Wireless power

From the 1890s through 1906, Tesla spent a great deal of his time and fortune on a series of projects trying to develop the transmission of electrical power without wires. It was an expansion of his idea of using coils to transmit power he had been demonstrating in wireless lighting. He could see this as not only a way to transmit large amounts of power around the world but also, as he had pointed out in his earlier lectures, a way to transmit worldwide communications.

At the time Tesla was formulating his ideas there was no feasible way to wirelessly transmit communication signals over long distances, let alone large amounts of power. Tesla had studied radio waves early on, at the time called "Hertzian waves" after their discovery by Hertz, and come to the conclusion that the theory on them was incorrect. Also, this new form of radiation was widely considered at the time to be a short-distance phenomenon that seemed to die out in less than a mile. Tesla noted that, even if theories on radio waves were true, they were totally worthless for his intended purposes since this form of "invisible light" would diminish over distance just like any other radiation and would travel in straight lines right out into space becoming "hopelessly lost".

By the mid 1890s, Tesla was working on the idea that he might be able to conduct electricity long distance through the Earth or the atmosphere and began working on experiments to test this idea including setting up a large resonance transformer magnifying transmitter in his East Houston Street lab. Seeming to borrow from a common idea at the time that the Earth's atmosphere was conductive, he proposed a system composed of balloons suspending, transmitting, and receiving, electrodes in the air above 30,000 feet (9,100 m) in altitude, where he thought the lower pressure would allow him to send high voltages (millions of volts) long distances.

• Outline of Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
  

  HISTORIC PEOPLE

  Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

  Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist who is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. View Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) »

  Early Years: Tesla would later write that he became interested in demonstrations of electricity by his physics professor. Tesla noted that these demonstrations of this "mysterious phenomena" made him want "to know more of this wonderful force".

  Working at Edison: Edison manager Charles Batchelor, who had been overseeing the Paris installation, was brought back to the US to manage the Edison Machine Works, a manufacturing division situated in New York City, and asked that Tesla be brought to the US as well.

  Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing: The investors showed little interest in Tesla's ideas for new types of alternating current motors and electrical transmission equipment.

  AC and the induction motor: In 1887, Tesla developed an induction motor that ran on alternating current, a power system format that was rapidly expanding in Europe and the United States because of its advantages in long-distance, high-voltage transmission.

  New York laboratories: Tesla and his hired staff would conduct some of his most significant work in these workshops.

  Wireless Power: At the time Tesla was formulating his ideas there was no feasible way to wirelessly transmit communication signals over long distances, let alone large amounts of power.

  Later Years: Before World War I, Tesla sought overseas investors. After the war started, Tesla lost the funding he was receiving from his patents in European countries.

  Death: On 12 January, two thousand people attended a state funeral for Tesla at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine.

  Personal Life: For exercise, Tesla walked between 8 and 10 miles (13 and 16 km) per day. He curled his toes one hundred times for each foot every night, saying that it stimulated his brain cells.

RESOURCES
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.