Comming soon

 

 

The new art of projecting concentrated non-dispersive energy through natural media - Briefly Exposed by Nikola Tesla - Circa May 16, 1935:

 

Perhaps the most important of these inventions is the new high potential electro-static generator, schematically represented in Fig. 4, which is provided with my improved terminal consisting of a spherical metallic frame 1, with attachments 2, adapted to be fastened to the former by nuts 3, as above described. The terminal has a platform 4, in the interior of the frame intended for supporting machinery, instruments and observers, and is carried to a suitable elevation on insulating columns omitted from the drawing for the sake of simplicity. To energize the terminal, air under pressure is driven at high speed through a hermetically closed channel comprising a turbo compressor 5, with intake and outlet connections, conduits 7 and 8, special fittings 9 and 10,and a short pipe 11. The conduits 7 and 8, are preferably composed of pieces of glazed porcelain bolted tightly together, the joints being made airtight by suitable packing and are corrugated on the outside to minimize electrical leakage. The fittings 9 and 10 and pipe 11, may also be of the same kind of material. The air before entering and after leaving the compressor, as well as all apparatus within the airtight enclosure 6, is effectively cooled and maintained at a constant temperature by means as ordinarily employed which was not thought necessary to illustrate. The operation of the machine will be understood most readily by likening the moving column of air to a running belt. When the air, leaving the compressor, reaches the device 12, containing discharge points electrified by a direct current of high tension, it is ionized and the charge imparted to it is carried upward to the special fitting 9, where it is drawn off by sucking points and charges the terminal. On the return to the compressor the air passes through special fitting 10, where it receives electricity of the opposite sign conveying it to the device 13, and from there to the ground. These actions are repeated with great rapidity. The generator can be made self-exciting by suitable connections. For several reasons, I estimate that a machine as described will have an output of many times greater than a belt generator of the same size and, besides, it has several other important construction and operative advantages.

 

To give an approximate estimate of performance, reference is made to diagram in Fig. 5, representing a spherical terminal and an open vacuum tube for projecting particles. Suppose that d be the distance from the center o at which a particle of radius r = 1/100 c.m. is charged in vacuum to the potential of the terminal, as before explained, and that D is the distance from center O at which the particle leaves the vacuous space, then, in passing through the distance D - d it will be accelerated to a velocity:

 

V₁ = √2Qq (D-d) / md D centimeters per second

 

In its transit from distance D to a very much greater distance an additional velocity of:

 

V₂ = √2Qq' / m D centimeters per second

 

q' being, theoretically, smaller than q. But I have found that although the particle in contact with air is neutralized rapidly yet, on account of its small surface, magnitude of the charge and prodigious speed, a very great distance is traversed without material reduction of the charge so that, without appreciable error, q' may be considered equal to q. Thus, the total velocity attained will be:

 

V = V₁+V₂ = √2Qq (D-d) / md D + √2Qq' / m D centimeters per second

 

in which expression Q and q are in e.s. units, D and d in centimeters and m the mass of the particle in grams. But the calculation may be simplified, for if the charge is virtually constant through a great distance, the velocity finally attained will be:

 

V = √2Qq / md centimeters per second

 

Assume now that the terminal is equivalent to a sphere of radius R = 250 centimeters which heretofore could only be charged to a potential of 100 x 250 = 25,000 e.s. units or 7,500,000 volts but, by taking advantage of my improvements, can be readily charged to 2 x 105 e.s. units or 6 x 107 volts in which case the quantity of electricity stored will be Q = 2 x 105 x 250 = 5 x 107 e.s. units. If, for best effect, the particle is charged in vacuum at a distance d = 2R = 500 centimeters where the difference between its potential and adjacent medium is 3 x 107 volts or 105 e.s. units, then q/r = 105 and q = 105 = 1000 e.s. units. The particle will have a volume of 4TT/3 x 106 cubic centimeters and if it be tungsten, it will weigh about 4TT x 18/3 x 106 = 7686/1011 gram. Substituting these values:

 

V = √2 x 5 x 107 x 1000 x 10¹¹ / 1000 x 7686 x 500 = 1,613,000 centimeters or 16,130 meters per second.

 

  This finding may be checked by using the relation between the joule's equivalent and the kinetic energy. Here the joules are 3 x 10⁷ x 1000 / 3 x 10⁹ = 10 and approximately equal to 106 gram-centimeters.  Consequently,

 

mV² / 2 = 10⁶

V² = 2 x 10⁶ x 10¹¹ / 7686 and

V = 1,613,000 centimeters or 16,130 meters

 

as found above by my formula which is always applicable while the latter rule is not.

 

Since a joule is equivalent to about 10,000 gram-centimeters, the kinetic energy is equal to 10⁵ gram-centimeters or 1 kilogram-meter.

