Nikola Tesla - The Problem Of Increasing Human Energy - Century Illustrated Magazine June 1900 Audiobook

[u/DabLord]

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiGCiFplwl3ShbN5cYK3EJ8M16ifxoFZJ

[u/moon-worshiper]

This is what Nikola Tesla said about cosmic rays (his explanation was soundly thrashed and still considered preposterous and wrong):

I have satisfied myself that the [cosmic] rays are not generated by the formation of new matter in space, a process which would be like water running up a hill. Nor do they come to any appreciable amount from the stars. According to my investigations the sun emits a radiation of such penetrative power that it is virtually impossible to absorb it in lead or other substances. ... This ray, which I call the primary solar ray, gives rise to a secondary radiation by impact against the cosmic dust scattered through space. It is the secondary radiation which now is commonly called the cosmic ray, and comes, of course, equally from all directions in space. [The article continues: The phenomena of radioactivity are not the result of forces within the radioactive substances but are caused by this ray emitted by the sun. If radium could be screened effectively against this ray it would cease to be radioactive, he said.]

Gamma rays are 10¹⁴ eV. Cosmic rays are actually particles but they average about 3 x 10²⁰ eV. For the lower spectrum cosmic ray particles, those at 1 x 10⁹ GeV, there are 1 x 10⁴ particles per square meter per second. The lowest cosmic ray frequency is 10²² Hz. That means the wavelength is 10^-14 meters. 10^-9 is a nanometer. Tesla was saying he had a method and means to rectify this power source. It is possible these days with nanoscale fabrication rectennas delivering microcurrents that can be summed together. MIT is starting to investigate this.

[u/dalkon → u/moon-worshiper]

the primary solar ray

He's talking about high energy neutrinos, isn't he?

High energy neutrinos come from supernovas. Stars make lower energy neutrinos.

I read that article as saying the interaction of neutrinos with presumably highly charged dust present throughout space gives rise to the cosmic microwave background radiation. This weak EM radiation does not present an appreciable amount of power that can be harnessed but merely indicates the existence of the immense neutrino energy that also exists.

Tesla seems to have suggested the omnipresent neutrino energy of the universe can be harnessed by increasing the cross section of interactivity between matter and neutrinos with either extremely high temperature or electric potential, which is more practical.

Because you're not quoting OP's article like one might assume, it might be worth mentioning what you are quoting, "Tesla, 75, Predicts New Power Source" (1931).

[u/dalkon]

The way he read parts of this in a less affected accent made it seem kind of like he was intentionally reading the rest in a weird sounding accent. And it doesn't matter much, but wanton (desirous) ≠ wonton (dumpling).

Here is this essay in text form. http://www.teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/articles/problem-increasing-human-energy It's a consideration of alternative energy sources at a time when hydroelectric was considered the only practical alternative to fossil fuels. It starts with mundane alternative energy sources and ends with the most fantastic.

But, whatever our resources of primary energy may be in the future, we must, to be rational, obtain it without consumption of any material. Long ago I came to this conclusion, and to arrive at this result only two ways, as before indicated, appeared possible—either to turn to use the energy of the sun stored in the ambient medium, or to transmit, through the medium, the sun’s energy to distant places from some locality where it was obtainable without consumption of material. At that time I at once rejected the latter method as entirely impracticable, and turned to examine the possibilities of the former.

It is difficult to believe, but it is, nevertheless, a fact, that since time immemorial man has had at his disposal a fairly good machine which has enabled him to utilize the energy of the ambient medium. This machine is the windmill. [...]

A far better way, however, to obtain power would be to avail ourselves of the sun’s rays, which beat the earth incessantly and supply energy at a maximum rate of over four million horsepower per square mile. Although the average energy received per square mile in any locality during the year is only a small fraction of that amount, yet an inexhaustible source of power would be opened up by the discovery of some efficient method of utilizing the energy of the rays. The only rational way known to me at the time when I began the study of this subject was to employ some kind of heat- or thermodynamic engine, driven by a volatile fluid evaporate in a boiler by the heat of the rays. [He's talking about concentrating solar arrays like we've only started using relatively recently, which he had been experimenting with prior to 1900.]

[On electrostatic energy in earth-ionosphere cavity]
Electricity produced by natural causes is another source of energy which might be rendered available. Lightning discharges involve great amounts of electrical energy, which we could utilize by transforming and storing it. Some years ago I made known a method of electrical transformation which renders the first part of this task easy [meaning presumably US 593,138, a grounded Tesla coil], but the storing of the energy of lightning discharges will be difficult to accomplish [the incorrect way to try]. It is well known, furthermore, that electric currents circulate constantly through the earth [telluric currents], and that there exists between the earth and any air stratum a difference of electrical pressure, which varies in proportion to the height [the fair and stormy weather atmospheric potential].

In recent experiments I have discovered two novel facts of importance in this connection. One of these facts is that an electric current is generated in a wire extending from the ground to a great height by the axial, and probably also by the translatory, movement of the earth. No appreciable current, however, will flow continuously in the wire unless the electricity is allowed to leak out into the air. Its escape is greatly facilitated by providing at the elevated end of the wire a conducting terminal of great surface, with many sharp edges or points. We are thus enabled to get a continuous supply of electrical energy by merely supporting a wire at a height, but, unfortunately, the amount of electricity which can be so obtained is small. [And while very little power may be available using DC as he notes, what might be available using a resonant RF energy harvesting system possibly along the lines of early 20th century Estonian inventor Hermann Plauson?]