Magnifying transmitter

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A publicity photo of a participant sitting in the Colorado Springs experimental station with his "Magnifying Transmitter". The arcs are about 22 feet (7 m) long. (Tesla's notes identify this as a double exposure.)

The magnifying transmitter is an alternate version of a Tesla Coil. It is a high power harmonic oscillator that Nikola Tesla proposed for the wireless transmission of electrical energy.[1] Tesla's apparatus is a high-voltage, air-core, multiple-resonant transformer that can generate very high voltages at high frequency. He originally termed it self-regenerative resonant transformer, a term that is no longer in general use.

[edit] History

The first 'Magnifier' was assembled in New York City in the period between 1895 - 1898.[1] In 1899 a larger magnifier was constructed in Colorado Springs, Colorado. This machine was used to conduct fundamental experiments in wireless telecommunications and electrical power transmission. Measuring fifty-one feet (15.5 m) in diameter, it developed a working potential estimated at 3.5 million to 4 million volts and was capable of producing electrical discharges exceeding one hundred feet (30 m) in length.[2]

[edit] Colorado arrival

Tesla's Colorado lab was located in a highly geomagnetic location.

In 1899, Tesla decided to move and began research in Colorado Springs. He chose this location primarily because of the frequent thunderstorms, the high altitude (where the air, being at a lower pressure, had a lower dielectric breakdown strength, making it easier to ionize), and the dryness of the air (minimizing leakage of electric charge through insulators). Tesla kept a handwritten diary of his experiments in the Colorado Springs lab where he spent nearly nine months. It consists of 500 pages of notes and nearly 200 drawings, recorded chronologically between June 1, 1899 and January 7, 1900, as the work occurred, containing explanations of his experiments.

[edit] Tuned electrical circuits

While in Colorado, Tesla constructed many smaller resonance transformers and conducted further research on concatenated tuned electrical circuits. Tesla also designed various sensitive devices for detecting received electrical energy, including rotating coherers. These used a clockwork mechanism of gears driven by a coiled spring-drive which rotated a small glass cylinder containing metal filings. These experiments were the final stage after years of work on synchronized tuned electrical circuits. These instruments were constructed to demonstrate how a wireless receiver could be "tuned" to respond to a specific complex signal while rejecting others. Tesla logged in his diary on January 2, 1900 that a separate resonance transformer tuned to the same high frequency as a larger high-voltage resonance transformer (which acted as a transmitter) received energy from the larger coil, one of many demonstrations of the wireless transmission of electrical energy. These experiments helped to confirm Tesla's priority in the invention of radio during later disputes in the courts. These air core high-frequency resonant coils were the predecessors of systems ranging from radio to medical nuclear magnetic resonance imaging.

[edit] Power transmission

On July 4, 1899, Tesla discovered terrestrial stationary waves within the earth. He demonstrated that the Earth behaves as a smooth polished conductor and possesses electrical vibrations. Tesla demonstrated that the Earth could respond at predescribed frequencies of electrical vibrations. Tesla conducted experiments contributing to the understanding of electromagnetic propagation and the Earth's resonance. He transmitted signals several kilometres and lit neon tubes conducting through the ground.

Tesla researched ways to transmit energy wirelessly over long distances (via transverse waves, to a lesser extent, and, more readily, longitudinal waves). He transmitted extremely low frequencies through the ground as well as between the earth's surface and the Kennelly-Heaviside layer. He received patents on wireless transceivers that developed standing waves by this method. In his experiments, he made mathematical calculations and computations based on his experiments and discovered that the resonant frequency of the Earth was approximately 8 Hertz (Hz). In the 1950s, researchers confirmed that the resonant frequency of the Earth's ionospheric cavity was in this range. See Schumann resonance

The magnifying transmitter was the basis for Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower project. Although modern Tesla coils are designed to generate disruptive discharges, this system was designed for wireless communication and power transmission via longitudinal waves and telluric currents. In 1925, John B. Flowers advanced a proposal to test Tesla's system and to implement the system. H. L. Curtis, the chief of the Bureau of Standards Radio Laboratory in Washington D.C., and J. H. Dillinger, a physicist, reviewed the proposal but declined to implement the proposed plan. Flower's mechanical analogy test was successful, though. [7]

[edit] Electromechanical oscillator

Tesla developed a reciprocating electromechanical oscillator as a source of frequency stable or isochronous alternating electric current used in conjunction with both wireless transmitting and receiving apparatus. This circuit element was applied in much the same manner as quartz timer crystals are now. He also proposed the use of this device for geophysical exploration - seismology—a technique that he called telegeodynamics.

