V. The Magnifying Transmitter
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As I review the events of my past life I realize how subtle are the influehat shape our destinies. An i of my youth may serve to illustrate. One winter's day I mao climb a steep mountain, in pany with other boys. The snow was quite deep and a warm southerly wind made it just suitable for our purpose. We amused ourselves by throwing balls which would roll down a certain distance, gathering more or less snow, aried to outdo one another in this exg sport. Suddenly a ball was seen to go beyond the limit, swelling to enormous proportions until it became as big as a house and pluhundering into the valley below with a force that made the ground tremble. I looked on spellbound, incapable of uanding what had happened. For weeks afterward the picture of the avalanche was before my eyes and I wondered how anything so small could grow to su immense size. Ever sihat time the magnification of feeble as fasated me, and when, years later, I took up the experimental study of meical arical resonance, I was keenly ied from the very start. Possibly, had it not been for that early powerful impression, I might not have followed up the little spark I obtained with my coil and never developed my best iion, the true history of which I'll tell here for the first time.Not a few teical men, very able in their special departments, but dominated by a pedantic spirit and nearsighted, have asserted that excepting the induotor I have given to the world little of practical use. This is a grievous mistake. A new idea must not be judged by its immediate results. My alternating system of power transmission came at a psychological moment, as a long-sought ao pressing industrial questions, and altho siderable resistance had to be overe and opposing is reciled, as usual, the ercial introdu could not be long delayed. Now, pare this situation with that fronting my turbine, for example. One should think that so simple aiful an iion, possessing maures of an ideal motor, should be adopted at ond, undoubtedly, it would under similar ditions. But the prospective effect of the rotating field was not to render worthless existing maery; on the trary, it was to give it additional value. The system lent itself to erprise as well as to improvement of the old. My turbine is an advance of a character entirely different. It is a radical departure in the sehat its success would mean the abando of the antiquated types of prime movers on which billions of dollars have bee. Under such circumstahe progress must needs be sloerhaps the greatest impediment is entered in the prejudicial opinions created in the minds of experts by anized opposition.
Only the other day I had a disheartening experience when I met my friend and former assistant, Charles F. Scott, <q></q>now professor of Electrical Engineering at Yale. I had not seen him for a long time and was glad to have an opportunity for a little chat at my office. Our versation naturally enough drifted on my turbine and I became heated to a high degree. "Scott," I exclaimed, carried away by the vision of a glorious future, "my turbine will scrap all the heat-engines in the world." Scott stroked his and looked away thoughtfully, as though making a mental calculation. "That will make quite a pile of scrap," he said, a without another word!
These and other iions of mine, however, were nothing more than steps forward iain dires. In evolving them I simply followed the inborn seo improve the present devices without any special thought of our far more imperative ies. The "Magnifying Transmitter" was the product of labors extending through years, having for their chief object the solution of problems which are infinitely more important to mankind than mere industrial development.
If my memory serves me right, it was in November, 1890, that I performed a laboratory experiment which was one of the most extraordinary and spectacular ever recorded in the annals of Sce. In iigating the behaviour of high frequency currents I had satisfied myself that aric field of suffit iy could be produced in a room to light up electrodeless vacuum tubes. Accly, a transformer was built to test the theory and the first trial proved a marvelous success. It is difficult to appreciate what those strange phenome at that time. We crave for new sensations but soon bee indifferent to them. The wonders of yesterday are today on occurrences. When my tubes were first publicly exhibited they were viewed with amazement impossible to describe. From all parts of the world I received urgent invitations and numerous honors and other flattering is were offered to me, which I deed.
