Tesla's Magnifying Transmitter - Part 4: Power distribution

[mage00000]

What would be the ultimate solution to distribute the generated power all over the world, even to the most remote places?

You can read all of this in Tesla’s own words in these articles:

• 1919 Feb, Famous Scientific Illusions - part III: The Singular Misconception of the Wireless.
• 1919 May, The True Wireless
  Both published in the Electrical Experimenter.
  (there are more articles, but these are the most detailed)

Single Wire
To understand true wireless we must first understand single wire power distribution. We are so used to using two wires that we never even realize that the same can be accomplished using only one wire. Tesla uses a gas analogy to explain this, which in a way is funny because he believes that electricity actually is caused by a gaseous medium.
To make gas flow through a device it will have to go in on one end and out on another, that is why we use two wires. But we could connect a rubber balloon on the exit of our device leaving only one opening through which we can supply our gas flow. Then, instead of using a continuous flow we use an intermittent flow. First we fill our balloon, then we let our balloon empty again through our device, using the same air twice.

This can be done with a gas, and also with electricity. Using high frequency, high voltage we can light a bulb with only one wire going to the power supply. (the other wire goes to a small capacitance, our balloon)

In this picture you see this demonstrated. In the middle of the picture you see the lightbulb with two wires on the right. One is hanging down with an aluminium ball/cylinder attached to it, the other goes straight to the right to the top load of a small Tesla coil. So only one wire supplies power, the other goes to a temporary reservoir.

No wires
Now that we know this is possible it is not a big step to replace that one wire with the Earth.
You may think that the Earth is a bad conductor for electricity, but that is not true. Due to its immense size its conductance is excellent. 99% of the resistance is in the connection to the Earth, but once inside the Earth there is almost no resistance to speak of.
If we use the best ground connection we can make and a very high voltage we’ll have no trouble sending impulses through the entire Earth.
These impulses can be amplified by using a properly tuned coil, much like a radio uses to receive signals through the air.
So everywhere around the world you can connect your receiver coil to the ground and receive electricity.

how about mobile devices?
The ground connection of the receiver is the only thing standing in our way to use this system for mobile devices. But since most mobile devices use very little energy, that energy can easily be collected by a properly tuned coil without ground connection. The high frequency currents in the ground will induce magnetic effects that you can pick up with such a coil.

Is that safe?
Although both Tesla and I have not suffered from any adverse effects of high frequency high voltage encounters and Tesla has passed several million volts through his body (I have been a bit reluctant to repeat those experiments), RF-burns have caused lasting injuries to some people in the past. Also, this scheme is a pretty big change in our living environment and even if we are not affected, there may be animals or plants that are. This should certainly be investigated before it is installed on a large scale.

Where do we put the meter?
The (unconfirmed!) story goes that JP Morgan who financed the Wardenclyffe project learned about Tesla’s plan to distribute power worldwide and asked Tesla this question before cancelling his support. "If anyone, anywhere can use our power, where do we put the meter?"
This story is probably not true as Tesla would have had an answer. Tesla had already worked out a plan that would enable him to send power only to specific receivers, thus he would have complete control over who gets how much.
In “the Problem of Increasing Human Energy” we read:

Such an automaton evidently had to have motive power (1), organs for locomotion (2), directive organs (3), and one or more sensitive organs (4) so adapted as to be excited by external stimuli.
---//---
and, above all, the mind (5) which would be wanting to make the model complete.

(the numbers between brackets are added in this quote)

Tesla could derive energy from the ambient medium (“motive power”). He could also selectively send (“organs for locomotion”) it to specific (“directive organ”) receivers (“one or more sensitive organs”) all over the world. But he needed a controlling mechanism (“mind”) so to make it possible to send specific amounts of energy to specific receiving-stations who had paid for it.

He repeats this in 1907-05-03: “Tesla's Tidal Wave to Make War impossible”

The telautomatic art is the result of endeavours to produce an automaton capable of moving and acting as if possessed of intelligence and distinct individuality. Disconnected from its higher embodiment, an organism, such as a human being, is a heat - or thermodynamic engine - comprising:- (1) a complete plant for receiving, transforming, and supplying energy; (2) apparatus for locomotion and other mechanical performance; (3) directive organs; and (4) sensitive instruments responsive to external influences, all these parts constituting a whole of marvellous perfection.
---//---
That much is done, but more is to come. A mechanism is being perfected which without operator in control, left to itself, will behave as if endowed with intelligence of its own. It will be responsive to the faintest external influences and from these, unaided, determine its subsequent actions as if possessed of selective qualities, logic, and reason. It will perform the duties of an intelligent slave. Many of us will live to see Bulwer's dream (“the House and the Brain”?) realised.

(the numbers and text between brackets are added in this quote)

So there you have it. What he needed was only a computer to control this system, and that wasn’t available in his time….

But it is today….

