The magnifying transmitter is an advanced version of Tesla coil transmitter

Tesla coil

A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...

. It is a high power harmonic oscillator

Harmonic oscillator

In classical mechanics, a harmonic oscillator is a system that, when displaced from its equilibrium position, experiences a restoring force, F, proportional to the displacement, x: \vec F = -k \vec x \, where k is a positive constant....

 that Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer...

 intended for the wireless transmission of electrical energy. In his autobiography, Tesla stated that "...I feel certain that of all my inventions

My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla is a book compiled and edited by Ben Johnston detailing the work of Nikola Tesla...

, the Magnifying Transmitter will prove most important and valuable to future generations." The magnifying transmitter is an air-core, multiple-resonant transformer that can generate very high voltage

High voltage

The term high voltage characterizes electrical circuits in which the voltage used is the cause of particular safety concerns and insulation requirements...

s.

History

The first 'Magnifier' was assembled in New York City between 1895 - 1898. In 1899 a larger magnifier was constructed in Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs, Colorado

Colorado Springs is a Home Rule Municipality that is the county seat and most populous city of El Paso County, Colorado, United States. Colorado Springs is located in South-Central Colorado, in the southern portion of the state. It is situated on Fountain Creek and is located south of the Colorado...

. This machine was used to conduct fundamental experiments in wireless telecommunications and electrical power transmission. Measuring fifty-one feet (15.5 m) in diameter, it developed a working potential estimated at 3.5 million to 4 million volts and was capable of producing electrical discharges exceeding one hundred feet (30 m) in length.

Colorado arrival

In 1899, Tesla moved his research to Colorado Springs. He chose this location because the polyphase alternating current power distribution system had been introduced there and he had associates who were willing to give him all the power he needed without charging for it. He kept a handwritten diary

Diary

A diary is a record with discrete entries arranged by date reporting on what has happened over the course of a day or other period. A personal diary may include a person's experiences, and/or thoughts or feelings, including comment on current events outside the writer's direct experience. Someone...

 of his experiments in the Colorado Springs lab where he spent nearly nine months. It consists of 500 pages of notes and nearly 200 drawings, recorded chronologically between June 1, 1899 and January 7, 1900, as the work occurred, containing explanations of his experiments.

Tuned electrical circuits

While in Colorado, Tesla constructed many smaller resonance transformers and conducted further research on concatenated tuned electrical circuits. Tesla also designed various sensitive devices for detecting received electrical energy, including rotating coherers. These used a clockwork

Clockwork

A clockwork is the inner workings of either a mechanical clock or a device that operates in a similar fashion. Specifically, the term refers to a mechanical device utilizing a complex series of gears....

 mechanism of gears driven by a coiled spring-drive which rotated a small glass cylinder containing metal filings. These experiments were the final stage after years of work on synchronized tuned electrical circuits. These instruments were constructed to demonstrate how a wireless receiver could be "tuned" to respond to a specific complex signal while rejecting others. Tesla logged in his diary on January 2, 1900 that a separate resonance transformer

Tesla coil

A Tesla coil is a type of resonant transformer circuit invented by Nikola Tesla around 1891. It is used to produce high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla coils produce higher current than the other source of high voltage discharges, electrostatic machines...

 tuned to the same high frequency as a larger high-voltage resonance transformer (which acted as a transmitter) received energy from the larger coil, one of many demonstrations of the wireless transmission of electrical energy. These experiments helped to confirm Tesla's priority in the invention of radio

Invention Of Radio

Within the history of radio, several people were involved in the invention of radio and there were many key inventions in what became the modern systems of wireless. Radio development began as "wireless telegraphy"...

 during later disputes in the courts. These air core high-frequency resonant coils were the predecessors of systems ranging from radio to medical nuclear magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging , nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , or magnetic resonance tomography is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to visualize detailed internal structures...

.

