NOLIT Beograd. Yugoslavia. 1978
THE MANUSCRIPT OF NIKOLA TESLA PREPARED FOR PUBLICATION BY THE NIKOLA TESLA MUSEUM, BEOGRAD
SCIENnFIC COMMENTARIES BY
SCIENTIFIC ADVISER TO TtlE NlkOLA TESLA MUSeUM
THIS ]lOOK HAS BEEN PUBLISHED WITH THE HELP OF THE YUGOSLAV FEDERAL ADMINISTRATION FOR INTERNATIONAL
SOENTIFlC, EDUCATIONAL. CULTURAL AND TECHNICAL COOPERATION
Copyright © 1978 by Nikola Tesla Museum. Beograd
Published by Nolit. Beograd, Terazije 27? Yugoslavia
All Rishts Reserved
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June 1-30 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
July 1-31 . ........... . . 53 August 1-31 ............ 125 September 1- 30. . . . . . . . . . 169 October 1-31 .. . . ........ 199 November 1-30 . . . . . . .. .. 251 December 1-31 ......... . 305 January 1-7 .... .. ...... 341
Commentaries . . . .. .. . .. . . 395
PREFACE
he Nikola Tesfa Museum is puhUsMng 'he third hook from 'he legacy of Nikola Tesla - his research diary writ/en in Colorado Springs.
1M previous two boob contain worlu that hod already bun published and had thus bu n QCCf'ssible to the public.
The most significant of resla's works had bun stlecled and published ill their inte­ grity in the/irs! book (Nikola Tes/a: Lectures, Palents. A.rtlcles, Beograd, 1956/i" English/) while the most important reviews of Tesla's works and lhe appucialion of their signijiclInu
l or world sclenct! are contained in the second book (Tributt to Tesla, Beograd, 1961).
Tesla's manuscript (written in English), that has up to now remained unpublished and unknown to the public, is appearing in this book for the first time.
Nikola Tesla did not write his diary for the public, but exclusively for his ~rsonal
use. Obviously, he was writing it to have an insight into the course of his research and due to the exceptional extent of the experiments of his research in the isolated laboratory he
had erected In 1899 on the slopes of the mountain Pikes Peak, he was probably writing it with the wish to leave behind some e'l'idence in case of fire or destruction of his laboratory.
Tesla evidently did not intend to publish this diary and left it among his other notes and wri/· ings. It was not until the whole legacy of Hikola Tesla had been systematically eXDmined
and put in grdq in lhe Niko/a Tesla Mweum that the manuscript of this diary was disco-,ered.
Ub all testimonies of this kind, the diary of Nikola Tesla has the value and fascination of a most genuine testimony because it reveals Tes/(J's ideas in an important period of his research. It reveais the extraordinary enlhusiasm and ferl/Our of his inexhaustible and stri·
kingly exploring imagination . In fact, this diary brings to light all that mlJde Tesla different from all ather researchers: his creative spirit which often bewildered, amazed and infuriated
many of his contemporaries and even some .... ell·informed scientists, to whom it seemed that Tes/o's ideas belonged to Ihe sphere of illusion rather than to the acknowledged course of
scienu. Tesla thus sluJred lhe fate of all exceptionally great and far·sighted explorers.
In facl. when one carefully studies the entire work ofTesla one can see that his prin­ cipal aim was 'l'try cleor: to search for the inexhaustible possibilities of dominating the forus
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uf nature and subordinating them to human purposes thus increasing immensely the power Dfman and mankind in order 10 Jive more Ilumanly. All that Tes/a had done was subordilUlled to Ihis principal aim. All his experiments in Colorado Springs, dealt with in this-.,Jiary, had also been dedicated to this basic aim. Becallse of the extraordinary dimensions of his experi. ments, which would be unusual e.·en for present-day experimental work in this field, this diary is not only a valuable historical testimony but also on inexhaustible inspiration for furlhn researdt e~'en when some mistakes are spotted. Tesla was so ingenious and delloled to his indefatigable search for new knowledge that he could permit his lillie errors 10 feed all kinds of small-minded people who learned how to calculate we" but could neVt!T learn to seek lor new ways of knowledge because they didn't have a creative gift.
Preliminary arrangements to prepare this diary for publication reqUired a lot of time, effort and collaborators. The Nikola Tesla Museum thanks them all and especially Ihe author a/the commentaries. Prof Aleksandar MarinfiC.
