THE LOST I

TESLA INVENTIONS 1

by George Trinkaus
i

~
L:

i~ Here are the suppressed inventions of Testa intended despite their obvious
; Nikola Testa all in one place rendered potential for advancing in fundamental
in clear English and in 42 illustrations. ways the technology of modern civi~
Tesla was famous at the. turn of the lization. Among these lost inventions:
century for inventing the alternating- the disk-turbine rotary engine, the
turrent system still in use today. But testa-coil electric energy magnifier,
his later inventions, documented in high-frequency lighting systems. the
some 30 U.S. patents between 1890 magnifying transmitter, wirele~s power,
and 1921, have never been utilized as and the free-energy receiver.
~·
to Cora and Jessie

Copyright© 1988 by George Trinkaus.

All rights reserved.

Thanks to the following for various kinds of suste-

nance during the years I was preparing this and
related publications: Edwin and Lisa Ellis, Eliza-
beth Hendershot and the late George Hendershot,
the Living History Center, David and Julia Loyd,
and Betsy Trinkaus Vigil.

Contents
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Tesla (a capsule bigraphy) •••••••••••••• 2
1. Disk-Turbine Rotary Engine••••••••••••• 3
2. Spark-Gap Oscillator•••••••••••••••.••• 5
3. Tesla Coil. ............................ 8
4. Magnifying Transmitter I
Wireless Power. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 12
5. Magnifying Transmitter ll
Grounded Radio•••••••••••••••••••••• 17
6. Lighting. ............................ 23
7. 'Jransport. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 8
8. Free-Energy Receiver•••••••••••••••••• 31

HIGH VOLTAGE PRESS

I. "'-1

Preface

early Tesla dynamo

(24-pole, d.c.)

about this book

Except that I have built a tesla coil, I have no spe- also get the year of the patent. Note that this is not
cial direct knowledge of Tesla. I never knew the the year the patent was granted but the year Tesla
man. I am not his "channel." This work is, simply applied for it. Sometimes there is a meaningful
one person's distillation of the existing Tesla litera- interval. In the case of the m~gnifying transmitter,
ture. Particularly, this book is derived from Tesla's there is an interval of 13 years.
patents. I have also drawn upon his published notes In a "for more information" section that comes at
and lectures, his magazine articles, as well as the end of each chapter, you get titles from the
biographies and other secondary sources. But most Tesla literature that you may want to order. Distrib-
of my energy has gone into translating into infor- utors are cited in every entry, but the addresses of
mal English the techno-legalese of the patents. these distributors are given only on the first men-
Tesla was eloquent in English (and several other tion.
languages as well). This shows in his patents, and I
quote him extensively. But Tesla's patents, like all
patents, make tough reading, because they are not
written for the curious but are defensive, legalistic
exercises designed to protect the inventor's inter- about the author
ests. Like many of us, I have been fascinated with elec-
The bulk of the forty-two illustrations in this tricity since my youth. I was a pre-teen basement
book are from Tesla patent drawings. In the origi- experimentor and a novice-class ham (WN3UFH).
nal drawings, parts of the inventions are identified I read many of the conventional books on the sub-
with alphabetic letters or with numerals which are ject My liberal arts college offered just one course
referred to in the patent text. Since these would in electronics; I took it. Out in the corporate world,
mean nothing to you, I have taken the liberty of as an editor of textbooks, I presided over the publi-
deleting these labels and substituting appropriate cation of a series of basic electronics books for the
words to identify key components. schools. But, now, I confess: I never really under-
In the illustration you get the patent number so stood how electricity works until I read Tesla: I had
you can obtain the patent for further research. You to deschool myself to write this book.

1
Tesla

TESLA, tes'l~. Nikola (1856-1943), electrical radio broadcasting utilizing magnifying transmit-
inventor. Born Yugoslavia. Educated at the poly- ters. Built huge tower for magnifying transmitter at
technical school at Graz and at University of Wardencliff, Long Island as ftrst station in World
Prague. Worked as telephone engineer in Prague System. Received enough from Morgan to bring
and Paris. Conceived new type of electric motor station within sight of completion, then funds cut
having no commutator, as d.c. motors have, but off, project collapsed. Continued to invent into the
works on principle of rotating magnetic field pro- 1920's, but flow of patents meagre compared to
duced by polyphase alternating currents. Construct- earlier torrent which amounted to some 700 patents
ed prototype. Found nobody interested in Europe. worldwide. High-frequency inventions ignored by
Em_igrated to U.S. (1884). Worked briefly and established technology, as were disk turbine, free-
unhappily with Thomas Edison. Established own energy receiver, other inventions. Shut out by
lab and obtained patents on polyphase motors, media except for birthday press conferences. At
dynamos, transformers for a complete a.c. power these predicted microwaves, TV, beam technolo-
system. gies, cosinic-ray motor, interplanetary communica-
Formed alliance with George Westinghouse, tions, and wave-interference devices that since
who bought polyphase patents for $1 million plus have been named the "Tesla howizer" and the
royalty. With Westinghouse, engaged in struggle "Tesla shield." In the 1930's involved in wireless
against Edison to convince public of efficiency and power projects in Quebec. Last birthday media
safety of a.c. over d.c. Succeeded in getting a.c. appearance in 1940.
accepted as the electric power system worldwide. Died privately and peacefully at 87 in New York
Also with Westinghouse, lit the Chicago World's hotel room from no apparent cause in particular.
Fair, built Niagara Falls hydro-power plant, and Personal papers, including copious lab notes,
installed a.c. systems at Colorado silver mines, impounded by U.S. Government, surfaced many
other industries. By turn of the century was lifted years later at a Tesla Museum in Belgrade,
to celebrity status comparable to Edison's as media Yugoslavia. Of these notes, only a fragment, Col-
promoted him along with the expanding electric orado Springs Notes, has been published by the
power industry. Museum.
Experimenting independently in Manhattan lab,
developed and patented electric devices based on
superior capabilities of high-potential, high-fre- for more information
quency currents: tesla coil, radio, high-frequency My Inventions, Tesla's autobiography (dist. by Tesla Book Co.,
lighting, x-rays, electrotherapy. Suffered lab fire. P.O. Box 1649, Greenville, TX 75401). Enigma Fantastlque by
W. Gordon Allen, philosophic study of Tesla and Rudolph
Rebuilt, continued. Moved lab to Colorado Springs Steiner (Health Research, P.O. Box 70, Mokelumne Hill, CA
for about one year (1899). Built huge magnifying 95245). Prodigal Genius by John O'Neill, 1949 biography
transmitter. Experimented with wireless power, (Omni Publications, Box 216, Hawthorne, CA 90251). Light-
radio, earth resonance. Studied lightning. Created ning In his Hands by Inez Hunt and Wanetta Draper, 1964
biography (Ragusan Press, 2527 San Carlos Ave., San Carlos,
lightning. CA 94070). Tesla: Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney,
Returned to New Yorlc. With encouragement of 1981 biography (Prentice-Hall, dist. by Lindsay Publications,
financier J.P. Morgan, promoted a World System of P.O. Box 12, Bradley, IL 60915).

2
 - 'l

1. Disk-Turbine
Rotary Engine

T esla called it a "powerhouse in a hat." One

version developed 110 h.p. at 5000 RPM
and was less than ten inches in diameter.
drance to aircraft and other vehicles, is, in
words, caused by "the shock of the fluid against the
asperities of the solid substance" (simple resis-
Tesla believed larger turbines could achieve 1000 tance) and "from internal forces opposing molecu-
h.p. The disk-turbine rotary engine runs vibration- lar separation" (a sticking phenomenon).
free. It is cheap to manufacture because nothing but The propellent enters the intake and is nozzled
the rotor bearings. needs to be fitted to close toler- onto the disks at their perimeter. It travels over the
ances. It requires little maintenance. If necessary, spinning disks in a spiral fashion, exiting at the
the rotor can be replaced with ease. The turbine can disks' central openings and is exhausted from the
run on steam, compressed air, gasoline, or oil. casing.
Tesla notes in his patent that, in an engine driven
how it works by a fluid, "changes in the velocity and direction of
Unlike conventional turbines that use blades or movement of the fluid should be as gradual as pos-
buckets to catch the flow, Tesla's uses a set of rigid sible." This, he observes, is not the case, though, in
metal disks that, instead of battling the propelling existing engines where "sudden changes, shocks,
stream at steep angles, runs with smooth efficiency and vibrations are unavoidable."
in parallel with the flow. What drives the disks is a "The use of pistons, paddles, vanes and blades,"
peculiar adhesion that exists between the surface of notes Tesla, "necessarily introduces numerous
a body and any moving fluid. This adhesion, a bin- defects and limitations and adds to the complica-
tion, cost of production, and maintenance of the
machines." We who are stuck with the piston
engine know this all too well. The Tesla turbine is
vibration-free because the propelling fluid moves
"in natural paths or stream lines of least resistance,
free from constraint and disturbance."
The turbine is easily reversed by conducting the
propellent through the intake valve on the other
side.

internal combustion
A hollow casting is bolted to the top of the turbine
for the internal combustion mode. A glow plug or
spark plug screws into the top of this chamber.
Sticking out of the sides are the intake valves.
Interesting thing about these valves, there are no
from Tesla"s disk-turbine patent moving parts. They work on a fluidic principle.
3
ll~
I
I
The Tesla turbine's only moving part is its rotor. angular motion in order to push a spring-loaded
Imagine, a powerful internal combustion engine indicator needle over a short arc. Tesla's solution:
·vith only one moving part. the speedometer cable connects to a disk which
spins in interface with a second disk, imparting
fluidics spin to the fluid in between and, hence, to the sec-
The fluidic valve, which Tesla calls a valvular con- ond disk which moves the needle.
duit, allows easy flow in one direction but in the Interface two disks of different sizes in a fluid
other the flow gets hung up in dead-end chambers medium and "any desired ratio between speeds of
rotation may be obtained by proper selection of the
tl,ow stopped 1n this direction ) diameters of the disks," observes Tesla in his
( tl.owe easily 1n this direction
patent, thus anticipating in 1911 the fluid-drive
automatic transmission.
Tesla first worked on his turbine early in his
"buckets" deflect tl.ow
career, believing it would be a good prime mover
for his alternating-current dynamos, far superior to
fluidic valvee the reciprocal steam engines that were the work
horses of that era. But he did not get down to per-
fecting and patenting it until after the collapse of
his global broadcasting scheme (1909). By this
time the internal-combustion piston engine was
firmly rooted in Western power mechanics. Tesla
referred to "organized opposition" to his attempts
to introduce the superior engine, and so have others
Patent No. 11 329,559 (1916)
who have made the attempt since.
internal-combustion mode But Tesla still saw a glorious future for his tur-
(buckets) where it gets spun around 360 degrees, bine. To his friend, Yale engineering professor
thus forming eddies, or counter-currents that stop Charles Scott, Tesla predicted, "My turbine will
the flow as surely as if a mechanical valve were scrap all the heat engines in the world." Replied
moved into the shut position. Scott, "That would make quite a pile of scrap."
The spinning rotor creates plenty of suction to
pull fuel and air into the combustion chamber.
Tesla notes that "after a short lapse of time the
chamber becomes heated to such a degree that the for more information
ignition device may be shut off without disturbing This and any other patent cited in the illustrations or text of this
book may be ordered by patent nwnber from the U. S. Patent
the established regime." In other words, it diesels. Office, Washington, DC 20231 for $1.50. Testa's U.S. patents
The disk-turbine motor principle in reverse are collected in Tesla, Complete Patents, John Ratzlaff ed.
becomes a very efficient pump. (I'esla's Patent No. (fesla Book Co., P.O. Box 1649, Greenville, TX 75401) or Lec-
1,061,142). tures, Patents, Articles, Vojin Popovich ed. (Tesla Musewn,
dist. by Tesla Book Co.). H you have metal-working skills, you
can build a disk turbine. See "The Tesla Turbine" by R. S.
fluid drive Heden, Live Steam Magazine, Nov. 1984, for detailed drawings
The disk turbine principle is employed in the (2779 Aero Park Drive, Traverse City, Ml 49684). A recent
attempt to introduce the Tesla turbine is reported in The Spot-
speedometer, which presents the problem of having light, April30, 1984 in an article by Tom Valentine (300 Inde-
to turn the rotary motion of a vehicle's wheels to pendence Ave. SE, Washington DC 20003) 75¢.

