Lets Power The World With A Tesla Coil

[rob77]

There is nothing wrong with revisiting the ideas that were abandoned 100 years ago. But do it with a proper research team and budget. Not some shady crowdfunding scam.

actually i agree (and didn't backed them yet - need to check their campaign first and then decide ), but on the other hand - no one of the scientist will do a proper research on that idea because the scientist are convinced it won't work. there is not a single scientist who might even think about a possibility that the whole science is "wrong". i'm not saying the scientists are wrong, i'm saying that to discover something what was overseen by science for a century requires zero influence from current science (otherwise you might oversee it as well).

[EricVanWyk]

One of my favorite conspiracy theories is that the Tesla Tower worked perfectly, but it was shutdown because there wouldn't be a way to charge the end users and recoup the investment - where do you put the meter? 

I think the better questions is "Where do you put the on/off switch?".  If it can transmit enough juice to be useful, how do you convince it to not transmit power to things that you don't want electrified?

Even if they magically get it to work, would we actually want to use it?

[Psi]

Even if they magically get it to work, would we actually want to use it?

Within 1 km from the tower everyone gets 1st degree burns from their gold wedding ring.
Within 5 km from the tower relays no longer need a power source, they energize when you short the terminals together.
At 10 km from the tower there are 10000's of birds just fly around and around in a 10km arc

[rs20]

...
I disagree, I fail to see a counterexample in non-lumped models. Lone electrons/electronic charge does not spontaneously appear or disappear under any circumstances;
...

Ask a quantum mechanic.

Bzzzzt. Indeed, energy can transform into random particles, but what's created is particle-antiparticle pairs -- every new electron is created with a corresponding positron. So even in this crazy world, charge conservation (also known as Kirchoff's Current Law) is still conserved. This is why is used the adjective "lone".

[gibbled]

Just ran across this on Twitter...

http://rt.com/news/170704-tesla-tower-lightning-russia/

[rob77]

Just ran across this on Twitter...

http://rt.com/news/170704-tesla-tower-lightning-russia/

that's a high voltage research facility, nothing unusual. there are several such a facilities over the world.

[edavid]

So I did some research on the Maxwell equations in the book and they are Heaviside's equations and nothing to do with the actual Maxwell's equations (other than in spirit).

This is not true, they are the same equations in different forms.  It doesn't matter which ones you use, you will get the same results.

[miguelvp]

So I did some research on the Maxwell equations in the book and they are Heaviside's equations and nothing to do with the actual Maxwell's equations (other than in spirit).

This is not true, they are the same equations in different forms.  It doesn't matter which ones you use, you will get the same results.

Would love a link to that claim can't find anything anywhere that confirms what you just said.

[abaxas]

Even if this turns out to be a folly, it'll make for a great museum.

[MacAttak]

If they were making a replica for a museum (and were forthright about that) then I would have probably supported it.

[bobwidlar]

So I did some research on the Maxwell equations in the book and they are Heaviside's equations and nothing to do with the actual Maxwell's equations (other than in spirit).

This is not true, they are the same equations in different forms.  It doesn't matter which ones you use, you will get the same results.

Would love a link to that claim can't find anything anywhere that confirms what you just said.

ref: http://theinstitute.ieee.org/technology-focus/technology-history/did-you-know-someone-else-wrote-maxwells-equations

[miguelvp]

I'm not disputing that  since I mentioned that is the case to begin with. But even Heaviside said that he only follow Maxwell until some point where he got stuck then he deviated from Maxwell. So even if you can go from Heaviside to Maxwell, the opposite is not the case.

[edavid]

I'm not disputing that  since I mentioned that is the case to begin with. But even Heaviside said that he only follow Maxwell until some point where he got stuck then he deviated from Maxwell.

That's because Maxwell made some errors:

http://news.james-clerk-maxwell.com/en/

So even if you can go from Heaviside to Maxwell, the opposite is not the case.

Watch out, that's a common physics crackpot belief.

Have you read this yet?

http://www.rexresearch.com/maxwell1/20equations.pdf

[miguelvp]

That's because Maxwell made some errors:

http://news.james-clerk-maxwell.com/en/

Watch out, that's a common physics crackpot belief.

Have you read this yet?

http://www.rexresearch.com/maxwell1/20equations.pdf

Thank you for the links, at least work is still being done, I'll read that pdf in detail later as well.

