In order to advance further along this line Ihad to go into the open,and in the spring of 1899,having completed preparations for the erection of a wireless plant,Iwent to Colorado where Iremained for more than one year.Here Iintroduced other improvements and refinements which made it possible to generate currents of any tension that may be desired.Those who are interested will find some information in regard to the experiments Iconducted there in my article,"The Problem of Increasing Human Energy"in the Century Magazine of June,1900,to which Ihave referred on a previous occasion.
Ihave been asked by the ELECTRICALEXPERIMENTERto be quite explicit on this subject so that my young friends among the readers of the magazine will clearly understand the construction and operation of my "Magnifying Transmitter"and the purposes for which it is intended.Well,then,in the first place,it is a resonant transformer with a secondary in which the parts,charged to a high potential,are of considerable area and arranged in space along ideal enveloping surfaces of very large radii of curvature,and at proper distances from one another thereby insuring a small electric surface density everywhere so that no leak can occur even if the conductor is bare.It is suitable for any frequency,from a few to many thousands of cycles per second,and can be used in the production of currents of tremendous volume and moderate pressure,or of smaller amperage and immense electromotive force.The maximum electric tension is merely dependent on the curvature of the surfaces on which the charged elements are situated and the area of the latter.
Judging from my past experience,as much as 100,000,000volts are perfectly practicable.On the other hand ,currents of many thousands of amperes may be obtained in the antenna.Aplant of but very moderate dimensions is required for such performances.Theoretically,a terminal of less than 90feet in diameter is sufficient to develop an electromotive force of that magnitude while for antenna currents of from 2,000-4,000amperes at the usual frequencies it need not be larger than 30feet in diameter.
In a more restricted meaning this wireless transmitter is one in which the Hertz-wave radiation is an entirely negligible quantity as compared with the whole energy,under which condition the damping factor is extremely small and an enormous charge is stored in the elevated capacity.Such a circuit may then be excited with impulses of any kind,even of low frequency and it will yield sinusoidal and continuous oscillations like those of an alternator.
Taken in the narrowest significance of the term,however,it is a resonant transformer which,besides possessing these qualities,is accurately proportioned to fit the globe and its electrical constants and properties,by virtue of which design it becomes highly efficient and effective in the wireless transmission of energy.Distance is then absolutely eliminated,there being no diminution in the intensity of the transmitted impulses.It is even possible to make the actions increase with the distance from the plant according to an exact mathematical law.
This invention was one of a number comprised in my "World-System"of wireless transmission which Iundertook to commercialize on my return to New York in 1900.As to the immediate purposes of my enterprise,they were clearly outlined in a technical statement of that period from which Iquote:
"The "World-System"has resulted from a combination of several original discoveries made by the inventor in the course of long continued research and experimentation.It makes possible not only the instantaneous and precise wireless transmission of any kind of signals,messages or characters,to all parts of the world,but also the inter-connection of the existing telegraph,telephone,and other signal stations without any change in their present equipment.By its means,for instance,a telephone subscriber here may call up and talk to any other subscriber on the Globe.An inexpensive receiver,not bigger than a watch,will enable him to listen anywhere,on land or sea,to a speech delivered or music played in some other place,however distant.These examples are cited merely to give an idea of the possibilities of this great scientific advance,which annihilates distance and makes that perfect natural conductor,the Earth,available for all the innumerable purposes which human ingenuity has found for a line-wire.One far-reaching result of this is that any device capable of being operated thru one or more wires (at a distance obviously restricted)can likewise be actuated,without artificial conductors and with the same facility and accuracy,at distances to which there are no limits other than those imposed by the physical dimensions of the Globe.Thus,not only will entirely new fields for commercial exploitation be opened up by this ideal method of transmission but the old ones vastly extended."
The"World-System"is based on the application of the following important inventions and discoveries:
1.The"Tesla Transformer"This apparatus is in the production of electrical vibrations as revolutionary as gunpowder was in warfare.Currents many times stronger than any ever generated in the usual ways,and sparks over one hundred feet long,have been produced by the inventor with an instrument of this kind.
2.The"Magnifying Transmitter"This is Tesla"s best invention,a peculiar transformer specially adapted to excite the Earth,which is in the transmission of electrical energy what the telescope is in astronomical observation.By the use of this marvelous device he has already set up electrical movements of greater intensity than those of lightning and passed a current,sufficient to light more than two hundred incandescent lamps,around the Globe.