Various Tesla book cover images

Nikola Tesla Books

Books written by or about Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla: Colorado Springs Notes, 1899-1900 Page 12

he finally decided on Colorado Springs, a plateau about 2000 m above sea level, where he erected a shed large enough to house a high-frequency transformer with a coil diameter of 15 meters!

Fig. 1c. Diagram of an apparatus demonstrating transmission of electric power through rarified gas (Tesla's own slide now at the Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade)

Tesla's arrival in Colorado Springs was reported in the press. According to the Philadelphia “Engineering Mechanics” Tesla arrived on the 18th of May 1899 (according to(68) he left New York on 11th May 1899), with the intention of carrying out intensive research in wireless telegraphy and properties of the upper atmosphere. In his article “The transmission of electric energy without wires” (1904(1)) Tesla writes that he came to Colorado Springs with the following goals:

  1. To develop a transmitter of great power.
  2. To perfect means for individualizing and isolating the energy transmitted.
  3. To ascertain the laws of propagation of currents through the earth and the atmosphere.

Tesla had some ten years of experience with high frequency AC behind him by the time he moved to Colorado Springs. In 1889, on his return from Pittsburg where he had been working as a consultant to Westinghouse on the development of his polyphase system, he began work on the construction of an alternator for generating currents at much higher frequencies than those used in ordinary power distribution. In 1890 he filed applications for two patents(2) for alternators working at over 10 kHz. One of these patents was in conjunction with a method for achieving quiet operation of arc lamps, but this was in fact a first step towards a new application of alternating currents, which soon became known as “Tesla currents”. Tesla’s alternators were an important milestone in electrical engineering and were the prototypes for alternators which were used some quarter-century later for driving high-power radio transmitters, and later on also for inductive heating.(24)

Soon after he had started his research in high frequencies Tesla discovered there specific physiological action and suggested the possibility of medical applications. He did

12

24

Цверава Г.К. НИКОЛА ТЕСЛА, изд. Наука, Ленинград, 1974.

68

Testimony in behalf of Tesla, Interference No. 21,701, United States Patent Office, New York, 1902.

Contents

Introduction
June 1 - 30
July 1 - 31
August 1 - 31
September 1 - 30
October 1 - 31
November 1 - 30
December 1 - 31
January 1 - 7
Commentaries

Appendices: I, II

Images

Glossary

Lowercase tau - an irrational constant defined as the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its radius, equal to the radian measure of a full turn; approximately 6.283185307 (equal to 2π, or twice the value of π).
A natural rubber material obtained from Palaquium trees, native to South-east Asia. Gutta-percha made possible practical submarine telegraph cables because it was both waterproof and resistant to seawater as well as being thermoplastic. Gutta-percha's use as an electrical insulator was first suggested by Michael Faraday.
The Habirshaw Electric Cable Company, founded in 1886 by William M. Habirshaw in New York City, New York.
The Brown & Sharpe (B & S) Gauge, also known as the American Wire Gauge (AWG), is the American standard for making/ordering metal sheet and wire sizes.
A traditional general-purpose dry cell battery. Invented by the French engineer Georges Leclanché in 1866.
Refers to Manitou Springs, a small town just six miles west of Colorado Springs, and during Tesla's time there, producer of world-renown bottled water from its natural springs.
A French mineral water bottler.
Lowercase delta letter - used to denote: A change in the value of a variable in calculus. A functional derivative in functional calculus. An auxiliary function in calculus, used to rigorously define the limit or continuity of a given function.
America's oldest existing independent manufacturer of wire and cable, founded in 1878.
Lowercase lambda letter which, in physics and engineering, normally represents wavelength.
The lowercase omega letter, which represents angular velocity in physics.