Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx> Tesla list wrote:
Original poster: "Bob (R.A.) Jones" <a1accounting@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Hi Dr, Thanks. After an other poster posted a link to an induction coil driven Hertz experiment. I attempted to verify that Hertz had indeed used "Lyden" jars with a Google search and failed. When I used the correct spelling I found that some of his experiments where done with Leyden jars. In addition an Oliver Lodge of University College in Liverpool England discovered waves on lines with them see http://www.antiquewireless.org/otb/lodge1102.htm. He was experimenting to explain some of the strange paths lightning some times takes. I had no idea that my home town was so connected with the discovery transmission line waves. I don't remember ever having read about him before. Apparently Hertz just beat him to publication. I also notice that some of Hertz's experiments apparently where performed with GHz frequencies judging from the size of the dipoles. Surprising for a spark gap generator. Robert (R. A.) Jones A1 Accounting, Inc., Fl
If you haven't read anything about Oliver Lodge you should do so as he was a very important figure in nineteenth century science. Hertz did a lot more than beat Lodge to publication and their work was fundamentally different but equally important and equally renowned - there was no competition between them. Hertz set out to learn about Maxwell's predicted waves and invented the apparatus for doing so by thinking about how they might be created then going ahead and building the equipment to do so. This was only one of the areas in which he did important and fundamental work and a study of him is most interesting. Lodge's work involved "waves on wires", another manifestation of what Maxwell had predicted. Interestingly enough Lee DeForest's doctoral work at Yale involved the same subject.
As for generation of GHz frequencies with a spark generator, you should read of Bose's work in India, which went beyond Hertz:
http://www.tuc.nrao.edu/~demerson/bose/bose.htmlMillimeter waves and semiconductor detectors in the 19th century!! Very pioneering and brilliant work. Note the reference to Lodge in the paper.
These gentlemen were contemporaries of Tesla but took a very different path when it came to "wireless". It is interesting to speculate what other work Hertz never had the chance to do because of his unfortunate and premature death.
Ed