By publishing this diary the Niko/a Testa Museum wishes /0 mark the llOth annj· versary 01 Tesla's birth, which has been celebrated all oller Ihe world, as well as to underline tile deep dellotion which Tesla felt towards this country where he was born.
ikogfad, lMcember 1977
INTRODUCTION
In 1898 Tesla's creativity in the field of high frequencies was at its peak. From his initial ideas in 1890 and his first, pioneering steps. he had worked with such intensity that many of the inventions and discoveries which he had given the world by this time have remained unsurpassed to this day . Even the loss of his laboratory on Fifth Avenue in 1895, a severe blow for him. did not hold him back for long. He soon resumed his experi· ments in a new laboratory, on Houston Street. continuing to make new discoveries and inventions applying them with unflagging energy.
Tesla's polyphase system essentially solved the problem of generating, trammilting and utilization of electrical power. When he started working on high frequencies , he almost immediately began to perceive their vast possibilities for wireless transmission of "intel· ligible signals and perhaps power", He worked on the practical development of his first ideas of 1891- 1893 at such a rate that by 1897 he had alrt:ldy patented a system for wireless transmission of power and an apparatus utilizing this system. Shortly before this, during the ceremonial opening of the hydroelectric power plant on Niagara. at a time when the world was only jUl.t coming around to Tesla's polyphase system which for the first time in history enabled the transfer of electrical power over distance. he said : "In fact. progress in this field has given me fresh hope that I shall see the fulfillment of one of my fondest dreams; namely. the transmission of power from station to station without the employment of any connecting wires."(6)
Always true to the principle that ideas must be experimentally verified. Tesla set about building powerful bigh-frequency generators an4 making CJlperiments in wireless power transmission, The Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade posesses a Tesla's own slide which confirms that the experiment described in the patent "System of transmission of electrical encrgy"U)) was in fact carried out before the Examiner-in-Chief of the U.S. Patent Office. For experimental verification of his method of wireless power transmiss ion "by conduction through the intervening natural medium", on the global scale Tesla needed .till higher voltages and more room (in the Houston Street laboratory he generated vol· lages of 2 to 4 MV using a high-frequency transformer with a coil diameter of 244 cm). so towards the end of 1898 he began looking for a site for a new laboratory, Mid- 1899
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he finally decided on Colorado Springs. a plateau about 2000 m above 5(1: level. where he erected a shed large enough to house a high·frequency transformer with a (Xlii diameter of I S meters!
.' .,.~ • • ••. / .< ...... _ ...... . . " ... ~ . . .,"'" . -~r • ,., . .. . ,., ,. ..... ~ . ' ",o' .y.-~ ...... ........ .
... ~ J •• .,. ... ~ .... _ • . _ ~ ,. .... " / .. . .., . .. .< .'"' ........ , •• ,,,,,, ., .,~,
FiJ. Ie. Diacr:am of an apparatus demonstratinJ transmissioo of electric power throuJh rarilicd au (fesla'. own slide now at the Nikola Tesla Museum, 8elarade)
Tesla's arrival in Colorado Springs was reported in the press. According to the Philadelphia "Engineering Mechanics" Tesla arrived on the 18th of May 1899 (according to(61) he left New York on 11th May 1899), with the intention of carrying out intensive research in wireless telegraphy and properties of the upper atmosphere. In his article "The transmission of electric energy without wires" (1904(1) Tcsla writes that he came to Colorado Springs with the following goals:
