Understanding Tesla's Inventions

I've been a huge fan of Nikola Tesla for many years now, ever since I learned about all the great technology he brought into this world and how his legacy has been suppressed. However it was only recently that I've truly started to understand some of the technology created by this man. There are so many conspiracy theories and false data floating around the internet that it makes it extremely hard to separate the truth from all the nonsense. So I want to make a conscious effort in this thread to avoid as much of the nonsense as possible.

One of the more common claims we hear is that Tesla invented free energy and was going to share it with the world via his Wardenclyffe tower, which is actually false as far as I can tell. Now I haven't read all of Tesla's patents properly, but it certainly looks to me like there is nothing about free energy generation in any of his patents. We will examine the Wardenclyffe tower shortly but first we need to look at a few things so that by the time we get to it you should already understand the purpose of it and how it works.

Now before we get into any of the good stuff there is one other common myth about Tesla that I want to point out. His patent titled "Apparatus for the Utilization of Radiant Energy" is also often claimed to be the description of a free energy device. It is actually a free energy device in a sense, when Tesla uses the phrase "radiant energy" he is referring to ambient radiation like sunlight or other types of electromagnetic radiation. He was essentially using the word in the same way that we use it today.



You can find a list of Tesla patents here and if you take a look at the radiant energy patent you will see that Tesla makes it very clear in the description that the device is used the same way as a solar panel might be used (note the globe device shining radiation onto the plate). What the patent describes is the photoelectric effect, which is said to be caused when the photons in the radiation excite the electrons in the atoms of the collector plate and cause a current to flow. So it is a free energy device if you want to count energy from the sun as being free energy, but it's nothing more than that.

Now let us examine what I personally believe is Tesla's most interesting and profound invention. The invention that I am speaking of is described in US patent number 645,576 and 649,621. Tesla liked to submit two patents for the same invention but had them worded slightly differently as to cover all his bases, but both patents describe the same concept. And what they describe is a method for the wireless transmission of energy over long distances with very little losses, unlike our modern system of transmitting power.



One of the things that amazed me most when I first looked at some of Tesla's patents was the simplicity of them. It does remind one that Tesla was working at the very start of the electronic age, an age which he almost single handedly led us to. But the simplicity of his designs can also be very deceiving, because the actual mechanism behind how they work isn't usually so easy to understand. This particular invention is a great example of that. Science cannot explain how this device transmits energy so efficiently, yet it clearly does.

"That electrical energy can be economically transmitted without wires to any terrestrial distance, I have unmistakably established in numerous observations, experiments and measurements, qualitative and quantitative. These have demonstrated that it is practicable to distribute power from a central plant in unlimited amounts, with a loss not exceeding a small fraction of one per cent, in the transmission, even to the greatest distance, twelve thousand miles — to the opposite end of the globe." ~ Nikola Tesla

First of all I just want to note that when Tesla uses the word "unlimited" here he means that the technology can output energy to an unlimited number of homes, but you must still have a power plant to provide the energy. So the question is why aren't we using this if it works? We've all heard about the current wars, AC vs DC, Tesla vs Edison, but what we don't hear about is the story of longitudinal waves vs transverse waves, Tesla vs Hertz, the war Tesla lost. From the results of his experiments, Tesla was led to conclude that a new type of wave must exist.

Nikola Tesla constantly wrote about what he called non-Hertzian waves. During his epochal visit to Colorado Springs in 1899, he made new discoveries about the nature of electromagnetic waves, known to some as stationary or longitudinal waves, to others as scalar waves.

Heinrich Hertz (1857—1894), the discoverer of electromagnetic or "wireless" waves, described the action of electric and magnetic fields as radiating from a wire in transverse waves (the familiar up and down sinewave-like motion) that would equal the speed of light. The measurement of frequencies as cycles per second was changed to Hertz, or, Hz in his honor. Hertz's discoveries would later be more fully understood and taken up by such great giants like Tesla, but in his time Hertz had no idea what these "radio" waves could be used for.