Energy transmission

On July 3, 1899, Tesla claimed to have discovered terrestrial stationary waves

Terrestrial stationary waves

Terrestrial stationary waves is a persistent spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave electrical transmission line phenomenon arising across the Earth's surface by virtue of the highly conductive nature of the earth itself. It was considered by Nikola Tesla to be his most important discovery...

 or standing wave

Standing wave

In physics, a standing wave – also known as a stationary wave – is a wave that remains in a constant position.This phenomenon can occur because the medium is moving in the opposite direction to the wave, or it can arise in a stationary medium as a result of interference between two waves traveling...

s extending across the earth to the antipode opposite his transmitter. He demonstrated that Earth behaves as a smooth polished conductor of very low resistance, and that it responds to certain predescribed frequencies of electrical vibrations. He conducted experiments that contributed to our understanding of electromagnetic propagation and the earth electrical resonances.

Tesla researched ways to transmit energy wirelessly over long distances, first by transverse wave

Transverse wave

A transverse wave is a moving wave that consists of oscillations occurring perpendicular to the direction of energy transfer...

s, and then, possibly, by longitudinal wave

Longitudinal wave

Longitudinal waves, as known as "l-waves", are waves that have the same direction of vibration as their direction of travel, which means that the movement of the medium is in the same direction as or the opposite direction to the motion of the wave. Mechanical longitudinal waves have been also...

s. He transmitted extremely low frequency current through the earth with associated electric field energy propagating along the space between the Earth's surface and the Kennelly–Heaviside layer. He received patents on wireless transceivers designed to develop terrestrial standing wave

Standing wave

In physics, a standing wave – also known as a stationary wave – is a wave that remains in a constant position.This phenomenon can occur because the medium is moving in the opposite direction to the wave, or it can arise in a stationary medium as a result of interference between two waves traveling...

s by this method.

The magnifying transmitter was the basis for Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower

Wardenclyffe Tower

Wardenclyffe Tower also known as the Tesla Tower, was an early wireless telecommunications tower designed by Nikola Tesla and intended for commercial trans-Atlantic wireless telephony, broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wires...

 project. Although modern Tesla coils are designed to generate spark discharges, this system was designed for wireless telecommunications and electrical power transmission

Power transmission

Power transmission is the movement of energy from its place of generation to a location where it is applied to performing useful work.Power is defined formally as units of energy per unit time...

. In 1925, John B. Flowers advanced a proposal to test Tesla's system and to implement the system. H. L. Curtis, the chief of the Bureau of Standards

National Institute of Standards and Technology

The National Institute of Standards and Technology , known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards , is a measurement standards laboratory, otherwise known as a National Metrological Institute , which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce...

 Radio Laboratory in Washington D.C., and J. H. Dillinger, a physicist, reviewed the proposal but declined to implement the proposed plan. Flowers's mechanical analogy test was successful, though.

Electromechanical oscillator

Tesla developed the reciprocating electro-mechanical oscillator as a source of frequency stable or isochronous

Isochronous

Isochronous : From Greek iso, equal + chronos, time. It literally means regularly, or at equal time intervals. In general English language, it refers to something that occurs at a regular interval, of the same duration; as opposed to synchronous which refers to more than one thing happening at the...

 alternating electric current used in conjunction with both wireless transmitting and receiving apparatus. This circuit element was applied in the same manner as quartz crystal oscillators

Crystal oscillator

A crystal oscillator is an electronic oscillator circuit that uses the mechanical resonance of a vibrating crystal of piezoelectric material to create an electrical signal with a very precise frequency...

 are now. He also proposed the use of this device for geophysical exploration by means of seismology

Seismology

Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...

—a technique that he called telegeodynamics

Telegeodynamics

Telegeodynamics is an electromechanical earth-resonance concept for underground seismic exploration proposed by Nikola Tesla.-Description:Tesla designed this system for use in prospecting and discerning the location of underground mineral structures through the transmission of mechanical energy...

.

