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Nikola Tesla: Humanitarian Genius
nikola tesla: humanitarian genius
excerpted from vol 6, no. 4, "power and resonance", the journal of the
international tesla society. for further information on the topics
discussed below: the tesla book co., box 1649, greenville, texas 75401
ask any school kid: "who invented radio?" if you get an answer at all it
will doubtless be marconi - an answer with which all the encyclopedias and
textbooks agree. or ask most anyone: "who invented the stuff that makes
your toaster, your stereo, the street lights, the factories and offices
work?" without hesitation, thomas edison, right? wrong both times. the
correctly answer is nikola tesla, a person you have probably never heard of.
there's more. he appears to have discovered x-rays a year before w. k.
roentgen did in germany, he built a vacuum tube amplifier several years
before lee de forest did, he was using fluorescent lights in his laboratory
40 years before the industry "invented" them, and he demonstrated the
principles used in microwave ovens and radar decades before they became an
integral part of our society. yet we associate his name with none of them.
for about 20 years around the turn of the century, he was known and respected
in academic circles world wide, corresponding with eminent physicists of his
day, including albert einstein, quoted and conferred with on matters of
electrical science, adopted by new york's high society, backed by such
financial and industrial giants as j. p. morgan, john jacob astor, and george
westinghouse. he counted as friends eminent artists such as mark twain and
pianist ignace paderewski. his honorary degrees, major prizes (including the
nobel), and other citations number in the dozens.
tesla was born in smijlan., croatia (now part of yugoslavia) in 1856, the son
of a clergyman and an inventive mother. he had an extraordinary memory, one
that made learning six languages easy for him. he entered the polytechnic
school at gratz, where for four years he studied mathematics, physics and
mechanics, confounding more than one professor by an understanding of
electricity, an infant science in those days, that was greater than theirs.
his practical career started in 1881 in budapest, hungary, where he made his
first electrical invention, a telephone repeater (the ordinary loudspeaker)
and conceived the idea of a rotating magnetic field, which later made him
world famous in its form as the modern induction motor. the polyphase
induction motor is what provides power to virtually every industrial
application, from conveyer belts to winches to machine tools.
tesla's mental abilities require some mention, since, not only did he have a
photographic memory, he was able to use creative visualization with an
uncanny and practical intensity. he describes in his autobiography how he
was able to visualize a particular apparatus and was then able to actually
test run the apparatus, disassemble it and check for proper action and wear!
during the manufacturing phase of his inventions, he would work with all
blueprints and specifications in his head. the invention invariably
assembled together without redesign and worked perfectly. tesla slept one to
2 hours a day and worked continuously on his inventions and theories without
benefit of ordinary relaxation or vacations. he could judge the dimension of
an object to a hundredth of an inch and perform difficult computations in his
head without benefit of slide rule or mathematical tables. far from an
ivory tower intellectual, he was very much aware of the issues in the world
around him, made it a point to render his ideas accessable to the general
public by frequent contributions to the popular press, and to his field by
numerous lectures and scientific papers.
he decided to come to this country in 1884. he brought with him the various
models of the first induction motors, which, after a brief and unhappy period
at the edison works, were eventually shown to george westinghouse. it was in
the westinghouse shops that the induction motor was perfected. numerous
patents were taken out on this prime invention, all under tesla's name.
tesla worked briefly for thomas edison when he first came to the united
states, creating many improvements on edison's dc motors and generators, but
left under a cloud of controversy after edison refused to live up to bonus
and royalty commitments. this was the beginning of a rivalry which was to
have ugly consequences later when edison and his backers did everything in
their power to stop the development and installation of tesla's far more
efficient and practical ac current delivery system and urban power grid.
edison put together a traveling road show which attempted to portray ac
current as dangerous, even to the point of electrocuting animals both small
(puppies) and large (in one case an elephant) in front of large audiences.
as a result of this propaganda crusade, the state of new york adopted ac
electrocution as its method of executing convicts. tesla won the battle by
the demonstration of ac current's safety and usefulness when his apparatus
illuminated and powered the entire new york world's fair of 1899.
