“While I was perfectly convinced, from the outset, that success would be ultimately achieved, it was not until by slow improvement I evolved the so-called “Magnifying Transmitter” that I obtained convincing evidence of the feasibility of wireless power transmission on a vast scale for all industrial purposes.
"The chief discovery, which satisfied me thoroughly as to the practicability of my plan, was made in 1899 at Colorado Springs, where I carried on tests with a generator of fifteen hundred kilowatt capacity and ascertained that under certain conditions the current was capable of passing across the entire globe and returning from the antipodes to its origin with undiminished strength. It was a result so unbelievable that the revelation at first almost stunned me. I saw in a flash that by properly organized apparatus at sending and receiving stations, power virtually in unlimited amounts could be conveyed through the earth at any distance, limited only by the physical dimensions of the globe, with an efficiency as high as ninety-nine and one-half per cent.
The mode of propagation of the currents from my transmitter through the terrestrial globe is most extraordinary considering the spread of the electrification of the surface. The wave starts with a theoretically infinite speed, slowing down first very quickly and afterward at a lesser rate until the distance is about six thousand miles, when it proceeds with the speed of light. From there on it again increases in speed, slowly at first, and then more rapidly, reaching the antipode with approximately infinite velocity. The law of motion can be expressed by stating that the waves on the terrestrial surface sweep in equal intervals of time over equal areas, but it must be understood that the current penetrates deep into the earth and the effects produced on the receivers are the same as if the whole flow was confined to the earth’s axis joining the transmitter with the antipode. The mean surface speed is thus about 471,200 kilometers per second — fifty-seven per cent. greater than that of the so-called Hertz waves — which should propagate with the velocity of light if they exist. The same constant was found by the noted American astronomer, Capt. J. T. T. See, in his mathematical investigations, for the smallest particles of the ether which he fittingly designates as “etherons.” But while in the light of his theory this speed is a physical reality, the spread of the currents at the terrestrial surface is much like the passage of the moon’s shadow over the globe.
"It will be difficult for most people engaged in practical pursuits to measure or even to form an adequate conception of the intensity of inspiration and force I derive from that part of my work which has passed into history. I have every reason to consider myself one of the most fortunate men, for I experience incessantly a feeling of inexpressible satisfaction that my alternating system is universally employed in the transmission and distribution of heat, light and power and that also my wireless system, in all its essential features, is used throughout the world for conveying intelligence. But my pioneer efforts in this later field are still grossly misunderstood.”
–Nikola Tesla
“World System of Wireless Transmission of Energy.”Telegraph and Telegraph Age, October 16, 1927.
“The External Source of Energy of the Universe, Origin and Intensity of Cosmic Rays.”
By Nikola Tesla
October 13, 1932, New York:
“A little over one century ago many astronomers, including Laplace still thought that the system of heavenly bodies was unalterable and that they would perform their motions in the same manner through an eternity. But the gradual perfection of instruments and refinement of methods of investigation, achieved since that time, has led to the recognition that there is a continuous change going on in the celestial regions subjecting all bodies to ever varying influence. Where this change is leading to, and what is to be its final phase, have become questions of supreme scientific interest. In a communication to the Royal Society of Edinburgh dated April 19, 1852 and the Philosophical Magazine of October of the same year, Lord Kelvin drew attention to the general tendency in nature towards dissipation of mechanical energy, a fact borne out in daily observation of thermo-dynamic and dynamo-thermic processes and one of ominous significance. It meant that the driving force of the universe was steadily decreasing and that ultimately all of its motive energy will be exhausted none remaining available for mechanical work. In the macro-cosmos, with its countless conception, this process might require billion of years for its consummation; but in the infinitesimal worlds of the micro-cosmos it must have been quickly completed. Such being the case then, according to an experimental findings and deductions of positive science, any material substance (cooled down to the absolute zero of temperature) should be devoid of an internal movement and energy, so to speak, dead.
“This idea of the great philosopher, who later honored me with his friendship, had a fascinating effect on my mind and in meditating over it I was struck by the thought that if there is energy within the substance it can only come from without. This truth was so manifest to me that I expressed it in the following axiom: "There is no energy in matter except that absorbed from the medium.” Lord Kelvin gave us a picture of a dying universe, of a clockwork wound up and running down, inevitably doomed to come to a full stop in the far, far off future. It was a gloomy view incompatible with artistic, scientific and mechanical sense. I asked myself again and again, was there not some force winding up the clock as it runs down? The axiom I had formulated gave me a clue. If all energy is supplied to matter from without then this all important function must be performed by the medium. Yes–but how?
“I pondered over this oldest and greatest of all riddles of physical science a long time in vain, despairingly remind of the words of the poet:
"Wo fass ich dich unendliche Nat—r?
Euch Bruste wo Ihr Quellen alles Lebens
An denen Himmel und Erd— hangt.”
[“Where, boundless nature, can I hold you fast?
And where you breasts? Wells that sustain
All life – the heaven and the earth are nursed. ”]
Goethe. Faust
“What I strove for seemed unattainable, but a kind fate favored me and a few inspired experiments lifted the veil. It was a revelation wonderful and incredible explaining many mysteries of nature and disclosing as in a lightening flash the illusionary character of some modem theories incidentally also bearing out the universal truth of the above axiom.
