index
Chapter 4
Chapter 5.
As I review the events of my past life I realise how subtle are the influences
that shape our destinies. An incident of my youth may serve to illustrate. One
winter's day I managed to climb a steep mountain, in company with other boys.
The snow was quite deep and a warm southerly wind made it just suitable for our
purpose. We amused ourselves by throwing balls which would roll down a certain
distance, gathering more or less snow, and we tried to out-do one another in
this sport. Suddenly a ball was seen to go beyond the limit, swelling to
enormous proportions until it became as big as a house and plunged thundering
into the valley below with a force that made the ground tremble. I looked on
spell-bound incapable of understanding what had happened. For weeks afterward
the picture of the avalanche was before my eyes and I wondered how anything so
small could grow to such an immense size.
Ever since that time the magnification of feeble actions fascinated me, and
when, years later, I took up the experimental study of mechanical and electrical
resonance, I was keenly interested from the very start. Possibly, had it not
been for that early powerful impression I might not have followed up the little
spark I obtained with my coil and never developed my best invention, the true
history of which I will tell.
Many technical men, very able in their special departments, but dominated by a
pedantic spirit and near-sighted, have asserted that excepting the induction
motor, I have given the world little of practical use. This is a grievous
mistake. A new idea must not be judged by its immediate results. My alternating
system of power transmission came at a psychological moment, as a long sought
answer to pressing industrial questions, and although considerable resistance
had to be overcome and opposing interests reconciled, as usual, the commercial
introduction could not be long delayed. Now, compare this situation with that
confronting my turbines, for example. One should think that so simple and
beautiful an invention, possessing many features of an ideal motor, should be
adopted at once and, undoubtedly, it would under similar conditions. But the
prospective effect of the rotating field was not to render worthless existing
machinery; on the contrary, it was to give it additional value. The system lent
itself to new enterprise as well as to improvement of the old. My turbine is an
advance of a character entirely different. It is a radical departure in the
sense that its success would mean the abandonment of the antiquated types of
prime movers on which billions of dollars have been spent. Under such
circumstances, the progress must needs be slow and perhaps the greatest
impediment is encountered in the prejudicial opinions created in the minds of
experts by organised opposition.
Only the other day, I had a disheartening experience when I met my friend and
former assistant, Charles F. Scott, now professor of Electric Engineering at
Yale. I had not seen him for a long time and was glad to have an opportunity for
a little chat at my office. Our conversation, naturally enough, drifted on my
turbine and I became heated to a high degree. "Scott," I exclaimed, carried away
by the vision of a glorious future, "My turbine will scrap all the heat engines
in the world." Scott stroked his chin and looked away thoughtfully, as though
making a mental calculation. "That will make quite a pile of scrap," he said,
and left without another word!
These and other inventions of mine, however, were nothing more than steps
forward in a certain directions. In evolving them, I simply followed the inborn
instinct to improve the present devices without any special thought of our far
more imperative necessities. The "Magnifying Transmitter" was the product of
labours extending through years, having for their chief object, the solution of
problems which are infinitely more important to mankind than mere industrial
development.
If my memory serves me right, it was in November, 1890, that I performed a
laboratory experiment which was one of the most extraordinary and spectacular
ever recorded in the annal of Science. In investigating the behaviour of high
frequency currents, I had satisfied myself that an electric field of sufficient
intensity could be produced in a room to light up electrodeless vacuum tubes.
Accordingly, a transformer was built to test the theory and the first trial
proved a marvellous success. It is difficult to appreciate what those strange
phenomena meant at the time. We crave for new sensations, but soon become
indifferent to them. The wonders of yesterday are today common occurrences. When
my tubes were first publicly exhibited, they were viewed with amazement
impossible to describe. From all parts of the world, I received urgent
invitations and numerous honours and other flattering inducements were offered
to me, which I declined. But in 1892 the demand became irresistible and I went
to London where I delivered a lecture before the institution of Electrical
Engineers.
