Paradigm Lost: Nikola Tesla's True Wireless Page 5

Tesla “Disproves” Hertzian Theory

Electricity and Hydraulic Analogies

How did Tesla explain wireless communication without Hertzian waves or its synonyms? The answer is fascinating. He used a fishy version of alternating circuit theory. A close reading of “The True Wireless” reveals that he promoted a form of circuit theory employing but a single wire — in other words, there is no real circuit such as those who understood the subject are accustomed to. He also maintains that the earth itself can function — must function — as this lone wire. He seeks to explain this with a labored hydraulic (fluid) analogy that is illustrated in Fig. 4 of his paper, which is reproduced here as Fig. 3.

Of course, you can send a disturbance down a water filled pipe without employing a return circuit—just strike one end with a hammer. His analogy proves nothing, but its use is understandable. When Tesla was in college in the late 1870’s and early 1880’s, alternating current theory was a new and difficult subject.¹¹ If he learned