents and apparatuses from his room). The event took
place in Philadelphia's seaport. When the generators were engaged,
something unexpected happened. The whole range of strong electromagnetic fields
changed local time-space coordinates and the Eldridge DE-173 cruiser disappeared
for some time. Then the cruiser appeared for few seconds in another place, i.e.
in one of the biggest sea bases at Norfolk, VA, in the port at south-east
Virginia's Atlantic coast, which is 350 km far from Philadelphia! The strangest
things happened to the crew. One half of the sailors disappeared forever, some
of them went crazy or had an ability to disappear and appear again by their own
will. Part of the crew that survived, stated that they have changed the world and saw or
even spoke to non-earthy beings. A thick greenish fog preceded the
disappearance of the ship.
Three ships took part in this experiment. The above mentioned cruiser was in the
middle, the shell of other two ships served as a mirror. Actually, the case in the
point is open lasers, which do not need vacuum. Beams of these lasers can be
transferred at any distance and in any medium. Tesla produced such lasers in his
New York laboratory even in the XIXth century. He illuminated the room without any
lamps, just calling on the luminescence of air.
Lets return to the significance of Teslas experiments in Colorado Springs in
1899-1900 and see, what are the real results of his work there? When making
experiments with ultra low and ultra high frequencies of electromagnetic waves,
he obviously was successful in determining the frequency and type of modulations (numerous articles are devoted to it, but these articles are lacking of theory
and contain inexact suppositions). Most likely, he could create a field using
ultra high frequency. This field corresponded to resonance frequencies of
disincarnate souls (souls which have no connection with the body) and thus
he became proficient in visualization techniques of the so-called "astral level
of being" for biological organisms. Calculations in Teslas records could seem to
be insignificant for modern specialist since they are very simple and can be
understood without additional explanations. Only the mind, which has similar
perceptive ability, can understand them.
the secret of Tesla's fireballs
Tesla could reproduce complex energy structures in laboratory conditions.
He called them fireballs. Russian academician Peter Leonidovich Kapiza also
studied them, but he couldnt reproduce them in dirigible kind without Teslas
resonant transformer. Nowadays physicists (Corum brothers in America) reproduce
some of Teslas experiments with certain success. They could create small
"fireballs," standing and only three millimeters in diameter.
Tesla produced "ball lightning" (fireballs) the size of a football, kept
them in hands, put them in a box and covered it with a lid, then took them from the box,
and held them in his hands again!!! These
fireballs, or "ball lightning" were almost stable structures, which could be kept for minutes.
Certainly, Tesla knew much more about this phenomenon than modern science; he
knew the secret of cold plasma fusion in free space.
Thus, Tesla penetrated the field, which was unexplored before, i.e. time-engineering technologies. He also emphasized that his electromagnetic waves were
different from Hertzs waves; i.e. the length of a wave transmitted is
equal to the distance on which this wave is transmitted. In other words, it is
equal to the distance between the sending object and the receiving object. Hertz
measures and space measures are changing in opposite directions: one Hertz is
taken as corresponding to the wave length of approximately 300 000 km, 2 Hz
150 000 km, 3 Hz - 100 000 km etc., which means that real length in space is
decreasing with number of Hertz, which are increasing - That is why Tesla did
not count in Hz-s (technically, one meter of wire gives one Hz, two meters of
wire two Hz and so on. Obviously, Hzs measures are not adjusted to the technical
properties of electromagnetic tools).
Notes from Alexander V. Frolov: In 1932 N.
Tesla wrote: I have showed that universal medium is a gaseous body. Only
longitudinal impulses can propagate to this body. They create variable
compression and decompression like those, which are created by the sound waves
in air. Thus, the wireless transmitter does not create Hertzs waves, which are
a myth, but it creates the sound waves in Ether. The behavior of these waves
looks like the behavior of sound waves in air, excluding the fact that the huge
elasticity and very small density of this medium makes their speed equal to the
speed of light.). Besides, there were not only circles of oscillations
(which took part in the transference) but in resonance, as the entire system
was also in resonance with natural electromagnetic waves of the corridor of
their passing. It meant that an oscillator starting to transmit, almost
intercepted Ether in the space between transmitter and receiver and there it
created a distinctive field of standing waves. Thus, a waveguide formed at
first, which couldnt transfer energy on its own. Then Tesla turned on a
low-frequency field and transmitted waves, which were the lower harmonic
components of the main field carrier, in the ratio of 1:4. In such a way he
could transmit energy at the desired distance and make strong continuous
electromagnetic discharges in certain zones while creating the wall from iono-plasma.
Nothing could make its way through such an energy wall without decay on a
molecular or atomic level!
Tesla as a clairvoyant
It is evident that Tesla knew the phenomenon that we call parapsychology. As told above,
the method Tesla used to make his discoveries work in the laboratory has no analogues in
all the history of
science. There are more that 150,000 documents in the Nikola Tesla museum in
Belgrade, but he didnt leave any description of his scientific method,
which is comparable only with states experienced by yogis or with things known
by saints. Now few people consider Tesla to be a philosopher or a spiritual man.
They do think he was a man who inspired physics, technology and science.
Finally, he founded a basis of a new millennium civilization with all his life's
work. Though now his influence on the modern tendencies in science is minimal,
his role heeds overestimation. Only the future will give a real explanation
of Tesla as a phenomenon, because he went far ahead and he stands higher than
the methods accepted currently.
A well-known Indian philosopher Vivekananda, one of the members of Ramakrishna
mission, who was sent to the West to find out a possibility to join all existing
religions, visited Tesla in his New York laboratory in 1906 and immediately sent
a letter to his Indian colleague Alasingh. He rapturously described his meeting
with Tesla: This man is different from other western people. He showed
his experiments with electricity. His attitude to electricity looks like an
attitude to a living being. He speaks with it and gives orders to it. I speak
about the highest degree of spiritual person. It is no doubt that he has a
spirituality of the highest level and can call all our gods. In his electrical
multicolored lights, I saw all our gods: Vishnu, Shiva and I felt the presence
of Brahma himself.
physics of time according to Tesla
Resonance is simultaneity, and if we change the periods of oscillations of
electrical contour, then geometrical pictures of magnetic field distribution will
change and the generator is set in motion only under the influence of temporary
factor. Motion is a result of asynchronism. It proves the fact
that it is possible to obtain the change in speed of an engine and thereby its
mass without an additional impulse, i.e. without an additional force. Teslas
reversible magnetic field is proof of this fact, isnt it?
Tesla wrote from Colorado Springs to his New York friend Johnson that he found a
thought in a scribble of high-frequency electromagnetic discharge and soon
Johnson would be able to read his poetry personally to Homer, whereas Tesla
would discuss his discoveries with Archimedes. In the same way, we can find a
detailed description of "green" electromagnetic waves in his research journal.
These waves looked like a fog, which appeared when the warship in Philadelphia
disappeared. When Tesla returned to Colorado Springs, he told journalists that
he made a connection with extraterrestrial civilizations. Few people regarded
this claim seriously, however, there is evidence that Tesla continued his
research on "parallel worlds" alone and silently without publishing the
results. To all appearances, he made a device to tune the electromagnetic
oscillations of his own brain, in other words, to control his mental activity.
Thus, he could communicate with realities displaced in time (parallel worlds)
without any problems.
This research open a new page for modern science. It shows a possibility
to merge material and spiritual aspects in human consciousness (matter and
spirit in nature are already merged). Tesla had an ability to develop both
directions of uniform science. He studied the physical basis of mind and the
mental basis of physics with the same success. He came to the general
conclusion that matter consists of organized parts, which are manifestations of
Ether in its excited state. One of these manifestations is electromagnetic
oscillation. Thats why resonance is generally natural law and its of time
nature, too. A connection between phenomena is provided by resonance of
a different kind. Electromagnetism is the basis for these resonances. Needless to
say that on one hand, if physical reality can be reduced to the interrelation of
electromagnetic fields, then mathematics is a theoretical expression for these
relations. On the other hand, if electromagnetic
oscillations interact with the mental plan, which has the same nature, then numbers
are some reflections of the organizational structure of electromagnetic fields.
I personally believe that mathematical and physical truth, or rather geometrical
and arithmetical phenomena, should join and become the basis of uniform Cosmology;
we should take into consideration that now we are staying on the threshold of
this Cosmology. Somebody calls it "New science" but "Uniform science" is more
appropriate term, because uniform laws make the basis of our Cosmos. In fact,
Uniform Science is the Science of Time.
Teslas electromagnetic theory was an apt illustration of unification of
material and spiritual origins of world organization. Possibly, he could leave
us a religion but he didnt want to do it. He knew that God in science needs
conscientious followers.
Mysterious pilgrim by Mark Twain
Famous writer/author Samuel Clemens (under the pseudonym Mark Twain)
often visited Teslas laboratory at night. Tesla was very close to him and
after Twains death he spoke about him as if he were alive. The writer Mark Twain
died in 1910, and his enigmatic novel Mysterious pilgrim was published six
years later. In this novel, he told about an angel who left the heavens and came
to Earth to
a small Austrian village. There he met a group of boys and told them the
secrets of the universe. If we recognize the little Austrian village as Smilyany and
the
figure of the Angel as Tesla, then an explanation of a very strange theory
on human destiny and cosmology will appear. This theory expressed in this short
story made it different from other stories of this writer (Mark Twain). The
Angel tells about the source of all peoples troubles and misfortunes. It all comes from
misunderstanding the true sense of each minuscule events. Each of these
events defines the future and links the next series of events.
As he considered it, peoples free will
is an illusion, since all is predetermined and will come to a
predictable result. Thats why the given human individual's psychosomatic
structure has a limited number of possible destinies (ranks of events) and a man
can switch back and forth due to the will of higher beings. For example, Angel
takes part in the event, when a woman closes or opens a window, which was
predetermined for her to do. In addition, the destiny of this woman will go another way
depending on her specific action, and will call a new succession of events. This
entirely coincides with Teslas idea of a man as an automaton of cosmic forces
and it is brought out clearly by simple dramaturgic tools used by Marc Twain.
Finally, before Angel left his friends, he let them in on the last magic secret,
which would be terrible for them to know, i.e. secret of Non-Existence. He said that all
is only a thought. There is nothing existent.... I am only a thought,
a lonely thought, which travels along the empty space of the Universe.
mystery of Wardenclyffe tower
Lets visit Teslas laboratory in Colorado Springs again, where Tesla
made his experiments using electromagnetic fields of high frequency. He studied
the operation of the human brain on himself. He wrote to his friend Johnson about some
intelligent properties of electromagnetic fields. Biophysical principles of
neurology were born. Just after this, in 1901, construction on Long Island
began - Wardenclyffe Tower; the Magnifying Transmitter. The matter concerns a complex transmitter of electromagnetic waves.
Tesla applied all his knowledge to design it: Teleautomatic Control, Hertzs
Wireless Wave Transmission, unique Ether Theory (according to which any natural
element of Mendeleevs system has its own gravitational acceleration as well as
its own techniques to control the speed of time courses). A new physics was born.
A question as to what new concept could be obtained by experimenting
with resonant concentrated magnetic and electromagnetic fields? Lets
return for a moment to a mystic Monard and his picture of the cosmos. Speaking
about vibrations, he underlines the present; there are different nations, races and tribes on
the planet, but we would never meet anyone who could live without music and dancing.
2500 years ago, Pythagoras said to his progeny that stone is frozen music.
Every particle of the physical Universe has a certain property, which is
pitch and overtones of its separate frequencies, i.e. its
melody. (harmonic and
sub-harmonic frequencies).
The natural influence of music on a man is the same as the nature of its
influence on the world events, because vibration is the basis of all.
The frequency of vibrations of subatomic particles is very high and waves in the
center of subatomic nucleus move even quicker. Vibrations of all radiant energy
(radio waves, heat, light, X-waves and so on) could be regulated.
The Electromagnetic Spectrum contains more than 80 known
octaves and visual light is only a part of this spectrum. Electromagnetic waves,
just as
acoustic waves in music, have their own harmonious high-pitched tones and there is
some kind of octave principle, i.e. doubling of frequency. The common laws of music and
harmony, applied to electromagnetism, give splendid results. Thats why Nikola
Tesla used the works of Herman Helmholz to tune (sound in) his electrical
resonators.
Johan Kepler, an astronomer, who lived in XVIIth century, believed that every
planet of the Solar System is alive and there is a guardian angel on every planet,
which listens to its music. Planets "play music" on their circumsolar orbits. A
particular combination of sounds, which we call music, is an expression of
the relation between things, in other words, their likeness and their differences. It is
also a principle of appearance and disappearance of the phenomena as well, which shows how new and younger systems form from coordinated
harmonious systems. The inner structure of music is the same as the structure of
all the rest.
In 1665, a Dutch scientist, Christian Huyigense, noticed that the pendulums of
two clocks hanging on the wall near each other start to move in rhythm. It is a
universal phenomenon. When two or more oscillators begin to pulse with
sufficiently small differences in time (with small shifts in phase) their
oscillations come into coincidence, spontaneously. They behave according to the
principle of minimum energy since every separate pendulum requires less quantity
of energy with synchronous pulsation than in the case of arrhythmia. This
coordination is everywhere, but we rarely notice. We can say that all
animate things are oscillators, which pulse and change their rhythms. Even the
simplest unicellular organism is in complex oscillatory state. All motions on
subatomic, atomic, molecular, sub-cellular and cellular levels are coordinated.
In such an organism like a human being, it is very difficult and even impossible to
determine corresponding parameters. Our inner rhythms are closely interconnected
and they are coordinated with our external world. The physics acting on a man, on his
rarified plane (astral), states that change in one rhythm, ie. the
Earths movement around the Sun, its ebbs and flows, day and night cycles, and the many other cosmic
rhythms, will effect physical change in the man, himself. Any violation of
coordination between these rhythms causes discomfort and even near illness in
the organism.
Our physical body serves as exponent of our inner lead pulse, and, at the same
time, it is our individuality that is our distinction in the Cosmos. The so-called
"fine body" in
essence has an electromagnetic material base. The Life of each of us is
characterized by certain rhythmical schemes, which are subjected to physical
death and retains an extracorporeal experience of the spirit, which is
reincarnated.
There is a supposition that the so-called "Shuman waves" takes place in the
telepathic transmission of image and thought. These are waves of 7, 8 Hz
frequency, which form a field of standing waves in the space between the Earth's
Ionosphere and its surface. It is our natural electromagnetic layer, which can
be fully felt at the seashore or in the forest, though sea and forest absorb
other harmful frequencies. It may occur that the brain enters a state of
resonance with some external structure; a result will be the appearance of its
image at a distance, i.e. there is a contact made by means of resonance but not
by means of radiation. Since these waves have a large length (38 000 km), then
transmission takes place immediately. Waves with such an extreme low frequency
cannot be screened by the usual means. In essence, waves of an organism often
coincide with these waves by phase. However, the problem is that waves with such
low frequencies can transmit little information and therefore it is often
impossible to receive a clear picture and give a full description of images of
things.
Modern holistic (integral) approaches to understanding the Universe have sacral
traditions, per se. These foundations were laid as traditions in religion, such
as Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, where we can find a clear
statement that every part of Cosmos includes the Whole. It is analogous to the
principle of holography. It is considered that we can make a full hologram of
the Universe based on any of its small parts. Formation of this hologram can
take an arbitrarily long time. The Hologram of a real man is something different from
the physical basis of an ideal cosmic rhythm.
Consciousness, which is a continual manifestation of the rarified substances (astral)
of a man, is shifted by its phase in comparison with genetic material, and
conscious will is only one of the universal instruments of cosmic
purposefulness. A "right" man acting in a "right place is a man whose intentions
are coordinated with cosmic rhythm. Conscious intention has power, and our main
choice is to take responsibility for its results. So, actually we are made of
waves, but not of matter, which would be called "solid." All that we call
-things- and -events- are manifestations of acting on these waves. Every man has his
unique cosmic identifier assigned by a certain function of waves, which
represent us. Every man has his own hologram, which contains a universal
information about time. The Identifier is a main element of Cosmos; it characterizes
an individual specificity of a subject, who using this identifier, can influence
everything by methods, which seem to be unusual. We are a peculiar
hologram, so potentially we know all about all.
The secret of Wardenclyffe is hidden. Nevertheless, many things show that the
object built by Tesla in Long Island (at that time it was a New York suburb) went
ahead of all the dreams of modern scientists. It was a translator of electromagnetic
wave systems. By means of these waves (that
scientist called earthquakes), Tesla could attain "mental" shifts in people and animals, fires
in
the atmosphere, creation of an impenetrable energy barrier in the ionosphere,
controlling time,
splitting and condensing of the clouds by means of corresponding wave
frequency, and, finally, an inexhaustible energy from the Ether using the principle
of "Ether Technology," which is still unknown to us. Tesla demonstrated his
experiments to numerous witnesses, but he never announced all of the results nor
divulged to anyone his scientific principles. The real reason for building this
giant electromagnetic and mechanical oscillator and his motives, could be much
more serious than we could yet imagine.
