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My responses are interspersed below:
--Previous Message--
: Hello Bert,
:
: I am grateful for your post. But, I am disappointed.
:
: I did read the Gerry Vassilatos book. The information contained had no
: references as to where he got it. I had doubts about its validity. But, it
: would sure be cool if what he mentions had some back up. Alas. I am
: disappointed.
:
: But, even so, Tesla clearly mentions "radiant energies".
But, Tesla also indicated that the amount of radiant energy that could be extracted was quite small. Since a high Q resonator can become "shock excited" from nearby transient signals (such as lightning or other RF sources), a well constructed base grounded Tesla Coil secondary will often develop a measurable signal while seemingly just sitting there.
: In
: addition, there is Teslas concepts of longitudinal waves vs transverse
: waves. I believe he clearly stated his differences with that one.
History appears to have proved him wrong in this area. Tesla observed "near field" effects (electrostatic or electromagnetic induction) that occur in the region within a few wavelengths, but there is no direct evidence (by Tesla or subsequent experimenters) of long-range, or far field "longitudinal waves".
: In
: contrast, his CS notes doesn't seem to be exclusive to DC disruptive
: discharges as he used AC sources or DC.
He exclusively used AC (through his Westinghouse HV transformers if I recall correctly) for his high power CS experiments.
:
: Tesla's statements that his transmitter was 10,000,000 hp maximum power
: was stated fairly clearly.
Tesla was a showman He often "overstated" power by referring to maximum reactive power levels when talking about pulsed resonant circuits. Or expressing peak power in horsepower since it was larger than KW. He was also well aware of power amplification within pulsed circuits. Even a relatively small wall-plug powered Tesla Coil can have a peak power of hundreds of kilowatts or even megawatts. Tesla knew that this was peak power, not continuous power. "Power multiplication" occurs whenever energy is accumulated relatively slowly and then released quickly. For example - a charged capacitor that stores 100 joules (watt-seconds) when discharge in 1 second will have a peak power of only 100 watts. However, if we discharged the same capacitor within 1 millionth of a second we'd get a peak power of 100 megawatts. Same energy, but released slowly or rapidly.
: I don't think Niagra falls power station was
: going to supply that. But, Gerry seems to have let his imagineering run
: wild with pieces of information in his book. Some of his discriptions are
: bordering on a soap opera quality.
Yeah. Unfortunately, books of this nature that tend to muddy and distort Tesla's real achievements.
:
: There are though fairly numerous reports/documentation of Tesla's schist
: after his presentation in the royal society in London. They at first
: seemed to have welcomed him. In a relatively brief time, they viewed his
: work as nothing special. This is according to a couple of biographies I
: have read about him. There seems to have been a special relationship
: between him and Crookes however.
Tesla was more of an inventor and engineer than a true scientist. Much of his writings were provided to the popular media instead of being published within peer-reviewed journals. Though brilliant, he was sometimes wrong, particularly in areas that were outside of his direct areas of knowledge. This did not stop him from railing against relativity, quantum mechanics... or "Hertzian Waves".
:
: After reading Teslas paper on The Problem of Increasing human energy, I
: walked away with the feeling that he was simply trying to transmit power
: and information efficiently, at great distances and with out wires.
: Period. I believe he sited that perhaps oneday, a new way could be
: developed to produce/convert energy. More enigma. Ah well.
:
: You read much of Mr. Dollards efforts?
Yeah a little bit. While many of his demonstrations are interesting and entertaining, I also think that he sometimes misinterprets what he's seeing/measuring. These may then cause him to draw inaccurate/inappropriate conclusions on occasion. Resonance phenomena can be surprising. This is especially true when a relatively small amount of voltage or current into a resonant circuit causes voltage and currents that are HUNDREDS of times larger to "circulate" between resonant reactive (i.e., L and C) elements.
:
: Thank again,
:
: Steve
:
Best wishes,
Bert
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