I. To devel op a transmitter of great power.
2. To perfect means for individualizing and isolating the energy transmitted .
3. To ascertain the laws of propagation of currents through the earth and the at· mosphere.
Tesla had some ten years of experience with high frequency AC behind him by the time he moved to Colorado .Springs. In 1889, on his return from Pittsburg where he had been working as a consultant to Westinghouse on the development of his polyphase sy· stem. he began work on the construction of an alternator for generating currents at much higher frcquenci~s than those used in ordinary power distribution. In 1890 he filed ap­ plications for two patentsUl for alternators working at over 10 kHz. One of these patents was in CQojunctioo with a method for achieving quiet operation of arc lamps, but this was in fact a fint step towards a new application of alternating currents, which soon became known as "Tcsla currents". Tesla's alternators were an important milestone in electrical engineering and were the prototypes for alternators which were used some quarter-century later for driving high· power radio transmitters, and later on also for inductive heating. (2<1)
Soon after he had started his research in high frequencies Tesla diSCQvered there specific physiological action and suggested the possibility of medical applications. He did
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a lot of work on the utilization of high frequency AC for electric lighting by means of rarefied gas tubes of various shapes and types. During 189L he publicized his results·in journa1s(l), patent applications U$) and in his famous lecture to the AlEE at Columbia College(41. This lecture, before a gathering of eminent electrical engineers, brought Tesla widespread recognition and soon made him world-famous. This success was due in good measure to his convincing experiments too, which included a demonstration of rarefied gas luminescing in a tube not connected by wires to the source of power. This was the first experiment demonstrating wireless power transmission, and marked the birth· of an idea to which Tesla was subsequently to devote a great part of his life. The De«Ssary powerful electric field was created between the plates of a condenser connected across the secondary of a high-frequency transformer, whose was connected via a series coadenser to a high-frequency alternator. The system worked best when tbe primary and secondary circuits were in resonance. Tesla also made use of the r~onant transformer with his spark oscillator, enabling easy and efficient generation of high-frequency AC from a DC or low frequency source. This oscillator was to playa key role in the development of HF engineering. Only a few years later it was to be found among the apparatus of practically every physics laboratory, under the name of the Tesla coi1(20).
The first record of Testa's high-frequency coupled oscillatory circuit with an air­ -cored transformer is to be found in Patent No. 454622 of 23 June 1891 (application filed 25 April 1891) under tbe title "System of electric lighting", The oscillator converts low­ -frequency currents into "current of very high frequency and very bigb potential", which lncn supplies single-terminal lamps (see Fig. 2c). Induction coil PS produces a high secoD-
No. (54,022. P&tnttd J1III1 a3, 1801.
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Fig. 2c. System of electric lighting
dary voltage which charges condenser Cuntil a spark occurs across air gap Q. The discharge current flows through the air gap and the primary of the high-frequency induction coil P'. The discharge of the condenser in this case differs from the discharge through coil with ohmic resistance studied by Henry(22), already k.nown by that time. In Tesla's oscillator the energy of the high-frequency oscillations in the primary circuit is gradually transferred to the secondary circuit. The secondary circuit contains the distributed capacity of the secondary winding and the wiring and the capacity of the load, and is thus also a resonant
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circuit. After energizing of the secondary circuit, {he remaining energy is .retuihod to the primary. then back to the secondary, and so on until losses reduce it sufficimtly to inter­ rupt spark across a in the primary circuit. Then condenser C begins to recharge (rom so urce G via induction coil (transformer) PS. Oberbeck (291 published a theoretical ualysis of Tesla' s oscillator in 1895.
Tesla presented much new information about his discharge oscillators and his further research on high frequency current:! in the lecture he gave to the lEE in London. February 1892 which he subsequently repeated in London and then in ParisiSI. He described at length the construction of a type of aif<Orcd HF transfolihcl and drew attention to the fact that the secondary voltage cannot even approximately be cstimated from the primary! /secondary turns ratio. Tesla also did a lot of work on improvements of the spark: gap and described several designs, lOme of which ';.:ei(l subsequently attributed to other autb­ ors(! "). In describing the apparatus with which be illustrated this lecture he explained several ways for interrupting arcs with the aid ofa powerful magnetic field; using compres­ sed air; multiple air gaps in series; single or multiplc air gaps with rotating surfaces.
He describes how the capacity in the primary and secondary circuits of the HF transformer should be adjusted to get the maximum performanlOi. staling that so far insufficient attention had been paid to this factor. He experimentally established that the secondary voltage could be increased by adding capacity to "compensate" the inductan­ ce of the secondary (resonant transformer).
He demonstrated several singie-poie lamps which were conno::ted to the xcoooary, describing the famous brush-discharge tube and expressing the opinion that it miaht find application in telegraphy. He noted that HF elllient readily passes through aliptJy ra­ refied gas and suggested that this might be used for driving moton and lamps at consi­ derable distance from the source, the high-frequency resonant transformer being an impor­ tant component of such a system.
