Boundless Space a Bus Bar

One of the American electrical journals has recently taken some of Mr. Nikola Tesla’s patents undoubtedly more seriously than the inventor himself intended them, and advanced the ideas there tentatively proposed as a revolutionary invention comparable with those of the same inventor in the rotary-field line, and has, with the aid of the gullible daily press, given the public in general another false impression of the wonders of electricity. The idea proposed comprises nothing more nor less than a high-tension step-up transformer feeding into a vertical conductor with a terminal at such an elevation above the earth as to reach a strata of rarefied atmosphere which has a comparatively low electrical resistance, a similar step-down transformer to be connected at any desired point with the same conducting strata by means of any suitable device, such as that used by the illustrious Benjamin Franklin, or, preferably, as stated in the patent, by means of a balloon, the earth being utilized as a ground return.

The fact is set forth that the atmosphere at 15 pounds to the square inch, or other pressures common near the surface of this mundane sphere, is a good insulator, while at lower pressures, as is well known by manufacturers of 200-volt lamps, it becomes quite a fair conductor. By a rigid suppression of the reasoning faculties and a little freedom of the imagination, fancy pictures a conductor poked up through the insulating sheath at Niagara, establishing an alternating difference of potential between the superincumbent ether and this ball of solid matter below protected by an atmospheric dielectric, which difference of potential can be tapped, so to speak, at any desired location, such as the large cities, or by express trains with electric locomotives towing balloon trolleys, making contact with an overhead conductor from which they cannot readily slip off. The use of several great sources of natural power will, of course, necessitate generators of the same frequency running in synchronism with each other, as they are all, so to speak, connected across the same bus bars, and lacking the third bus bar, multiphase systems will go out of fashion.

The system might, however, give other results more valuable than those of power transmission. With transmitting and receiving stations at Niagara Falls and New York city, respectively, the State of New York would possibly be illuminated by a gigantic Geissler tube overhead that would turn night into day, put to shame the aurora borealis, and make the advocates of diffused illumination shout for joy.*

Mr. Tesla should certainly be enjoined from putting his polished ball terminals too high, or a Crookes-tube effect might be obtained, emitting a profusion of X-rays which would disclose altogether too much to anyone with fluorescent spectacles, and might make it necessary for mortals to carry leaden umbrellas to prevent the skin being burned from the tops of their heads.

The patent gives no data as to the estimated height to which it would be necessary to elevate the terminals. It is obvious that a height sufficient for a very marked difference in the specific resistance must be attained, otherwise, the voltage would be necessarily so high that fatal leakage through the extended sheet of insulating medium would ensue. No such marked change of resistance occurs at the highest elevations yet attained by man, several miles upward, and the atmospheric pressure falls off somewhat more slowly even than by a logarithmic law, so that scores or hundreds of miles of elevation would be necessary. The methods of ballooning at this elevation and supporting conductors of this length are not explained in the patent.

With a circuit looped about so many square miles of space, it is not explained how the self-inductive choking of the comparatively high-frequency currents proposed (about 1000 cycles per second) could be eliminated, and no explanation is made of the precautions to be taken against lightning. The advocates of that light-weight material, aluminum, for current-conducting purposes must take a back seat, as the ether has a lower specific gravity than anything hitherto proposed for this service. Mr. Tesla, if correctly reported, previously proposed to wabble the earth’s charge for man’s ignoble uses, but he now, if these things can be taken seriously, has designs on the universe. The price of copper remains in the neighborhood of 11 cents. however.

*The writer reserves all rights to the use of interplanetary space as a vacuum tube for lighting purposes.