A report by W. Pickering, professor of the Harvard Observatory, named
Alternating light from Mars, was published in New York Times on January 16,
1901. It may be shortened: Last year in the beginning of December we
got a telegram from Lowell observatory at Arizona. This telegram informed that a
strong light flux was noticed coming from Mars and lasted for 70 minutes. Lowell
observatory specializes on observations of Mars, and observer was an attentive,
approved and experienced man, so we have no doubt in his statements. We will
consider these facts immediately and will notify Europe and America via
telegraph. The light came from the known point on Mars and there is no unusual
in this point according to scientific data. Whatever there was, now we have no
means to research anything. We cannot say with certainty if it is a sign that
there is an intellect. For the time present this phenomenon is inexplicable.
When this information appeared, Tesla was in New York. He just returned from
Colorado Springs, where he, through the course of year, made epochal and
inexplicable experiments with electromagnetic fields of resonant properties. (Teslas
laboratory in Colorado was situated precisely on the summit of Pikes Peak. It
is interesting that this peak was deified by the Hopi Indians- they consider it
the Spiritual Pole of the World).
Encouraged by the information from Lowell observatory, Tesla stated in
the New York Gazette that during his research in Colorado Springs, he communicated with
Mars himself. At that time, he made hints about having already designed a device
for interplanetary communication, which would be improved in the near future. He
wrote: Ill never forget the first feeling that I felt when I understood
that I have a contact with something, which will have priceless and immense
results for all humankind. Thing that I noticed, frightened me as if I saw
something mysterious and almost preternatural. Little by little I understood
that I am the first who hear messages sending from one planet to another
Respected Professor Holden didnt consider Teslas contacts with
extraterrestrial beings by means of electromagnetism, because he thought it was
not a serious case. Tesla worked with some extremely long electromagnetic
waves of very high frequency that do not correspond to accepted theory,
because increasing of a wave's frequency is always related with short-wave
transmission. However, Teslas waves were different from those discovered by
Hertz. They propagated with a speed, which far exceeded the speed of light,
better to say that their propagation was instantaneous. Tesla had his own theory of
electromagnetism, which is still not properly interpreted. He discovered not
only the possibility of wireless transmission of energy through the Earth and
atmosphere without any losses, but also proved an unprecedented "breakdown power" of
these waves during their negotiation of space. There is an unconfirmed legend
that Tesla was the first to send periodical signals to the stars.
Supposedly, Tesla sent
coded geometrical theorems like those of Tales, Pythagoras, and an Archimedean
formula of the harmonic series (we speak about addition of the series
1+1/2+1/4+1/8+. the Sum of this series is equal to two but, the number of terms can be
infinite). Three days later, Tesla was surprised - he got a response. He guessed
the principle, which lie in the basis of the response code, and got a human face
with regular features. At first he couldnt understand if this picture was made
by those who sent this signal and wanted to show that they know of our
civilization, or they drew their own image to demonstrate that there are similar
beings in Cosmos. If it is true, then it should be clear that Tesla refused
any open discussion of this discovery because he couldnt get a response.
But soon, something occurred that returned discussion of this happening in the American
press.
In 1902, Lord Kelvin, a famous English physicist, visited America. When he spoke
to Tesla, he expressed a full consent and understanding of the fact that details
of Teslas "extraterrestrial communication" were not for public discussion.
After a banquet (organized in his honor), Lord Kelvin said some good words about New
York: It is the city with the best illumination in the world and it is
the only place on the Earth, which can be seen from Mars. In addition, as if in
some kind of inspiration he finally exclaimed Mars is signaling New York.
This time, nobody had objections. Even persistent Professor Holden kept silent.
It was not polite to contradict such an old and respected man as Lord Kelvin.
Instead of objections, an article written by the writer and publicist Julian Hotorn, Teslas associate, appeared as a direct conclusion from this discussion.
He described Teslas sensational methods as a fantasy. Hotorn wrote: It
is evident that people from Mars and other old planets had been visiting Earth
for years and attentively observe the development of our civilization. Besides,
Teslas birth changed all. Maybe, it is possible that people from the stars
control his spiritual and scientific development, isnt it? Is there anybody who
can know something concrete? In the heat of the disputes concerning
Martians, Tesla was alone in his Wardenclyffe Tower and continued to work hard and insensibly
on the biggest project of his life; Wardenclyffe Tower was to make radical changes
in the development of our civilization. These changes cannot easily be considered
true. So far...the books listed below, will fall nicely into your research
categories. Buy them directly from Amazon.com by clicking on the individual
links. Let's continue -
Earth - planet as a resonant system
When making a decision to build a relaying station, Tesla at first bought a plot
at Long Island and then asked the famous J.P. Morgan for help. Morgan was
a member of numerous secret organizations; also, he was a genius of business
organization. He already had cancer and had a hope that Teslas science would
help him recover. He expected that Tesla somehow would connect him to some
energy source and make him young and healthy forever. Tesla thought that Morgan
would be a man who would understand his plan. He considered that a man has
predestination and every man is predisposed to
its own activity. Negotiations between the two friends were private. There is no
clear information about the time when Tesla decided to begin the construction of
Tower and about expectations of Morgan as
businessman and financier.
During his public appearances, Tesla changed his statements of Wardenclyffe Tower at Long Island, twice. At first, he stated it was for a
universal telegraph and telephone system, and secondly, for wireless energy
transmission through the Earth. The truth might be found in his letter to Morgan: "What I contemplate
and what I can certainly accomplish, Mr. Morgan, is not a simple transmission of
messages without wires to great distances but it is the transformation of the
entire Globe into a sentient being, as is were, which can feel in all its parts
and through which thought may be flashed as through the brain..."
Many authors, especially Teslas biographers, blamed Morgan for cutting off
financial assistance at the moment when Tesla was on the threshold of important discoveries. Tesla, in his autobiography
"My Inventions" clearly tells us
about it. In spite of all that was said, Morgan fulfilled all his obligations
regarding him. 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."
Tesla tested his transmitter at its full capacity on June 15, 1903. He began
his experiment sharp at midnight. This night New York citizens witnessed the
event which would astound future science. Glaringly bright strands of electrical
plasma, the length of more than a hundred miles connected the
spherical cupola of Wardenclyffe with the sky. The next day the "New York Sun"
wrote: "people living near Teslas laboratory at Long Island were
intrigued
very much in his experiments with wireless energy transmission. Last night they
were the witnesses of a very strange phenomena - multicolored lightning made by
Tesla himself, the inflammation of the atmospheric layers at different altitudes
and along the New York territory, Night suddenly turned to day. At times, the air was full of
luminescence, concentrated along the edges of human body, and people radiated
a mysterious shine or glow. They seemed to be (as) ghosts."
According to Tesla's initial plan, five towers, the same as Wardenclyffe,
would be built. The second tower would be constructed in Amsterdam, the
third in China and the fourth and fifth built at the North and South
Poles. However, this plan was postponed due to reasons that should (now) be
investigated. Finally, if all this could have been realized, what would be
achieved? The Earth would become a uniform homogeneous system, which could be
controlled by (wireless) telephone commands, which would start certain oscillators,
producing and transmitting electromagnetic waves of various frequencies. The
same electromagnetic system would be completed with a system for mechanical
resonance with the Earth. These systems consisted of a tunnel passed under the
laboratory and filled with water and oil, and hydraulic pumps serving as
oscillators. By synchronized actions, based on exact mathematical calculations,
both systems would start vibration simultaneously together with the rarified
stratosphere, ionosphere and atmosphere, as with all liquid and solid
structures of the planet. The entire planet would vibrate and resonate in
unison!
Before conjecture relating to all the possible consequences of such an event, we
should give two more examples that are unusual. In his interview of July 17,
1930 given to the "New York Sun" Tesla redoubled his enigma, stating that people
who live near Wardenclyffe and were frightened with his experiments could see much
more...Tesla said, "if during last two years they were more awake than asleep,
they could get acquainted with really incredible things. Sometime, but not now;
Ill announce something, which you cannot find even in fairytales.
After one unusual night, with Wardenclyffe Tower (the Magnifying Transmitter)
fully operational, he fired (illuminated) the sky above not only New York, but also
above all the vast area of the eastern Atlantic Ocean - Tesla suddenly left his
laboratory without a clear reason and left everything untouched. As we know, he
never crossed the threshold of Wardenclyffe, never visited it, and never appeared
on its property again. It was very strange as, he didnt take any calculations,
drawing or document, not one paper. It was a turning point in his public scientific
work.
Teslas ether technology
Tesla discovered and used the law, concerning the fundamental properties of
Ether. Supposition made about Ether's continuity as one of the main cosmic
mediums means that the imaginary center of the Cosmos is everywhere, that law
of structuring of such medium should have analogues with the law of location of
points in geometric spheres. There is no information that Tesla formed nor told
his theory in such a way, but he left some principles of systems working,
which are unknown to modern physics. The question is about an Ether Generator, i.e.
electromagnetic ball, which has constant electrical potential in spite of any energy
leakage, than about a synchronous motor working on the gravitational waves of the
planets of the Solar System (this motor turns on independently at certain seasons
and reacts on the corresponding arrangement of planets. It also independently
turns off, when the resonant interval of time ends). Besides, Tesla designed a
metal disk, which could be hung at some height and has anti-gravitational
properties, which do not depend on attractive force of any given place.
Parts of this structured Ether can be resonant or not. In the first case, a
condensation of subatomic particles, such as electrons, protons, or neutrons,
takes place. These particles appear by means of resonant synthesis of photons,
according to the same principles as during formation of photons as specific
particles of Ether - Asynchronous, non-resonant parts of Ether form a space, in
which resonating photons form matter.
Teslas Wardenclyffe Tower was a Pythagorean oscillator. A Mathematical
description of transmission of particular electromagnetic waves was identical
with Pythagorean creative method. Signs used by Tesla in his equations have a
single-meaning physical interpretation. Principles of Teslas ether technologies
belong to the level of cosmic existence, on which it is possible to control
space and time. The principle of resonance and harmonic oscillation of ether
seems to be so clear that all problems of modern physics, especially problems of
energy conversion, will be solved with its development.
By means of his vacuum tube Tesla got protons, electrons and neutrons directly
from the physical continuum (ether) and reproduced them at any distance. Instead
of giving ability to the bundle of protons to move free through space to some
place, he created conditions for momentary appearances of arbitrary quantity of
particles in the given place. Quantity of protons, neutrons and electrons was
not limited by anything, the difference in their quantity was stipulated by the created
shift in time. Starting from the supposition that Tesla knew something (unusual for
science) and still inconceivable to all the laws of nature, we should think
about what technical goals he followed using Wardenclyffe Tower and what
he expected.
1. To cause oscillations of the ionosphere. Since the difference of voltage
between surface of the Earth and ionosphere constitutes about two billion volts,
then the Tower is continually oscillating on upper and lower harmonics of
oscillations of the ionosphere up to full coincidence with it by phase (up to
resonance) and can discharge it in the same way as usual electrical condensers
are discharged. Due to the reason that such a charge could pass immediately,
there would be a real threat to New York. A high-energy plasma column of a very
large diameter (possibly of several hundred kilometers) would appear from the
ionosphere, and everything situated in this space would be disintegrated. Of course,
Tesla had no intention to destroy New York. He only wanted to take energy
from the ionosphere by means of short oscillatory intervals to recharge his huge
oscillator, which required maximum voltage of one hundred million volts. As a
system for hyperfine oscillating, Tesla used a huge quantity of ultraviolet
lamps, placed at the top of his Tower.
2. To take energy from Ether. It is possible to shift time coordinates
and produce an energy transmission by time cycles from the past to the future
without any violent release of electromagnetic equilibrium of environment by
means of oscillation of non-resonance electromagnetic fields. Of course, it
should be done strictly following mathematical law, which determines the
interrelations of frequencies with a great accuracy. In an opposite case, the
results can get out of control and an unexpected destruction of material and
biological objects or their momentary dropout form segments of our reality can
take place like in the Philadelphia experiment.
3. To open temporary windows in parallel worlds. Since parallel worlds
have an electromagnetic structure with the wavelength and frequency of
oscillations different from those of the Earth, then is could be possible to
make some connection between frequencies of oscillations of our world and other
worlds by means of complex harmonic oscillating. Due to this, some pictures of
these worlds could become apparent in our earth conditions (and vice versa).
4. To accelerate human evolution. If we make a permanent high-frequency
field harmonizing with collective electromagnetic field of people, then little
by little it will be possible to achieve an increase in sensibility of
perception and increase in ability to receive ideas. Radiation of these
frequencies could be harmful: any disharmony of field (non-resonance) calls a
partial separation of astral and physical substance of a man, it can lead to
sickness (for example, cancer) or mental disorders. Full separation of one
substance from another, of course, leads to death. In addition, all these
processes act slowly. Due to their lack of knowledge, people pollute their
electromagnetic environment more and more by radio waves, microwave radiation
form locators (which call cancer, it was proved experimentally). Other
electromagnetic radiation also has negative impact. These electromagnetic waves
are in disharmony with frequencies of oscillations, which are natural for vital
functions and for informational field of Solar system.
5. To be able to transfer the Earth into parallel realities. If Tesla
had finished the construction of the system made of five transmitters and
started it, then he could make the whole Earth be in a state of oscillation as a
uniform, resonant structure, and in such oscillation, peculiar to
some other reality, and thus physically move us to the parallel world. Thus
possibly, he wanted to accelerate the evolution of civilization. However, it could
be very dangerous, because if the Earth enters the state of resonance
and is oscillating with "parallel worlds," then catastrophes
could occur like that was described in the myth about Atlantis.
Modern experimenters should keep in mind that secret of this physical world lies
in metaphysics and as long as our science is blinded with research of crude
matter, we will be in the state of an illusionary split consciousness. It is
necessary to provide a breakdown of human consciousness, and it will happen in
physics. We should free the human mind and adjust it to deep cosmological research.
Ethics is a cosmic principle, which contributes to energy distribution, isnt
it? Then it can get a status of natural law. And we will be able to explain to
the supposed inhabitants of worlds, which are shifted in time, why we can
influence
the Galaxy and stars by means of special reactors and why we take part in
experiments, which directly change us. If ethics is really a harmony and
kindness is equilibrium of energy, then mathematically, the cosmic ethics certainly
act in the world. It is impossible to violate mathematical laws. "There is no
Czars way in geometry" said Euclid to the Czar Edip, who worked on solutions
to difficult geometrical problems.
The Cosmos itself seems to be a big experimenter. Our mind asks it questions,
clever or not. Thats why every true philosopher and scientist should reject the
applied science and rigid theory, when he studies something concerning cosmic phenomena. Teslas
evolutionary
philosophical positions beginning from oracular ones and finishing with
engineering ones, beginning from engineering ones and finishing with
metaphysical ones, such as Teslas private life - these all are the milestones
towards formation of a new paradigm of scientific and technical civilization. His
attitude toward people and to himself, is a result of a transpersonal absolute manifested
in him. He had no personal attitude toward anybody including himself and thats why
he made so few mistakes during his life.
Tesla is often cited in modern science. The scientists, who didnt notice
contradictions of Maxwells electromagnetic theory until now, began to study
Tesla, especially those who work on unification, electromagnetism, gravitation
and strong and weak interactions. Is it true that matter is infinitely divisible
or not? If space could be divided infinitely? Finally, what is the role of time
in physical processes? Maybe time is only a measure, a usual coordinate, as it is
supposed in modern physical theories basing on the theory of relativity and
quantum mechanics.
Teslas ideas about ether as a basic medium, which structurally joins space and
matter, led to stagnation in physical thinking and to continual returning to out
of date ideas. In scientific circles, which take a risk of creating a "new physics,"
recognize Teslas concepts as now become increasingly valuable
and they are (finally) being studied seriously. There are experiments with ultra
low and ultra high frequency oscillations, which have specific modulation and form the
radiation of the ionosphere. All the possible consequences of this are still
unknown. This includes control of meteorological phenomena, especially
hurricanes and atmospheric pressure, infusion of thoughts at a distance by means
of electromagnetism, i.e. resonance with electromagnetic transmitters. It
becomes evident that it is possible with technology to imitate external electromagnetic
manifestations of human thinking. It is the position of Teslas cybernetics. A
man is an automatic machine of cosmic forces underlined Tesla in
his main articles and lectures.