"When radio-active rays were discovered their investigators believed them to be due to liberation of atomic energy in the form of waves. This being impossible in the light of the preceding I concluded that they were produced by some external disturbance and composed of electrified particles. My theory was not seriously taken although it appeared simple and plausible. Suppose that bullets are fired against a wall. Where a missile strikes the material is crushed and spatters in all directions radial from the place of impact. In this example it is perfectly clear that the energy of the flying pieces can only be derived from that of the bullets. But in manifestation of radio-activity no such proof could be advanced and it was, therefore, of the first importance to demonstrate experimentally the existence of this miraculous disturbance in the medium. I was rewarded in these efforts with quick success largely because of the efficient method I adopted which consisted in deriving from a great mass of air, ionized by the disturbance, a current, storing its energy in a condenser and discharging the same through anindicating device. This plan did away with the limitations and incertitude of the electroscope first employed and was described by me in articles and patents from 1900 to 1905. It was logical to expect, judging from the behavior of known radiations, that the chief source of the new rays would be the sun, but this supposition was contradicted by observations and theoretical considerations which disclosed some surprising facts in this connection.
"Light and heat rays are absorbed in their passage through a medium in a certain proportion to its density. The ether, although the most tenuous of all substances, is no exception to this rule. Its density has been first estimated by Lord Kelvin and conformably to his finding a column of one square centimeter cross section and of a length such that light, traveling at a rate of three hundred thousands kilometers per second, would require one year to traverse it, should weigh 4.8 grams. This is just about the weigh of a prism of ordinary glass of the same cross section and two centimeters length which, therefore, may be assumed as the equivalent of the ether column in absorption. A column of the ether one thousand times longer would thus absorb as much light as twenty meters of glass. However, there are suns at distances of many thousands of light years and it is evident that virtually no light from them can reach the earth. But if these suns emit rays immensely more penetrative than those of light they will be slightly dimmed and so the aggregate amount of radiations pouring upon the earth from all sides will be overwhelmingly greater than that supplied to it by our luminary. If light and heat rays would be as penetrative as the cosmic, so fierce would be the perpetual glare and so scorching the heat that life on this and other planets could not exist.
"Rays in every respect similar to the cosmic are produced by my vacuum tubes when operated at pressures of ten millions of volts or more, but even if it were not confirmed by experiment, the theory I advanced in 1897 would afford the simplest and most probable explanation of the phenomena. Is not the universe with its infinite and impenetrable boundary a perfect vacuum tube of dimensions and power inconceivable? Are not its fiery suns electrodes at temperatures far beyond any we can apply in the puny and crude contrivances of our making? Is it not a fact that the suns and stars are under immense electrical pressures transcending any that man can ever produce and is this not equally true of the vacuum in celestial space? Finally, can there be any doubt that cosmic dust and meteoric matter present an infinitude of targets acting as reflectors and transformers of energy? If under ideal working conditions, and with apparatus on a scale beyond the grasp of the human mind, rays of surpassing intensity and penetrative power would not be generated, then, indeed, nature has made an unique exception to its laws.
"It has been suggested that the cosmic rays are electrons or that they are the result of creation of new matter in the interstellar deserts. These views are too fantastic to be even for a moment seriously considered. They are natural outcroppings of this age of deep but unrational thinking, of impossible theories, the latest of which might, perhaps, deal with the curvature of time. What this world of ours would be if time were curved:
"As there exists considerable doubt in regard to the manner in which the intensity of the cosmic rays varies with altitude the following simple formula derived from my early experimental data may be welcome to those who are interested in the subject.
I = (W+P) / (W+p)
"In this expression W is the weight in kilograms of a column of lead of one square centimeter cross section and one hundred and eighty centimeters length, P the normal pressure of the atmosphere at sea level in kilograms per square centimeter, p the atmospheric pressure at the altitude under consideration and in like measure and I the intensity of the radiation in terms of that at sea level which is taken as unit. Substituting the actual values for W and P, respectively 1.9809 and 1.0133 kilograms, the formula reduces to
I = 2.99421 / (1.9809 + p)
"Obviously, at sea level p = P hence the intensity is equal to 1, this being the unit of measurement. On the other hand, at the extreme limit of the atmosphere p = 0 and the intensity I = 1.5115.
"The maximum increase with height is, consequently, a little over fifty-one percent. This formula, based on my finding that the absorption is proportionate to the density of the medium whatever it be, is fairly accurate. Other investigators might find different values for W but they will undoubtedly observe the same character of dependence, namely, that the intensity increases proportionately to the height for a few kilometers and then at a gradually lessening rate.”
From June 1, 1899 to January 7, 1900, Nikola Tesla conducted experiments and research on high voltage and high frequency electricity to prove his theory of world wireless energy transmission. His previous 10 years of lectures, experiments, and research prior to this expedition had prepared him to further explore the most complex electrical forces any human had previously ever faced in history.
He chose Colorado Springs, CO as the location due to the high elevation and low air pressure suitable for electrical experimentation. Also, because this was a far more sparsely populated and open area compared to his lab in New York, he was free to experiment with the more extreme parameters of electricity.
