Wardenclyffe Tower
Encyclopedia
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
telecommunications tower designed by Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
and intended for commercial trans-Atlantic wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
telephony
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
, broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wires
Wireless energy transfer
Wireless energy transfer or wireless power is the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to an electrical load without artificial interconnecting conductors. Wireless transmission is useful in cases where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or impossible...
. The core facility was not completed due to financial problems and was never fully operational.
The tower was named after James S. Warden, a western lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and banker who had purchased land for the endeavor in Shoreham
Shoreham, New York
Shoreham is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 417 at the 2000 census.The Incorporated Village of Shoreham is inside the Town of Brookhaven.-Geography:Shoreham is located at ....
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, about sixty miles from Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Here he built a resort community known as Wardenclyffe-On-Sound. Warden believed that with the implementation of Tesla's "world system" a "Radio City" would arise in the area. He offered Tesla 200 acres (80.9 ha) of land close to a railway line on which to build his wireless telecommunications tower and laboratory facility.
Construction
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
. Architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Stanford White
Stanford White
Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
designed the Wardenclyffe facility main building. The tower was designed by W.D. Crow, an associate of White. Funding for Tesla's project was provided by influential industrialists and other venture capitalists. The project was initially backed by the wealthy J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
who had invested $150,000 in the facility (more than $3 million in 2009 dollars).
In June 1902 Tesla moved his laboratory operations from his Houston Street laboratory to Wardenclyffe. However in 1903, when the tower structure was near completion, it was still not yet functional due to last-minute design changes. In addition to commercial wireless telecommunications, Tesla intended the tower be used to demonstrate how electrical energy could be transmitted without the need for power lines. A story has arisen that the power consumption could not be metered and Morgan, who could not foresee any financial gain from providing free electricity to everyone, balked. Construction costs eventually exceeded the money provided by Morgan and additional financiers were reluctant to come forward (Tesla's other major financier was John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV was an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War and a member of the prominent Astor family...
). By July 1904 Morgan (and the other investors) finally decided they would not provide any additional financing. Morgan also discouraged other investors from backing the project. In May 1905 Tesla's patents on alternating current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
motors and other methods of power transmission expired, halting royalty payments and causing a severe reduction of funding to the Wardenclyffe Tower. In an attempt to find alternative funding Tesla advertised the services of the Wardenclyffe facility but he met with little success. By this time Tesla had also designed the Tesla turbine
Tesla turbine
The Tesla turbine is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine patented by Nikola Tesla in 1913. It is referred to as a bladeless turbine because it uses the boundary layer effect and not a fluid impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine...
at Wardenclyffe and produced Tesla coil
Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...
s for sale to various businesses.
By 1905, since Tesla could not find any more backers, most of the site's activity had to be shut down. Employees were laid off in 1906, but parts of the building remained in use until 1907. In 1908, the property was foreclosed for the first time. Tesla procured a new mortgage from George C. Boldt
George Boldt
George Charles Boldt was a Prussian-born American hotelier. A self-made millionaire, he influenced the development of the urban hotel as a civic social center and luxury destination.-Philadelphia:...
, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
. The facility was partially abandoned around 1911, and the tower structure deteriorated. Between 1912 and 1915, Tesla's finances unraveled, and when the funders wanted to know how they were going to recapture their investments, Tesla was unable to give satisfactory answers. Newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
headlines of the time labeled it "Tesla's million-dollar folly
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
." The facility's main building was breached and vandalized around this time. Collapse of the Wardenclyffe project may have contributed to the mental breakdown Tesla experienced during this period. Coupled to the personal tragedy of Wardenclyffe was the 1895 fire at 35 South 5th Avenue, New York, in the building which housed Tesla's laboratory
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
. In this fire, he lost much of his equipment, notes and documents. This produced a state of severe depression for Tesla.
Post-Tesla era
In 1915, legal ownership of the Wardenclyffe property was transferred to George BoldtGeorge Boldt
George Charles Boldt was a Prussian-born American hotelier. A self-made millionaire, he influenced the development of the urban hotel as a civic social center and luxury destination.-Philadelphia:...
of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
for a $20,000 debt (about $400,000 in 2009 dollars). In September 1917 during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the tower was blown up with dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
on orders of the United States Government which feared German spies were using it and that it could be used as a landmark for German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s. Tesla was not in New York during the tower's destruction.
George Boldt wished to make the property available for sale. On April 20, 1922 Tesla lost an appeal of judgment versus his backers in the second foreclosure. This effectively locked Tesla out of any future development of the facility. In 1925, the property ownership was transferred to Walter L. Johnson of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. On March 6, 1939, Plantacres, Inc. purchased the facility's land and subsequently leased it to Peerless Photo Products, Inc. AGFA Corporation
Agfa-Gevaert
Agfa-Gevaert N.V. is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the...
bought the property from Peerless and is the current owner. The main building remains standing to this day. Agfa used the site from 1969 to 1992 then closed the facility. The site has undergone a final cleanup of waste produced during its Photo Products era. The clean up was conducted under the scrutiny of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and paid for by AGFA. In 2009 they put the property up for sale for $1,650,000. Agfa has advertised that the land can “be delivered fully cleared and level.” It says it spent $5 million through September 2008 cleaning up silver and cadmium
Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
.
Preservation efforts
On February 14, 1967, the nonprofit public benefit corporation Brookhaven Town Historical Trust was established. It selected the Wardenclyffe facility to be designated as a historic site and as the first site to be preserved by the Trust on March 3, 1967. The Brookhaven Town Historic Trust was rescinded by resolution on February 1, 1972. There were never any appointments made after a legal opinion was received; it was never set up properly. On July 7, 1976, a plaque from YugoslaviaYugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
was installed by representatives from Brookhaven National Laboratory near the entrance of the building. It reads:
The sign was stolen from the property in November 2009. An anonymous benefactor is offering a $2000 reward if it is returned to the property.
Designation of the structure as a National Landmark is awaiting completion of plant decommissioning activities by its present owner.
In 1976, an application was filed to nominate the main building for listing on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. It failed to get approval. The Tesla Wardenclyffe Project, Inc. was established in 1994 for the purpose of seeking placement of the Wardenclyffe laboratory-office building and the Tesla tower foundation on both the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. Its mission is the preservation and adaptive reuse of Wardenclyffe, the century-old laboratory of electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York. In October 1994 a second application for formal nomination was filed. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation conducted inspections and determined the facility meets New York State criteria for historic designation. A second visit was made on February 25, 2009. The site cannot be registered until it is nominated by a willing owner.
Facility grounds
The wood-framed tower was 186 feet (57 m) tall and the cupola 68 feet (20.7 m) in diameter. It had a 55-ton steel (some report it was a better conducting material, such as copper) hemispherical structure at the top (referred to as a cupola). Designed by one of Stanford White's associates, the structure was such as to allow each piece to be taken out if needed and replaced as necessary. The transmitter itself was to have been powered by a 200 kilowatt Westinghouse alternating current industrial generator
Alternator
An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...
. Beneath the tower, a shaft sank 120 feet (36.6 m) into the ground. Sixteen iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
pipes were placed one length after another 300 additional feet (94.4 m) in order for the machine, in Tesla's words, "to have a grip on the earth so the whole of this globe can quiver."
The main building occupied the rest of the facility grounds. It included a laboratory area, instrument room, boiler room, generator room and machine shop. Inside the main building, there were electromechanical devices, electrical generators, electrical transformers, glass blowing equipment, X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
devices, Tesla coils, a remote controlled boat, cases with bulbs and tubes, wires, cables, a library, and an office. It was constructed in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
The transmission of electrical energy
In 1891 and 1892, Tesla had used an oscillatory transformer that bears his name in demonstration lectures delivered before meetings of the American Institute of Electrical EngineersAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers
The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was a United States based organization of electrical engineers that existed between 1884 and 1963, when it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .- History :The 1884 founders of the...
(AIEE) in New York City" and the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in London. Of two striking results that Tesla demonstrated, one was that the wireless transmission of electrical energy was possible. A later presentation, titled "On Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena" (Philadelphia/St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
; Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
in 1893), was a key event in the invention of radio
Invention Of Radio
Within the history of radio, several people were involved in the invention of radio and there were many key inventions in what became the modern systems of wireless. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy"...
and could also be said to have begun the development of Wardenclyffe.
One-wire transmission
In the early presentations, the first experiment to be demonstrated was the operation of light and motiveMotion (physics)
In physics, motion is a change in position of an object with respect to time. Change in action is the result of an unbalanced force. Motion is typically described in terms of velocity, acceleration, displacement and time . An object's velocity cannot change unless it is acted upon by a force, as...
devices connected by a single wire to only one terminal of a high frequency induction coil
Induction coil
An induction coil or "spark coil" is a type of disruptive discharge coil. It is a type of electrical transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage direct current supply...
, presented during the 1891 New York City lecture at Columbia University. While a single terminal incandescent lamp connected to one of an induction coil’s secondary terminals does not form a closed circuit “in the ordinary acceptance of the term”, the circuit is closed in the sense that a return path is established back to the secondary by what Tesla called “electrostatic induction” (or 'displacement currents'
Displacement current
In electromagnetism, displacement current is a quantity that is defined in terms of the rate of change of electric displacement field. Displacement current has the units of electric current density, and it has an associated magnetic field just as actual currents do. However it is not an electric...
). This is due to the lamp’s filament or refractory button capacitance
Capacitance
In electromagnetism and electronics, capacitance is the ability of a capacitor to store energy in an electric field. Capacitance is also a measure of the amount of electric potential energy stored for a given electric potential. A common form of energy storage device is a parallel-plate capacitor...
relative to the coil’s free terminal and environment; the free terminal also has capacitance relative to the lamp and environment. At high frequencies, the displacement current through these capacitances is sufficient to light the lamp.
Wireless transmission
Here Tesla describes two different types of wireless transmitter, both employing a high-tension induction coil. One had a sheet of metal suspended from the ceiling and connected to one of the induction coil’s terminals, with the other terminal being connected to ground. The other type of transmitter had two sheets of metal suspended from the ceiling, each being connected to one of the coil’s high-voltage terminals.
Theory of wireless transmission
While working to develop an explanation for the two observed effects mentioned above, Tesla recognized that electrical energy can be projected outward into space and detected by a receiving instrument in the general vicinity of the source without the need for any interconnecting wires. He went on to develop two theories related to these observations, which are:- By using two Tesla coil transmitter-receivers positioned at distant points on the Earth’s surface, it is possible to induce a flow of electrical current between them.
- By incorporating a portion of the Earth as part of a powerful dual-elevated-terminal Tesla coil transmitter an electrical disturbance can be impressed upon the Earth and detected “at great distance, or even all over the surface of the globe.”
Tesla also made the assumption that the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
is a charged body floating in space.
Tesla was familiar with demonstrations that involved the charging of Leyden jar
Leyden jar
A Leyden jar, or Leiden jar, is a device that "stores" static electricity between two electrodes on the inside and outside of a jar. It was invented independently by German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist on 11 October 1745 and by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden in 1745–1746. The...
capacitor
Capacitor
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...
s and isolated metal spheres with electrostatic influence machines (in modern terms, high-voltage (kV), low-current (μA) electrostatic generators). By bringing these elements into proximity with each other, and also by making direct contact followed by their separation, the charge can be manipulated. He surely had this in mind in the creation of his mental image, not being able to know that the model of Earth’s origin was inaccurate. The presently accepted model of planetary origin is one of accretion and collision.
We now know that the Earth is a charged body, made so by processes—at least in part—related to the interaction between the continuous stream of charged particles called the solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
that flows outward from the center of our solar system and Earth’s magnetosphere
Magnetosphere
A magnetosphere is formed when a stream of charged particles, such as the solar wind, interacts with and is deflected by the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet or similar body. Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, as are the other planets with intrinsic magnetic fields: Mercury, Jupiter,...
. And we also know that Tesla's capacitance estimate was correct: Earth's self-capacitance is about 710 microfarads.
But the upper strata of the air are conducting, and so, perhaps, is the medium in free space beyond the atmosphere, and these may contain an opposite charge. Then the capacity might be incomparably greater.
We now also know that Earth's upper atmospheric strata are conducting, or can be made so.
In any case it is of the greatest importance to get an idea of what quantity of electricity the Earth contains.