Experimenters can say that it is much easier to excite the mass emotions of people
by means of corresponding oscillations of the ionosphere, which includes harmonics of
the collective unconscious state of all humankind. The Ionosphere is key to controlling
mass feelings and thoughts. Tesla understood all this as far back as 1899 during
his
Colorado Springs experiments. Modern university science reject Teslas ideas mainly because it cannot understand them. The
second reason is the opposition, which Tesla presented to nuclear physics, and
his prediction that application of corresponding technology would not be
continuous and quantum mechanics has no serious scientific future.
Tesla as cosmologist had his own philosophical and
religious position
Aristotle stated that there is an
independent higher spirit in cosmic space - enteleheia. This spirit sets matter
in motion and thought is his main attribute. In the same way, Tesla believed
that a uniform Cosmos is joint in its material and spiritual sense. There is some
nucleus in cosmic space, from which we take all strength, inspiration, and which
attracts us forever. Tesla felt its power and its values, which it sends all
around the Universe and keeps in harmony. He couldnt guess the secret of
this nucleus but he knew that it existed, and when he wanted to give it some
material attribute, he ascribed that it is LIGHT, and when he tried to
understand its spiritual principle, then it was BEAUTY and SYMPATHY. A man who
keeps this (religion) in himself, feels strong, works with joy because he feels
himself as a part of universal harmony.
Resume on
perspectives of Teslas science
Not only physicists, who continue Teslas work, but all people who think a lot
about scientific problems, agree that modern physics is really a
contradictory system of knowledge. From the one hand, time is relative and
depends on the observer. From the other hand, it is stated that time as a quantum
transfer cannot be measured. Nuclear reactions are studied on cathedras of
history of physics. In the course of these reactions, transformation of matter
into energy goes without residue. In astrophysics, full transformation of
matter into energy is not possible. It is known that mass calculated as an
effect of the force of attraction differs from the mass calculated from the
speed of rotation of the stars around the center of the Galaxy by means of
"Dopplers" shift of lines in spectrums of their radiation. Therefore a
significant defect of visual mater or mass can be found, and it amounts to 90%.
Instead of changing the theory, scientific schools speak about "defects of
mass."
Tesla worked on special "vacuum tube with an open tip," which serves to transmit
particles at any arbitrary large distances. The laying was made by electrostatic
way by the lines of electromagnetic layers of atmosphere, which can be
distinguished by the naked eye. It is the layer where clouds float. It became
known that a multiphase system, inductive motor and generators of alternating
current are the less significant Teslas discoveries. The most important should
be those which relate to his experiments with Ether and time. We can underline
a perfectly new cosmological physics, which is based on electromagnetic
resonance of ether, and on the resonant effects of time.
Teslas cosmology is cosmology of a general type, which relates to an isotropic
and infinite Universe. At the same time, Maxwells electromagnetism can be
applied at comparably small distances. In essence, Maxwell made a
mathematization of Faradays experiments, but he didnt build a concept of this
problem to an end. Due to the incompleteness of Maxwells theory, great
difficulties in Special theory of relativity appeared (interrelation of speed of
propagation of energy and speed of light). Einstein himself ignored relativist
changes of space and time with motion in photo-effect, since if energy changes
together with speed, then there is no effect, when energy equivalent to electron trajectory
split out by photon is absent. In general, theory of relativity, and shortcomings of
Maxwells theory led to an idea of "world line" (in essence, it is a pan-cosmic
extrapolation of magnetic force lines, which are visualized by iron filings on
laboratory tables) and finally, to the notion of Cosmos finiteness, which
alternately shrinks, up to the "point," which is located out of measurements, or
explodes...an unlikely development. It could be surprising not only for Tesla,
but also for many philosophers and scientists, Pythagoras, Plato, Euclid and
others.
Nikola Tesla and his science are very significant for the modern world of tele-communicational
systems and to find a way out of crisis of scientific and technical civilization,
which needs philosophical ontology. During hundreds and thousands years, we had
many great scientists, but nobody has a temple built in his honor. Neither Plank, Einstein, Bor, Pauli, Torichelli nor Newton
in spite of their interest in alchemy, theology and mystics, none of them could
convince people of transcendental significance of their scientific views.
Christian civilization is based on suffering, sacrifice and atonement of Christ,
on the mystery of Christening, resurrection and the other world. It is full of
human feelings and emotions. Technical epoch under the badge of Tesla is a
humane symbol of spirit and matter unity and establishes not a religious belief,
but belief in scientific principles, and gives a discernment in fundamental laws
of Cosmos. Historically, Tesla radically changes the form of religious belief on
the planetary level. Thats why he is not only a scientist but also a universal
and historical phenomenon of a higher level. He changed spirituality of theology
to the spirituality of science. Besides, modern physics already became a
philosophy of new times, since it openly works with the structure of matter,
genesis of Cosmos and, recently, Ethics.
Quantum mechanics of the Copenhagen Circle including Bor, Heisenberg and Pauli,
does not give an answer to the question about the structure of the main unit of matter.
The Theory of relativity doesnt solve the problem of time substantiality and
doesnt explain the essence of force in concept. Teslas physics relating to the
real physical space or Ether, and his scientific thought derived from the position
of ancient cosmology and Pythagorean mathematics (not from electromagnetism of XXth Century) couldnt be continued as long as there appeared other limits on the way of
creation of general physical theory, which includes events of physical reality.
After Chernobyl, all people understood that to play with nuclear energy is nothing more than
irresponsibility without real understanding of matter's structure. And the tragedy of
spaceship Challenger reminds us that humankind still does not have enough
experience in long space travels. It is
better not to speak about the medical aspects of interstellar travels. Teslas
physics gives answers and instruments to use it in cosmology.
Sometimes expressions that we use to denote some physical notion didnt exist in
the time of Tesla. The same is with the method of introduction of mathematical
symbols to make calculations. It gives a great benefit to a young electrical
engineer, who many a time heard that Julius Mayer never used the word energy;
that Archimedes and Galileo calculated all by mathematical methods, but had no
signs for calculations, which are familiar to us, now; Newton, who opened infinitesimal
quantities, nevertheless made all proofs by means of geometrical symbols, as well
as Euclid and all other scientists living in the period between them. To
understand Tesla, it is necessary not only to read his original works, but
also to explain the meaning of terms in his scientific account, from Tesla's
point of view. Advanced modern science gradually begins to study Teslas heritage. We do
not speak about commercial or universal aspects of scientific knowledge, but
about summits of scientific thought - unknown to wide intellectual community,
about the knobs of separated net of worldwide global informational space for
humankind, in which everybody is connected with the others by the channels of
planetary tele-communicational net. This connection is made by two main
coincident parameters, conformity of ideas and intellectual level. However, the
thing that joins all is a time comprehension as a basis for new civilization.
All early civilizations originate only from their attitude to space.
According to Tesla, in planetary communities of the future, all energy will be
taken from inexhaustible and free sources. He pointed out that the Earth is
a nucleus of a huge generator, which in rotation, creates a difference of
potentials equal to billions volts with a slowed ionosphere, and that humankind
really lives in a spherical condenser of huge capacity, which continuously
self-charges and self-discharges. In this condenser the ionosphere is a phase,
atmosphere is a dielectric and the Earth is zero. Thus, a global electrical
process proceeds on our planet. Electrical energy does its work and then returns
to the natural environment of the planet Earth.
Tesla built linear accelerators in the form of open vacuum tubes, i.e.
tubes working in room temperature without energy losses, since while laying at
target, electrostatic properties of the target itself are used; thats why
it is possible to transmit any quantity of energy at any distance by means of
induction. Kenneth Corum, who repeated Teslas experiment in America and
achieved some results, but still didnt understand the essence. Teslas particles
do not travel in space as other known particles or Hertzs waves, but they are
self-generating from inductive field like fire balls. The question is about an
original Tesla theory, which is related with cosmic radiation and was proved
by him experimentally. Teslas reversible magnetic field has a universal
significance. It is a mathematical idea, which is realized directly in every
echelon of cosmic being.
I seem bold to state that even Teslas inductive motor, the so-called
asynchronous motor, is not studied enough in its conceptual sense.
Among Teslas inventions, there are many mysteries that are left unstudied: in radio
engineering there are some transmissions on the same frequency, which cannot be
jammed (Twenty unused Tesla patents); in the structure of matter (I used to
split the atoms, without releasing any energy it is Teslas statement
of 1933); concerning attractive forces, there is a model of Tesla's gravitational motor
with a tin engine and glass stator, which only works once a year under the influence of
certain planetary arrangements; in the theory of Ether (matter is structured
from ether and dissolves in ether again following simple mathematical laws, but
if generated energy is more than the dissolved one, then cosmic catastrophes take
place); Teslas medical devices have been left unstudied; and on the influence of low-frequency waves on the
brain's operation and thought/memory processes, we can only guess. All of these
have been left unstudied and far too often, ignored.
Teslas attitude to the concepts of Buddhism is that "I" is illusionary. Really,
we are some different, like waves in subjective time and space, and when these
waves disappear, nothing remains from us. There is no personality. We cannot saw
that waves in the ocean have individuality. There is only an illusionary
sequence of waves, which go one after another. We are not the same that was
yesterday; I am only a sequence of relatively existences, which are not similar.
This sequence is that thing, which create an effect of continuity, but not my
subjective and mistaken understanding of my real life. I cannot imagine
Tesla smiling. I see him sad, since I see in him what a man could accomplish, when he
gave all his essence to the power of natural laws.
most important dates of Nikola Teslas life
1856 on July 10, at the midnight Nikola Tesla was born in Smilyan, in Lika
(province of Austrian monarchy) in the family of Serbian priest.
1875-1878 he studied in Polytechnic Institute in Graze (Austro-Hungary).
1882 in Budapest, have been walking around the park, Tesla made a discovery
relating to the reversible magnetic field.
1883 in Strasbourg he was employed in Edisons Continental Company and built a
model of the first inductive motor.
1884 he left for New York and began to work in Edisons laboratory.
1885 he left Edison, established his own company and started to produce motors
and generators of multiphase alternating current.
1888 on May 16 he read a lecture in American institute of electrical engineers
on the topic New system of motors and transformers of alternating current.
1890 he announced his results on physiological influence of high-frequency
electricity.
1891 he read lectures on the topic Experiments with alternating current of
very high frequency and its application in artificial wireless lighting;
registered patents of spark oscillator with resonance transformer.
1892 he came to London and read lectures in Royal scientific society on the
topic Light and other high-frequency phenomena, in the institute of electrical
engineers he read lectures on the topic Experiments with alternating current of
high voltage and high frequency; then the same lectures he read in Paris.
1893 attracted public attention on the World Exhibition in Chicago. He skipped
a high-frequency current through his body and demonstrated a model of reversible
magnetic field, the so-called Teslas rotating iron egg.
1895 on May 13 Teslas laboratory in New York was burnt with fire.
1897 he registered twelve patents in radio engineering.
1898 registration of the paten for teleautomatic control (experiment with the
ship on the lake in New York, Central Park. Tesla made a wireless control of the
ship and staggered all witnesses).
1899 a construction of hydroelectric power station at Niagara was finished.
1899-1900 experiments in Colorado Springs.
1901-1905 construction of Wardenclyffe Tower at Long Island, near New York.
1909-1922 he registered patents only in mechanical engineering (pumps,
tachometers, bladeless turbines).
1943 on January 7 Tesla died in New York, in New Yorker hotel. At first, he
was read the burial service according to Orthodox tradition, and then his body
was burnt according to Buddhist ceremony. My question is if he was truly
burnt.... Or transfigured and conveyed...not as mere ashes... His main legacy is
in Tesla Museum in Belgrade City, Yugoslavia.
END
Compliments to the Author: Dr. Velimir
Abramovic (
http://www.scienceoftime.org/ ) and used by permission.
Translation and grammatical
corrections to
the English language: Frank Germano (note: please excuse the errors in tense throughout the
article as this is still a work in progress. My attempt was solely to convey Dr. Abramovic's
original feelings and thoughts, and preserve the overall essense of his
article.)
Michael Pupin, From Immigrant to Inventor,
Charles Scribner's Sons, N.Y., pages 285-286,
1923.
Website references and Nikola
Tesla's publications:
- Tesla, Nikola, "My
Inventions", Electrical Experimenter magazine, Feb, June, and
Oct, 1919. ISBN 0910077002
- Tesla, Nikola, "The
Problem of Increasing Human Energy", Century
Illustrated Magazine, June 1900. 21st Century Books. Gary Peterson's
website.
- Tesla, Nikola, "Talking
with Planets". Collier's Weekly, February 19, 1901. (EarlyRadioHistory.us)
- Tesla, Nikola, "Prepared
Statement of Tesla". July 10, 1937. (Interview with press on
81st birthday observance;
DOC
format)
- Tesla, Nikola, "The
True Wireless". Electrical Experimenter, May 1919; 21st
Century Books website.
- Tesla, Nikola, "A
New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers".
American Institute of Electrical Engineers, May 1888. 21st Century
Books website, again, compliments Gary Peterson.
- Source Material:
- "Tesla:
Master of Lightning". 1999. ISBN 0793635497 (PBS Video;
Tesla )
- Lomas, Robert, "The
Essay", Spark of genius. Independent Magazine, 21 August 1999.
- Kelley, Thomas Lee, "The
enigma of Nikola Tesla". Arizona State University. [Thesis] Note: this
is a downloadable PDF file.
- "Did
Tesla really invent the loudspeaker?". 21st Century Books,
Breckenridge, CO 80424-2001.
- Waser, Andr� "Nikola Teslas Radiations
and the Cosmic Rays".
- Grotz, Toby, "The
Influence of Vedic Philosophy on Nikola Tesla's Understanding of Free Energy".
- Krumme, Katherine,
Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla: Thunder and Lightning.
December
4, 2000 (PDF)
- Gillispie, Charles Coulston, "Dictionary of
Scientific Biography"; Tesla, Nikola. Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York. ISBN 0684129256
- Corum, K. L., J. F. Corum, and A. H. Aidinejad,
"Atmospheric Fields, Tesla's Receivers and Regenerative Detectors".
1994.
- Corum, K. L., J. F. Corum, "Nikola Tesla,
Lightning Observations, and Stationary Waves". 1994.
- Corum, K. L., J. F. Corum, "The
Electrical Signals of Planetary Origins".
- Page, R.M., "The Early History of Radar",
Proceedings of the IRE, Volume 50, Number 5, May, 1962, (special 50th
Anniversary Issue)
- Hoover, John Edgar, et al.,
FOIA FBI files, 1943.
- Secor, H. Winfield, "Tesla's
views on Electricity and the War",
Electrical Experimenter, Volume 5, Number 4, August, 1917.
-
Nikola Tesla Museum - located in Belgrade. Compliments, Nikolai Skulack,
translations.
- "Tesla's
invention of the AND logic gate". 21st Century Books, Breckenridge,
CO. (pertains to the
U.S. Patent 723188 and
U.S. Patent 725605), Garry Peterson's site and his brilliant writing has
been featured in may parts of this website. My compliments...
- IEEE, "IEEE
Nikola Tesla Award. Apr 01, 2005.
- "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature",
Moon Nomenclature: Crater. USGS, Astrogeology Research Program.
- Dimitrijevic, Milan S., "Belgrade
Astronomical Observatory Historical Review". Publ. Astron. Obs.
Belgrade, 60 (1998), 162-170.
- Viereck, George Sylvester, and Nikola Tesla, "A
Machine to End War - A Famous Inventor, Picturing Life 100 Years from Now,
Reveals an Astounding Scientific Venture Which He Believes Will Change the
Course of History". Liberty, February 1937.
- Kennedy, John B., "When
woman is boss, An interview with Nikola Tesla". Colliers, January 30,
1926. 21st Century Books. Compliments (again!) to Gary Peterson's excellent
writing.
General information & Biographies:
- Martin, Thomas Commerford, "The Inventions,
Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla", reprinted by Barnes & Noble,
1995 ISBN 0-88029-812-X
- Cheney, Margaret & Uth, Robert, "Tesla,
Master of Lightning", published by Barnes & Noble, 1999 ISBN 0-7607-1005-8
- O'Neill, John J., "Prodigal
Genius: The Life of Nikola", 1944. ISBN 0913022403 (Tesla reportedly
said of this biographer "You understand me better than any man alive" - coming
from Dr. Tesla - that's quite a mouthfull.
- Lomas, Robert, "The
Man who Invented the Twentieth Century". Lecture to South Western
Branch of Instititute of Physics.
- Pratt, H., "Nikola Tesla 1856-1943",
Proceedings of the IRE, Vol. 44, September, 1956.
- "Nikola
Tesla". IEEE History Center, 2005.
- Weisstein, Eric W., "Tesla,
Nikola (1856-1943)". Eric Weisstein's World of Science.
