I'm interested in the theory behind how the Wardenclyffe tower would have operated.  The transmission of power through a distance, through thin air is a mystery to me—not to mention being able to direct the energy flow to specific points on the globe!  Were there smaller projects or demonstrations which demonstrated this effect?  How do you defeat the "loss of power over a distance" phenomena?  If this thing works, it just seems "dumb" not to develop it (pardon my attitude).  Please clue me in!!

A number of factors come into play, and to gain a basic understanding of Tesla's system I recommend reading the book Nikola Tesla On His Work With Alternating Currents and Their Application to Wireless Telegraphy, Telephony  and Transmission of Power. For starters, the transmission medium is the earth itself with propagation being by conduction. It appears a gliding surface wave would also be involved—possibly the Zenneck Surface Wave. Tesla wrote that the earth itself comprises a giant LC circuit that can be electrically resonated at certain frequencies, and that his transmitter is capable of exciting this circuit. The Colorado Springs experiments are said to have confirmed this hypothesis.  Because the radiated power is intentionally suppressed . . . the loss of power as a function of distance is not a real issue.

In simplified terms, the basic world system consists of two large Tesla coils (see Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy) each with an elevated terminal connected to the top of its helical resonator and a very good ground connection at the opposite end.  Powered by large electrical generators, each Tesla coil, actually a magnifying transmitter, comprises a single system station or plant configured in such a way that it pumps extremely low and very frequency electrical energy into the resonating system.  Each system station is capable of transmitting and receiving a wave complex the lower end of which may be set in the area of 25 kHz, the fundamental frequency of the station oscillator.  A less complicated receiving apparatus, a wave meter, is an identically tuned helical resonator also having an elevated terminal and the essential ground connection (a ground connection can be established through the use of capacitance, i.e., by electrostatic induction).  Such a passive receiver taps into the resonating system, extracting energy like opening a faucet on a pressurized water tank.

In Tesla's work on the wireless transmission of electrical energy, wireless power transmission was the icing on the cake.  His initial thrust in was the development of a global system for wireless telecommunications.  There is some recent evidence indicating the communications aspect of the World-System plan is viable.  This is not so much the case with higher power level implementation involving the transmission of electrical energy in industrial quantities. . . .

Revised: 01/16/2005