Nikola Tesla Patents
J T 1 E 1 1 1 1 or stations. By impressing upon the Earth two or more oscillations of different wavelength a resultant "stationary" wave may be made to travel slowly over the globe, and thus a great variety of useful effects may be produced. Evidently, the course of a vessel may be easily determined without the use of a compass, as by a circuit connected to the Earth at two points, for the effect exerted upon the circuit will be greatest when the plates P P are lying on a meridian passing through ground plate E', and will be nil when the plates are located at a parallel circle. If the nodal and ventral regions are maintained in fixed positions the speed of a vessel carrying a receiving apparatus may be exactly computed from observations of the maxima and minima regions successively traversed. This will be understood when it is stated, that the projections of all the nodes and loops on the Earth's diameter passing through the pole, or axis of symmetry of the wave movement, are all equal. Hence in any region at the surface the wavelength can be ascertained from simple rules of geometry. Conversely, knowing the wavelength, the distance from the source can be readily calculated. In like ways the distance of one point from another, the latitude and longitude, the hour, etc. may be determined from the observation of such stationary waves. If several such generators of stationary waves, preferably of different length - were installed in judiciously selected localities, the entire globe could be subdivided in definite zones of electric activity and such and other important data could be at once obtained by simple calculation or readings from suitably graduated instruments. Many other useful applications of my discovery will suggest themselves, and in this -12[This page retyped from microfilm for better readability - Ed.] 547