An additional condition of which we are now aware is that the Earth possesses a naturally existing negative charge with respect to the conducting region of the atmosphere beginning at an elevation of about 50 km. The potential difference between the Earth and this region is on the order of 400,000 volts. Near the Earth's surface there is a ubiquitous downward directed E-field of about 100 V/m. Tesla referred to this charge as the “electric niveau” or electric level.
It is difficult to say whether we shall ever acquire this necessary knowledge, but there is hope that we may, and that is, by means of electrical resonance. If ever we can ascertain at what period the Earth's charge, when disturbed, oscillates with respect to an oppositely electrified system or known circuit, we shall know a fact possibly of the greatest importance to the welfare of the human race. I propose to seek for the period by means of an electrical oscillator, or a source of alternating electric currents...
Some maintain the 200 kW wireless facility would have functioned by the production and propagation of electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
also known as the transverse electromagnetic (TEM) radio wave, but this is not the case.
I am not producing radiation in my system; I am suppressing electromagnetic waves. But, on the other hand, my apparatus can be used effectively with electromagnetic waves. The apparatus has nothing to do with this new method except that it is the only means to practice it. So that in my system, you should free yourself of the idea that there is radiation, that energy is radiated. It is not radiated; it is conserved.
By Tesla's own account, his earth resonance system works by the creation of "powerful disturbances" in Earth's natural electric charge. The Wardenclyffe facility had a dual purpose. In addition to point-to-point telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s and broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
it was also intended to demonstrate the transmission of electrical power on a reduced scale. He stated,
It is intended to give practical demonstrations of these principles with the plant illustrated. As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than all of this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction.
Wardenclyffe was the first of many installations to be constructed near major population centers around the world. If Tesla's plans had moved forward without interruption the Long Island prototype would have been followed by a second plant built in the British Isles, perhaps on the west coast of Scotland near Glasgow. Each of these facilities would have included a large magnifying transmitter
Magnifying transmitter
The magnifying transmitter is an advanced version of Tesla coil transmitter. It is a high power harmonic oscillator that Nikola Tesla intended for the wireless transmission of electrical energy...
of a design loosely based upon the apparatus which Tesla assembled at the Colorado Springs Experimental Station in 1899.
- "... The plant in Colorado was merely designed in the same sense as a naval constructor designs first a small model to ascertain all the quantities before he embarks on the construction of a big vessel. I had already planned most of the details of the commercial plant, subsequently put up at Long Island, except that at that time the location was not settled upon. The Colorado plant I have used in determining the construction of the various parts, and the experiments which were carried on there were for the practical purpose of enabling me to design the transmitters and receivers which I was to employ in the large commercial plant subsequently erected..."
Using a global array of these magnifying transmitters, it was Tesla's plan to establish what he called the "World Wireless System," providing multi-channel global broadcasting, an array of secure wireless telecommunications services, and a long range aid to navigation, including means for the precise synchronization of clocks. In a more highly developed state he envisaged the 'World System' would expand to include the wireless industrial transmission of electric power.
At the time the power grid was quite limited in terms of reach and the Wardenclyffe prototype represented a way to significantly reduce the cost of "electrifying" the countryside. Tesla called his wireless technique the "disturbed charge of ground and air method".
There is evidence that Wardenclyffe would have used extremely low frequency
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
signals combined with higher frequency signals. In practice, the transmitter electrically influences both the Earth and the space above it. He made a point of describing the process as being essentially the same as transmitting electricity by conduction through a wire.
Tesla clearly specified the Earth as being one of the conducting media involved in ground and air system technology. The other specified medium is the atmosphere above 5 miles (8 km) elevation. While not an ohmic conductor, in this region of the troposphere and upwards, the density or pressure is sufficiently reduced to so that, according to Tesla’s theory, the atmosphere’s insulating properties can be easily impaired, allowing an electric current to flow. His theory further states that the conducting region is developed through the process of atmospheric ionization, in which the affected portions thereof are changed to plasma. The presence of the magnetic fields developed by each plant’s helical resonator suggests that an embedded magnetic field and flux linkage is also involved. Flux linkage with Earth’s natural magnetic field is also a possibility, especially in the case of an earth resonance transmission system.
The atmosphere below 5 miles (8 km) is also viewed as a propagating medium for a portion of the above-ground circuit, and, being an insulating medium, electrostatic induction would be involved rather than true electrical conduction. Tesla felt that with a sufficiently high electrical potential on the elevated terminal the practical limitation imposed upon its height could be overcome. He anticipated that a highly energetic transmitter, as was intended at Wardenclyffe, would charge the elevated terminal to the point where the atmosphere around and above the facility would break down and become ionized, leading to a flow of true conduction currents between the two terminals by a path up to and through the troposphere, and back down to the other facility. The ionization of the atmosphere directly above the elevated terminals would be facilitated by the use of an ionizing beam of ultraviolet radiation to form what might be called a high-voltage plasma transmission line. [ed. see longitudinal wave
Longitudinal wave
Longitudinal waves, as known as "l-waves", are waves that have the same direction of vibration as their direction of travel, which means that the movement of the medium is in the same direction as or the opposite direction to the motion of the wave. Mechanical longitudinal waves have been also...
s and waves in plasmas
Waves in plasmas
Waves in plasmas are an interconnected set of particles and fields which propagates in a periodically repeating fashion. A plasma is a quasineutral, electrically conductive fluid. In the simplest case, it is composed of electrons and a single species of positive ions, but it may also contain...
].
In various writings, Tesla explained that the Earth itself behaves as a resonant LC circuit
LC circuit
An LC circuit, also called a resonant circuit or tuned circuit, consists of an inductor, represented by the letter L, and a capacitor, represented by the letter C...
when it is electrically excited at certain frequencies. At Wardenclyffe he operated at frequencies ranging from 1,000 Hz to 100 kHz. Tesla found the frequency range up to 30 – 35 kHz “to be most economical.” Excitation of earth resonance at a harmonic of the 11.78 Hz fundamental frequency suggests energy transmission by means of a TM00 spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave transmission line mode. A Schumann resonance
Schumann resonance
The Schumann resonances are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum...
mode (the fundamental frequency being about 7.5 to 7.9 Hz) is probably not involved. The entire Earth can be electrically resonated with a single earth-resonance transmitter, so an earth-resonance based system would require, at a minimum, that only one World Wireless System transmitter be constructed. Alternatively, two distantly spaced transmiter-receiver facilities could be constructed. Such a system would not be so dependent upon the excitation of an earth-resonance mode. In either case a surface wave, similar to the Zenneck wave would be utilized. Artificially induced earth currents
Telluric current
A telluric current , or Earth current, is an electric current which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both natural causes and human activity, and the discrete currents interact in a complex pattern...
would be utilized. According to Tesla, the planet's large cross-sectional area provides a low resistance path for the flow of earth currents. The greatest losses are apt to occur at the points where the transmitting / receiving plants and dedicated receiving stations are connected with the ground. This is why Tesla stated;
You see the underground work is one of the most expensive parts of the tower. In this system that I have invented it is necessary for the machine to get a grip of the Earth, otherwise it cannot shake the Earth. It has to have a grip on the Earth so that the whole of this globe can quiver, and to do that it is necessary to carry out a very expensive construction.
To close the circuit a second path is established between the two transmitter-receiver plants' elevated high-voltage terminals through the rarefied atmospheric strata above five miles (8 km). The connection is made by some combination of electrostatic induction and electrical conduction through plasma. While a number of his wireless patents, including "Apparatus for transmitting electrical energy," U.S. Patent No. 1,119,732, December 1, 1914, describe a system which uses the plasma-conduction scheme, his "Art of transmitting electrical energy through the natural mediums," U.S. Patent No. 787,412, April 18, 1905 and some of his Wardenclyffe design notes from 1901 show the overall plan also involves electrostatically induce oscillations in the potential associated with Earth's self-capacitance. The two tower earth-resonance transmitter is especially designed for this purpose. Tesla wrote,
The specific plan of producing the stationary waves, here-in described, might be departed from. For example, the circuit which impresses the powerful oscillations upon the earth might be connected to the latter at two points.
Tesla believed that a fully developed system with large high-power stations based upon the smaller Wardenclyffe prototype would permit wireless transmission and reception across large distances with negligible losses.
In the course of this work, I mastered the technique of high potentials sufficiently for enabling me to construct and operate, in 1899, a wireless transmitter developing up to twenty million volts. Some time before I contemplated the possibility of transmitting such high tension currents over a narrow beam of radiant energy ionizing the air and rendering it, in measure, conductive. After preliminary laboratory experiments, I made tests on a large scale with the transmitter referred to and a beam of ultra-violet rays of great energy in an attempt to conduct the current to the high rarefied strata of the air and thus create an auroral such as might be utilized for illumination, especially of oceans at night. I found that there was some virtue in the principal but the results did not justify the hope of important practical applications. . . .
In spite of ridicule, many of Tesla's ideas have been demonstrated to be essentially correct. For example he correctly predicted the existence of the ionosphere and electrical resonance of the Earth-atmosphere system. Resonance of the earth-ionosphere cavity with a fundamental frequency in the vicinity of 7.3 Hz was demonstrated in the 1950s as the Schumann resonance
Schumann resonance
The Schumann resonances are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum...
. The latter phenomenon was named after Schumann, for although Tesla had detected a resonance of the Earth-atmosphere system, he was not taken seriously in his time. Furthermore, Tesla appears to have excited a different terrestrial resonance
Terrestrial stationary waves
Terrestrial stationary waves is a persistent spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave electrical transmission line phenomenon arising across the Earth's surface by virtue of the highly conductive nature of the earth itself. It was considered by Nikola Tesla to be his most important discovery...
mode with a fundamental frequency of 11.78 Hz.
Electrical transmission and reception
Tesla's early experiments involved the propagation of ordinary radio waves, that is to say Hertzian waves, electromagnetic waves propagated through space without artificial guide.In 1919 Nikola Tesla wrote,
The popular impression is that my wireless work was begun in 1893, but as a matter of fact I spent the two preceding years in investigations, employing forms of apparatus, some of which were almost like those of today. It was clear to me from the very start that the successful consummation could only be brought about by a number of radical improvements. Suitable high frequency generators and electrical oscillators had first to be produced. The energy of these had to be transformed in effective transmitters and collected at a distance in proper receivers. Such a system would be manifestly circumscribed in its usefulness if all extraneous interference were not prevented and exclusiveness secured. In time, however, I recognized that devices of this kind, to be most effective and efficient, should be designed with due regard to the physical properties of this planet and the electrical conditions obtaining on the same.
One of the requirements of the World Wireless system is the construction of resonant receivers. The grounded helical resonator of a Tesla Coil and an elevated terminal can be used in receive mode. Tesla himself repeatedly demonstrated the wireless transmission of electrical energy from a Tesla coil transmitter to a Tesla coil receiver. These concepts and methods are part of his wireless transmission system
Wireless energy transfer
Wireless energy transfer or wireless power is the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to an electrical load without artificial interconnecting conductors. Wireless transmission is useful in cases where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or impossible...
(US1119732 — Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy — 1902 January 18). Tesla made a proposal that there would be many more than thirty transmission-reception stations worldwide.
Receiver (radio)
A radio receiver converts signals from a radio antenna to a usable form. It uses electronic filters to separate a wanted radio frequency signal from all other signals, the electronic amplifier increases the level suitable for further processing, and finally recovers the desired information through...
(e.g.., an antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
circuit), due to reciprocity
Reciprocity (electromagnetism)
In classical electromagnetism, reciprocity refers to a variety of related theorems involving the interchange of time-harmonic electric current densities and the resulting electromagnetic fields in Maxwell's equations for time-invariant linear media under certain constraints...
.
[Impedance, generally though, is not applied in an obvious way; for electrical impedance
Electrical impedance
Electrical impedance, or simply impedance, is the measure of the opposition that an electrical circuit presents to the passage of a current when a voltage is applied. In quantitative terms, it is the complex ratio of the voltage to the current in an alternating current circuit...
, the impedance at the load
External electric load
If an electric circuit has a well-defined output terminal, the circuit connected to this terminal is the load....
