Free Electricity
Many of Tesla's inventions actually made it into everyday use such as radio remote control (think drones or RC models), the AC power system we use today, 3 Phase power, AC induction motors and of course the Tesla coil (we all know from school physics classes). He is also considered the father of WiFi.
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| Nikola Tesla circa 1896 |
Sometime in the mid 1890's he started working on the idea of wireless transmission of electricity. In fact by 1906 he had spent huge sums of money on it. He had the backing of J.P Morgan at one point.
His original idea was to transmit energy through the Earth and the Ionosphere (Haarp and Over the Horizon Radar use the Ionosphere in a similar manner).
He had studied radio waves early on in his career and had decided that part of Hertz's study was wrong. At the time the general thinking was that radio waves had only a short range,about a mile or so.
Tesla started to develop the idea that it might be possible to conduct electricity long distances either through the atmosphere or the earth itself. In effect turning the earth into a giant battery (there was a sci-fi novel describing just this but can't remember the title).
He set about setting up a large Tesla Coil or resonance transformer in his lab on East Houston Street. The idea of many scientists at the time was that the Earths atmosphere was conductive.
Tesla came up with the idea of a series of balloons that would transmitting and receiving electrodes or antenna. He hoped that the high altitude, 30000 feet or about 10000m, and lower air pressure would result in transmitting higher voltages (millions of volts) over longer distances.
In order to test his theories he built a lab in Colorado Springs. He managed to convince John Jacob Astor the 4th to give him $100,000 (that's equivalent to $3 million by today's standards). In return for this Astor became the main shareholder in the Nikola Tesla Company. Astor thought he was investing in a new wireless lighting system rather than funding Tesla's experiments at Colorado Springs. An assistant somehow managed to get the local electric company to provide free electricity.
It was during these experiments that he noticed strange signals being received from his receiver. In 1899 he wrote to a reporter detailing these signals. Of course the press jumped on this as proof of life on Mars. What he probably heard was either Marconi's radio experiments or some other scientist's radio wave experiments. Its more like to be Marconi's tests, as Tesla said he had heard a distinctive dot dot dot rhythm in the signal which is the letter S in Morse code.
In one experiment he managed to burn out the generator at the El Paso Power Company. The experiment had produced lightning and thunder consisting probably of millions of volts and discharges of up to 140 feet (45m), normal experiments produced discharges of few tens of feet ( 5 to 10m). The observations made from this and other experiments led him to wrongly believe that he could use the entire Earth to conduct electricity.
In the late 1900 to early 1901 Tesla decided to get extra funding to build a bigger better wireless transmission system. And in March 1901 he had managed to secure $150,000 (about $4.5 million in today's money) funding from J.P Morgan, who in return got a 51% of the share of any patents in Tesla's wireless technology.
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| Wardencliff Tower circa 1904 |
Once the money was secured Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower lab. The lab was located in Shoreham, New York. And the lighting inside was powered with Tesla's wireless energy technology. The lab was to have a tower 187 feet tall (55m), with which to broadcast his wireless energy signals.
In July 1901 Tesla decided to expand on his original plans. This was an attempt to preempt Marconi who he thought had copied his ideas. In order to do this he needed more money so he asked J.P Morgan again who refused. Then in December 1901 Marconi transmitted the first wireless signal, the letter S in Morse code, from England to Newfoundland.
Unfortunately for Tesla Wall Street wanted to invest in Marconi and not Tesla. Then the press started to accuse Tesla's project of being a hoax. And as they say the rest is history.
Tesla's work at Wardenclyffe carried on until the late 1905. The property was foreclosed on in 1915 due to mounting debt. With the tower being demolished in 1917 and sold for scrap. It later became a photographic processing lab for Agfa.
Its now going to be turned into a Tesla museum.
