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Tesla's Wireless Power Transmitter and
the Tunguska Explosion of 1908
Oliver Nichelson E-mail:
onichelson@post.harvard.edu
333 North 760 East
American Fork, Utah 84003
© Copyright 1995
The French ship Iena blew up in 1907. Electrical
experts were sought by the press for an explanation. Many
thought the explosion was caused by an electrical spark and the
discussion was about the origin of the ignition. Lee De Forest,
inventor of the Audion vacuum tube adopted by many radio
broadcasters, pointed out that Nikola Tesla had experimented
with a "dirigible torpedo" capable of delivering such
destructive power to a ship through remote control. He noted,
though, Tesla also claimed that the same technology used for
remotely controlling vehicles also could project an electrical
wave of "sufficient intensity to cause a spark in a ship's
magazine and explode it."
(1)
In the summer of 1913, Signor Giulio Ulivi, blew up a gas
meter with his "F-Ray" device and destroyed his laboratory.
Then, in August of that year, exploded three mines in the port
of Trouville for a number of high ranking French naval officers.
The following November, he travelled to Splezzia, Italy to
repeat the experiments on several old ships and torpedo boats
for that country's navy.(2)
In the Spring of 1924 newspapers carried several stories
about "death rays" inventions in different parts of the world.
The work of Harry Grindell-Matthews, London, was the first
reported. The New York Times of May 21st had this one:
Paris, May 20 - If confidence of Grindell Matthews,
inventor of the so-called ' diabolical ray,' in his
discovery is justified it may become possible to put the
whole of an enemy army out of action, destroy any force of
airplanes attacking a city or paralyze any fleet venturing
within a certain distance of the coast by invisible rays. So
much the inventor consented to tell The New York Times
correspondent today while continuing to refuse to divulge
the exact nature of the rays beyond that they are used to
direct an electric current able to perform the program just
mentioned.(3)
Grindell-Matthews stated that his destructive rays would
operate over a distance of four miles and that the maximum
distance for this type of weapon would be seven or eight miles.
Asked if it would be possible to destroy an approaching enemy
fleet, the inventor said it would not, because "Ships, like
land, are in continual contact with the earth, but what I can do
is to put the ships out of action by the destruction of vital
parts of the machinery, and also by putting the crews
temporarily out of action through shock."(4)
Airplanes, on the other hand, could be completely destroyed. As
soon as his ray touched the plane it would burst into flames and
fall to earth.
Grindell-Matthews asserted, "I am convinced the Germans
possess the ray." He believed, though, they were carrying out
their experiments with high frequencies and at high power,
around 200 kilowatts, and could not control the weapon to hit a
specific target. So far, said Grindell-Matthews, he had tried
tests at 500 watts in his laboratory over a distance of
sixty-four feet.
A French company, the Great Rhone Engineering Works of Lyon,
had offered Grindell-Matthews extensive financial backing that
would allow him to test his device at much higher power levels.
He replied that would not undertake such tests "except under
conditions of absolute safety on a wide tract of uninhabited
land," such was the destructive power of his rays.
Details of the "diabolical rays'" destructive power surfaced
that August. "Tests have been reported where the ray has been
used to stop the operation of automobiles by arresting the
action of the magnetos, and an quantity of gunpowder is said to
have been exploded by playing the beams on it from a distance of
thirty-six feet."(5)
Grindell-Matthews was able, also, to electrocute mice, shrivel
plants, and light the wick of an oil lamp from the same distance
away.(6)
His own laboratory assistants were themselves became
unintentional victims of the ray. When crossing its path during
tests they were either knocked unconscious by violent electrical
shocks or received intense burns. The inventor stated that
though it would be possible to kill enemy infantry with the ray,
"it would be quite easy to graduate the electric power used so
that hostile troops would only be knocked out long enough to
effect their capture."(7)
On May 25th, a second death ray was announced in England.
