Radio Power

Transmission of Electric Power Without Wires Prophesied by Experts.

Tesla has consistently believed that the transmission of electric power without wires is but a matter of time. Recently a sixteen-hour continuous test was carried out in transmitting wireless telegraph signals across the Atlantic, with the aid of nine high power metal vacuum tubes about three feet in length, six of the tubes being rated at twenty kilowatts each. The development of these vacuum tubes to a still greater degree has aroused the zeal of great engineers who predict that such tubes may indeed lead the way to the wireless transmission of energy. Dr. Alexanderson at the time of the experiment with the new tubes said:

“We have here a new physical principle reduced to practice on a large scale. This demonstration is the bridging of the ocean by a few powerful vacuum tube units, and we can safely predict that the same feat will be performed by a single tube.”

After speculating on the possibility of radio power transmission, he said:

“Ten years ago I became acquainted with the audion. Then it was a detector of signals and an amplifier, and the question arose: Why not amplify some more and then some more and use it for transmitting as well as receiving?”

Dr. Irving Langmuir, responsible for the development of the new high power vacuum tubes, said:

“Although it has taken ten years to get to a transatlantic tube transmitter, in these years the energy of the vacuum tube has been increased more than 1,000,000 times. A few more years of the same rate of improvement would bring us beyond our wildest dreams. Science and engineering have received a new tool. It marks a turning point. It will certainly give us transatlantic telephony, and more. We will make larger tubes when larger tubes are needed, and of higher efficiency; for the principle on which this development has gone forward is a sound one.”

The human voice has already been carried across the Atlantic by radiophone, in one direction. With these new tubes, it is expected that a regular conversation will be carried on. The set used for transmitting radio telegraph signals across the Atlantic consists of three 50 kilowatt, 15,000 volt, water-cooled metal-vacuum tubes of the Kenotron type, which are used as rectifiers; there are six 15,000 volt 20 kilowatt tubes of the water-cooled metallic type designed as pliotrons, for use as high frequency converters. For the experiment with the tube set one of the new mile and a half long antenna was used, suspended from six towers, 420 feet high, and the tube set developed and sustained in the antenna a current of 350 amperes.

The radio power transmission scheme of tomorrow will no doubt be along the lines shown in the illustration. Here, the water from above the Falls is led to water turbines which are directly connected to alternating current dynamos and the electric power is in turn led to step-up transformers. These raise the potential to several million volts and the current then passes through rectifier and converter vacuum tubes of the water-cooled type, as shown in the illustration, the radio frequency power waves being radiated from directive antennae on top of high towers, as the picture shows.

A directed radio power wave is possible with the present knowledge. The principle of directing a radio wave on this hypothesis is to place a shield in either the form of a metal cage or sheet around the antenna wire with a slot or opening on one side. For the reception and utilization of a radio power wave an antenna or capacity of some sort is employed to accumulate energy from the ether and ground, and by means of vacuum tubes, step-down transformers and other apparatus this alternating current energy is reduced to a low frequency alternating current, or even to direct current at any potential desired. Dr. Tesla lighted lamps at a distance of one-half to one mile from his transmitting instrument over twenty years ago, and experimenters have often picked up energy in antennae at some distance from transmitting stations. We have but to increase the frequency of the waves, and solve several other factors, and then can laugh at the present expensive conductors required to transmit the current for our lamps and motors.

The directive radio antennae atop the tower shown in the picture are operated by motors and gears. The three small directive power wave transmitters at the extreme top of the tower can be swung in any direction. When we transmit power by radio, aircraft will absorb energy directly from the ether.

No doubt strict laws would have to be passed with penalties for using radio energy without a license and meter. Otherwise people would steal energy.

A vast amount of work is yet to be done before this dream of Dr. Tesla’s becomes a fact. Greater efficiency of transmission must be made possible.

Dr. Tesla, of all scientists, has conducted the greatest experiments with high potentials and high frequencies that the world has ever seen, and it is certainly remarkable that in the intervening space of more than twenty years, engineers have not learned more along the lines of his famous experiments, especially those carried out in his Colorado plant, where he produced man-made lightning flashes approximately 100 feet in length, accompanied by a roar like Niagara’s, which could be heard for many miles.

— Science & Invention.