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

An interesting feature of these high frequency currents is that they allow of operating all kinds of devices by connecting the device with only one leading wire to the electric source. In fact, under certain conditions it may be more economical to supply the electrical energy with one lead than with two.

An experiment of special interest shown by Mr. Tesla, is the running, by the use of only one insulated line, of a motor operating on the principle of the rotating magnetic field enunciated by Mr. Tesla. A simple form of such a motor is obtained by winding upon a laminated iron core a primary and close to it a secondary coil, closing the ends of the latter and placing a freely movable metal disc within the influence of the moving field. The secondary coil may, however, be omitted. When one of the ends of the primary coil of the motor is connected to one of the terminals of the high frequency coil and the other end to an insulated metal plate, which, it should be stated, is not absolutely necessary for the success of the experiment, the disc is set in rotation.

Experiments of this kind seem to bring it within possibility to operate a motor at any point of the earth's surface from a central source, without any connection to the same except through the earth. If, by means of powerful machinery, rapid variations of the earth's potential were produced, a grounded wire reaching up to some height would be traversed by a current which could be increased by connecting the free end of the wire to a body of some size. The current might be converted to low tension and used to operate a motor or other device. The experiment, which would be one of great scientific interest, would probably best succeed on a ship at sea. In this manner, even if it were not possible to operate machinery, intelligence might be transmitted quite certainly.

In the course of this experimental study special attention was devoted to the heating effects produced by these currents, which are not only striking, but open up the possibility of producing a more efficient illuminant. It is sufficient to attach to the coil terminal a thin wire or filament, to have the temperature of the latter perceptibly raised. If the wire or filament be enclosed in a bulb, the heating effect is increased by preventing the circulation of the air. If the air in the bulb be strongly compressed, the displacements are smaller, the impacts less violent, and the heating effect is diminished. On the contrary, if the air in the bulb be exhausted, an inclosed lamp filament is brought to incandescence, and any amount of light may thus be produced.

The heating of the inclosed lamp filament depends on so many things of a different nature, that it is difficult to give a generally applicable rule under which the maximum heating occurs. As regards the size of the bulb, it is ascertained that at ordinary or only slightly differing atmospheric pressures, when air is a good insulator, the filament is heated more in a small bulb, because of the better confinement of heat in this case. At lower pressures, when air becomes conducting, the heating effect is greater in a large bulb, but at excessively high degrees of exhaustion there seems to be, beyond a certain and rather small size of the vessel, no perceptible difference in the heating.

The shape of the vessel is also of some importance, and it has been found of advantage for reasons of economy to employ a spherical bulb with the electrode mounted in its centre, where the rebounding molecules collide.

It is desirable on account of economy that all the energy supplied to the bulb from the source should reach without loss the body to be heated. The loss in conveying the energy from the source to the body may be reduced by employing thin wires heavily coated with insulation, and by the use of electrostatic screens. It is to be remarked, that the screen cannot be connected to the ground as under ordinary conditions.

In the bulb itself a large portion of the energy supplied may be lost by molecular bombardment against the wire connecting the body to be heated with the source. Considerable improvement was effected by covering the glass stem containing the wire with a closely fitting conducting tube. This tube is made to project a little above the glass, and prevents the cracking of the latter near the heated body. The effectiveness of the conducting tube is limited to very high degrees of exhaustion. It diminishes the energy lost in bombardment for two reasons; first, the charge given up by the atoms spreads over a greater area, and hence the electric density at any point is small, and the atoms are repelled with less energy than if they would strike against a good insulator; secondly, as the tube is electrified by the atoms which first come in contact with it, the progress of the following atoms against the tube is more or less checked by the repulsion which the electrified tube must exert upon the similarly electrified atoms. This, it is thought, explains why the discharge through a bulb is established with much greater facility when an insulator, than when a conductor, is present.

During the investigations a great many bulbs of different construction, with electrodes of different material, were experimented upon, and a number of observations of interest were made. Mr. Tesla has found that the deterioration of the electrode is the less, the higher the frequency. This was to be expected, as then the heating is effected by many small impacts, instead by fewer and more violent ones, which quickly shatter the structure. The deterioration is also smaller when the vibration is harmonic. Thus an electrode, maintained at a certain degree of heat, lasts much longer with currents obtained from an alternator, than with those obtained by means of a disruptive discharge. One of the most durable electrodes was obtained from strongly compressed carborundum, which is a kind of carbon recently produced by Mr. E. G. Acheson, of Monongahela City, Pa. From experience, it is inferred, that to be most durable, the electrode should be in the form of a sphere with a highly polished surface.

In some bulbs refractory bodies were mounted in a carbon cup and put under the molecular impact. It was observed in such experiments that the carbon cup was heated at first, until a higher temperature was reached; then most of the bombardment was directed against the refractory body, and the carbon was relieved. In general, when different bodies were mounted in the bulb, the hardest fusible would be relieved, and would remain at a considerably lower temperature. This was necessitated by the fact that most of the energy supplied would find its way through the body which was more easily fused or "evaporated."