[Fig. 1.] — Nikola Tesla’s building in Colorado Springs which he called his “Experimental Station.”
[Fig. 2.] — Tesla peaking out his laboratory. Notice the “GREAT DANGER–KEEP OUT” sign.
With his new and improved Tesla coils that he had invented previously, which could produce electrical power up to millions of horsepower, he was set to challenge the limits of electricity. It’s clear from Tesla’s notes that his principle initiative was to find ways to manipulate the forces of nature and to utilize them for the advancement of humankind. In his Colorado Springs Notes text, he expressed that he had three main goals:
1. To develop a transmitter of great power.
2. To perfect means for individualizing and isolating the energy transmitted.
3. To ascertain the laws of propagation of currents through the earth and the atmosphere.
In his seven months of work, not only did he accomplish all three goals and prove his theory of wireless energy transmission, but he made some of the most remarkable experiments in scientific history. He obtained voltage and frequencies in the hundreds of millions of horse power–producing sparks over 100 feet in length, and actually sent energy through the earth itself to light multiple lamps which were placed dozens of miles away from his transmitter. He discovered stationary waves deriving from natural lightning discharges which his receiver could detect hundreds of miles away from his station. This discovery proved that power could indeed be transmitted through the earth to far distances. He also discovered that the earth as a whole had certain periods of vibrations, and by using his large oscillator could impress electrical vibrations at the same periods upon it creating more energy within the earth. This process is now referred to as constructive interference (the interference of two or more waves of equal frequency and phase, resulting in their mutual reinforcement and producing a single amplitude equal to the sum of the amplitudes of the individual waves). By doing this repeatedly using massive amounts of energy unheard of before, Tesla was able to transmit energy from his transmitter around earth and back to his receiver traveling at a mean velocity of 292,815 miles per second. Over 100,000 mps faster than light. Many electrical experimenters have proven this velocity including Jonathan Zenneck and Arnold Sommerfeld. The mathematical equation to this speed is pi divided by 2 times the speed of light ( π/2( c ) ).
Witnessing this experiment, space, according to Tesla, was completely annihilated. This meant he could potentially throw the globe into oscillations of such magnitude that massive amounts of energy could be created, collected, and transmitted to any point on earth regardless of distance.
Fully confident that he accomplished what he initially set out to do, Tesla journeyed back to New York to patent his improved apparatuses and build a new system on an even larger scale than what he’d created in Colorado. This would lead to his World Wireless System, known as his Wardenclyffe Tower. Unfortunately, Tesla would not realize his dream of providing humankind with cheap, unlimited energy in his lifetime; however, his legacy and dreams live on through his experiments conducted in Colorado Springs:
“I am unwilling to accord to some small-minded and jealous individuals the satisfaction of having thwarted my efforts. These men are to me nothing more than microbes of a nasty disease. My project was retarded by the 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.”
–Nikola Tesla
“My Inventions – V. THE MAGNIFYING TRANSMITTER.” Electrical Experimenter. February, 1919.
[Fig. 3.] — Experiment to Illustrate the Capacity of the Oscillator For Producing Electrical Explosions of Great Power: The coil, partly shown in the photograph, creates an alternative movement of electricity from the earth into a large reservoir and back at a rate of one hundred thousand alternations per second. The adjustments are such that the reservoir is fulled full and bursts at each alternation just at the moment when the electrical pressure reaches the maximum. The discharge escapes with a deafening noise, striking an unconnected coil twenty-two feet away, and creating such a commotion of electricity in the earth that sparks an inch long can be drawn from a water main at a distance of three hundred feet from the laboratory.
[Fig. 4.] — Coils Responding to Electrical Oscillations: The picture shows a number of coils , differently attuned and responding to the vibrations transmitted to them through the earth from an electrical oscillator. The large coil on the right, discharging strongly, is tuned to the fundamental vibration, which is fifty thousand per second; the two larger vertical coils to twice that number; the smaller white wire coil to four times that number, and the remaining small coils to higher tones. The vibrations produced by the oscillator were so intense that they affected perceptibly a small coil tuned to the twenty-sixth higher tone.
[Fig. 5.] — Burning the Nitrogen of the Atmosphere: This result is produced by the discharge of an electrical oscillator giving twelve million volts. The electrical pressure, alternating one hundred thousand times per second, excites the normally inert nitrogen, causing it to combine with the oxygen. The flame-like discharge shown in the photograph measures sixty-five feet across.
[Fig. 6.] — Illustrating An Effect of An Electrical Oscillator Delivering Energy at a Rate of Seventy-Five Thousand Horse-Power: The discharge, creating a strong draft owing to the heating of the air, is carried upward through the open roof of the building. The greatest width across is nearly seventy feet. The pressure is over twelve million volts, and the current alternates one hundred and thirty thousand times per second.
[Fig. 7.] — A double-exposure photograph of Tesla sitting in front of his electrical oscillator. Of course he’s not really sitting there with the machine on. He would die.
