Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency: A Lecture Delivered before the Institution of Electrical Engineers, LondonTesla, Nikola
Science
Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency: A Lecture Delivered before the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London
Tesla, Nikola
Electric currents, Alternating; Electric discharges; Incandescent lamps; Telegraph, Wireless
If a wire were provided with a perfect electrostatic screen, it would
be the same as though all objects were removed from it at infinite
distance. The capacity would then be reduced to the capacity of the
wire itself, which would be very small. It would then be possible to
send over the wire current vibrations of very high frequencies at
enormous distance without affecting greatly the character of the
vibrations. A perfect screen is of course out of the question, but I
believe that with a screen such as I have just described telephony
could be rendered practicable across the Atlantic. According to my
ideas, the gutta-percha covered wire should be provided with a third
conducting coating subdivided in sections. On the top of this should
be again placed a layer of gutta-percha and other insulation, and on
the top of the whole the armor. But such cables will not be
constructed, for ere long intelligence--transmitted without
wires--will throb through the earth like a pulse through a living
organism. The wonder is that, with the present state of knowledge and
the experiences gained, no attempt is being made to disturb the
electrostatic or magnetic condition of the earth, and transmit, if
nothing else, intelligence.
It has been my chief aim in presenting these results to point out
phenomena or features of novelty, and to advance ideas which I am
hopeful will serve as starting points of new departures. It has been
my chief desire this evening to entertain you with some novel
experiments. Your applause, so frequently and generously accorded, has
told me that I have succeeded.
In conclusion, let me thank you most heartily for your kindness and
attention, and assure you that the honor I have had in addressing such
a distinguished audience, the pleasure I have had in presenting these
results to a gathering of so many able men--and among them also some
of those in whose work for many years past I have found enlightenment
and constant pleasure--I shall never forget.
[Transcriber's note: Corrected the following typesetting errors:
1) 'preceived' to 'perceived', page 16.
2) 'disharging' to 'discharging', page 30.
3) 'park' to 'spark', page 33.
4) 'pssition' to 'position', page 50.
5) 'to th opposite side' to 'to the opposite side', page 56.
6) 's resses' to 'stresses', page 147.]
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