tesla's most important work at the end of the nineteenth century was his
original system of transmission of energy by wireless antenna. in 1900 tesla
obtained his two fundamental patents on the transmission of true wireless
energy covering both methods and apparatus and involving he use of four tuned
circuits. in 1943, the supreme court of the united states granted full
patent rights to nikola tesla for the invention of the radio, superseding and
nullifying any prior claim by marconi and others in regards to the
"fundamental radio patent" it is interesting to note that tesla, in 1898,
described the transmission of not only the human voice, but images as well
and later designed and patented devices that evolved into the power supplies
that operate our present day tv picture tubes. the first primitive radar
installations in 1934 were built following principles, mainly regarding
frequency and power level, that were stated by tesla in 1917.
in 1889 tesla constructed an experimental station in colorado springswhere he
studied the characteristics of high frequency or radio frequency alternating
currents. while there he developed a powerful radio transmitter of unique
design and also a number of receivers "for individualizing and isolating the
energy transmitted". he conducted experiments designed to establish the laws
of radio propagation which are currently being "rediscovered" and verified
amid some controversy in high energy quantum physics.
tesla wrote in century magazine in 1900: "...that communication without wires
to any point of the globe is practicable. my experiments showed that the air
at the ordinary pressure became distinctly conducting, and this opened up the
wonderful prospect of transmitting large amounts of electri- cal energy for
industrial purposes to great distances without wires...its practical
consummation would mean that energy would be available for the uses of man at
any point of the globe. i can conceive of no technical advance which would
tend to unite the various elements of humanity more effectively than this
one, or of one which would more add to and more economize human energy..."
this was written in 1900! after finishing preliminary testing, work was
begun on a full sized broadcasting station at shoreham, long island. had it
gone into operation, it would have been able to provide usable amounts of
electrical power at the receiving circuits. after construction of a
generator building (still standing) and a 180 foot broadcasting tower
(dynamited in world war i on the dubious pretext of being a potential
navigation reference for german u-boats), financial support for the project
was suddenly withdrawn by j. p. morgan when it became apparent that such a
worldwide power project couldn't be metered and charged for.
another one of tesla's inventions that is familiar to anyone who has ever
owned an automobile, was patented in 1898 under the name "electrical ignitor
for gas engines". more commonly known as the automobile ignition system, its
major component, the ignition coil, remains practically unchanged since its
introduction into use at the turn of the century.
nikola tesla also designed and built prototypes of a unique fuel burning
rotary engine based upon his earlier design for a rotary pump. recent tests
that have been carried out on the tesla bladeless disk turbine indicate that,
if constructed using newly developed high temperature ceramic materials, it
will rank as the world's most efficient gas engine, out-performing our
present day piston type internal combustion engines in fuel efficiency,
longevity, adaptability to different fuels, cost and power to weight ratio.
tesla's generosity eventually left him without adequate funds to pursue and
realize his inventions. his idealism and humanism left him with little
stomach for the world of industrial and financial intrigue. his new york
laboratory was destroyed by a mysterious fire. references to his work and
accomplishments were systematically purged from the scientific literature and
textbooks. driven into a hermetic exile in a new york hotel during the
period between the two wars, 20 years of his potentially rich and productive
contribution were taken from us. the only occasions of public appearance
were the yearly press interview on his birthday when he would describe
amazing and far reaching inventions and technological possibilities. these
were distorted and sensationalized in the popular press, particularly when he
described advanced weapons systems on the eve of world war ii. he died in
obscurity in 1943. only the fbi took note: they searched his papers (in
vain) for the design of the "death-ray machine". it is interesting to note
that the motivation for our "star wars" defense system was based upon fears
that the soviets had begun deployment of weapons based upon tesla high energy
principles. public reports of mysterious "blindings" of u.s. surveillance
satellites, anomalous high altitude flashes and fireballs, elf wave radio
interference, and other cases lend credence to this interpretation.
credit must be given where credit is due for the labor saving and humani-
tarian inventions such as universal ac current that have been incorporated
into the very fabric of our daily lives and also the devices who's design
have been made available, but have not been utilized by society at large.
Short History of Nikola Tesla
This is a file to straighten out misconception and disinformation that has
occurred over the years, about how supposedly "great" Edison was, and how
Nikola Tesla was brushed under the capitalist power rug.
