Re: Tesla Coil RF Transmitter

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Gary Peterson" <gary@xxxxxxxxxxxx>


> Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>

> > "Fully developed the World System will facilitate aviation by allowing
> > the propulsive energy to be transmitted to aircraft, which will then
> > not have to carry fuel."

> What will they do for a connection to the ground to utilize the current
> that is "forced" into it?

> Ed

Tesla asserted that his system for the wireless transmission of 
electrical energy could be used for the propulsion of aircraft and 
surface vehicles. Writing to Benjamin F. Miessner in 1915 he stated,

   "In an article in the Century Magazine . . . I have related the 
circumstances which led me to develop the idea of a self-propelled 
automaton.  My experiments were begun sometime in '92 and from that 
period, on, until '95, in my laboratory at 35 South Fifth Avenue, I 
exhibited a number of contrivances and perfected plans for several 
complete automata. After the destruction of my laboratory by fire in 
'95, there was an interruption in these labors which, however, were 
resumed in '96 in my new laboratory at 46 Houston Street where I made 
more striking demonstrations, in many instances actually transmitting 
the whole motive energy to the devices instead of simply controlling 
the same from a distance. . . ."

In the article "Nikola Tesla Tells How We May Fly Eight Miles High at 
1,000 Miles an Hour" (Reconstruction, July 1919) he spoke about a 
possible technological revolution in the transmission of propulsive 
power to aircraft "through the air."

   "For years I have advocated my system of wireless transmission of 
power which is now perfectly practicable and I am looking confidently 
to its adoption and further development.  In the system I have 
developed, distance is of absolutely no consequence.  That is to say, 
a Zeppelin vessel would receive the same power whether it was 12,000 
miles away or immediately above the power plant.  The application of 
wireless power for aerial propulsion will do away with a great deal 
of complication and waste, and it is difficult to imagine that a more 
perfect means will ever be found to transport human beings to great 
distances economically.  The power supply is virtually unlimited, as 
any number of power plants can be operated together, supplying energy 
to airships just as trains running on tracks are now supplied with 
electrical energy through rails or wires.

   "The transmission of power by wireless will do away with the 
present necessity for carrying fuel on the airplane or airship.  The 
motors of the plane or airship will be energized by this transmitted 
power, and there will be no such thing as a limitation on their 
radius of action, since they can pick up power at any point on the globe.

   "The advance of science to this point, however, is attended with 
terrible risks for the world.  We are facing a condition that is 
positively appalling if we ever permit warfare to invade the earth 
again.  For up to the present war the main destructive force was 
provided by guns which are limited by the size of the projectile and 
the distance it can be thrown.  In the future nations will fight each 
other thousands of miles apart.  No soldier will see his enemy.  In 
fact future war will not be conducted by men directly but by the 
forces which if let loose may well destroy civilization 
completely.  If war comes again, I look for the extensive use of 
self-propelled air vehicles carrying enormous charges of explosive 
which will be sent from any point to another to do their destructive 
work, with no human being aboard to guide them.  The distance to 
which they can be sent is practically unlimited and the amount of 
explosive they can carry is likewise practically unlimited.  It is 
practicable to send such an air vessel say to a distance of four or 
five thousand miles and so control its course either gyroscopically 
or electrically that it will land at the exact spot where it is 
intended to have it land, within a few feet, and its cargo of 
explosive can there be detonated.

   "This cannot be done by means of the present wireless plants, but 
with a proper plant it can be done. and we have here the appalling 
prospect of a war between nations at a distance of thousands of 
miles, with weapons so destructive and demoralizing that the world 
could not endure them.  That is why there must be no more war."

In the article "Faster Liners is Tesla's Dream" (New York Sun, June 
5, 1935) he spoke about the transmission of propulsive power to ships 
at sea "through the stratosphere."

   "The principles of this high tension power, generated by shore 
plants and transmitted through the upper reaches of the air, 
illuminating the sky, turning night into day and at the same time 
supplying power, have occupied Dr. Tesla's attention on and off now 
for the past thirty-five years. . . .

   "There is a method of conveying great power to ships at sea which 
would be able to propel them across oceans at high speed. . . .

   "The principle is this.  A ray of great ionizing power is used to 
give to the atmosphere great powers of conduction.  A high tension 
current of 10,000,000 to 12,000,000 volts is then passed along the 
ray to the upper strata of the air, which strata can be broken down 
very readily and will conduct electricity very well.

   "A ship would have to have equipment for producing a similar 
ionizing ray.  The current which has passed through the stratosphere 
will strike this ray, travel down it and pass into the engines which 
propel the ship."

-- Nikola Tesla