[Fig. 8.] — Experiment Illustrating an Inductive Effect of an Electrical Oscillator of Great Power: The photograph shows three ordinary incandescent lamps lighted to full candle-power by currents induced in a local loop consisting of a single wire forming a square of fifty feet each side, which includes the lamps, and which is at a distance of one hundred feet from the primary circuit energized by the oscillator. The loop likewise includes an electrical condenser, and is exactly attuned to the vibrations of the oscillator, which is worked at less than five percent of its total capacity.
[Fig. 9.] — Experiment Illustrating the Transmission of Electrical Energy Through the Earth Without Wire: The coil shown in the photograph has its lower end or terminal connected to the ground, and is exactly attuned to the vibrations of a distant electrical oscillator. The lamp lighted is in an independent wire loop, energized by induction from the coil excited by the electrical vibrations transmitted to it through the ground from the oscillator, which is worked only to five percent. of its full capacity.
“…Blind, faint-hearted, doubting world! . . . Humanity is not yet sufficiently advanced to be willingly led by the discover’s keen searching sense. But who knows? Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea or invention instead of being helped and patted, be hampered and ill-treated in its adolescence—by want of means, by selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity and ignorance; that it be attacked and stifled; that it pass through bitter trials and tribulations, through the heartless strife of commercial existence. So do we get our light. So all that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed—only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.”
–Nikola Tesla
“The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires As a Means for Furthering Peace.“Electrical World and Engineer, January 7, 1905.
“Some ten years ago, I recognized the fact that to convey electric currents to a distance it was not at all necessary to employ a return wire, but that any amount of energy might be transmitted by using a single wire. I illustrated this principle by numerous experiments, which, at that time, excited considerable attention among scientific men.
"This being practically demonstrated, my next step was to use the earth itself as the medium for conducting the currents, thus dispensing with wires and all other artificial conductors. So I was led to the development of a system of energy transmission and of telegraphy without the use of wires, which I described in 1893. The difficulties I encountered at first in the transmission of currents through the earth were very great. At that time I had at hand only ordinary apparatus, which I found to be ineffective, and I concentrated my attention immediately upon perfecting machines for this special purpose. This work consumed a number of years, but I finally vanquished all difficulties and succeeded in producing a machine which, to explain its operation in plain language, resembled a pump in its action, drawing electricity from the earth and driving it back into the same at an enormous rate, thus creating ripples or disturbances which, spreading through the earth as through a wire, could be detected at great distances by carefully attuned receiving circuits. In this manner I was able to transmit to a distance, not only feeble effects for the purposes of signaling, but considerable amounts of energy, and later discoveries I made convinced me that I shall ultimately succeed in conveying power without wires, for industrial purposes, with high economy, and to any distance, however great.
EXPERIMENTS IN COLORADO
"To develop these inventions further, I went to Colorado in where I continued my investigations along these and other lines, one of which in particular I now consider of even greater importance than the transmission of power without wires. I constructed a laboratory in the neighborhood of Pike’s Peak. The conditions in the pure air of the Colorado Mountains proved extremely favorable for my experiments, and the results were most gratifying to me. I found that I could not only accomplish more work, physically and mentally, than I could in New York, but that electrical effects and changes were more readily and distinctly perceived. A few years ago it was virtually impossible to produce electrical sparks twenty or thirty foot long; but I produced some more than one hundred feet in length, and this without difficulty. The rates of electrical movement involved in strong induction apparatus had measured but a few hundred horse-power, and I produced electrical movements of rates of one hundred and ten thousand horse-power. Prior to this, only insignificant electrical pressures were obtained, while I have reached fifty million volts.
"The accompanying illustrations, with their descriptive titles, taken from an article I wrote for the "Century Magazine,” [“The Problem of Increasing Human Energy”] may serve to convey an idea of the results I obtained in the directions indicated.
“Many persons in my own profession have wondered at them and have asked what I am trying to do. But the time is not far away now when the practical results of my labors will be placed before the world and their influence felt everywhere. One of the immediate consequences will be the transmission of messages without wires, over sea or land, to an immense distance. I have already demonstrated, by crucial tests, the practicability of signaling by my system from one to any other point of the globe, no matter how remote, and I shall soon convert the disbelievers.
"I have every reason for congratulating myself that throughout these experiments, many of which were exceedingly delicate and hazardous, neither myself nor any of my assistants received any injury. When working with these powerful electrical oscillations the most extraordinary phenomena take place at times. Owing to some interference of the oscillations, veritable balls of fire are apt to leap out to a great distance, and if any one were within or near their paths, he would be instantly destroyed. A machine such as I have used could easily kill, in an instant, three hundred thousand persons. I observed that the strain upon my assistants was telling, and some of them could not endure the extreme tension of the nerves. But these perils are now entirely overcome, and the operation of such apparatus, however powerful, involves no risk whatever.”
–Nikola Tesla
“Talking With Planets.” Collier’s Weekly, February 9, 1901.
“We are whirling through endless space with inconceivable speed, all around us everything is spinning, everything is moving, everywhere is energy. There must be some way of availing ourselves of this energy more directly. Then, with the light obtained from the medium, with the power derived from it, with every form of energy obtained without effort, from the store forever inexhaustible, humanity will advance with giant strides.”