Doctor T.F. Wall, a "lecturer in electrical research in
Sheffield University, "applied for a patent for means of
transmitting electrical energy in any direction without the use
of wires. According to one report. even though he has not made
tests on a large scale yet "Dr. Wall expressed the belief that
his invention would be capable of destroying life, stopping
airplanes in flight and bringing motor cars to a standstill." On
a more positive note, he added that his invention would have
beneficial applications in surgical and medical operations.(8)
Germany joined the technology race on May 25th when it
announced its electrical weapon. As the Chicago Tribune
reported:
Berlin - That the German Government has an invention of
death rays that will bring down airplanes, halt tanks on the
battlefields, ruin automobile motors, and spread a curtain
of death like the gas clouds of the recent war was the
information given to Reichstag members by Herr Wulle, chief
of the militarists in that body. It is learned that three
inventions have been perfected in Germany for the same
purpose and have been patented.
Sensing something of importance the New York Times
copyrighted its story of May 28th on a ray weapon developed by
the Soviets. The story opened: "News has leaked out from the
Communist circles in Moscow that behind Trotsky's recent
war-like utterance lies an electromagnetic invention, by a
Russian engineer named Grammachikoff for destroying airplanes."(9)
Tests of the destructive ray, the Times continued,
had began the previous August with the aid of German technical
experts. A large scale demonstration at Podosinsky Aerodome near
Moscow was so successful that the revolutionary Military Council
and the Political Bureau decided to fund enough electronic
anti-aircraft stations to protect sensitive areas of Russia.
Similar, but more powerful, stations were to be constructed to
disable the electrical mechanisms of warships. The Commander of
the Soviet Air Services, Rosenholtz, was so overwhelmed by the
ray weapon demonstration that he proposed "to curtail the
activity of the air fleet, because the invention rendered a
large air fleet unnecessary for the purpose of defense."
An English engineer, J.H. Hamil, offered the American army
plans for producing " an invisible ray capable of stopping
airplanes and automobiles in midflight," invented by a German
scientist. The ray device was said to have been used the
previous summer to bring down French planes over Bavaria. Hamil
noted, however, that "the fundamental work was done by Nikola
Tesla in Colorado Springs about 30 years ago. He built a
powerful electrical coil. It was found that the dynamos and
other electrical apparatus of a Colorado fuel company within a
100 yards or so were all put out of business.(10)
Hamil believed the Tesla coil scattered rays which short-
circuited electrical machinery at close range. Laboratories all
over the world, he added, were testing methods of stepping up
the Tesla coil to produce its effects at greater distances.
"Working on an entirely different principle," Hamil said, "the
German scientist has succeeded in projecting and directing
electrical power."
Those Colorado Springs tests carried out by Tesla were well
remembered by local residents. With a 200 foot pole topped by a
large copper sphere rising above his laboratory he generated
potentials that discharged lightning bolts up to 135 feet long.
Thunder from the released energy could be heard 15 miles away in
Cripple Creek. People walking along the streets were amazed to
see sparks jumping between their feet and the ground, and flames
of electricity would spring from a tap when anyone turned them
on for a drink of water. Light bulbs within 100 feet of the
experimental tower glowed when they were turned off. Horses at
the livery stable received shocks through their metal shoes and
bolted from the stalls. Even insects were affected: Butterflies
became electrified and "helplessly swirled in circles - their
wings spouting blue halos of 'St. Elmo's Fire.'"(11)
The effect that captured the attention of foreign death ray
inventors occurred at the Colorado Springs Electric Company
powerhouse. One day while Tesla was conducting a high power
test, the crackling from inside the laboratory suddenly stopped.
Bursting into the lab Tesla demanded to know why his assistant
had disconnected the coil. The assistant protested that had not
done anything. The power from the city's generator, the
assistant said, must have quit. When the angry Tesla telephoned
the power company he received an equally angry reply that the
power company had not cut the power, but that Tesla's experiment
had destroyed the generator!
The inventor explained to The Electrical Experimenter,
in August of 1917 what had happened.
