Re: Ion Motors / Electrostatic Pendulum

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <Hollmike-at-aol-dot-com>

In a message dated 7/20/01 9:13:30 PM Mountain Daylight Time, 
tesla-at-pupman-dot-com writes:

<< Wasn't his idea to use the earth (essentially) like a
 giant capicitor?
 
 Ben McMillen
  >>
Basically yes, that was his idea.  I have heard speculations that he was 
planning to excite the globe via one of the Schumann Resonance frequencies(or 
maybe a harmonic of one?).  One  person suggested also that it would be 
possible extract energy from the ionosphere through an electron avalanche 
effect - enhancing the strength of the signal(don't know where I read this. 
too long ago).   I guess someone would have to try it out on a large scale to 
ever find out if it would work.  Could be similar to what they are 
experimenting with up in Alaska.  
   Just for fun, I once set up a spreadsheet to calculate the odd multiples 
of all the Schumann resonance frequencies.   Once up in the kHz range(say 
between 100 and 200 kHz), there were a fair number of frequencies that would 
be an odd multiple of several of the Schumann fundamental frequencies 
simultaneously.  Don't know if there would be any advantage to designing a 
coil to operate at one of those frequencies, but I thought I'd try making a 
coil to try it out once - just to see.  I can't think of any better frequency 
to target a coil to run at.  Of course this could entail tweaking the 
secondary by raising/lowering or adjusting the size of the toroid, which 
might be a pain, but if some advantage could be gained by doing it, it would 
be nice to find out. Even in no advantage exists,  the coil might possibly 
wind up making a lightning detector, since lightning strikes are what causes 
the earth/ionosphere to ring at those Schumann frequencies.  Who Knows??  If 
someone can tell me what flaws exist in these musings, I'd like to hear what 
they are.  I will put on my asbestos underwear and wait....
Mike