(e.g.., where the power is consumed) is most critical and, for a Tesla Coil receiver, this is at the point of utilization (such as at an induction motor) rather than at the receiving node. Complex
Complex number
A complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...
impedance of an antenna is related to the electrical length
Electrical length
In telecommunications, electrical length is the length of a transmission medium or antenna element expressed as the number of wavelengths of the signal propagating in the medium....
of the antenna at the wavelength in use. Commonly, impedance is adjusted at the load with a tuner or a matching networks composed of inductor
Inductor
An inductor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in a magnetic field. An inductor's ability to store magnetic energy is measured by its inductance, in units of henries...
s and capacitor
Capacitor
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...
s.]
In another form of receiving circuit the two input terminals are connected to a device designed to reverse polarity at predetermined intervals of time and charge a capacitor
Condenser
Condenser may refer to:*Condenser , a device or unit used to condense vapor into liquid. More specific articles on some types include:*Air coil used in HVAC refrigeration systems...
. This form of Tesla system receiver has means for commutating the current impulses in the charging circuit so as to render them suitable for charging an energy storage device, a device for closing the receiving-circuit, and means for causing the receiver to be operated by the accumulated energy.
Tesla receivers operated correctly act as a step-down transformer with high current output. There are, to date, no commercial power generation entities or businesses that have utilized this technology to full effect. The power levels achieved by Tesla Coil receivers have, thus far, been a fraction of the output power of the transmitters.
While Tesla Coils can be used for wireless energy transmission and reception, much of the public and media attention is directed away from such applications since big electrical discharges are fascinating to most people.
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
telecommunications tower designed by Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
and intended for commercial trans-Atlantic wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
telephony
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
, broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wires
Wireless energy transfer
Wireless energy transfer or wireless power is the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to an electrical load without artificial interconnecting conductors. Wireless transmission is useful in cases where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or impossible...
. The core facility was not completed due to financial problems and was never fully operational.
The tower was named after James S. Warden, a western lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and banker who had purchased land for the endeavor in Shoreham
Shoreham, New York
Shoreham is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 417 at the 2000 census.The Incorporated Village of Shoreham is inside the Town of Brookhaven.-Geography:Shoreham is located at ....
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, about sixty miles from Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Here he built a resort community known as Wardenclyffe-On-Sound. Warden believed that with the implementation of Tesla's "world system" a "Radio City" would arise in the area. He offered Tesla 200 acres (80.9 ha) of land close to a railway line on which to build his wireless telecommunications tower and laboratory facility.
Construction
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
. Architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Stanford White
Stanford White
Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
designed the Wardenclyffe facility main building. The tower was designed by W.D. Crow, an associate of White. Funding for Tesla's project was provided by influential industrialists and other venture capitalists. The project was initially backed by the wealthy J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
who had invested $150,000 in the facility (more than $3 million in 2009 dollars).
In June 1902 Tesla moved his laboratory operations from his Houston Street laboratory to Wardenclyffe. However in 1903, when the tower structure was near completion, it was still not yet functional due to last-minute design changes. In addition to commercial wireless telecommunications, Tesla intended the tower be used to demonstrate how electrical energy could be transmitted without the need for power lines. A story has arisen that the power consumption could not be metered and Morgan, who could not foresee any financial gain from providing free electricity to everyone, balked. Construction costs eventually exceeded the money provided by Morgan and additional financiers were reluctant to come forward (Tesla's other major financier was John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV was an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War and a member of the prominent Astor family...
). By July 1904 Morgan (and the other investors) finally decided they would not provide any additional financing. Morgan also discouraged other investors from backing the project. In May 1905 Tesla's patents on alternating current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
motors and other methods of power transmission expired, halting royalty payments and causing a severe reduction of funding to the Wardenclyffe Tower. In an attempt to find alternative funding Tesla advertised the services of the Wardenclyffe facility but he met with little success. By this time Tesla had also designed the Tesla turbine
Tesla turbine
The Tesla turbine is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine patented by Nikola Tesla in 1913. It is referred to as a bladeless turbine because it uses the boundary layer effect and not a fluid impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine...
at Wardenclyffe and produced Tesla coil
Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...
s for sale to various businesses.
By 1905, since Tesla could not find any more backers, most of the site's activity had to be shut down. Employees were laid off in 1906, but parts of the building remained in use until 1907. In 1908, the property was foreclosed for the first time. Tesla procured a new mortgage from George C. Boldt
George Boldt
George Charles Boldt was a Prussian-born American hotelier. A self-made millionaire, he influenced the development of the urban hotel as a civic social center and luxury destination.-Philadelphia:...
, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
. The facility was partially abandoned around 1911, and the tower structure deteriorated. Between 1912 and 1915, Tesla's finances unraveled, and when the funders wanted to know how they were going to recapture their investments, Tesla was unable to give satisfactory answers. Newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
headlines of the time labeled it "Tesla's million-dollar folly
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
." The facility's main building was breached and vandalized around this time. Collapse of the Wardenclyffe project may have contributed to the mental breakdown Tesla experienced during this period. Coupled to the personal tragedy of Wardenclyffe was the 1895 fire at 35 South 5th Avenue, New York, in the building which housed Tesla's laboratory
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
. In this fire, he lost much of his equipment, notes and documents. This produced a state of severe depression for Tesla.
Post-Tesla era
In 1915, legal ownership of the Wardenclyffe property was transferred to George BoldtGeorge Boldt
George Charles Boldt was a Prussian-born American hotelier. A self-made millionaire, he influenced the development of the urban hotel as a civic social center and luxury destination.-Philadelphia:...
of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
for a $20,000 debt (about $400,000 in 2009 dollars). In September 1917 during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the tower was blown up with dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
on orders of the United States Government which feared German spies were using it and that it could be used as a landmark for German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s. Tesla was not in New York during the tower's destruction.
George Boldt wished to make the property available for sale. On April 20, 1922 Tesla lost an appeal of judgment versus his backers in the second foreclosure. This effectively locked Tesla out of any future development of the facility. In 1925, the property ownership was transferred to Walter L. Johnson of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. On March 6, 1939, Plantacres, Inc. purchased the facility's land and subsequently leased it to Peerless Photo Products, Inc. AGFA Corporation
Agfa-Gevaert
Agfa-Gevaert N.V. is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the...
bought the property from Peerless and is the current owner. The main building remains standing to this day. Agfa used the site from 1969 to 1992 then closed the facility. The site has undergone a final cleanup of waste produced during its Photo Products era. The clean up was conducted under the scrutiny of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and paid for by AGFA. In 2009 they put the property up for sale for $1,650,000. Agfa has advertised that the land can “be delivered fully cleared and level.” It says it spent $5 million through September 2008 cleaning up silver and cadmium
Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
.
Preservation efforts
On February 14, 1967, the nonprofit public benefit corporation Brookhaven Town Historical Trust was established. It selected the Wardenclyffe facility to be designated as a historic site and as the first site to be preserved by the Trust on March 3, 1967. The Brookhaven Town Historic Trust was rescinded by resolution on February 1, 1972. There were never any appointments made after a legal opinion was received; it was never set up properly. On July 7, 1976, a plaque from YugoslaviaYugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
was installed by representatives from Brookhaven National Laboratory near the entrance of the building. It reads:
The sign was stolen from the property in November 2009. An anonymous benefactor is offering a $2000 reward if it is returned to the property.
Designation of the structure as a National Landmark is awaiting completion of plant decommissioning activities by its present owner.
In 1976, an application was filed to nominate the main building for listing on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. It failed to get approval. The Tesla Wardenclyffe Project, Inc. was established in 1994 for the purpose of seeking placement of the Wardenclyffe laboratory-office building and the Tesla tower foundation on both the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. Its mission is the preservation and adaptive reuse of Wardenclyffe, the century-old laboratory of electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York. In October 1994 a second application for formal nomination was filed. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation conducted inspections and determined the facility meets New York State criteria for historic designation. A second visit was made on February 25, 2009. The site cannot be registered until it is nominated by a willing owner.
Facility grounds
The wood-framed tower was 186 feet (57 m) tall and the cupola 68 feet (20.7 m) in diameter. It had a 55-ton steel (some report it was a better conducting material, such as copper) hemispherical structure at the top (referred to as a cupola). Designed by one of Stanford White's associates, the structure was such as to allow each piece to be taken out if needed and replaced as necessary. The transmitter itself was to have been powered by a 200 kilowatt Westinghouse alternating current industrial generator
Alternator
An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...
. Beneath the tower, a shaft sank 120 feet (36.6 m) into the ground. Sixteen iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
pipes were placed one length after another 300 additional feet (94.4 m) in order for the machine, in Tesla's words, "to have a grip on the earth so the whole of this globe can quiver."Powered by an industrial alternator
Alternator
An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...
, a generator facility's tower was intended to inject large amounts of energy into a natural Earth circuit, using the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
-Ionosphere
Ionosphere
The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...
network as the transmission circuit
Electric power transmission
Electric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to Electrical substations located near demand centers...
. At this depth, telluric current
Telluric current
A telluric current , or Earth current, is an electric current which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both natural causes and human activity, and the discrete currents interact in a complex pattern...
s of the Earth could be transceived.<-->
The main building occupied the rest of the facility grounds. It included a laboratory area, instrument room, boiler room, generator room and machine shop. Inside the main building, there were electromechanical devices, electrical generators, electrical transformers, glass blowing equipment, X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
devices, Tesla coils, a remote controlled boat, cases with bulbs and tubes, wires, cables, a library, and an office. It was constructed in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
The transmission of electrical energy
In 1891 and 1892, Tesla had used an oscillatory transformer that bears his name in demonstration lectures delivered before meetings of the American Institute of Electrical EngineersAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers
The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was a United States based organization of electrical engineers that existed between 1884 and 1963, when it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .- History :The 1884 founders of the...
(AIEE) in New York City" and the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in London. Of two striking results that Tesla demonstrated, one was that the wireless transmission of electrical energy was possible. A later presentation, titled "On Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena" (Philadelphia/St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
; Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
in 1893), was a key event in the invention of radio
Invention Of Radio
Within the history of radio, several people were involved in the invention of radio and there were many key inventions in what became the modern systems of wireless. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy"...
and could also be said to have begun the development of Wardenclyffe.
One-wire transmission
In the early presentations, the first experiment to be demonstrated was the operation of light and motiveMotion (physics)
In physics, motion is a change in position of an object with respect to time. Change in action is the result of an unbalanced force. Motion is typically described in terms of velocity, acceleration, displacement and time . An object's velocity cannot change unless it is acted upon by a force, as...
devices connected by a single wire to only one terminal of a high frequency induction coil
Induction coil
An induction coil or "spark coil" is a type of disruptive discharge coil. It is a type of electrical transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage direct current supply...
, presented during the 1891 New York City lecture at Columbia University. While a single terminal incandescent lamp connected to one of an induction coil’s secondary terminals does not form a closed circuit “in the ordinary acceptance of the term”, the circuit is closed in the sense that a return path is established back to the secondary by what Tesla called “electrostatic induction” (or 'displacement currents'
Displacement current
In electromagnetism, displacement current is a quantity that is defined in terms of the rate of change of electric displacement field. Displacement current has the units of electric current density, and it has an associated magnetic field just as actual currents do. However it is not an electric...
). This is due to the lamp’s filament or refractory button capacitance
Capacitance
In electromagnetism and electronics, capacitance is the ability of a capacitor to store energy in an electric field. Capacitance is also a measure of the amount of electric potential energy stored for a given electric potential. A common form of energy storage device is a parallel-plate capacitor...
relative to the coil’s free terminal and environment; the free terminal also has capacitance relative to the lamp and environment. At high frequencies, the displacement current through these capacitances is sufficient to light the lamp.
Wireless transmission
Here Tesla describes two different types of wireless transmitter, both employing a high-tension induction coil. One had a sheet of metal suspended from the ceiling and connected to one of the induction coil’s terminals, with the other terminal being connected to ground. The other type of transmitter had two sheets of metal suspended from the ceiling, each being connected to one of the coil’s high-voltage terminals.
Theory of wireless transmission
While working to develop an explanation for the two observed effects mentioned above, Tesla recognized that electrical energy can be projected outward into space and detected by a receiving instrument in the general vicinity of the source without the need for any interconnecting wires. He went on to develop two theories related to these observations, which are:- By using two Tesla coil transmitter-receivers positioned at distant points on the Earth’s surface, it is possible to induce a flow of electrical current between them.