 

In order to determine the probable trajectory the air resistance encountered by the particle has to be estimated from practical data and theoretical consideration. Very extensive ballistic tests by French experts have established conclusively that up to a velocity of 400 meters per second, the resistance increases as the square of the speed but from there on, to the highest velocities attained, the increase is directly proportional to the speed. On the other hand, it has been found in tests with rifles that an ordinary bullet, 8 millimeters in diameter and three times as long, fired at 400 meters per second, encounters a mean resistance of about 0.02 kilogram and from these facts, it can be inferred that the average resistance of the particle at the maximum speed V might be of the order of 1/64,000 of a kilogram and if so, the trajectory should be approximately 64,000 meters or 64 kilometers. Obviously, resistance data cannot be accurate, but as the mechanical effects can be increased many times, there should be no difficulty in securing the practically required range with a transmitter as described. In all probability, when the technique is perfected, results will be obtained which are thought impossible at present. Such a particle, notwithstanding its minute volume of 1/250,000 cubic centimeter, would be very destructive. It would pierce the usual protecting covering of aeroplanes, put machinery out of commission and ignite fuel and explosives. To combatants, it would be deadly at any distance well within its full range. Projected almost simultaneously in great numbers, the particles would produce intense heating effects. In action, against aeroplanes, the range would be very much greater on account of the smaller density of the air. Evidently, the smaller the particles, the greater will be their speed. For instance, if r = 1/10,000 centimeter, a velocity of 160,000 meters per second will be attained. An enormous increase in speed and range would be secured with particles of a diameter smaller than 800 times the molecular diameter.

 

It is important to devise a thoroughly practical and simple means for supplying particles and I have invented two which seem to meet this requirement. One is to feed tungsten or other wire from a spool in a closed container joined hermetically to the projector, the rotation of the spool being under control of the operator. Using wire 2/100 centimeters in diameter, twenty cubic centimeters of the same would provide material for 5,000,000 particles. The other device consists of a closed container fixed to the projector and filled with mercury which can be expanded by external and controllable application of heat and forced, under great pressure, through a minute hole in the extreme end of the extension reaching to the distance d as before illustrated and explained. The droplet torn off and projected would have the hardness of steel owing to the great capillary pressure. If mercury can be used for the purpose, this means is ideally simple and cheap.

 

 

The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla - by Thomas Commerford Martin, Editor:

 

The electrostatic attractions and repulsions between bodies of measurable dimensions are, of all the manifestations of this force, the first so-called electrical phenomena noted. But though they have been known to us for many centuries, the precise nature of the mechanism concerned in these actions is still unknown to us, and has not been even quite satisfactorily explained. What kind of mechanism must that be? We cannot help wondering when we observe two magnets attracting and repelling each other with a force of hundreds of pounds with apparently nothing between them. We have in our commercial dynamos magnets capable of sustaining in mid-air tons of weight. But what are even these

 

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forces acting between magnets when compared with the tremendous attractions and repulsions produced by electrostatic force, to which there is apparently no limit as to intensity. In lightning discharges bodies are often charged to so high a potential that they are thrown away with inconceivable force and torn asunder or shattered into fragments. Still even such effects cannot compare with the attractions and repulsions which exist between charged molecules or atoms, and which are sufficient to project them with speeds of many kilometres a second, so that under their violent impact bodies are rendered highly incandescent and are volatilized. It is of special interest for the thinker who inquires into the nature of these forces to note that whereas the actions between individual molecules or atoms occur seemingly under any conditions, the attractions and repulsions of bodies of measurable dimensions imply a medium possessing insulating properties. So, if air, either by being rarefied or heated, is rendered more or less conducting, these actions between two electrified bodies practically cease, while the actions between the individual atoms continue to manifest themselves.

 

An experiment may serve as an illustration and as a means of bringing out other features of interest. Some time ago I showed that a lamp filament or wire mounted in a bulb and connected to one of the terminals of a high tension secondary coil is set spinning, the top of the filament generally describing a circle. This vibration was very energetic when the air in the bulb was at ordinary pressure and became less energetic when the air in the bulb was strongly compressed. It ceased altogether when the air was exhausted so as to become comparatively good conducting. I found at that time that no vibration took place when the bulb was very highly exhausted. But I conjectured that the vibration which I ascribed to the electrostatic action between the walls of the bulb and the filament should take place also in a highly exhausted bulb. To test this under conditions which were more favorable, a bulb like the one in Fig. 174, was constructed. It comprised a globe b, in the neck of which was sealed a platinum wire w carrying a thin lamp filament f. In the lower part of the globe a tube t was sealed so as to surround the filament. The exhaustion was carried as far as it was practicable with the apparatus employed.

 

This bulb verified my expectation, for the filament was set spinning when the current was turned on, and became incandes

 

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cent. It also showed another interesting feature, bearing upon the preceding remarks, namely, when the filament had been kept incandescent some time, the narrow tube and the space inside were brought to an elevated temperature, and as the gas in the tube then became conducting, the electrostatic attraction between the glass and the filament became very weak or ceased, and the filament came to rest. When it came to rest it would glow far more intensely. This was probably due to its assuming the position in the centre of the tube where the molecular bombardment was most intense, and also partly to the fact that the individual impacts were more violent and that no part of the supplied energy was converted into mechanical movement. Since, in accordance with accepted views, in this experiment the incandescence must be attributed to the impacts of the particles, molecules or atoms in the heated space, these particles must therefore, in order to explain such action, be assumed to behave as independent carriers of electric charges immersed in an insulating medium; yet there is no attractive force between the glass tube and the filament because the space in the tube is, as a whole, conducting.

 

It is of some interest to observe in this connection that whereas the attraction between two electrified bodies may cease owing to the impairing of the insulating power of the medium in which they are immersed, the repulsion between the bodies may still be observed. This may be explained in a plausible way. When the bodies are placed at some distance in a poorly conducting medium, such as slightly warmed or rarefied air, and are suddenly electrified, opposite electric charges being imparted to them, these charges equalize more or less by leakage through the air. But if the bodies are similarly electrified, there is less opportunity afforded for such dissipation, hence the repulsion observed in such case is greater than the attraction. Repulsive actions in a gaseous medium are however, as Prof. Crookes has shown, enhanced by molecular bombardment.

 

 

 

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