4
I_

2. Spark-Gap H spark gap

Oscillator
E . . .,. . If,_
Patent No. 462,418 (1891)

T esla was central in establishing the 60-

cycle a.c. power system still in use
today. Yet he suspected that the more strik-
ing phenomena resided in the higher frequencies of
famous of the lost inventions, the spark-gap oscil-
lator is pivotal for Tesla as the invention that
launched him into his career in high frequencies.

electric vibration. To reach these heights, he ftrst

tried dynamos spun at higher speeds and having a
how it works:
greater number of poles than any that had existed the capacitor
before. One having as an armature a flat, radially There are only a few basic building blocks of elec-
grooved copper disk achieved 30,000 cycles, but trical circuitry. The capacitor is one of them. Tesla
Tesla wanted to go into the millions of cycles. didn't invent it, it had been around for some time,
It occurred to him that this vibratory capability arguably for millennia, but he did improve upon it
was to be found in the capacitor. With a capacitor in three of his patents. Also called condenser, the
circuit, the spark-gap oscillator, he did indeed common capacitor is just a sandwich of conductive
achieve the higher frequencies, and he did so by and nonconductive layers that serves the purpose of
nonmechanical means. The circuit was promising storing electrical charge. The simplest capacitor
enough for him to patent it as "A Method of and has just two conductive sheets separated by a sin-
Apparatus for Electrical Conversion and Distribu- gle sheet of insulation. In the capacitor shown, the
tion," for Tesla saw in it the possibility of a whole conductive elements are two metal plates. The
new system of electric lighting by means of high insulation between them is oil. In the official
frequencies. Though it was quickly succeeded by vocabulary, the plates are indeed called "plates"
the tesla coil and is not numbered among the more and the insulative layer (oil, glass, mica, or whatev-
er) is called the "dielectric."
Connect the two terminals of a capacitor into a
circuit where there is plus-minus electrical poten-
tial, and charge builds on the plates, positive on
one, negative on the other. Let this charge build for
a while, then connect the two plates through some
resistance, a coil, say, and the capacitor discharges.
Very suddenly. Tesla said that "the explosion of
dynamite is only the breath of a consumptive com-
pared with its discharge." He went on to say that
the capacitor is "the means of producing the
strongest current, the highest electrical pressure,
the greatest commotion in the medium."
The capacitor's discharge is not necessarily a sin-
gle event If it discharges into a suitable resistance,
Patent No. 447,921 (1891)
there is a rush of current outward, then back again,
as if it were bouncing off the resistance, then out,
high-frequency dynamo
and back and so forth until it peters out. The dis-

5
 charge is oscillatory, a vibration. The vibration can through conductors is alien to Tesla electric theory.
be sustained by recharging the capacitor at appro- Here is the Quaker writer Rufus Jones on the
-priate intervals. When Tesla talks of the capacitor's ether in 1920: "An intangible substance which we
discharge causing "commotion in the medium," he call ether - luminiferous (light-bearing) ether - fills
means a vibration or mix of vibrations. all space, even the space occupied by visible
The character of this vibration is determined in objects, and this ether which is capable of amazing
part by the capacity of the capacitor, that is, how vibrations, billions of times a second, is set vibrat-
much charge it will hold. This is a function of its ing at different velocities by different objects.
These vibrations bombard the minute rods of the
retina... It is responsible also for all the immensely
varied phenomena of electricity, probably, too of
cohesion and gravitation ... The dynamo and the
other electrical mechanisms which we have invent-
ed do not make or create electricity. They merely
let it come through, showing itself now as light,
now as heat, now again as motive power. But
always it was there before, unnoted, merely poten-
tial, and yet a vast surrounding ocean of energy
there behind, ready to break into active operation
when the medium was at hand for it."
Jones, who was not a scientist but a religious
Patent No, 464,667 (1891)
thinker and communicator, was making a point
capacitor about the nearness of God's power and could do so
size, the distance between plates, and the composi- by invoking the physics of his time. This would be
tion of the dielectric. Upon discharge there would difficult using the Einsteinian physics in fashion
be, typically, a fundamental vibration, some har- today, which W. Gordon Allen has called "atheistic
monics, and perhaps other commotion, maybe science."
musical, maybe not. Additional circuitry can tame Although the ether is intangible, it is assumed to
the vibration to a "pure" tone. have elastic properties, so that Tesla can say "a cir-
cuit with a large capacity behaves as a slack spring,
whereas one with a small capacity acts as a stiff
the "medium" spring vibrating more vigorously."
When Tesla speaks of "commotion in the medium," This elastic character of the ether, which you
what is the "medium?" experience palpably when you play with a pair of
In Tesla's time it was an article of faith that there magnets, is due to the medium's lust for equilibri-
existed a unified field that permeated all being um. Distorted by electrical charge (or by mag-
called the "ether." The ether as the electric medium netism or by the gravity of a material body), the
still is an article of faith in some circles, but in offi- ether seeks to restore a perfect balance between the
cial science its existence is presumed to have been polarities of positive-negative, plus-minus, yang-
disproved in the laboratory. Nevertheless, this con- yin. Voltage is the measure of ether strain or imbal-
viction about an ether ran very deep, not only ance, called potential difference, or just potential.
among scientists but among all thinkers, until only Balance is not restored from this strained condi-
about forty-some years ago when particle theory, tion in one swing-back. As we have seen with the
E=MC 2, and, finally Hiroshima frrmly established capacitor, the disturbed electric medium, like a
the new faith. plucked guitar string, over-swings the center line of
Tesla said the electron did not exist. The materi- equilibrium to one side, then to the other, again and
alistic concept of these little particles running again, and this we know as vibration.
6
 ularly the common two-electrode air-gap version.
Heating and ionizing of the air cause irregularities
in conduction and premature firing. This arcing
must be quenched. It can be to a great degree by
using a series of small gaps instead of one larger
one, or by using a rotary gap. Tesla also emersed
the gap in flowing oil, used an air blow-out, and
11(11pa-IN'electrodes even found that a magnetic field helps to quench.
For the gap Tesla substituted high-speed rotary
rotary gap switches which he called ''circuit controllers." One
has a rotor that dips into a pool of mercury, and
In this way of looking at nature, vibration is ener- another uses mercury jets to make contact.
gy, energy is vibration. So you could say that the You can operate a spark gap without a capacitor
commotion in the medium caused by the capaci- by connecting it directly to a source of sufficient
tor's discharge is energy itself. Thus, you can speak voltage. This is, of course, how our automotive
of the capacitor as an energy magnifier. Even spark plugs work, directly off the coil. (The capaci-
though a feeble potential may charge it, the sudden tor in that circuit is used to juice the ignition coil
blast of the capacitor's release plucks the medium
mightily.
The capacitor is common in modem circuitry, but
Tesla used it with much greater emphasis on its
capability as an energy magnifier and on a scale
almost unheard of today. It's difficult to find com-
mercial capacitors that meet Tesla specifications.
Builders of tesla coils and other high-voltage
devices usually must construct their own capaci-
tors. Fortunately, this can be done using readily
available materials.

how it works:
the spark gap Patent No, 609,251 (1897)
contact
A simple way to discharge a capacitor is through a
spark gap. The spark-gap oscillator is just a capaci- mercury circuit controller
tor firing into a circuit load (lamps or whatever)
through the spark gap. The opening between the primary.) The auto distributor, incidentally, is a
spark-gap electrodes determines when the capacitor rotary gap, pure Tesla.
will fire. This setting is one determinant of the fre- Early radio amateurs used spark-gap oscillators
quency of the circuit. The others are capacity and as transmitters. The capacitor was, more often than
the reactance, or bounce characteristics, of the not, left out of the circuit, but with it the transmitter
load. The potential needed to bridge the gap is in could create a greater "commotion in the medium."
the tens of thousands of volts. It takes a potential of
about 20,000 volts to break down the resistance of
just a quarter of an inch of air. The gap doesn't nec-
essarily have to be air. Tesla has referred to a gap for more information
consisting of a "film of insulation." Information on building capacitors and spark gaps is to be found
A spark gap is a switching device, a semiconduc- in Tesla Coil by George Trinkaus and Tesla Coil Secrets by R.
tor, in fact. But the spark gap is problematic, partie- A. Ford. See the end of next chapter for details on these titles.