- By incorporating a portion of the Earth as part of a powerful dual-elevated-terminal Tesla coil transmitter an electrical disturbance can be impressed upon the Earth and detected “at great distance, or even all over the surface of the globe.”
Tesla also made the assumption that the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
is a charged body floating in space.
Tesla was familiar with demonstrations that involved the charging of Leyden jar
Leyden jar
A Leyden jar, or Leiden jar, is a device that "stores" static electricity between two electrodes on the inside and outside of a jar. It was invented independently by German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist on 11 October 1745 and by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden in 1745–1746. The...
capacitor
Capacitor
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...
s and isolated metal spheres with electrostatic influence machines (in modern terms, high-voltage (kV), low-current (μA) electrostatic generators). By bringing these elements into proximity with each other, and also by making direct contact followed by their separation, the charge can be manipulated. He surely had this in mind in the creation of his mental image, not being able to know that the model of Earth’s origin was inaccurate. The presently accepted model of planetary origin is one of accretion and collision.
We now know that the Earth is a charged body, made so by processes—at least in part—related to the interaction between the continuous stream of charged particles called the solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
that flows outward from the center of our solar system and Earth’s magnetosphere
Magnetosphere
A magnetosphere is formed when a stream of charged particles, such as the solar wind, interacts with and is deflected by the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet or similar body. Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, as are the other planets with intrinsic magnetic fields: Mercury, Jupiter,...
. And we also know that Tesla's capacitance estimate was correct: Earth's self-capacitance is about 710 microfarads.
But the upper strata of the air are conducting, and so, perhaps, is the medium in free space beyond the atmosphere, and these may contain an opposite charge. Then the capacity might be incomparably greater.
We now also know that Earth's upper atmospheric strata are conducting, or can be made so.
In any case it is of the greatest importance to get an idea of what quantity of electricity the Earth contains.
An additional condition of which we are now aware is that the Earth possesses a naturally existing negative charge with respect to the conducting region of the atmosphere beginning at an elevation of about 50 km. The potential difference between the Earth and this region is on the order of 400,000 volts. Near the Earth's surface there is a ubiquitous downward directed E-field of about 100 V/m. Tesla referred to this charge as the “electric niveau” or electric level.
It is difficult to say whether we shall ever acquire this necessary knowledge, but there is hope that we may, and that is, by means of electrical resonance. If ever we can ascertain at what period the Earth's charge, when disturbed, oscillates with respect to an oppositely electrified system or known circuit, we shall know a fact possibly of the greatest importance to the welfare of the human race. I propose to seek for the period by means of an electrical oscillator, or a source of alternating electric currents...
Some maintain the 200 kW wireless facility would have functioned by the production and propagation of electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
also known as the transverse electromagnetic (TEM) radio wave, but this is not the case.
I am not producing radiation in my system; I am suppressing electromagnetic waves. But, on the other hand, my apparatus can be used effectively with electromagnetic waves. The apparatus has nothing to do with this new method except that it is the only means to practice it. So that in my system, you should free yourself of the idea that there is radiation, that energy is radiated. It is not radiated; it is conserved.
By Tesla's own account, his earth resonance system works by the creation of "powerful disturbances" in Earth's natural electric charge. The Wardenclyffe facility had a dual purpose. In addition to point-to-point telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s and broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
it was also intended to demonstrate the transmission of electrical power on a reduced scale. He stated,
It is intended to give practical demonstrations of these principles with the plant illustrated. As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than all of this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction.
Wardenclyffe was the first of many installations to be constructed near major population centers around the world. If Tesla's plans had moved forward without interruption the Long Island prototype would have been followed by a second plant built in the British Isles, perhaps on the west coast of Scotland near Glasgow. Each of these facilities would have included a large magnifying transmitter
Magnifying transmitter
The magnifying transmitter is an advanced version of Tesla coil transmitter. It is a high power harmonic oscillator that Nikola Tesla intended for the wireless transmission of electrical energy...
of a design loosely based upon the apparatus which Tesla assembled at the Colorado Springs Experimental Station in 1899.
- "... The plant in Colorado was merely designed in the same sense as a naval constructor designs first a small model to ascertain all the quantities before he embarks on the construction of a big vessel. I had already planned most of the details of the commercial plant, subsequently put up at Long Island, except that at that time the location was not settled upon. The Colorado plant I have used in determining the construction of the various parts, and the experiments which were carried on there were for the practical purpose of enabling me to design the transmitters and receivers which I was to employ in the large commercial plant subsequently erected..."
Using a global array of these magnifying transmitters, it was Tesla's plan to establish what he called the "World Wireless System," providing multi-channel global broadcasting, an array of secure wireless telecommunications services, and a long range aid to navigation, including means for the precise synchronization of clocks. In a more highly developed state he envisaged the 'World System' would expand to include the wireless industrial transmission of electric power.
At the time the power grid was quite limited in terms of reach and the Wardenclyffe prototype represented a way to significantly reduce the cost of "electrifying" the countryside. Tesla called his wireless technique the "disturbed charge of ground and air method".
There is evidence that Wardenclyffe would have used extremely low frequency
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
signals combined with higher frequency signals. In practice, the transmitter electrically influences both the Earth and the space above it. He made a point of describing the process as being essentially the same as transmitting electricity by conduction through a wire.
Tesla clearly specified the Earth as being one of the conducting media involved in ground and air system technology. The other specified medium is the atmosphere above 5 miles (8 km) elevation. While not an ohmic conductor, in this region of the troposphere and upwards, the density or pressure is sufficiently reduced to so that, according to Tesla’s theory, the atmosphere’s insulating properties can be easily impaired, allowing an electric current to flow. His theory further states that the conducting region is developed through the process of atmospheric ionization, in which the affected portions thereof are changed to plasma. The presence of the magnetic fields developed by each plant’s helical resonator suggests that an embedded magnetic field and flux linkage is also involved. Flux linkage with Earth’s natural magnetic field is also a possibility, especially in the case of an earth resonance transmission system.
The atmosphere below 5 miles (8 km) is also viewed as a propagating medium for a portion of the above-ground circuit, and, being an insulating medium, electrostatic induction would be involved rather than true electrical conduction. Tesla felt that with a sufficiently high electrical potential on the elevated terminal the practical limitation imposed upon its height could be overcome. He anticipated that a highly energetic transmitter, as was intended at Wardenclyffe, would charge the elevated terminal to the point where the atmosphere around and above the facility would break down and become ionized, leading to a flow of true conduction currents between the two terminals by a path up to and through the troposphere, and back down to the other facility. The ionization of the atmosphere directly above the elevated terminals would be facilitated by the use of an ionizing beam of ultraviolet radiation to form what might be called a high-voltage plasma transmission line. [ed. see longitudinal wave
Longitudinal wave
Longitudinal waves, as known as "l-waves", are waves that have the same direction of vibration as their direction of travel, which means that the movement of the medium is in the same direction as or the opposite direction to the motion of the wave. Mechanical longitudinal waves have been also...
s and waves in plasmas
Waves in plasmas
Waves in plasmas are an interconnected set of particles and fields which propagates in a periodically repeating fashion. A plasma is a quasineutral, electrically conductive fluid. In the simplest case, it is composed of electrons and a single species of positive ions, but it may also contain...
].
In various writings, Tesla explained that the Earth itself behaves as a resonant LC circuit
LC circuit
An LC circuit, also called a resonant circuit or tuned circuit, consists of an inductor, represented by the letter L, and a capacitor, represented by the letter C...
when it is electrically excited at certain frequencies. At Wardenclyffe he operated at frequencies ranging from 1,000 Hz to 100 kHz. Tesla found the frequency range up to 30 – 35 kHz “to be most economical.” Excitation of earth resonance at a harmonic of the 11.78 Hz fundamental frequency suggests energy transmission by means of a TM00 spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave transmission line mode. A Schumann resonance
Schumann resonance
The Schumann resonances are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum...
mode (the fundamental frequency being about 7.5 to 7.9 Hz) is probably not involved. The entire Earth can be electrically resonated with a single earth-resonance transmitter, so an earth-resonance based system would require, at a minimum, that only one World Wireless System transmitter be constructed. Alternatively, two distantly spaced transmiter-receiver facilities could be constructed. Such a system would not be so dependent upon the excitation of an earth-resonance mode. In either case a surface wave, similar to the Zenneck wave would be utilized. Artificially induced earth currents
Telluric current
A telluric current , or Earth current, is an electric current which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both natural causes and human activity, and the discrete currents interact in a complex pattern...
would be utilized. According to Tesla, the planet's large cross-sectional area provides a low resistance path for the flow of earth currents. The greatest losses are apt to occur at the points where the transmitting / receiving plants and dedicated receiving stations are connected with the ground. This is why Tesla stated;
You see the underground work is one of the most expensive parts of the tower. In this system that I have invented it is necessary for the machine to get a grip of the Earth, otherwise it cannot shake the Earth. It has to have a grip on the Earth so that the whole of this globe can quiver, and to do that it is necessary to carry out a very expensive construction.
To close the circuit a second path is established between the two transmitter-receiver plants' elevated high-voltage terminals through the rarefied atmospheric strata above five miles (8 km). The connection is made by some combination of electrostatic induction and electrical conduction through plasma. While a number of his wireless patents, including "Apparatus for transmitting electrical energy," U.S. Patent No. 1,119,732, December 1, 1914, describe a system which uses the plasma-conduction scheme, his "Art of transmitting electrical energy through the natural mediums," U.S. Patent No. 787,412, April 18, 1905 and some of his Wardenclyffe design notes from 1901 show the overall plan also involves electrostatically induce oscillations in the potential associated with Earth's self-capacitance. The two tower earth-resonance transmitter is especially designed for this purpose. Tesla wrote,
The specific plan of producing the stationary waves, here-in described, might be departed from. For example, the circuit which impresses the powerful oscillations upon the earth might be connected to the latter at two points.
Tesla believed that a fully developed system with large high-power stations based upon the smaller Wardenclyffe prototype would permit wireless transmission and reception across large distances with negligible losses.
In the course of this work, I mastered the technique of high potentials sufficiently for enabling me to construct and operate, in 1899, a wireless transmitter developing up to twenty million volts. Some time before I contemplated the possibility of transmitting such high tension currents over a narrow beam of radiant energy ionizing the air and rendering it, in measure, conductive. After preliminary laboratory experiments, I made tests on a large scale with the transmitter referred to and a beam of ultra-violet rays of great energy in an attempt to conduct the current to the high rarefied strata of the air and thus create an auroral such as might be utilized for illumination, especially of oceans at night. I found that there was some virtue in the principal but the results did not justify the hope of important practical applications. . . .
In spite of ridicule, many of Tesla's ideas have been demonstrated to be essentially correct. For example he correctly predicted the existence of the ionosphere and electrical resonance of the Earth-atmosphere system. Resonance of the earth-ionosphere cavity with a fundamental frequency in the vicinity of 7.3 Hz was demonstrated in the 1950s as the Schumann resonance
Schumann resonance
The Schumann resonances are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum...
. The latter phenomenon was named after Schumann, for although Tesla had detected a resonance of the Earth-atmosphere system, he was not taken seriously in his time. Furthermore, Tesla appears to have excited a different terrestrial resonance
Terrestrial stationary waves
Terrestrial stationary waves is a persistent spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave electrical transmission line phenomenon arising across the Earth's surface by virtue of the highly conductive nature of the earth itself. It was considered by Nikola Tesla to be his most important discovery...
mode with a fundamental frequency of 11.78 Hz.
Electrical transmission and reception
Tesla's early experiments involved the propagation of ordinary radio waves, that is to say Hertzian waves, electromagnetic waves propagated through space without artificial guide.In 1919 Nikola Tesla wrote,
The popular impression is that my wireless work was begun in 1893, but as a matter of fact I spent the two preceding years in investigations, employing forms of apparatus, some of which were almost like those of today. It was clear to me from the very start that the successful consummation could only be brought about by a number of radical improvements. Suitable high frequency generators and electrical oscillators had first to be produced. The energy of these had to be transformed in effective transmitters and collected at a distance in proper receivers. Such a system would be manifestly circumscribed in its usefulness if all extraneous interference were not prevented and exclusiveness secured. In time, however, I recognized that devices of this kind, to be most effective and efficient, should be designed with due regard to the physical properties of this planet and the electrical conditions obtaining on the same.
