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Re: Tesla Receiver Coil



Original poster: "Gary Peterson" <gary@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

Counsel

I have read in some of your writings that you went to Colorado to further experiment with certain apparatus which you had tested to your own satisfaction at sea level. . . . was that demonstration undertaken in Colorado for the purpose of getting the higher altitude of the air?

Tesla

No, it was nothing of the kind. I simply went there because in Colorado my system of power transmission was introduced. . . . My experiments [on Houston Street] showed that at a height of 5 miles the air was in conduction to transmit the energy in this way, but my experiments in Colorado showed that at a height of 1 mile it is plenty enough rarefied to break down under the stress and conduct the current to the distant points.

I have to say here that when I filed the applications of September 2, 1897, for the transmission of energy in which this method was disclosed, it was already clear to me that I did not need to have terminals at such high elevation, but I never have, above my signature, announced anything that I did not prove first. That is the reason why no statement of mine was ever contradicted, and I do not think it will be, because whenever I publish something I go through it first by experiment, then from experiment I calculate, and when I have the theory and practice meet I announce the results.

At that time I was absolutely sure that I could put up a commercial plant, if I could do nothing else but what I had done in my laboratory on Houston Street; but I had already calculated and found that I did not need great heights to apply this method. My patent says that I break down the atmosphere "at or near" the terminal. If my conducting atmosphere is 2 or 3 miles above the plant, I consider this very near the terminal as compared to the distance of my receiving terminal, which may be across the Pacific. . . . I saw that I would be able to transmit power provided I could construct a certain apparatus. . . . I have constructed and patented a form of apparatus which, with a moderate elevation of a few hundred feet, can break the air stratum down. You will then see something like an aurora borealis across the sky, and the energy will go to the distant place. . . . An apparatus which permits displacing a certain quantity of electricity in the terminal . . . will produce an electric potential at a distance of 5 miles, and the fall of electric potential per centimeter will be equal to the quantity of electricity divided by the square of the distance. Now, I have satisfied myself that I can construct plants in which I may produce, per kilometer of the atmosphere, electric differences of potential of something like 50,000 or 60,000 volts, and at 50,000 or 60,000 volts that atmosphere must break down and will become conductive.

So that, when I had explained this principle to Lord Kelvin, he became absolutely convinced that I could do it; but Helmholtz was convinced from the very beginning that I could do it. It took argumentation, however, and demonstration by experiments, to convince Lord Kelvin. -- Nikola Tesla, 1916