Nexus - 0221 - New Times Magazine-pages

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THE "MAGNIFYING TRANSMITTER" AND EARTH SHORT-WAVE BROADCASTING AND "BEAM" RESONANCE TRANSMISSION While I was perfectly convinced from the outset that success Nothing illustrated this better than the recent demonstrations of would ultimately be achieved, it was not until by slow improve- a number of experts with very short waves, which have created the ment I evolved the so-called "Magnifying Transmitter" thatI impression that power will be eventually transmitted by such obtained convincing evidence of the feasibility of wireless power means. In reality, experiments of this kind are the very denial of transmission on a vast scale for all industrial purposes. the possibility of economic transmission of energy. I have investi- The chief discovery, which satisfied me thoroughly as to the _ gated this special subject experimentally during a great number of practicability of my plan, was made in 1899 at Colorado Springs _years, using sometimes waves as short as one millimetre, and have where I carried on tests with a generator of fifteen hundred watt found even these unsuitable for such a purpose, not to say that capacity, and ascertained that under certain conditions the current _ their production if inseparable from great waste. was capable of passing across the entire globe and returning from In order to secure good results by this method, it would be nec- the antipodes to its origin with undiminished strength. It was a _ essary to employ radiations of a wavelength incomparably smaller result so unbelievable that the revelation at first almost stunned than the dimensions of the reflector, as radiant heat, light, infrared me. I saw in a flash that by properly organised apparatus at send- _ or ultraviolet rays. Notwithstanding my repeated explanations, ing and receiving stations, power virtually in unlimited amounts _ experts do not seem to realise that no concentration of energy such could be conveyed through the Earth at any distance, limited only as I attain in my wireless power system can or will ever be by the physical dimensions of the globe, with an efficiency as high achieved through the instrumentality of reflectors, for in transmit- as ninety-nine and one-half per cent. ting energy in this manner the receiver can collect only an amount The mode of propagation of the currents from my transmitter _ proportionate to the area exposed to the rays, while in my system through the terrestrial globe is most extraordinary considering the _ it draws the energy from an immense reservoir in ever so much spread of the electrification of the surface. The wave starts with a _ greater quantity. theoretically infinite speed, = Similar considerations apply to direc- slowing down first very quickly tional transmission by short reflected and afterward at a lesser rate waves or “beams”. If we could produce until the distance is about six economically electric vibrations of a fre- thousand miles, when it pro- More than twenty-five years ago, quency approximating that of radiant heat ceeds with the speed of light. “* waves, efficient reflectors without appre- From there on it again increases my efforts to transmit large ciable dispersion, and prevent absorption, in speed, slowly at first, and then amounts of power through the then such a mode of transmitting energy more rapidly, reaching the . might become of great importance. But antipode with approximately atmosphere resulted in the attempts to accomplish this purpose with infinite velocity. The law of development of an invention of relatively low frequencies are sure to motion can be expressed by stat- prove futile. More than twenty-five years ing that the waves on the terres- great promise, which has since ago, my efforts to transmit large amounts trial surface sweep in equal been called the "Death Ray"... of power through the atmosphere resulted intervals of time over equal in the development of an invention of areas, but it must be understood great promise, which has since been that the current penetrated deep called the "Death Ray", and attributed to into the Earth and the effects Dr Grindell Mathews, an ingenious and produced on the receivers are the same as if the whole flow was __ skilful English electrician. The underlying idea was to render the confined to the Earth's axis joining the transmitter with the _air conducting by suitable ionising radiations and to convey high antipode. The mean surface speed is thus about 471,200 kilome- _ tension currents along the path of the rays. Experiments, conduct- tres per second—fifty-seven per cent greater than that of the so- _ ed on a large scale, showed that with pressures of many millions called Hertz waves—which should propagate with the velocity of of volts, virtually unlimited quantities of energy can be projected light if they exist. The same constant was found by the noted to a small distance as a few hundred feet, which might be satisfac- American astronomer, Capt. J. T. T. See, in his mathematical tory if the process were more economical and the apparatus less investigations, for the smallest particles of the ether which he fit- expensive. Since that time, I have made important improvements tingly designates as "etherons". But while in the light of his theo- —_ and discovered a new principle which can be successfully applied ry this speed is a physical reality, the spread of the currents at the —_ without difficulty for various purposes in peace and war. terrestrial surface is much like the passage of the moon's shadow If I have understood the reports correctly, in the "beam trans- over the globe. mission" with waves a few metres length, an oscillating circuit, It will be difficult for most people engaged in practical pursuits consisting of a straight vertical conductor, is placed in the focal to measure or even to form an adequate conception of the intensity __ line of a parabolic surface, on which are placed many secondary of inspiration and force I derive from that part of my work which __ straight wires parallel to the primary conductor. Now this disposi- has passed into history. I have every reason to consider myself _ tion is entirely faulty and to all evidence inefficient, as the sec- one of the most fortunate men, for I experience incessantly a feel- ondary system does not operate in the manner of a parabolic ing of inexpressible satisfaction that my alternating system is uni- _ reflector but merely produces a confused echo. The correct versally employed in the transmission and distribution of heat, arrangement would require primary and secondary conductors sit- light and power and that also my wireless system, in all its essen- _uated in two vertical parallel planes separated by a distance equal tial features, is used throughout the world for conveying intelli- 9 one quarter of the wavelength. But even in this best form, such gence. But my pioneer efforts in the latter field are still grossly a transmitter can only be of doubtful practical value. The two misunderstood. wave trains behind the reflecting, or rather echoing, system do not 48eNEXUS AUGUST - SEPTEMBER 1994