One of the requirements of the World Wireless system is the construction of resonant receivers. The grounded helical resonator of a Tesla Coil and an elevated terminal can be used in receive mode. Tesla himself repeatedly demonstrated the wireless transmission of electrical energy from a Tesla coil transmitter to a Tesla coil receiver. These concepts and methods are part of his wireless transmission system
Wireless energy transfer
Wireless energy transfer or wireless power is the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to an electrical load without artificial interconnecting conductors. Wireless transmission is useful in cases where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or impossible...
(US1119732 — Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy — 1902 January 18). Tesla made a proposal that there would be many more than thirty transmission-reception stations worldwide.
Receiver (radio)
A radio receiver converts signals from a radio antenna to a usable form. It uses electronic filters to separate a wanted radio frequency signal from all other signals, the electronic amplifier increases the level suitable for further processing, and finally recovers the desired information through...
(e.g.., an antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
circuit), due to reciprocity
Reciprocity (electromagnetism)
In classical electromagnetism, reciprocity refers to a variety of related theorems involving the interchange of time-harmonic electric current densities and the resulting electromagnetic fields in Maxwell's equations for time-invariant linear media under certain constraints...
.
[Impedance, generally though, is not applied in an obvious way; for electrical impedance
Electrical impedance
Electrical impedance, or simply impedance, is the measure of the opposition that an electrical circuit presents to the passage of a current when a voltage is applied. In quantitative terms, it is the complex ratio of the voltage to the current in an alternating current circuit...
, the impedance at the load
External electric load
If an electric circuit has a well-defined output terminal, the circuit connected to this terminal is the load....
(e.g.., where the power is consumed) is most critical and, for a Tesla Coil receiver, this is at the point of utilization (such as at an induction motor) rather than at the receiving node. Complex
Complex number
A complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...
impedance of an antenna is related to the electrical length
Electrical length
In telecommunications, electrical length is the length of a transmission medium or antenna element expressed as the number of wavelengths of the signal propagating in the medium....
of the antenna at the wavelength in use. Commonly, impedance is adjusted at the load with a tuner or a matching networks composed of inductor
Inductor
An inductor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in a magnetic field. An inductor's ability to store magnetic energy is measured by its inductance, in units of henries...
s and capacitor
Capacitor
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...
s.]
In another form of receiving circuit the two input terminals are connected to a device designed to reverse polarity at predetermined intervals of time and charge a capacitor
Condenser
Condenser may refer to:*Condenser , a device or unit used to condense vapor into liquid. More specific articles on some types include:*Air coil used in HVAC refrigeration systems...
. This form of Tesla system receiver has means for commutating the current impulses in the charging circuit so as to render them suitable for charging an energy storage device, a device for closing the receiving-circuit, and means for causing the receiver to be operated by the accumulated energy.
Tesla receivers operated correctly act as a step-down transformer with high current output. There are, to date, no commercial power generation entities or businesses that have utilized this technology to full effect. The power levels achieved by Tesla Coil receivers have, thus far, been a fraction of the output power of the transmitters.
While Tesla Coils can be used for wireless energy transmission and reception, much of the public and media attention is directed away from such applications since big electrical discharges are fascinating to most people.
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
telecommunications tower designed by Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...
and intended for commercial trans-Atlantic wireless
Wireless
Wireless telecommunications is the transfer of information between two or more points that are not physically connected. Distances can be short, such as a few meters for television remote control, or as far as thousands or even millions of kilometers for deep-space radio communications...
telephony
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
, broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wires
Wireless energy transfer
Wireless energy transfer or wireless power is the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to an electrical load without artificial interconnecting conductors. Wireless transmission is useful in cases where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or impossible...
. The core facility was not completed due to financial problems and was never fully operational.
The tower was named after James S. Warden, a western lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and banker who had purchased land for the endeavor in Shoreham
Shoreham, New York
Shoreham is an incorporated village in Suffolk County, New York, United States. The population was 417 at the 2000 census.The Incorporated Village of Shoreham is inside the Town of Brookhaven.-Geography:Shoreham is located at ....
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, about sixty miles from Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. Here he built a resort community known as Wardenclyffe-On-Sound. Warden believed that with the implementation of Tesla's "world system" a "Radio City" would arise in the area. He offered Tesla 200 acres (80.9 ha) of land close to a railway line on which to build his wireless telecommunications tower and laboratory facility.
Construction
Long Island Sound
Long Island Sound is an estuary of the Atlantic Ocean, located in the United States between Connecticut to the north and Long Island, New York to the south. The mouth of the Connecticut River at Old Saybrook, Connecticut, empties into the sound. On its western end the sound is bounded by the Bronx...
. Architect
Architect
An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
Stanford White
Stanford White
Stanford White was an American architect and partner in the architectural firm of McKim, Mead & White, the frontrunner among Beaux-Arts firms. He designed a long series of houses for the rich and the very rich, and various public, institutional, and religious buildings, some of which can be found...
designed the Wardenclyffe facility main building. The tower was designed by W.D. Crow, an associate of White. Funding for Tesla's project was provided by influential industrialists and other venture capitalists. The project was initially backed by the wealthy J. P. Morgan
J. P. Morgan
John Pierpont Morgan was an American financier, banker and art collector who dominated corporate finance and industrial consolidation during his time. In 1892 Morgan arranged the merger of Edison General Electric and Thomson-Houston Electric Company to form General Electric...
who had invested $150,000 in the facility (more than $3 million in 2009 dollars).
In June 1902 Tesla moved his laboratory operations from his Houston Street laboratory to Wardenclyffe. However in 1903, when the tower structure was near completion, it was still not yet functional due to last-minute design changes. In addition to commercial wireless telecommunications, Tesla intended the tower be used to demonstrate how electrical energy could be transmitted without the need for power lines. A story has arisen that the power consumption could not be metered and Morgan, who could not foresee any financial gain from providing free electricity to everyone, balked. Construction costs eventually exceeded the money provided by Morgan and additional financiers were reluctant to come forward (Tesla's other major financier was John Jacob Astor
John Jacob Astor IV
John Jacob Astor IV was an American businessman, real estate builder, investor, inventor, writer, lieutenant colonel in the Spanish-American War and a member of the prominent Astor family...
). By July 1904 Morgan (and the other investors) finally decided they would not provide any additional financing. Morgan also discouraged other investors from backing the project. In May 1905 Tesla's patents on alternating current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
motors and other methods of power transmission expired, halting royalty payments and causing a severe reduction of funding to the Wardenclyffe Tower. In an attempt to find alternative funding Tesla advertised the services of the Wardenclyffe facility but he met with little success. By this time Tesla had also designed the Tesla turbine
Tesla turbine
The Tesla turbine is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine patented by Nikola Tesla in 1913. It is referred to as a bladeless turbine because it uses the boundary layer effect and not a fluid impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine...
at Wardenclyffe and produced Tesla coil
Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...
s for sale to various businesses.
By 1905, since Tesla could not find any more backers, most of the site's activity had to be shut down. Employees were laid off in 1906, but parts of the building remained in use until 1907. In 1908, the property was foreclosed for the first time. Tesla procured a new mortgage from George C. Boldt
George Boldt
George Charles Boldt was a Prussian-born American hotelier. A self-made millionaire, he influenced the development of the urban hotel as a civic social center and luxury destination.-Philadelphia:...
, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
. The facility was partially abandoned around 1911, and the tower structure deteriorated. Between 1912 and 1915, Tesla's finances unraveled, and when the funders wanted to know how they were going to recapture their investments, Tesla was unable to give satisfactory answers. Newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
headlines of the time labeled it "Tesla's million-dollar folly
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
." The facility's main building was breached and vandalized around this time. Collapse of the Wardenclyffe project may have contributed to the mental breakdown Tesla experienced during this period. Coupled to the personal tragedy of Wardenclyffe was the 1895 fire at 35 South 5th Avenue, New York, in the building which housed Tesla's laboratory
Laboratory
A laboratory is a facility that provides controlled conditions in which scientific research, experiments, and measurement may be performed. The title of laboratory is also used for certain other facilities where the processes or equipment used are similar to those in scientific laboratories...
. In this fire, he lost much of his equipment, notes and documents. This produced a state of severe depression for Tesla.
Post-Tesla era
In 1915, legal ownership of the Wardenclyffe property was transferred to George BoldtGeorge Boldt
George Charles Boldt was a Prussian-born American hotelier. A self-made millionaire, he influenced the development of the urban hotel as a civic social center and luxury destination.-Philadelphia:...
of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel
The Waldorf-Astoria is a luxury hotel in New York. It has been housed in two historic landmark buildings in New York City. The first, designed by architect Henry J. Hardenbergh, was on the Fifth Avenue site of the Empire State Building. The present building at 301 Park Avenue in Manhattan is a...
for a $20,000 debt (about $400,000 in 2009 dollars). In September 1917 during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the tower was blown up with dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
on orders of the United States Government which feared German spies were using it and that it could be used as a landmark for German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
submarine
Submarine
A submarine is a watercraft capable of independent operation below the surface of the water. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability...
s. Tesla was not in New York during the tower's destruction.
George Boldt wished to make the property available for sale. On April 20, 1922 Tesla lost an appeal of judgment versus his backers in the second foreclosure. This effectively locked Tesla out of any future development of the facility. In 1925, the property ownership was transferred to Walter L. Johnson of Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. On March 6, 1939, Plantacres, Inc. purchased the facility's land and subsequently leased it to Peerless Photo Products, Inc. AGFA Corporation
Agfa-Gevaert
Agfa-Gevaert N.V. is a European multinational corporation that develops, manufactures, and distributes analogue and digital imaging products and systems, as well as IT solutions. The company has three divisions. Agfa Graphics offers integrated prepress and industrial inkjet systems to the...
bought the property from Peerless and is the current owner. The main building remains standing to this day. Agfa used the site from 1969 to 1992 then closed the facility. The site has undergone a final cleanup of waste produced during its Photo Products era. The clean up was conducted under the scrutiny of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, and paid for by AGFA. In 2009 they put the property up for sale for $1,650,000. Agfa has advertised that the land can “be delivered fully cleared and level.” It says it spent $5 million through September 2008 cleaning up silver and cadmium
Cadmium
Cadmium is a chemical element with the symbol Cd and atomic number 48. This soft, bluish-white metal is chemically similar to the two other stable metals in group 12, zinc and mercury. Similar to zinc, it prefers oxidation state +2 in most of its compounds and similar to mercury it shows a low...
.
Preservation efforts
On February 14, 1967, the nonprofit public benefit corporation Brookhaven Town Historical Trust was established. It selected the Wardenclyffe facility to be designated as a historic site and as the first site to be preserved by the Trust on March 3, 1967. The Brookhaven Town Historic Trust was rescinded by resolution on February 1, 1972. There were never any appointments made after a legal opinion was received; it was never set up properly. On July 7, 1976, a plaque from YugoslaviaYugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
was installed by representatives from Brookhaven National Laboratory near the entrance of the building. It reads:
The sign was stolen from the property in November 2009. An anonymous benefactor is offering a $2000 reward if it is returned to the property.
Designation of the structure as a National Landmark is awaiting completion of plant decommissioning activities by its present owner.
In 1976, an application was filed to nominate the main building for listing on the National Register of Historic Places
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...
. It failed to get approval. The Tesla Wardenclyffe Project, Inc. was established in 1994 for the purpose of seeking placement of the Wardenclyffe laboratory-office building and the Tesla tower foundation on both the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. Its mission is the preservation and adaptive reuse of Wardenclyffe, the century-old laboratory of electrical pioneer Nikola Tesla located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York. In October 1994 a second application for formal nomination was filed. The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation conducted inspections and determined the facility meets New York State criteria for historic designation. A second visit was made on February 25, 2009. The site cannot be registered until it is nominated by a willing owner.
Facility grounds
The wood-framed tower was 186 feet (57 m) tall and the cupola 68 feet (20.7 m) in diameter. It had a 55-ton steel (some report it was a better conducting material, such as copper) hemispherical structure at the top (referred to as a cupola). Designed by one of Stanford White's associates, the structure was such as to allow each piece to be taken out if needed and replaced as necessary. The transmitter itself was to have been powered by a 200 kilowatt Westinghouse alternating current industrial generator
Alternator
An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...
