The Project Gutenberg eBook, Experiments with Alternate Currents of HighPotential and High Frequency, by Nikola TeslaThis eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and withalmost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away orre-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License includedwith this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.netTitle: Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and HighFrequencyAuthor: Nikola TeslaRelease Date: September 16, 2004 [eBook #13476]Language: EnglishCharacter set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPERIMENTS WITH ALTERNATECURRENTS OF HIGH POTENTIAL AND HIGH FREQUENCY***E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Ronald Holder, and the ProjectGutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading TeamNote: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 13476-h.htm or 13476-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/3/4/7/13476/13476-h/13476-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/3/4/7/13476/13476-h.zip)EXPERIMENTS WITH ALTERNATE CURRENTS OF HIGH POTENTIAL AND HIGH FREQUENCYA Lecture Delivered before the Institution of Electrical Engineers, LondonbyNIKOLA TESLAWith a Portrait and Biographical Sketch of the AuthorNEW YORK1892Biographical Sketch of Nikola Tesla.While a large portion of the European family has been surging westwardduring the last three or four hundred years, ...
The Project Gutenberg eBook, Experiments with Alternate Currents of High
Potential and High Frequency, by Nikola Tesla
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net
Title: Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High
Frequency
Author: Nikola Tesla
Release Date: September 16, 2004 [eBook #13476]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EXPERIMENTS WITH ALTERNATE
CURRENTS OF HIGH POTENTIAL AND HIGH FREQUENCY***
E-text prepared by Robert Shimmin, Ronald Holder, and the Project
Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
file which includes the original illustrations.
See 13476-h.htm or 13476-h.zip:
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/3/4/7/13476/13476-h/13476-h.htm)
or
(http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/3/4/7/13476/13476-h.zip)
EXPERIMENTS WITH ALTERNATE CURRENTS OF HIGH POTENTIAL AND HIGH FREQUENCY
A Lecture Delivered before the Institution of Electrical Engineers, London
by
NIKOLA TESLA
With a Portrait and Biographical Sketch of the Author
NEW YORK
1892Biographical Sketch of Nikola Tesla.
While a large portion of the European family has been surging westward
during the last three or four hundred years, settling the vast
continents of America, another, but smaller, portion has been doing
frontier work in the Old World, protecting the rear by beating back
the "unspeakable Turk" and reclaiming gradually the fair lands that
endure the curse of Mohammedan rule. For a long time the Slav
people--who, after the battle of Kosovopjolje, in which the Turks
defeated the Servians, retired to the confines of the present
Montenegro, Dalmatia, Herzegovina and Bosnia, and "Borderland" of
Austria--knew what it was to deal, as our Western pioneers did, with
foes ceaselessly fretting against their frontier; and the races of
these countries, through their strenuous struggle against the armies
of the Crescent, have developed notable qualities of bravery and
sagacity, while maintaining a patriotism and independence unsurpassed
in any other nation.
It was in this interesting border region, and from among these valiant
Eastern folk, that Nikola Tesla was born in the year 1857, and the
fact that he, to-day, finds himself in America and one of our foremost
electricians, is striking evidence of the extraordinary attractiveness
alike of electrical pursuits and of the country where electricity
enjoys its widest application. Mr. Tesla's native place was Smiljan,
Lika, where his father was an eloquent clergyman of the Greek Church,
in which, by the way, his family is still prominently represented. His
mother enjoyed great fame throughout the countryside for her skill and
originality in needlework, and doubtless transmitted her ingenuity to
Nikola; though it naturally took another and more masculine direction.
The boy was early put to his books, and upon his father's removal to
Gospic he spent four years in the public school, and later, three
years in the Real School, as it is called. His escapades were such as
most quick witted boys go through, although he varied the programme on
one occasion by getting imprisoned in a remote mountain chapel rarely
visited for service; and on another occasion by falling headlong into
a huge kettle of boiling milk, just drawn from the paternal herds. A
third curious episode was that connected with his efforts to fly when,
attempting to navigate the air with the aid of an old umbrella, he
had, as might be expected, a very bad fall, and was laid up for six
weeks.
About this period he began to take delight in arithmetic and physics.
One queer notion he had was to work out everything by three or the
power of three. He was now sent to an aunt at Cartstatt, Croatia, to
finish his studies in what is known as the Higher Real School. It was
there that, coming from the rural fastnesses, he saw a steam engine
for the first time with a pleasure that he remembers to this day. At
Cartstatt he was so diligent as to compress the four years' course
into three, and graduated in 1873. Returning home during an epidemic
of cholera, he was stricken down by the disease and suffered so
seriously from the consequences that his studies were interrupted for
fully two years. But the time was not wasted, for he had become
passionately fond of experimenting, and as much as his means and
leisure permitted devoted his energies to electrical study and
investigation. Up to this period it had been his father's intention to
make a priest of him, and the idea hung over the young physicist like
a very sword of Damocles. Finally he prevailed upon his worthy but
reluctant sire to send him to Gratz in Austria to finish his studies
at the Polytechnic School, and to prepare for work as professor of
mathematics and physics. At Gratz he saw and operated a Gramme machine
for the first time, and was so struck with the objections to the useof commutators and brushes that he made up his mind there and then to
remedy that defect in dynamo-electric machines. In the second year of
his course he abandoned the intention of becoming a teacher and took
up the engineering curriculum. After three years of absence he
returned home, sadly, to see his father die; but, having resolved to
settle down in Austria, and recognizing the value of linguistic
acquirements, he went to Prague and then to Buda-Pesth with the view
of mastering the languages he deemed necessary. Up to this time he had
never realized the enormous sacrifices that his parents had made in
promoting his education, but he now began to feel the pinch and to
grow unfamiliar with the image of Francis Joseph I. There was
considerable lag between his dispatches and the corresponding
remittance from home; and when the mathematical expression for the
value of the lag assumed the shape of an eight laid flat on its back,
Mr. Tesla became a very fair example of high thinking and plain
living, but he made up his mind to the struggle and determined to go
through depending solely on his own resources. Not desiring the fame
of a faster, he cast about for a livelihood, and through the help of
friends he secured a berth as assistant in the engineering department
of the government telegraphs. The salary was five dollars a week. This
brought him into direct contact with practical electrical work and
ideas, but it is needless to say that his means did not admit of much
experimenting. By the time he had extracted several hundred thousand
square and cube roots for the public benefit, the limitations,
financial and otherwise, of the position had become painfully
apparent, and he concluded that the best thing to do was to make a
valuable invention. He proceeded at once to make inventions, but their
value was visible only to the eye of faith, and they brought no grist
to the mill. Just at this time the telephone made its appearance in
Hungary, and the success of that great invention determined his
career, hopeless as the profession had thus far seemed to him. He
associated himself at once with telephonic work, and made various
telephonic inventions, including an operative repeater; but it did not
take him long to discover