Tesla's Ideas Today - Long Island Radio Station

Still during the investigations in Colorado Tesla filed many new patents and thus came into the possibility of entering into contact with financial circles which were to finance the World radio-station. Of those patents we shall mention a few:

Patents 685953/55 relate to "Methods and apparatus for the utilization of effects in receiving apparatus transmitted without wires from great distances." In these patents, filed on 24 June 1899, the following stands among other things:

"In various patent applications which I have submitted and in the patents which I have obtained I have explained the methods of wireless transmission which consist briefly in this. In one system one pole of my oscillators is connected in a suitable manner with the Earth and the other with an isolated body of large surface at a certain height. The impulses which I produce in this way travel in all directions and reach at great distance the receiver which is connected in a similar manner with the earth and an elevated wire and contains one receiving apparatus. My second method is based on the fact that the higher layers of the atmosphere easily conduct high-frequency impulses. In this way signals can be transmitted to the greatest distances.

Regardless of the method it is necessary that the disturbances which the transmitting apparatuses produce be as strong as possible. By the use of certain forms of high-frequency apparatus which I have discovered and which are very well known great practical advantages are achieved in that respect. As the energy which reaches the distant circuit is only a small portion of the energy which the transmitting station supplies it is necessary that as much of the received energy as possible be utilized. For this purpose I have used in the receiving circuit a large self-induction and low resistance whose natural frequency is in resonance with the received waves so that the whole series of successive impulses of the transmitter joined and amplified the effects in the receiver. Since in the transmitter only a fraction of the energy comes to expression it is clear that it is necessary either to use a very large and expensive transmitter or a very sensitive receiver in order to overcome great distances.

To enable that with less sensitive receivers sufficient energy be collected I have found that it is possible to accumulate the received energy in a condenser and thus amplified utilize it for putting into operation the receiving apparatus."

In the patents 685954/56 of 1 August 1899 Tesla foresees in the receivers apparatuses which stand in a position to receive interrupted waves. For continuous waves it is necessary in wireless telegraphy to periodically separate the wave groups in order to obtain audible frequencies and Tesla does this with the help of a mechanical breaker which rotates at constant speed and at determined moments interrupts the received waves. That apparatus is known in the literature under the name "ticker". It has been utilized for decades in the whole world. Besides the ticker Tesla describes in these patents yet another receiving apparatus whose task is to let the waves pass only in one direction thus to rectify them. The goal of that apparatus is to amplify the reception with the help of the ticker but it also has the task to produce rectified oscillations in the receiver so that music and speech transmitted from the transmitting station could be listened to in the telephone.

In the patent 685012 of 21 March 1900 Tesla describes yet another receiving apparatus which is used to produce the waves themselves in one direction so that they can be rectified. The goal of that apparatus is to amplify the reception with the help of the ticker but it also has the task to produce rectified oscillations in the receiver so that music and speech transmitted from the transmitting station could be listened to in the telephone.

These quotes are cited to show how Tesla even at that time took into account the transmission of signals and news over the greatest distances from many stations and arrived at inventions which excluded any interference from other stations. Therefore he invented various methods to greatly amplify the received radio waves and to rectify them so that speech and music could be listened to. Such and other means enabled him to enter into contact with Morgan who promised him the sum of 150,000 dollars for the erection of a large radio-station on Long Island. That sum was sufficient to purchase a large piece of land and to order the necessary machines for an electric central of 300 kilowatts but it could not cover the costs for the large antenna and other equipment necessary for the operation of the station.

From the sale of patents Tesla collected the necessary funds and in the course of 1901/2 erected the station with a special antenna 57 meters high which at the top had the shape of a hemisphere of wires 20 m in diameter. During the erection of the radio-station Tesla spent the greater part of the time on the installation of machines and apparatus and occupied himself relatively very little with other business. As a result of that he fell into new financial difficulties and had to turn to various business friends for financial help. This gave occasion to his enemies to spread the rumor that Morgan had lost faith in Tesla and had refused further financing of Tesla's radio-station.

But this did not discourage Tesla. He persisted in his efforts and all the income which came to him he used for the completion of the station. In spite of all that he did not complete the station and in 1905 he had to discontinue all further work on it. The large electric central could not supply the necessary energy because the enterprises which had delivered the machines had dismantled them. Tesla was not in a position to fulfill the contracts and to pay the last installments which amounted to several tens of thousands of dollars.

The station was dynamited during the First World War by the American War Department which considered that it could serve the enemy in many respects since Tesla had abandoned it. Around the station allegedly spies appeared and there existed the danger that the enemy could learn something which could be used against America. Tesla learned that his station had been destroyed only when he read it in the newspapers and saw the picture. It represents a historical document. The first world radio-station which was to send news signals and music to the whole world was destroyed but on the foundations of Tesla's ideas hundreds and thousands of other stations have been built which today in the whole world operate without interfering with one another and transmit music speech and signals exactly as Tesla had foreseen already in 1899.