–Nikola Tesla
“Experiments With Alternating Currents of Very High Frequency and Their Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination.” Lecture delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, at Columbia College, New York, May 20, 1891.
“Long before I was twenty, I was smoking excessively — fifteen or twenty big black cigars every day. My health was threatened, and my family often tried to get me to promise to stop, but I would not.
“One day I was standing in front of our house, when they told me the doctor had just said that my youngest sister, who had been very ill for some time, was dying. I went up to her room, carrying my lighted cigar, and before kneeling at her bedside I placed the cigar on a little table beside the bed.
“Niko,” she said, so faintly that I could hardly hear her, “you are killing yourself with smoking. Promise me you will give it up.”
“Yes,” I said; “if you will get well, I promise to give up smoking.”
“All right, Niko,” she said feebly. “I will try.”
“She did get well, and I have never smoked since. It was very hard to give it up, but I was determined to keep my promise. Not only did I stop, but I finally destroyed every inclination for what had been such a great satisfaction. In this way I have freed myself of other habits and passions, and so have preserved my health and my zest for life. The satisfaction derived from demonstrating my own strength of will has always meant more to me in the end than the pleasurable habits I gave up. I believe that a man can and should stop any habit he recognizes to be “foolish.”
–Nikola Tesla
“Making Your Imagination Work For You.” American Magazine, April, 1921.
“I have already proved the contrary of what everybody believed. I have proved that it is not necessary to have two wires to establish an electrical current. In my machine I have but one wire. I utilize the air as the other. But as I now get a return through the air I believe that I can also transmit through the earth, thus doing away with even the one wire. The earth is a great insulated globe filled with electricity, or the capability of electrical vibration. The only problem is to awaken this electricity, to shake this immense earth so as to set this mighty world force swinging or wagging. Of course it will take a great force to start this motion, but there is no doubt we can get it. Electricians thought 10,000 volts was a wonderful pressure. I have already stirred up hundreds of thousands, and the limit is far off. Instead of 300 vibrations I have already secured 3,000,000 a second. Give me the machine, and I will make a spark half a mile long. Now, at Niagara, for instance, which is destined to be a marvelous center of electrical force for America, enough force can be secured to supply all the needs of the human race twice over. By shaking the entire earth with the mighty power to be obtained there this earth electricity could be started. With this earth force in vibration the next problem would be to build machines able to catch and respond to the earth motion. There would have to be a synchronism between the electrical swinging of the earth and the machine. For example, I hold a glass to my mouth and speak. The glass is shattered. My voice to do this must have the same resonance as the glass. Such I conceive to be the secret of all nature—resonance. Then, setting this machine at any point in the world, the message transmitted through the earth can be received and read at Paris, at Hong-Kong—anywhere. Distance no longer exists. I am convinced that I today can send a message to a ship at sea, and that those on board can understand it. If I cannot, I am willing to lay my head on the guillotine.”
–Nikola Tesla
“An Electrical Wizard.” Newark Daily Advocate, Newark, New Jersey, March 20, 1893.
Nikola Tesla was a hyper-polyglot who could speak eight languages including: Serbo-Croatian, English, Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin. He claimed to have had a three-dimensional memory and thought process that tormented him in his youth, but later aided him with building his inventions in his own mind without wasting any physical energy. His memory was so remarkable it’s said that even in his later years was able to recite by heart long mathematical formulas, and many of the world’s most famous heroic poetry in their original languages. Some of his favorite poems to quote were Goethe’s “Faust,” Njegoš’ “The Mountain Wreath,” Dante’s “Divine Comedy,” Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” Byron’s “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage,” and Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin.” Tesla inherited his extraordinary memory from his father who Tesla once said could recite from memory many of the classical books from his time, and if they ever got destroyed could rewrite them in their original form. Tesla’s father also helped him in his mental development by testing young Tesla in all sorts of exercises–as Tesla said, “guessing one another’s thoughts, discovering the defects of some form or expression, repeating long sentences or performing mental calculations. These daily lessons were intended to strengthen memory and reason and especially to develop the critical sense, and were undoubtedly very beneficial.”
“The secret to success is hard work. To be successful in this world one must perform the hardest kind of work. You must peg away night and day, and not stop a minute. There is no royal road. This has been the plan I have followed for years.
“Why! I am even blamed for being lazy by some people, because I do not perfect all my inventions; although I work from sixteen to twenty hours out of the twenty-four.”
–Nikola Tesla
“Our Modern Mr. Franklin – Mr. Tesla.” Success, November 4, 1898.
“It is providential that the youth or man of inventive mind is not blessed with a million dollars. He would find it difficult to think. The mind is sharper and keener in seclusion and uninterrupted solitude. No big laboratory is needed in which to think. Originality thrives in seclusion free of outside influences beating upon us to cripple the creative mind. Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born. That is why many of the earthly miracles have had their genesis in humble surroundings.”
–Nikola Tesla
“Tesla Sees Evidence Radio and Light Are Sound.” New York Times, April 8th, 1934.
“Herbert Spencer has interpreted life as a continuous adjustment to the environment, a definition of this inconceivably complex manifestation quite in accord with advanced scientific thought, but, perhaps, not broad enough to express our present views. With each step forward in the investigation of its laws and mysteries our conceptions of nature and its phases have been gaining in depth and breadth.