[edit] Magnifying transmitter

The layout of the Wardenclyffe magnifying transmitter is well known, based upon Tesla's patents [4,5] and various photographs [3,6] in which the concept was implemented. The magnifying transmitter is not identical to the classic Tesla coil. It has the short thick primary and secondary inductor characteristic of the Tesla coil, although magnetic coupling between the two is tighter. Because of this, more aggressive measures have to be taken in terms of primary spark quenching and providing additional insulation between the primary and secondary. In addition to these two large-diameter coils that comprise the master oscillator, Tesla added a third inductor called the "extra coil." Tesla experimented with the magnifying transmitter using continuous wave and damped-wave resonance modes.

[edit] Construction and theory of operation

In a classic Tesla coil the primary drives the ground end of the secondary coil to form the driver transformer, which resonates the entire secondary coil. In the magnifying transmitter the driving and resonating parts of the secondary are separate coils. From a circuit analysis standpoint, there is little difference between the classic coil and the magnifier.

The extra coil or helical resonator can be physically separated from the two close-coupled coils which comprise the master oscillator or driver section. The power from the master oscillator is fed to the lower end of the extra coil resonator through a large diameter electrical conductor or pipe to minimize corona. The magnifying transmitter's base-driven extra coil behaves as a slow-wave helical resonator, the axial disturbance propagating at a velocity of less than 1% up to around 10% the speed of light in free space. The Magnifying Transmitter's axial velocity electromagnetic field is established by the coil pitch and electrical charge propagation speed through the circuit. It is interesting to note that rigorous mathematical descriptions of Tesla's Magnifier did not become available until 50-100 years after Tesla's pioneering work. Modern analyses have succeeded in applying distributed "transmission line" descriptions of the "extra coil" rather than the usual lumped-constant analysis. Upon validation, recently developed models of resonator behavior show that distributed analysis is more accurate for all excitation modes. Nevertheless, lumped analysis can be used to design Tesla coils and magnifiers.

[edit] Operation

Using low frequency harmonic Maxwellian oscillations, Tesla attempted to develop standing waves of extremely low frequency in the Earth's electro-magnetic circuit. Based upon observations made with the device, Tesla reported that a type of Earth resonance - involving the Earth's telluric energy - could be excited with the magnifying transmitter.

It has been proposed by some that Tesla was utilizing Earth's magnetic fields' extremely low frequencies in a global resonator of power and information. Some posit that this variation of the Tesla coil was mainly intended for wireless transmissions of information. In normal operation the device is relatively silent, generating a high power electric field, but if the output voltage exceeds the design voltage of the elevated terminal, high-voltage sparks will strike out from the electrode into the air. Tesla became the first man to create electrical effects on the scale of lightning.

Cripple Creek residents could hear thunder coming from his lab produced by the Colorado Springs machine. It has been reported that Colorado Springs residents near the lab would observe animal reactions as sparks jumped to their horse's shoes. Tesla himself was able to draw sparks from the local water main that was used, at times, as a ground connection. The air around the laboratory would glow with corona (similar to the phenomena of St. Elmo's Fire). One of Tesla's experiments damaged a Colorado Springs Electric Company generator by backfeeding high power radio frequency electrical transient currents into the city's power distribution system.

[edit] Related Tesla patents

• "System of Electric Lighting," U.S. Patent 454622 , 23 June 1891
• "Means for Generating Electric Currents," U.S. Patent 514168 , 6 February 1894
• "Electrical Transformer," U.S. Patent 593138 , 2 November 1897
• "Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vehicle or Vehicles ", U.S. Patent 613809 , 8 November 1898
• "System of Transmission of Electrical Energy," U.S. Patent 645576 , Mar. 20, 1900
• "Apparatus for Transmission of Electrical Energy," U.S. Patent 649621 , 15 May 1900
• "System of Transmission of Electrical Energy," U.S. Patent 645576 , 20 March 1900
• "Apparatus for Utilizing Effects Transmitted from a Distance to a Receiving Device through Natural Media," U.S. Patent 685953 , Nov. 5, 1901
• "Method of Utilizing Effects Transmitted through Natural Media," U.S. Patent 685954 , Nov. 5, 1901
• "Apparatus for Utilizing Effects Transmitted From A Distance To A Receiving Device Through Natural Media," U.S. Patent 685955 , Nov. 5, 1901
• "Apparatus for Utilizing Effects Transmitted through Natural Media," U.S. Patent 685956 , Nov. 5, 1901
• "Method Of Utilizing Radiant Energy," U.S. Patent 685958 , 5 November 1901
• "Method of Signaling," U.S. Patent 723188 , Mar. 17, 1903
• "System of Signaling," U.S. Patent 725605 , Apr. 14, 1903
• "Art of Transmitting Electrical Energy through the Natural Mediums," U.S. Patent 787412 , Apr. 18, 1905
• "Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy," Jan. 18, 1902, U.S. Patent 1119732 , Dec. 1, 1914

See also: List of Tesla patents

[edit] Further reading

Tesla's publications

• Tesla, Nikola, "On the Transmission of Electricity Without Wires". Electrical World and Engineer, 5 March 1904.