. Beneath the tower, a shaft sank 120 feet (36.6 m) into the ground. Sixteen iron
Iron
Iron is a chemical element with the symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is the most common element forming the planet Earth as a whole, forming much of Earth's outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust...
pipes were placed one length after another 300 additional feet (94.4 m) in order for the machine, in Tesla's words, "to have a grip on the earth so the whole of this globe can quiver."Powered by an industrial alternator
Alternator
An alternator is an electromechanical device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy in the form of alternating current.Most alternators use a rotating magnetic field but linear alternators are occasionally used...
, a generator facility's tower was intended to inject large amounts of energy into a natural Earth circuit, using the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
-Ionosphere
Ionosphere
The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...
network as the transmission circuit
Electric power transmission
Electric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to Electrical substations located near demand centers...
. At this depth, telluric current
Telluric current
A telluric current , or Earth current, is an electric current which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both natural causes and human activity, and the discrete currents interact in a complex pattern...
s of the Earth could be transceived.<-->
The main building occupied the rest of the facility grounds. It included a laboratory area, instrument room, boiler room, generator room and machine shop. Inside the main building, there were electromechanical devices, electrical generators, electrical transformers, glass blowing equipment, X-ray
X-ray
X-radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation. X-rays have a wavelength in the range of 0.01 to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30 petahertz to 30 exahertz and energies in the range 120 eV to 120 keV. They are shorter in wavelength than UV rays and longer than gamma...
devices, Tesla coils, a remote controlled boat, cases with bulbs and tubes, wires, cables, a library, and an office. It was constructed in the style of the Italian Renaissance.
The transmission of electrical energy
In 1891 and 1892, Tesla had used an oscillatory transformer that bears his name in demonstration lectures delivered before meetings of the American Institute of Electrical EngineersAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers
The American Institute of Electrical Engineers was a United States based organization of electrical engineers that existed between 1884 and 1963, when it merged with the Institute of Radio Engineers to form the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers .- History :The 1884 founders of the...
(AIEE) in New York City" and the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE) in London. Of two striking results that Tesla demonstrated, one was that the wireless transmission of electrical energy was possible. A later presentation, titled "On Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena" (Philadelphia/St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
; Franklin Institute
Franklin Institute
The Franklin Institute is a museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and one of the oldest centers of science education and development in the United States, dating to 1824. The Institute also houses the Benjamin Franklin National Memorial.-History:On February 5, 1824, Samuel Vaughn Merrick and...
in 1893), was a key event in the invention of radio
Invention Of Radio
Within the history of radio, several people were involved in the invention of radio and there were many key inventions in what became the modern systems of wireless. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy"...
and could also be said to have begun the development of Wardenclyffe.
One-wire transmission
In the early presentations, the first experiment to be demonstrated was the operation of light and motiveMotion (physics)
In physics, motion is a change in position of an object with respect to time. Change in action is the result of an unbalanced force. Motion is typically described in terms of velocity, acceleration, displacement and time . An object's velocity cannot change unless it is acted upon by a force, as...
devices connected by a single wire to only one terminal of a high frequency induction coil
Induction coil
An induction coil or "spark coil" is a type of disruptive discharge coil. It is a type of electrical transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage direct current supply...
, presented during the 1891 New York City lecture at Columbia University. While a single terminal incandescent lamp connected to one of an induction coil’s secondary terminals does not form a closed circuit “in the ordinary acceptance of the term”, the circuit is closed in the sense that a return path is established back to the secondary by what Tesla called “electrostatic induction” (or 'displacement currents'
Displacement current
In electromagnetism, displacement current is a quantity that is defined in terms of the rate of change of electric displacement field. Displacement current has the units of electric current density, and it has an associated magnetic field just as actual currents do. However it is not an electric...
). This is due to the lamp’s filament or refractory button capacitance
Capacitance
In electromagnetism and electronics, capacitance is the ability of a capacitor to store energy in an electric field. Capacitance is also a measure of the amount of electric potential energy stored for a given electric potential. A common form of energy storage device is a parallel-plate capacitor...
relative to the coil’s free terminal and environment; the free terminal also has capacitance relative to the lamp and environment. At high frequencies, the displacement current through these capacitances is sufficient to light the lamp.
Wireless transmission
Here Tesla describes two different types of wireless transmitter, both employing a high-tension induction coil. One had a sheet of metal suspended from the ceiling and connected to one of the induction coil’s terminals, with the other terminal being connected to ground. The other type of transmitter had two sheets of metal suspended from the ceiling, each being connected to one of the coil’s high-voltage terminals.
Theory of wireless transmission
While working to develop an explanation for the two observed effects mentioned above, Tesla recognized that electrical energy can be projected outward into space and detected by a receiving instrument in the general vicinity of the source without the need for any interconnecting wires. He went on to develop two theories related to these observations, which are:- By using two Tesla coil transmitter-receivers positioned at distant points on the Earth’s surface, it is possible to induce a flow of electrical current between them.
- By incorporating a portion of the Earth as part of a powerful dual-elevated-terminal Tesla coil transmitter an electrical disturbance can be impressed upon the Earth and detected “at great distance, or even all over the surface of the globe.”
Tesla also made the assumption that the Earth
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
is a charged body floating in space.
Tesla was familiar with demonstrations that involved the charging of Leyden jar
Leyden jar
A Leyden jar, or Leiden jar, is a device that "stores" static electricity between two electrodes on the inside and outside of a jar. It was invented independently by German cleric Ewald Georg von Kleist on 11 October 1745 and by Dutch scientist Pieter van Musschenbroek of Leiden in 1745–1746. The...
capacitor
Capacitor
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...
s and isolated metal spheres with electrostatic influence machines (in modern terms, high-voltage (kV), low-current (μA) electrostatic generators). By bringing these elements into proximity with each other, and also by making direct contact followed by their separation, the charge can be manipulated. He surely had this in mind in the creation of his mental image, not being able to know that the model of Earth’s origin was inaccurate. The presently accepted model of planetary origin is one of accretion and collision.
We now know that the Earth is a charged body, made so by processes—at least in part—related to the interaction between the continuous stream of charged particles called the solar wind
Solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in temperature and speed over time...
that flows outward from the center of our solar system and Earth’s magnetosphere
Magnetosphere
A magnetosphere is formed when a stream of charged particles, such as the solar wind, interacts with and is deflected by the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet or similar body. Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, as are the other planets with intrinsic magnetic fields: Mercury, Jupiter,...
. And we also know that Tesla's capacitance estimate was correct: Earth's self-capacitance is about 710 microfarads.
But the upper strata of the air are conducting, and so, perhaps, is the medium in free space beyond the atmosphere, and these may contain an opposite charge. Then the capacity might be incomparably greater.
We now also know that Earth's upper atmospheric strata are conducting, or can be made so.
In any case it is of the greatest importance to get an idea of what quantity of electricity the Earth contains.
An additional condition of which we are now aware is that the Earth possesses a naturally existing negative charge with respect to the conducting region of the atmosphere beginning at an elevation of about 50 km. The potential difference between the Earth and this region is on the order of 400,000 volts. Near the Earth's surface there is a ubiquitous downward directed E-field of about 100 V/m. Tesla referred to this charge as the “electric niveau” or electric level.
It is difficult to say whether we shall ever acquire this necessary knowledge, but there is hope that we may, and that is, by means of electrical resonance. If ever we can ascertain at what period the Earth's charge, when disturbed, oscillates with respect to an oppositely electrified system or known circuit, we shall know a fact possibly of the greatest importance to the welfare of the human race. I propose to seek for the period by means of an electrical oscillator, or a source of alternating electric currents...
Some maintain the 200 kW wireless facility would have functioned by the production and propagation of electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
also known as the transverse electromagnetic (TEM) radio wave, but this is not the case.
I am not producing radiation in my system; I am suppressing electromagnetic waves. But, on the other hand, my apparatus can be used effectively with electromagnetic waves. The apparatus has nothing to do with this new method except that it is the only means to practice it. So that in my system, you should free yourself of the idea that there is radiation, that energy is radiated. It is not radiated; it is conserved.
By Tesla's own account, his earth resonance system works by the creation of "powerful disturbances" in Earth's natural electric charge. The Wardenclyffe facility had a dual purpose. In addition to point-to-point telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s and broadcasting
Broadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
it was also intended to demonstrate the transmission of electrical power on a reduced scale. He stated,
It is intended to give practical demonstrations of these principles with the plant illustrated. As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than all of this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction.
Wardenclyffe was the first of many installations to be constructed near major population centers around the world. If Tesla's plans had moved forward without interruption the Long Island prototype would have been followed by a second plant built in the British Isles, perhaps on the west coast of Scotland near Glasgow. Each of these facilities would have included a large magnifying transmitter
Magnifying transmitter
The magnifying transmitter is an advanced version of Tesla coil transmitter. It is a high power harmonic oscillator that Nikola Tesla intended for the wireless transmission of electrical energy...
of a design loosely based upon the apparatus which Tesla assembled at the Colorado Springs Experimental Station in 1899.
- "... The plant in Colorado was merely designed in the same sense as a naval constructor designs first a small model to ascertain all the quantities before he embarks on the construction of a big vessel. I had already planned most of the details of the commercial plant, subsequently put up at Long Island, except that at that time the location was not settled upon. The Colorado plant I have used in determining the construction of the various parts, and the experiments which were carried on there were for the practical purpose of enabling me to design the transmitters and receivers which I was to employ in the large commercial plant subsequently erected..."
Using a global array of these magnifying transmitters, it was Tesla's plan to establish what he called the "World Wireless System," providing multi-channel global broadcasting, an array of secure wireless telecommunications services, and a long range aid to navigation, including means for the precise synchronization of clocks. In a more highly developed state he envisaged the 'World System' would expand to include the wireless industrial transmission of electric power.
At the time the power grid was quite limited in terms of reach and the Wardenclyffe prototype represented a way to significantly reduce the cost of "electrifying" the countryside. Tesla called his wireless technique the "disturbed charge of ground and air method".
There is evidence that Wardenclyffe would have used extremely low frequency
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
signals combined with higher frequency signals. In practice, the transmitter electrically influences both the Earth and the space above it. He made a point of describing the process as being essentially the same as transmitting electricity by conduction through a wire.
Tesla clearly specified the Earth as being one of the conducting media involved in ground and air system technology. The other specified medium is the atmosphere above 5 miles (8 km) elevation. While not an ohmic conductor, in this region of the troposphere and upwards, the density or pressure is sufficiently reduced to so that, according to Tesla’s theory, the atmosphere’s insulating properties can be easily impaired, allowing an electric current to flow. His theory further states that the conducting region is developed through the process of atmospheric ionization, in which the affected portions thereof are changed to plasma. The presence of the magnetic fields developed by each plant’s helical resonator suggests that an embedded magnetic field and flux linkage is also involved. Flux linkage with Earth’s natural magnetic field is also a possibility, especially in the case of an earth resonance transmission system.
The atmosphere below 5 miles (8 km) is also viewed as a propagating medium for a portion of the above-ground circuit, and, being an insulating medium, electrostatic induction would be involved rather than true electrical conduction. Tesla felt that with a sufficiently high electrical potential on the elevated terminal the practical limitation imposed upon its height could be overcome. He anticipated that a highly energetic transmitter, as was intended at Wardenclyffe, would charge the elevated terminal to the point where the atmosphere around and above the facility would break down and become ionized, leading to a flow of true conduction currents between the two terminals by a path up to and through the troposphere, and back down to the other facility. The ionization of the atmosphere directly above the elevated terminals would be facilitated by the use of an ionizing beam of ultraviolet radiation to form what might be called a high-voltage plasma transmission line. [ed. see longitudinal wave
Longitudinal wave
Longitudinal waves, as known as "l-waves", are waves that have the same direction of vibration as their direction of travel, which means that the movement of the medium is in the same direction as or the opposite direction to the motion of the wave. Mechanical longitudinal waves have been also...
s and waves in plasmas
Waves in plasmas
Waves in plasmas are an interconnected set of particles and fields which propagates in a periodically repeating fashion. A plasma is a quasineutral, electrically conductive fluid. In the simplest case, it is composed of electrons and a single species of positive ions, but it may also contain...
].