Nikola Tesla advanced the electromagnetism theory into new dimensions, further than Hertz and other scientists of his time could conceive. He described his "wireless" waves being far superior to Hertzian waves, which diminish with distance. Tesla foretold of a brilliant new future for humankind, using his non-Hertian "wireless system," including the ability to generate power and transmit it to various parts of the globe.

www.teslaenergy.org...

Two very good demonstrational videos that I suggest you watch on this subject are Tesla's Longitudinal Electricity - Eric Dollard, Peter Lindemann & Tom Brown and Tesla Wireless Power Transmission - Steve Jackson. I'll admit at this point that even I don't fully understand these theories, but after a lot of reading it's beginning to make more sense to me, so hopefully I will be able to explain how Tesla's wireless energy transmission works in a clear and factual manner which is easy to understand.



The above diagram shows the basic difference between a transverse wave and a longitudinal wave. Some examples of these types of waves can be observed in earthquakes and the seismic waves that travel through the Earth. The P-waves are compression waves which are longitudinal in nature and travel much faster than the S-waves which are shear waves that are transverse in nature and arrive later than the P-waves because they are slower. What Tesla was talking about works on the same basic principle but it deals with electromagnetism.



One of the great achievements of science was merging electricity and magnetism into the theory of electromagnetism. This has led to many wonderful advancements and virtually all of our modern technology is based on electromagnetism in one way or another. But it seems we often forget that electromagnetism is made up of two different elements which in some cases can be treated as separate entities. What Tesla seems to be doing is making use of longitudinal electric waves which are transmitted through a standing electric field which exists between the metallic dome antennas.

If you go back and look at the circuit diagram for the wireless device you'll note that the only connection between the devices is the ground/earth. But it is fairly well established within mainstream science that you need a closed circuit for power to flow. One part of the circuit is the ground which links the devices together and the other part of the circuit is the capacitive electric field set up between the metallic nodes. It's very important to note that all of Tesla's wireless devices need a connection to the ground.

(scene from Prestige)

If you read up on Tesla technology you'll probably come across stuff about one-wire energy transmission. Upon closer examination you'll find that what they're actually talking about is the ground connection between the devices. Instead of using the ground you can use normal wire to connect the devices together and then it seems like you are transmitting power over just one wire, but they're forgetting about the other wireless part of the circuit (in the patent diagram it's the two elevated domes but it still works without using large antenna, just not as well).



Now the diagram shown above is essentially the same device but it has been very much simplified to make it easier to understand and the devices are connected together with a single wire instead of through the ground. It is more efficient using wires but that is what gives people the impression that energy is being sent over one wire, when in reality wireless energy is being sent between the devices in the form of longitudinal electric waves which are actually faster than standard electromagnetic waves which are transverse waves.

Remember, light is electromagnetic radiation, so to claim Tesla's longitudinal waves are faster than electromagnetic waves is a pretty big deal, but it can be readily observed by building one of these devices. I should mention that the devices must be in resonance to work properly, which is achieved by tuning the coils. Tesla states in the patent that when a source of pulsated or oscillating current is fed into coil C of the first device, corresponding currents are induced in coil A of the second device.



There are a lot of myths about the Wardenclyffe tower, but what was it really meant to do? It is a huge version of the wireless transmission device. So yes, he did intend to send power around the world wireless by using the earth as the ground connection. Each house would have a smaller receiver module with a ground connection and also an elevated dome antenna. In the patent Tesla shows only two devices next to each other, the transmitter and the receiver, however it's also possible to have multiple or unlimited receiving devices all operating on the same resonate frequency.

So the Wardenclyffe tower was essentially a huge wireless transmitter device, and in the patent for the Wardenclyffe tower Tesla clearly states that it is based off the exact same principle as described in the two patents for wireless energy transmission. It wasn't designed to suck energy from the ionosphere or anything outlandish like that, it needs to be supplied with a source of current. In the patent Tesla suggests that a suitable source of current for primary C may be an alternator.