“In the early stages of intellectual development man was conscious of but a small part of the macrocosm. He knew nothing of the wonders of the microscopic world, of the molecules composing if of the atoms making up the molecules and of the dwindlingly small world of electrons within the atoms. To him life was synonymous with voluntary motion and action. A plant did not suggest to him what it does to us – that it lives and feels, fights for its existence, that it suffers and enjoys. Not only have we found this to be true, but we have ascertained that even matter called inorganic, believed to be dead, responds to irritants and gives unmistakable evidence of the presence of a living principle within.
"Thus, everything that exists, organic or inorganic, animated or inert, is susceptible to stimulus from the outside. There is no gap between, no break of continuity, no special and distinguishing vital agent. The same law governs all matter, all the universe is alive. The momentous question of Spencer, "What is it that causes inorganic matter to run into organic forms!” has been answered. It is the sun’s heat and light. Wherever they are there is life. Only in the boundless wastes of interstellar space, in the eternal darkness and cold, is animation suspended, and, possibly, at the temperature of absolute zero all matter may die.
"This realistic aspect of the perceptible universe, as a clockwork wound up and running down, dispensing with the necessity of a hypermechanical vital principle, need not be in discord with our religious and artistic aspirations – those undefinable and beautiful efforts through which the human mind endeavors to free itself from material bonds. On the contrary, the better understanding of nature, the consciousness that our knowledge is true, can only be all the more elevating and inspiring.”
–Nikola Tesla
“How Cosmic Forces Shape Our Destines”. New York American, February 7, 1915.
Although the system of world wireless power transmission consumed most of his attention throughout his life, Nikola Tesla still brought the world many wonderful inventions and discoveries. Stated in chronological order, some of the more notable ones are:
The rotating magnetic field, 1882;
System of arc lighting, 1886;
Tesla motor and system of alternating current power transmission that utilized the rotating magnetic field discovery creating polyphase systems of AC, 1888;
System of electrical conversion and distribution by oscillatory discharges, 1889;
Generators of high-frequency currents and effects of these, 1890;
Transmission of energy through a single wire without return, 1891;
The “Tesla coil,” or oscillation transformer, which was the basis to his wireless transmission of energy making Tesla the true father of radio, 1891;
Investigations of high-frequency effects and phenomena, 1891-93;
System of transmission of intelligence and power without wires, 1891-1905;
Neon light signs, 1893;
Researches and discoveries in radiations, material streams and emanations, today known as X-rays, and X-ray imaging, 1893-1898;
Mechanical oscillators and generators of electrical oscillations, 1894-95;
Radioactivity and cosmic ray discovery published in a series of papers in the "Electrical Review,” New York, 1896-1898;
High-potential vacuum tubes, 1896-1898;
Explained the harms of X-rays and safer ways to use them, 1897;
High-potential magnifying transmitter, 1897;
Economic transmission of energy by refrigeration, 1898;
Remote control, or what Tesla called his “Art of Telautomatics,” 1897-99;
Discovery of stationary electrical waves in the earth, 1899;
Art of transmitting energy by stationary waves through earth, 1899-1900;
Burning of atmospheric nitrogen, and production of other electrical effects of transcending intensities, 1899-1900;
Apparatus for the utilization of cosmic radiation, 1901;
Art of Individualization. Tesla described this as a method of absolute privacy in wireless communication, 1902-1903;
Magnifying transmitter on a large scale, 1902;
Speedometers on new principles, means for lightning protection, types of steam and gas turbines, pressure and vacuum pumps and other apparatus, 1916-1926.
Teleforce, or his “New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy Through Natural Media.” This is his particle beam weapon, circa 1930s.
Roentgen Rays: Mr. Tesla Before N.Y. Academy of Sciences.
By B.P. Remy
Electrical Review, NY. April 14, 1897.
“On April 6, Mr. Nikola Tesla delivered before the New York Academy of Sciences an address "On the Streams of Leonard and Röentgen, with Novel Apparatus for Their Production.” The lecturer began by stating that in 1894, in experimenting to determine the actinic action of phosphorescent light emanating from vacuum tubes, he had found that the atinic power of Crookes tubes varied greatly, and in the most anomalous manner. Thus some tubes emitting a strong light had very little action on photographic plates, while some showing a feeble light acted very strongly on such plates. A large number of these plates, made by Tonnele for the Century Magazine, were stored in Mr. Tesla’s laboratory when it was destroyed by fire, and thus he was unable now to examine them for the Röentgen effects. He believed that he had just missed the discovery which made Röentgen famous, and though he was thoroughly familiar with Leonard’s work, he did not see far enough.
“Mr. Tesla then reviewed his work in the direction of obtaining a reliable apparatus for generating high-frequency currents, which he recognized as the keynote to the production of vacuum tube lighting. He told how he had met with difficulties at every point; how a small bubble of air would destroy the value of the coil, or how one-quarter of an inch of wire too much or too little would throw a coil out of balance; how one day a coil would run cold and on another day hot, etc. By finally calling to his aid the condenser, Mr. Tesla stated, he had succeeded in obtaining the desired action and now nothing stood in the way of securing millions of vibrations from ordinary circuit. The lecturer then briefly explained the principle of the condenser discharge as applied to high frequency currents, and pointed to various types of apparatus on the lecture table designed to utilize the principle.
