A Tesla Wireless Device

THE SYSTEM OF TELEGRAPHY PATENTED BY HIM ON MAY 1, 1900.

He Describes It as a System for Transmitting Electrical Energy Through the Higher Strata of the Air — Balloons to Be Used at the Sending and Receiving Stations.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 15. — The files of the Patent Office show that a patent was granted Nikola Tesla on May 1, 1900, for his system of transmitting electrical energy through the higher strata of air without the use of wires. His application sets forth at length the principles of his invention. In securing electricity for his wireless system he uses the electro oscillator, patented previously by him. He asserts that the electric power produced in this manner has characteristics all its own. When radiated through the air at a pressure of millions of volts, it transforms the atmosphere into a conductor of electricity, and if the voltage be high enough the electricity will be carried through the air for thousands of miles. A peculiarity of this phenomenon, he says, is that by increasing the electrical pressure only slightly the distance that the electrical power will travel through the air is increased very greatly. He asserts that by increasing his electric power only 50 per cent. the distance that the electricity is carried through the air is increased six fold. His electric energy is conducted much more readily through the more highly rarefied strata, existing say at an altitude of five or six miles above the earth.

He proposes, therefore, to send up a stationary balloon at the point from which he will send his power and another at the point where it will be received. From each balloon he will hang a "terminal," consisting of a large disc. These discs would each be connected by wires with the stations on the ground.

In the transmission of power by this system he would generate his electricity at a high pressure in his "oscillator" and would then pass it through a transforming apparatus, consisting of a primary and a secondary coil. From there the power, at a pressure of millions of volts, would be carried by a wire to the terminal suspended far up in the sky from the balloon. The electricity radiating from it would be conducted through the atmosphere to the second terminal suspended from a balloon. The distance between these two could be indefinite, says Tesla. If the voltage be high enough it would be possible to conduct the power through the air for thousands of miles. From the receiving terminal, the power which would be collected through the medium of the suspended disc would be brought down to the receiving station by means of a wire. There it would be transformed by means of double coils. Telegraphic messages would then be rendered intelligible by ordinary methods. In his claim Tesla says that not only messages can be sent in this manner, but that it is possible to transmit electricity for power purposes as well.