[Nikola Tesla Pages 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 ]
[ The Wonder World To Be Created By Electricity ]
THE WONDER WORLD TO BE
CREATED BY ELECTRICITY
Manufacturer's Record, September 9,
1915, by Dr. Nikola Tesla
This is the exact transcript of Nikola
Tesla's speech. As you read through this, think. This is Tesla, in 1915, stating
what he believed to be the future. Pay close attention to his words, and his
wording. He hit it "dead-on!" In short, Tesla envisioned nearly one hundred
years ago, what our modern age would be. Not bad.
Nikola Tesla:
Whoever wishes to get a true appreciation of the greatness of our age should
study the history of electrical development. There he will find a story more
wonderful than any tale from Arabian Nights. It begins long before the Christian
era when Thales, Theophrastus and Pliny tell of the magic properties of electron
- the precious substance we call amber - that came from the pure tears of the
Heliades, sisters of Phaeton, the unfortunate youth who attempted to run the
blazing chariot of Phoebus and nearly burned up the earth. It was but natural
for the vivid imagination of the Greeks to ascribe the mysterious manifestations
to a hyperphysical cause, to endow the amber with life and with a soul.
Whether this was actual belief or merely poetic
interpretation is still a question. When at this very day many of the most
enlightened people think that the pearl is alive, that it grows more lustrous
and beautiful in the warm contact of the human body. So too, it is the opinion
of men of science that a crystal is a living being and this view is being
extended to embrace the entire physical universe since Prof. Jagadis Chunder
Bose has demonstrated, in a series of remarkable experiments, that inanimate
matter responds to stimuli as plant fiber and animal tissue.
The superstitious belief of the ancients, if it
existed at all, can therefore not be taken as a reliable proof of their
ignorance, but just how much they knew about electricity can only be
conjectured. A curious fact is that the ray or torpedo fish, was used by them in
electro-therapy. Some old coins show twin stars, or sparks, such as might be
produced by a galvanic battery. The records, though scanty, are of a nature to
fill us with conviction that a few initiated, at least, had a deeper knowledge
of amber - phenomena. To mention one, Moses was undoubtedly a practical and
skillful electrician far in advance of his time. The Bible describes precisely
and minutely arrangements constituting a machine in which electricity was
generated by friction of air against silk curtains and stored in a box
constructed like a condenser. It is very plausible to assume that the sons of
Aaron were killed by a high tension discharge and that the vestal fires of the
Romans were electrical. The belt drive must have been known to engineers of that
epoch and it is difficult to see how the abundant evolution of static
electricity could have escaped their notice. Under favorable atmospheric
conditions a belt may be transformed into a dynamic generator capable of
producing many striking actions. I have lighted incandescent lamps, operated
motors and performed numerous other equally interesting experiments with
electricity drawn from belts and stored in tin cans.
That many facts in regard to the subtle force
were known to the philosophers of old can be safely concluded, the wonder is,
why two thousand years elapsed before Gilbert in 1600 published his famous work,
the first scientific treatise on electricity and magnetism. To an extent this
long period of unproductiveness can be explained. Learning was the privilege of
a few and all information was jealously guarded. Communication was difficult and
slow and a mutual understanding between widely separated investigators hard to
reach. Then again, men of those times had no thought of the practical, they
lived and fought for abstract principles, creeds, traditions and ideals.
Humanity did not change much in Gilbert's time but his clear teachings had a
telling effect on the minds of the learned. Friction machines were produced in
rapid succession and experiments and observations multiplied. Gradually fear and
superstition gave way to scientific in-sight and in 1745 the world was thrilled
with the news that Kleist and Leyden had succeeded in imprisoning the uncanny
agent in a phial from which it escaped with an angry snap and destructive force.
This was the birth of the condenser, perhaps the most marvelous electrical
device ever invented.
Two tremendous leaps were made in the succeeding
forty years. One was when Franklin demonstrated the identity between the gentle
soul of amber and the awe-inspiring belt of Jupiter; the other when Galvany and
Volta brought out the contact and chemical battery, from which the magic fluid
could be drawn in unlimited quantities. The succeeding forty years bore still
greater fruit. Oersted made a significant advance in deflecting a magnetic
needle by an electric current, Arago produced the electro-magnet, Seebeck the
thermo-pile and in 1831, as the crowning achievement of all, Faraday announced
that he had obtained electricity from a magnet, thus discovering the principle
of that wonderful engine - the dynamo, and inaugurating a new era both in
scientific research and practical application.
From that time on inventions of inestimable
value have followed one another at a bewildering rate. The telegraph, telephone,
phonograph and incandescent lamp, the induction motor, oscillatory transformer,
Roentgen ray, Radium, wireless and numerous other revolutionary advances have
been made and all conditions of existence eighty-four years which have since
elapsed, the subtle agents dwelling in the living amber and loadstone have been
transformed into cyclopean forces turning the wheels of human progress with ever
increasing speed. This, in brief, is the fairy tale of electricity from Thales
to the present day. The impossible has happened, the wildest dreams have
been surpassed and the astounded world is asking: What is coming next?
ELECTRICAL POSSIBILITIES IN COAL AND IRON
Many a would-be discoverer, failing in his
efforts, has felt the regret to have been born at a time when everything has
been already accomplished and nothing is left to be done. This erroneous
impression that, as we are advancing, the possibilities of invention are being
exhausted, is not uncommon. In reality it is just the opposite. Spenser has
conveyed the right idea when he likened civilization to the sphere of light
which a lamp throws out in darkness. The brighter the lamp and the larger the
sphere the greater is its dark boundary. It is paradoxical, yet true, to say,
that the more we know the more ignorant we become in the absolute sense, for it
is only through enlightenment that we become conscious of our limitations.
Precisely one of the most gratifying results of intellectual evolution is the
continuous opening up of new and greater prospects. We are progressing at an
amazing pace, but the truth is that, even in fields most successfully exploited,
the ground has only been broken. What has been so far done by electricity is
nothing compared with what the future has in store. Not only this, but there are
now innumerable things done in old-fashioned ways which are much inferior in
economy, convenience and many other respects to the new method. So great are the
advantages of the latter that whenever an opportunity presents itself the
engineer advises his client to "do it electrically."
Consider, in illustration, one of the largest
industries, that of coal. From this valuable mineral we chiefly draw the sun's
stored energy which is required to meet our industrial and commercial needs.
According to statistical records, the output in the United States during the
past year was 480,000,000 tons. In perfect engines this fuel would have been
sufficient to develop 500,000,000 horse-power steadily for one year, but the
squandering is so reckless that we do not get more than 5 per cent of its
heating value on the average. There is an appalling waste in mining, handling,
transportation, store and use of coal, which could be very much reduced through
the adoption of a comprehensive electrical plan in all these operations. The
market value of the yearly product would be easily doubled and an immense sum
added to the revenues of the country. What is more, inferior grades, billions of
tons of which are being thrown away, might be turned to profitable use.
Similar considerations apply to natural gas and
mineral oil, the annual loss of which amounts to hundreds of millions of
dollars. In the very near future such waste will be looked upon as criminal and
the introduction of the new methods will be forced upon the owners of such
properties. Here, then, is an immense field for the use of electricity in many
ways, vast industries which are bound to be revolutionized through its extensive
application.
To give another example, I may refer to the
manufacture of iron and steel, which is carried on in this country on a scale
truly colossal. During the last year, notwithstanding unfavorable business
conditions, 31,000,000 tons of steel have been produced. It would lead too far
to dwell on the possibilities of electrical improvements in the manufacturing
processes themselves, and I will only indicate what is likely to be accomplished
in using the waste gases from the coke ovens and blast furnaces to generate
electricity for industrial purposes.
Since in the production of pig-iron for every
ton about one ton of coke is employed, the yearly consumption of coke may be put
at 31,000,000 tons. The combustion in the blast furnaces yields, per minute,
7,000,000 cubic feet of gas of a heating value of 110 B. T. units per cubic
foot. Of this total, without making special provision, 4,000,000 cubic feet may
be made available for power purposes. If all the heat energy of this gas could
be transformed into mechanical effort, it would develop 10,389,000 horse-power.
This result is impossible, but it is perfectly practicable to obtain 2,500,000
horse-power electrical energy at the terminals of the dynamos.
In the manufacture of coke approximately 9400
cubic feet of gas are evolved per ton of coal. This gas is excellent for power
purposes, having an average heating value of 600 B. T. units, but very little is
now used in engines, largely because of their great cost and other
imperfections. A ton of coke requires about 1.32 tons of American coal; hence
the total coal consumption per annum on the above basis is nearly 41,000,000
tons, which give, per minute, 733,000 cubic feet of gas. Assuming the yield of
surplus or rich gas to be 333,000 cubic feet, the balance of 400,000 cubic feet
could be used in gas engines. The heat contents would be, theoretically,
sufficient to develop 5,660,000 horse-power, of which 1,500,000 horse-power
could be obtained in the form of electric energy.
I have devoted much thought to this
industrial proposition, and find that with new, efficient, extremely cheap and
simple thermo-dynamic transformers not less than 4,000,000 horse-power could be
developed in electric generators by utilizing the heat of these gases, which, if
not entirely wasted, are only in part and inefficiently employed.
With systematic improvements and refinements
much better results could be secured and an annual revenue of $50,000,000 or
more derived. The electrical energy could be advantageously used in the fixation
of atmospheric nitrogen and production of fertilizers, for which there is an
unlimited demand and the manufacture of which is restricted here on account of
the high cost of power. I expect confidently the practical realization of the
project in the very near future, and look to exceptionally rapid electrical
development in this direction.
HYDRO-ELECTRIC DEVELOPMENT
Water-power offers great opportunities for novel
electrical applications, particularly in the department of electro-chemistry.
The harness of waterfalls is the most economical method known for drawing energy
from the sun. This is due to the fact that both water and electricity are
incompressible. The net efficiency of the hydro-electric process can be as high
as 85 per cent. The initial outlay is generally great, but the cost of
maintenance is small and the convenience offered ideal. My alternating system is
invariably employed , and so far about 7,000,000 horse-power have been
developed. As generally used we do not get more than six-hundredths of a
horse-power per ton of coal per year. This water energy is therefore
equivalent to that obtainable from an annual supply of 120,000,000 tons of coal,
which is about 25 per cent of the total output in the United States. The
estimate is conservative, and in view of the immense waste of coal 50 per cent
may be a closer guess.
We get better appreciation of the tremendous
value of this power in our economic development when we remember that, unlike
fuel, which demands a terrible sacrifice of human energy and is consumed, it is
supplied without effort and destruction of material and equals the mechanical
performance of 150,000,000 men -- one and one-half times the entire population
of this country. These figures are imposing; nevertheless, we have only begun
the exploitation of this vast national resource.
There are two chief limitations at present --
one in the availability of the energy, the other in its transmission to
distance. The theoretical power of the falling water is enormous. If we
assume for the rain clouds an average height of 15,000 feet and annual
precipitation of 33 inches, the 24 horse-power per square mile is over 4000, and
for the whole area in the United States more than 12,000,000,000 horse-power. As
a matter of fact, the larger portion of the potential energy is used up in air
friction. This, while disappointing to the economist, is a fortunate
circumstance, for otherwise the drops would reach the ground with a speed of 800
feet per second -- sufficient to raise blisters on our bodies, while hail would
be positively deadly. Most of the water, which is available for power purposes
comes from a height of about 2000 feet and represents over one and one-half
billion horse-power, but we are only able to use an average fall of, say, 100
feet, which means that if all the water-power in this country were
harnessed under the existing conditions only 80,000,000 horse-power could be
obtained.
THE NEXT GREAT ACHIEVEMENT -- ELECTRICAL
CONTROL OF ATMOSPHERIC MOISTURE
But the time is very near when we shall have
the precipitation of the moisture of the atmosphere under complete control, and
then it will be possible to draw unlimited quantities of water from the oceans,
develop any desired amount of energy, and completely transform the globe by
irrigation and intensive farming. A Greater achievement of man through the
medium of electricity can hardly be imagined.
The present limitations in the transmission of
power to distance will be overcome in two ways -- through the adoption of
underground conductors insulated by power, and through the introduction of the
wireless art. The first plan I have advanced years ago. The underlying
principle is to convey through a tubular conductor hydrogen at a very low
temperature, freeze the surrounding material and thus secure a perfect
insulation by indirect use of electric energy. In this manner the power derived
from falls can be transmitted to distances of hundreds of miles with the highest
economy and at a small cost. This innovation is sure to greatly extend the
fields of electrical application. As to the wireless method, we have now the
means for economic transmission of energy in any desired amount and to distances
only limited by the dimensions of this planet. In view of assertions of some
misinformed experts to the effect that in the wireless system I have perfected
the power of the transmitter is dissipated in all directions, I wish to be
emphatic in my statement that such is not the case. The energy goes only to
the place where it is needed and to no other.
When these advanced ideas are practically
realized we shall get the full benefit of water-power, and it will become our
chief dependence in the supply of electricity for domestic, public and other
uses in the arts of peace and war.
ECONOMY IN LIGHT AND POWER -- ELECTRIC
PROPULSION
In the great departments of electric light and
power immense opportunities are offered through the introduction of all kinds of
novel devices which can be attached to the circuits at convenient hours for the
purpose of equalizing the loads and increasing the revenues from the plants. I
have myself knowledge of a number of new appliances of this kind. The most
important among them is probably an electrical ice machine which obviates
entirely the use of dangerous and otherwise objectionable chemicals. The new
machine will also require absolutely no attention and will be extremely
economical in operation, so that the refrigeration will be effected very cheaply
and conveniently in every household.
An interesting fountain, electrically
operated, has been brought out which is likely to be extensively introduced,
and will afford an unusual and pleasing sight in squares, parks, hotels and
residences.
Cooking devices for all domestic purposed
are being provides, and there is great demand for practical designs and
suggestions in this field. The same may be stated of
electric signs and other attractive means of advertising which can
be electrically operated. Some of the effects which it is possible to produce by
electric currents are wonderful and lend themselves to exhibitions, and there is
no doubt that much can be done in that direction. Theaters, public halls and
private dwellings are in need of a great many devices and instruments for
convenience and offer ample opportunities to an ingenious and practical
inventor.
A vast and absolutely untouched field is the use
of electricity for the propulsion of ships. The leading electrical
company in this country has just equipped a large vessel with high-speed
turbines and electric motors and has achieved a signal success. Applications of
this kind will multiply at a rapid rate, for the advantages of the electrical
drive are now patent to everybody. In this connection gyroscopic apparatus will
probably play an important part, as its general adoption on vessels is sure to
come. Very little has yet been done in the introduction of electrical drive in
the various branches of industry and manufacture, and the prospects are
unlimited.
A FEW OF THE WONDERS TO COME
Books have already been written on the
agricultural uses of electricity, but the fact is that hardly anything has been
practically done. The beneficial effects of electricity of high tension have
been unmistakably established, and a revolution will be brought about through
the extensive adoption of agricultural electrical apparatus. The
safeguarding of forests against fires, the destruction of microbes, insects and
rodents will, in due course, be accomplished by electrical means.
In the near future we shall see a great many new
uses of electricity aiming at safety, particularly vessels at sea. We shall
have electrical instruments for preventing collisions, and we shall even be
able to disperse fogs by electric force and powerful and penetrative rays.
I am hopeful that within the next few years wireless plants will be installed
for the purpose of
illuminating the oceans. The project is perfectly feasible, and if
carried out will contribute more than any other provision to the safety of
property and human lives at sea. The same plant could also produce stationary
electrical waves and enable vessels to get at any time accurate bearings and
other valuable practical data without resorting to the present means. It
could also be used for time signaling and many other purposes of similar nature.
Electrotherapy is another great field in
which there are unlimited possibilities for electrical applications.
High-frequency currents especially have a great future. The time will come when
this form of electrical energy will be available in every private residence. I
consider it quite possible that through their surface actions we may do away
with the customary bath, as the cleaning of the body can be instantaneously
effected simply by connecting it to a source of currents or electric energy
of very high potential, which results in the throwing off of dust or any small
particles adhering to the skin. Such a dry bath, besides being convenient and
time-saving, would also be of beneficial therapeutic influence. New electric
devices for use of the deaf and blind are coming and will be a blessing to the
afflicted.
In the prevention of crime electrical
instruments will soon become an important factor. In court proceedings electric
evidence will often be decisive. In a time not distant it will be possible to
flash any image formed in thought on a screen and render it visible at any place
desired. The perfection of this means of reading thought will create a
revolution for the better in all our social relations. Unfortunately, it is
true, that cunning lawbreakers will avail themselves of such advantages to
further their nefarious business.
TELEGRAPHIC PHOTOGRAPHY AND OTHER ADVANCES
Great improvements are still possible in
telegraphy and telephony. The use of a new receiving device which will be
shortly described, and the sensitiveness of which can be increased almost
without limit, will enable telephoning through aerial lines or cables however
long by reducing the necessary working current to an infinitesimal value. This
invention will dispense with the necessity of resorting to expensive
constructions, which, however, are of circumscribed usefulness. It will also
enormously extend the wireless transmission of intelligence in all its
departments.