"In order to demonstrate the action of high frequency currents, Mr. Tesla attached a circular loop of heavy copper wire to the terminals of a high frequency generator and brought to brilliant incandescence a small lamp connected diametrically across the heavy loop; the illumination of the lamp could be varied by connecting it to various points on the diameter of the loop. Mr. Tesla also lit the lamp by the current induced in a second loop brought in proximity to the first. He explained that the coil accomplishing this work had a resistance of 600 ohms and an inductance of 6 henry’s; the coil was connected to the circuit one-half the time and took from the primary circuit only 5 watts.
"Mr. Tesla next showed a vacuum tube lit from the terminals of another high frequency machine. He also showed a coil consisting of a single turn of heavy wire which formed the core, as it were, of a small coil of a few turns wound on a paper cylinder surrounding the heavy wire. When connected to a high frequency generator, this apparatus gave a 4-inch spark with an expenditure of energy equal to that taken by one lamp. Mr. Tesla stated that his high frequency generators were constructed that they could be connected to any existing circuits, direct or alternating.
"Returning to the Röentgen rays, the lecturer stated that he had succeeded in discovering a new source of these rays, far more powerful than any heretofore available, though the difficulty of maintaining it was very great. This new source is the electric arc; not the ordinary arc, however. The arc required for purposes is that maintained between a platinum terminal and an aluminum plate, as illustrating in the accompanying diagram, where A represents the aluminium plate and B the platinum, enclosed in a glass jar.
"Mr. Tesla stated that he had also succeeded in deflecting the Röentgen rays by a magnet. He had proved this by deflecting the rays into a condenser place a long distance from the source of the rays, and which in 5 seconds was charged sufficiently to throw a galvameter needle off the scale.”
In 1913, in a desperate attempt to get funding for his Wardenclyffe Tower, which he considered his most important project, but was struggling with a lack of funds, Nikola Tesla patented a new type of water fountain in hopes of collecting revenue to help pay for his new wireless system. Obviously, he wouldn’t capitalize on this endeavor, but the innovation still remains.
“Nikola Tesla, in the opinion of authorities, today is conceded to be the greatest inventor of all times. Tesla has more original inventions to his credit than any other man in history. He is considered greater than Archimedes, Faraday, or Edison. His basic, as well as revolutionary discoveries for sheer audacity have no equal in the annals of the world. His master mind is easily one of the seven wonders of the intellectual world.“
–Hugo Gernsback
(“Nikola Tesla and His Inventions — An Announcement.” Electrical Experimenter, January, 1919.)
In a pre-hearing interview with his legal counsel in 1916 to protect his radio patents from Guglielmo Marconi, Nikola Tesla explains the similarities and the differences between his wireless system and the systems of today.
Counsel: “Mr. Tesla, at that point, what did you mean by electro-magnetic momentum?”
Tesla: “I mean that you have to have in the circuit, inertia. You have to have a large self-inductance in order that you may accomplish two things: First, a comparatively low frequency, which will reduce the radiation of the electromagnetic waves to a comparatively small value, and second, a great resonant effect. That is not possible in an antenna, for instance, of large capacity and small self-inductance. A large capacity and small self-inductance is the poorest kind of circuit which can be constructed; it gives a very small resonant effect. That was the reason why in my experiments in Colorado, the energies were 1,000 times greater than in the present antennae.”
Counsel: “You say the energy was 1,000 times greater. Do you mean that the voltage was increased, or the current, or both?”
Tesla: “Yes [both]. To be more explicit, I take a very large self-inductance and a comparatively small capacity, which I have constructed in a certain way so that the electricity cannot leak out. I thus obtain a low frequency, but, as you know, the electromagnetic radiation is proportionate to the square root of the capacity divided by the self-induction. I do not permit the energy to go out; I accumulate in that circuit a tremendous energy. When the high potential is attained, if I want to give off electromagnetic waves, I do so, but I prefer to reduce those waves in quantity and pass a current into the earth, because electromagnetic wave energy is not recoverable while that [earth] current is entirely recoverable, being the energy stored in an elastic system.”
Counsel: “What elastic system do you refer to?”
Tesla: “I mean this: If you pass a current into a circuit with large self-induction, and no radiation takes place, and you have a low resistance, there is no possibility of this energy getting out into space; therefore, the impressed impulses accumulate.”
Counsel: “Let’s see if I understand this correctly. If you have radiation or electromagnetic waves going from your system, the energy is wasted?”
Tesla: “Absolutely wasted. From my circuit, you can get either electromagnetic waves, 90 percent of electromagnetic waves if you like, and 10 percent in the current energy that passes through the earth. Or, you can reverse the process and get 10 percent of the energy in electromagnetic waves and 90 percent in energy of the current that passes through the earth.”