It has been my intention to leave immediately for Paris in compliance with a
similar obligation, but Sir James Dewar insisted on my appearing before the
Royal Institution. I was a man of firm resolve, but succumbed easily to the
forceful arguments of the great Scotchman. He pushed me into a chair and poured
out half a glass of a wonderful brown fluid which sparkled in all sorts of
iridescent colours and tasted like nectar. "Now," said he, "you are sitting in
Faraday's chair and you are enjoying whiskey he used to drink." (Which did not
interest me very much, as I had altered my opinion concerning strong drink). The
next evening I have a demonstration before the Royal Institution, at the
termination of which, Lord Rayleigh addressed the audience and his generous
words gave me the first start in these endeavours. I fled from London and later
from Paris, to escape favours showered upon me, and journeyed to my home, where
I passed through a most painful ordeal and illness.
Upon regaining my health, I began to formulate plans for the resumption of work
in America. Up to that time I never realised that I possessed any particular
gift of discovery, but Lord Rayleigh, whom I always considered as an ideal man
of science, had said so and if that was the case, I felt that I should
concentrate on some big idea.
At this time, as at many other times in the past, my thoughts turned towards my
Mother's teaching. The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if
we concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power.
My Mother had taught me to seek all truth in the Bible; therefore I devoted the
next few months to the study of this work.
One day, as I was roaming the mountains, I sought shelter from an approaching
storm. The sky became overhung with heavy clouds, but somehow the rain was
delayed until, all of a sudden, there was a lightening flash and a few moments
after, a deluge. This observation set me thinking. It was manifest that the two
phenomena were closely related, as cause and effect, and a little reflection led
me to the conclusion that the electrical energy involved in the precipitation of
the water was inconsiderable, the function of the lightening being much like
that of a sensitive trigger. Here was a stupendous possibility of achievement.
If we could produce electric effects of the required quality, this whole planet
and the conditions of existence on it could be transformed. The sun raises the
water of the oceans and winds drive it to distant regions where it remains in a
state of most delicate balance. If it were in our power to upset it when and
wherever desired, this might life sustaining stream could be at will controlled.
We could irrigate arid deserts, create lakes and rivers, and provide motive
power in unlimited amounts. This would be the most efficient way of harnessing
the sun to the uses of man. The consummation depended on our ability to develop
electric forces of the order of those in nature.
It seemed a hopeless undertaking, but I made up my mind to try it and
immediately on my return to the United States in the summer of 1892, after a
short visit to my friends in Watford, England; work was begun which was to me
all the more attractive, because a means of the same kind was necessary for the
successful transmission of energy without wires.
At this time I made a further careful study of the Bible, and discovered the key
in Revelation. The first gratifying result was obtained in the spring of the
succeeding year, when I reaching a tension of about 100,000,000 volts -- one
hundred million volts -- with my conical coil, which I figured was the voltage
of a flash of lightening. Steady progress was made until the destruction of my
laboratory by fire, in 1895, as may be judged from an article by T.C. Martin
which appeared in the April number of the Century Magazine. This calamity set me
back in many ways and most of that year had to be devoted to planning and
reconstruction. However, as soon as circumstances permitted, I returned to the
task.
Although I knew that higher electric-motive forces were attainable with
apparatus of larger dimensions, I had an instinctive perception that the object
could be accomplished by the proper design of a comparatively small and compact
transformer. In carrying on tests with a secondary in the form of flat spiral,
as illustrated in my patents, the absence of streamers surprised me, and it was
not long before I discovered that this was due to the position of the turns and
their mutual action. Profiting from this observation, I resorted to the use of a
high tension conductor with turns of considerable diameter, sufficiently
separated to keep down the distributed capacity, while at the same time
preventing undue accumulation of the charge at any point. The application of
this principle enabled me to produce pressures of over 100,000,000 volts, which
was about the limit obtainable without risk of accident. A photograph of my
transmitter built in my laboratory at Houston Street, was published in the
Electrical Review of November, 1898.
In order to advance further along this line, I had to go into the open, and in
the spring of 1899, having completed preparations for the erection of a wireless
plant, I went to Colorado where I remained for more than one year. Here I
introduced other improvements and refinements which made it possible to generate
currents of any tension that may be desired. Those who are interested will find
some information in regard to the experiments I conducted there in my article,
"The Problem of Increasing Human Energy," in the Century Magazine of June 1900,
to which I have referred on a previous occasion.