7
3. Tesla Coil home-built tesla coil
by Robert Hedin

from the Tesla Coil

Builders Aaso. News

T esla's best-known invention takes the

spark-gap oscillator and uses it to vibrate
vigorously a coil consisting of few turns of
boosts voltage at the expense of amperage. This is
not true of Tesla's transformer. There is a real gain
in power.
heavy conductor. Inside of this primary coil sits Writing of the powerful coils he experimented
another secondary coil with hundreds of turns of with at his Colorado Springs lab, coils with outputs
slender wire. In the testa coil there is no iron core in excess of 12 million volts, Testa wrote, "It was a
as in the conventional step-up transformer, and this revelation to myself to find out that ... a single
air-core transformer differs radically in other ways. powerful streamer breaking out from a well insulat-
Recounting the birth of this invention, Tesla -ed terminal may easily convey a current of several
wrote, "Each time the condenser was discharged hundred amperes! The general impression is that
the current would quiver in the primary wire and the current in such a streamer is small."
induce corresponding oscillations in the secondary.
Thus, a transformer or induction coil on new prin- how it works
ciples was evolved Electrical effects of any desired A tesla-coil secondary has its own particular elec-
character and of intensities undreamed of before trical character determined in part by the length of
are now easily producible by perfected apparatus of that slender coiled wire. Like a guitar string of a
this kind." Elsewhere Testa wrote, "There is practi- particular length, it wants to vibrate at a particular
cally no limit to the power of an oscillator." frequency. The secondary is inductively plucked by
The conventional step-up transformer (short pri- the primary coil. The primary circuit consists of a
mary winding, long secondary on an iron core) pulsating high-voltage source (a generator or con-
ventional step-up transformer), a capacitor, a spark
gap, and the primary coil itself. This circuit must
be designed so that it vibrates at a frequency com-
patible with the frequency at which the secondary
wants to vibrate.
The primary circuit's frequency is determined by
the frequency and voltage of the source, the capaci-
ty of the capacitor, the setting of the spark gap, and
the character of the primary coil, determined in part
by the length of its winding. Now when all these
primary-circuit components are tuned to work in
harmony with each other, and the circuit's resulting
frequency is right for plucking the secondary in a
compatible rhythmic manner, the secondary
becomes at its terminal end maximally excited and
tesla coil develops huge electrical potentials, which if not put
to work, boil off as a corona of bluish light or as
8
sparks and streamers that jump to nearby conduc- they probably resembled one of Tesla's reciprocat-
tors with crackling reports. ing engines (such as Patent No. 511,916). These
Unlike the conventional iron-core step-up trans- exploited the elasticity of gases, just as his electri-
former, whose core has the effect of damping cal vibrators, like the tesla coil, exploit the elastici-
vibrations, the secondary of the Tesla transformer ty of the electric medium.
is relatively free to swing unchecked. The pulsings
from the primary coil have the effect of pushing a a new power system
child in a swing. If it's done in a rhythmic manner Tesla invented his resonant transformer, as the tesla
at just the right moment at the end of a cycle, the coil is sometimes called, to power a new type of
swing will oscillate up to great heights. Similarly, high-frequency lighting system, as his 1891 patent
with the right timing, the electrical vibration of the drawing shows. This was the first tesla coil patent.
secondary can be made to swing up to tremendous There followed a series of other patents develop-
amplitudes, voltages in the millions. This is the ing the device. All of these are for bipolar coils:
power of resonance. both ends of the secondary are connected to the
working circuit (usually lamps), as opposed to the
man-made earthquake monopolar format favored by today's basement
Tesla was fascinated with the power of resonance builders in which the top is connected to a ball or
and experimented with it not only electrically but
on the mechanical plane as well. In his Manhattan senera"Wr
lab he built mechanical vibrators and tested their
powers. One experiment got out of hand.
To a steel pillar Tesla attached a powerful little
vibrator driven by compressed air. Leaving it there,
---
transfon~~er
he went about his business. Meanwhile, down the
street, a violent quaking built up, shaking down
plaster, bursting plumbing, cracking widows, and spark gap primary
breaking heavy machinery off its anchorages. Tes-
la's vibrator had found the resonant frequency of a
deep sandy layer of subsoil beneath his building,
setting up an earthquake. Soon Testa's own build-
lamps
ing began to quake, and, just at the moment the
police burst into the lab, Tesla was seen smashing
the device with a sledge hammer, the only way he conductive wall
(optional)
could promptly stop it.
In a similar experiment, on an evening walk Paten~ No. 454,622 (1891)
through the city, Tesla attached a battery-powered
vibrator, described as being the size of an alarm tesla coil lighting system
clock, to the steel framework of a building under
construction and, adjusting it to a suitable frequen- other terminal capacitor, the bottom to ground. The
cy, set the structure into resonant vibration. The monopolar format emerges later in patents for radio
structure shook, and so did the earth under his feet. and wireless power, including Tesla's magnifying
Later Tesla boasted that he could shake down the transmitter.
Empire State Building with such a device, and, as The 1896 patent drawing shows an evolved bipo-
if this claim were not extravagant enough, he went lar coil using tandem chokes to store energy for
on to state that a large-scale resonant vibration was sudden release into the capacitor, enabling the
capable of "splitting the Earth in half." device to be powered by relatively modest inputs.
No details of Tesla's vibrators are available, but Chokes are coils wound on iron cores. They store
9
 I
ence is congratulating itself on new advances in the
lamps field.
!I Prior to recent breakthroughs, superconductivity
I' and supermagnetism were low-temperature (cryo-
circuit controller' genic) phenomena, occurring when circuits were
cooled down to near absolute zero. The new super-
conductivity at less drastically reduced tempera-
tures developed out of the cryogenic work of the
last twenty years, and this may be in debt to Tesla,
who patented a similar idea way back in 1901. Tes-
ta's patent observes that the deep cooling of con-
i ductors with agents like liquid air "results in an
extraordinary magnification of the oscillation in the
resonating circuit." Imagine the performance of a
'i supercooled tesla coil.

choke choke
no electrocution
Since we tend to associate high voltage with possi-
bly fatal electric shock it may be puzzling to learn
source that the output of a well-tuned tesla coil, though in
the millions of volts, is harmless. This is customar-
Patent No. 568,176 (1896) ily thought to be because the amperage is low (it's
bipolar tesla coil
energy as magnetism. When the charging current is conductor
interrupted, the magnetic field collapses inducing
· current in the coils which rushes in to charge the
capacitors.

superconductive
Alternating currents can be sent over long distances
with relatively low losses. This is why Tesla's early
60-cycle system triumphed over Edison's direct
current The high-frequency, high-potential output Patent No. 6S5,012 (1901)
of a tesla coil can travel over relatively light con- superconductivity
ductors for vastly greater distances than conven-
:.1 not) or it's explained in terms of something called
tional 60-cycle a.c. Losses occur to some degree
the "skin effect," which means that the current trav-
from coronal discharge but hardly at all from
els over you instead of through. But the real reason
ohmic resistance. This type of current also renders
is a matter of human frequency response. Just as
conductive materials that are normally nonconduc-
your ears cannot respond to vibrations over about
tive, rarefied gases, for example. You might say
30,000 cycles, or the eyes to light vibrations at or
these currents make a medium "super-conductive."
above ultra violet, your nervous system cannot be
Although super-magnetism is not in the picture
shocked by frequencies over about 2,000 cycles.
because high-frequency vibrations would be
severely damped by an electromagnet's iron core, it
is revealing to reflect upon the unexploited super- electrotherapy
conductivity of Tesla energy these days when sci- Now that you know it's harmless, would you
10
£_

believe ihese currents are even good for you? Fact Sears catalogs. Self"treatment was widespread.
is that a whole branch of medicine was founded on This easy access to treatment of all sorts of condi-
the healing effects of certain tesla-coil frequencies. tions led to the eventual suppression of the technol-
Tesla understood the therapeutic value of high-fre- ogy by the medical establishment.
quency vibrations. He never patented in the area Electrotherapy, however, is making a big come-
but did announce his fmdings to the medical com- back. In chiropractic and sports medicine, low-fre-
munity, and a number of devices were patented and quency a.c. and d.c. pulses are being used to kill
marketed by others. pain and exercise muscles. High-frequency elec-
Patients, by focusing certain frequencies on trotherapy is coming back in alternative healing
afflicted areas, or, in some cases, just sitting in the practices. There is an increasing appreciation of the
vicinity of vibrations from a device like the electrical nature of biological functioning and that
Lakhovsky Multiwave Oscillator, which produced some electric vibrations in the environment are
a blend of specific frequencies, were said to have harmful while others are healing. Reprints of
experienced relief from rheumatism and other Lakhovsky's works are widely read. There is a
growing conviction that cancer can be effectively
treated with high-frequency therapies.
In his experimenting over an eight-year period,
Tesla made no fewer than 50 types of oscillating
coils. He experimented with lighting and other vac-
uum effects, including x-rays. He also experiment-
ed with novel shapes for the normally cylindrical
coils, getting satisfying results from cone shapes
and flat spirals. At Colorado Springs Tesla

~~.:'
achieved phenomenally increased outputs by using
a third coil resonantly tuned to the secondary.
vacuum-tube
Observing the tremendous magnification this
type achieved, he gave much of his attention to integrat-
ing this "extra coil," as he called it, into an evolved
Patent No. 1,962,565 (1931) 2,351,055 (1941)
outsize tesla coil called the magnifying transmitter.
Lakhovsky multiwave oscillator
painful conditions. It was even considered a cure
for certain types of paralysis. Such radiations
increase the supply of blood to the area with a
warming effect (diathermy). They enhance the oxy- for more information
genation and nutritive value of the blood, increase Tesla Coil by George Trinkaus. The only contemporary how-to-
build-it book for the beginner. How Tesla did it. How you can
various secretions, and accelerate the elimination from off-the-shelf parts. $4.95 (add.70 for postage and han-
of waste products in the blood. All this promotes dling. High Voltage Press, P. 0. Box 532, Claremont, CA
healing. Electrotherapists even spoke of "broad- 91711). Tesla Coil Secrets by R. A. Ford. Reprints from the lost
casting vitamins" to the body. Reversals of cancer literature of the tesla coil with commentary {Lindsay Publica-
tions, P. 0. Box 12, Bradley, IL 60915). Tesla Coil Builders
tumor growths have beerf"documented. Lakhovsky Association News is a quarterly rich in info on coil construction
predicated that "science will discover, some day, and history (RD3 Box 181K Amy Lane, Glens Falls, NY
not only the nature of microbes by the radiation 12801). Tbe Body Electric by Robert Becker {Liberty library,
they produce, but also a method of killing disease 300 Independence Ave. SE, Washington, DC 20003). Tbe
Secret of Life by Georges Lakhovsky from liberty library or
within the body by radiations." Health Research, (P. 0. Box 70, Mokelumne Hill, CA 95245).
Electrotherapy devices were sold directly to the Resonant Transformer Design Parameters,by D.C. Cox
public via ads in popular magazines and in the {Tesla Book Co.) is for engineers and advanced builders.

