Question for electrical/ electronics people

[280plus]

I'm reading a book copyright 1944 that is saying Westinghouse was on the verge of sending electricity through the air without any wires etc. It sounds like they had accomplished this but had not figured a way to either take it large scale or market it. Anyone here familiar with this technology? What ever happened to it? Just thought I'd ask, you never know...

[garrettwc]

There was something about this on the History Channel a while back.

It's called the Tesla coil.

[280plus]

From Wikpedia:

Although modern Tesla Coils are designed to generate long sparks, Tesla's original system were designed for wireless communication and power transmission, so he used large radii of curvature to prevent corona and streamer losses.

Wow!

It tells you how to make them, right down to wire size and number of wraps!

I didn't read it all but you better know a couple things about electricity before you do!

Thanx!



 Nikola Tesla

The Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, and scientist

Born on July 9/10, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika (Austria-Hungary)
Died on January 7, 1943 in New York City, New York (USA)
Inventions: a telephone repeater, rotating magnetic field principle, polyphase alternating-current system, induction motor, alternating-current power transmission, Tesla coil transformer, wireless communication, radio, fluorescent lights, and more than 700 other patents.

I notice he died in 1943, that would be about the same time the book I have was written. I surmise that the technology development died with him.

[garrettwc]

I surmise that the technology development died with him.

It probably died before that. Westinghouse had already gotten out, Thomas Edison was involved somehow but I don't recall details. J.P. Morgan funded him for a while but he eventually pulled his money out too.

[280plus]

But [best Gene Wilder Voice} It.... could... WORK!! [/Best Gene Wilder Voice}

I have a good idea what he was driving at, question is would the electro magnetic waves generated be harmful to humans and the like? Oh well, I don't have the $ to pursue it anyhow...

[charby]

Why does this seem like, don't try this at home stories.

Telsa also could light a room up without light bulbs too. A lot of his projects could never be reproduced, the man was a genius with electricity.

Charby

[280plus]

Scary as it may seem, I have already wrapped my own transformers and had them work very well, not teslas though, just step up/down types. Experiments for a basic electricity course IU used to teach. While I probably could take the info from wikpedia and make my own tesla coils, I won't. I will light up a pickle for you though! LOL, whenever the lights suddenly got dim and bright again in the school building, everybody was running for my classroom. Explosions too.

[garrettwc]

I have a good idea what he was driving at, question is would the electro magnetic waves generated be harmful to humans and the like?

Again, going from fuzzy memory here, but IIRC when he built the big coil for the 26 mile thing, he actually generated a huge EMP.

[Harold Tuttle]

Tesla was working on utilizing the planet's magnetic & ionic fields to generate power out of the sky, then nodally transport it though out the planet

http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_colspr.html

For his new construction project, Tesla acquired land on the cliffs of Long Island Sound. The site was called Wardenclyffe. By 1901 the Wardenclyffe project was under construction, the most challenging task being the erection of an enormous tower, rising 187 feet in the air and supporting on its top a fifty-five-ton sphere made of steel. Beneath the tower, a well-like shaft plunged 120 feet into the ground. Sixteen iron pipes were driven three hundred feet deeper so that currents could pass through them and seize hold of the earth. "In this system that I have invented," Tesla explained, "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... so that the whole of this globe can quiver."

As the tower construction slowly increased, it became evident that more funds were sorely needed. But Morgan was not quick to respond. Then on December 12, 1901, the world awoke to the news that Marconi had signaled the letter "S" across the Atlantic from Cornwall, England to Newfoundland. Tesla, unruffled by the accomplishment, explained that the Italian used 17 Tesla patents to accomplish the transmission. But Morgan began to doubt Tesla. Marconi's system not only worked, it was also inexpensive.

Tesla pleaded with Morgan for more financial support, but the investor soundly refused. To make matters worse, the stock market crashed and prices for the tower's materials doubled. High prices combined with Tesla's inability to find enough willing investors eventually led to the demise of the project.

In 1905, after some amazing electrical displays, Tesla and his team had to abandon the project forever. The newspapers called it, "Tesla's million dollar folly."

Humiliated and defeated, Tesla experienced a complete nervous breakdown. "It is not a dream," he protested. "It is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering, only expensive... blind, faint-hearted, doubting world."

he is also credited with generating an "earthquake" in NYC with an oscilator

[280plus]

I'd heard of him and some of his projects before  but  never knew any of that! Thanx!

Tesla's experiment burned out the dynamo at the El Paso Electric Company and the entire city lost power. The power station manager was livid, and insisted that Tesla pay for and repair the damage.

My kinda guy!

That's what you call "letting the magic smoke out". Nothing electrical works once the magic smoke gets out! Electrical stuff NEEDS that magic smoke in there to work properly!

[bountyhunter]

For the people who cite studies showing higher cancer rates among those who live under power lines...

The transmitting of actual POWER through the air would take electric fields strong enough to raise the hair on your arms.

It is really not a feasible concept for delivering power around the world.

[280plus]

For the people who cite studies showing higher cancer rates among those who live under power lines...

The transmitting of actual POWER through the air would take electric fields strong enough to raise the hair on your arms.

Exactly what I was thinking. It's probably possible, I was thinking more along the lines of a house sized system where you put a tesla coil in the basement or something and have it generate a field just large enough to induce current flow in tiny "generators" (secondary transformer coils) in the light fixtures and appliances within it's reach making them each their own little power stations. Hence, no need to wire the house. But living in the HF magnetic field created would probably not be good for any of us. That entire earth thing is interesting but a little scary too IMHO.

[Chris Rhines]

The whole power lines/magnetic fields causing cancer thing is a long-debunked hoax.  Reference Robert L. Park's Voodoo Science.

Tesla Coils are easy to build:  http://www.amazing1.com/tesla.htm

- Chris

[Waitone]

It is really not a feasible concept for delivering power around the world.

Yup.  But it is a dandy concept for destroying RFID tags.

[280plus]

Now I'm in trouble... Way cool...I told the wife I was going to build a Tesla coil out in the backyard and blow the nearest power plant with it. Now I can show her this and say, "Which one do you like honey?

[Harold Tuttle]

Tesla was taking power from the atmosphere and driving it into the ground

and lighting light bulbs placed in the ground a distance from his barn

[Guest]

That is so close to a real-life mad-scientist doom's day device that its actually kinda cool. Can you imagine if he had actually managed to construct something like that before people could have figured out the consequences? Imagine wiping out all complex lifeforms on the face of the planet with cancer within a single generation. Then think of how bizzare the evolution of the remaining organisms would be in a world shrouded in electricity. Its like a comic book.

[280plus]

LOL,,,I showed the Tesla coils to mama and she made that same noise Marge Simpson makes when Homer lays one of his schemes on her! Priceless!!

Yea, c_ You"re reading my mind. I was imagining a world shrouded in some ethereal electrical kind of cloud thing