In various writings, Tesla explained that the Earth itself behaves as a resonant LC circuit
LC circuit
An LC circuit, also called a resonant circuit or tuned circuit, consists of an inductor, represented by the letter L, and a capacitor, represented by the letter C...
when it is electrically excited at certain frequencies. At Wardenclyffe he operated at frequencies ranging from 1,000 Hz to 100 kHz. Tesla found the frequency range up to 30 – 35 kHz “to be most economical.” Excitation of earth resonance at a harmonic of the 11.78 Hz fundamental frequency suggests energy transmission by means of a TM00 spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave transmission line mode. A Schumann resonance
Schumann resonance
The Schumann resonances are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum...
mode (the fundamental frequency being about 7.5 to 7.9 Hz) is probably not involved. The entire Earth can be electrically resonated with a single earth-resonance transmitter, so an earth-resonance based system would require, at a minimum, that only one World Wireless System transmitter be constructed. Alternatively, two distantly spaced transmiter-receiver facilities could be constructed. Such a system would not be so dependent upon the excitation of an earth-resonance mode. In either case a surface wave, similar to the Zenneck wave would be utilized. Artificially induced earth currents
Telluric current
A telluric current , or Earth current, is an electric current which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both natural causes and human activity, and the discrete currents interact in a complex pattern...
would be utilized. According to Tesla, the planet's large cross-sectional area provides a low resistance path for the flow of earth currents. The greatest losses are apt to occur at the points where the transmitting / receiving plants and dedicated receiving stations are connected with the ground. This is why Tesla stated;
You see the underground work is one of the most expensive parts of the tower. In this system that I have invented it is necessary for the machine to get a grip of the Earth, otherwise it cannot shake the Earth. It has to have a grip on the Earth so that the whole of this globe can quiver, and to do that it is necessary to carry out a very expensive construction.
To close the circuit a second path is established between the two transmitter-receiver plants' elevated high-voltage terminals through the rarefied atmospheric strata above five miles (8 km). The connection is made by some combination of electrostatic induction and electrical conduction through plasma. While a number of his wireless patents, including "Apparatus for transmitting electrical energy," U.S. Patent No. 1,119,732, December 1, 1914, describe a system which uses the plasma-conduction scheme, his "Art of transmitting electrical energy through the natural mediums," U.S. Patent No. 787,412, April 18, 1905 and some of his Wardenclyffe design notes from 1901 show the overall plan also involves electrostatically induce oscillations in the potential associated with Earth's self-capacitance. The two tower earth-resonance transmitter is especially designed for this purpose. Tesla wrote,
The specific plan of producing the stationary waves, here-in described, might be departed from. For example, the circuit which impresses the powerful oscillations upon the earth might be connected to the latter at two points.
Tesla believed that a fully developed system with large high-power stations based upon the smaller Wardenclyffe prototype would permit wireless transmission and reception across large distances with negligible losses.
In the course of this work, I mastered the technique of high potentials sufficiently for enabling me to construct and operate, in 1899, a wireless transmitter developing up to twenty million volts. Some time before I contemplated the possibility of transmitting such high tension currents over a narrow beam of radiant energy ionizing the air and rendering it, in measure, conductive. After preliminary laboratory experiments, I made tests on a large scale with the transmitter referred to and a beam of ultra-violet rays of great energy in an attempt to conduct the current to the high rarefied strata of the air and thus create an auroral such as might be utilized for illumination, especially of oceans at night. I found that there was some virtue in the principal but the results did not justify the hope of important practical applications. . . .
In spite of ridicule, many of Tesla's ideas have been demonstrated to be essentially correct. For example he correctly predicted the existence of the ionosphere and electrical resonance of the Earth-atmosphere system. Resonance of the earth-ionosphere cavity with a fundamental frequency in the vicinity of 7.3 Hz was demonstrated in the 1950s as the Schumann resonance
Schumann resonance
The Schumann resonances are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum...
. The latter phenomenon was named after Schumann, for although Tesla had detected a resonance of the Earth-atmosphere system, he was not taken seriously in his time. Furthermore, Tesla appears to have excited a different terrestrial resonance
Terrestrial stationary waves
Terrestrial stationary waves is a persistent spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave electrical transmission line phenomenon arising across the Earth's surface by virtue of the highly conductive nature of the earth itself. It was considered by Nikola Tesla to be his most important discovery...
mode with a fundamental frequency of 11.78 Hz.
Electrical transmission and reception
Tesla's early experiments involved the propagation of ordinary radio waves, that is to say Hertzian waves, electromagnetic waves propagated through space without artificial guide.In 1919 Nikola Tesla wrote,
The popular impression is that my wireless work was begun in 1893, but as a matter of fact I spent the two preceding years in investigations, employing forms of apparatus, some of which were almost like those of today. It was clear to me from the very start that the successful consummation could only be brought about by a number of radical improvements. Suitable high frequency generators and electrical oscillators had first to be produced. The energy of these had to be transformed in effective transmitters and collected at a distance in proper receivers. Such a system would be manifestly circumscribed in its usefulness if all extraneous interference were not prevented and exclusiveness secured. In time, however, I recognized that devices of this kind, to be most effective and efficient, should be designed with due regard to the physical properties of this planet and the electrical conditions obtaining on the same.
One of the requirements of the World Wireless system is the construction of resonant receivers. The grounded helical resonator of a Tesla Coil and an elevated terminal can be used in receive mode. Tesla himself repeatedly demonstrated the wireless transmission of electrical energy from a Tesla coil transmitter to a Tesla coil receiver. These concepts and methods are part of his wireless transmission system
Wireless energy transfer
Wireless energy transfer or wireless power is the transmission of electrical energy from a power source to an electrical load without artificial interconnecting conductors. Wireless transmission is useful in cases where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or impossible...
(US1119732 — Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy — 1902 January 18). Tesla made a proposal that there would be many more than thirty transmission-reception stations worldwide.
Receiver (radio)
A radio receiver converts signals from a radio antenna to a usable form. It uses electronic filters to separate a wanted radio frequency signal from all other signals, the electronic amplifier increases the level suitable for further processing, and finally recovers the desired information through...
(e.g.., an antenna
Antenna (radio)
An antenna is an electrical device which converts electric currents into radio waves, and vice versa. It is usually used with a radio transmitter or radio receiver...
circuit), due to reciprocity
Reciprocity (electromagnetism)
In classical electromagnetism, reciprocity refers to a variety of related theorems involving the interchange of time-harmonic electric current densities and the resulting electromagnetic fields in Maxwell's equations for time-invariant linear media under certain constraints...
.
[Impedance, generally though, is not applied in an obvious way; for electrical impedance
Electrical impedance
Electrical impedance, or simply impedance, is the measure of the opposition that an electrical circuit presents to the passage of a current when a voltage is applied. In quantitative terms, it is the complex ratio of the voltage to the current in an alternating current circuit...
, the impedance at the load
External electric load
If an electric circuit has a well-defined output terminal, the circuit connected to this terminal is the load....
(e.g.., where the power is consumed) is most critical and, for a Tesla Coil receiver, this is at the point of utilization (such as at an induction motor) rather than at the receiving node. Complex
Complex number
A complex number is a number consisting of a real part and an imaginary part. Complex numbers extend the idea of the one-dimensional number line to the two-dimensional complex plane by using the number line for the real part and adding a vertical axis to plot the imaginary part...
impedance of an antenna is related to the electrical length
Electrical length
In telecommunications, electrical length is the length of a transmission medium or antenna element expressed as the number of wavelengths of the signal propagating in the medium....
of the antenna at the wavelength in use. Commonly, impedance is adjusted at the load with a tuner or a matching networks composed of inductor
Inductor
An inductor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in a magnetic field. An inductor's ability to store magnetic energy is measured by its inductance, in units of henries...
s and capacitor
Capacitor
A capacitor is a passive two-terminal electrical component used to store energy in an electric field. The forms of practical capacitors vary widely, but all contain at least two electrical conductors separated by a dielectric ; for example, one common construction consists of metal foils separated...
s.]
In another form of receiving circuit the two input terminals are connected to a device designed to reverse polarity at predetermined intervals of time and charge a capacitor
Condenser
Condenser may refer to:*Condenser , a device or unit used to condense vapor into liquid. More specific articles on some types include:*Air coil used in HVAC refrigeration systems...
. This form of Tesla system receiver has means for commutating the current impulses in the charging circuit so as to render them suitable for charging an energy storage device, a device for closing the receiving-circuit, and means for causing the receiver to be operated by the accumulated energy.
Tesla receivers operated correctly act as a step-down transformer with high current output. There are, to date, no commercial power generation entities or businesses that have utilized this technology to full effect. The power levels achieved by Tesla Coil receivers have, thus far, been a fraction of the output power of the transmitters.
While Tesla Coils can be used for wireless energy transmission and reception, much of the public and media attention is directed away from such applications since big electrical discharges are fascinating to most people.
Researchers experimenting with Tesla's wireless energy transmission system design have made observations that may be inconsistent with a basic tenet of physics related to the scalar derivatives of the electromagnetic potentials, which are presently considered to be nonphysical.
The intention of the Tesla world wireless energy transmission system is to combine electrical power transmission along with broadcasting and point-to-point wireless telecommunications, and allow for the elimination of many existing high-tension power transmission lines, facilitating the interconnection of electrical generation plants on a global scale.
One of Tesla's patents suggests he may have misinterpreted 25–70 km nodal structures associated with cloud-ground lightning observations made during the 1899 Colorado Springs experiments in terms of circumglobally propagating standing waves instead of a local interference phenomenon of direct and reflected waves.
Regarding the recent notion of power transmission through the earth-ionosphere cavity, a consideration of the earth-ionosphere or concentric spherical shell waveguide propagation parameters as they are known today shows that wireless power transmission by direct excitation of a Schumann cavity resonance mode is not realizable. "The conceptual difficulty with this model is that, at the very low frequencies that Tesla said that he employed (1-50 kHz), earth-ionosphere waveguide excitation, now well understood, would seem to be impossible with the either the Colorado Springs or the Long Island apparatus (at least with the apparatus that is visible in the photographs of these facilities)."
On the other hand, Tesla's concept of a global wireless electrical power transmission grid and telecommunications network based upon energy transmission by means of a spherical conductor transmission line with an upper three-space model return circuit, while perhaps not practical for power transmission, is feasible, defying no law of physics. Global wireless transmission by means of a spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave transmission line and a propagating TM00 mode may also be possible, a feasibility study using a sufficiently powerful and properly tuned Tesla coil earth-resonance transmitter being called for.
Propagation mode
It was once thought the 200 kW Wardenclyffe prototype World Wireless station would have functioned by the production and propagation of electromagnetic radiationElectromagnetic radiation
Electromagnetic radiation is a form of energy that exhibits wave-like behavior as it travels through space...
also known as the transverse electromagnetic (TEM) radio wave, but this is not the case. The World Wireless System actually works by the creation of powerful disturbances in Earth's natural electric charge and TM00 mode propagation over a spherical single conductor transmission line.
World System functionality
It is believed by some that World Wireless System technology is intended only for wireless power transmission. The prototype Wardenclyffe installation and the second facility planned in Scotland had a dual purpose. Their primary function was worldwide broadcastingBroadcasting
Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and video content to a dispersed audience via any audio visual medium. Receiving parties may include the general public or a relatively large subset of thereof...
and trans-Atlantic point-to-point wireless telecommunication
Telecommunication
Telecommunication is the transmission of information over significant distances to communicate. In earlier times, telecommunications involved the use of visual signals, such as beacons, smoke signals, semaphore telegraphs, signal flags, and optical heliographs, or audio messages via coded...
s. The prototype system was also intended for proof-of-concept wireless power transmission demonstrations, although on a greatly reduced scale.
Schumann Cavity resonance hypothesis
It has been proposed the World Wireless System involve energy transfer by means of a concentric spherical shell waveguide composed of Earth's surface and the ionosphere. This is known as the Schumann Cavity. Natural lightning excites Schumann resonances that are observed at the lowest few resonance frequencies (about 8 Hertz and multiples of that). Their measured Q's of order 5 to 10 suggest that the electrical disturbances produced by lightning make a few circuits of the Earth before damping out, and create a fairly definite terrestrial standing wave of a few cycles duration.The maximum recommended operating frequencies of 25 kHz as specified by Tesla is far above the highest easily observable Schumann resonance mode (this is the 9th overtone) that exists at approximately 66.4 Hz. Tesla's selection of 25 kHz is wholly inconsistent with the operation of a system that is based upon the direct excitation of a Schumann resonance mode.