11
l
there and lose itself harmlessly in the air." Tesla wanted centralized power and needed a.c.'s long-
advises bringing the power up slowly and carefully distance capability to serve huge spmwling popula-
so pressure does not build at some point below the tions.
antenna, in which case "a ball of fire might break George Westinghouse, an inventor (the airbrake)
out and destroy the support or anything else in the who, like Edison, turned industrialist (having found
way," an event that "may take place with that to profit from an invention one must undertake
inconceivable violence." Current in the antenna manufacturing and marketing as well) saw the
could build to an incredible 4000 amperes. promise in Testa's polyphase inventions and
formed an alliance with the young prodigy.
a.cJd.c. Westinghouse paid Tesla one million dollars and
Wireless power transmission via the magnifying contracted to pay a royalty of one dollar per horse-
transmitter was the ultimate development of the power for the polyphase inventions. Later Westing-
inventor who had earlier brought alternating-cur- house was_forced to renege on the royalty. Togeth-
rent power to the world with his polyphase system. er, Westinghouse and Tesla triumphed over Edis-
The predecessor of a.c. was a direct-current system on's d.c. system and installed the first a.c. power
developed, manufactured, and marketed chiefly by facilities, the most notable being the hydro plant at
Thomas Edison. Direct current was adequate for Niagara Falls.
serving small areas but was unworkable for long- Tesla believed in hydro power. His ultimate ener-
distance transmission. By contrast, a.c. could be gy-magnifying, wireless power system would have
transmitted for long distances over lighter wires been hydro-based.
and its voltage could be stepped up for transmis- The centralized a.c. electric power system we
sion and down for consumption by means of trans- have today was forced into existence on a colossal
formers. Tesla invented from scmtch a new kind of scale by utility magnates of that era, the most
motor (polyphase) that could utilize a.c., and he prominent being Samuel Insull, who became infa-
mous in some circles for his massive bilking of the
investing public and famous in others for hammer-
ing together the electric power complex now in
place. This complex has developed into a federally
2-phase generator protected monopoly with greater capital wealth
than any other industry in the U. S. In the order of
energy sources used, Testa's hydro power has been
left well behind the burning of fossil fuels, a pro-
cess that dumps 24 million tons of pollutants into
the nation's air supply each year. Hydro power even
runs way behind the nukes in kilowatt hours pro-
duced. So went another Tesla dream.
Testa was a celebrity in his polyphase heyday, but
Patent No, 381,968 today his celebrity is as an underground cult figure
known for his radically progressive energy-magni-
polyphase motor fying, free-energy, and wireless power inventions,
which, of course, have no place in the established
system.
greatly evolved earlier concepts of dynamos to
genemte a.c. as well as transformers to step voltage
up and down. Whereas Edison's d.c. would have power by wire
been suitable for a society of small, autonomous Prior to his wireless power inventions, Testa
communities, the evolving system of industrial rule patented in 1897 a high frequency system that
13
 ~~IH!IIIn
balt-apberlul~
.. tal platee
toroid