The next art to be inaugurated is that of
picture transmission by ordinary telegraphic methods and existing apparatus.
This idea of telegraphing or telephoning pictures is old, but practical
difficulties have hampered commercial realizations. A number of improvements of
great promise have been made, and there is every reason to expect that success
will soon be achieved.
Another valuable novelty will be a typewriter
electrically operated by the human voice. This advance will fill a long-felt
want, as it will do away with the operator and save a great deal of labor and
time in offices.
A new and extremely simple electric
tachometer is being prepared for the market, and it is expected that it will
prove useful in power plants and central stations, on boats, locomotives and
automobiles.
Many municipal improvements based on the use of
electricity are about to be introduced. We have soon to have everywhere smoke
annihilators, dust absorbers, ozonizers, sterilizers of water, air, food and
clothing, and accident preventers on streets, elevated roads and in subways.
It will become next to impossible to contract disease germs or get hurt in the
city, and country folk will got to town to rest and get well.
ELECTRIC INVENTIONS IN WAR
The present international conflict is a powerful
stimulus to invention of devices and implements of warfare. An electric gun will
soon be brought out. The wonder is that it was not produced long ago. Dirigibles
and aeroplanes will be equipped with small electric generators of high tension,
from which the deadly currents will be conveyed through the wires to the ground.
Battleships and submarines will be provided with electric and magnetic feelers
so delicate that the approach of any body underwater or in darkness will be
detected. Torpedoes and floating mines are almost in sight which will
direct themselves automatically and without fail get in fatal contact with the
object to be destroyed. The art of telautomatics, or wireless control of
automatic machines at a distance, will play a very important part in future
wars and, possibly, in the next phases of the present one. Such contrivances
which act as if endowed with intelligence will be used in innumerable ways for
attack as well as defense. They may take the shape of aeroplanes, balloons,
automobiles, surface or under-water boats, or any other form according to the
requirement in each special case, and will be of greater range and
destructiveness than the implements now employed. I believe that the
telautomatic aerial torpedo will make the large siege gun, on which so much
dependence is placed at present, obsolete.
A volume might be filled with such suggestions
without exhausting the possibilities. The advance even under the conditions
existing is rapid enough, but when the wireless transmission of energy for
general use becomes a practical fact the human progress will assume the
character of a hurricane. So all-surpassing is the importance of this marvelous
art to the future existence and welfare of the human race that every enlightened
person should have a clear idea of the chief factors bearing on its development.
THE POWER OF THE FUTURE
We have at our disposal three main sources of
life-sustaining energy -- fuel, water-power and the heat of the sun's rays.
Engineers often speak of harnessing the tides, but the discouraging truth is
that the tidewater over one acre of ground will, on the average, develop only
one horse-power. Thousands of mechanics and inventors have spent their best
efforts in trying to perfect wave motors, not realizing that the power so
obtained could never compete with that derived from other sources. The force of
wind offers much better chances and is valuable in special instances, but is by
far inadequate. Moreover, the tides, waves and winds furnish only periodic and
often uncertain power and necessitate the employment of large and expensive
storage plants. Of course, there are other possibilities, but they are remote,
and we must depend on the first of three resources. If we use fuel to get
our power, we are living on our capital and exhausting it rapidly.
This method is barbarous and wantonly wasteful, and will have to be stopped in
the interest of coming generations. The heat of the sun's rays represents an
immense amount of energy vastly in excess of water-power. The earth receives an
equivalent of 83 foot-pounds per second for each square foot on which the rays
fall perpendicularly.
From simple geometrical rules applying to a
spherical body it follows that the mean rate per square foot of the earth's
surface is one-quarter of that, or 20 3/4 foot-pounds. This is to say over one
million horse-power per square mile, or 250 times the water-power for the same
area. But that is only true in theory; the practical facts put this in a
different aspect. For instance, considering the United States, and taking into
account the mean latitude, the daily variation, the diurnal changes, the
seasonal variations and casual changes, this power of the sun's rays reduces to
about one-tenth, or 100,00 horse-power per square mile, of which we might be
able to recover in high-speed low-pressure turbines 10,000 horse-power. To do
this would mean the installment of apparatus and storage plants so large and
expensive that such a project is beyond the pale of the practical. The
inevitable conclusion is that water-power is by far our most valuable
resource. On this humanity must build its hopes for the future. With its
full development and a perfect system of wireless transmission of the energy to
any distance man will be able to solve all the problems of material existence.
Distance, which is the chief impediment to human progress, will be completely
annihilated in thought, word and action. Humanity will be united, wars will be
made impossible and peace will reign supreme.
[ A Machine To End War ]
A MACHINE TO END
WAR
A Famous Inventor, Picturing Life 100
Years from Now,
Reveals an Astounding Scientific Venture Which He Believes Will
Change the Course of History ,
February 1937
by Nikola Tesla
as told to
George Sylvester Viereck
Nikola Tesla: "It seems," he says,
"that I have always been ahead of my time."
Editor's Note: Nikola Tesla, now in
his seventy-eighth year, has been called the father of radio,
television, power transmission, the induction motor, and the robot,
and the discoverer of the cosmic ray. Recently he has announced a
heretofore unknown source of energy present everywhere in unlimited
amounts, and he is now working upon a device which he believes will
make war impracticable.
Tesla and Edison have often been
represented as rivals. They were rivals, to a certain extent, in the
battle between the alternating and direct current in which Tesla
championed the former. He won; the great power plants at Niagara
Falls and elsewhere are founded on the Tesla system. Otherwise the
two men were merely opposites. Edison had a genius for practical
inventions immediately applicable. Tesla, whose inventions were far
ahead of the time, aroused antagonisms which delayed the fruition of
his ideas for years.
However, great physicists like Kelvin
and Crookes spoke of his inventions as marvelous. "Tesla," said
Professor A. E. Kennelly of Harvard University when the Edison medal
was presented to the inventor, "set wheels going round all over the
world. . . . What he showed was a revelation to science and art unto
ail time."
"Were we," remarks B. A. Behrend,
distinguished author and engineer, "to seize and to eliminate the
results of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would cease to
turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be
dark, our mills would be dead and idle."
These are the words of Nikola Tesla, spoken
in 1937. Nikola Tesla, begins: Forecasting is perilous. No man can
look very far into the future. Progress and invention evolve in
directions other than those anticipated. Such has been my experience,
although I may flatter myself that many of the developments which I
forecast have been verified by events in the first third of the
twentieth century. It seems that I have always been
ahead of my time. I had to wait nineteen years before Niagara was
harnessed by my system, fifteen years before the basic inventions for
wireless which I gave to the world in 1893 were applied universally.
I announced the cosmic ray and my theory of radio activity in 1896.
One of my most important discoveries--terrestrial resonance--which is
the foundation of wireless power transmission and which I announced
in 1899, is not understood even today. Nearly two years after I had
flashed an electric current around the globe, Edison, Steinmetz,
Marconi, and others declared that it would not be possible to
transmit even signals by wireless across the Atlantic. Having
anticipated so many important developments, it is not without
assurance that I attempt to predict what life is likely to be in the
twenty-first century.
Life is and will ever remain an
equation incapable of solution, but it contains certain known
factors. We may definitely say that it is a movement even if we do
not fully understand its nature. Movement implies a body which is
being moved and a force which propels it against resistance. Man, in
the large, is a mass urged on by a force. Hence the general laws
governing movement in the realm of mechanics are applicable to
humanity. There are three ways by which the
energy which determines human progress can be increased: First, we
may increase the mass. This, in the case of humanity, would mean the
improvement of living conditions, health, eugenics, etc. Second, we
may reduce the frictional forces which impede progress, such as
ignorance, insanity, and religious fanaticism. Third, we may multiply
the energy of the human mass by enchaining the forces of the
universe, like those of the sun, the ocean, the winds and
tides.
The first method increases food and
well-being. The second tends to bring peace. The third enhances our
ability to work and to achieve. There can be no progress that is not
constantly directed toward increasing well-being, peace, and
achievement. Here the mechanistic conception of life is one with the
teachings of Buddha and the Sermon on the Mount. While I am not a believer in the
orthodox sense, I commend religion, first, because every individual
should have some ideal--religious, artistic, scientific, or
humanitarian--to give significance to his life. Second, because all
the great religions contain wise prescriptions relating to the
conduct of life, which hold good now as they did when they were
promulgated.
There is no conflict between the
ideal of religion and the ideal of science, but science is opposed to
theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the
universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and
never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order.
Man, like the universe, is a machine. Nothing enters our minds or
determines our actions which is not directly or indirectly a response
to stimuli beating upon our sense organs from without. Owing to the
similarity of our construction and the sameness of our environment,
we respond in like manner to similar stimuli, and from the
concordance of our reactions, understanding is barn. In the course of
ages, mechanisms of infinite complexity are developed, but what we
call "soul " or "spirit," is nothing more than the sum of the
functioning of the body. When this functioning ceases, the "soul" or
the "spirit" ceases likewise.
I expressed these ideas long before
the behaviorists, led by Pavlov in Russia and by Watson in the United
States, proclaimed their new psychology. This apparently mechanistic
conception is not antagonistic to an ethical conception of life. The
acceptance by mankind at large of these tenets will not destroy
religious ideals. Today Buddhism and Christianity are the greatest
religions both in number of disciples and in importance. I believe
that the essence of both will he the religion of the human race in
the twenty-first century.
The year 2100 will see eugenics
universally established. In past ages, the law governing the survival
of the fittest roughly weeded out the less desirable strains. Then
man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings
of nature. As a result, we continue to keep alive and to breed the
unfit. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization
and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization
and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct, Several European
countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the
criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion
among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult.
Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to
produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal
person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a
habitual criminal.
Hygiene, physical culture will be
recognized branches of education and government. The Secretary of
Hygiene or Physical Culture will he far more important in the cabinet
of the President of the United States who holds office in the year
2035 than the Secretary of War. The pollution of our beaches such as
exists today around New York City will seem as unthinkable to our
children and grandchildren as life without plumbing seems to us. Our
water supply will he far more carefully supervised, and only a
lunatic will drink unsterilized water.
More people die or grow sick from
polluted water than from coffee, tea, tobacco, and other stimulants.
I myself eschew all stimulants. I also practically abstain from meat.
I am convinced that within a century coffee, tea, and tobacco will be
no longer in vogue. Alcohol, however, will still be used. It is not a
stimulant but a veritable elixir of life. The abolition of stimulants
will not come about forcibly. It will simply be no longer fashionable
to poison the system with harmful ingredients. Bernarr Macfadden has
shown how it is possible to provide palatable food based upon natural
products such as milk, honey, and wheat. I believe that the food
which is served today in his penny restaurants will be the basis of
epicurean meals in the smartest banquet halls of the twenty-first
century.
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.
At present we suffer from the
derangement of our civilization because we have not yet completely
adjusted ourselves to the machine age. The solution of our problems
does not lie in destroying but in mastering the machine. Innumerable activities still
performed by human hands today will be performed by automatons. At
this very moment scientists working in the laboratories of American
universities are attempting to create what has been described as a
"thinking machine." I anticipated this development.
I actually constructed "robots."
Today the robot is an accepted fact, but the principle has not been
pushed far enough. In the twenty-first century the robot will take
the place which slave labor occupied in ancient civilization. There
is no reason at all why most of this should not come to pass in less
than a century, treeing mankind to pursue its higher
aspirations. And unless mankind's attention is too
violently diverted by external wars and internal revolutions, there
is no reason why the electric millennium should not begin in a few
decades. END.
Now tell me if Tesla didn't hit the nail on the
head???
[ The Lost Inventions of Nikola Tesla ]
The Lost Inventions of Nikola Tesla
"Short-winded" bio: TESLA, Nikola (1856-1943), electrical inventor. Tesla was famous at
the turn of the century for inventing the alternating current system still in use today. But his later inventions, documented
in some 30 U.S. patents between 1890 and 1921, have never been utilized as Tesla intended despite their obvious potential
for advancing in fundamental ways the technology of modern civilization. Among these lost inventions: the disk-turbine rotary
engine, the Tesla coil, electric energy magnifier, high-frequency lighting systems, the magnifying transmitter, wireless power,
and the free-energy receiver. Born Yugoslavia, 1856. Educated at the polytechnic school at Graz and at University of Prague.
Worked as telephone engineer in Prague and Paris. Conceived new type of electric motor having no commutator, as direct current.
motors have, but works on principle of rotating magnetic field produced by poly phase alternating currents. Constructed prototype.
Found nobody interested in Europe. Emigrated to U.S. (1884). Worked briefly and unhappily with Thomas Edison.
Established own lab and obtained patents on poly phase motors, dynamos, transformers for a complete
alternating current power system. Formed alliance with George Westinghouse, who bought poly phase patents for $1 million plus
royalty. With Westinghouse, engaged in struggle against Edison to convince public of efficiency and safety of AC over DC,
and succeeded in getting Alternating Current accepted as the electric power system worldwide.
Also with Westinghouse, lit the Chicago World's Fair, built Niagara Falls hydropower plant, and
installed AC - Alternating Current - systems at Colorado silver mines, and other industries. By turn of the century was lifted
to celebrity status comparable to Edison's as media promoted him along with the expanding electric power industry. Experimenting
independently in Manhattan lab, developed and patented electric devices based on superior capabilities of high-potential,
high-frequency currents: Tesla coil, radio, high-frequency lighting, x-rays, electrotherapy. Suffered lab fire. Rebuilt, and
continued. Moved lab to Colorado Springs for about one year (1899). Built huge magnifying transmitter. Experimented with wireless
power, radio, and earth resonance. Studied lightning. Created lightning. Returned to New York. With encouragement of financier
J.P. Morgan, promoted a World System of radio broadcasting utilizing magnifying transmitters. Built huge tower for magnifying
transmitter at Wardenclyffe, Long Island as first station in World System. Received enough from Morgan to bring station within
sight of completion, then funds cut off, project collapsed.
Continued to invent into the 1920's, but flow of patents meager compared to earlier torrent, which
amounted to some 700 patents worldwide. High-frequency inventions ignored by established technology, as were disk turbine,
free energy receiver, and other inventions. Shut out by media except for birthday press conferences. At these conferences,
predicted microwaves, TV, beam technologies, cosmic-ray motor, interplanetary communications, and wave-interference devices
that since have been named the Tesla howitzer and the Tesla shield. In the 1930's, he was involved in wireless power projects
in Quebec. Last birthday media appearance in 1940.
Died privately and peacefully at 87 in New York hotel room from no apparent cause in particular.
Personal papers, including copious lab notes, impounded by U.S. Government, surfaced many years later at the "Tesla Museum",
in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Of these notes, only a fragment, "Colorado Springs Notes", has been published by the Museum.
the inventions:
1. Disk-Turbine Rotary Engine
Tesla called it a powerhouse in a hat. One version developed 110 h.p. at 5000 RPM and was less
than ten inches in diameter. Tesla believed larger turbines could achieve 1000 HP. The disk-turbine rotary engine runs vibration
free. It is cheap to manufacture because nothing but the rotor bearings needs to be fitted to close tolerances. It requires
little maintenance. If necessary, the rotor can be replaced with ease. The turbine can run on steam, compressed air, gasoline,
or oil.
How it works
Unlike conventional turbines that use blades or buckets to catch the flow, Tesla's uses a set
of rigid metal disks that, instead of battling the propelling stream at steep angles, runs with smooth efficiency in parallel
with the flow. What drives the disks is a peculiar adhesion that exists between the surface of a body and any moving fluid.
This adhesion, is, in Tesla's words, caused by the shock of the fluid against the asperities of the solid substance (simple
resistance) and from internal forces opposing molecular separation (a sticking phenomenon).
The propellant enters the intake and is directed through a nozzle onto the disks at their perimeter.
It travels over the spinning disks in a spiral fashion, exiting at the disks' central openings and is exhausted from the casing.
Tesla notes in his patent that, in an engine driven by a fluid, changes in the velocity and direction of movement of the fluid
should be as gradual as possible. This, he observes, is not the case, though, in existing engines where sudden changes, shocks,
and vibrations are unavoidable. The use of pistons, paddles, vanes and blades, notes Tesla, necessarily introduces numerous
defects and limitations and adds to the complication, cost of production, and maintenance of the machines.
We who are stuck with the piston engine know this all too well. The Tesla turbine is vibration-free
because the propelling fluid moves in natural paths or stream lines of least resistance, free from constraint and disturbance.
Conducting the propellant through the intake valve on the other side easily reverses the turbine.