Edison was a thief, employing all kinds of people for their brains, he
stole their inventions, their ideas, so much so, that it is unclear today
what Edison actually invented, and what was stolen from others.
The Edison Electric Institute was formed to perpetuate the notion that
Edison was the inventor of record, and to make sure that school textbooks,
etc., only mentioned HIM in connection with these many inventions. Much like
Bell Labs does today.
Nikola Tesla was pretty much always a genius, after having made many
improvements in the electric trolleys, and trains in his country, he came to
America, sought employment, and eventually ended up working for Edison.
Edison had contracted with New York City to build Direct Current (D.C.)
power plants every square mile or so, so as to power the lights that he
supposedly invented. Street lights, hotel lighting etc. Having trenches dug
throughout the city to lay the cables, copper, and as big around as a man's
bicep, he told Tesla that if Tesla could save him money by redesigning
certain aspects of the installation, that he would give Tesla a percentage of
the savings. A verbal agreement. After approximately a year, Tesla went to
Edison's office and showed him the savings that had occurred ($100,000 or so,
which in those days was quite a piece of change) as a direct result of his
(Tesla's) engineering, and Edison pretended ignorance of any agreement. Tesla
quit. From that point on, the two men were enemies.
Tesla invented useable Alternating Current (A.C.) that we all use today,
in a world where Edison and others already had a huge investment in D.C.
power.
Tesla proselytized A.C. power and had some success building A.C. power
plants, and providing A.C. power to various entities. One of these was Sing
Sing prison, in upstate New York. Tesla provided A.C. power for the "electric
chair" there. Edison had big articles printed in the New York newspapers,
saying that A.C. power was dangerous "killing" power, and in general, gave a
bad name to Tesla.
To contradict this jab, Tesla set out on his own positive marketing
campaign, appearing at the 1880? World Exposition in Chicago passing high
frequency "dangerous" A.C. power over his body to power light bulbs in front
of the public. Shooting huge, long sparks from his "Tesla coil", and touching
them, etc. "Proving" that A.C. power was safe for public consumption.
The advantage of A.C. power was that you could send it a long distance
through reasonably sized wires with little loss, and if you touched the wires
together, "shorted them", you got a lot of sparks, and only the place where
they were touching melted until the two wires weren't touching anymore.
D.C. power, on the other hand, needed huge cables to go any distance at
all, while using power, the cables heated up. When shorted, the cables melted
all the way back to the power house, streets had to be dug up again and new
cables laid. If a short occurred in a single light, it usually started a
fire, and burned down the hotel or destroyed whatever it was in contact with!
This was quite profitable for those in the D.C. power business, and quite
good for those into ditch digging, construction, etc.
Tesla invented 2-phase, and 3-phase Alternating Current. He figured
motors turned in a circle, so alternately driving separate, 180 degree,
sections of the surrounding armature would build up less heat, and use less
electricity. He was right.
1929 came, the stock market crashed, bankers, lawyers, everyone who had
lost their wealth and hadn't jumped out a window, sought work, many as common
laborers if lucky, for a dollar a day. Tesla found himself digging ditches in
the company of broke but influential ex-Wall-streeters. During the short
lunch period, he would tell his buddies about phased A.C. electricity, and
how it was efficient, etc. Along about 1932, he was working at a small
generator rebuilding shop in New York, and one of the bankers that he used to
dig ditches with, found him, and took him to Mr. Westinghouse, to whom he
told his stories. Westinghouse bought 19 patents outright, and gave Tesla a
dollar per horsepower for any electric motor produced by Westinghouse using
the Tesla 3-phase system.
Tesla finally had the money with which to start building his laboratories,
5 and conducting the experiments with free earth energy. The idea that really
made him unpopular.
Something free, that the masters of war and business couldn't control?
They couldn't have that! So, the day after Tesla died in 1943, his huge
laboratory on Long Island mysteriously burned down, no records saved, and the
remnants were bulldozed the day after that to further eradicate any equipment
still left. So much for "free energy".
THE GREATEST HACKER OF ALL TIME
by Dave Small
© 1987 Reprinted from Current Notes magazine.