But in 1892 the demands became irresistible and I went to London where I delivered a lecture before the Institution of Electrical Engineers. It had been my iion to leave immediately for Paris in pliah a similar obligation, but Sir James Dewar insisted on my appearing before the Royal Institution. I was a man of firm resolve but succumbed easily to the forceful arguments of the great San. He pushed me into a chair and poured out half a glass of a wonderful brown fluid which sparkled in all sorts of iridest colors and tasted like ar. "Now," he said, "you are sitting in Faraday's chair and you are enjoying whiskey he used to drink." In both aspects it was an enviable experiehe evening I gave a demonstration before that Institution, at the termination of which Lord Rayleigh addressed the audiend his generous wave me the first start in these endeavors. I fled from London and later from Paris to escape favors showered upon me, and jouro my home where I passed through a most painful ordeal and illness. Upaining my health I began to formulate plans for the resumption of work in America. Up to that time I never realized that I possessed any particular gift of discovery but Lord Rayleigh, whom I always sidered as an ideal man of sce, had said so and if that was the case I felt that I should trate on some big idea.
One day, as I was roaming in the mountains, I sought shelter from an approag storm. The sky became with heavy clouds but somehow the rain was delayed until, all of a sudden, there was a lightning flash and a few moments after a deluge. This observatio me thinking. It was mahat the two phenomena were closely related, as cause and effect, and a little refle led me to the clusion that the electrical energy involved in the precipitation of the water was insiderable, the fun of lightning being much like that of a sensitive trigger.
Here was a stupendous possibility of achievement. If we could produce electric effects of the required quality, this whole pla and the ditions of existen it could be transformed. The sun raises the water of the os and winds drive it to distant regions where it remains in a state of most delicate balance. If it were in our power to upset it when and wherever desired, this mighty life-sustaining stream could be at will trolled. We could irrigate arid deserts, create lakes and rivers and provide motive power in unlimited amounts. This would be the most effit way of harnessing the sun to the uses of man. The mation depended on our ability to develop electric forces of the order of those in nature. It seemed a hopeless uaking, but I made up my mind to try it and immediately on my return to the Uates, in the Summer of 1892, work was begun which was to me all the more attractive, because a means of the same kind was necessary for the successful transmission of energy without wires.
The first gratifyi was obtained in the spring of the succeeding year when I reached tensions of about 1,000,000 volts with my ical coil. It was sidered a feat. Steady progress was made until the destru of my laboratory by fire in 1895, as may be judged from an article by T. C. Martin which appeared in the April number of the tury Magazihis calamity set me ba many ways and most of that year had to be devoted to planning and restru. However, as soon as circumstances permitted, I returo the task.
Although I khat higher eleotive forces were attaih apparatus of larger dimensions, I had an instinctive perception that the object could be aplished by the proper design of a paratively small and pact transformer. In carrying os with a sedary in the form of a flat spiral, as illustrated in my patents, the absence of streamers surprised me, and it was not long before I discovered that this was due to the position of the turns and their mutual a. Profiting from this observation I resorted to the use of a high tension ductor with turns of siderable diameter suffitly separated to keep down the distributed capacity, while at the same time preventing undue accumulation of the charge at any point. The application of this principle enabled me to produce pressures of 4,000,000 volts, which was about the limit obtainable in my new laboratory at Houston Street. A photograph of this transmitter ublished in the Electrical Review of November, 1898.
In order to advance further along this line I had to go into the open, and in the spring of 1899, having pleted preparations for the ere of a wireless plant, I went to Colorado where I remained for more than one year. Here I introduced other improvements and refis which made it possible to gee currents of any tension that may be desired. Those who are ied will find some information in regard to the experiments I ducted there in my article, "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy" in the tury Magazine of June, 1900, to which I have referred on a previous occasion.
I have been asked by the ELECTRICAL EXPERIMEo be quite explicit on this subject so that my young friends among the readers of the magazine will clearly uand the stru and operation of my "Magnifying Transmitter" and the purposes for which it is intended. Well, then, in the first place, it is a resonant transformer with a sedary in which the parts, charged to a high potential, are of siderable area and arranged in space along ideal enveloping surfaces of very large radii of curvature, and at proper distances from one ahereby insuring a small electric surface density everywhere so that no leak occur even if the ductor is bare. It is suitable for any frequency, from a few to many thousands of cycles per sed, and be used in the produ of currents of tremendous volume and moderate pressure, or of smaller amperage and immeromotive force. The maximum electrision is merely depe on the curvature of the surfaces on which the charged elements are situated and the area of the latter.
