Re: Tesla's Myth question

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

Original poster: "davep by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>" <davep-at-quik-dot-com>

Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-uswest-dot-net>
 
> Hi Ed and All,
 
> Teresa asked an honest question and deserved an honest answer...

	She got them. near as i can see.
 
> It was Tesla's intention to transmit power while developing the Tesla coils
> we all enjoy now.

	Perhaps his intention was fundamentally not practical.

>  Although I am sure he enjoyed the big sparks as much as
> we do, that really was not his goal.  Power transmission and the Tesla
> coils we know today will always be linked together.  I am sure Tesla would
> be disappointed that (for whatever reason) his world power system never
> came into being.  However, we have, at least, found a very successful use
> for his work as we all wildly build coils for the purpose of making cool
> sparks.
 
> Ed's simple statement "Over the past century no one seems to have been able
> to do so successfully" pretty much sums it all up.  We put men on the moon,
> robots on Mars, made weapons that can kill us all 1000 times over, can do
> all the calculations Tesla did in his life in a few milliseconds on our
> desk top, make high voltage capacitors out of mud ;-)...  But power
> transmission with Tesla coils is no closer now than 100 years ago.  People
> have tried really hard and gone to extraordinary lengths to try to get it
> to work, but they just have never found anything...  As knowledge increases
> in this area, it seems this goal just gets further and further away...

	Perhaps it's not practical.
	
> This topic of world power transmission has "historical" interest but today
> it just does not seem to have "practical" interest.  If one want's to
> transmit energy with a coil we can get it to go a few feet but the
> principles involved are not even close to what Tesla had proposed.

	....which is roughly what Tesla achieved.  A few feet.
	(10s of...).  cf the Colorado Springs Notes.  Perhaps the
	proposals were in error.

> I know some are disappointed that the Tesla list does not support the power
> transmission subjects more.

	It's real easy to start a mailing list, on any of several servers.

> We seem to have so many answers when it comes to building Tesla coils,
> but we seem to be useless and can only offer "talk" on power
> transmission.  Not because we are trying so hard to hide or
> suppress any thing but simply because we really don't have that much truly
> new practical information to add to the tome of what has already been said
> over and over before.

	Perhaps, as 'we' have learned more than Tesla knew, it has been
	found that the proposal was not doable. 

> As one looks through the archives, we could fill a number of books on all
> the practical coil building information in there.  However, when it comes
> to world power transmission with Tesla coils, all we can really say is
> "Over the past century, no one seems to have been able to do so
> successfully"...

	Or we could say:
		Many have tried & demonstrated good, solid reasons why
		it's not possible.

	As true an assertion, probably more so.  Many people in 1900
	believed many things which are now known not to be so.

> Thus, the Tesla list is geared toward doing what it does best.  Providing
> help and practical information on how to build better Tesla coils.

	best
	dave p