4. Magnifying
Transmitter I
Wireless Power

ineulatinc
support-

I n 1893 Tesla told a meeting of the National

Electric Light Association that he believed it
"practical to disturb, by means of powerful
properly radiating its "immense electrical activities,
measured in the tens and even hundreds of thou-
sands of horsepower," as Testa put it. Containment
machines, the electrostatic conditions of the earth,
and thus transmit intelligible signals, and, perhaps, and effective radiation of this power is the whole
power". He said, "It could not require a great point of the design shown, for which Testa applied
for patent in 1902.
amount of energy to produce a disturbance percep-
tible at a great distance, or even all over the surface The heavy primary is wound on top of the sec-
of the earth." The ultimate "powerful machine" for ondary at the base of the tower. The extra coil
these tasks is Testa's magnifying transmitter. extends upward through a hooded connection to a
conductive cylinder. The antenna is a toroid, a
how it works donut-shaped geometry that allows for a maximum
of surface area with a comparative minimum of
An extra coil gives the resonant boost of a testa-
electrical capacity. Since this is a high-frequency
coil secondary but has the advantage of being more device, a relatively low capacity is desirable. To
independent in its movement A secondary, being
closely slaved to the primary, is inhibited some- increase the area of the radiating surface, the out-
side of the toroid is covered with half-spherical
what by it, its oscillations slightly damped. The
me~l plates. A subtlety of the design is that the
iL extra coil is able to swing more freely. "Extra
conductive cylinder is of larger radius than the
coils," writes Tesla, "enable the obtainment of
radius of curvature of these plates, since a tighter
practically any emf, the limits being so far remote
curve would allow escape of energy. The cylinder
that I would not hesitate to produce sparks of thou-
sands of feet in this manner." is polished to minimize losses through irregulari-
ties in the surface. At the center of the top surface •
The engineering challenge of the magnifying
r/ sits a pointy plate that serves as a safety valve for
transmitter, then, becomes one of containing and
:i overloads so "the powerful discharge may dart out
12
 .. tel platee
~~~~~Ill~
baH-opberic•l=
.
toroid tenoinal
(antenna)

4. Magnifying
Transmitter I
Wireless Power

insula tin& conductive

support - ~ylinder f.1

!I I n 1893 Tesla told a meeting of the National

Electric Light Association that he believed it
"practical to disturb, by means of powerful
properly radiating its "immense electrical activities,
measured in the tens and even hundreds of thou-
sands of horsepower," as Tesla put it. Containment
machines, the electrostatic conditions of the earth, and effective radiation of this power is the whole
,l, and thus transmit intelligible signals, and, perhaps, point of the design shown, for which Tesla applied
'I power". He said, "It could not require a great for patent in 1902.
amount of energy to produce a disturbance percep- The heavy primary is wound on top of the sec-
tible at a great distance, or even all over the surface ondary at the base of the tower. The extra coil
of the earth." The ultimate "powerful machine" for extends upward through a hooded connection to a
these tasks is Tesla's magnifying transmitter. conductive cylinder. The antenna is a toroid, a
donut-shaped geometry that allows for a maximum
how it works of surface area with a comparative minimum of
An extra coil gives the resonant boost of a testa- electrical capacity. Since this is a high-frequency
coil secondary but has the advantage of being more device, a relatively low capacity is desirable. To
independent in its movement. A secondary, being increase the area of the radiating surface, the out-
closely slaved to the primary, is inhibited some- side of the toroid is covered with half-spherical
what by it, its oscillations slightly damped. The me~l plates. A subtlety of the design is that the
extra coil is able to swing more freely. "Extra conductive cylinder is of larger radius than the
coils," writes Tesla, "enable the obtainment of radius of curvature of these plates, since a tighter
practically any emf, the limits being so far remote curve would allow escape of energy. The cylinder
that I would not hesitate to produce sparks of thou- is polished to minimize losses through irregulari-
sands of feet in this manner." ties in the surface. At the center of the top surface •
The engineering challenge of the magnifying sits a pointy plate that serves as a safety valve for
transmitter, then, becomes one of containing and overloads so "the powerful discharge may dart out

12
11 1
1
·:!

transmitted power by wire. The system used previ- as if they were redundant The ball antenna is pecu-
ously unheard of levels of electric potential. He liarly Tesla, as is the toroid, and you wonder why
notes that at these voltages, conventional power nothing like them have appeared since.
would destroy the equipment, but that his system In this 1900 patent, wireless power is not repre-
not only contains this energy but is harmless to sented as an earth-resonant system. Here Tesla
handle while in use. talks about transmission through "elevated strata."
This system is not a circuit in the usual sense but The patent contains much discussion of how rari-
a single wire without return. It employs the familiar fied gases in the upper atmosphere became quite
tesla-coil configurations at both sending and conductive when there is applied "many hundred
thousand or millions of volts." Balloons are sug-
gested to send the antennas aloft.
Appreciate that Testa in this patent has invented
nothing less than the principles of radio. Tesla rec-
ognizes only a quantitative difference between
sending radio signals and broadcasting electric
power. Both involve sending and receiving stations
tuned to one another by means of tesla-coil circuits.
Testa's wireless power would be the ultimate cen-
tralized electric system, a capitalist dream, but for
the fact that the technology is too simple. Recep-
tion of power could be achieved just by raising an

"I':
!,!
!II aerial capacity
.. f
(antenna}
lamps and other loads

l
tl
I Patent No. 593,138 {1897}

power by wire

receiving ends. The primary circuit (power source,

capacitor, spark gap) is represented in the drawing spiral secondary
by the generator symbol The secondary coil is a
flat spiral. An advantage in this coil design is that
the voltage adjacent to the primary, where arcing
across could occur, is at zero and soars to high val-
ues as the coil spirals inward The same patent also
shows a cone-shaped secondary in which the pri-
mary is at the base of the cone, which is at zero
potential.

wireless power
The drawing for Testa's wireless power patent lampe and other loads
looks like the earlier power-by-wire patent except Patent No. 645,576 {1900)
now spherical antennas replace the transmission
lines, which are dropped out of the picture almost wireless power
14

ji
l
antenna, planting a ground, and connecting simple examiners). A 50,000-volt transformer charged a
tesla-coil circuitry in between. Although Tesla him- eapacitor of .004 mfd., which discharged through a
self patented a couple of electric meters for high rotary gap that gave 5,000 breaks per second. The
frequencies, it would be all too easy for consumers eight-foot diameter primary had just one tum of
to tune in for free, just as many today bootleg pay stout stranded cable. The secondary was 50 turns of
tv signals using illicit equipment far more sophisti- heavily insulated No. 8 wire wound as a flat spiral.
cated. It is no wonder, then, that the electric power It vibrated at 230-250,000 cycles and produced 2 to
establishment didn't welcome this invention. This 4 million volts.
was one problem. Another was that the established This coil evolved into the huge experimental
electric power system would have to be relegated magnifyin~ transmitter Tesla describes in his Col-
to another great pile of scrap, and maybe the estab- orado Springs notes. Housed in a specially built
lished system of political power as well. Tesla's lab 110 feet square, the device used a 50,000 volt
announced dream was to use hydro sources where Westinghouse transformer to charge a capacitor
available and through wireless power broadcast that that consisted of a galvanized tub full of salt water
energy around the planet, thus liberating the world as an electrolyte, into which he placed large glass
from poverty. Such a scheme would not be readily bottles, themselves containing salt water. The salt
embraced by powers that sustain their rule by water in the tub was one "plate" of this capacitor,
keeping populations poor and weak. Centralized the salt water inside the bottles the other "plate,"
control of energy, as well as other resources, is, of and the bottle glass the dielectric. Various capaci-
course, believed to be essential to civilized rule, at ties were tried, incremental changes being made by
least as far as thinking on that subject has connecting more or fewer bottles. A variable tun-
progressed in this era. Moreover, no multinational ing coil of 20 turns was connected to the primary
political system was in existence, or is now for that which consisted of two turns of heavy insulated
matter, that could implement a technology of such cable that ran around the base of the huge fence-
global implications. like wooden secondary framework. The secondary
Tesla was blind to such considerations. His com- had 24 turns of No. 8 wire on a diameter of_51 feet
mitment, his overriding priority as a technological Various extra coils were tried, the final version
purist, was to take machine possibilities to their being 12 feet high, 8 feet in diameter, and having
logical conclusions. 100 turns of No.8 wire. The antenna was a 30-inch
Today, if wireless power were seriously pro- conductive ball adjustable for height on a 142-foot
posed, there would no doubt be at least one politi- mast. The huge transmitter could vibrate from 45 to
cal problem that would not have arisen in Tesla's 150 kilocycles.
time: resistance from environmentalists. What Even with the big transformer, this bill of materi-
would an environmental impact report have to say als does not seem inaccessible to enterprising peo-
about biologic hazards? A Navy submarine ple, and the technology does not seem so abstruse,
communication system that uses extremely low fre- so it is no wonder that people have gotten together
quency (ELF) waves, down to below 10 cycles, has to build magnifying transmitters and experiment
been challenged by environmentalists, as have with wireless power without support from corpora-
microwave and 60-cycle high-voltage transmission tions or government. One such group was the Peo-
lines. ple's Power Project in central Minnesota in the late
70's. This group, largely farmers, objected to high
engineering details voltage power lines trespassing on their land and
Patents normally don't give many quantitative set out to build an alternative. Limited by the
specifics, but Tesla's wireless power patent does sketchy information then available, the project was
give some about the big prototype power-transmis- not successful. Another attempt, called Project
sion tesla coil (which was, incidentally, used to Tesla, is being set up in Colorado as I write,
conduct a demonstration before skeptical patent Endowed with more precise calculations and more
15
wrm-~-- -

experienced personnel, Project Tesla will try to thunder heard 15 miles distant, and, in the process,
repeat Testa's wireless-power experiment and veri- pulled so many amperes that he burned out the
fy his theory by taking measurements at various municipal generator. In another experiment he lit
remote locations. up wirelessly, at a distance of 26 miles from the
lab, a bank of 10,000 watts worth of incandescent
earth resonance bulbs.
Among the appealing features of Colorado Springs Two years after Colorado Springs, Tesla applied
for Tesla was the region's frequent and sensational for patent for the far more refined magnifying
electrical storms. For Tesla, lightning was a joyous transmitter shown at the opening of this chapter, a
phenomenon. Biographers report that, during patent that was not granted until a dozen years
storms back East, Tesla would throw open the win- later. In this patent he no longer speaks of energy
dows of his New York lab and recline on a couch broadcast through the "upper strata" of the atmo-
for the duration, muttering to himself ecstatically. sphere but of a "grounded resonant circuit."
In Colorado Springs he tuned in and tracked light- Tesla predicted that his magnifying transmitter
ning storms using rudimentary radio receiving would "prove most important and valuable to
equipment. He thereby determined that lightning future generations," that it would bring about an
I was a vibratory phenomenon which set up standing "industrial revolution" and make possible great
waves bouncing within the earth at a frequency res-

l
"humanitarian achievements." Instead, as we shall
onantly compatible with the earth's electrical see, the magnifying transmitter became Tesla's
capacity. This earth-resonant frequency, he rea- Waterloo.
soned, was the ideal frequency for wireless power
transmission, and he tuned his ultimate magnifying
il transmitter accordingly.
The literature contains various reports on exactly
II'I what this frequency is. Some say 150 kilocycles, for more information
Colorado Springs Notes (NoLit, Belgrade, Yugoslavia, dis-
which would be at the upper range of the Colorado
il Springs transmitter. Others give frequencies con-
siderably lower, 11.78 cycles, 6.8 cycles, frequen-
tributed by Health Research). Serbo-Croation Diary Compar-
isons John Ratzlaff ed. (fesla Book Co.): There are some curi-
ous discrepancies between the Serbo-Croation Colorado Springs
l
t i;···'I
cies Tesla's transmitter may have achieved harmon- Notes and the English translation which this book exists to
li ically. demonstrate. The Tesla Experiment, an attempt to duplicate
!I With reinforcement from the earth resonance, the
Tesla's lightning tracking and earth resonance experiment (fesla
Book Co.). Edison, a biography by Matthew Josephson
ij power would actually increase in the process of (McGraw-Hill, distributed by Lindsay). For more on the Peo-
I transmission. ple's Power Project see Assorted Tesla Articles, Nick Basura,
ed. (fesla Book Co.). If you want to contribute to Project Tesla,
i In one memorable experiment with the Colorado write P. 0. Box 277, Leadville, CO 80461. The Co Evolution
Springs transmitter, Tesla shot from the antenna Quarterly, "Tesla" and "Three Forefathers", Winter, 1977n8
ball veritable lightning bolts of 135 feet, producing (Box 428 Sausalito, CA 94965)

I
i
:I
il
I
'I
'I
'i
16
 -·---·-- ·----------. --~--

5. Magnifying
Transmitter II
Grounded Radio

W ith the backing of J. P. Morgan, Testa

began, soon after returning from Col-
orado Springs, the construction of a
housed generating and other equipment. The entire
project was to cover 200 acres and include housing
for 2,000 employees of the facility. Tesla estimated
magnifying transmitter tower at Wardencliff, ·near that the tower would "emit a wave complex of a