And yeah, I tend to ignore all of the free energy sites "research" because they follow their own dogma as well.

To my understanding is that Heaviside's equations explain what we know and holds true within it's constrains, but that being the case it doesn't imply that they explain it all and there is no more to it that just that.

[edavid]

To my understanding is that Heaviside's equations explain what we know and holds true within it's constrains, but that being the case it doesn't imply that they explain it all and there is no more to it that just that.

Doesn't the fact that people have been looking at them for 130 years, and haven't found anything, make that seem a little unlikely?

[miguelvp]

To my understanding is that Heaviside's equations explain what we know and holds true within it's constrains, but that being the case it doesn't imply that they explain it all and there is no more to it that just that.

Doesn't the fact that people have been looking at them for 130 years, and haven't found anything, make that seem a little unlikely?

That paper you linked actually shows that people have not been looking at them for 50 years and then just to mention how today's Maxwell equations don't equate to the original ones.

But haven't had the time to fully read it yet.

[Sigmoid]

The thing I don't quite understand is that okay, let's assume that electricity CAN be transmitted to any point of the Earth with minimal loss. So now where does that electricity come from?

People tend to rip on Edison for - allegedly - not supporting Tesla's wireless transmission project, because there was no way to charge for the electricity. They make Edison look like some evil top-hat, cigar-smoking capitalist who sides with greed as opposed to science...

But come on... if I have a wireless transmission system, then I have absolutely no way to control access to the power grid, which means anyone can abuse the system and black out their neighborhood in order to try and power a home-built pulse laser or something.

It's a transmission system, not a production system. It would still need power plants, and provide a finite amount of power.

So I either go around with armed troops, looking for "pirate" access points and arresting people for having them, or I have the populace pay a flat tax for electricity, which would, due to the uncontrolled nature of the system, likely be a lot higher than the power bill of an average family.

[miguelvp]

The thing I don't quite understand is that okay, let's assume that electricity CAN be transmitted to any point of the Earth with minimal loss. So now where does that electricity come from?

People tend to rip on Edison for - allegedly - not supporting Tesla's wireless transmission project, because there was no way to charge for the electricity. They make Edison look like some evil top-hat, cigar-smoking capitalist who sides with greed as opposed to science...

But come on... if I have a wireless transmission system, then I have absolutely no way to control access to the power grid, which means anyone can abuse the system and black out their neighborhood in order to try and power a home-built pulse laser or something.

It's a transmission system, not a production system. It would still need power plants, and provide a finite amount of power.

So I either go around with armed troops, looking for "pirate" access points and arresting people for having them, or I have the populace pay a flat tax for electricity, which would, due to the uncontrolled nature of the system, likely be a lot higher than the power bill of an average family.

Edison battled Tesla on DC vs AC. Even to the point of electrocuting an elephant and other large animals in public view with AC current to show how evil AC is. Nothing to do with anything else, other than refusing to pay Tesla for making a DC motor for Edison and not being paid for it and Edison telling Tesla that he just didn't get American Humor, as in he offering Tesla a million dollars if he could make the motor work. Yeah, sounds like something someone will say in gist.

The thing why it was supposedly shutdown (the wireless transmission) is because Tesla was supposed to be working in something else and there was no way to make money on wireless transmission of power, supposedly when he confessed to Westinghouse what the true purpose of the experiment was (he was supposed to be working on radio to have it ready before Marconi) but Marconi eventually got the patent office to grant him a patent (later it was found out that it did infringe on Tesla's patent, but that didn't happen until after Tesla was dead). But Westinhouse (or was it JP Morgan?) pulled his funding and Tesla became broke because Marconi finally got around his patent.

There is a PBS documentary on Tesla, look for it, it's pretty interesting.

Edit: the documentary also touches into Tesla's holistic connections which discredited his work from then on. That's not to say that the wireless transmission would work or not, or his weapon to end all wars, etc.. but by that time he was pennyless and considered a nut job.

[HighVoltage]

History has shown that we have smiled back at previous generations, when we looked in to their relative simple believe of how the world works.
It really seems that Tesla was far ahead of his time.
The future will probably hold a few surprises for us on all levels of technology.
And may be some of Tesla's ideas will prevail and may be they will not.
But for sure, something new will emerge and may be such a research tower is the key to this new stuff.

With all the snake oil stuff around, it is hard to keep a straight mind, when looking in to the possible future.