As an example of what has been done with several hundred
kilowatts of high frequency energy liberated, it was found
that the dynamos in a power house six miles away were
repeatedly burned out, due to the powerful high frequency
currents set up in them, and which caused heavy sparks to
jump thru the windings and destroy the insulation! The
lightning arresters in the power house showed a stream of
blue-white sparks passing between the metal plates to the
earth connection.(12)
When questioned about the Ulivi ray that created so much
comment a few years earlier, Tesla asserted, in the same
interview, that "it was transplanted from this country to
Italy." He saw it as simply a modification of his ultra-powerful
high frequency coil tested in Colorado. With thousands of
horsepower(13)
of energy "it would become readily possible to detonate powder
and munition magazines by means of the high frequency currents
induced in every bit of metal, even when located five to six
miles away or more."
With others attributing an energy weapons technology to
Tesla's wireless power transmission research, his comments on
the destructive capabilities of his system take on a great deal
of importance. Writing tersely for Liberty magazine of
February 1935 he stated:
My invention requires a large plant, but once it is
established it will be possible to destroy anything, men or
machines, approaching within a radius of 200 miles. It will,
so to speak, provide a wall of power offering an insuperable
obstacle against any effective aggression.(14)
He went on to make a distinction between his invention and
those brought forward by others. He claimed that his device did
not use any so-called "death rays" because such radiation cannot
be produced in large amounts and rapidly become weaker over
distance. He likely was making reference to a Grindell-Matthews
type of device that, according to contemporary reports, used a
powerful ultra-violet beam to make the air conducting so that
high energy current could be directed to the target. The range
of an ultra-violet searchlight would be much less than what
Tesla was claiming. As he put it: "all the energy of New York
City (approximately two million horsepower [1.5 billion watts])
transformed into rays and projected twenty miles, would not kill
a human being."
Not wanting to give away a potentially valuable creation in
an interview, he was intentionally opaque concerning the details
of his design. He did clarify how his design differed from the
ray type of devices.
My apparatus projects particles which may be relatively large
or of microscopic dimensions, enabling us to convey to a small
area at a great distance trillions of times more energy than is
possible with rays of any kind. Many thousands of horsepower can
be thus transmitted by a stream thinner than a hair, so that
nothing can resist.
If Tesla's energy weapon cannot be called a "ray" device, but as
one projecting microscopic particles, it would seem that it had
to differ from the other designs in one of two ways. Either he
was making the distinction between a beam of radiant energy,
like a beam from a flashlight that has billions of energy
carrying photons, and his own with all of its energy
concentrated into a stream a single particle wide, or he was
making a distinction about the size of the beam and the method
it is used to reach the target.
In a Grindell-Matthews type of beam, the flashlight model, a
huge number of high energy particles or photons would have to be
sent out from the system so that a large enough area on the
target would be covered to disable it. What Tesla seems to have
intended was that his energy transmitter would set up a field of
force around itself which, when penetrated, would release its
energy directly to the target. The effect would be like sending
a current of particles through a wire directly to the target. A
large area on the target would not have to be "painted" by a
beam, so the current reaching the intruder could be very thin
and deliver a great deal of energy to a small area.
The Colorado tests that gave rise to the variety of "death
ray" inventions in the U.S. and Europe may have lead to the
development of a much more powerful weapon.
When Tesla realized that economic forces would not allow the
development of a new type of electrical generator that would
supply power without burning fuel he "was led to recognize
[that] the transmission of electrical energy to any distance
through the media as by far the best solution of the great
problem of harnessing the sun's energy for the use of man."(15),(16)
His idea was that a relatively few
generating plants located near waterfalls would supply his very
high energy transmitters which, in turn, would send power
through the earth to be picked up wherever it was needed.
Receiving energy from this high pressure
reservoir only would require a person to put a rod into the
ground and connect it to a receiver operating in resonance with
the electrical motion in the earth. As Tesla described in 1911,
"The entire apparatus for lighting the average country dwelling
will contain no moving parts whatever, and could be readily
carried about in a small valise."(17)
The difference between a current used to
"light the average country dwelling" and a current used as a
method of destruction, however, is a matter of timing. If the
amount of electricity used to run a television for an hour is
released in a millionth of a second, it would have a very
different, and negative, effect on the television.
