ExtraOrdinary Times - ExtraOrdinary Thoughts! Page 8

In the 1980s, homemade superconductors were the hot ticket with amateur scientists. You could make one about the size of a hockey puck, pour liquid nitrogen on it (-320.5°F), and watch a magnet levitate above once it got cold enough. This is the Meissner Effect. It is the easiest and most dazzling property of superconductors to demonstrate. Furthermore, it is also considered the "acid" test to determine superconductivity.

Today, the goal is achieve superconductivity at room temperature. It appears that the goal is just around the corner with some researchers reporting that they have a new "type" of copper wire that is as thin a hair and can carry as much current as #12 wire. Preliminary test results are encouraging.

Today, copper prices are so high that people are endangering themselves by stealing wires that are "hot" — they have current flowing through them! Vacant houses have been torn apart by thieves ripping the wires right out of the walls. This has resulted in new laws and regulations on salvage yards designed to identify and metal thieves.

This wire would go a long way into alleviating copper prices. It would simultaneously reduce the amount of copper needed by the Chinese and Indian to industrialize their nations, while increasing the copper supply as we rewire our nation's grid. Furthermore, it would dramatically impact energy requirements as it would increase the efficiency of motors.

Under the Sun...

Biblically speaking, the answer to our meet our energy needs already exists. Considered by some as the wisest man in human history, Solomon declared:

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
[Ecclesiates 1:9, KJV]

Our problem is to find the answer. By 1900, Tesla introduced a plethora of ideas with regards to energy production that ranged from burning nitrogen to a cold coal battery which obtained its power by using nitric acid to burn coal thus generating a electric current. Other ideas that Tesla tossed out included were gas engines, self-acting engines, windmills, and a device for drawing energy from the ambient atmosphere.

According to Tesla, the real key to resolving our energy needs rests with the Sun. In the bottom line analysis, all of the energy we use is driven or derived from the Sun. For instance, hydropower is only possible through the Sun's thermal action of the evaporating the oceans and dropping the water on land. Wind is driven by the heating and cooling of the planet in accordance with the presence and absence of the Sun.

The radiant energy device that Tesla patented was one attempt to directly harness solar energy. The solar cells which we are familiar with was totally unknown as solid state technology made its main debut after Tesla's death. One can presume from his article that if Tesla would have had access to this technology, he would have definitively been supportive.

Having been familiar with the Tesla material for over 20 years now, I can state that in order to really understand Tesla, "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy" is a MUST! Apparently, much of this article was meant to be inspirational as Tesla identified some of the devices that were still in the early development state. In addition,