Understanding Tesla's Inventions

Phage

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.

It is transmission by conductance, not by broadcast, so there is no inverse square loss. And I presume he didn't take into account varying soil/rock conditions because he was transmitting through the atmosphere. The ground just acted as a Ground...a vast electron sink. Like it does in many of our systems today.

The most valuable observation made in the course of these investigations was the extraordinary behavior of the atmosphere toward electric impulses of excessive electromotive force. The experiments showed that the air at the ordinary pressure became distinctly conducting, and this opened up the wonderful prospect of transmitting large amounts of electrical energy for industrial purposes to great distances without wires, a possibility which, up to that time, was thought of only as a scientific dream. Further investigation revealed the important fact that the conductivity imparted to the air by these electrical impulses of many millions of volts increased very rapidly with the degree of rarefaction, so that air strata at very moderate altitudes, which are easily accessible, offer, to all experimental evidence, a perfect conducting path, better than a copper wire, for currents of this character.

Thus the discovery of these new properties of the atmosphere not only opened up the possibility of transmitting, without wires, energy in large amounts, but, what was still more significant, it afforded the certitude that energy could be transmitted in this manner economically. In this new system it matters little—in fact, almost nothing—whether the transmission is effected at a distance of a few miles or of a few thousand miles.

Source: Century Illustrated Magazine, June 1900, The Problem of Increasing Human Energy, Nikola Tesla
Link


Some more interesting quotage from Tesla regarding this subject:

It is difficult for a layman to grasp how an electric current can be propagated to distances of thousands of miles without diminution of intention. But it is simple after all. Distance is only a relative conception, a reflection in the mind of physical limitation. A view of electrical phenomena must be free of this delusive impression. However surprising, it is a fact that a sphere of the size of a little marble offers a greater impediment to the passage of a current than the whole earth. Every experiment, then, which can be performed with such a small sphere can likewise be carried out, and much more perfectly, with the immense globe on which we live. This is not merely a theory, but a truth established in numerous and carefully conducted experiments. When the earth is struck mechanically, as is the case in some powerful terrestrial upheaval, it vibrates like a bell, its period being measured in hours. When it is struck electrically, the charge oscillates, approximately, twelve times a second. By impressing upon it current waves of certain lengths, definitely related to its diameter, the globe is thrown into resonant vibration like a wire, stationary waves forming, the nodal and ventral regions of which can be located with mathematical precision.

This mode of conveying electrical energy to a distance is not 'wireless' in the popular sense, but a transmission through a conductor, and one which is incomparably more perfect than any artificial one. All impediments of conduction arise from confinement of the electric and magnetic fluxes to narrow channels. The globe is free of such cramping and hinderment. It is an ideal conductor because of its immensity, isolation in space, and geometrical form. Its singleness is only an apparent limitation, for by impressing upon it numerous non-interfering vibrations, the flow of energy may be directed through any number of paths which, though bodily connected, are yet perfectly distinct and separate like ever so many cables. Any apparatus, then, which can be operated through one or more wires, at distances obviously limited, can likewise be worked without artificial conductors, and with the same facility and precision, at distances without limit other than that imposed by the physical dimensions of the globe.

Source: Massie, Walter W. & Charles R. Underhill, Wireless Telegraphy & Telephony, Van Nostrand, 1908; "The Future of the Wireless Art"
Link

Just another example of how Tesla missed the boat with his lack of understanding of electromagnetic radiation.

"Missed the boat", hah. Ironic choice of words, considering U.S. Patent 0,613,809, Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vehicle or Vehicles - 1898 July 1 - Tesla "Boat" patent; Art of controlling the movements and operation of a vessel or vehicle at a distance.
Seems more like he controlled the boat using EM radiation, of which he had a profound understanding, especially for his time.

The guy held 300 patents in 26 countries for a wide variety of electrical devices and concepts. He designed and built the Niagara Falls hydroelectric power plant and polyphase distribution system. He did pioneering work in radio and x-rays.