Tesla said his transmitter could produce
100 million volts of pressure and currents up to 1000 amperes,
with experimental power levels of billion or tens of billions of
watts.(18)
If that amount of power were released in "an incomparably small
interval of time,"(19)
the energy would be equal to
the explosion of millions of tons of TNT, that is, a
multi-megaton explosion. Such a transmitter would be capable of
projecting the force of a nuclear warhead by radio. Any location
in the world could be vaporized at the speed of light.
Not unexpectedly, many scientists doubted
the technical feasibility of Tesla's wireless power transmission
scheme whether for commercial or military purposes. Modern
authorities in electronics, even those who express admiration
for the Tesla's genius, believe he was mistaken in the
interpretation of his experiments when it came to electrical
transmission through the earth.(20),(21),(22)
On the other hand, statements from
authoritative witnesses who saw Tesla's equipment in operation
support his claim about transmission with something other than
the radio waves known today. During the Chicago World's Fair of
1893, the Westinghouse exhibit set up by Tesla was visited by
the Herman von Helmholtz, the first director of the Physico-Technical
Institute of Berlin and one of the leading scientists of his
time. When Tesla "asked the celebrated physicist for an
expression of opinion on the feasibility of the [transmission]
scheme. He stated unhesitatingly that it was practicable."(23)
In 1897, Lord Kelvin visited New York and stopped at the Tesla
laboratory where Tesla "entertained him with demonstrations in
support of my wireless theory."
Suddenly [Kelvin] remarked with
evident astonishment: 'Then you are not making use of Hertz
waves?' 'Certainly not', I replied, 'these are
radiations.' ... I can never forget the magic change
that came over the illustrious philosopher the moment he
freed himself from that erroneous impression. The skeptic
who would not believe was suddenly transformed into the
warmest of supporters. He parted from me not only thoroly
convinced of the scientific soundness of the idea but
strongly exprest his confidence in its success.(24)
A recent analysis of Tesla's wireless
transmission method shows that he used an electrostatic
transmission technique that did not radiate radio waves as we
know them and could sent waves through the earth with little
loss of power.(25)
The question remains of whether Tesla demonstrated the weapons
application of his power transmission system. Circumstantial
evidence found in the chronology of Tesla's work and financial
fortunes between 1900 and 1908 points to there having been a
test of this weapon.
1900: Tesla returned to New York from
Colorado Springs after completing the tests of wireless power
transmission that destroyed the power company's generator. He
received $150,000 from J.P. Morgan to build a transmitter to
signal Europe. With the first portion of the money he obtained
200 acres of land at Shoreham, Long Island and built an 187 foot
tall tower with a steel shaft running 120 feet into the ground.
This tower was topped with a 55 ton, 68 foot diameter metal
dome. He called the research site "Wardenclyffe" and envisioned
2000 people eventually working at his global communications
center.
A stock offering is made by the Marconi
company. Supporters of the Marconi Company include his old
adversary Edison and one-time associate Michael Pupin. Investors
rushed to buy the Marconi shares. On December 12th, Marconi sent
the first transatlantic signal, the letter "S," from Cornwall,
England to Newfoundland, Canada. He did this with, as the
financiers noted, equipment much less costly than that being
built by Tesla.
1902: The Wardenclyffe transmitter nears
completion. Marconi is hailed as a hero around the world while
Tesla is seen as a shirker by the public for ignoring a call to
jury duty in a murder case (he was excused from duty because of
his opposition to the death penalty).
1903: When Morgan sent the balance of the
$150,000, it would not cover the outstanding balance Tesla owed
on the Wardenclyffe construction. To encourage a larger
investment in the face of Marconi's success, Tesla revealed to
Morgan his real purpose was not to just send radio signals but
the wireless transmission of power to any point on the planet.
Morgan was uninterested and declined to provide further funding.