Electrical World

• "The Development of High Frequency Currents for Practical Application"., The Electrical World, Vol 32, No. 8.
• "Boundless Space: A Bus Bar". The Electrical World, Vol 32, No. 19.
• "Mr. Tesla's Application of the Hertz-Wave Transmission". The Electrical World, Vol 32, No. 8.

Other publications

• Bass, Robert W., "Self-Sustained Non-Hertzian Longitudinal Wave Oscillations as a Rigorous Solution of Maxwell's Equations for Electromagnetic Radiation". Inventek Enterprises, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Bieniosek, F. M., "Triple Resonance Pulse Transformer Circuit". Review of Scientific Instruments, 61 (6).
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, "Disclosure Concerning the Operation of an ELF Oscillator". CPG Communications, Inc., Newbury, Ohio.
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, "A Physical Interpretation of the Colorado Springs Data". CPG Communications, Inc., Newbury, Ohio.
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, "Tesla's Colorado Spring Receivers (A Short Introduction)". 2003.
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, "RF Coils, Helical Resonators and Voltage Magnification by Coherent Spatial Modes". IEEE, 2001.
• de Queiroz, Antonio Carlos M., "Synthesis of Multiple Resonance Networks". Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. EE/COPE.
• de Queiroz, Antonio Carlos M., "Designing a Tesla Magnifier". Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. EE/COPE.
• Grotz, Toby, "Wireless Transmission of Power: An Attempt to Verify Nikola Tesla's 1899 Colorado Springs Experiment, Results of Research and Experimentation". TESLA, Inc., Craig Colorado.
• Hartley, R. V. L., "Oscillations with Non-linear Reactances". Bell Systems Technical Journal, Sun Publishing. 1992.
• Wait, James, R., "Electromagnetic Waves in Stratified Media". Pergammon Press, 1972. (2nd edition)

Patents

• Armstrong, E. H., U.S. Patent 1113149 , "Wireless receiving system". 1914.
• Armstrong, E. H., U.S. Patent 1342885 , "Method of receiving high frequency oscillation". 1922.
• Armstrong, E. H., U.S. Patent 1424065 , "Signalling system". 1922.
• Fessenden, R. A., U.S. Patent 1108895 , "Signalling by sound and other longitudal elastic impulses". 1914.
• Weyrich, R., U.S. Patent 2044413 , "Transmitter and receiver for electromagnertic waves".
• Leydorf, G. F., U.S. Patent 3278937 , "Antenna near field coupling system". 1966.
• Tanner, R. L., U.S. Patent 3215937 , "Extremely low-frequency antenna". 1965.
• Eastlund, Bernard J., U.S. Patent 5038664 , "Method for producing a shell of relativistic particles at an altitude above the earths surface". 1991.
• Hansell, Clarence W., U.S. Patent 2389432 , "Communication system by pulses through the Earth".

[edit] See also

• Longitudinal waves
• Cavity resonators
• Telluric currents
• Knob Hill

[edit] External links and resources

• Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz "Designing a Tesla Magnifier" (Theoretical and practical approaches to Tesla magnifier design)
• Tesla Technology Research - Tesla Coils and the Failure of Lumped-Element Circuit Theory
• Nicholson, Paul The Tesla Secondary Simulation Project (theoretical simulation of Tesla Coil resonators, confirmed by experiment)
• Jean-Louis Naudin's Magnifying Transmitter
• Practical Magnifier Construction Principles: Making it work
• Nicholson, Paul The Real Science of "Non-Hertzian" Waves (This essay does not concentrate on longitudinal waves nor telluric currents, its focus is on transverse waves)
• Cooper, John. F., "Magnifying Transmitter circuit diagram; alternate circuit diagram". Tesla-Coil.com.

[edit] References

[1] - My Inventions : The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, Hart Brothers, 1982, Ch. 5, ISBN 0-910077-00-2

[2] - Nikola Tesla : Guided Weapons & Computer Technology, Leland I. Anderson, Twenty First Century Books, 1998, pp. 12-13, ISBN 0-9636012-9-6.

[3] - Nikola Tesla On His Work With Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, Telephony, and Transmission of Power, Leland I. Anderson, Twenty First Century Books, 2002, pp. 74, 89-90, 107, 111, ISBN 1-893817-01-6.

[4] - Apparatus for Transmission of Electrical Energy, U.S. Patent No. 649,621, 15 May 1900

[5] - Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy, Jan. 18, 1902, U.S. Patent 1,119,732, Dec. 1, 1914

[6] - Nikola Tesla Colorado Springs Notes, 1899-1900, Nikola Tesla Museum, Beograd, 1978.

[7] - Valone, Thomas, Harnessing the Wheelwork of Nature. ISBN 1-931882-04-5