I think you are the one not on the boat here, Phage.

reply to post by Tsurugi


Without fail, every time i read an article about Tesla there is something stated within it that is complete rubbish. In this case it is the article about the Niagara Power Station. Here is a quote from the article:-


"Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse built the first hydro-electric power plant in Niagara Falls and started the electrification of the world."

No they didn't start the electrification of the world. The worlds first AC power plant was opened 4 years earlier in London, thus beginning the electrification of the world.

en.wikipedia.org...

It was coal fired not hydro, but that doesn't take away the fact that it beat Tesla by 4 years in producing AC power on a large scale.

reply to post by alldaylong


Indeed! I didn't know that, thanks for the info. I recall seeing Ferranti's name referenced by Tesla here and there in his writings and lectures regarding high-frequency alternating currents, and the wiki link you provided says Ferranti was one of the very few experts on AC in the UK at the time of the "war of the currents"; seems likely that he and Tesla were allies in that "war" and colleagues in their field of expertise.

The science known to the us in the public, as awesome and wonderful as it is, is also empirical. That is, conventional, collegiate, corporate, establishment science is made of the observations of phenomena. The phenomena that science uses always repeat themselves given the same set of initial conditions. These creations of expected phenomena from constructed or selected conditions are facts. The body of science is made of facts like a mosaic or a structure of bricks.

However, understanding is not always included in this expertise. We don't know what gravity is. We don't know what electrons around an atom actually do. We don't know what light is or how it is fashioned from energy. Space manifests or allows field forces but we don't know what is actually happening. We don't know the origin of life, or how our brains and minds interact with knowledge.

Another mode of science, like the Ancient Greeks and Medieval Theologians tried for, uses the capabilities of the human mind as the sole apparatus of investigation (at present). Logic and imagination. The original and genuine liberals of the Age of Reason decided that liberty was a good thing by this method. The industrial revolution followed.

Tesla said that he would think with all of the imagination and memory he could muster, and design his inventions completely in his head before he touched any materials. Perhaps Tesla discovered a fundamental law of nature in his extreme mental terrain and couldn't describe it. Or didn't want to codify it. The best kept secret is never thought of by the other.


Attempts at understanding require using ones own mind to take knowledge and put it into ones own worldview. Education can provide examples and heuristics but incorporating knowledge into ones own understanding demands time and attention, sometimes alot of time and attention. No one can do this for another.

We all need more time to think. And to actually use it for thinking. Devout thought. Everybody.

Why is thinking so hard? Maybe only lack of practice and experience

reply to post by Semicollegiate

The best kept secret is never thought of by the other.

The best kept secret is one that is never thunk at all.

Phage
reply to post by Semicollegiate

 

The best kept secret is never thought of by the other.

The best kept secret is one that is never thunk at all.

edit on 3/1/2014 by Phage because: (no reason given)

Made me think of this.



Just Awesome!

Peace,

Korg.

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...

Tesla wasn't American.....!

originally posted by: Saibotkram1988

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...

Tesla wasn't American.....!

Tesla became an American Citizen in 1891.

Look it up.

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

I've been a fan of Tesla for a long time, because of stuff he actually did invent and doesn't get credit for etc... Not the crazy BS that's... Obfuscated by everyone on both sides of the debate!

You are unfortunately mistaken in much of what you believe, and the words of Tesla in a speech he gave to some society or another at the time of all this is why I know that you're wrong...

Now, what I don't get is this interview very clearly speaks of a worldwide data and communication grid accessible to every person on Earth!

Why is that not good enough for you?

P.s: you should read the transcripts of his speech that I'm referring to...

You should also ponder how it is that Tesla was building the internet before computers existed. Or some of the early court battles around the IC, the transistor, and etc post ww2 .... And claims which were rolled back etc because of "prior art"!

I don't pretend to know even a fraction of what he was up to, but I've found some very tantalizing clues that it was so much more / more interesting and likely even more earth shaking than any of the same old debates and assertions thrown around on conspiracy sites!

I mean for a guy who didn't understand radio etc etc he sure was using it, and likely more amazing stuff pretty blatantly right in the open and people have just kept missing it for all this time!