I will be quite explicit on the subject of my magnifying transformer so that it
will be clearly understood. In the first place, it is a resonant transformer,
with a secondary in which the parts, charged to a high potential, are of
considerable area and arranged in space along ideal enveloping surfaces of very
large radii of curvature, and at proper distances from one another, thereby
insuring a small electric surface density everywhere, so that no leak can occur
even if the conductor is bare. It is suitable for any frequency, from a few to
many thousands of cycles per second, and can be used in the production of
currents of tremendous volume and moderate pressure, or of smaller amperage and
immense electromotive force. The maximum electric tension is merely dependent on
the curvature of the surfaces on which the charged elements are situated and the
area of the latter. Judging from my past experience there is no limit to the
possible voltage developed; any amount is practicable. On the other hand,
currents of many thousands of amperes may be obtained in the antenna. A plant of
but very moderate dimensions is required for such performances. Theoretically, a
terminal of less than 90 feet in diameter is sufficient to develop an
electromotive force of that magnitude, while for antenna currents of from 2,000-
4,000 amperes at the usual frequencies, it need not be larger than 30 feet in
diameter. In a more restricted meaning, this wireless transmitter is one in
which the Hertzwave radiation is an entirely negligible quantity as compared
with the whole energy, under which condition the damping factor is extremely
small and an enormous charge is stored in the elevated capacity. Such a circuit
may then be excited with impulses of any kind, even of low frequency and it will
yield sinusoidal and continuous oscillations like those of an alternator. Taken
in the narrowest significance of the term, however, it is a resonant transformer
which, besides possessing these qualities, is accurately proportioned to fit the
globe and its electrical constants and properties, by virtue of which design it
becomes highly efficient and effective in the wireless transmission of energy.
Distance is then ABSOLUTELY ELIMINATED, THERE BEING NO DIMINUATION IN THE
INTENSITY of the transmitted impulses. It is even possible to make the actions
increase with the distance from the plane, according to an exact mathematical
law. This invention was one of a number comprised in my "World System" of
wireless transmission which I undertook to commercialise on my return to New
York in 1900.
As to the immediate purposes of my enterprise, they were clearly outlined in a
technical statement of that period from which I quote, "The world system has
resulted from a combination of several original discoveries made by the inventor
in the course of long continued research and experimentation. It makes possible
not only the instantaneous and precise wireless transmission of any kind of
signals, messages or characters, to all parts of the world, but also the inter-
connection of the existing telegraph, telephone, and other signal stations
without any change in their present equipment. By its means, for instance, a
telephone subscriber here may call up and talk to any other subscriber on the
Earth. An inexpensive receiver, not bigger than a watch, will enable him to
listen anywhere, on land or sea, to a speech delivered or music played in some
other place, however distant."
These examples are cited merely to give an idea of the possibilities of this
great scientific advance, which annihilates distance and makes that perfect
natural conductor, the Earth, available for all the innumerable purposes which
human ingenuity has found for a line-wire. One far-reaching result of this is
that any device capable of being operated through one or more wires (at a
distance obviously restricted) can likewise be actuated, without artificial
conductors and with the same facility and accuracy, at distances to which there
are no limits other than those imposed by the physical dimensions of the earth.
Thus, not only will entirely new fields for commercial exploitation be opened up
by this ideal method of transmission, but the old ones vastly extended. The
World System is based on the application of the following import and inventions
and discoveries:
1) The Tesla Transformer: This apparatus is in the production of electrical
vibrations as revolutionary as gunpowder was in warfare. Currents many times
stronger than any ever generated in the usual ways and sparks over one hundred
feet long, have been produced by the inventor with an instrument of this kind.
2) The Magnifying Transmitter: This is Tesla's best invention, a peculiar
transformer specially adapted to excite the earth, which is in the transmission
of electrical energy when the telescope is in astronomical observation. By the
use of this marvellous device, he has already set up electrical movements of
greater intensity than those of lightening and passed a current, sufficient to
light more than two hundred incandescent lamps, around the Earth.
3) The Tesla Wireless System: This system comprises a number of improvements and
is the only means known for transmitting economically electrical energy to a
distance without wires. Careful tests and measurements in connection with an
experimental station of great activity, erected by the inventor in Colorado,
have demonstrated that power in any desired amount can be conveyed, clear across
the Globe if necessary, with a loss not exceeding a few per cent.
4) The Art of Individualisation: This invention of Tesla is to primitive Tuning,
what refined language is to unarticulated expression. It makes possible the
transmission of signals or messages absolutely secret and exclusive both in the
active and passive aspect, that is, non-interfering as well as non-interferable.
