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Giving credit to Tesla (fwd)



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 24 Apr 1998 01:06:42 +0000
From: "Patrick J. Gustafson" <gustafpj-at-uwec.edu>
To: Tesla List <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>
Subject: Giving credit to Tesla

Hello All:

    I have nearly completed my first Tesla Coil, a project of over one
year.  This coil will be given to the physics department for use in
demonstrations, but I first have to give them the background and
operation principles of the Tesla Coil.  Most of the professors haven't
a single clue about what the Tesla Coil is, does, or about the inventor.
Their loss.  I shall have to set them straight, which brings me to
questions that I have about Tesla and his work (I have to get the facts
right).

Was Tesla's largest built coil the one used in Colorado Springs?
(primary diameter approx. 75 feet, secondary approx. 10 feet tall, width
of secondary??, power input??)

Did he complete a working coil at Warderclyffe?
(I know that the transmitting tower was constructed, but the
hemisphere's copper sheeting had not been placed due to money
restraints)

I know he lived somewhat of a reclusive life, but did he ever have plans
to marry?

Tesla created a wireless power system in which he transmitted
approximately 10000 watts a distance of 26 miles from his laboratory, is
it feasible to use such systems at the present time?

In the above system, he charged the Earth to a high potential by using
his resonance coil.  This was after the fact that he found out that the
Earth acted as a plate of large capacitor for high frequency voltages
(with the lower atmosphere being the dielectric and the upper atmosphere
as the other plate), but did he ever determine an estimated capacitance
of this Earth/atmosphere system?

The skin effect is painless because of the body's(nerve endings) slow
response rate to the high frequency voltages from the Tesla Coil, what
frequency is the upper limit to the responsiveness of the nerves?  Is it
700 Hz?

That's all for now, thanks.
Patrick Gustafson, Giving credit where credit is due.