Shoreham, Long Island. Though closely related to total maximum activity of 10 million horsepower."
a wireless power propagator and intended for fur- The top of the tower was outfitted with a platform
ther experimentation in that area, the tower was that may have been intended to accommodate pow-
built specifically as the frrst station in Testa's pro- erful ultraviolet lamps which Tesla could have used
posed World System of broadcasting. The system for an experimental beam system of electric power
was to carry programming for the general public as transmission that was on his mind. The tower struc-
well as private communications. Testa was the frrst ture and building beneath were built and partially
to suggest the broadcasting of news and entertain- equipped, but they never saw operation.
ment to the public; only point-to-point signalling
had been experimented with up to then. The fully
realized World System was to serve as a multi-fre- father of radio?
quency wireless interconnect for all existing tele- As we have seen, Testa's earliest oscillators were
phone, telegraph, and stock ticker services around dynamos, but, having determined that he could not
the planet Exclusivity and noninterference of pri- reach the higher frequencies by this means, he went
ority private communications was to be assured by on to develop the spark-gap oscillator, the tesla
multiplex techniques. The giant transmitter was coil, and the magnifying transmitter. But did any of
also to carry a universal time register, navigation these devices become the first to be used for over-
beacons, and facsimile transmissions. This was in seas radio transmission? No. Ironically, the,first
1902. As we shall see, Testa's massive contribution commercial overseas transmitter was a 21.8 kilocy-
to radio is still largely unrecognized. cle GE Alexanderson alternator operated by RCA,
The Wardencliff tower's rugged wooden struc- a design evolved straight out of Testa's early
ture, designed by Stanford White, stood at 187 feet dynamos. Such was Testa's luck in radio.
It was topped by a mushroom-like terminal 68 feet Official histories often credit Tesla with the
in diameter. A separate brick building at the foot polyphase system and either ignore his later inven-
17
~
~--~-

!;!:

:j
.I

tions altogether or dismiss them as the work of a

crackpot. But among those who have published
:i honest research on the subject, there ~ one hundred
percent consensus that Testa was cheated out of his
rightful place in history, particularly his status as
the leading inventor of radio technology.

radio simplified
Early radio devices are fascinating and worthy of
study if only because they remind us that powerful
radio technologies can be so simple and accessible
I to anyone, the present-day microcomplexity
coherer

notwithstanding.
As we have seen, the earliest transmitters in wide
use by amateurs were not alternators but spark-gap
-.
oscillators. To get on the air all you needed was a coherer receiver
battery, a telegraph key, an induction coil, a spark placed in series with a battery and a telegraph
gap, a length of wire as an antenna, and a ground. sounder, and one side of the coherer goes to the
antenna, the other to ground. The coperer is a
switch (a semiconductor, really) that conducts
antenna when there is a disturbance of the medium. The
I more easily conducted radio-frequency energy trig-
gers conduction of this almost conductive material.
I
. '!
telegraph key
To get the coherer back to a nonconducting state
requires a tap that can be accomplished manually
lll t fi
or by mechanical linkage to the telegraph sounder.
Testa comes into the technology about here. He
improves the coherer by putting it into continual
--battery
capacitor rotation (rotating coherer) so it didn't need a tap to
,I (optional)
reset.

1 induction coil
tuned radio
The spark gap transmitter was indiscriminate as to
the frequency of the disturbance. It put out a dirty
ground complex of frequencies consisting of a rough fun-
damental determined by width of gap, together
i.i
spark-gap transmitter with parasitic oscillations, harmonics, splatter,
what-have-you. The coherer was set off by any dis-
I Of course, the addition of a capacitor juiced it up turbance. In Colorado Springs, Testa used a rotat-
I.h
I
II
•1
considerably. ing coherer to track electrical storms.
The very earliest experiments in radio receiving The celebrated Marconi employed nothing more
used spark gaps as receivers. When you saw an arc evolved than this crash method of signalling. So
across the gap, this was the detection of a distur- why is Marconi so famous? Because, like Edison
bance in the medium. This evolved into a detector and Westinghouse, he built up an industry around
called a coherer. This is just a horizontal glass tube the invention and made himself famous in the
loosely filled with metal chips (iron, nickel). It is course of promoting his enterprise. Marconi's com-

18
'l
ii
 ' --·------ --~--

pany was ultimately incorporated into RCA (now the universe that put him at odds with official theo-
incorporated into General Electric). It owed much ry. In fashion then (and even now) was the theory
of its technological development to ideas lifted of Heinrich Hertz, an interpreter of the physics of
from the likes of Tesla. James Maxwell. Hertz explained radio propagation
Testa's contribution was nothing less than selec- as transverse waves akin to light. Tesla was con-
tive tuning. He set forth the principle of resonantly vinced that radio disturbances were standing waves
tuned circuits in his tesla coil patent of 1896, and in the ether akin to sound. When you drop a pebble
the principles of transmitter-receiver tuned circuits into water, the disturbances you see in the form of

( a year later in his wireless power patent.

The tesla coil is a powerful and simple radio
transmitter. If the primary circuit is smoothly
concentric circles are standing waves. Both Tesla
and Hertz assumed the existence of an etheric
medium, but differed as to its energy transmitting
vibrating well above the audio range, its signal can properties. Tesla believed that the ether was a gas-
even be modulated for voice transmission by vary- like medium, that electric propagation was very
ing some circuit element. Testa's few published much like that of sounds in air, "alternate compres-
notes on modulation describe crude ways of vary- sions and rarefactions of the medium," and that
ing spark gaps, but, conceivably, an inductance Hertzian waves could only take place in a solid
core mechanically linked to a loudspeaker trans- medium. Tesla once said that Hertz waves are
ducer might modulate the signal with some fidelity. "radiations" and that "no energy could be economi-
Tesla and his supporters waged a fight for recog- cally transmitted to a distance by any such agency."
nition of Tesla as the founder of radio. The struggle He said, "In my system, the process is one of true
was finally won in the Supreme Court, but this did conduction which can be effected at the greatest
not happen until shortly after Testa's death. distance without appreciable loss."
When quantum physics and particle theory came
Tesla vs Hertz into vogue, the etheric medium was dropped out of
Tesla was not a theoretician by calling, but he made electric theory altogether, but Hertz's theory was
plenty of observations on the electrical nature of more compatible with the new concepts of propa-
gation and therefore survived. By way of rubbing
this in, the unit of frequency, formerly cycles per
second (cps), was renamed in honor of Hertz (hz),
rotary break syncs while Tesla is remembered only by an obscure unit
with signal of magnetic flux density. It is in respect to Tesla
that I have reverted to the old unit in this book.
Hertzian radio is straight-line, light-like radia-
tions that bounce off hills and mountains. Long-
distance Hertzian transmissions are explained in
terms of radiations bouncing off a radio reflective
upper layer called the ionosphere. Tesla thought
... this was all nonsense and declared in 1919 that
Hertzian thinking "has stifled creative effort in the
wireless art and retarded it for 25 years."
break controls Hertzian radio is aerial. Most of us are .condi-
capacitor discharge tioned to thinking in terms of aerial radio; "the air
waves," "on the air." Tesla's radio is grounded; the
transmitter receiver lower end of the energized coil is rooted in the
Patent No, 787,412 (1900) earth. Pure Hertzian radio has no such natural load.
Tesla doesn't speak of antennas as such; the ele-
a Tesla radio system ment he places aloft is an "elevated capacity." Tesla
19
~m,J
ll :,
j':'
i:
- j 'I ~,1

' said radio devices "should be designed with due complex amplification circuitry. Tesla watched this
regard to the physical properties of this planet and development with bewilderment.
the electrical conditions obtaining in same." Tesla knew that the most efficient long-distance
Grounded radio is indeed more powerful than the radio took place in the lower frequencies, especial-
Hertzian aerial. But this is true particularly for the ly those close to the earth- resonant frequency. Fre-
frequencies Tesla was using. The higher frequen- quencies well below the AM broadcast band were
cies do behave in a Hertzian manner. Yet grounding the favored ham frequencies in the early days prior
is all but a lost concept in consumer electronics. Up to World War I. In fact, waves of 600 meters (500
kc) were considered "short" while considered "fair-
ly long" were the waves of 1200 meters (25 kc).
Like a lot of good real estate, many of these more

!:.'
9 radio-effective frequencies below the AM broad-
cast band have been appropriated for military use,
!;

I
i· i
6
Hertz oscillo!ol' of
but also for navigation beacons, weather stations,
(Jtovnd'tl DJcillator and time registers.
'e.DI ene'9y in~ffedtite afsmall ~nuqy
higltfy dfecT;ve
underground radio
The mind conditioned by Hertzian aerial radio con-
~ cepts has trouble grasping the idea that signalling
•..•.•-;.; ...- ~;; ;; • -,;·-..>[:'!i?.,T.;?'J'ZT.· ...,. .....•••••
~ ... ··~-~:~~~-. can take place without any above-surface antenna,
from Tesla's article "The totally through the ground. James Harris Rogers,
True Wireless" (1919)
taking a cue from Tesla, circa World War I, built a
radio system in which both sending and receiving
Herzian vs. Tesla radio antennas were sunk completely into the ground or
submerged in bodies of water. He found this sys-
through the 1940's, AM radio receivers customarily
i had a terminal one was encouraged to connect to a
tem far more effective and far l~ss vulnerable to
'\ i cold water pipe or other deep earth connection.
Ground the chassis of any of today's receivers, and,
:,I,
~

I'
I
unless there is some kind of interference coming up
through the ground (from fluorescent circuits, light
-r-
dimmers, which are oscillators, or from the local
tesla coil), you will usually improve signal strength
and range.
Among Tesla's contributions to radio was remote
control. Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat
before crowds at Madison Square Gardens and sent
another robot craft 25 miles up the Hudson River.
Grounded radio works particularly well through
water.
1:'
I
Tesla's basic radio tuning "tank" circuit for
receiving (coil plus capacitor between antenna and
ground) is, all by itself, a powerful signal amplifier
and a beautifully simple one. But as radio devel- Patent No. 613,8o9 (1898)
OJ>f'Al over the years, the tank circuit shrank in size
and the result was a loss in gain. This was compen-
robot boat
sated for by the addition of stage upon stage of

20
 ------- "'- ---------- --~---

interference than any aerial radio. Signal strength behind the formation of many monopolies in rail-
has been said to be 5,000 times stronger. roads, shipping, steel, banking, etc., was a major
The military is on to this, as evidenced in the conduit of European capital into U. S. industrial
Navy's ELF and by aU. S. Air Force project under- development in the Robber Baron era. He looms
way called Ground Wave Emergency Network. large in Tesla's life. Morgan money was in the Nia-
GWEN is a low-frequency communications system gara Falls project. He backed Edison, too. It was
designed for used during a nuclear war. The net- Morgan's pressure on Westinghouse, whom he also
work will have a cross-continent series of 600-foot financed, that caused the cancellation of Tesla's
' dollar-a-horsepower contract and the loss of mil-
lions in royalties to Tesla for his polyphase.
When Tesla's lab burned down (arson was sus-
"'~
germanium pected), one of Morgan's men promptly arrived
diode with aid, as well as with the offer of a partnership
with Morgan interests. Acceptance would have put
Tesla firmly under Morgan's control. Tesla refused.
And Tesla succeeded in preserving his autonomy
until he became possessed with overwhelming
tank
circuit ardor to fulfill the dream of his World system.
Tesla was ready to sell his soul to finance Warden-
cliff, and J. P. Morgan was right there to buy it.
In 1901 Tesla signed over to Morgan controlling
interest in the patents he still owned, as well as all

coupling coil

crystal receiver
diameter underground copper screens connected to
300-foot towers reminiscent of Tesla's Wardencliff.
Among the advantages of the system is its invul-
nerability to the effects of the electric pulse sent
out by nuclear blasts. Such a pulse fries at one
stroke any and all solid-state electronics within its
extensive range. (Strong electric vibrations from a
tesla coil or magnifying transmitter have a similar
effect on solid state and will scramble or disable

[ such circuitry temporarily or even dud it perma-

nently.) It's revealing that for last-ditch doomsday
communications, the government reverts to Tesla's
grounded radio.

J.P. Morgan sinks Tesla

Tesla's ambitious World System came to an end
Patent No. 1,315,862 (1918)
when its principal financier, J.P. Morgan pulled the
plug on funding. Morgan, the financial giant

21
 future ones, in lighting and radio. Morgan then put
about $150,000 start-up funding into Wardencliff.
Later he invested more, just enough to bring the
project within sight of completion. Morgan then
became elusive. Tesla tried desperately to commu-
.IL I nicate with the investor, but to no avail. When
word was out on Wall Street that Morgan had with-
drawn support, no one would touch the project.
This fmished Tesla as a functioning inventor.
Work on the Wardencliff tower came to a halt.
Left to dereliction, the tower remained only as a
curiosity to passersby. During World War I, the
tower was unceremoniously dynamited to the
ground.

j, for more information

Solutions to Tesla's Secrets, Bearden and Ratzlaff (Tesla Book
Co.): for articles on the Rogers underground, Tesla's "The True
Wireless," and much more. Corsair, a biography of J. P. Morgan
by Andrew Sinclair (Little, Brown). Radios That Work For
Free by K. E. Edwards (Lindsay): Build a crystal set and dis-
cover for yourself how powerful a tank circuit alone can be. the completed Wardencliff (artist's conception)
!11
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22
 ---···---------~ . ------ .... ----·- ------------ ------.,--
,~--

6. Lighting
rarified or
exhausted

~7

l~

to high-frequency power

Patent No. 455,o69 (1891)

I n 1891 Tesla said that existing methods of

lighting were "very wasteful," that "some bet-
