Is Tesla's Coil Really Feasible?

originally posted by: Phage
a reply to: chr0naut

Tesla's Wardencliffe Tower used the Earth and the Atmosphere as dipoles.

He wasn't concerned much with dipoles, actually. Though functionally that's sort of how it might have worked if it were at all practical, that's not how he envisioned it. See the article that Arb posted.

I know, I was giving Tesla the benefit of the doubt. The whole need for a tower speaks to the atmospheric side of his proposed power transmission.

And he did get some limited power transmission, but he was obviously stymied by the inverse square law. I suspect he thought that he hadn't hit on the right frequency and explained losses that way.