In conclusion, there is nothing extraordinary about the Wardenclyffe tower apart from the fact that it could transmit power around the world wirelessly. That is still quite extraordinary however, and it's the real reason why the funding for the Wardenclyffe tower was pulled. Even if Tesla wasn't planning to give free energy to the world, he still wanted to give efficient wireless energy to the world and that was still a big enough threat to the establishment to have this idea squashed and relinquished to the realms of forgotten history.

In conclusion, there is nothing extraordinary about the Wardenclyffe tower apart from the fact that it could transmit power around the world wirelessly. That is still quite extraordinary however, and it's the real reason why the funding for the Wardenclyffe tower was pulled.

The actual purpose of Wardenclyffe was as a wireless communications device. Funding for Wardenclyffe was not pulled. He spent all the money he was given and still couldn't get it to work.

The trouble with trying to transmit electricity through earth is that it is frightfully inefficient. Since it is a non- directional system energy loss is phenomenal (inverse square) and that doesn't even take into account the variations in conductivity which occur with varying soil/rock conditions.


And no, electricity does not travel faster than light. Just another example of how Tesla missed the boat with his lack of understanding of electromagnetic radiation.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Tesla was not the inventor of AC current. That honour goes to Michael Faraday. In fact i would put Faraday ahead of Tesla in many fields. That includes the field of electromagnetism and AC current. Because Faraday was not an American you are not taught about him:-

en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder

The above diagram shows the basic difference between a transverse wave and a longitudinal wave. Some examples of these types of waves can be observed in earthquakes and the seismic waves that travel through the Earth. The P-waves are compression waves which are longitudinal in nature and travel much faster than the S-waves which are shear waves that are transverse in nature and arrive later than the P-waves because they are slower. What Tesla was talking about works on the same basic principle but it deals with electromagnetism.
...
One of the great achievements of science was merging electricity and magnetism into the theory of electromagnetism. This has led to many wonderful advancements and virtually all of our modern technology is based on electromagnetism in one way or another. But it seems we often forget that electromagnetism is made up of two different elements which in some cases can be treated as separate entities. What Tesla seems to be doing is making use of longitudinal electric waves which are transmitted through a standing electric field which exists between the metallic dome receivers.

It's tempting to say that longitudinal electromagnetic waves don't exist. For the most part that's true, but there are some exceptions where they can be created, like in a wave guide, for example.

But even in a wave guide, they don't have any magical properties so I don't understand the obsession with longitudinal electromagnetic waves as if they might be some kind of holy grail or something.

I don't see broad practical value in point to point wireless electricity distribution, because we transmit power from point A to millions of homes and businesses, not just point B (or a limited number of receiving stations). There are commercial wireless power transmission technologies available today, but they use ordinary transverse waves and don't use the ionosphere so don't require any balloons to send or receive the power. They aren't particularly efficient which is why use of the technology is limited to specialized applications.

By the way, D and D' in this diagram I believe are balloons:


If you and all your neighbors were flying balloons in the sky to collect the electricity, seems like it could be pretty messy...not just visually, but when the wind blows it could tangle the lines to the balloons, and balloons have a limited life with the materials they are normally made of, so unless you could come up with a better balloon design you'd be constantly replacing balloons and your power would go out each time one popped.