Magnifying transmitter and the Wardenclyffe Tower

Transmitter details ---- The electrical oscillator, cited by Dr. Tesla as his most important and greatest invention Invention An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social... , consists of three inductors: an air-core transformer Transformer A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—the transformer's coils. A varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field...  (two-coil master oscillator) a third coil Coil A coil is a series of loops. A coiled coil is a structure in which the coil itself is in turn also looping.-Electromagnetic coils:An electromagnetic coil is formed when a conductor is wound around a core or form to create an inductor or electromagnet...  (extra coil) The "extra coil" operates as a base-driven quarter-wave helical resonator Resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior, that is, it naturally oscillates at some frequencies, called its resonant frequencies, with greater amplitude than at others. The oscillations in a resonator can be either electromagnetic or mechanical... .

The layout of the Wardenclyffe magnifying transmitter is well known, based upon Tesla's patents and various photographs in which the concept was implemented. The magnifying transmitter is not identical to the classic Tesla coil. It has the short thick primary and secondary inductor characteristic of the Tesla coil, although magnetic coupling between the two is tighter. Because of this, more aggressive measures have to be taken in terms of primary spark quenching and providing additional insulation between the primary and secondary. In addition to these two large-diameter coils that comprise the master oscillator, Tesla added a third inductor called the "extra coil."

Construction and theory of operation

In a classic Tesla coil the primary drives the ground end of the secondary coil to form the driver transformer, which resonates the entire secondary coil. In the magnifying transmitter the driving and resonating parts of the secondary are separate coils. From a circuit analysis standpoint, there is little difference between the classic coil and the magnifier.

The extra coil or helical resonator

Helical resonator

A helical resonator is a passive electrical component that can be used as a filter. Physically, a helical resonator is a wire helix surrounded by a square or cylindrical conductive shield. Like cavity resonators, helical resonators can achieve Q factors in the 1000s...

 can be physically separated from the two close-coupled coils, which comprise the master oscillator or driver section. The power from the master oscillator is fed to the lower end of the extra coil resonator through a large diameter electrical conductor

Electrical conductor

In physics and electrical engineering, a conductor is a material which contains movable electric charges. In metallic conductors such as copper or aluminum, the movable charged particles are electrons...

 or pipe to minimize corona discharge

Corona discharge

In electricity, a corona discharge is an electrical discharge brought on by the ionization of a fluid surrounding a conductor that is electrically energized...

. The magnifying transmitter's base-driven extra coil behaves as a slow-wave helical resonator

Helical resonator

A helical resonator is a passive electrical component that can be used as a filter. Physically, a helical resonator is a wire helix surrounded by a square or cylindrical conductive shield. Like cavity resonators, helical resonators can achieve Q factors in the 1000s...

, the axial disturbance propagating at a velocity of less than 1% up to around 10% the speed of light in free space. The axial velocity of the resonator's charge-coupled electromagnetic field

Electromagnetic field

An electromagnetic field is a physical field produced by moving electrically charged objects. It affects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field. The electromagnetic field extends indefinitely throughout space and describes the electromagnetic interaction...

 is established by the coil pitch and electrical charge propagation speed through the circuit.

Operation

At Colorado Springs Tesla used his magnifying transmitter in an attempt to artificially stimulate terrestrial standing waves

Terrestrial stationary waves

Terrestrial stationary waves is a persistent spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave electrical transmission line phenomenon arising across the Earth's surface by virtue of the highly conductive nature of the earth itself. It was considered by Nikola Tesla to be his most important discovery...

. Based upon observations made with the device, Tesla reported that earth resonance modes

Normal mode

A normal mode of an oscillating system is a pattern of motion in which all parts of the system move sinusoidally with the same frequency and with a fixed phase relation. The frequencies of the normal modes of a system are known as its natural frequencies or resonant frequencies...

 involving an electric current flowing through the earth can be excited. He claimed to have discovered a fundamental earth resonance frequency of nearly 11.78 Hz

Hertz

The hertz is the SI unit of frequency defined as the number of cycles per second of a periodic phenomenon. One of its most common uses is the description of the sine wave, particularly those used in radio and audio applications....

