Paradigm Lost: Nikola Tesla's True Wireless Page 11

no statement about the enhancement or reduction of the signal at the receiver caused by the presence of the second mountain. In fact, using elementary wave theory or a transmission line analog, we can argue that if the two mountains are separated by half a wavelength and if the receiver is midway between them, and if the soil is of reasonably high conductivity, then we have what is called a standing wave between the mountains. In this case, the effect of the more distant mountain is to enhance the signal at the receiver. There are waves moving from right to left and vice-versa between the mountains. Such an arrangement, when set up in a room, as Hertz did in his famous experiment published in 1888, is known as an interferometer.²⁴

Kuhn tells us that if we want to see what constitutes “normal science” and the paradigms it embraces, we should look at the textbooks of that era.²⁵ By 1904, we can say confidently that the paradigm shift created by Maxwell and Hertz had taken hold and was part of normal science. This was the date of publication of Poincaré’s book, whose chapters 7, 8 and 9 are devoted to the propagation of waves along wires, dielectrics, and air. It seems evident that Tesla was not reading the textbooks of his epoch.

Tesla and Antenna Theory

Another puzzling segment of Tesla’s anti-Hertz diatribe is his Fig. 16, shown below as Fig. 6. Tesla would have us believe that the antenna on the right