The balloons would need to be flown at high altitude so can you imagine the effect on air travel with all these balloons and wires going to the ground? And all this is assuming that it could be more efficient at distributing electricity than current methods, which so far nobody has demonstrated, to my knowledge.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Fascinating and thank you for a great post, I am still trying to get my head around the concept of longitudinal waveforms and the separation of the EM fields into two separately definable property's, I wonder if an inductive circuit could be produced to separate the components and as it seems he was using the earth to act as the magnetic medium while using the wave to induce movement is still hard to understand unless the inductance as you suggest was indeed through that tuned earth magnetism,.
You just got me interested in Tesla thank you.
Definite S+F and just wish I could make them bigger.
Still though the EM field transmits between coil such as in a relay or transformer through magnetic inductance, there are fields of physics that we may simply not have explored and I wonder if there really was something to this.

reply to post by Arbitrageur

If you and all your neighbors were flying balloons in the sky to collect the electricity, seems like it could be pretty messy...not just visually, but when the wind blows it could tangle the lines to the balloons, and balloons have a limited life with the materials they are normally made of, so unless you could come up with a better balloon design you'd be constantly replacing balloons and your power would go out each time one popped.

Or maybe Tesla did not envision a balloon on every house but a system similar to that used now, with his wireless system replacing long distance transmission lines but with wired systems for local distribution.

Originally posted by alldaylong
reply to post by ChaoticOrder

 

Tesla was not the inventor of AC current. That honour goes to Michael Faraday. In fact i would put Faraday ahead of Tesla in many fields. That includes the field of electromagnetism and AC current. Because Faraday was not an American you are not taught about him:-

en.wikipedia.org...

edit on 25-8-2013 by alldaylong because: (no reason given)

Well actually, the effort to bring AC to the general populace was cumulative, and there always has to be mention of Hippolyte Pixii.

Pixii was born in France and followed in his father's footsteps, becoming a builder of scientific instruments. He had a short life, dying at the age of 27in 1835. Pixii's claim to fame came as a result of English physicist MichaelFaraday's discovery of electromagnetic induction. In 1831 Faraday, experimenting with his discovery, had taken a copper disk and spun it between the poles of a permanent magnet. This created an electric current which could be drawn off the disk with a wire and put to work.

Faraday announced his discovery to the Royal Society of England and includeda description of a simple dynamo, a machine that produces electricity. Pixii,guided by Faraday's description, proceeded to build his own generator, moreefficient than Faraday's. His machine was hand-driven and had stationary coils around which revolved a field magnet. Pixii's generator produced alternating current (AC) which was of little interest at the time. Following a suggestion by French physicist André Ampère (1775-1836), Pixii installed a commutator which converted the AC into direct current (DC). Alternating current would not be utilized until 160 years later, thanks largely to the efforts of Nikola Tesla.

The device that Pixii built was essentially a working model, but it was the first practical generator built on the principle Faraday had discovered. Later, Zénobe Gramme established a very profitable business building electric generators.



Read more: www.madehow.com...

reply to post by Phage

The actual purpose of Wardenclyffe was as a wireless communications device.

And what evidence is that claim based upon? The patent clearly says it's for transmitting power wirelessly and Tesla made it pretty clear that the purpose of it was to transmit power wirelessly around the world.

The trouble with trying to transmit electricity through earth is that it is frightfully inefficient.

Well Tesla wouldn't seem to agree with that statement, but you may be right that he planned to use a single-wire system instead of a ground connection, I was thinking the same thing.

And no, electricity does not travel faster than light. Just another example of how Tesla missed the boat with his lack of understanding of electromagnetic radiation.

Tesla is not talking about electricity, he's talking about electric waves. There is a difference. He believed that he had discovered a new way to transmit electrical energy which was very different to the classical flow of electrons or classical transmission of electromagnetic radiation. For example, the wireless transmission device will still work even if placed inside a Faraday cage, which indicates that the signal being sent is not a typical electromagnetic wave. I think Tesla was far ahead of his time with his understanding of electromagnetism and he still is. We still don't properly understand how his wireless technology works to this day.

reply to post by Arbitrageur

I don't see broad practical value in point to point wireless electricity distribution, because we transmit power from point A to millions of homes and businesses, not just point B (or a limited number of receiving stations). There are commercial wireless power transmission technologies available today, but they use ordinary transverse waves and don't use the ionosphere so don't require any balloons to send or receive the power.