Ionospheric conduction
It is believed by some the atmospheric path used in the two-conductor method, i.e., the "second path," is the ionosphereIonosphere
The ionosphere is a part of the upper atmosphere, comprising portions of the mesosphere, thermosphere and exosphere, distinguished because it is ionized by solar radiation. It plays an important part in atmospheric electricity and forms the inner edge of the magnetosphere...
, the uppermost strata of Earth's atmosphere starting at approximately 30 miles in daytime and approximately 55 miles at night. The atmospheric strata through which energy can be transmitted has a barometric pressure of 75 mm, equivalent to an elevation of about 15 miles. World Wireless System apparatus allows this elevation to be reduced down to approximately 4.5 miles.
A Variant Receiver
A variant was suggested by Tesla for exploiting the vertical voltage gradient in the Earth's atmosphere.A variant was suggested that could utilize the phantom loop effect to form a circuit to induct energy from the Earth's magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field
Earth's magnetic field is the magnetic field that extends from the Earth's inner core to where it meets the solar wind, a stream of energetic particles emanating from the Sun...
and other radiant energy sources (including, but not limited to, electrostatics
Electrostatics
Electrostatics is the branch of physics that deals with the phenomena and properties of stationary or slow-moving electric charges....
).
A Tesla Coil can receive electromagnetic impulses from atmospheric electricity
Atmospheric electricity
Atmospheric electricity is the regular diurnal variations of the Earth's atmospheric electromagnetic network . The Earth's surface, the ionosphere, and the atmosphere is known as the global atmospheric electrical circuit...
and radiant energy
Radiant energy
Radiant energy is the energy of electromagnetic waves. The quantity of radiant energy may be calculated by integrating radiant flux with respect to time and, like all forms of energy, its SI unit is the joule. The term is used particularly when radiation is emitted by a source into the...
, besides normal wireless transmissions.
The charging-circuit can be adapted to be energized by the action of various other disturbances and effects at a distance. Arbitrary and intermittent oscillations that are propagated via conduction to the receiving resonator will charge the receiver's capacitor and utilize the potential energy to greater effect.
Various radiations can be used to charge and discharge conductors, with the radiations considered electromagnetic vibrations of various wavelengths and ionizing potential.
Radiant energy throws off with great velocity minute particles which are strongly electrified and other rays falling on the insulated-conductor connected to a condenser (i.e., a capacitor) can cause the condenser to indefinitely charge electrically.
The helical resonator
Resonator
A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior, that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonant frequencies, with greater amplitude than at others. The oscillations in a resonator can be either electromagnetic or mechanical...
can be "shock excited" due to radiant energy disturbances not only at the fundamental wave
Fundamental frequency
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the lowest frequency of a periodic waveform. In terms of a superposition of sinusoids The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the fundamental and abbreviated f0, is defined as the...
at one-quarter wave-length but also is excited at its harmonics.
The output power from these devices, attained from Hertzian methods of charging, is low, but alternative charging means are available.
Hertzian methods can be used to excite a the receiver with limitations that result in great disadvantages for utilization, though. The methods of ground conduction and the various induction methods can also be used to excite the receiver, but are again at a disadvantages for utilization.
The receiver utilizes the effects or disturbances to charge a storage device with energy from an external source (natural or man-made) and controls the charging of said device by the actions of the effects or disturbances (during succeeding intervals of time determined by means of such effects and disturbances corresponding in succession and duration of the effects and disturbances). The stored energy can also be used to operate the receiving device. The accumulated energy can, for example, operate a transformer by discharging through a primary circuit at predetermined times which, from the secondary currents, operate the receiving device.
With regard to Tesla's statements on the harnessing of natural phenomena to obtain electric power, he stated:
Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe.
— "Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency" (February 1892)
The Particle Beam Invention
Related to the operation and utilization of Wardenclyffe Tower was Nikola Tesla's work on a macroscopic charged particle beamParticle beam
A particle beam is a stream of charged or neutral particles which may be directed by magnets and focused by electrostatic lenses, although they may also be self-focusing ....
weapon called Teleforce
Teleforce
Teleforce was Nikola Tesla's charged particle beam projector, first mentioned publicly in the New York Sun and New York Times on July 11, 1934.-Introduction:...
in the 1930s. A Wardenclyffe styled facility which included the weapon was contemplated by Tesla. He offered it to Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company
Westinghouse Electric Company
Westinghouse Electric Company LLC is a nuclear power company, offering a wide range of nuclear products and services to utilities throughout the world, including nuclear fuel, service and maintenance, instrumentation and control and advanced nuclear plant designs...
in early 1934. It was also offered to the US War Department
United States Department of War
The United States Department of War, also called the War Department , was the United States Cabinet department originally responsible for the operation and maintenance of the United States Army...
, Great Britain, and Yugoslavia. A descriptive 17-page type-written document on Tesla's office letterhead titled, "New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy Through Natural Media", which presently exists in the Nikola Tesla Museum archive in Belgrade, shows that his macroscopic particle beam, also dubbed the "Peace Ray" or the "death ray" by contemporary media, was a narrow stream of charged macroscopic clusters of atomic mercury
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
or tungsten
Tungsten
Tungsten , also known as wolfram , is a chemical element with the chemical symbol W and atomic number 74.A hard, rare metal under standard conditions when uncombined, tungsten is found naturally on Earth only in chemical compounds. It was identified as a new element in 1781, and first isolated as...
accelerated by high voltage, produced by either a huge Van de Graaff generator or Tesla Coil
Tesla coil
A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...
.
Telefunken Station
After Wardenclyffe, Tesla built the TelefunkenTelefunken
Telefunken is a German radio and television apparatus company, founded in Berlin in 1903, as a joint venture of Siemens & Halske and the Allgemeine Elektricitäts-Gesellschaft...
Wireless on the South Shore of Long Island. Some of what he wanted to achieve at Wardenclyffe was achieved with the Telefunken Wireless. In West Sayville, Long Island, New York, Tesla assisted in the building of three 600 feet (182.9 m) radio towers, creating the western wireless communication station in a North America and Europe network.
Quotes
- "As soon as [the Wardenclyffe facility is] completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place ..." – Nikola Tesla, "The Future of the Wireless Art," Wireless Telegraphy and Telephony, 1908, pg. 67-71.
- "It is not a dream, it is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering, only expensive — blind, faint-hearted, doubting world! [...] Humanity is not yet sufficiently advanced to be willingly led by the discoverer's keen searching sense. But who knows? Perhaps it is better in this present world of ours that a revolutionary idea or invention instead of being helped and patted, be hampered and ill-treated in its adolescence — by want of means, by selfish interest, pedantry, stupidity and ignorance; that it be attacked and stifled; that it pass through bitter trials and tribulations, through the strife of commercial existence. So do we get our light. So all that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combatted, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle." – Nikola Tesla, "The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires as a Means for Furthering Peace," Electrical World and Engineer, January 7, 1905.
Related patents
Nikola Tesla's patents- "Means for Generating Electric Currents," , February 6, 1894
- "Electrical Transformer," , November 2, 1897
- "Method Of Utilizing Radiant Energy," November 5, 1901
- "Method of Signaling," , March 17, 1903
- "System of Signaling," , April 14, 1903
- "Art of Transmitting Electrical Energy Through the Natural Mediums," , April 18, 1905
- "Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy," January 18, 1902, , December 1, 1914
Other patents
- Hansell, , Communication system by pulses through the Earth.
- Leydorf, G. F., , "Antenna near field coupling system". 1966.
See also
- Wireless energy transmission
- Transmission mediumTransmission mediumA transmission medium is a material substance that can propagate energy waves...
- Distributed generationDistributed generationDistributed generation, also called on-site generation, dispersed generation, embedded generation, decentralized generation, decentralized energy or distributed energy, generates electricity from many small energy sources....
- Electricity distributionElectricity distributionFile:Electricity grid simple- North America.svg|thumb|380px|right|Simplified diagram of AC electricity distribution from generation stations to consumers...
- Electric power transmissionElectric power transmissionElectric-power transmission is the bulk transfer of electrical energy, from generating power plants to Electrical substations located near demand centers...
- Friis transmission equationFriis transmission equationThe Friis transmission equation is used in telecommunications engineering, and gives the power received by one antenna under idealized conditions given another antenna some distance away transmitting a known amount of power. The formula was derived in 1945 by Danish-American radio engineer Harald T...
- Terrestrial stationary wavesTerrestrial stationary wavesTerrestrial stationary waves is a persistent spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave electrical transmission line phenomenon arising across the Earth's surface by virtue of the highly conductive nature of the earth itself. It was considered by Nikola Tesla to be his most important discovery...
- Devices: Tesla coil, Magnifying TransmitterMagnifying transmitterThe magnifying transmitter is an advanced version of Tesla coil transmitter. It is a high power harmonic oscillator that Nikola Tesla intended for the wireless transmission of electrical energy...
, Electro-mechanical oscillator
Further reading
- Anderson, Leland, "Rare Notes from Tesla on Wardenclyffe" in Electric Spacecraft - A journal of Interactive Research, Issue 26, September 14, 1998. Contains copies of rare documents from the Tesla Museum in Belgrade including Tesla's notes and sketches from 1901
- Bass, Robert W., "Self-Sustained Non-Hertzian Longitudal Wave Oscillations as a Rigorous Solution of Maxwell's Equations for Electromagnetic Radiation". Inventek Enterprises, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada.
- "Boundless Space: A Bus Bar". The Electrical World, Vol 32, No. 19.
- Massie, Walter Wentworth, "Wireless telegraphy and telephony popularly explained ". New York, Van Nostrand. 1908.
- Rather, John, "Tesla, a Little-Recognized Genius, Left Mark in Shoreham". The New York TimesThe New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. Long Island Weekly Desk. - Tesla, Nikola, "The Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires", Electrical World and Engineer, March 5, 1904.
- Tesla, Nikola, "World System of Wireless Transmission of Energy", Telegraph and Telegraph Age, October 16, 1927.
External links
- Facility details:Interior view (a) -- Interior view (b) -- Interior view (c) -- Facility front view --Facility side view -- Facility large front view -- Tower alone
- Facilities assembled; Colorado Springs, Long Island, and Lac Edouard (near Sanford, Quebec).
- PBS Tower of Dreams
- The Tesla Wardenclyffe Project
- Tesla's vision of the wireless global communications
- Tesla Radio: A Ground-based System for Global Wireless Transmission
- Creation of a Monument to Nikola Tesla
- The Real Science of "Non-Hertzian" Waves (ed. Attempts to invalidate Tesla's wireless energy transmission ideas; main focus is on the transverse EM radio waveTransverse waveA transverse wave is a moving wave that consists of oscillations occurring perpendicular to the direction of energy transfer...
, i.e. "Hertz waves." Plasma wave physics, longitudinal waves, and transmission-line propagation modes are not considered). - The Basic Tesla Transmitter with Passive Receiver.
- The Basic Tesla Transmitter with Passive Receiver.
- The Basic Tesla Transmitter with Passive Receiver.
- The Basic Tesla Transmitter with Passive Receiver.
- The Basic Dual-tower Earth Resonance Tesla Transmitter.
- The Basic Dual-tower Earth Resonance Tesla Transmitter Configuration. A receiver is standing out to the right.
- Cooper, John. F., "Modified Type 2 Magnifying Transmitter circuit diagram #2; circuit diagram #3." Both designs are deemed to be unusable.
- The Finalized Magnifying Transmitter Design of 1914, patented by Nikola Tesla.
- Bird's Eye view of the Wardenclyffe laboratory and power plant building as it exists today (from Live maps).
- Utilization of Radiant Energy 1901 Nikola Tesla, My test, My setup 1, My setup 2, My setup 3, My test 2, My test 3, My test 4, My test 5, My test 6, My test 7, My test 8. youtubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
.com
- Small-scale demonstration of Tesla's system for the transmission of electrical energy without wires on YouTube.
- Tesla Wardenclyffe Science Center, Plaque http://www2.timesreview.com/SUN/stories/S121109_Tesla_psh
- Designated Superfund Site