Nikola Tesla Books
CHAPTER FIVE to many millions of volts. The careful geometry and the resonances of the circuit ensured that these very high-voltage currents would oscillate slowly and the maximum voltage output would take place at the metal ball on top of the tower. The transmitter was to discharge its electrical energy in such a way that the oscillating currents came into resonance with the natural electrical oscillations of the earth. ...stated otherwise, the terrestrial conductor is thrown into resonance with the oscillations impressed upon it just like a wire...the planet behaves like a perfectly smooth or polished conductor of inappreciable resistance...transmitting slow electrical oscillations without sensible distortion or attenuation. In later patents, Tesla was to introduce modifications and improvements into the design of the transmitter. Patent no. 1,119,732 gives some indications of the enormous power he was generating: I have shown that it is practicable to produce in resonating circuit EABB'D immense electrical activities, measured by tens and even hundreds of thousands of horsepower and in such a case, if the points of maximum pressure should be shifted below the terminal D, along coil B, a ball of fire might break out and destroy the support F or anything else in the way. For the better appreciation of the nature of this danger it should be stated, that the destructive action may take place with inconceivable violence. This will cease to be surprising when it is borne in mind, that the entire energy accumulated in the excited circuit, instead of requiring, as under normal working conditions, one quarter of the period or more for the transformation from static to kinetic form, may spread itself in an incomparably smaller interval of time, at a rate of many millions of horsepower. The transmitter was, therefore, to generate hundreds of thousands of horsepower at hundreds of millions of volts. These powerful electrical oscillations were set in resonance with the natural electrical oscillations of 54
