Nikola Tesla Books
IN SEARCH OF NIKOLA TESLA actually resonated under a continuous power surge and he didn't even have a computer to help him.' I nodded in reply and added, 'People say that he saw the designs directly in his imagination.' Janischewski continued, 'It would be very interesting to study one of these towers. We could learn a great deal about high voltages and about the relationship between high-voltage and high-frequency current. I think that the results would be very useful.' I looked up from my writing and asked him another question. 'I don't like to put you on the spot, but do you think that the tower could be used for power transmission?" 'As I said I'm not an expert.' Janischewski thought for a moment. 'I don't think I believe any of these explanations of power transmission I've read.' I smiled, 'So you don't think that there's much in it?' 'No, not really. But...well, there is just one thing. Do you remember Tesla's experiments with worldwide communication?' 'Yes, he was trying to broadcast from Long Island. I guess that Marconi beat him to it.' Janischewski smiled. 'I think that it would have been very interesting if Tesla had got there first. You see, his method was different from Marconi's. Both of them knew that radio waves were produced by an oscillating elec tric current and that you could send messages by modulating the oscillations. What Marconi did was to build an electronic circuit which oscillated and then he fed that oscillating current into an antenna. The current in the antenna is the thing responsible for sending out the radio waves but in Marconi's case the total process isn't all that efficient. In Tesla's design he set the whole tower in resonance. His tower acted both as oscillator and antenna at the same time. I think that the process may have been far ore efficient and Tesla was able to handle a great deal of power.' more I did not have time to discuss this idea with Dr Janischewski for his telephone had begun to ring again and he was soon engaged in a new conversation. I signalled my thanks and left his office. I spent the next few days in Toronto visiting the bookstores and record shops. Since I was in the city I took the opportunity of contacting a few of the scientists who I had been told were experts on the weather. As I had 91
