Re: Tesla Coil RF Transmitter

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

On 12 Oct 2005, at 14:55, Tesla list wrote:

> 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

I see a ton of wishful thinking and *no* hard data to back it up. In
realtiy, Tesla had no idea how conductive (lossy) the ionized
rarified air was as a conductor. There is no mention of how the "ray"
was to be generated. In short he is rhapsodizing about what at that
time was effectively science fiction. I find his real inventions much
more appealing. We would literally be living a century ago without
them.

Malcolm