Internal combustion
A hollow casting is bolted to the top of the turbine for the internal combustion mode. A glow
plug or spark plug screws into the top of this chamber. Sticking out of the sides are the intake valves. Interesting thing
about these valves, there are no moving parts. They work on a fluidic principle. The Tesla turbines' only moving part is its
rotor. Imagine, a powerful internal combustion engine with only one moving part.
Fluidics
The fluidic valve, which Tesla calls a valvular conduit, allows easy flow in one direction but
in the other the flow gets hung up in dead-end chambers (buckets) where it gets spun around 360 degrees, thus forming eddies,
or countercurrents that stop the flow as surely as if a mechanical valve were moved into the shut position. The spinning rotor
creates plenty of suction to pull fuel and air into the combustion chamber. Tesla notes that after a short lapse of time the
chamber becomes heated to such a degree that the ignition device may be shut off without disturbing the established regime.
In other words; it diesels. The disk-turbine motor principle in reverse becomes a very efficient pump. (Tesla's Patent No.
1,061,142)
Fluid drive
The disk turbine principle is employed in the speedometer, which presents the problem of having
to turn the rotary motion of a vehicles wheels to angular motion in order to push a spring-loaded indicator needle over a
short arc. Tesla's solution: the speedometer cable connects to a disk which spins in interface with a second disk, imparting
spin to the fluid in between and, hence, to the second disk which moves the needle. Interface two disks of different sizes
in a fluid medium and any desired ratio between speeds of rotation may be obtained by proper selection of the diameters of
the disks, observes Tesla in his patent, thus anticipating in 1911 the fluid-drive automatic transmission.
Tesla First worked on his turbine early in his career, believing it would be a good prime mover
for his alternating-current dynamos, far superior to the reciprocal steam engines that were the workhorses of that era. But
he did not get down to perfecting and patenting it until after the collapse of his global broadcasting scheme (1909). By this
time the internal-combustion piston engine was firmly rooted in Western power mechanics. Tesla referred to organized opposition
to his attempts to introduce the superior engine, and so have others who have made the attempt since. But Tesla still saw
a glorious future for his turbine. To his friend, Yale engineering professor Charles Scott, Tesla predicted, "My turbine will
scrap all the heat engines in the world." Replied Scott, "That would make quite a pile of scrap."
2. Spark-Gap Oscillator:
Tesla was central in establishing the 60 cycle alternating current power system still in use today.
Yet he suspected that the more striking phenomena resided in the higher frequencies of electric vibration. To reach these
heights, he first tried dynamos spun at higher speeds and having a greater number of poles than any that had existed before.
One having as an armature a flat, radially grooved copper disk achieved 30,000 cycles, but Tesla wanted to go into the millions
of cycles.
It occurred to him that this vibratory capability was to be found in the capacitor. With a capacitor
circuit, the spark-gap oscillator, he did indeed achieve the higher frequencies, and he did so by non mechanical means. The
circuit was promising enough for him to patent it as A Method of and Apparatus for Electrical Conversion and Distribution,
for Tesla saw in it the possibility of a whole new system of electric lighting by means of high frequencies. Though it was
quickly succeeded by the Tesla coil and is not numbered among the more famous of the lost inventions, the spark-gap oscillator
is pivotal for Tesla as the invention that launched him into his career in high frequencies.
How it works
The capacitor. There are only a few basic building blocks of electrical circuitry. The capacitor
is one of them. Tesla didn't invent it, it had been around for some time, arguably for millennia, but he did improve upon
it in three of his patents. Also called condenser, the common capacitor is just a sandwich of conductive and nonconductive
layers that serves the purpose of storing electrical charge. The simplest capacitor has just two conductive sheets separated
by a single sheet of insulation. In the capacitor shown, the conductive elements are two metal plates.
The insulation between them is oil. In the official vocabulary, the plates are indeed called plates
and the insulative layer (oil, glass, mica, or whatever) is called the dielectric. Connect the two terminals of a capacitor
into a circuit where there is plus-minus electrical potential, and charge builds on the plates, positive on one, negative
on the other. Let this charge build for a while, and then connect the two plates through some resistance, a coil, say, and
the capacitor discharges very suddenly. Tesla said, The explosion of dynamite is only the breath of a consumptive compared
with its discharge. He went on to say that the capacitor is the means of producing the strongest current, the highest electrical
pressure, the greatest commotion in the medium.
The capacitor's discharge is not necessarily a single event. If it discharges into a suitable
resistance, there is a rush of current outward, then back again, as if it were bouncing off the resistance, then out, and
back and so forth until it peters out. The discharge is oscillatory, a vibration. The vibration can be sustained by recharging
the capacitor at appropriate intervals. When Tesla talks of the capacitor's discharge causing commotion in the medium, he
means a vibration or mix of vibrations. The character of this vibration is determined in part by the capacity of the capacitor,
that is, how much charge it will hold. This is a function of it size, the distance between plates, and the composition of
the dielectric. Upon discharge there would be, typically, a fundamental vibration, some harmonics, and perhaps other commotion,
maybe musical, maybe not. Additional circuitry can tame the vibration to a pure tone.
The medium
When Tesla speaks of commotion in the medium, what is the medium? In Tesla's time it was an article
of faith that there existed a unified field that permeated all being called the ether. The ether as the electric medium still
is an article of faith in some circles, but in official science its existence is presumed to have been disproved in the laboratory.
Nevertheless, this conviction about an ether ran very deep, not only among scientists but among all thinkers, until only about
forty-some years ago when particle theory, E=MC2, and, finally Hiroshima firmly established the new faith. Tesla
said the electron did not exist.
The materialistic concept of these little particles running through conductors is alien to Tesla
electric theory. Here is the Quaker writer Rufus Jones on the ether in 1920: An intangible substance which we call ether -
luminiferous (light-bearing) aether - fills all space, even the space occupied by visible objects, and this ether which is
capable of amazing vibrations, billions of times a second, is set vibrating at different velocities by different objects.
These vibrations bombard the minute rods of the retina... It is responsible also for all the immensely varied phenomena of
electricity, probably, too of cohesion and gravitation...
The dynamo and the other electrical mechanisms, which we have invented do not make or create electricity.
They merely let it come through, showing itself now as light, now as heat, now again as motive power. But always it was there
before, unnoted, merely potential, and yet a vast surrounding ocean of energy there behind, ready to break into active operation
when the medium was at hand for it. Jones, who was not a scientist but a religious thinker and communicator, was making a
point about the nearness of God's power and could do so by invoking the physics of his time. This would be difficult using
the Einsteinian physics in fashion today, which W. Gordon Allen has called atheistic science.
Although the ether is intangible, it is assumed to have elastic properties, so that Tesla can
say a circuit with a large capacity behaves as a slack spring, whereas one with a small capacity acts as a stiff spring vibrating
more vigorously. This elastic character of the ether, which you experience palpably when you play with a pair of magnets,
is due to the medium's lust for equilibrium. Distorted by electrical charge (or by magnetism or by the gravity of a material
body), the ether seeks to restore a perfect balance between the polarities of positive-negative, plus/minus, yang/yin.
Voltage is the measure of ether strain or imbalance, called potential difference, or just potential.
Balance is not restored from this strained condition in one swing-back. As we have seen with the capacitor, the disturbed
electric medium, like a plucked guitar string, over-swings the centerline of equilibrium to one side, then to the other, again
and again, and this we know as vibration. In this way of looking at nature, vibration is energy; energy is vibration. So you
could say that the commotion in the medium caused by the capacitors discharge is energy itself.
Thus, you can speak of the capacitor as an energy magnifier. Even though a feeble potential may
charge it, the sudden blast of the capacitor's release plucks the medium mightily. The capacitor is common in modern circuitry,
but Tesla used it with much greater emphasis on its capability as an energy magnifier and on a scale almost unheard of today.
It's difficult to find commercial capacitors that meet Tesla specifications. Builders of tesla coils and other high-voltage
devices usually must construct their own capacitors. Fortunately, this can be done using readily available materials.
How it works
The spark gap: A simple way to discharge a capacitor is through a spark gap. The spark-gap oscillator
is just a capacitor firing into a circuit load (lamps or whatever) through the spark gap. The opening between the spark-gap
electrodes determines when the capacitor will fire. This setting is one determinant of the frequency of the circuit.
The others are capacity and the reactance, or bounce characteristics, of the load. The potential
needed to bridge the gap is in the tens of thousands of volts. It takes a potential of about 20,000 volts to break down the
resistance of just a quarter of an inch of air. The gap doesn't necessarily have to be air. Tesla has referred to a gap consisting
of a film of insulation. A spark gap is a switching device, a semiconductor in fact. But the spark gap is problematic, particularly
the common two-electrode air-gap version. Heating and ionizing of the air cause irregularities in conduction and premature
firing.
This arcing must be quenched. It can be to a great degree by using a series of small gaps instead
of one larger one, or by using a rotary gap. Tesla also immersed the gap in flowing oil, used an air blowout, and even found
that a magnetic field helps to quench. For the gap Tesla substituted high-speed rotary switches, which he called circuit controllers.
One has a rotor that dips into a pool of mercury, and another uses mercury jets to make contact. You can operate a spark gap
without a capacitor by connecting it directly to a source of sufficient voltage.
This is, of course, how our automotive spark plugs work, directly off the coil. (The capacitor
in that circuit is used to juice the ignition coil primary.) The auto distributor, incidentally, is a rotary gap, pure Tesla.
Early radio amateurs used spark-gap oscillators as transmitters. The capacitor was, more often than not, left out of the circuit,
but with it the transmitter could create a greater commotion in the medium.
3. Tesla Coil
Tesla's best-known invention takes the spark-gap oscillator and uses it to vibrate vigorously
a coil consisting of few turns of heavy conductor. Inside of this primary coil sits another secondary coil with hundreds of
turns of slender wire. In the Tesla coil there is no iron core as in the conventional step-up transformer, and this air-core
transformer differs radically in other ways. Recounting the birth of this invention, Tesla wrote, Each time the condenser
was discharged the current would quiver in the primary wire and induce corresponding oscillations in the secondary. Thus,
a transformer or induction coil on new principles was evolved Electrical effects of any desired character and of intensities
undreamed of before are now easily producible by perfected apparatus of this kind. Elsewhere Tesla wrote, There is practically
no limit to the power of an oscillator.
The conventional step-up transformer (short primary winding, long secondary on an iron core) boosts
voltage at the expense of amperage. This is not true of Tesla's transformer. There is a real gain in power. Writing of the
powerful coils he experimented with at his Colorado Springs lab, coils with outputs in excess of 12 million volts, Tesla wrote,
It was a revelation to myself to find out that ... a single powerful streamer breaking out from a well insulated terminal
may easily convey a current of several hundred amperes! The general impression is that the current in such a streamer is small.
How it works
A Tesla coil secondary has its own particular electrical character determined in part by the length
of that slender coiled wire. Like a guitar string of a particular length, it wants to vibrate at a particular frequency. The
secondary is inductively plucked by the primary coil. The primary circuit consists of a pulsating high-voltage source (a generator
or conventional step-up transformer), a capacitor, a spark gap, and the primary coil itself. This circuit must be designed
so that it vibrates at a frequency compatible with the frequency at which the secondary wants to vibrate.
The primary circuit's frequency is determined by the frequency and voltage of the source, the
capacity of the capacitor, the setting of the spark gap, and the character of the primary coil, determined in part by the
length of its winding. Now when all these primary-circuit components are tuned to work in harmony with each other, and the
circuit's resulting frequency is right for plucking the secondary in a compatible rhythmic manner, the secondary becomes at
its terminal end maximally excited and develops huge electrical potentials, which if not put to work, boil off as a corona
of bluish light or as sparks and streamers that jump to nearby conductors with crackling reports.
Unlike the conventional iron-core step-up transformer, whose core has the effect of damping vibrations,
the secondary of the Tesla transformer is relatively free to swing unchecked. The pulsing from the primary coil has the effect
of pushing a child in a swing. If it's done in a rhythmic manner at just the right moment at the end of a cycle, the swing
will oscillate up to great heights. Similarly, with the right timing, the electrical vibration of the secondary can be made
to swing up to tremendous amplitudes, voltages in the millions. This is the power of resonance.
Manmade earthquake
Tesla was fascinated with the power of resonance and experimented with it not only electrically
but on the mechanical plane as well. In his Manhattan lab he built mechanical vibrators and tested their powers. One experiment
got out of hand.
Tesla attached a powerful little vibrator driven by compressed air to a steel pillar. Leaving
it there, he went about his business. Meanwhile, down the street, a violent quaking built up, shaking down plaster, bursting
plumbing, cracking widows, and breaking heavy machinery off its anchorage. Tesla's vibrator had found the resonant frequency
of a deep sandy layer of subsoil beneath his building, setting up an earthquake.
Soon Tesla's own building began to quake, and, just at the moment the police burst into the lab,
Tesla was seen smashing the device with a sledgehammer, the only way he could promptly stop it. In a similar experiment, on
an evening walk through the city, Tesla attached a battery-powered vibrator, described as being the size of an alarm clock,
to the steel framework of a building under construction and, adjusting it to a suitable frequency, set the structure into
resonant vibration. The structure shook, and so did the earth under his feet.
Later Tesla boasted that he could shake down the Empire State Building with such a device, and,
as if this claim were not extravagant enough, he went on to state that a large-scale resonant vibration was capable of splitting
the Earth in half. No details of Tesla's vibrators are available, but they probably resembled one of Tesla's reciprocating
engines (such as Patent No. 511,916). These exploited the elasticity of gases, just as his electrical vibrators, like the
Tesla coil, exploit the elasticity of the electric medium.
A new power system
Tesla invented his resonant transformer, as the Tesla coil is sometimes called, to power a new
type of high-frequency lighting system, as his 1891 patent drawing shows. This was the first Tesla coil patent. There followed
a series of other patents developing the device. All of these are for bipolar coils: both ends of the secondary are connected
to the working circuit (usually lamps), as opposed to the mono polar format favored by today's basement builders in which
the top is connected to a ball or other terminal capacitor, the bottom to ground. The mono polar format emerges later in patents
for radio and wireless power, including Tesla's magnifying transmitter.
The 1896 patent drawing shows an evolved bipolar coil using tandem chokes to store energy for
sudden release into the capacitor, enabling the device to be powered by relatively modest inputs. Chokes are coils wound on
iron cores. They store energy as magnetism. When the charging current is interrupted, the magnetic field collapses inducing
current in the coils, which rushes in to charge the capacitors.
Superconductivity
Alternating currents can be sent over long distances with relatively low losses. This is why Tesla's
early 60-cycle system triumphed over Edison's direct current. The high frequency, high-potential output of a Tesla coil can
travel over relatively light conductors for vastly greater distances than conventional 60-cycle AC Losses occur to some degree
from corona discharge but hardly at all from ohmic resistance. This type of current also renders conductive materials that
are normally nonconductive, rarefied gases, for example. You might say these currents make a medium superconductive.
Although super-magnetism is not in the picture because high-frequency vibrations would be severely
damped by an electromagnet's iron core, it is revealing to reflect upon the unexploited superconductivity of Tesla energy
these days when science is congratulating itself on new advances in the field. Prior to recent breakthroughs, superconductivity
and super magnetism were low-temperature (cryogenic) phenomena, occurring when circuits were cooled down to near absolute
zero. The new superconductivity at less drastically reduced temperatures developed out of the cryogenic work of the last twenty
years, and this may be in debt to Tesla, who patented a similar idea way back in 1901.
Tesla's patent shows that the deep cooling of conductors with agents like liquid air results in
an extraordinary magnification of the oscillation in the resonating circuit. Imagine the performance of a super cooled Tesla
coil. No electrocution. Since we tend to associate high voltage with possibly fatal electric shock it may be puzzling to learn
that the output of a well-tuned Tesla coil, though in the millions of volts, is harmless. This is customarily thought to be
because the amperage is low (it's not) or it's explained in terms of something called the skin effect, which means that the
current travels over you instead of through. But the real reason is a matter of human frequency response. Just as your ears
cannot respond to vibrations over about 30,000 cycles, or the eyes to light vibrations at or above ultra violet, your nervous
system cannot be shocked by frequencies over about 2,000 cycles.
Electrotherapy
Now that you know it's harmless, would you believe these currents are even good for you? Fact
is that a whole branch of medicine was founded on the healing effects of certain Tesla coil frequencies. Tesla understood
the therapeutic value of high-frequency vibrations. He never patented in the area but did announce his findings to the medical
community, and a number of devices were patented and marketed by others.