A financial panic that Fall put an end to
Tesla's hopes for financing by Morgan or other wealthy
industrialists. This left Tesla without money even to buy the
coal to fire the transmitter's electrical generators.
1904 - 1906: Tesla writes for the
Electrical World, "The Transmission of Electrical Energy
Without Wires," noting that the globe, even with its great size,
responds to electrical currents like a small metal ball.
Tesla declares to the press the
completion of Wardenclyffe. Marconi is hailed as a world hero.
Tesla subject to multiple law suits over
unpaid Colorado Springs expenses. George Westinghouse, who
bought Tesla's patents for alternating current motors and
generators in the 1880's, turns down the inventor's power
transmission business proposal. Workers gradually stop coming to
the Wardenclyffe laboratory when there are no funds to pay them.
In an article, Tesla comments on Peary's expedition to the North
Pole and tells of his, Tesla's, plans for energy transmission to
any central point on the ground.
1907: When commenting on the destruction
of the French ship Iena, Tesla noted in a letter to the
New York Times that he has built and tested dirigible
torpedoes (remotely controlled torpedoes), but that electrical
waves would be more destructive. "As to projecting wave energy
to any particular region of the globe ... this can be done by my
devices," he wrote. Further, he claimed that "the spot at which
the desired effect is to be produced can be calculated very
closely, assuming the accepted terrestrial measurements to be
correct."(26)
1908: Tesla repeated the idea of
destruction by electrical waves to the newspaper on April 21st.
His letter to the editor stated, "When I spoke of future warfare
I meant that it should be conducted by direct application of
electrical waves without the use of aerial engines or other
implements of destruction." He added: "This is not a dream. Even
now wireless power plants could be constructed by which any
region of the globe might be rendered uninhabitable without
subjecting the population of other parts to serious danger or
inconvenience."(27)
In the period from 1900 to 1910 Tesla's
creative thrust was to establish his plan for wireless
transmission of energy. Undercut by Marconi's accomplishment,
beset by financial problems, and spurned by the scientific
establishment, Tesla was in a desperate situation by mid-decade.
The strain became too great by 1906-1907 and, according to Tesla
biographers, he suffered an emotional collapse.(28),(29)
In order to make a final effort to have his grand scheme
recognized, he may have tried one high power test of his
transmitter to show off its destructive potential. This would
have been in 1908.
The Tunguska event took place on the
morning of June 30th, 1908. An explosion estimated to be
equivalent to 10-15 megatons of TNT flattened 500,000 acres of
pine forest near the Stony Tunguska River in central Siberia.
Whole herds of reindeer were destroyed. Several nomadic villages
were reported to have vanished. The explosion was heard over a
radius of 620 miles. When an expedition was made to the area in
1927 to find evidence of the meteorite presumed to have caused
the blast, no impact crater was found. When the ground was
drilled for pieces of nickel, iron, or stone, the main
constituents of meteorites, none were found down to a depth of
118 feet.
Several explanations have been given for
the Tunguska event. The officially accepted version is that a
100,000 ton fragment of Encke's Comet, composed mainly of dust
and ice, entered the atmosphere at 62,000 mph, heated up, and
exploded over the earth's surface creating a fireball and shock
wave but no crater. Alternative explanations of the disaster
include a renegade mini-black hole or an alien space ship
crashing into the earth with the resulting release of energy.
Associating Tesla with the Tunguska event
comes close to putting the inventor's power transmission idea in
the same speculative category as ancient astronauts. However,
historical facts point to the possibility that this event was
caused by a test firing of Tesla's energy weapon.
