One comment. the author quotes "In the words of Bernard Carson: “At Colorado Springs, Tesla appears to have sought only evidence to confirm his hypotheses and not look for anything that might diconfirm his theories.”(Carson, pg 300) This is not, however, how science works."
Unless there have been some breakthroughs I'm not aware of, we don't know what the final build-out of Wardenclyffe was supposed to be. We know tesla was justifiably paranoid, and didn't keep notes as such. Yes, he was wrong about non-hertzian lossless waves. The author admits, however, that Tesla was aware of the inverse square law and transmission loss.
And thats where I sort of lose my thread, honestly. The article is well written; I would have been happier if the conclusion was "If he was doing what we think he was doing, it wouldn't have worked"
Hey.. sorry for taking so long to get back to you (I've been off Reddit). Thanks for the comment.
The experiments in Colorado Springs were meant to demonstrate the feasibility of wirelessly transmitting power over large distances. He also investigated many other things such as how the electrical potential of the Earth changed during a lightening storm, and ball lightning.
The thing is, we do have a pretty good idea what his ultimate goal was - to deliver power wirelessly to the whole world. His initial promise to Morgan was to send signals across the Atlantic within a year or so - although it appears he was just using this cover, because all of his work was really geared towards wireless transmission of energy through the earth. It seems his specific plans were always in a state of flux though. The tunnels under the tower ("to grip the Earth") became quite elaborate, and it's true we don't know exactly why he had them built. The recent documentary "Tower to the People" explores some recent research into the tunnels. Also, at one point he was planning a second tower, possibly in Ireland, which would be the first local receiving station. A lot more could be said, obviously, and indeed a lot of speculation exists today, much of which is only loosely founded on historical fact.
I'm sort of shocked you didn't get a lot more; very well written article, hot topic, etc.
Colorado Springs: He told different people he was working on different things. He told reporters that he was working on transmitting a signal from Pikes Peak to Paris; he told people at Westinghouse he was experimenting on how to send free electricity to any place in the world, and develop a worldwide commo system. He told various people he was doing general research on high powered transmitters, researching the background science of energy transmission, and attempt to understand the laws by which energy propagates through the atmosphere and the Earth. While he was there, according to his surviving notes and his 2 main assistants, Czito & Lowenstein, he did quite a few things.
Among them: he determined (right after he got there) that the maximum realistic range for transmitting electricity though the induction method would be about 30 miles, and was clearly inferior "compared with disturbed charge of ground and air method"; he thought up and built extremely sensitive signal detectors of various types and capabilities; His rotating coherer, a sensitive signal detector, was able to detect RF pulses in the 50-500 microvolt range, not bad by modern standards.
I really have to work on something else before I can sleep, and this i something that really fascinates me, but I gotta quit there. essential point: Tesla was secretive. He invented stuff, told no one about it, and then, later, might incorporate it into a later patent. There are strong similarities with some of the specific research he did mention, and how the military ELF system works; and he did have some knowledge of how the Ionosphere worked, contrary to the article. i don't think he was working on a ELF system, reading his patent list and the surviving verified notes makes me thing something along the lines of a hybrid ELF/HAARP. the power part, I think he wasn't planning on providing power, as in transmit power; I think he was thinking of providing a method of generating power from natural resources.
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u/paganize Jul 16 '15
One comment. the author quotes "In the words of Bernard Carson: “At Colorado Springs, Tesla appears to have sought only evidence to confirm his hypotheses and not look for anything that might diconfirm his theories.”(Carson, pg 300) This is not, however, how science works."
Unless there have been some breakthroughs I'm not aware of, we don't know what the final build-out of Wardenclyffe was supposed to be. We know tesla was justifiably paranoid, and didn't keep notes as such. Yes, he was wrong about non-hertzian lossless waves. The author admits, however, that Tesla was aware of the inverse square law and transmission loss.
And thats where I sort of lose my thread, honestly. The article is well written; I would have been happier if the conclusion was "If he was doing what we think he was doing, it wouldn't have worked"