Patients, by focusing certain frequencies on afflicted areas, or, in some cases, just sitting
in the vicinity of vibrations from a device like the Lakhovsky Multi wave Oscillator, which produced a blend of specific frequencies,
were said to have experienced relief from rheumatism and other painful conditions. It was even considered a cure for certain
types of paralysis. Such radiation's increase the supply of blood to the area with a warming effect (diathermy). They enhance
the oxygenation and nutritive value of the blood, increase various secretions, and accelerate the elimination of waste products
in the blood. All this promotes healing. Electrotherapists even spoke of broadcasting vitamins to the body. Reversals of cancer
tumor growths have been documented. Lakhovsky predicated science will discover, some day, not only the nature of microbes
by the radiation they produce, but also a method of killing disease within the body by radiation.
Electrotherapy devices were sold directly to the public via ads in popular magazines and in the
Sears catalogs. Self-treatment was widespread. This easy access to treatment of all sorts of conditions led to the eventual
suppression of the technology by the medical establishment. Electrotherapy, however, is making a big comeback. In chiropractic
and sports medicine, low-frequency AC and DC pulses are being used to kill pain and exercise muscles. High-frequency electrotherapy
is coming back in alternative healing practices. There is an increasing appreciation of the electrical nature of biological
functioning and that some electric vibrations in the environment are harmful while others are healing. Reprints of Lakhovsky's
works are widely read. There is a growing conviction that cancer can be effectively treated with high-frequency therapies.
In his experimenting over an eight-year period, Tesla made no fewer than 50 types of oscillating
coils. He experimented with lighting and other vacuum effects, including x-rays. He also experimented with novel shapes for
the normally cylindrical coils, getting satisfying results from cone shapes and flat spirals. At Colorado Springs Tesla achieved
phenomenally increased outputs by using a third coil resonantly tuned to the secondary. Observing the tremendous magnification
this achieved, he gave much of his attention to integrating this extra coil, as he called it, into an evolved outsize tesla
coil called the magnifying transmitter.
4. Magnifying Transmitters; Wireless Power
In 1893 Tesla told a meeting of the National Electric Light Association that he believed it practical
to disturb, by means of powerful machines, the electrostatic conditions of the earth, and thus transmit intelligible signals,
and, perhaps, power. He said, It could not require a great amount of energy to produce a disturbance perceptible at a great
distance, or even all over the surface of the earth. The ultimate powerful machine for these tasks is Tesla's magnifying transmitter.
How it works
An extra coil gives the resonant boost of a Tesla coil secondary but has the advantage of being
more independent in its movement. A secondary, being closely slaved to the primary, is inhibited somewhat by it, its oscillations
slightly damped. The extra coil is able to swing more freely. Extra coils, writes Tesla, enable the obtainment of practically
any EMF, the limits being so far remote that I would not hesitate to produce sparks of thousands of feet in this manner.
The engineering challenge of the magnifying transmitter, then, becomes one of containing and properly
radiating its immense electrical activities, measured in the tens and even hundreds of thousands of horsepower, as Tesla put
it. Containment and effective radiation of this power is the whole point of the design shown, for which Tesla applied for
patent in 1902. The heavy primary is wound on top of the secondary at the base of the tower. The extra coil extends upward
through a hooded connection to a conductive cylinder.
The antenna is a toroid, a donut-shaped geometry that allows for a maximum of surface area with
a comparative minimum of electrical capacity. Since this is a high-frequency device, a relatively low capacity is desirable.
To increase the area of the radiating surface, the outside of the toroid is covered with half-spherical metal plates. A subtlety
of the design is that the conductive cylinder is of larger radius than the radius of curvature of these plates, since a tighter
curve would allow escape of energy. The cylinder is polished to minimize losses through irregularities in the surface. At
the center of the top surface sits a pointy plate that serves as a safety valve for overloads so the powerful discharge may
dart out there and lose itself harmlessly in the air.
Tesla advises bringing the power up slowly and carefully so pressure does not build at some point
below the antenna, in which case a ball of fire might break out and destroy the support or anything else in the way, an event
that may take place with inconceivable violence. Current in the antenna could build to an incredible 4000 amperes.
A.C. / D.C.
Wireless power transmission via the magnifying transmitter was the ultimate development of the
inventor who had earlier brought alternating-current power to the world with his poly phase system. The predecessor of A.C.
was a direct-current system developed, manufactured, and marketed chiefly by Thomas Edison. Direct current was adequate for
serving small areas but was unworkable for long distance transmission. By contrast, A.C. could be transmitted for long distances
over lighter wires and its voltage could be stepped up for transmission and down for consumption by means of transformers.
Tesla invented from scratch a new kind of motor (poly phase) that could utilize A.C., and he greatly evolved earlier concepts
of dynamos to generate A.C. as well as transformers to step voltage up and down. Whereas Edison's D.C. would have been suitable
for a society of small, autonomous communities, the evolving system of industrial rule wanted centralized power and needed
A.C.'s long distance capability to serve huge sprawling populations.
George Westinghouse, an inventor (the air brake) who, like Edison, turned industrialist (having
found that to profit from an invention one must undertake manufacturing and marketing as well) saw the promise in Tesla's
poly phase inventions and formed an alliance with the young prodigy. Westinghouse paid Tesla one million dollars and contracted
to pay a royalty of one dollar per horsepower for the poly phase inventions. Later Westinghouse was forced to renege on the
royalty.
Together, Westinghouse and Tesla triumphed over Edison's D.C. system and installed the first A.C.
power facilities, the most notable being the hydra plant at Niagara Falls. Tesla believed in hydropower. His ultimate energy-magnifying,
wireless power system would have been hydro-based. The centralized A.C. electric power system we have today was forced into
existence on a colossal scale by utility magnates of that era, the most prominent being Samuel Insull, who became infamous
in some circles for his massive bilking of the investing public and famous in others for hammering together the electric power
complex now in place. This complex has developed into a federally protected monopoly with greater capital wealth than any
other industry in the U. S. In the order of energy sources used, Tesla's hydropower has been left well behind the burning
of fossil fuels, a process that dumps 24 million tons of pollutants into the nation's air supply each year.
Hydropower even runs way behind the nukes in kilowatt-hours produced. So went another Tesla dream.
Tesla was a celebrity in his poly phase heyday, but today his celebrity is as an underground cult figure known for his radically
progressive energy-magnifying, free-energy, and wireless power inventions, which, of course, have no place in the established
system.
Power by wire
Prior to his wireless power inventions, Tesla patented in 1897 a high frequency system that transmitted
power by wire. The system used previously unheard of levels of electric potential. He notes that at these voltages, conventional
power would destroy the equipment, but that his system not only contains this energy but is harmless to handle while in use.
This system is not a circuit in the usual sense but a single wire without return. It employs the familiar Tesla coil configurations
at both sending and receiving ends. The primary circuit (power source, capacitor, spark gap) is represented in the drawing
by the generator symbol. The secondary coil is a flat spiral. An advantage in this coil design is that the voltage adjacent
to the primary, where arcing across could occur, is at zero and soars to high values as the coil spirals inward. The same
patent also shows a cone-shaped secondary in which the primary is at the base of the cone, which is at zero potential.
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 was 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.
5. Magnifying Transmitter II ; Grounded Radio:
With the backing of J. P. Morgan, Tesla began, soon after returning from Colorado Springs, the
construction of a magnifying transmitter tower at Wardenclyffe, near Shoreham, Long Island. Though closely related to a wireless
power propagator and intended for further experimentation in that area, the tower was built specifically as the first station
in Tesla's proposed World System of broadcasting. The system was to carry programming for the general public as well as private
communications.
Tesla was the first to suggest the broadcasting of news and entertainment to the public; only
point-to-point signaling had been experimented with up to then. The fully realized World System was to serve as a multi-frequency
wireless interconnects for all existing telephone, telegraph, and stock ticker services around the planet. Exclusivity and
noninterference of priority private communications was to be assured by multiplex techniques. The giant transmitter was also
to carry a universal time register, navigation beacons, and facsimile transmissions. This was in 1902. As we shall see, Tesla's
massive contribution to radio is still largely unrecognized.
The Wardenclyffe tower's rugged wooden structure, designed by Stanford White, stood at 187 feet.
It was topped by a mushroom-like terminal 68 feet in diameter. A separate brick building at the foot housed generating and
other equipment. The entire project was to cover 200 acres and include housing for 2,000 employees of the facility. Tesla
estimated that the tower would emit a wave complex of a total maximum activity of 10 million horsepower. The top of the tower
was outfitted with a platform that may have been intended to accommodate powerful ultraviolet lamps, which Tesla could have
used for an experimental beam system of electric power transmission that was on his mind. The tower structure and building
beneath were built and partially equipped, but they never saw operation.
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 baseband 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.
Tesla; the Father of Radio?
As we have seen, Tesla's earliest oscillators were dynamos, but, having determined that he could
not reach the higher frequencies by this means, he went on to develop the spark gap oscillator, the Tesla coil, and the magnifying
transmitter. But did any of these devices become the first to be used for overseas radio transmission? No, ironically, the
first commercial overseas transmitter was a 21.8 kilocycle GE Alexanderson alternator operated by RCA, a design evolved straight
out of Tesla's early dynamos. Such was Tesla's luck in radio.
Official histories often credit Tesla with the poly phase system and either ignore his later inventions
altogether or dismiss them as the work of. a crackpot. But among those who have published honest research on the subject,
there is one hundred percent consensus that Tesla was cheated out of his rightful place in history, particularly his status
as the leading inventor of radio technology.
Radio simplified
Early radio devices are fascinating and worthy of study if only because they remind us that powerful
radio technologies can be so simple and accessible to anyone, the present-day micro complexity notwithstanding. As we have
seen, the earliest transmitters in wide use by amateurs were not alternators but spark-gap oscillators. To get on the air
all you needed was a battery, a telegraph key, an induction coil, a spark gap, a length of wire as an antenna, and a ground.
Of course, the addition of a capacitor juiced it up considerably.
The very earliest experiments in radio receiving used spark gaps as receivers. When you saw an
arc across the gap, this was the detection of a disturbance in the medium. This evolved into a detector called a coherer.
This is just a horizontal glass tube loosely filled with metal chips (iron, nickel). It is placed in series with a battery
and a telegraph sounder, and one side of the coherer goes to the antenna, the other to ground.
The coherer is a switch (a semiconductor, really) that conducts when there is a disturbance of
the medium. The more easily conducted radio-frequency energy triggers conduction of this almost conductive material. To get
the coherer back to a non conducting state requires a tap that can be accomplished manually or by mechanical linkage to the
telegraph sounder. Tesla comes into the technology about here. He improves the coherer by putting it into continual rotation
(rotating coherer) so it didn't need a tap to reset.
Tuned radio
The spark gap transmitter was indiscriminate as to the frequency of the disturbance. It put out
a dirty complex of frequencies consisting of a rough fundamental determined by width of gap, together with parasitic oscillations,
harmonics splatter what-have-you. The coherer was set off by any disturbance. In Colorado Springs, Tesla used a rotating coherer
to track electrical storms. The celebrated Marconi units employed nothing more evolved than this crash method of signaling.
So why is Marconi so famous? It is because, like Edison and Westinghouse, he built up an industry
around the invention and made himself famous in the course of promoting his enterprise. Marconi's company was ultimately incorporated
into RCA (now incorporated into General Electric). It owed much of its technological development to ideas lifted from the
likes of Tesla. Tesla's contribution was nothing less than selective tuning. He set forth the principle of resonantly tuned
circuits in his Tesla coil patent of 1896, and the principles of transmitter-receiver tuned circuits a year later in his wireless
power patent.
The Tesla coil is a powerful and simple radio transmitter. If the primary circuit is smoothly
vibrating well above the audio range, its signal can even be modulated for voice transmission by varying some circuit element.
Tesla's few published notes on modulation describe crude ways of varying spark gaps, but, conceivably,
an inductance core mechanically linked to a loudspeaker transducer might modulate the signal with some fidelity. Tesla and
his supporters waged a fight for recognition of Tesla as the founder of radio. The struggle was finally won in the Supreme
Court, but this did not happen until shortly after Tesla's death.
Tesla vs. Hertz
Tesla was not a theoretician by calling, but he made plenty of observations on the electrical
nature of the universe that put him at odds with of official theory. In fashion then (and even now) was the theory of Heinrich
Hertz, an interpreter of the physics of James Maxwell. Hertz explained radio propagation as transverse waves akin to light.
Tesla was convinced that radio disturbances were standing waves in the ether akin to sound. When you drop a pebble into water,
the disturbances you see in the form of concentric circles are standing waves.
Both Tesla and Hertz assumed the existence of an aetheric medium, but differed as to its energy
transmitting properties. Tesla believed that the ether was a gas like medium, that electric propagation was very much like
that of sounds in air, alternate compression's and rarefaction's of the medium, and that Hertzian waves could only take place
in a solid medium. Tesla once said that Hertz waves are radiation and that no energy could be economically transmitted to
a distance by any such agency. He said, In my system, the process is one of true conduction which can be effected at the greatest
distance without appreciable loss.
When quantum physics and particle theory came into vogue, the aetheric medium was dropped out
of electric theory altogether, but Hertz's theory was more compatible with the new concepts of propagation and therefore survived.
By way of rubbing this in, the unit of frequency, formerly cycles per second (cps), was renamed in honor of Hertz (Hz), while
only an obscure unit of magnetic flux density remembers Tesla. It is in respect to Tesla that I have reverted to the old unit
in this book. Hertzian radio is straight-line, light-like radiation's that bounce off hills and mountains. Long distance Hertzian
transmissions are explained in terms of radiation's bouncing off a radio reflective upper layer called the ionosphere. Tesla
thought this was all nonsense and declared in 1919 that Hertzian thinking has stifled creative effort in the wireless art
and retarded it for 25 years. Hertzian radio is aerial.
Most of us are conditioned to thinking in terms of aerial radio; the air waves, on the air. Tesla's
radio is grounded; the lower end of the energized coil is rooted in the earth. Pure Hertzian radio has no such natural load.
Tesla doesn't speak of antennas as such; the element he places aloft is an elevated capacity. Tesla said radio devices should
be designed with due regard to the physical properties of this planet and the electrical conditions obtaining in same. Grounded
radio is indeed more powerful than the Hertzian aerial. But this is true particularly for the frequencies Tesla was using.
The higher frequencies do behave in a Hertzian manner. Yet grounding is all but a lost concept in consumer electronics. Up
through the 1940's, AM radio receivers customarily had a terminal one was encouraged to connect to a cold water pipe or other
deep earth connection. Ground the chassis of any of today's receivers, and, unless there is some kind of interference coming
up through the ground (from fluorescent circuits, light dimmers, which are oscillators, or from the local Tesla coil), you
will usually improve signal strength and range.
Among Tesla's contributions to radio was remote control. Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled
boat before crowds at Madison Square Gardens and sent another robot craft 25 miles up the Hudson River. Grounded radio works
particularly well through water. Tesla's basic radio tuning tank circuit for receiving (coil plus capacitor between antenna
and ground) was, and is, all by itself, a powerful signal amplifier, and a beautifully simple one, at that. But as radio developed
over the years, the tank circuit shrank in size and the result was a loss in gain. This was compensated for by the addition
of stage upon stage of complex amplification circuitry.
Tesla watched this development with bewilderment. Tesla knew that the most efficient long-distance
radio took place in the lower frequencies, especially those close to the earth-resonant frequency. Frequencies well below
the AM broadcast band were the favored ham frequencies in the early days prior to World War I. In fact, waves of 600 meters
(500 kc) were considered short while considered fairly long were the waves of 1200 meters (25 kc). Like a lot of good real
estate, many of these more radio-effective frequencies below the AM broadcast band have been appropriated for military use,
but also for navigation beacons, weather stations, and time registers.
Underground radio
The mind conditioned by Hertzian aerial radio concepts has trouble grasping the idea that signaling
can take place without any above-surface antenna, totally through the ground. James Harris Rogers, taking a cue from Tesla,
circa World War I, built a radio system in which both sending and receiving antennas were sunk completely into the ground
or submerged in bodies of water. He found this system far more effective and far less vulnerable to interference than any
aerial radio Signal strength has been said to be 5,000 times stronger
The military is on to this, as evidenced in the Navy's ELF and by a U. S. Air Force project underway
called Ground Wave Emergency Network. GWEN is a low-frequency communications system designed for used during a nuclear war.
The network will have a cross-continent series of 600-foot diameter underground copper screens connected to 300-foot towers
reminiscent of Tesla's Wardenclyffe.
Among the advantages of the system is its invulnerability to the effects of the electric pulse
sent out by nuclear blasts. Such a pulse fries at one stroke any and all solid-state electronics within its extensive range.
(Strong electric vibrations from a Tesla coil or magnifying transmitter have a similar effect on solid state and will scramble
or disable such circuitry temporarily or even dud it permanently.) It's revealing that for last-ditch doomsday communications,
the government reverts to Tesla's grounded radio.
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.