In 1907 and 1908, Tesla wrote about the
destructive effects of his energy transmitter. His Wardenclyffe
facility was much larger than the Colorado Springs device that
destroyed the power station's generator. Then, in 1915, he
stated bluntly:
It is perfectly practical to
transmit electrical energy without wires and produce
destructive effects at a distance. I have already
constructed a wireless transmitter which makes this
possible. ... But when unavoidable [it] may be used to
destroy property and life. The art is already so
far developed that the great destructive effects can be
produced at any point on the globe, defined beforehand with
great accuracy (emphasis added).(30)
He seems to confess to such a test having
taken place before 1915, and, though the evidence is
circumstantial, Tesla had the motive and the means to cause the
Tunguska event. His transmitter could generate energy levels and
frequencies capable of releasing the destructive force of 10
megatons, or more, of TNT. And the overlooked genius was
desperate.
The nature of the Tunguska event, also,
is consistent with what would happen during the sudden release
of wireless power. No fiery object was reported in the skies at
that time by professional or amateur astronomers as would be
expected when a 200,000,000 pound object enters the atmosphere
at tens of thousands miles an hour. Also, the first reporters,
from the town of Tomsk, to reach the area judged the stories
about a body falling from the sky was the result of the
imagination of an impressionable people. He noted there was
considerable noise coming from the explosion, but no stones
fell. The absence of an impact crater can be explained by there
having been no material body to impact. An explosion caused by
broadcast power would not leave a crater.
In contrast to the ice comet collision
theory, reports of upper atmosphere and magnetic disturbances
coming from other parts of the world at the time of and just
after the Tunguska event point to massive changes in earth's
electrical condition. Baxter and Atkins cite in their study of
the explosion, The Fire Came By, that the Times
of London editorialized about "slight, but plainly marked,
disturbances of ... magnets," which the writer, not knowing then
of the explosion, associated with solar prominences.(31)
In Berlin, the New York Times of
July 3rd reported unusual colors in the evening skies thought to
be Northern Lights: "Remarkable lights were observed in the
northern heavens ... bright diffused white and yellow
illumination continuing through the night until it disappears at
dawn."(32)Massive
glowing "silvery clouds" covered Siberia and northern Europe. A
scientist in Holland told of an "undulating mass" moving across
the northwest horizon. It seemed to him not to be a cloud, but
the "sky itself seemed to undulate." A woman north of London
wrote the London Times that on midnight of July 1st the
sky glowed so brightly it was possible to read large print
inside her house. A meteorological observer in England recounted
on the nights of June 30th and July 1st:
A strong orange yellow light became
visible in the north and northeast... causing an undue
prolongation of twilight lasting to daybreak on July
1st...There was a complete absence of scintillation or
flickering, and no tendency for the formation of streamers,
or a luminous arch, characteristic of auroral
phenomena...Twilight on both of these night was prolonged to
daybreak, and there was no real darkness.(33)
The report that most closely ties these
strange cosmic happenings with Tesla's power transmission scheme
is that while the sky was aglow with this eerie light it was
possible to clearly see ships at sea for miles in the middle of
the night.(34)
Tesla specifically claimed this as one of the effects he could
achieve with his high power transmitter. Of particular
importance is that none of his claims for lighting the ocean
appeared before 1908.(35)
A typical statement about the light
induced by his transmitter is this from the New York
Americanof December 7th, 1914:
The lighting of the ocean ... is only
one of the less important results to be achieved by the use
of this invention [the transmitter]. I have planned many of
the details of a plant which might be erected at the Azores
and which would be amply sufficient to illuminate the entire
ocean so that such a disaster as that of the Titanic would
not be repeated. The light would be soft and of very small
intensity, but quite adequate to the purpose.(36)
When Tesla used his high power
transmitter as a directed energy weapon he drastically altered
the normal electrical condition of the earth. By making the
electrical charge of the planet vibrate in tune with his
transmitter he was able to build up electric fields that
effected compasses and caused the upper atmosphere to behave
like the gas filled lamps in his laboratory. He had turned the
entire globe into a simple electrical component that he could
control.
Given Tesla's general pacifistic nature
it is hard to understand why he would carry out a test harmful
to both animals and the people who herded the animals even when
he was in the grip of financial desperation. The answer is that
he probably intended no harm, but was aiming for a publicity
coup and, literally, missed his target.
