At the beginning of the 20th century, the scientist Nikola Tesla, a native of Croatia, then working in New York, developed an innovative method of transmitting electrical energy over long distances without wires, using the phenomenon of electrical resonance, the study of which the scientist paid special attention to. Before that, he had already sufficiently studied the possibilities of alternating current, and clearly understood the technical prospects for its application, but the next important step was ahead - a system of wireless transmission of electrical energy.
According to the scientist, in such a system for transmitting electricity, the planet Earth acted as an electrical conductor, in which standing waves could be excited with the help of electrical oscillators (electrical oscillatory systems). Tesla came to this conclusion thanks to observations of electrical disturbances that propagated over the earth's surface after lightning strikes during a thunderstorm.
Tesla recorded with his instruments that the wavelengths generated by lightning strikes varied in the range from 25 to 70 kilometers, and that these waves propagate in all directions of the globe. Moreover, the scientist realized that these waves not only propagate to the most distant parts of the planet, but are also reflected from there, and that the wavelength is directly related to the size of the globe.
Tesla decided that by artificially creating such electrical disturbances, it is possible to transmit electrical energy in all directions of the planet, using this property. However, despite understanding the observed process, the technical implementation has become a complex engineering challenge.
It was required to provide a high rate of transmission of electricity to the Earth, as it happens in natural conditions, because the dimensions of the planet are enormous, and the experimenter's capabilities seemed just dust in comparison with the capabilities of nature.
But, improving the power supply circuits of his oscillators, and carrying out research in the laboratory, Tesla finally finds a solution, he suddenly understands how to create powerful electrical disturbances in the Earth so that the rate of power supply is not inferior to natural ones.
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If a multi-turn coil is very well grounded, the wire length in which will be equal to a quarter of the wavelength of the oscillations excited by the oscillator, and these oscillations are applied to the coil, then oscillations of the maximum force will occur in this grounded coil, and the action at the grounding point will be maximum possible due to the phenomenon of electric resonance.
If the second terminal of such a grounded coil is connected to a metal object of sufficient curvature so that the charge does not leak into the atmosphere, as well as of a suitable electrical capacity, and this object is raised to a sufficient height, then the charge at this upper point will be the maximum possible, because there will be a standing an electric wave, the node of which will be at the ground point, and the antinode at the other end of the coil, raised to a height. So, experimenting with a grounded resonant circuit, the scientist was able to achieve the movement of electricity through the system at a speed exceeding natural lightning.
The receiver of this energy was an air (coreless) transformer, the primary winding of which was the same as the transmitting coil, and was also located vertically, also had a metal terminal raised up, and was also grounded, and the secondary coil consisted of several turns of relatively thick wire, which were located near the grounded end of the primary winding, and served to supply energy to the consumer.
A step in improving the receiver was the development of a kind of synchronous rectifier, consisting of a rotating switch, the purpose of which was to charge the capacitor at the output of the receiving coil, which increased the efficiency of using the energy received from the transmitter.
Tesla especially noted in his articles that the method of wireless transmission of electrical energy developed by him is based on conduction, not radiation. If the system were based on radiation, it would simply be impossible to transfer any significant amount of energy over a distance.
The energy in the Tesla system was transmitted through the earth, and the raised terminals, charged to very high voltages, interacted due to the electrical conduction of the air layers, and the transmitted energy was practically available anywhere on the planet, due to electrical resonance.
Tesla was able to demonstrate this when he managed to light 200 lamps at a distance of 40 kilometers from the transmitter. Energy was not transmitted by radiation; it was practically regenerated in the receiver. The scientist argued that, having developed his technology, it would be possible to wirelessly receive electrical energy in any required amount anywhere in the world.
Author: Andrey Povny