Each signal is like an individual of unmistakable identity and there is
virtually no limit to the number of stations or instruments which can be
simultaneously operated without the slightest mutual disturbance.
5) The Terrestrial Stationary Waves: This wonderful discovery, popularly
explained, means that the Earth is responsive to electrical vibrations of
definite pitch, just as a tuning fork to certain waves of sound. These
particular electrical vibrations, capable of powerfully exciting the Globe, lend
themselves to innumerable uses of great importance commercially and in many
other respects. The "first World System" power plant can be put in operation in
nine months. With this power plant, it will be practicable to attain electrical
activities up to ten million horse-power and it is designed to serve for as many
technical achievements as are possible without due expense. Among these are the
following:
1) The inter-connection of existing telegraph exchanges or offices all over the
world;
2) The establishment of a secret and non-interferable government telegraph
service;
3) The inter-connection of all present telephone exchanges or offices around the
Globe;
4) The universal distribution of general news by telegraph or telephone, in
conjunction with the Press;
5) The establishment of such a "World System" of intelligence transmission for
exclusive private use;
6) The inter-connection and operation of all stock tickers of the world;
7) The establishment of a World system -- of musical distribution, etc.;
8) The universal registration of time by cheap clocks indicating the hour with
astronomical precision and requiring no attention whatever;
9) The world transmission of typed or hand-written characters, letters, checks,
etc.;
10) The establishment of a universal marine service enabling the navigators of
all ships to steer perfectly without compass, to determine the exact location,
hour and speak; to prevent collisions and disasters, etc.;
11) The inauguration of a system of world printing on land and sea;
12) The world reproduction of photographic pictures and all kinds of drawings or
records..."
I also proposed to make demonstration in the wireless transmission of power on a
small scale, but sufficient to carry conviction. Besides these, I referred to
other and incomparably more important applications of my discoveries which will
be disclosed at some future date. A plant was built on Long Island with a tower
187 feet high, having a spherical terminal about 68 feet in diameter. These
dimensions were adequate for the transmission of virtually any amount of energy.
Originally, only from 200 to 300 K.W. were provided, but I intended to employ
later several thousand horsepower. The transmitter was to emit a wave-complex of
special characteristics and I had devised a unique method of telephonic control
of any amount of energy. The tower was destroyed two years ago (1917) but my
projects are being developed and another one, improved in some features will be
constructed.
On this occasion I would contradict the widely circulated report that the
structure was demolished by the Government, which owing to war conditions, might
have created prejudice in the minds of those who may not know that the papers,
which thirty years ago conferred upon me the honour of American citizenship, are
always kept in a safe, while my orders, diplomas, degrees, gold medals and other
distinctions are packed away in old trunks. If this report had a foundation, I
would have been refunded a large sum of money which I expended in the
construction of the tower. On the contrary, it was in the interest of the
Government to preserver it, particularly as it would have made possible, to
mention just one valuable result, the location of a submarine in any part of the
world. My plant, services, and all my improvements have always been at the
disposal of the officials and ever since the outbreak of the European conflict,
I have been working at a sacrifice on several inventions of mine relating to
aerial navigation, ship propulsion and wireless transmission, which are of the
greatest importance to the country. Those who are well informed know that my
ideas have revolutionised the industries of the United States and I am not aware
that there lives an inventor who has been, in this respect, as fortunate as
myself, -- especially as regards the use of his improvements in the war.
I have refrained from publicly expressing myself on this subject before, as it
seemed improper to dwell on personal matters while all the world was in dire
trouble. I would add further, in view of various rumours which have reached me,
that Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan did not interest himself with me in a business way,
but in the same large spirit in which he has assisted many other pioneers. He
carried out his generous promise to the letter and it would have been most
unreasonable to expect from him anything more. He had the highest regard for my
attainments and gave me every evidence of his complete faith in my ability to
ultimately achieve what I had set out to do. I am unwilling to accord to some
small-minded and jealous individuals the satisfaction of having thwarted my
efforts. These men are to me nothing more than microbes of a nasty disease. My
project was retarded by laws of nature. The world was not prepared for it. It
was too far ahead of time, but the same laws will prevail in the end and make it
a triumphal success.
index
Chapter 6