At the end of 1908, the whole world was
following the daring attempt of Peary to reach the North Pole
which he claimed in the Spring of 1909. If Tesla wanted the
attention of the international press, few things would have been
more impressive than the Peary expedition sending out word of a
cataclysmic explosion on the ice near or at the North Pole.(37)
Tesla, then, if he could not be hailed as the master creator
that he was, could be seen as the master of a mysterious new
force of destruction.
The test, it seems, was not a complete success. It must have
been difficult controlling the vast amount of power in
transmitter to the exact spot Tesla intended. The North Pole
lies close to a great circle line connecting Shoreham, Long
Island and the Tunguska region. That path passes close by Alert
on Ellesmere Island where Peary spent the winter.(38)
The uninhabited region between
Alert and the North Pole might have been the intended target for
a test firing of the wireless transmission system. However, "the
accepted terrestrial measurements" of that day were not precise
enough for the task. The destructive electrical wave overshot
its target.
Whoever was privy to Tesla's energy
weapon demonstration must have been dismayed either because it
missed the intended target and would be a threat to inhabited
regions of the planet, or because it worked too well in
devastating such a large area at the mere throwing of a switch
thousands of miles away. Whatever was the case, Tesla never
received the notoriety he sought for his power transmitter.
The evidence is only circumstantial.
Perhaps Tesla never did achieve wireless power transmission
through the earth. Maybe he made a mistake in interpreting the
results of his radio tests in Colorado Springs and really saw a
low frequency phenomenon, Schumann oscillations, and not an
effect engineers believe a scientific impossibility. Perhaps the
mental stress he suffered caused him to retreat into a fantasy
world from which he would send out preposterous claims to
reporters who gathered for his yearly pronouncements on his
birthday. Maybe the atomic bomb size explosion in Siberia near
the turn of the century was the result of a meteorite nobody saw
fall.
Or, perhaps, Nikola Tesla did shake the
world in a way that has been kept secret for over 85 years.
Notes
1.
New York Times, "Wireless Caused
Iena Disaster?", Mar. 19, 1907, p. 4, col. 4.
2.
New York Times, "Signor Ulivi First
Blew Up Gas Meter," Nov. 2, 1913, III, p. 4, col. 5.
3.
New York Times, "Tells Death Power
of 'Diabolical Rays'," May 21, 1924, pg.1.
4.
Note 3.
5.
Popular Mechanics, "'Death Ray' Is
Carried by Shafts of Light," Aug. 1924, pgs. 189-192.
6.
Current Opinion, "A Violet Ray That
Kills," June 1924, pgs. 828-829.
7.
Note 6.
8.
New York Times, "Second British
Inventor Reveals a Death Ray," May 25, 1924, p. 1, col. 2.
9.
New York Times, "Suggests Russia
Has A 'Ray'," May 28, 1924, pg. 25.
10.
Colorado Springs Gazette, "Tesla
Discovered 'Death Ray' In Experiments Made Here," May 30, 1924,
pg. 1.
11.
Goldman, Harry L., "Nikola Tesla's Bold
Adventure," The American West, Mar. 1971, pgs. 4-9;
Reprinted by Nick Basura, 3414 Alice St., Los Angeles, Ca.
90065, 1974.
12.
Tesla, Nikola, "Famous Scientific
Illusions," Electrical Experimenter, Feb. 1919, pgs.
692f.
13.
One horsepower equals 745.7 watts.
14.
Tesla, Nikola, "A Machine to End War," as
told to George Sylvester Viereck, Liberty, Feb. 1935,
p. 5-7.
15.
Tesla, Nikola, "The Problem of Increasing
Human Energy - Through Use of the Sun's Energy," The Century
Illustrated Magazine, reprinted in Lectures, Patents,
and Articles, Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade, 1956;
reprinted by Health Research (Mokelumme Hill, Calif., 95245),
1973, pg. A-143.
16.
Nichelson, Oliver, "Nikola Tesla's Later
Energy Generation Designs," IECEC, 1991.
17.
American Examiner, Copyright 1911,
no date, no pg.