6. Lighting
In 1891 Tesla said that existing methods of lighting were very wasteful, that some better methods
must be invented, some more perfect apparatus devised. Tesla went and did just that. Yet, here we are today, in a world lit
predominantly by the same Edison bulb! Edison's bulb burns with six percent efficiency, the rest going off as heat, while
the high resistance filament cooks at 4,000 degrees and eventually breaks without warning. Today's fluorescent tube, though
inspired by Tesla, is no model of efficiency either.
Its inner surfaces are stimulated to phosphorescence by energy-consuming filament-like cathodes
that also burn out, and the lit-up tube would present a dead short to the current if it were not for the so-called ballast
transformer, an inductance placed in the circuit to oppose and thus eat up yet more current. What sent Tesla into an exploration
of high frequency phenomena was his conviction that these rapid vibrations held the key to a superior mode of lighting. The
explorations were not Tesla's first venture into lighting. His very first U. S. patent (1885) is for an improvement in the
arc lamp. He used an electromagnet to feed carbons to the arc at a uniform rate to produce a steadier light (No. 335,785).
Early arc lamps produced a brilliant blue-white light, good for street lighting but not for the
home, and they emitted noxious fumes. Home lighting was by gas. Street arc lighting used series circuits. Edison introduced
the parallel circuit, and designed his lamp for such a circuit. Edison introduced the big scale production and sale of electric
power itself on the model of gas lighting, a major industry at the time. He wanted to be first in the business and announced
to the press that he had an operable bulb before he actually had a bulb that worked. When Tesla's a.c. system was established,
it was grafted on to Edison's, greatly extending its range and efficiency. But, essentially, it was still Edison's parallel
circuit, high consumption, incandescent lighting system, and this is what we have to live with today.
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.
"Pure" light
Tesla invented a variety of lamps, not all of which show up in his patents. He lit up solid bodies
like carbon rods in vacuum bulbs, or in bulbs containing various inert gases at low pressure (rarefied). He noted that tubes
devoid of any electrodes may be used, and there is no difficulty in producing by their means light to read by. But he noted
that the effect is considerably increased by the use of phosphorescent bodies, such as yttrium, uranium glass, etc. Here Tesla
lays the foundation for fluorescent lighting. Applied to such lamps were currents at potentials ranging from a lower limit
of 20,000 volts up to voltages in the millions and vibrations of 15,000 cycles per second and up.
Tesla dreamed of creating what he called pure light or cold light by generating electric vibrations
at frequencies that equaled those of visible light itself. Light produced by this direct and efficient means would require
vibrations of 350 to 750 billion cycles, but Tesla believed such oscillations, far above those attainable by his coils, would
someday be achieved. Even so, his rarefied gas-tube lamps produced a light that more closely approximated natural daylight
than any other artificial source Tesla's light is like the full-spectrum light that is coming to be recognized as far more
healthful than Edison incandescent and particularly more healthful than conventional fluorescent. Full-spectrum lighting is
believed by some health practitioners actually to have healing properties.
No sudden burnout
Tesla's gas tube lamps burn indefinitely, as do today's neon tubes, for there is nothing within
to be consumed. Tesla's lamps that contain electrodes like carbon rods, however, do undergo some deterioration. In Tesla's
words, a very slow destruction and gradual diminution in size always occurs, as in incandescent filaments; but there is no
possibility of sudden and premature disabling which occurs in the latter by the breaking of the filament, especially when
incandescent bodies are in the shape of blocks. In vacuum lamps, the life of the bulb depends upon the degree of exhaustion,
which can never be made perfect. Also, the higher the frequency applied to such a lamp the slower the deterioration. Electrodes
glow at high temperatures, and this raises the problem of how to conduct energy to them since wires or other metallic elements
will melt. The problem must be addressed in lamp design. For example, in the incandescent lamp shown at the opening of this
chapter, the lead-in wires connect to the hot electrodes via bronze powder contained in a refractory cup. Tesla may have designed
his capacitor-base bulbs to help address this same problem.
High heat
Tesla's search for the ideal electrode is reminiscent of Edison's search for the long lasting
filament: The production of a small electrode capable of withstanding enormous temperatures, said Tesla, � regard as the
greatest importance in the manufacture of light. One of the electrodes he tried was a small button of carbon, which he placed
in a near vacuum. Tesla regarded the high incandescence of the button to be a necessary evil. For lighting purposes, it was
the incandescence of the gas remaining in the mostly evacuated chamber that was important. But the carbon-button lamp proved
to have some remarkable properties beyond its use for illumination. When the voltage was turned up, the lamp produced such
tremendous heat that the carbon button rapidly vaporized. Tesla experimented extensively with this fascinating phenomenon.
For the button of carbon he substituted zirconium, the most refractory substance available at the time. It fused instantly.
Even rubies vaporized. Diamonds, and, to a greater degree, carborundum, endured the best, but these could also be vaporized
at high potentials.
Tesla worked on the problem of heating. I have read that he contributed to the development of
a high-frequency induction heating. Did Tesla work on the problem of space heating? Certainly the huge current draw of conventional
electric heaters, which use resistive elements, argues for some inventiveness in this area. Tesla did observe that the discharges
from a tesla coil resembled flames escaping under pressure and were indeed hot. He reflected that a similar process must take
place in the ordinary flame, that this might be an electric phenomenon. He said that electric discharges might be a possible
way of producing by other than chemical means a veritable flame which would give light and heat without material consumed.
The behavior of the carbon-button lamp suggests that a new heating mode might be found in the effects of high-frequency currents
in a vacuum.
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.
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, an 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.
7. Transportation
Tesla speculated, that, perhaps the most valuable application of wireless energy, will be the
propulsion of the flying machine, which will carry no fuel and be free from any limitations of the present airplanes and dirigibles.
The possibility of electric flight intrigued Tesla, though he never did patent an electric aircraft. But he did patent an
electric railway using his high frequency, high-potential electricity in a by-wire mode, and also patented a radical aircraft
that, while not electric, did have an advanced power plant: his disk turbine. Tesla's railway and aircraft can be numbered
among the lost inventions. The closest transport technology has come to putting any of Tesla into actual practice is with
diesel-electric power using Tesla poly phase motors, an early and notable example of which was the ocean liner Normandy. In
the field of transport, Tesla is more commonly identified with antigravity flight and UFOs. Although this identification is
based upon nothing more than a few public utterances, his suggestions charge the imagination with possibilities.
High-frequency railway
Tesla's high-frequency, high-potential railway picks up its power inductively without the use
of the rolling or sliding contacts used in conventional trolley or third-rail systems. A pickup bar travels near a cable carrying
the oscillating energy. This cable, which Tesla specifically invented to carry such currents, is the precursor of the grounded
shielded cable used today to carry TV and other high-frequency signals. But unlike today's cables, which carry energy only
of signal strength and shield by means of a continuous grounded static screen of fine braided copper wire, Tesla's high voltage
cable uses metal pipe or screen that is broken up into short lengths, very much shorter, says Tesla in his patent, than the
wave lengths of the current used. This feature reduces loss. Since the shielding must not be interrupted, the short sections
are made to overlap but are insulated from one another. To further reduce loss to ground, an inductance of high ohmic resistance
or a small capacity is placed in the ground line.
Motor mystery
A conundrum raised by Tesla's railway patent is that the vehicle is powered by an electric motor,
but nowhere among Tesla's inventions is to be found an electric motor that runs off of high-frequency currents. Was Tesla
planning to use a lower frequency here, something under 1,000 cycles? Did he have a converter in mind that could bring the
frequency down? Or did Tesla invent a high-frequency motor that never made it into patent, an invention that may be among
his unpublished notes? Anyway, Tesla proceeds in many of his discussions of high-frequency power as if this problem were solved.
I've seen references post-Tesla to the existence of such a motor. Free-energy inventor, Hermann Plauson, (next chapter) refers
to high-frequency motors. These motors have magnetic cores made of very thin laminations insulated from each other, a design
that would limit damping effects.
Turbine aircraft
Tesla's only patented aircraft is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plane that he intended
as an improvement upon the helicopter, already invented at this time (1921): The helicopter type of flying machine, especially
with large inclination angle of the propeller axis to the horizontal, at which it is generally expected to operate, is quite
unsuitable for speedy aerial transport; it is incapable of proceeding horizontally along a straight line under prevailing
air conditions; it is subject to dangerous plunges and oscillations ... and it is almost certainly doomed to destruction in
case the motive power gives out. Advances in helicopter design may have mitigated some of these problems, but at least the
last one still holds true: Tesla's craft, which has a large wing area, is powered by two disk turbines, rotating in opposite
directions. The engineering problem of swinging the pilot and passengers around 90 degrees after takeoff, is solved at least
to Tesla's satisfaction. There have been some experimental VTOL's but nothing in production.
Electric flight
Tesla's dream electric aircraft would be powered by means of magnifying transmitters: Aerial machines
will be propelled around the earth without a stop. Also, in 1900, he predicted a cold coal battery with such output that a
practical flying machine would be possible. Such a battery also would enormously enhance the introduction of the automobile.
Tesla fantasized a personal aerial taxi which could be folded into a six-foot cube, and would weigh under 250 lb.: It can
be run through the streets and put in a garage, if desired, just like an automobile.
Explaining how his earth-resonant wireless-power system could energize vehicles aloft, he said,
power can be readily supplied without ground connection, for, although the flow is confined to earth, an electromagnetic field
is created in the atmosphere surrounding it. Tesla believed such a system to be the ultimate method of man-made flight: With
an industrial plant of great capacity, sufficient power can be derived in this manner to propel any kind of aerial machine.
This I have always considered the best and permanent solution to the problems of flight. No fuel of any kind will be required
as the propulsion will be accomplished by light electric motors operated at great speed.
Antigravity
Tesla wrote in 1900 of an antigravity motor: Imagine a disk of some homogeneous material turned
perfectly true and arranged to turn in friction less bearings on a horizontal shaft above the ground. Now, it is possible
that we may learn how to make such a disk rotate continuously and perform work by the force of gravity. To do so, he said,
we have only to invent a screen against this force. By such a screen we could prevent this force from acting on one-half of
the disk, and rotation of the latter would follow.
Does it not follow then, that such a gravity screen could also be used to levitate a vehicle?
Tesla held no patent on such a device or on any other antigravity device, and there are no published notes on experimentation
in the area. Nevertheless, Tesla inevitably pops up in the literature of antigravity and UFOs. This may be because Tesla was
a prominent exponent of a physics in which antigravity seems more feasible because gravity is better explained.
A researcher-theorist of today, Thomas Bearden, allows for gravity control in the physics he calls
the new Tesla electromagnetic. Scalar (standing) waves in time itself can be produced electrically and this becomes a magic
tool capable of directly affecting and altering anything that exists in time, including gravitational fields, says Bearden.
In 1931 the editor of Science And Mechanics, Hugo Gernsback reported, It is believed by many scientists today that the force
of gravitation is merely another manifestation of electromagnetic waves. Edward Farrow, a New York inventor, reported in 1911
an antigravity effect produced by a ring of spark gaps. When the gaps were fired, the device, called a condensing dynamo,
lost one-sixth of its weight. T. Henry Moray wrote, Frequencies may be developed which will balance the force of gravity to
a point of neutralization. Antigravity researcher Richard Lefors Clark places the frequency of gravity's vibrations right
at Nature's neutral center in the radiant energy spectrum, above radar and below infrared, at l012 cycles per second.
8. Free-Energy Receiver
For starters, think of this as a solar-electric panel. Tesla's invention is very different, but
the closest thing to it in conventional technology is in photovoltaic. One radical difference is that conventional solar-electric
panels consist of a substrate coated with crystalline silicon; the latest use amorphous silicon. Conventional solar panels
are expensive, and, whatever the coating, they are manufactured by esoteric processes. But Tesla's solar panel is just a shiny
metal plate with a transparent coating of some insulating material, which today could be a spray plastic. Stick one of these
antenna-like panels up in the air, the higher the better, and wire it to one side of a capacitor, the other going to a good
earth ground. Now the energy from the sun is charging that capacitor. Connect across the capacitor some sort of switching
device so that it can be discharged arrhythmic intervals, and you have an electric output. Tesla's patent is telling us that
it is that simple to get electric energy. The bigger the area of the insulated plate, the more energy you get. But this is
more than a solar panel because it does not necessarily need sunshine to operate. It also produces power at night Of course;
this is impossible according to official science.
For this reason, you could not get a patent on such an invention today. Many an inventor has learned
this the hard way. Tesla had his problems with the patent examiners, but today's free-energy inventor has it much tougher.
Tesla's free-energy receiver was patented in 1901 as An Apparatus for the Utilization of Radiant Energy. The patent refers
to the sun, as well as other sources of radiant energy, like cosmic rays. That the device works at night is explained in terms
of the nighttime availability of cosmic rays.
Tesla also refers to the ground as a vast reservoir of negative electricity. Tesla was fascinated
by radiant energy and its free-energy possibilities. He called the Crooke's radiometer (a device which has vanes that spin
in a vacuum when exposed to radiant energy) a beautiful invention. He believed that it would become possible to harness energy
directly by connecting to the very wheelwork of nature. His free-energy receiver is as close as he ever came to such a device
in his patented work. But on his 76th birthday at the ritual press conference, Tesla (who was without the financial
wherewithal to patent but went on inventing in his head) announced a cosmic-ray motor. When asked if it was more powerful
than the Crooke's radiometer, he answered, thousands of times more powerful.
how it works
From the electric potential that exists between the elevated plate (plus) and the ground (minus),
energy builds in the capacitor, and, after a suitable time interval, the accumulated energy will manifest itself in a powerful
discharge which can do work. The capacitor, says Tesla should be of considerable electrostatic capacity and its dielectric
made of the best quality mica, for it has to with stand potentials that could rupture a weaker dielectric.
Tesla gives various options for the switching device. One is a rotary switch that resembles a
Tesla circuit controller. Another is an electrostatic device consisting of two very light, membranous conductors suspended
in a vacuum. These sense the energy buildup in the capacitor, one going positive, the other negative, and, at a certain charge
level, are attracted, touch, and thus fire the capacitor. Tesla also mentions another switching device consisting of a minute
air gap or weak dielectric film, which breaks down suddenly when a certain potential is reached. The above is about all the
technical detail you get in the patent.
Plauson's converter
Tesla's invention may have helped to inspire the many other inventors who have worked in the field
of free energy. At least a dozen are on record. Let's look at one in particular. In 1921 Hermann Plauson, a German experimenter,
succeeded in obtaining patents, including one in the U. S., for Conversion of Atmospheric Electric Energy. In school, every
introduction to electricity touches on the phenomenon of so-called static (or electrostatic) electricity, and this is what
Plauson means by atmospheric. Static electricity is built-up charge, electricity in a raw state, and it comes easy in Nature,
as evidenced by lightning and the aurora borealis.
If you have ever seen a frictional static machine in operation, it's not difficult to imagine
the tremendous potential in artificially produced static. A rotating disk type of static machine or the silk belt type, as
in the Van de Graff generator, produces discharges like those from a tesla coil. Unfortunately, in school, the subject of
static electricity is briefly touched upon and then abruptly dropped, never to be mentioned again. Electrical power sources
thereafter are limited to the battery or the wall socket.
How it works
In the Plauson drawing the free energy converter on the left interfaces with a disk type static
machine via special pick up combs. When the static collecting disk is rotated, the combs pick up the charge, one comb going
positive, and the other negative. The combs, in turn, charge up their respective capacitors until sufficiently high potential
builds to jump the spark gap. The oscillatory discharge is induced into the transformer primary. This is high-voltage, high
frequency electric energy. The familiar spark-gap oscillator has turned charge into dynamic energy.
The transformer steps down the vibrating high voltage to practical levels to power lighting, heating,
and special high-frequency motors. The Plauson patent drawing shows a device that works on the same principle but collects
energy by means of an antenna, as does Tesla's receiver. Since the higher the antenna the better, and the more area the better,
Plauson favors big metallic helium balloons. Plauson says the safety gap, which has three times the resistance of the working
gap, is absolutely necessary for collecting large quantities of charge. The capacitors across the gaps in the series safety
gap allow for uniform sparking. Plauson's device suggests that Tesla's might be explained in terms of electrostatics.
Tesla, at the press conference honoring his 77th birthday in 1933 declared that electric
power was everywhere present in unlimited quantities and could drive the worlds machinery without the need of coal, oil, gas,
or any other fuels. A reporter asked if the sudden introduction of his principle wouldn't upset the present economic system...
Tesla replied, "It is badly upset already."
END
[ Nikola Tesla On His Work With Alternating Currents ]
[Nikola Tesla's Radiant Energy System ]
[Nikola Tesla's Earthquake Machine! ]
[ Famous Quotes from Nikola Tesla ]
[Tesla's Technology Today ]
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