The question comes up from time to time. "Who's the greatest
hacker ever?"Well, there's a lot of different opinions on this. Some say
Steve Wozniak of Apple II fame. Maybe Andy Hertzfeld of the Mac operating
system. Richard Stallman, say others, of MIT. Yet at such times when I
mention who I think the greatest hacker is, everyone agrees (provided they
know of him), and there's no further argument. So, let me introduce you to
him, and his greatest hack. I'll warn you right up front that it's mind
numbing. By the way, everything I'm going to tell you is true and
verifiable down at your local library. Don't worry -- we're not heading
off into a Shirley MacLaine UFO-land story. Just some classy electrical
engineering...
THE SCENE: COLORADO SPRINGS, CO.
Colorado Springs is in southern Colorado, about 70 mile south of
Denver. These days it is known as the home of several optical disk
research corporations and of NORAD, the missile defense command under
Cheyenne Mountain. (I have a personal interest in Colorado Springs; my
wife Sandy grew up there.) These events took place some time ago in
Colorado Springs. A scientist had moved into town and set up a laboratory
on Hill Street, on the southern outskirts. The lab had a two hundred
foot copper antenna sticking up out of it, looking something like a HAM radio
enthusiast's antenna. He moved in an started work. And strange electrical
things happened near that lab. People would walk near the lab, and sparks
would jump up from the ground to their feet, through the soles of their shoes.
One boy took a screwdriver, held it near a fire hydrant, and drew a four
inch electrical spark from the hydrant. Sometimes the grass around his
lab would glow with an eerie blue corona, St. Elmo's Fire. What they
didn't know was this was small stuff. The man in the lab was merely tuning
up his apparatus. He was getting ready to run it wide open in an
experiment that ranks as among the greatest, and most spectacular, of all
time. One side effect of his experiment was the setting of the record
for man-made lightning: some 42 meters in length (130 feet).
THE MAN: NIKOLA TESLA.
His name was Nikola Tesla. He was an immigrant from what is now Yugoslavia;
there's a museum of his works in Belgrade. He's a virtual unknown in
the United States, despite his accomplishments. I'm not sure why.
Some people feel it's a dark plot, the same people who are into conspiracy
theories. I feel it's more that Tesla, while a brilliant inventor, was
also an awful businessman; he ended up going broke. Businessmen who go
broke fade out of the public eye; we see this in the computer industry
all the time. Edison, who wasn't near the inventor Tesla was, but who was
a better businessman, is well remembered as is his General Electric. Still,
let me list a few of Tesla's works just so you'll understand how bright he
was. He invented the AC motor and transformer. (Think of every motor in
your house.) He invented 3-phase electricity and popularized
alternating current, the electrical distribution system used all over the
world. He invented the Tesla Coil, which makes the high voltage that drives
the picture tube in your computer's CRT. He is now credited with inventing
modern radio as well; the Supreme Court overturned Marconi's patent in 1943
in favor of Tesla.
Tesla, in short, invented much of the equipment that gets power to
your home every day from miles away, and many that use that power inside
your home. His inventions made George Westinghouse (Westinghouse
Corp.) a wealthy man. Finally, the unit of magnetic flux in the metric
system is the "tesla". Other units include the "faraday" and the "henry", so
you'll understand this is an honor given to few. So we're not talking
about an unknown here, but rather a solid electrical engineer. Tesla
whipped through a number of inventions early in his life. He found
himself increasingly interested in resonance, and in particular,
electrical resonance. Tesla found out something fascinating. If you set
an electrical circuit to resonating, it does strange things indeed. Take
for instance his Tesla Coil. This high frequency step-up transformer
would kick out a few hundred thousand volts at radio frequencies. The
voltage would come off the top of his coil as a "corona", or brush
discharge. The little ones put out a six-inch spark; the big ones throw
sparks many feet long. Yet Tesla could draw the sparks to his fingers
without being hurt -- the high frequency of the electricity keeps it
on the surface of the skin, and prevents the current from doing any harm.
Tesla got to thinking about resonance on a large scale. He'd
already pioneered the electrical distribution system we use today, and
that's not small thinking; when you think of Tesla, think big. He thought,
let's say I send an electrical charge into the ground. What happens to it?
