Re: Tesla myths corrected - Best text? (fwd)

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 18 Oct 2007 09:07:53 -0600
From: Gary Peterson <g.peterson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Tesla myths corrected - Best text? (fwd)

Ed inquired,
> . . . would you care to calculate the capacitance to ground of that 
> imaginary "rarified region of Earth's atmosphere  starting at an elevation 
> of about 8 kilometers (5 miles)", calculate the current that would flow in 
> it when the voltage between it and ground was 15 megavolts, calculate the 
> total allowable circuit resistance to keep the power losses as low as 
> Tesla claims[?] . . .

Not at this time, but feel free to send me your spreadsheet.

> . . . and then present a simple design of the transmitter resonators 
> {diameter, length, wire size, Q, insulation to withstand the high voltage, 
> etc.). . . .

Once again, not at this time.  Please refer to APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING 
ELECTRICAL ENERGY, Jan. 18, 1902, U.S. Patent 1,119,732, Dec. 1, 1914 ( 
www.tfcbooks.com/patents/tower.htm ) for the basic design.

> . . . I think we would all find that interesting and want to compare it 
> with the apparatus Tesla tested at Colorado Springs.

In reference to U.S. Patent 1,119,732 you will note a significant departure 
from the design of the Colorado Springs machine, which, as it turns out, was 
fatally flawed.

Dear Mr. Morgan:-

    The enclosed bears out my statement made to you over a year and a half 
ago.  The old plant has never worked beyond a few hundred miles.  Apart of 
imperfections of the apparatus design there were four defects, each of which 
was fatal to success.  It does not seem probable that the new plant will do 
much better, for these faults were of a widely different nature and 
difficult to discover.

    As to the remedies, I have protected myself in applications filed 
1900-1902, still in the office.

                              Yours faithfully,
                                                N. Tesla

The "old plant" appears to be a reference to the Colorado Springs 
Experimental Station.

As for the "remedies" protected in applications filed between 1900 and 1902, 
and "still in the office," the only patented invention meeting these 
criteria is APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING ELECTRICAL ENERGY, No. 1,119,732, 
referred to above.  Comparing the two basic circuits the most obvious 
difference is the elimination of the stand-alone extra coil or free 
[oscillating] system and the plasma coupler (see 
www.teslaradio.com/images/csn-200-6a.gif ).  The entire transmitter is now 
comprised solely of the discharging circuit-an oscillatory transformer with 
an extra coil connected directly to the elevated terminal.

The 1902 transmitter constituted a departure from the earlier transmitter 
planned for the Wardenclyffe facility (see 
www.teslaradio.com/images/014.gif ).  Rather than strictly an earth 
resonance transmitter, the new design was of the type in which a second 
conducting path would be established in the upper half-space between plant's 
elevated terminal and that of the distant receiving facility.  It is 
possible that such a transmitter could also be used to excite an earth 
resonance mode.

Other defects of the Colorado apparatus could have been the antenna feed 
point (see CSN, pp. 170, 197) and also the slender mast in contrast to the 
large diameter elevated capacity-either an oblate spheroid or toroid 
shaped-used in the Wardenclyffe design), the 1:1 aspect ratio C/S extra coil 
verses the 9.1:1 aspect ratio extra coil shown in the 1914 patent, and the 
shallow Colorado ground plate verses the 300-foot long section of pipe at 
the bottom of a 120-foot deep shaft [see 
http://www.teslaradio.com/pages/wireless.htm#Connection_to_Earth].  Also the 
considerable distance (about 350 feet) between the high-voltage power supply 
transformers and the tower-side components, including, at the very least, a 
helical resonator, could have been a problem on Long Island.  Two other 
seemingly applicable patents filed for within the specified time period and 
patented in 1900 are "Means for Increasing the Intensity of Electrical 
Oscillations," No. 787,412 and "Method of Insulating Electrical Conductors," 
No. 655,838, reissued as No. 11,865.  Both of these inventions might have 
been useful for improving the Wardenclyffe plant's performance; the first 
for the magnifying transmitter itself, the second for improving high-voltage 
power transmission between the lab building and the tower structure.

In any case, it can be seen that some major modifications were made to the 
design.  He later said,

I used the antenna.  I used it right along up to 1907.  I made my 
measurements and experiments, and I transmitted for the purpose of tests, 
energy and all that, but it never went further than is shown in the picture. 
[Nikola Tesla On His Work With Alternating Currents and Their Application to 
Wireless Telegraphy, Telephony, and Transmission of Power, Leland Anderson, 
Twenty First Century Books, p. 154.]

Regards,
Gary

Gary Peterson
Twenty First Century Books
P.O. Box 2001
Breckenridge, CO 80424-2001
g.peterson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone: 970-453-9293   Fax: 970-453-6692
www.teslaradio.com
www.teslabooks.com
www.teslascience.org


> From: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Re: Tesla myths corrected - Best text? (fwd)
>
> Not 1 megavolt, rather 12 to 15 megavolts or 100 megavolts for the
> earth-resonance based system.
>
> . . . into the plasma ionosphere . . .
>
> Not the ionosphere, rather the rarified region of Earth's atmosphere
> starting at an elevation of about 8 kilometers (5 miles)."
>
> Gary:
>
> As a proof of your thesis that the system Tesla described in the reference 
> you give later in your note would you care to calculate the capacitance to 
> ground of that imaginary "rarified region of Earth's atmosphere  starting 
> at an elevation of about 8 kilometers (5 miles)", calculate the current 
> that would flow in it when the voltage between it and ground was 15 
> megavolts, calculate the total allowable circuit resistance to keep the 
> power losses as low as Tesla claims, and then present a simple design of 
> the transmitter resonators {diameter, length, wire size, Q, insulation to 
> withstand the high voltage, etc.).  I think we would all find that 
> interesting and want to compare it with the apparatus Tesla tested at 
> Colorado Springs.  I'd also like to compare it to my own calculations of 
> the same parameters in order to see where I went wrong by so many orders 
> of magnitude.  I'd be happy to send you off line a copy of my Excel spread 
> sheet.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Ed