“It is just like this: I have invented a knife. The knife can cut with the sharp edge. I tell the man who applies my invention; you must cut with the sharp edge. I know perfectly well you can cut butter with the blunt edge, but my knife is not intended for this. You must not make the antenna give off 90 percent in electromagnetic and 10 percent in current waves, because the electromagnetic waves are lost by the time you are a few arcs around the planet, while the current travels to the uttermost distance of the globe and can be recovered.
"This view, by the way, is now confirmed. Note, for instance, the mathematical treatise of Sommerfeld, who shows that my theory is correct, that I was right in my explanations of the phenomena, and that the profession was completely misled. This is the reason why these followers of mine in high-frequency currents have made a mistake. They wanted to make high-frequency alternators of 200,000 cycles with the idea that they would produce electromagnetic waves, 90 percent in electromagnetic waves, and the rest in current energy. I only used low alternations, and I produced 90 percent in current energy and only 10 percent in electromagnetic waves, which are wasted, and that is why I got my results. You see, the apparatus which I have devised was an apparatus enabling one to produce tremendous differences of potential and currents in an antenna circuit. These requirements must be fulfilled, whether you transmit by currents of conduction or whether you transmit by electromagnetic waves. You want high potential currents; you want a great amount of vibratory energy, but you can graduate this vibratory energy. By proper design and choice of wave lengths, you can arrange it so that you get, for instance, 5 percent in these electromagnetic waves and 95 percent in the current that goes through the earth. That is what I am doing. Or you can get, as these radio men, 95 percent in the energy of electromagnetic waves and only 5 percent in the energy of the current. The apparatus is suitable for one or the other method. I am not producing radiation with my system; I am suppressing electromagnetic waves. In my system, you should free yourself of the idea that there is radiation, that the energy is radiated. It is not radiated; it is conserved…”
(“Nikola Tesla On His Works With Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, and Transmission of Power.” Twenty First Century Books, Breckenridge, Colorado, 2002.)
Could you imagine what today would look like if Nikola Tesla had completed his “World Wireless System”? Over a hundred years ago, Nikola Tesla announced his system of wireless, which would transmit static-free communication, including pictures and video. Our grandparents would have been meme and TikTok professionals before we were even conceived! Tesla explains his system in the following newspaper article.
“WIRELESS VISION SEEN BY TESLA.” La Plata Home Press, La Plata, Missouri, Thursday, October 14, 1915, Page 6.
Thinks “World System” Will Allow Many to Talk at Once.
ENDS STATIC DISTURBANCE
Inventor Also Hopes to Transmit Pictures by Same Medium Which Carries the Voice–Declares It Will Be Possible to Hold Secret Conversation Too.
Nikola Tesla announced that he had received a patent on an invention which would not only eliminate static interference, the present bugaboo of wireless telephony, but would enable thousands of persons to talk at once between wireless stations and make it possible for those talking to see one another by wireless, regardless of the distance separating them. He said also that with his wireless station now in the process of construction on Long Island, he hoped to make New York one of the central exchanges in a world system of wireless telephony.
The inventor, who has won fame by his electrical inventions, dictated this statement:
“The experts carrying out this brilliant experiment are naturally deserving of great credit for the skill they have shown in perfecting the devices. These are of two kinds–first, those serving to control transmission, and second, those magnifying the received impulse. That the control of transmission is perfect is plain to experts from the fact that the Arlington, Mare island and Pearl Harbor plants are all ineffective and that the distance of telephonic communication is equal to that of telegraphic transmission. It is also perfectly apparent that the chief merit of the application lies in the magnification of the microphonic impulse. It must not be imagined that we deal here with new discoveries. The improvement simply concerns the control of the transmitted and the magnification of the received impulse, but the wireless system is the same. This can never be changed.
"It is claimed that static disturbance will fatally interfere with the transmission, while as a matter of fact, there is not static disturbance possible in properly designed transmission and receiving circuits. Quite recently I have described in a patent circuits which are absolutely immune to static and other interferences, so much so that when a telephone is attached there is absolute silence, even lightning in the immediate vicinity not producing a click of the diaphragm, while in the ordinary telephonic conversation there are all kinds of noises.
"Another contention is that there can be no secrecy in wireless telephone conversation. I say it is absurd to raise this contention when it is positively demonstrated by experiments that the earth is more suitable for transmission than any wire could ever be. A wireless telephone conversation can be made as secret as a thought.
"I have myself erected a plant for the purpose of connecting by wireless telephone the chief centers of the world, and from this plant as many as a hundred will be able to talk absolutely without interference and with absolute secrecy. The plant would simply be connected with the telephone central exchange in New York city, and any subscriber will be able to talk to any other telephone subscriber in the world, and all this without any change in his apparatus. This plan has been called my ‘world system.’ By the same means I propose also to transmit pictures and project images so that the subscriber will not only hear the voice but see the person to whom he is talking. Pictures transmitted over wires is a perfectly simple art practiced today. Many inventors have labored on it, but the chief credit is due to Professor Korn of Munich.”
“That we can send a message to a planet is certain. That we can get an answer is probable. Man on earth is not the only being in God’s great system of worlds that is in possession of a mind.”
–Nikola Tesla
“Tesla Has Message From The Stars.” Western Electrician, January 12, 1901.