Well, the ground is an excellent conductor of electricity. Let me spend a
moment on this so you understand, because topsoil doesn't seem very
conductive to most. The ground makes a wonderful sinkhole for
electricity. This is why you "ground" power tools; the third (round) pin
in every AC outlet in your house is wired straight to, literally, the
ground. Typically, the handle of your power tool is hooked to ground; this
way, if something shorts out in the tool and the handle gets electrified, the
current ruches to the ground instead of into you. The ground has long been
used in this manner, as a conductor. Tesla generates a powerful pulse of
electricity, and drains it into the ground. Because the ground is
conductive, it doesn't stop. Rather, it spreads out like a radio wave,
traveling at the speed of light, 186,000 miles per second. And it keeps
going, because it's a powerful wave; it doesn't peter out after a few miles.
It passes through the iron core of the earth with little trouble. After
all, molten iron is very conductive. When the wave reaches the far side of
the planet, it bounces back, like a wave in water bounces when it reaches an
obstruction. Since it bounces, it makes a return trip; eventually, it
returns to the point of origin. Now, this idea might seem wild. But it
isn't science fiction. We bounced radar beams off the moon in the 1950's,
and we mapped Venus by radar in the 1970's. Those planets are millions
of miles away. The earth is a mere 3000 miles in diameter; sending an
electromagnetic wave through it is a piece of cake. We can sense earthquakes
all the way across the planet by the vibrations they set up that travel all
that distance. So, while at first thought it seems amazing, it's really
pretty straight forward. But, as I said, it's a typical example of how Tesla
thought. And then he had one of his typically Tesla ideas. He thought, when
the wave returns to me (about 1/30th of a second after he sends it in), it's
going to be considerably weakened by the trip. Why doesn't he send in
another charge at this point, to strengthen the wave? The two will combine,
go out, and bounce again. And then he'll reinforce it again, and again. The
wave will build up in power. It's like pushing a swingset. You give a
series of small pushes each time the swing goes out. And you build up a lot
of power with a series of small pushes; ever tried to stop a swing when it's
going full tilt? He wanted to find out the upper limit of resonance. And he
was in for a surprise.
THE HACK: THE TESLA COIL
So Tesla moved into Colorado Springs, where one of his generators and
electrical systems had been installed, and set up his lab. Why Colorado
Springs? Well, his lab in New York had burned down, and he was depressed
about that. And as fate would have it, a friend in Colorado Springs who
directed the power company, Leonard Curtis, offered him free electricity.
Who could resist that? After setting up his lab, he tuned his gigantic Tesla
coil through that year, trying to get it to resonate perfectly with the
earth below. And the townspeople noticed those weird effects; Tesla
was electrifying the ground beneath their feet on the return bounce of the
wave. Eventually, he got it tuned, keeping things at low power. But in the
spirit of a true hacker, just once he decided to run it wide open, just to see
what would happen. Just what was the upper limit of the wave he would build
up, bouncing back and forth in the planet below? He had his Coil hooked to
the ground below it, the 200 foot antenna above it, and getting as much
electricity as he wanted right off the city power supply mains. Tesla went
outside to watch (wearing three inch rubber soles for insulation) and had
his assistant, Kolman Czito, turn the Coil on. There was a buzz from rows of
oil capacitors, and a roar from the spark gap as wrist-thick arcs jumped
across it. Inside the lab the noise was deafening. But Tesla was
outside, watching the antenna. Any surge that returned to the area would
run up the antenna and jump off as lightning. Off the top of the antenna shot
a six foot lightning bolt. The bolt kept going in a steady arc, though,
unlike a single lightning flash. And here Tesla watched carefully, for he
wanted to see if the power would build up, if his wave theory would work.
Soon the lightning was twenty feet long, then fifty. The surges were
growing more powerful. Eighty feet -- now thunder was following each
lightning bolt. A hundred feet, a hundred twenty feet; the lightning shot
upwards off the antenna. Thunder was heard booming around Tesla now (it
was heard 22 miles away, in the town of Cripple Creek). The meadow Tesla was
standing in was lit up with an electrical discharge very much like St.
Elmo's Fire, casting a blue glow. His theory had worked! There didn't
seem to be an upper limit to the surges; he was creating the most
powerful electrical surges ever created by man. That moment he set the
record, which he still holds, for manmade lightning. Then everything halted.