, which is somewhat higher than the fundamental earth-ionosphere cavity Schumann resonance

Schumann resonance

The Schumann resonances are a set of spectrum peaks in the extremely low frequency portion of the Earth's electromagnetic field spectrum...

 found to exist by researchers in the 1950s in the general vicinity of 7.3 Hz.

In normal operation the magnifying transmitter is relatively silent, generating a high power electric field

Electric field

In physics, an electric field surrounds electrically charged particles and time-varying magnetic fields. The electric field depicts the force exerted on other electrically charged objects by the electrically charged particle the field is surrounding...

, but if the output voltage exceeds the design voltage of the elevated terminal, high-voltage sparks will strike out from the electrode into the air.

Related Tesla patents

• "System of Electric Lighting," , 23 June 1891
• "Means for Generating Electric Currents," , 6 February 1894
• "Electrical Transformer," , 2 November 1897
• "Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vehicle or Vehicles ", , 8 November 1898
• "System of Transmission of Electrical Energy," , Mar. 20, 1900
• "Apparatus for Transmission of Electrical Energy," , 15 May 1900
• "System of Transmission of Electrical Energy," , 20 March 1900
• "Apparatus for Utilizing Effects Transmitted from a Distance to a Receiving Device through Natural Media," , Nov. 5, 1901
• "Method of Utilizing Effects Transmitted through Natural Media," , Nov. 5, 1901
• "Apparatus for Utilizing Effects Transmitted From A Distance To A Receiving Device Through Natural Media," , Nov. 5, 1901
• "Apparatus for Utilizing Effects Transmitted through Natural Media," , Nov. 5, 1901
• "Method Of Utilizing Radiant Energy," , 5 November 1901
• "Method of Signaling," , Mar. 17, 1903
• "System of Signaling," , Apr. 14, 1903
• "Art of Transmitting Electrical Energy through the Natural Mediums," , Apr. 18, 1905
• "Apparatus for Transmitting Electrical Energy," Jan. 18, 1902, , Dec. 1, 1914

See also: List of Tesla patents

See also

• Electromechanical oscillator
• Terrestrial stationary waves
  Terrestrial stationary waves
  Terrestrial stationary waves is a persistent spherical conductor “single-wire” surface wave electrical transmission line phenomenon arising across the Earth's surface by virtue of the highly conductive nature of the earth itself. It was considered by Nikola Tesla to be his most important discovery...
  
  
• Magnifying Transmitter as described by Tesla in his Autobiography
• Cavity resonator
• Knob Hill
  Knob Hill
  Knob Hill is a neighborhood in central Colorado Springs, Colorado, one mile east of downtown, extending east from South Union Blvd to South Circle Drive, and from East Willamette Ave south to Airport Rd...
  
  
• Longitudinal wave
  Longitudinal wave
  Longitudinal waves, as known as "l-waves", are waves that have the same direction of vibration as their direction of travel, which means that the movement of the medium is in the same direction as or the opposite direction to the motion of the wave. Mechanical longitudinal waves have been also...
  
  
• Telluric current
  Telluric current
  A telluric current , or Earth current, is an electric current which moves underground or through the sea. Telluric currents result from both natural causes and human activity, and the discrete currents interact in a complex pattern...
  
  
• Wardenclyffe Tower
  Wardenclyffe Tower
  Wardenclyffe Tower also known as the Tesla Tower, was an early wireless telecommunications tower designed by Nikola Tesla and intended for commercial trans-Atlantic wireless telephony, broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wires...
  
  

Further reading

Tesla writings

• Tesla, Nikola, "On the Transmission of Electricity Without Wires". Electrical World and Engineer, 5 March 1904.

Electrical World

• "The Development of High Frequency Currents for Practical Application"., The Electrical World, Vol 32, No. 8.
• "Boundless Space: A Bus Bar". The Electrical World, Vol 32, No. 19.
• "Mr. Tesla's Application of the Hertz-Wave Transmission". The Electrical World, Vol 32, No. 8.

