Nikola Tesla U.S. Patent 1,119,732 - Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy Patent Wrapper Page 15

Perd Per c the circuit, as I have specified in my original patents before referred to. The adjustments should be made with particular care when the transmitter is one of great power, not only on account of economy, but also in order to avoid danV D ger. I have I have shown that it is practicable to produce in a resonating circuit as E A B B'DAimmense electrical activities, measured tens and even hundreds of thousands of horse-power, and in such a case, if the points of maximum pressure should be shifted below the terminal, 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 its transformation from static to kinetic form, may spend itself in an incomparably smaller interval of time, at a rate of many millions of horse-power. The accident is apt to occur when, the transmitting circuit being strongly excited, the oscillations impressed upon it are rendered in any manner, more or less suddenly, quicker than the free. It is therefore advisable to begin the adjustments with feeble and somewhat slower impressed oscillations, strengthening and quickening them gradually, until the apparatus has been brought under perfect control. To increase the safety I provide on a convenient place, preferably on terminal D, one or more elements or plates either of somewhat smaller curvature or 371-23 12 -7[This page retyped from microfilm for better readability - Ed.] 711