Judgin<bdi>?99ｌib.</bdi>g from my past experience, as much as 100,000,000 volts are perfectly practicable. Oher hand ,currents of many thousands of amperes may be obtained ienna. A plant of but very moderate dimensions is required for such performaheoretically, a terminal of less than 90 feet in diameter is suffit to develop aromotive force of that magnitude while for antenna currents of from 2,000-4,000 amperes at the usual freque need not be larger than 30 feet in diameter.
In a more restricted meaning this wireless transmitter is one in which the Hertz-wave radiation is airely negligible quantity as pared with the whole energy, under which dition the damping factor is extremely small and an enormous charge is stored in the elevated capacity. Such a circuit may then be excited with impulses of any kind, even of low frequend it will yield sinusoidal and tinuous oscillations like those of an alternator.
Taken in the narrowest significe of the term, however, it is a resonant transformer which, besides possessing these qualities, is accurately proportioo fit the globe and its electrical stants and properties, by virtue of which design it bees highly effit and effective in the wireless transmission of energy. Distance is then absolutely elimihere being no diminution iensity of the transmitted impulses. It is even possible to make the as increase with the distance from the plant acc to a mathematical law.
This iion was one of a number prised in my "World-System" of wireless transmission which I uook to ercialize on my return to New York in 1900. As to the immediate purposes of my enterprise, they were clearly outlined in a teical statement of that period from which I quote:
"The 'World-System' has resulted from a bination of several inal discoveries made by the ior in the course of long tinued researd experimentation. It makes possible not only the instantaneous and precise wireless transmission of any kind of signals, messages or characters, to all parts of the world, but also the inter-e of the existing telegraph, telephone, and nal stations without any ge in their present equipment. By its means, for instance, a telephone subscriber here may call up and talk to any other subscriber on the Globe. An inexpensive receiver, not bigger than a watch, will enable him to listen anywhere, on land or sea, to a speech delivered or music played in some other place, however distant. These examples are cited merely to give an idea of the possibilities of this great stific advance, whinihilates distand makes that perfeatural ductor, the Earth, available for all the innumerable purposes which human iy has found for a line-wire. One far-reag result of this is that any device capable of being operated thru one or more wires (at a distance obviously restricted) likewise be actuated, without artificial ductors and with the same facility and accuracy, at distao which there are no limits other than those imposed by the physical dimensions of the Globe. Thus, not only will entirely new fields for ercial exploitation be opened up by this ideal method of transmission but the old ones vastly extended. ”
The“World-System”is based on the application of the following important iions and discoveries:
1. The“Tesla Transformer” This apparatus is in the produ of electrical vibrations as revolutionary as gunpowder was in warfare. Currents many times strohan any ever geed in the usual ways, and sparks over one hundred feet long, have been produced by the ior with an instrument of this kind.
2. The“Magnifying Transmitter” This is Tesla's be?99ｌｉb. iion, a peculiar transformer specially adapted to excite the Earth, which is iransmission of electrical energy what the telescope is in astronomical observation. By the use of this marvelous device he has already set up electrical movements of greater iy than those of lightning and passed a current, suffit to light more than two hundred indest lamps, around the Globe.
3. The“Tesla Wireless System” This system prises a number of improvements and is the only means known for transmitting eically electrical energy to a distahout wires. Careful tests and measurements in e with an experimental station of great activity, erected by the ior in Colorado, have demonstrated that power in any desired amount be veyed, clear across the Globe if necessary, with a loss not exceeding a few p<mark></mark>er t.