Comments

[biophil]

Let me see if I've got this straight (I've never gotten an explanation of Tesla from an actual Tesla fan, so I have some catching up to do):

1. Single-wire power transmission is enabled by simply putting the load between the source and a reactance (capacitance or inductance; his sketch labels this "capacitance"). I believe this. There are some interesting practical implementation questions (does each device have its own reactance? Each house? Each neighborhood?), but it squares with what I know of electricity.
2. Because the Earth is a good conductor, we can simply replace the wire with the Earth. On some level, I believe this; it's why grounding rods work.
3. What do you do about the Earth's reactance? You can't do single-wire transmission without Alternating Current, but with AC, you get losses due to capacitance and inductance. If the Earth is reactive, it would be like you put a second capacity reservoir between the alternator and the light bulb in Tesla's diagram. My guess is the reactance is absolutely huge, but maybe I'm wrong. How do you get around that? Maybe it's not an issue if the Earth's reactance is low enough.

I left our last conversation hanging; you had sent me a link to a paper by a friend of yours talking about some problems with Maxwell. I looked at the paper, and I would love to digest it and understand it, but I'm not very well versed in EM theory so it would take more time than I have to spare at the moment.

[mage00000]

Great to see some genuine interest in this work! Let me see if I can help you with this.

1. It is true that you can use a capacitive or inductive reactance, but some nuance has to be added. If you have a theoretical 0 capacitance and x (>0) inductance, it would not work because there is no 'incentive', no reason for a current to flow through the inductance. It has to flow to somewhere and therefore some capacitance is needed. What people tend to forget is that every conductor has some capacitance, i.e. you need some charge on it to create a voltage and the ratio charge over voltage is capacitance. A coil is a conductor and so it has some capacitance, but it also has inductance (obviously). So if you suddenly raise the voltage on one end of the coil, leaving the other side unconnected, a current will start to flow through the coil to evenly distribute the added charges. Because of the coils inductance however the current will continue to flow after this equal distribution has been established, and a higher voltage (twice as high as the input voltage you used) will appear at the open end of the coil. From that moment the current will start flowing back until the open end is back at zero volt and this process will repeat at the coils natural resonance frequency. The best way to get power from it is by using the voltage difference between both ends of the coil. (I have a picture of such a set up, but I think you'll understand)
2. Tesla does not say this with so many words but I believe he intended to give every device its own capacitance. You are more or less required to do so because the size of this capacitance has a relation to the amount of power that the device needs.
3. The Earth, seen as a spherical conductor has quite some capacitance. You'll need to add a significant amount of charge to raise its potential as you can imagine. If I suddenly add, say 1 Coulomb through my ground rod, you can imagine that, due to the immense size, it will take some time to evenly distribute this charge and that is where inductance comes in. Exactly the same thing happens as I described in point 1 with a coil, and you will find the Earth has a natural resonance frequency of about 11.77 Hz (which is NOT a Schumann resonance frequency. I made a video on that subject.).
   Instead of having this work against you you can let this work for you by adding an impulse every 84 ms (or there about), as if you are pushing a swing. That way no energy gets wasted on reactance and the only waste is from resistance (which is very small). You can, in this manner, build up a gigantic standing wave in the Earth and because it is so big, taking some energy out here and there does not affect it much.

Concerning the paper I linked earlier, you could watch some video's on vector algebra on youtube. If you are a little mathematically inclined you will not find it very hard to understand. With that you will be able to digest the paper little by little. Vector algebra really is a great tool to broaden & deepen your understanding of the relation between electricity and magnetism. Just take it one step at a time. ;)

[biophil]

Just take it one step at a time.

Yep, that's my approach. I'm actually pretty comfortable with math; just not able to put in the time to do the paper justice right now and I'd have to brush up significantly on my EM to be able to really get much from it.

Thanks for the replies! It's fun for me to imagine a world where Tesla had his way with more than just AC; must be particularly fun for you to go about actually building such a world. :)

[panda21]

Hi @mage00000 ,
I am still a bit curious and trying to understand what I've got so far.

Just want to make things clearer. In conclusion, this TMT harvest energy mainly through giant streamer's spark like giant tesla coil does?

And then transmitted through the earth?
(Knowing there's not much resistance.. and the energy added from earth charge while travelling back and forth can neutralize that resistance)

I've read also about safety. But it's still scary tough seeing blazing spark like crazy over time. (or it's not?)

These series was really interesting, even for no-science guy like me.

HUGE THANKS!!

[panda21]

Waiting for response ...
@mage00000

[adambalm]

Nice post. It's amazing this technology has been around since 1919 and were wasting tons of money due to power loss in our transmission lines.

[j3dy]

how about fuel from water? :D guess how much that cost? around 4-5 wars maybe one world one I mean a second one at least. Well fun times :|

[creatr]

Thanks, @mage00000.

This is, hands down, the best explanation I've ever read for how Tesla's Wardenclyffe setup was intended to work.

I got here late, so now I'm on to read your next installment!