Tesla's device is perfectly capable of transmitting energy to millions of homes and businesses, if you read my full post you would know that. And you would also know that the round objects are metallic spheres not balloons and they do not have to be flown to a high altitude.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder

And what evidence is that claim based upon? The patent clearly says it's for transmitting power wirelessly and Tesla made it pretty clear that the purpose of it was to transmit power wirelessly around the world.

There's a patent for Wardenclyff? Here is what Telsa said during the foreclosure proceedings:

Q: Tell the Court generally, not in detail, the purpose of that tower and the equipment you have described connected with it.

A: Well, primarily the purpose of the tower, your Honor, was to telephone, to send the human voice and likeness around the globe.

www.tfcbooks.com...
He did hope to use it as a demonstrator in order to create a much larger system for power transmission. But he couldn't get it to work.

Tesla is not talking about electricity, he's talking about electric waves. There is a difference.

Yes there is. One exists and one doesn't.

There is a difference. He believed that he had discovered a new way to transmit electrical energy which was very different to the classical flow of electrons or classical transmission of electromagnetic radiation.

Yes he did believe that. He was wrong. Did did not understand what was happening.

For example, the wireless transmission device will still work even if placed inside a Faraday cage, which indicates that the signal being sent is not a typical electromagnetic wave.

Well it isn't an electromagnetic wave but can you provide some evidence that it would work inside a cage? Remember now, we are talking about high frequencies, short wavelengths, and what that implies about the design of the cage.

We still don't properly understand how his wireless technology works to this day.

On the contrary. There is a very good understanding of far field transmission and its limitations. There really is little mystery about it.
lod.org...

reply to post by alldaylong

your right faraday invented ac..tesla made it workable though

reply to post by Phage

There's a patent for Wardenclyff?

Yes... US patent number 1,119,732. It's titled "apparatus for transmitting electrical energy". I included the schematic from the patent in my opening post. I think the main purpose of it was definitely wireless energy transmission, but I see no reason why it also couldn't be used for sending communications. Both functions seem valid to me.

But he couldn't get it to work.

The construction of the tower was never fully finished due to a lack of funding.

Well it isn't an electromagnetic wave but can you provide some evidence that it would work inside a cage?

I would have to search around but I doubt any real good evidence exists on the internet besides a few YouTube videos. If Tesla believed that he could send energy to the other side of the world he must have had a reason to believe it could pass through large solid objects unimpinged. But if you don't think they are electromagnetic waves than what do you think they are?

On the contrary. There is a very good understanding of far field transmission and its limitations.

Near and far field transmission is still a subject of normal electromagnetism and don't at all explain how Tesla's technology works.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


I just noticed that the list of Tesla patents I linked to doesn't include the one about radiant energy or the Wardenclyff. Sorry about that for those of you who were wondering why you couldn't find them on that page. You can find the patents on this page if you want them: Tesla's Published Patents.

I think that in order for us to get a true appreciation of of why Tesla's wireless energy transmission technology is so important, we need to take a look at how modern day energy transmission works. As you may already know, things like wireless toothbrush chargers work via electromagnetic induction. But the main problem with electromagnetic induction is that it is limited to an extremely small distance and it's very inefficient.

The following videos show some typical induction experiments, and you can see just how inefficient electromagnetic induction is when it comes to sending energy over a long distance. When they move the coils more than a few feet apart it stops working. The wireless energy transmission technology invented by Tesla is completely different, it can work over long distances extremely well and Tesla established that without a doubt.






Now compare that with the stuff that Tesla was doing with his wireless technology, much of which can be seen in the demonstrational videos that I linked to in my opening post or other videos such as this one. There is a clear and fundamental difference between the way energy is being transmitted here. And our current scientific theories lack the ability to fully understand how Tesla's energy transmission technology works so they just ignore it.

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Good effort, though I can surmise as much, that you don't have any understanding of physics at all.