4. The“Art of Individualization” This iion of Tesla's is to primitive 'tuning' what refined language is to unarticulated expression. It makes possible the transmission of signals or messages absolutely secret and exclusive both iive and passive aspect, that is, non-interfering as well as non-interferable. Each signal is like an individual of unmistakable identity and there is virtually no limit to the number of stations or instruments which be simultaneously operated without the slightest mutual disturbance.
5. The“Terrestrial Stationary Waves” This wonderful discovery, popularly explained, means that the Earth is respoo electrical vibrations of defich just as a tuning fork to certain waves of sound. These particular electrical vibrations, capable of powerfully exg the Globe, lend themselves to innumerable uses of great importanercially and in many other respects.
The first“World-System”power plant be put iion in nine months. With this power plant it will be practicable to attairical activities up to ten million horsepower and it is desigo serve for as many teical achievements as are possible without due expense. Among these the following may be mentioned:
1. The inter-e of the existing telegraph exges or offices all over the world;
2. The establishment of a secret and non-interferable goverelegraph service;
3. The inter-e of all the present telephone exges or offices on the Globe;
4. The universal distribution of general news, by telegraph or telephone, in e with the Press;
5. The establishment of such a“World-System”of intelligeransmission for exclusive private use;
6. The inter-e and operation of all stock tickers of the world;
7. The establishment of a“World-System”of musical distributioc.;
8. The universal registration of time by cheap clocks indig the hour with astronomical precision and requiring no attention whatever;
9. The world transmission of typed or handwritten characters, letters, checks, etc.;
10. The establishment of a universal marine serviabling the navigators of all ships to steer perfectly without pass, to determihe exact location, hour and speed, to prevent collisions and disasters, etc.;
11. The inauguration of a system of world-printing on land and sea;
12. The world reprodu of photographic pictures and all kinds of drawings or records.
I also proposed to make demonstrations in the wireless transmission of power on a small scale, but suffit to carry vi. Besides these I referred to other and inparably more important applications of my discoveries which will be disclosed at some future date.
A plant was built on Long Island with a tower 187 feet high, having a spherical terminal about 68 feet in diameter. These dimensions were adequate for the transmission of virtually any amount of energy. inally only from 200 to 300 K.W. were provided but I inteo employ later several thousand horsepower. The transmitter was to emit a wave plex of special characteristid I had devised a uhod of telephonitrol of any amount of energy.
The tower was destroyed two years ago but my projects are being developed and another one, improved in some features, will be structed. On this occasion I would tradict the widely circulated report that the structure was demolished by the Gover which owing to war ditions, might have created prejudi the minds of those who may not know that the papers, which thirty years ago ferred upohe honor of Ameri citizenship, are always kept in a safe, while my orders, diplomas, degrees, gold medals and other distins are packed away in old trunks. If this report had a foundation I would have been refunded a large sum of money which I expended in the stru of the tower. On the trary it was ierest of the Govero preserve it, particularly as it would have made possible—to mention just one valuable result—the location of a submarine in any part of the world. My plant, services, and all my improvements have always been at the disposal of the officials and ever sihe outbreak of the European flict I have been w at a sacrifi several iions of miing to aerial navigation, ship propulsion and wireless transmission which are of the greatest importao the try. Those who are well informed know that my ideas have revolutiohe industries of the Uates and I am not aware that there lives an ior who has been, in this respect, as fortunate as myself especially as regards the use of his improvements in the war. I have refrained from publicly expressing myself on this subject before as it seemed improper to dwell on personal matters while all the world was in dire trouble.
I would add further, in view of various rumors which have reached me, that Mr. J. Pierpont Man did not i himself with me in a business way but in the same large spirit in which he has assisted many other pioneers. He carried out his generous promise to the letter and it would have been most unreasoo expect from him anything more. He had the highest regard for my attais and gave me every evidence of his plete faith in my ability to ultimately achieve what I had set out to do. I am unwilling to accord to some small minded and jealous individuals the satisfa of having thwarted my efforts. These meo me nothing more than microbes of a nasty disease. My project was retarded by laws of nature. The w<dfn></dfn>orld 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.
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