Nexus - 1203 - New Times Magazine-pages

Page Content (OCR)

especially in areas of massive urban concentration.> In 1940, "the United States prided itself on using half the world's electricity".’ Since 1980, the US has also doubled its dependence on foreign oil and doubled its electrical transmission grid inefficiency. From 31 quads (quadrillion BTUs) generated, two-thirds is totally wasted in "conversion losses", with only about 11 quads (3.7 trillion kWh) delivered to the end-user.’ Instead of trying to build two power plants per week (at 300 MW each) for the next 20 years (only to have a total of an additional 6.0 trillion kWh available by 2020), as the Bush-Cheney adminis- tration wants to do, we simply need to eliminate the 7.0 trillion kWh of conversion losses in our present electricity generation modality. especially in areas of massive urban concentration.> absolute certitude. Popularly explained, it is exactly this: When In 1940, "the United States prided itself on using half the we raise the voice and hear an echo in reply, we know that the world's electricity".’ Since 1980, the US has also doubled its sound of the voice must have reached a distant wall, or boundary, ce on foreign oil and doubled its electrical transmission and must have been reflected from the same. Exactly as the ency. From 31 quads (quadrillion BTUs) generated, sound, so an electrical wave is reflected, and the same evidence two-thirds is totally wasted in "conversion losses", with only which is afforded by an echo is offered by an electrical phenome- about 11 quads (3.7 trillion kWh) delivered to the end-user.” non known as a 'stationary' wave—that is, a wave with fixed Instead of trying to build two power plants per week (at 300 MW nodal and ventral regions. Instead of sending sound vibrations each) for the next 20 years (only to have a total of an additional toward a distant wall, I have sent electrical vibrations toward the 6.0 trillion kWh available by 2020), as the Bush-Cheney adminis- remote boundaries of the earth, and, instead of the wall the earth tration wants to do, we simply need to eliminate the 7.0 trillion has replied. In place of an echo I have obtained a stationary elec- kWh of conversion losses in our present electricity generation trical wave, a wave reflected from afar."" modality. Nikola Tesla's discovery of pulsed propagation of energy does not resemble the standard transverse electromagnetic waves so HISTORY OF TESLA'S WIRELESS ENERGY familiar to electrical engineers everywhere. Many engineers and The fateful decision in 1905 by J. P. Morgan to abandon Tesla's physicists have dismissed Tesla's wireless energy transmission as Wardenclyffe Tower project on Long Island (after investing unscientific, without examining the unusual characteristics and US$150,000) was a result of learning that it would be designed benefits of longitudinal waves—which are the z-component mainly for wireless transmission of electrical power rather than solutions of Maxwell's equations. for telegraphy. No more money was forthcoming for the project Tesla wrote: "That electrical energy can be economically that Morgan initiated, even when the equipment alone cost about transmitted without wires to any terrestrial distance, I have $200,000. Morgan believed that he unmistakably — established in would "have nothing to sell except numerous observations, experiments antennas [and refused] to contribute ici i and measurements, qualitative and In The fateful decision in 1905 by q to that charity". quantitative. These have Tesla tried and tried for years until, i. P. Morgan to abandon Tesla's demonstrated that it is practicable to in 1917, the US government blew up Wardenclyffe Tower project was distribute power from a central plant the abandoned Wardenclyffe Tower in unlimited amounts, with a loss not because suspected German spies a result of learning that it would exceeding a small fraction of one per were seen "lurking" around it. With be designed mainly for wireless cent in the transmission, even to the Edison as his willing ally, Morgan ae . greatest distance, twelve thousand even publicly discredited Tesla's transmission of electrical power miles—to the opposite end of the name, so that all of the five school globe." textbook publishers of the time rather than for telegraphy. Tesla was an electrical genius who removed any reference to him. Is it revolutionised our world with AC any wonder why, even today, 100 power in a way that DC power coul years later, hardly anyone knows who Tesla is? never have accomplished, since the resistance of any transmission The rest of this article will present a physics and electrical lines (except, perhaps, superconductive ones) is prohibitive for engineering argument for a subsequently forgotten engineering direct current. He deserved much better treatment from the alternative for energy generation and transmission. tycoons of his age, than to spend the last 40 years of his life in As Tesla experimented with a 1.5 MW system in 1899 at abject poverty. However, he was too much of a gentleman to hol Colorado Springs, he was amazed to find that pulses of electricity a grudge. Instead, regarding the magnifying transmitter, Tesla he sent out passed across the entire globe and returned with wrote in his autobiography: "I am unwilling to accord to some "undiminished strength". He said: "It was a result so small-minded and jealous individuals the satisfaction of having unbelievable that the revelation at first almost stunned me."’ This thwarted my efforts. These men are to me nothing more than verified the tremendous efficiency of his peculiar method of microbes of a nasty disease. My project was retarded by laws of pumping current into a spherical ball to charge it up before nature. The world was not prepared for it. It was too far ahead discharging it as a pulse of electrical energy: a "longitudinal" of time. But the same laws will prevail in the end and make it a m3 acoustic type of compression wave, rather than an electromagnetic triumphal success. Hertzian type of transverse wave. It was therefore more akin to electrostatic discharge than wave mechanics. TESLA'S WORLD SYSTEM Tesla also planned to include a stationary resonant wave cre- Tesla's "World System" was conceptually based on three of his ation globally, within the Earth-ionosphere cavity, as part of the inventions: wireless transmission of power. Examining the pair of 1900 1. The Tesla Transformer (Tesla coil); patents, #645,576 and #649,621, each using the same figure on 2. The Magnifying Transmitter (transformer adapted to the first page, we find in the first patent that Tesla designed a excite the Earth); quarter-wave antenna (50 miles of secondary coil wire for a 200- 3. The Wireless System (efficient transmission of electrical mile-long wavelength). More important is the sphere on the top energy without wires). which is supposed to be a conductive surface on a balloon, raised Tesla stated: "The first World System power plant can be put high enough to be radiating in "rarefied air".'° in operation in nine months. With this power plant it will be prac- As Tesla stated: "That communication without wires to any ticable to attain electrical activities up to 10 million horsepower point of the globe is practical with such apparatus would need no (7.5 billion watts), and it is designed to serve for as many techni- demonstration, but through a discovery which I made I obtained cal achievements as are possible without due expense."'* TESLA'S WORLD SYSTEM Tesla's "World System" was conceptually based on three of his inventions: 1. The Tesla Transformer (Tesla coil); 2. The Magnifying Transmitter (transformer adapted to excite the Earth); 3. The Wireless System (efficient transmission of electrical energy without wires). Tesla stated: "The first World System power plant can be put in operation in nine months. With this power plant it will be prac- ticable to attain electrical activities up to 10 million horsepower (7.5 billion watts), and it is designed to serve for as many techni- cal achievements as are possible without due expense."'* 52 * NEXUS APRIL — MAY 2005 www.nexusmagazine.com