The inventions, researches and writings of Nikola Tesla / With special reference to his work in polyphase currents and high potential lighting

by Thomas Commerford Martin

The London lecture was delivered twice. In its first form, before the Institution of Electrical Engineers, it was in some respects an amplification of several points not specially enlarged upon in the New York lecture, but brought forward many additional discoveries and new investigations. Its repetition, in another form, at the Royal Institution, was due to Prof. Dewar, who with Lord Rayleigh, manifested a most lively interest in Mr. Tesla's work, and whose kindness illustrated once more the strong English love of scientific truth and appreciation of its votaries. As an indefatigable experimenter, Mr. Tesla was certainly nowhere more at home than in the haunts of Faraday, and as the guest of Faraday's successor. This Royal Institution lecture summed up the leading points of Mr. Tesla's work, in the high potential, high frequency field, and we may here avail ourselves of so valuable a summarization, in a simple form, of a subject by no means easy of comprehension until it has been thoroughly studied.

In these London lectures, among the many notable points made was first, the difficulty of constructing the alternators to obtain the very high frequencies needed. To obtain the high frequencies it was necessary to provide several hundred polar projections, which were necessarily small and offered many drawbacks, and this the more as exceedingly high peripheral speeds had to be resorted to. In some of the first machines both armature and field had polar projections. These machines produced a curious noise, especially when the armature was started from the state of rest, the field being charged. The most efficient machine was found to be one with a drum armature, the iron body of which consisted of very thin wire annealed with special care. It was, of course, desirable to avoid the employment of iron in the armature, and several machines of this kind, with moving or stationary conductors were constructed, but the results obtained were not quite satisfactory, on account of the great mechanical and other difficulties encountered.

The study of the properties of the high frequency currents obtained from these machines is very interesting, as nearly every experiment discloses something new. Two coils traversed by such a current attract or repel each other with a force which, owing to the imperfection of our sense of touch, seems continuous. An interesting observation, already noted under another form, is that a piece of iron, surrounded by a coil through which the current is passing appears to be continuously magnetized. This apparent continuity might be ascribed to the deficiency of the sense of touch, but there is evidence that in currents of such high frequencies one of the impulses preponderates over the other.

As might be expected, conductors traversed by such currents are rapidly heated, owing to the increase of the resistance, and the heating effects are relatively much greater in the iron. The hysteresis losses in iron are so great that an iron core, even if finely subdivided, is heated in an incredibly short time. To give an idea of this, an ordinary iron wire 1/16 inch in diameter inserted within a coil having 250 turns, with a current estimated to be five amperes passing through the coil, becomes within two seconds' time so hot as to scorch wood. Beyond a certain frequency, an iron core, no matter how finely subdivided, exercises a dampening effect, and it was easy to find a point at which the impedance of a coil was not affected by the presence of a core consisting of a bundle of very thin well annealed and varnished iron wires.

Experiments with a telephone, a conductor in a strong magnetic field, or with a condenser or arc, seem to afford certain proof that sounds far above the usually accepted limit of hearing would be perceived if produced with sufficient power. The arc produced by these currents possesses several interesting features. Usually it emits a note the pitch of which corresponds to twice the frequency of the current, but if the frequency be sufficiently high it becomes noiseless, the limit of audition being determined principally by the linear dimensions of the arc. A curious feature of the arc is its persistency, which is due partly to the inability of the gaseous column to cool and increase considerably in resistance, as is the case with low frequencies, and partly to the tendency of such a high frequency machine to maintain a constant current.

In connection with these machines the condenser affords a particularly interesting study. Striking effects are produced by proper adjustments of capacity and self-induction. It is easy to raise the electromotive force of the machine to many times the original value by simply adjusting the capacity of a condenser connected in the induced circuit. If the condenser be at some distance from the machine, the difference of potential on the terminals of the latter may be only a small fraction of that on the condenser.

But the most interesting experiences are gained when the tension of the currents from the machine is raised by means of an induction coil. In consequence of the enormous rate of change obtainable in the primary current, much higher potential differences are obtained than with coils operated in the usual ways, and, owing to the high frequency, the secondary discharge possesses many striking peculiarities. Both the electrodes behave generally alike, though it appears from some observations that one current impulse preponderates over the other, as before mentioned.

The physiological effects of the high tension discharge are found to be so small that the shock of the coil can be supported without any inconvenience, except perhaps a small burn produced by the discharge upon approaching the hand to one of the terminals. The decidedly smaller physiological effects of these currents are thought to be due either to a different distribution through the body or to the tissues acting as condensers. But in the case of an induction coil with a great many turns the harmlessness is principally due to the fact that but little energy is available in the external circuit when the same is closed through the experimenter's body, on account of the great impedance of the coil.

In varying the frequency and strength of the currents through the primary of the coil, the character of the secondary discharge is greatly varied, and no less than five distinct forms are observed:—A weak, sensitive thread discharge, a powerful flaming discharge, and three forms of brush or streaming discharges. Each of these possesses certain noteworthy features, but the most interesting to study are the latter.

Under certain conditions the streams, which are presumably due to the violent agitation of the air molecules, issue freely from all points of the coil, even through a thick insulation. If there is the smallest air space between the primary and secondary, they will form there and surely injure the coil by slowly warming the insulation. As they form even with ordinary frequencies when the potential is excessive, the air-space must be most carefully avoided. These high frequency streamers differ in aspect and properties from those produced by a static machine. The wind produced by them is small and should altogether cease if still considerably higher frequencies could be obtained. A peculiarity is that they issue as freely from surfaces as from points. Owing to this, a metallic vane, mounted in one of the terminals of the coil so as to rotate freely, and having one of its sides covered with insulation, is spun rapidly around. Such a vane would not rotate with a steady potential, but with a high frequency coil it will spin, even if it be entirely covered with insulation, provided the insulation on one side be either thicker or of a higher specific inductive capacity. A Crookes electric radiometer is also spun around when connected to one of the terminals of the coil, but only at very high exhaustion or at ordinary pressures.