Introduction
An introduction to this book as published in The Electrical Experimenter, May 1919, described the content as the “remarkable and complete story of his [Tesla’s] discovery of the ‘True Wireless’ and the principles upon which transmission and reception . . . are based”, describing Dr. Nikola Tesla as “The Father of the Wireless” and suggesting that the Hertz wave theory is incorrect. The purpose of Tesla’s short book (circa 28 pages as originally published) is to denounce the accepted Hertz wave theory and to replace it by his own, convincing theories.
Summary of the Book
Because Maxwell’s electro-magnetic theories fascinated scientists of the time, they were eager to see them validated. Thus, the publication of Dr. Heinrich Hertz’s experimental results created unprecedented excitement. Tesla explored those ideas for himself, using apparatus he had constructed. Identifying limitations of the Hertz devices, Tesla concentrated on inventing his own and by 1891 had developed apparatus that was “vastly superior.” He went to Bonn in 1892 to confer with Dr. Hertz, who seemed so “disappointed” that Tesla regretted making the trip.
In 1900, following unsuccessful experiments, Tesla invented a wireless transmitter that he claimed produced “electro-magnetic activities of many millions of horse-power” but which he was unable to prove were light-like vibrations. He also recounted that all the literature he had read on “Hertz-wave telegraphy” had not convinced him, and that although the history of science teaches that each new truth helps understand nature better, he felt that Dr. Hertz had not discovered a new truth but was merely supporting a much earlier hypothesis. In Tesla’s view, Maxwell’s experimental “proof” that the space waves generated by a periodic current through a circuit caused transversal vibrations had set back the development of wireless by twenty five years. However, Tesla admitted that the Hertz experiments had stimulated widespread interest.
In the spring of 1891 Tesla demonstrated a “high frequency machine” to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, which he believed was the first public exhibition of resonant circuits, and whose main importance was in showing that many devices could be operated via a single wire without return – the first step in the evolution of his wireless system, and what gave him the idea of transmitting electrical energy through the earth without using artificial conductors. In fear of ridicule from his peers, Tesla shared only a few of his ideas in another lecture entitled “On Electrical Resonance” yet was even so called the “Father of Wireless” as a consequence. Although many thought Tesla had begun his wireless work in 1893, he affirmed that had begun two years before, providing illustrations of some of the advances he had made, such as a 10KW alternator, which he had showed to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, and the diagram of the circuit he had used with it.
He regarded the discovery of a device he called the “rotating brush” and his systems of tuned circuits and adjustment methods developed in the following three to four years as most important advances, illustrated by further diagrams in his book. Tesla compared his system with a Belgian-patented Hertz system of 1897, claiming that whereas his system could transmit “economically” over great distances, the Hertz system had a range of only a few miles. He claimed his system could transmit energy “billions of times greater” than the Hertzian system.
Tesla also mentioned others who, whilst decrying his systems publicly, were privately using and developing his systems whilst claiming them as their own. Whilst not objecting to their improvements, Tesla suggested those people should have invented their own devices instead of depending on his ideas. He described two major breakthroughs he made prior to 1900. The first was a receiver with linked tuned elements, allowing any number of messages to be transmitted simultaneously through the earth and via artificial conductors. The second was an oscillator facilitating economical transmission of wireless energy of any quantity over any distance.
Describing ideas proposed by others as “devoid of novelty”, he described with supporting diagram his 1898 patented design for “a Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles.” Tesla also dismissed ideas by others, including the concept of the Heaviside layer having any effect on wireless transmission. He also rejected the idea that antenna height affected transmission at a distance, again supporting his views with theory and related diagrams. Tesla questioned the validity of reducing the Hertz wave frequencies to those used in his own system, especially because in so doing the activity within the transmitter was reduced “a billion fold.” He also stated that the air between an aircraft and the ground is just a capacitor, so that communication between aircraft and ground is technically straightforward.
As a further way to disprove the Hertzian concept of waves travelling through the air, he showed an arrangement with deliberately misaligned transmitting and receiving antennas, which he said did not affect transmission, thus proving the transmission is through the ground – not through the air. To provide further proof, Tesla illustrated arrangements where transmitter and receiver antennas were not in line of sight, due to mountains in between. Because transmission was not affected, he again claimed that the currents must be passing through the ground. In another experiment, Tesla pointed out that directly-grounded transmitters are more effective, also that when the ground is damp transmission is better, both facts contradictory to Hertz theories. Citing other experiments that confirmed those views, he firmly concluded that earth currents are the means of transmission, and that – in his view – the Hertzian theories will eventually be recognized as “one of the most remarkable and inexplicable aberrations of the scientific mind which has ever been recorded in history.”
Conclusions
This book – written in such a way that much of it was comprehensible even to the layman – showed Tesla to be an extremely clever man and brilliant scientist, who through his ingenious ideas and numerous inventions was able to devise theories, principles and methods for the transmission of energy that were far superior, more efficient and allowed transmission over much greater distances. Not content to simply come up with better theories, he also systematically set about disproving the existing and until then widely-accepted theories propounded by Hertz.
Works Cited:
Tesla, Nikola. “The True Wireless”. (1919). Twenty-First Century Books. Retrieved from http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/1919-05-00.htm