The lightning discharges stopped, the thunder quit. He ran in, found the
power company had turned off his power feed. He called them, shouted
at them -- they were interrupting his experiment! The foreman replied
that Tesla had just overloaded the generator and set it on fire, his lads
were busy putting out the fire in the windings, and it would be a cold day in
hell before Tesla got any more free power from the Colorado Springs
power company!
All the lights in Colorado Springs had gone out. And that, readers, is
to me the greatest hack in history. I've seen some amazing hacks. The
8-bit Atari OS. The Mac OS. The phone company computers -- well, lots
of computers. But I've never seen anyone set the world's lightning record
and shut off the power to an entire town, "just to see what would happen".
For a few moments, there in Colorado Springs, he achieved something never
before done. He had used the entire planet as a conductor, and sent a pulse
through it. In that one moment in the summer of 1899, he made electrical
history. That's right, in 1899 -- darn near a hundred years ago. Well, you
may say to yourself, that's a nice story, and I'm sure George Lucas could
make a hell of a move about it, special effects and all. But it's not
relevant today. Or isn't it? Hang on to your hat.
THE SDI AND THE TESLA COIL
Last month we talked about an amazing hack that Nikola Tesla did --
bouncing an electrical wave through the planet, in 1899, and setting the
world's record for manmade lightning. This month,let me lay a little
political groundwork. Last October I attended Hackercon 2.0, another
gathering of computer hackers from all over. It was an informal weekend at
a camp in the hills west of Santa Clara. One of the more interesting
memories of Hackers 2.0 were the numerous diatribes against the Strategic
Defense Initiative. Most speakers claimed it was impossible, citing
technical problems. So many people felt obligated to complain about SDI
that the conference was jokingly called "SDIcon 2.0". Probably the
high(?) point of the conference was Jerry Pournelle and Timothy Leary up on
stage debating SDI. I'll leave the description to your imagination -- it
was everything you can think of and more. Personally, I was disturbed to
see how many gifted hackers adopting the attitude of "let's not even try".
That's not how micros got started. I mentioned to one Time magazine
journalist that if anyone could make SDI go, it was the hackers gathered
there. I also believe that the greatest hacker of them all, Nikola
Tesla, solved and SDI technical problem back in 1899. The event was so
long ago, and so amazing, that it's pretty much been forgotten; I described it
last issue. Let me present my case for the Tesla Coil and SDI.
SOVIET USE OF THE TESLA COIL
You will recall I said that Tesla was born in Yugoslavia (although
back then, it was "Serbo-Croatia"). He is not unknown there; he is
regarded as a national hero. Witness the Nikola Tesla museum in
Belgrade, for instance. There's been interferences picked up, on
this side of the planet, which is causing problems in the ham radio
bands. Direction finding equipment has traced the interference in the SW
band to two sources in the Soviet Union, which are apparently two
high powered Tesla Coils. Why on earth are the Soviets playing with Tesla
Coils? There's one odd theory that they're subjecting Canada to low
level electrical interference to cause attitude change. Sigh. Moving right
along, there's another theory, more credible, that they are conducting
research in "over the horizon" radar using Tesla's ideas. (The Soviets are
certainly not saying what they're doing.) When I read about this testing, it
worried me. I don't think they're playing with attitude control or
radar. I think they're doing exactly what Tesla did in Colorado Springs.