ter methods must be invented, some more per-
335,785). Early arc lamps produced a brilliant
blue-white light, good for street lighting but not for
the home, and they emitted noxious fumes. Home
fect apparatus devised." Tesla went and did just lighting was by gas.
that, yet here we are today in a world lit predomi- Street arc lighting used series circuits. Edison
naJ:!y by the same Edison bulb. introduced the parallel circuit, and designed his
Edison's bulb burns with six percent efficiency, lamp for such a circuit. Edison introduced the big-
the rest going off as heat, while the high resistance scale production and sale of electric power itself on
filament cooks at 4,000 degrees- and eventually the model of gas lighting, a major industry at the
breaks without warning. Today's fluorescent tube, time. He wanted to be first in the business and
though inspired by Tesla, is no model of efficiency announced to the press that he had an operable bulb
either. Its inner surfaces are stimulated to phospho- before he actually had a bulb that worked.
rescence by energy-consuming filament-like cath- When Tesla's a.c. system was established, it was
odes that also burn out, and the lit-up tube would grafted on to Edison's, greatly extending its range
present a dead short to the current if it were not for and efficiency. But, essentially, it was still Edison's
I the so-called "ballast transformer," an inductance
placed in the circuit to oppose and thus eat up yet
parallel circuit, high consumption, incandescent
lighting system, and this is what we have to live
~~ more current with today.
What sent Tesla into an exploration of high fre-
.,._. quency phenomena was his conviction that these
rapid vibrations held the key to a superior mode of a better way
lighting. The explorations were not Tesla's first Tesla patented both his spark-gap oscillator and his
venture into lighting. His very first U. S. patent tesla coil specifically as power sources for a new
(1885) is for an improvement in the arc lamp. He lighting system that used currents of high frequen-
used an electromagnet to feed carbons to the arc at cy and high potential. Lest you get the impression
a uniform rate to produce a steadier light (No. that a lone genius named Tesla invented this new
23

l
 form of lighting out of the blue, you should know high potential lamp to replace today's flashlight
that others before him had used high frequencies to which seems to exist for the purpose of enriching
stimulate light, and others, like Sir William the Eveready division of Union Carbide.
Crookes, had done the same with high potentials, Modern neon lighting is high potential at 2,000 to
but Tesla was the first on record to put the two 15,000 volts. (Neon sign transformers are good for
together. powering tesla coils, but a low-frequency, high-
il
I I'n Jules Verne's 1872 novel A Journey to the
Center of the Earth, the narrator tells of a brilliant
voltage device: caution.) Neon, as well as its
cousin, 7,500 volt "cold cathode" (filamentless)

~I!I portable battery lamp used by the underground

explorers. It was powered by a Ruhmkorf coil, a
high voltage buzzer-type induction coil (step-up
fluorescent, which is used in some industrial light-
ing, is as close as we get to Tesla lighting today.
Circa 1900 Tesla experimented with luminous
II
II transformer) popular among early electrical experi- tubes bent into alphabetic characters and other
menters. The Ruhmkorf coil stimulateu a lamp shapes. Although today's neon is simplistic Tesla,
ij'il (type unspecified but probably a gas tube) which being driven by 60-cycle high-voltage transformer
i lll produced "the light of an artificial day." The lamp power alone without the benefits of high-frequency
:II had such a low current draw that the battery lasted excitation, it should suggest to us the amazing effi-

~'
ciency of high-potential lighting, since a single
15,000-volt neon transformer drawing only 230
watts can light up a tube extending up to 120 feet.
How superior is the economy of Tesla high-
potential, high-frequency lighting over Edison
~l.·I. incandescent? Tesla says "certainly 20 times, if not
more" light is obtained for the same expenditure of
.,,,i·.l energy.
ill
"pure light"
li.i
J: Tesla invented a variety of lamps, not all of which
\:,: show up in his patents. He lit up solid bodies like
··111ji
carbon rods in vacuum bulbs, or in bulbs contain-
monopolar bulb
ing various inert gases at low pressure (rarefied).
!il
He noted that "tubes devoid of any electrodes may
Patent No. 454,622
be used, and there is no difficulty in producing by
their means light to read by." But he noted that the
jli (1891)
effect is "considerably increased by the use of

--nc ~·· »=
il.
1li phosphorescent bodies, such as yttria, uranium
glass, etc." Here Tesla lays the foundation for fluo-
II i
rescent lighting.
bipolar bulb Applied to such lamps were currents at potentials
Patent No. 455,069 (1891) ranging from a lower limit of 20,000 volts up to
voltages in the millions and vibrations of 15,000
capacitor bulbs cycles per second and up. Tesla dreamed of creat-
"t ing what he called "pure light" or "cold light" by
ji throughout the subterranean adventure. Verne evi- generating electric vibrations at frequencies that
;j dently was drawing, at least in part, on experimen- equalled those of visible light itself. Light pro-

~
tal knowledge of his day for what he calls "this duced by this direct and efficient means would
ingenious application of electricity to practical pur- require vibrations of 350 to 750 billion cycles, but
I poses." Perhaps somebody should reinvent such a Tesla believed such oscillations, far above those
.';i

24
I

attainable by his coils, would someday be

achieved. Even so, his rarefied gas-tube lamps pro-
duced a light that more closely approximated natu-
ral daylight than any other artificial source Testa's
light is like the "full-spectrum" light that is coming
to be recognized as far more healthful than Edison
incandescent and particularly more healthful than IJ::::1oarbon stem
~ conventional fluorescent. Full-spectrum lighting is carbon paste
believed by some health practitioners actually to
refractory insulato~ high V&CUUDI
have healing properties.
~

no sudden burn-out
Testa's gas tube lamps burn indefinitely, as do thin wire
today's neon tubes, for there is nothing within to be
consumed. Testa's lamps that contain electrodes Patent No. 514 1 170 (1892)
like carbon rods, however, do undergo some deteri-
oration. In Testa's words, "a very slow destruction carbon-button lamp
and gradual diminution in size always occurs, as in Tesla regarded the high incandescence of the but-
incandescent filaments; but there is no possibility ton to be a "necessary evil." For lighting purposes,
of sudden and premature disabling which occurs in it was the incandescence of the gas remaining in
the latter by the breaking of the filament, especially the mostly evacuated chamber that was important.
when incandescent bodies are in the shape of But the carbon-button lamp proved to have some
blocks." In vacuum lamps, the life of the bulb remarkable properties beyond its use for illumina-
depends upon the degree of exhaustion, which can tion. When the voltage was turned up, the lamp
never be made perfect. Also, the higher the fre- produced such tremendous heat that the carbon-
quency applied to such a lamp the slower the dete- button rapidly vaporized. Tesla experimented
rioration.
extensively with this fascinating phenomenon. For
Electrodes glow at high temperatures, and this the button of carbon he substituted zirconia, the
raises the problem of how to conduct energy to most refractory substance available at the time. It
them since wires or other metallic elements will fused instantly. Even rubies vaporized. Diamonds,
melt. The problem must be addressed in lamp and, to a greater degree, carborundum, endured the
design. For example, in the incandescent lamp best, but these could also be vaporized at high
shown at the opening of this chapter, the lead-in potentials.
wires connect to the hot electrodes via bronze pow- Tesla worked on the problem of heating. I have
der contained in a refractory cup. Tesla may have read that he contributed to the development of a
designed his capacitor-base bulbs to help address high-frenquency induction heating. Did Tesla work
~
this same problem. on the problem of space heating? Certainly the
huge current draw of conventional electric heaters

- high heat
Testa's search for the ideal electrode is reminiscent
of Edison's search for the long-lasting filament:
"The production of a small electrode capable of
withstanding enormous temperatures," said Testa,
which use resistive elements argues for some
inventiveness in this area. Tesla did observe that
the discharges from a tesla coil resembled "flames
escaping under pressure" and were indeed hot. He
reflected that a similar process must take place in
"I regard as the greatest importance in the manu- the ordinary flame, that this might be an electric
facture of light." phenomenon. He said that electric discharges might
One of the electrodes he tried was a small "but- be "a possible way of producing by other than
ton" of carbon which he placed in a near vacuum. chemical means a veritable flame which would
25
 give light and heat without material consumed." up the sky at night. High frequency electric energy
The behavior of the carbon-button lamp suggests would be transmitted, perhaps by an ionizing beam
that a new heating mode might be found in the of ultraviolet radiation, into the upper atmosphere,
effects of high-frequency currents in a vacuum. where gases are at relatively low pressure, so that
this layer would behave like a luminous tube. Sky-
lighting up the sky lighting, he said, would reduce the need for street
Hold a fluorescent tube near a testa coil and it will lighting, and facilitate the movement of ocean
light up in. your hand. This is true of any tube or going vessels. The aurora borealis is an electrical
;aj
bulb with vacuum or rarefied gas. A more efficient phenomenon that works on this principle, the
way is to ground one end of the tube and put a effects of cosmic eruptions such as those from the
31 length of wire as a sort of antenna on the other. sun being the source of electric stimulation. I, for
Better yet, put a coil of wire that resonates with the one, am grateful that this particular Testa fantasy
r1j secondary in series with the tube and ground and never materialized since it is difficult enough to see
I you have the optimal wireless power arrangement the stars with existing light pollution, and there
Testa conducted many experiments with different might be undesirable biological impacts as well.
I·
rotating "brush"
conductor Testa took an evacuated incandescent type lamp
globe, suspended within it at dead center a conduc-
tive element, stimulated that element with high-
voltage currents from an induction coil, and thus
created a beam-like emanation, a "brush" discharge
that was so eerily sensitive to disturbances in its
environs that it seemed to be endowed with an
---~ll-· ret'racto17 tube intelligent life of its own. The device works best if
there is no lead-in wire. In the bulb shown, every
~J i '
measure has been taken to construct it so it is free
from its own electrical influence. The bulb could
be stimulated inductively by applying energy to
metal foil wrapped around its neck. Thus excited,
"an intense phosphorescence then spreads at first

,,
reflector bulb
:jl arrangements like this, using on some occasions
the widely available Edison filament incandescent, high vacuum
1' which lighted up more brilliantly than usual
!
1
because of the effects of high frequencies on the rarified gas
j bulb's rarefied interior. Inside his New York lab,
Testa strung a wire connected to a testa coil around
the perimeter of the room. Wherever he needed
light he hung a gas tube in the vicinity of this high-
frequency conductor.
Testa had a bold fantasy whereby he would use
the principle of rarefied gas luminescence to light rotating brush
26
 r -----------

over the globe, but soon gives place to a white try associations, before large audiences in rented
misty light," observes Tesla. The glow then halls, and before select groups of influential New
resolves into a directional "brush" or beam that will Yorkers in his Manhattan lab. His articles about the
spin around the central element. So responsive is it new lighting were published in the popular scientif-
to any electrostatic or magnetic changes in its ic press and it was reported in the newspapers.
vicinity that "the approach of an observer at a few Still, it did not catch on with the powers-that-be
paces from the bulb will cause the brush to fly to who no doubt saw in it Testa's perennial pile-of-
the opposite side." A small, inch-wide permanent scrap problem.
•'"?
magnet "will affect it visibly at a distance of two But, I wonder, would the whole electric distribu-
meters, slowing down or accelerating the rotation tion system have to be scrapped to implement the
according to how it is held relatively to the brush." efficiencies of Tesla lighting? Conceivably, the new
..... Tesla never patented the rotating brush or used it lighting could be run off of local oscillators at the
in any practical application, but he believed it consumer end, the old power distribution system
could have practical applications. He saw one use remaining intact This is still a possibility, as it has
in radio where the device could conceivably be been for about one hundred years.
adapted to being a most sensitive detector of distur-
bances in the medium. The rotating brush appears
to be a precursor of the plasma globe toys now in for more information
The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla by
fashion; these are sometimes called "Tesla globes." Thomas C. Martin. This 1894 book has been reprinted by Omni
Testa's new lighting was famous in its time. Publications (P. 0. Box 216, Hawthorne, CA 90251).
Tesla, the promoter, saw to it. He conducted Experiments With Alternate Currents of High Potential and
demonstrations at lectures before the electric indus- High Frequency, a Testa lecture (Omni).

•-r

-~

27
 7. Transport
I'

Patent No, 514,972 (1892)

T esla speculated,"Perhaps the most valuable

application of wireless energy, will be the
propulsion of the flying machine, which
high-frequency signals. But unlike today's cables,
which carry energy only of signal strength and
shield by means of a continuous grounded static
will carry no fuel and be free from any limitations screen of fine braided copper wire, Testa's high-
of the present airplanes and dirigibles." The possi- voltage cable uses metal pipe or screen that is bro-
bility of electric flight intrigued Tesla, though he ken up into short lengths, "very much shorter," says
never did patent an electric aircraft. But he did Testa in his patent, "than the wave lengths of the
patent an electric railway using his high-frequency, current used." This feature reduces loss. Since the
high-potential electricity in a by-wire mode, and shielding must not be interrupted, the short sections
also patented a radical aircraft that, while not elec- are made to overlap but are insulated from one
tric, did have an advanced power plant: his disk another. To further reduce loss to ground, an induc-
