Nikola Tesla Books
[Sec. 2, cont.] rarefied strata of the atmosphere. [This patent also presents the basic four-tuned system of radio communication which was used in a suit brought by the U.S. government seeking the fundamental Marconi radio patent invalid and upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court June 21, 1943.] Strangely, a copy of this significant patent is not included in Nikola Tesla: Lectures, Patents, Articles, prepared by Popovic, Horvat, and Nikolic, Nikola Tesla Museum, Beograd, 1956, 842 pp. A copy of the patent may be obtained from the U.S. Patent Office or may be found in vol. I of Dr. Nikola Tesla: Selected Patent Wrappers, Ratzlaff, Tesla Book Company, Millbrae, Calif., 1980, vol. I-IV, 922 pp. Aleksandar Marincic, Director, Nikola Tesla Museum, in the Introduction to the CSN, at pp. 11-12, comments that an experiment was carried out before the Examiner-in-Chief of the U.S. Patent Office of this invention, essentially demonstrating the transmission of electric power through rarefied gas. A slide prepared by Tesla in the holdings of the Tesla museum shows that this experiment was accomplished with sectional glass tubes a total of 50 feet in length and 3 inches in diameter, at a pressure of 120-130 mm Hg [corresponding to an altitude of approx. 10 mi]. A note at the bottom of the slide gives: "Experimental demonstration before Examiner in Chief G.D. Seeley of the U.S. Pat. Office illustrating method of energy transmission by system of four tuned circuits January 230 1898." This experiment, which simulated conditions of the upper atmosphere, and from which Tesla contended that reasonable inferences could be drawn in extending the simulated experiment to actual upper atmospheric environment, was conducted in response to a letter dated December 10, 1897, from the Patent Examiner requesting some proof that "it has become possible to transmit through even moderately rarefied strata of the atmosphere electrical energy up to practically any amount and to any distance." 3. 1899 Colorado Springs lightning storm observations As Tesla has written and has been quoted in a number of accounts, he went to Colorado Springs in 1899 to conduct experiments seeking answers to questions of design of a full- power wireless power transmission installation. He was limited by the dimensions of his New York City laboratory to conduct experiments of necessary very high voltage and power. a. Remarks on July 3 lightning storm The ionospheric strata conduction concept was the method Tesla sought to perfect at Colorado Springs. This explains why we find the following lines of astonishment in CSN under the entry for July 4, beginning "Observations made last night." "...The storm began to be perceptible at a distance as it grew dark and continuously increased... The relay was not adjusted very sensitively but it began to play, - 4 -
