Nikola Tesla Books
principles of our radio broadcasting system, would never have made such a statement unless he had mighty good reason to believe that he could have accomplished such a miracle.
Tesla wrote in 1905, "The practical application of this revolutionary principle of wireless has only begun. So far, the wireless art has been confined to the use of oscillations (radio waves ) which are quickly damped out in their passage through the atmosphere. Still , even this has commanded universal attention. What will be achieved by waves which do not diminish with distance, baffles comprehend on."
He further stated that it is difficult for a layman to grasp how an electric current can be propagated to distances of thousands of miles without diminuation of intensity. Distance is only a relative conception, a reflection in the mind of physical limitations. A view of electrical phenomena must be completely free from this delusive impression. However, surprising as it may appear, it is a fact that a sphere the size of a little marble may offer a greater impediment to the passage of a current than the whole entire earth. Every experiment, then, which can be performed with such a small sphere can likewise be carried out, and much more perfectly, with the immense globe on which we live.
Tesla's carefully conducted experiments revealed that when the earth is struck mechanically, as in the case of a powerful terrestrial upheaval, it vibrates like a bell , its period being measured in hours. When it is struck electrically, the charge oscillates, approximately twelve times a second. By impressing upon it, current waves of certain lengths, definitely related to the diameter, the globe itself is thrown into resonant vibration, stationary waves forming, the nodal and ventral regions of which can be located with mathematical precision. Owing to this fact and the spheroidal shape of the earth, numerous geodetical values can readily be secured.
Tesla claimed that as a result of these astonishing discoveries, it would soon be possible to determine the exact diameter of the planet, it's configuration and volume, the extent of its elevations and depressions, to measure with great precision and with nothing more than electrical devices, all terrestrial distances. In the densest fog at night, without a compass or other instruments of orientation, it will be possible to guide a vessel along the shortest or orthodromic path, to read instantly the latitude and direction of movement. By proper use of terrestrial disturbances, a wave may be made to travel over the earth's surface with any velocity desired, and electrical effects produced at any spot on the globe, which can be selected at will.
According to Dr. Tesla, this mode of conveying electrical energy to any distance, is not "wireless" in the popular sense, but a transmission through a conductor, and one which is incomparably more perfect than an artificial one. All impediments to conduction, he claimed, arise from confinement of the electrical and magnetic fluxes to narrow channels. He said that the globe is free from such cramping hinderment. It is an ideal conductor because of it's immensity, isolated in space and geometrical form. Its singleness is only an apparent limitation, and the flow of energy may be directed through any number of separate paths which, though bodily connected, are perfectly distinct and separate like many cables. Any apparatus, then, which can be operated through one or more wires, at distances obviously limited, can likewise be worked without artificial conductors, and with the same facility and precision, at distances without limit other than those imposed by the physical dimensions of the globe.