turbine. Tesla's railway and aircraft can be num- tance of high ohmic resistance or a small capacity
bered among the lost inventions. The closest trans- is placed in the ground line.
port technology has come to putting any of Tesla
into actual practice is with diesel-electric power motor mystery
using Tesla polyphase motors, an early and notable A conundrum raised by Testa's railway patent is
example of which was the ocean liner Normandie. that the vehicle is powered by an electric motor,
In the field of transport Testa is more commonly but nowhere among Testa's inventions is to be
identified with antigravity flight and UFO's. found an electric motor that runs off of high-fre-
Although this identification is based upon nothing quency currents. Was Tesla planning to use a lower
more than a few public utterances, his suggestions frequency here, something under 1,000 cycles? Did
charge the imagination with possibilities. he have a converter in mind that could bring the
frequency down? Or did Tesla invent a high-fre-
high-frequency railway . quency motor that never made it into patent, an
Testa's high-frequency, high-potential railway picks invention that may be among his unpublished
up its power inductively without the use of the notes? Anyway, Testa proceeds in many of his dis-
rolling or sliding contacts used in conventional cussions of high-frequency power as if this prob-
trolley or third-nul systems. A pick-up bar travels lem were solved. I've seen references post-Testa to
near a cable carrying the oscillating energy. This the existence of such a motor. Free-energy inven-
cable, which Testa specifically invented to carry tor, Hermann Plauson, (next chapter) refers to
such currents, is the precursor of the grounded high-frequency motors. These motors have mag-
shielded cable used today to carry TV and other netic cores made of very thin laminations insulated
28
 from each other, a design that would limit damping
effects.

turbine aircraft
Testa's only patented aircraft is a vertical take-off
and landing (VTOL) plane that he intended as an
improvement upon the helicopter, already invented
~
at this time (1921): "The helicopter type of flying
machine, especially with large inclination angle of
the propeller axis to the horizontal, at which it is
generally expected to operate, is quite unsuitable coal" battery with such output that "a practical fly-
for speedy aerial transport; it is incapable of pro- ing machine" would be possible. Such a battery
ceeding horizontally along a straight line under also "would enormously enhance the introduction
prevailing air conditions; it is subject to dangerous of the automobile." Tesla fantasized a personal
plunges and oscillations ... and it is almost certainly "aerial taxi" which could be folded into a six-foot
doomed to destruction in case the motive power cube, and would weigh under 250 lbs: "It can be
gives out." Advances· in helicopter design may run through the streets and put in a garage, if
have mitigated some of these problems, but at least desired, just like an automobile." Explaining how
the last one still holds true. his earth-resonant wireless-power system could
Tesla's craft, which has a large wing area, is pow- energize vehicles aloft, he said, "power can be
ered by two disk turbines. The engineering prob- readily supplied without ground connection, for,
lem of swinging the pilot and passengers around 90
degrees after take-off is solved at least to Testa's
satisfaction. There have been some experimen1al
VTOL's but nothing in production.

electric flight
Testa's dream electric aircraft would be powered by
means of magnifying transmitters: "Aerial
disk turbines
machines will be propelled around the earth with- (two)
out a stop." Also, in 1900, he predicted a "cold

metal sheath in short

overlapping sections insulation
~

/
central wire
" Patent No. 1,655,113 (1921)
VTOL aircraft
lxmm.tt-- chol<e or ~ '
although the flow is confined to earth, an electro-
magnetic field is created in the atmosphere sur-
capacitor

6 ground
'I rounding it." Tesla believed such a system to be the
ultimate method of man-made flight: "With an
industrial plant of great capacity, sufficient power
Patent No. 514,167 (1892)
can be derived in this manner to propel any kind of
aerial machine. This I have always considered the
shielded cable
best and permanent solution to the problems of

29
 il flight. No fuel of any kind will be required as the
!
waves "in time itself can be produced electrically"
propulsion will be accomplished by light electric and this becomes "a magic tool capable of directly
motors operated at great speed."
affecting and altering anything that exists in time,
I
including gmvitational fields," says Bearden.
I antigravity
Testa wrote in 1900 of an antigravity motor:
In 1931 the editor of Science & Mechanics,
Hugo Gemsback reported, "It is believed by many
I "Imagine a disk of some homogeneous material scientists today that the force of gravitation is
turned perfectly true and arranged to turn in fric- merely another manifestation of electromagnetic
tionless bearings on a horizontal shaft above the waves."
ground. Now, it is possible that we may learn how Edward Farrow, a New York inventor, reported in
to make such a disk rotate continuously and per- 1911 an antigravity effect produced by a ring of
form work by the force of gmvity." To do so, he spark gaps. When the gaps were fired, the device,
said, "we have only to invent a screen against this called a "condensing dynamo," lost one-sixth of its
force. By such a screen we could prevent this force weight.
from acting on one-half of the disk, and rotation of T. Henry Moray wrote that "Frequencies may be
the latter would follow." developed which will balance the force of gravity
Does it not follow then, that such a gmvity screen to a point of neutralization."
could also be used to levitate a vehicle? Antigravity researcher Richard Lefors Clark
Testa held no patent on such a device or on any places the frequency of gravity's vibrations right at
other antigravity device, and there are no published "Nature's neutral center in the radiant energy spec~
notes on experimentation in the area. Nevertheless, trum," above radar and below infrared, at 10'12
Testa inevitably pops up in the literature of anti- cycles per second.
gravity and UFO's. This may be because Testa was
a prominent exponent of a physics in which anti-
gravity seems more feasible because gravity is bet-
ter explained. for more information
A researcher-theorist of today; Thomas Bearden, The Anti·Gravity Handbook and Anti-Gravity and the World
allows for gravity control in the physics he calls Grid, David Otildress ed. (Adventures Unlimited Press, Box 22,
Stelle, IL 60919). The New Tesla Electromagnetics by T. E.
"the new Testa electromagnetics." Scaler (standing) Bearden (Tesla Book Co.)

:!j
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d
i
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y'/
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30
II

!i
 '----~_..----~-

8. Free-Energy
Receiver circuit
oontroller
'load
'T

---
F or starters, think of this as a solar-electric
panel. Tesla's invention is very different, but
the closest thing to it in conventional tech-
Tesla's free-energy receiver was patented in 1901
as An Apparatus for the Utilization of Radiant
Energy. The patent refers to "the sun, as well as,
nology is in photovoltaics. One radical difference is other sources of radiant energy, like cosmic rays."
that conventional solar-electric panels consist of a That the device works at night is explained in terms
substrate coated with crystalline silicon; the latest of the night-time availability of cosmic rays. Testa
use amorphous silicon. Conventional solar panels also refers to the ground as "a vast reservoir of neg-
are expensive, and, whatever the coating, they are ative electricity."
manufactured by esoteric processes. But Tesla's Tesla was fascinated by radiant energy and its
"solar panel" is just a shiny metal plate with a free-energy possibilities. He called the Crooke's
transparent coating of some insulating material radiometer (a device which has vanes that spin in a
which today could be a spray plastic. vacuum when exposed to radiant energy) "a beauti-
Stick one of these antenna-like panels up in the ful invention." He believed that it would become
air, the higher the better, and wire it to one side of a possible to harness energy directly by "connecting
capacitor, the other going to a good earth ground. to the very wheel work of nature." His free-energy
Now the energy from the sun is charging that receiver is as close as he ever came to such a
capacitor. Connect across the capacitor some sort device in his patented work. But on his 76th birth-
of switching device so that it can be discharged at day at the ritual press conference, Tesla (who was
rhythmic intervals, and you have an electric output. without the financial wherewithal to patent but
Tesla's patent is telling us that it is that simple to went on inventing in his head) announced a "cos-
get electric energy. The bigger the area of the insu- mic-ray motor." When asked if it was more power-
lated plate, the more energy you get. ful than the Crooke's radiometer, he answered,
But this is more than a "solar panel" because it "thousands of times more powerful."
does not necessarily need sunshine to operate. It
....
I
also produces. power at night.
Of course, this is impossible according to official how it works
science. For this reason, you could not get a patent From the electric potential that exists between the
.... on such an invention today. Many an inventor has elevated plate (plus) and the ground (minus), ener-
learned this the hard way. Tesla had his problems gy builds in the capacitor, and, after "a suitable
with the patent examiners, but today's free-energy time interval," the accumulated energy will "mani-
inventor has it much tougher. At the time of this fest itself in a powerful discharge" which can do
writing, the U. S. Patent Office is headed by a Rea- work. The capacitor, says Tesla, should be "of con-
gan appointee who came to the office straight from siderable electrostatic capacity," and its dielectric
a top executive position with Phillips Petroleum. made of "the best quality mica," for it ha8 to with-

31
 literature of free-energy, I am not aware of any
attempts to verify it experimentally.
-----
Plauson's converter
: I Testa's invention may have helped to inspire the
I.
,, i
many other inventors who have worked in the field
of free energy. At least a dozen are on record. Let's
look at one in particular.
In 1921 Hermann Plauson, a German experi-
menter, succeeded in obtaining patents, including
one in the U. S ., for Conversion of Atmospheric
Electric Energy.
In school, every introduction to electricity touch-
ree-enerR.y receiver es on the phenomenon of so-called "static" (or elec-
trostatic) electricity, and this is what Plauson
stand potentials ttiat could rupture a weaker dielec- means by "atmospheric." Static electricity is built-
tric.
Tesla gives various options for the switching
device. One is a rotary switch that resembles a
Testa circuit controller. Another is an electrostatic
device consisting of two very light, membranous
conductors suspended in a vacuum. These sense
the energy build-up in the capacitor, one going pos-
itive, the other negative, and, at a certain charge
level, are attracted, touch, and thus fire the capaci-
tor. Testa also mentions another switching device
consisting of a minute air gap or weak dielectric
film which breaks down suddenly when a certain
potential is reached. Crooke's radiometer
II The above is about all the technical detail you get
in the patent. Although fve seen a few cursory ref- up charge, electricity in a raw state, and it comes
erences to Tf':sla's invention in my sampling of the easy in Nature, as evidenced by lighbling and the
aurora borealis. If you have ever seen a frictional
static machine in operation, it's not difficult to
imagine the tremendous potential in artificially
produced static. A rotating disk type of static
machine or the silk belt type, as in the Van de Graff
generator, produces discharges like those from a
tesla coil. Unfortunately, in school, the subject of
static electricity is briefly touched upon and then
abruptly dropped, never to be mentioned again.
Electrical power sources thereafter are limited to
the battery or the wall socket.
"'C.
how it works
In the Plauson drawing the free energy converter
free-energy receiver
on the left interfaces with a disk type static

32
 ·.·-,-.~--~
r-,_-.-..""""'-----~-- ... - - - ---- -----~------~--

machine via special pick up "combs." When the antenna Patent No.
static collecting disk is rotated, the combs pick up 1,540,998 (1921)
the charge, one comb going positive, the other neg-
ative. The combs, in turn, charge up their respec-
tive capacitors until sufficiently high potential
builds to jump the spark gap. The oscillatory dis-
charge is induced into tlie transformer primary.
This is high-voltage, high-frequency electric ener-
gy. The familiar spark-gap oscillator has turned
charge into dynamic energy. The transformer steps
down the vibrating high voltage to practical levels
to power lighting, heating, and special high-fre-
quency motors.
The Plauson patent drawing to the right shows a
device that works on the same principle but col- asked if the sudden introduction of his principle
lects energy by means of an antenna, as does Tes- wouldn't "upset the present economic system."
ta's receiver. Since the higher the antenna the bet- Tesla replied, "It is badly upset already."
ter, and the more area the better, Plauson favors big
metallic helium balloons. Plauson says the safety
gap, which has three times the resistance of the
for more information
Early Electrical Machines (static generators) by Bern Dibner
working gap, is absolutely necessary for collecting and Space Energy Receivers (both distributed by Lindsay).
large quantities of charge. The capacitors across the The Sea of Energy by T. Henry Moray, suppressed free-energy
gaps in the series safety gap allow for uniform inventor active in the U. S. in the 1920's through the 40's (pub-
lished by Cosray Research, distributed by Health Research).
sparking. Borderland Sciences Research Foundation publishes a bi-
Plauson's device suggests that Testa's might be monthly journal and many free-energy titles (P. 0. Box 429,
explained in terms of electrostatics. Ga!berville, CA 95440). Rex Research is a distributor of free-
Tesla, at the press conference honoring his 77th energy and other publications (P. 0. Box 1258, Berlc:eley, CA
94701). Most of the activity in the free-energy field today cen-
birthday in 1933 declared that electric power was ters on rotating magnet devices called over-unity motors or
everywhere present in unlimited quantities "and gravity-field generators like those of Joseph Newman (New-
could drive the world's machinery without the need man Publishing, Rte. 1, Box 52, Lucedale, MS 39452) and John
of coal, oil, gas, or any other fuels." A reporter Bedlnl (Tesla Book Co.).

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33
 $5.95

"Electric power is every-

where present in unlimited
quantities and can drive the
world's machinery without
the need of coal, oil, gas, or
any other fuels."
Nikola Tesla, page 33

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