Originally posted by Angelic Resurrection
reply to post by ChaoticOrder

 

Good effort, though I can surmise as much, that you don't have any understanding of physics at all.

I'll admit that when it comes to the theories behind how Tesla's technology works, my understanding of all the physics is a bit lacking. But it's like I said in my last post, "our current scientific theories lack the ability to fully understand how Tesla's energy transmission technology works so they just ignore it". If modern science cannot even properly understand the way that Tesla's technology works then I don't feel bad for not fully understanding every aspect of it myself.

And when we talk about the theory of electromagnetism we must also keep in mind that it is an incomplete theory. In order to fully understand how electricity and magnetism and gravity all work and how they relate to each other we require a greater grand unified theory which we don't yet have. These are still major unsolved problems in physics, I think it's fair to keep an open mind on the possibilities. The only real wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder


And when we talk about the theory of electromagnetism we must also keep in mind that it is an incomplete theory. In order to fully understand how electricity and magnetism and gravity all work and how they relate to each other we require a greater grand unified theory which we don't yet have. These are still major unsolved problems in physics, I think it's fair to keep an open mind on the possibilities. The only real wisdom is knowing that you know nothing.

The UFT does exist and without addressing UFT, one cannot achieve Anti Gravity.
But since Einstein's GR has already taken hold, anything that will shake that,
will never be accepted by mainstream

Originally posted by Phage

In conclusion, there is nothing extraordinary about the Wardenclyffe tower apart from the fact that it could transmit power around the world wirelessly. That is still quite extraordinary however, and it's the real reason why the funding for the Wardenclyffe tower was pulled.

The actual purpose of Wardenclyffe was as a wireless communications device. Funding for Wardenclyffe was not pulled. He spent all the money he was given and still couldn't get it to work.

The trouble with trying to transmit electricity through earth is that it is frightfully inefficient. Since it is a non- directional system energy loss is phenomenal (inverse square) and that doesn't even take into account the variations in conductivity which occur with varying soil/rock conditions.


And no, electricity does not travel faster than light. Just another example of how Tesla missed the boat with his lack of understanding of electromagnetic radiation.

sorry Phage I know your smart but i also know your biased plus i highly doubt you hold the same amount of technical knowledge as Tesla. Its one thing to look into a book and know the answers it totally another to create the ideas and forge new ideas

reply to post by ChaoticOrder


Did you look carefully at the bottom video you posted? The conducted energy dropped down considerably by moving the device with the lightbulb just a few more inches away. What do you think happens when the distance takes on terrestrial scales, i.e. miles or hundreds of miles. Also I don't think we would really like to be living anywhere near electrical fields that can propagate/conduct electromagnetic waves hundreds of miles.

You say that you don't know enough about E&M physics to fully understand Tesla claims, yet you seem to be saying that they are true, and that the current state of physics just doesn't get Tesla's theories. If your understanding of physics -- at least as it is currently understood -- is lacking somewhat, how do you know that it is all wet and that Tesla's theories are correct?

I read a biography of Tesla. I got the impression that he had rather myopic scientific views, and believed everything was based on electricity. That was fine and good for dealing with late 19th-century/early 20th century electrical engineering and power generation, but failed for more sophisticated subjects, including relativity, and radioactivity and fission and fuison. I believe he also thought the sun ran on electricity. It would seem that a century's worth of science and technology must have gotten a whole lot right, given that electronic devices work and experiments can be replicated. If Tesla's more far-out ideas were true and worked, someone would have capitalized on them -- as were his early inventions/achievements.

Originally posted by Phage
He spent all the money he was given and still couldn't get it to work.

this is the kind of thing you sneak in there that completely erodes your credibility sorta like how the main stream media sneaks in a few key words that change the entire meaning of what could be truthful but is not. It's not that he couldn't get it to work, it's more like he couldn't finish the construction of the tower. The tower was never completed so of course it didn't work SHEESH