COMPUTERS AND GROUNDING
Time for another discussion of grounding. Consider your computer
equipment. You've doubtlessly been warned about static electricity, always
been told to ground yourself (thus discharging the static into the
ground, an electrical sinkhole) before touching your computer. Companies
make anti-static spray for your rugs. Static is in the 20,000 to 50,000
volt range. Computer chips run on five to twelve volts. The
internal insulation is built for that much voltage. When they get a shot of
static in the multiple thousand volt range, the insulation is punctured, and
the chip ruined. Countless computers have been damaged this way. Read any
manual on inserting memory chips to a PC, and you'll see warnings about
static; it's a big problem. Now Tesla was working in the millions of volts
range. And his special idea -- that the ground itself could be the
conductor -- now comes into relevance, nearly a hundred years after his
dramatic demonstration in Colorado Springs. For, you see, in our wisdom
we've grounded our many computers, to protect them from static. We've
always assumed the ground is an electrical sinkhole. So, with our
three-pin plugs we ground everything -- the two flat pins in your wall go
to electricity (hot and neutral); the third, round pin, goes straight to
ground. That third pin is usually hooked with a thick wire to a cold
water pipe, which grounds it effectively. Tesla proved that you can give
that ground a terrific charge, millions of volts of high frequency
electricity. (Tesla ran his large coil at 33 Khz). Remember, the
lightning surging off his Coil was coming from the wave bouncing back and
forth in the planet below. In short, he was modifying the ground's
electrical potential, changing it from an electrical sinkhole to an
electrical source. Tesla did his experiment in 1899. There weren't any
home computers with delicate chips hooked up to grounds then. If there
had been, he'd have fried everything in Colorado Springs. There was,
however, one piece of electrical equipment grounded at the time of the
experiment, the city power generator. It caught fire and ended Tesla's
experiment. The cause of its failure is interesting as well. It
died from "high frequency kickback", something most electrical engineers
know about. Tesla forgot that as the generator fed him power, he was
feeding it high frequency from his Coil. High frequency quickly
heats insulation; a microwave oven works on the same principle. In a few
minutes, the insulation inside that generator grew so hot that the
generator caught fire. When the lights went out all over Colorado Springs,
there was the first proof that Tesla's idea has strategic possibilities. It
gets scarier. Imagine Tesla's Coil, busily pumping an electrical wave in the
Earth. On his side of the planet, he was getting 130 foot sparks, which is a
hell of a lot of voltage and current. And simple wave theory will show you
that those sort of potentials exist on the far side of the planet as well.
Remember, the wave was bouncing back and forth, being reinforced on every
trip. The big question is how focused the opposite electrical pole will be.
No one knows. But it seems probable that the far side of the planet's
ground target area could be subjected to considerable electrical
interference. And if computer equipment is plugged inot that ground,
faithfully assuming the ground will never be a source of electricity, it's
just too bad for that equipment. This sort of electrical interference
makes static look tiny by comparison. It doesn't take much difference in
ground potential to kill a computer connected across it. Lightning
strikes cause a temporary flare in ground voltage; I remember replacing
driver chips on a network on all computers that had been caught by one
lightning strike, when I lived in Austin. Imagine the effect on relatively
delicate electronics if someone fires up a Tesla Coil on the far side of the
planet, and subjects the grounds to steep electrical swings. The military
applications are pretty obvious -- those ICBM's in North Dakota, for
instance. It's possible they could be damaged in their silos, and from
thousands of miles away. Running two or more Coils, you don't have to bee
exactly on the far side of the planet, either. Interference effects can
give you high points where you need with varied tunings. Maybe, just
maybe, the Soviets aren't doing "over the horizon" radar. Maybe they just
bothered to read Tesla's notes. And maybe they are tuning up a real big
surprise with their twin Coils.
"STAR WARS" AND THE TESLA COIL
You've heard of the Strategic Defense Initiative, or "Star Wars".
We're searching for a way to stop a nuclear attack. Right now, we've got
all sorts of high powered research projects, with the emphasis on "new
technology". Excimer laser, kinetic kill techniques, and even more exotic
ideas. As any of you know that have written computer programs, it's darned
hard to get something "new" to work. Maybe it's an error to focus on
"new" exclusively. Wouldn't it be something if the solution to SDI lies
a hundred years ago, in the forgotten brilliance of Nikola Tesla? For
right now we can immobilize the electronics of installations half a
planet away. The technology to do it was achieved in 1899, and promptly
forgotten. Remember, we're not talking vague, unproven theories here. We're
talking the world's record for lightning, and the inventor whose power system
lights up your house at night.
THE TESLA COIL WORKS.
All we'd have to do is build it. You might not believe the story about
Tesla in Colorado Springs, and what he did. It's pretty amazing. It has a
way of being forgotten because of that. And I'm not sure you want to hear
about the SDI connection. Still, as you work on a computer, remember
Tesla. His Tesla Coil supplies the high voltage for the picture tube you
use. The electricity for your computer comes from a Tesla design AC
generator, is sent through a Tesla transformer, and gets to your house
through 3-phase Tesla power. Tesla's inventions... they have a way of
working..
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