Other publications

• Bass, Robert W., "Self-Sustained Non-Hertzian Longitudinal Wave Oscillations as a Rigorous Solution of Maxwell's Equations for Electromagnetic Radiation". Inventek Enterprises, Inc., Las Vegas, Nevada.
• Bieniosek, F. M., "Triple Resonance Pulse Transformer Circuit". Review of Scientific Instruments, 61 (6).
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, J. F. X. Daum "Spherical Transmission Lines and Global Propagation, An Analysis of Tesla's Experimentally Determined Propagation Model". 1987.
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, "Disclosure Concerning the Operation of an ELF Oscillator". CPG Communications, Inc., Newbury, Ohio.
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, "A Physical Interpretation of the Colorado Springs Data". CPG Communications, Inc., Newbury, Ohio.
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, "Tesla's Colorado Spring Receivers (A Short Introduction)". 2003.
• Corum, J. F., and K. L. Corum, "RF Coils, Helical Resonators and Voltage Magnification by Coherent Spatial Modes". IEEE, 2001.
• de Queiroz, Antonio Carlos M., "Synthesis of Multiple Resonance Networks". Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. EE/COPE.
• de Queiroz, Antonio Carlos M., "Designing a Tesla Magnifier". Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. EE/COPE.
• Grotz, Toby, "Wireless Transmission of Power: An Attempt to Verify Nikola Tesla's 1899 Colorado Springs Experiment, Results of Research and Experimentation". TESLA, Inc., Craig Colorado.
• Hartley, R. V. L., "Oscillations with Non-linear Reactances". Bell Systems Technical Journal, Sun Publishing. 1992.
• Wait, James, R., "Electromagnetic Waves in Stratified Media". Pergammon Press, 1972. (2nd edition)
• Reed,J.R.,"Analytical expression for the output voltage of the triple resonance Tesla transformer," Review of Scientific Instruments, 76, 104702,(2005).
• Reed,J.R.,"Designing triple resonance Tesla transformers of arbitrary frequency ratio," Review of Scientific Instruments, 77, 033301, (2006).

Other patents

• Armstrong, E. H., , "Wireless receiving system". 1914.
• Armstrong, E. H., , "Method of receiving high frequency oscillation". 1922.
• Armstrong, E. H., , "Signalling system". 1922.
• Fessenden, R. A., , "Signalling by sound and other longitudal elastic impulses". 1914.
• Weyrich, R., , "Transmitter and receiver for electromagnertic waves".
• Leydorf, G. F., , "Antenna near field coupling system". 1966.
• Tanner, R. L., , "Extremely low-frequency antenna". 1965.
• Eastlund, Bernard J., , "Method for producing a shell of relativistic particles at an altitude above the earths surface". 1991.
• Hansell, Clarence W., , "Communication system by pulses through the Earth".

External links

• Tesla Technology Research - Tesla Coils and the Failure of Lumped-Element Circuit Theory
• Practical Magnifier Construction Principles: Making it work
• Jean-Louis Naudin's Magnifying Transmitter
• Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz "Designing a Tesla Magnifier" (Theoretical and practical approaches to Tesla magnifier design)
• Nicholson, Paul The Tesla Secondary Simulation Project (theoretical simulation of Tesla Coil resonators, confirmed by experiment)
• Nicholson, Paul, "The Real Science of "Non-Hertzian" Waves". Does not address the terrestrial transmission-line propagation modes nor the possibility of longitudinal waves; author's focus is on transverse radio waves
  Transverse wave
  A transverse wave is a moving wave that consists of oscillations occurring perpendicular to the direction of energy transfer...
  
  .
• Cooper, John. F., "Defective Tesla coil transmitter circuit, diagram #1,diagram #2", but showing Tesla's techniques for wave-complex production. Tesla-Coil.com.