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. . ~."'_ ~'I .. '"_ .. _ ~' ..... ~ .. ~." .. _., oI ...... r • • . ....... . . "". U~ .•. " / .•.. ? ' ...... A .J ._ ~ ..J • • ~..... ...,- •. ,
Fi, . Jc. Various (:OMCCl ions of H F Iratl$rormer used by Tesla in 1891-1892 (fe~I .·i o wn slide now .t the Nikola Tesla Museum, 8ellfade)
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the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. According to Tesla's ca pl ion these diagrams are " Illustrating van (.lus ways oi using highfrequency alternator in Ihe first experiment at Grand St reet Laboratory 189 1- 1892". It seems that Tesla made these to prove his priority in a patent su/tUS). Only some of these diagrams have been published in (4.6, B) , so that th is is an important document throwing new light on an exceptionall y fertile but relat ively little known period of Tesla's work . H is, for example, clear fro m these d iagrams that he int roduced an HF transformer in the open antenna circuit. Circui ts like thai in Fig. 3c-4 are to be found laler in two patents fil ed in 1897([1, 14 ) on his apparatus and system for wireless transmission of power (these p:Uents refer to Tesla's di srupt ive dis­ charge oscillator as an alternative to the high-freq .Jency alternator).
In February 1893 Tesla held a third lecture on high-frequency currents before the Franklin Institute in Philaddphia(61, and repeated it in March before the Nat ional Elect ric Light Association in Sl. Louis. The most significant part of thi s IcclUre is that wh ich refers to a system for " transmitting intelligence or perhaps power, to any distance through the earth or environing medium". What Tcsla descri bed he re is often taken to be t he founda­
tion of radio engineering, s!!!('c it embodies principles ideas of fundamenta l importance, viz.: the principle of adjusting for resonance to get maximum sensi tivity and selecti ve reception, inductive link between the driver and the tank circui t. an antenna 'circui t in which the antenna appears as a capacitive loadt71). He a lso correctly noted the imporlance of the choice of the HF freq uency and the advantages of a continuous carrier for transmitti ng signals over great d istances ll1l .
Bet ween 1893 and 1898 Tesla applied for and was granted seven America n patent s on his H F oscillator as a whole(2S), one on his HF transformer (26 ), and eight on various types of electric circuit conlrollcr1211. In a la ter article (28) Tesla reviews his work on HF oscillators and reports that over a period of eight years from 189 1 on he made no less than fifty types of oscillator powered either by DC or low-frequency AC.
Al ong wi th his work on the improvement of his HF oscilla tors Tesla was conti­ nuously exploring applications of the currents they produced . His work on the impro\'e­ ment of X-ray 1!enerating apparatus is well known - he reported it in a series of a rticles in 1896 and 1897 (7) and in a lect ure to the New York Academ y of Scie nces 011. In :1 lecture before the American Electro-Therapeut ic Associat ion in Buffalo September 1898(8) he desc ribed applicalion~ of the !-IF osci llator for therapeutic and other purposes. The sa me year he took out his famous pa tent " Me thod of and apparatus for controlling mechanism of moving vessels or vehicles"IS91, which embodies the basic principles of telcme<:hanics a fi e ld which on ly began to develop several decades after Tesla's invenlion .
On 2nd September 1897 Tesla filed patent application No. 650343, suh~equentl y granted- as pa tent No. 645576 of 20th March 1900(3) and patent No. 649621 of 15t h May 1900(I~ l. Unlike o ther radio experimenters of the ti me who worked either wilh damped oscillations at very high frequencies(4 Jl, Tesla investigated undam ped oscillat ions in thc low H F rangc. While ot hers princi pally devdopcd Hertl's apparatus with a s park-gap in the tank ci rcui t (Lodge, Righi, Marconi, and others) and improved I he receiver by
• T ile second of the t"'O patent! by which Testa protected his a[lpaT3tu~ for wirc l e~s p»wr.r tran~ ­ mission, known as the "S),Slenl of four luned c ircuits", is particul.l r1y impOrt1lnt in the hislOry of radio. I! was a subject of a long law su it bc:t"=n the Marconi Wirc,:lc~~ T c,:leg raph COllipany o f Amcri(';' 1Ino.l the United Slates of America alleged to h1ld used wireless o.Icvice~ th1lt infringed on Marconi's p"telll No. 1(.)712 of 28th June 1904 . After 27 years the U.S. Supreme Coun in 19.1.1 invalidated the fundamcnt :,1 rad io palcnl of Marconi as containing nOlhing which wa~ nol arr~ady c,:ol1!llined in patents gr<l!llcd to Lol.lge, Testa and Stonet63!.
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introducing a sensitive coherer (Sranly, Lodge, Popov. Marconi, and others). he set about implementing his ideas of 1892- 1893. How far he had go l in \lerifying his Ideas for wireless power transmission before coming to Colorado Springs may be seen from patent No . 645516 and the diagram in Fig. Ic.
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an altitude!of some IS miles above sea level, but that layers of the atmosphere…