Colorado Springs
“Nikola Tesla, the Serbian scientist, whose electrical discoveries are not of one nation, but the pride of the world, has taken up his abode in Colorado Springs…and has caused to be constructed a [wireless] station for scientific research.”
–Desire Stanton, Colorado Springs, 18991
Tesla moved to Colorado Springs in 1899 to set up a research station on Pike’s Peak.
He moved "to produce [a resonant transformer] which would be capable of disturbing the electrical condition [of part], if not the entire globe…thus enabling me to transmit intelligence to great distances without wire.” 2
He erected a massive Tesla Coil designed to transmit electric signals into the atmosphere. When it was powered, huge arcs of lightning coursed across the sky.
Tower at Colorado Springs“The tremendous significance of this system had already become quite clear to me. Not only was it practicable to send telegraphic messages to any distance without wires, as I recognized long ago, but also to impress upon the entire globe the faint modulations of the human voice, far more still, to transmit power, in unlimited amounts to any terrestrial distance and almost without loss.”
-Nikola Tesla
The coil worked well until the power demand proved too great for the local power plant which abruptly shut down and cut off electricity to the city.
“You’ve knocked our generator off the line, and she’s now on fire!”
–Manager of the Colorado Springs Electric Company3
Tesla continued searching for an effective method to provide wireless energy to the world. He experimented with transmission of high frequency electricity as radio signals, extra-low frequency signals, and electrical power to the ionosphere.
Tesla managed to wirelessly illuminate light bulbs up to 26 miles away. It was never understood, however, how he planned to wirelessly transmit energy to the world.4 |
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