18.
Tesla, Nikola, New York Times, "How
to Signal Mars," May 23, 1909, pg. 10. He claims to have sent "a
current around the globe " on the order of "15,000,000"
horsepower or 11 billion watts.
19.
Secor, H. Winfield, "The Tesla High
Frequency Oscillator," The Electrical Experimenter,
March 1916, pg. 615.
20.
Wait, James R., "Propagation of ELF
Electromagnetic Waves and Project Sanguine/Seafarer," IEEE
Journal of Oceanic Engineering, vol. OE-2, no. 2, April
1977, pgs. 161-172.
21.
Marinic, Aleksandar, Nikola Tesla,
Colorado Springs Notes 1899-1900, Nikola Tesla Museum,
Published by Nolit, Beograd, Yugoslavia, pg.19.
22.
Corum, James F., and Corum, Kenneth L.,
"Disclosures Concerning the Operation of an ELF Oscillator,"
Tesla '84: Proceedings of the Tesla Centennial Symposium,
Dr. Elizabeth Rauscher and Mr. Toby Grotz, editors,
International Tesla Society, Inc., Colorado Springs, 1985, pgs.
41-49.
23.
Tesla, Nikola, "Famous Scientific
Illusions," Electrical Experimenter, Feb. 1919, pg.
732.
24.
Note 22.
25.
Nichelson, Oliver, "Tesla's Wireless
Transmission Method," 1992.
26.
Tesla, Nikola, "Tesla's Wireless Torpedo,"
New York Times, Mar. 20, 1907, pg. 8.
27.
Tesla, Nikola, New York Times, "Mr.
Tesla's Vision," April 21, 1908, pg. 5.
28.
Seifer, Marc J., "Nikola Tesla: The Lost
Wizard," Tesla '84: Proceedings of the Tesla Centennial
Symposium, op. cit., pgs. 31-40. Seifer, a psychologist,
believes Tesla suffered a nervous breakdown catalyzed by the
death of one the partners in the Tesla Electric Company and the
shooting of Stanford White, the noted architect, who had
designed Wardenclyffe. Seifer places this in 1906 and cites as
evidence a letter from George Scherff, Tesla's secretary:
Wardenclyffe, 4/10/1906
Dear Mr. Tesla:
I have received your letter and am
glad to know you are vanquishing
your illness. I have scarcely ever seen you so out of sorts
as last Sunday; and I was frightened.
29.
Cheney, Margaret, Tesla: Man out of Time,
Dell Publishing Co., N.Y., 1983, pg. 187. Cheney sees a mental
change taking place about 1907. Having lost most of his money
and many of his friends and seeing less talented people praised
for achievements based on his inventions "exerted a corrosive
and lasting effect on his personality."
30.
Tesla, Nikola, "Tesla's New Device Like
Bolts of Thor," New York Times, Dec. 8, 1915, pg. 8.
31.
Baxter, John and Atkins, Thomas, The
Fire Came By, Warner Books, N.Y., 1977, pg. 27.
32.
Note 30, pg. 26.
33.
Spenser Russell quoted in Baxter and Atkins,
The Fire Came By, page 28, from the Royal
Meteorological Society Quarterly, 1930.
34.
Note 30.
35.
The earliest mention of lighting the ocean
appears to have been in 1911 in a N.Y. Americanarticle
(Sept. 3rd by Marcel Roland). Ratzlaff, John and Anderson,
Leland, Dr. Nikola Tesla Bibliography, Ragusan Press,
1979, pg. 93.
36.
New York American, "Tesla Light to
Rob Oceans of Every Danger," Dec. 7, 1914, no pg.
37.
Tesla suggested a similar test of his power
transmission system aimed at the moon where everyone could see
"the splash and volitization of matter." See note 19, pg. 255.
38.
Bayshore, L.I. is at 40 N 43, 73 W 13;
Alert, Canada (Ellesmere Island) 82 N 31, 62 W 05, and Tunguska
at 60 N 55, 101 E
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