Various Tesla book cover images

Nikola Tesla Books

Books written by or about Nikola Tesla
Phot. LVII. Similar as in phot. LVI but discharging across the laboratory into the air.

383

January 6

Along with comments on photograph No. 55, Tesla displayed other possible ways of producing bright spots on streamers. He assumed that along current streamers acertain kind of moving standing wave is produced which is made by means of two (or more) waves of different frequencies. He even displayed how two waves of adjacent frequencies could produce parameter variations of the oscillator constants at various operating conitions. Tesla recalls some previous experiments and does not give sufficient explanations to allow the understanding of it all.

Continuing his thinking, he described the future experiments with "tamed'' current streamers in a big glass tube, which would prove the existence of bright spots on the current streamers, along which two waves of close frequencies propagate.

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.