History of Radiant Energy

Part from Bedini's paper, edited by Anonymous

Through successive experimental arrangements, Tesla discovered several facts concerning the production of his effect. First, the cause was undoubtedly found in the abruptness of charging. It was in the switch closure, the very instant of "closure and break", which thrust the effect out into space. The effect was definitely related to time, IMPULSE time. Second, Tesla found that it was imperative that the charging process occurred in a single impulse. No reversal of current was permissible, else the effect would not manifest. In this, Tesla made succinct remarks describing the role of capacity in the spark-radiative circuit. He found that the effect was powerfully strengthened by placing a capacitor between the disrupte and the dynamo. While providing a tremendous power to the effect, the dielectric of the capacitor also served to protect the dynamo windings. Not yet sure of the process at work in this phenomenon, Tesla sought the empirical understanding required for its amplification and utilization. He had already realized the significance of this unexpected effect. The idea of bringing this strange and wondrous new phenomenon to its full potential already suggested drilling new possibilities in his mind. He completely abandoned research and development of alternating current systems after this event intimating that a new technology was about to unfold.

The effect could also be greatly intensified to new and more powerful levels by raising the voltage, quickening the switch "make-break" rate, and shortening the actual time of switch closure. Thus far, Tesla employed rotating contact switches to produce his unidirectional impulses. When these mechanical impulse systems failed to achieve the greatest possible effects, Tesla sought a more "automatic" and powerful means. He found this "automatic switch" in special electrical arc dischargers. The high voltage output of a DC generator was applied to twin conductors through his new arc mechanism, a very powerful permanent magnet sitting crosswise to the discharge path. The discharge arc was automatically and continually "blown out" by this magnetic field.

Imperative toward obtaining the desired rare effect, the capacitor and its connected wire lines had to be so chosen as to receive and discharge the acquired electrostatic charge in unidirectional staccato fashion. The true Tesla circuit very much resembles a pulse jet, where no back pressure ever stops the onrushing flow. Electrostatic charge rises to a maximum, and is discharged much more quickly. The constant application of high voltage dynamo pressure to the circuit insures that continual successions of "charge-rapid discharge' are obtained. It is then and only then that the Tesla Effect is observed. Pulses literally flow through the apparatus from the dynamo. The capacitor, disrupter, and its attached wire lines, behave as the flutter valve. ( The dynamo or the storage battery does the same thing with the correct switching)

Tesla found that impulse duration alone defined the effect of each succinct spectrum. These effects were completely distinctive, endowed with strange additional qualities never purely experienced in Nature. Moreover, Tesla observed distinct color changes in the discharge space when each impulse range had been reached or crossed. Never before seen discharge colorations did not remain a mystery for long. Trains of impulses, each exceeding 0.1 millisecond duration, produced pain and mechanical pressures. In this radiant field, objects visibly vibrated and even moved as the force field drove them along. Thin wires, exposed to sudden bursts of the radiant field, exploded into vapor. Pain and physical movements ceased when impulses of 100 microseconds or less were produced. These latter features suggested weapon systems of frightful potentials.

With impulses of 1.0 microsecond duration, strong physiological heat was sensed. Further decreases in impulse brought spontaneous illuminations capable of filling rooms and vacuum globes with white light. At these impulse frequencies, Tesla was able to stimulate the appearance of effects which are normally admixed among the electromagnetic energies inherent in sunlight. Shorter impulses produced cool room penetrating breezes, with an accompanying uplift in mood and awareness. There were no limits in this progression toward impulses of diminished duration. None of these impulse energies could be duplicated through the use of high frequency harmonic alternations, those which Sir Oliver Lodge popularized, and which later was embodied in Marconi Wave Radio. Few could reproduce these effects because so few understood the absolute necessity of observing those parameters set by Tesla.

Of all the great inventions and discoveries of Nikola Tesla, nothing stood out with greater potential benefit to the whole of humanity than his discovery of Radiant Energy in 1889. The series of observations that led to the discovery of Radiant energy initially grew out of experiments that Tesla had conducted in an attempt to duplicate the results that Heinrich Hertz had claimed to achieve in affirming the existence of electromagnetic waves, the discovery of which Hertz announced in 1887. While replicating Hertz's experiments, Tesla experimented with violently abrupt DC electrical discharges and discovered a new force in the process. Only after conducting exhaustive experimental trials for the next three years, did Tesla announce this stupendous discovery in a paper published in December, 1892, entitled "The Dissipation of Electricity". Incredibly, most academicians of the day completely missed the mark in understanding the true significance of his paper. Noted scientists such as Sir Oliver Lodge, mistakenly thought that Tesla was referring to high frequency AC electricity in the operation of the Tesla Transformer, a huge blunder that remains to this day in the misnaming and misinterpretation of the Tesla Coil. The transformer that Tesla referred to in the 1892 paper did not operate on magnetic/electric field induction created by alternating currents. It operated in an entirely new domain of physics based on abrupt discharges of electrostatic potentials and the subsequent release of kinetic Radiant Energy from the omnipresent ether. Tesla was now operating under entirely new rules which he referred to as "dynamic" electro-static forces and had, by now, completely abandoned any further interest in the AC waveform. The genesis of the Lodge misunderstanding, however, began a few years earlier with the publication of certain mathematical formulas by a brilliant Scotsman named James Clerk Maxwell.

Hertz used the damped oscillating currents in a dipole antenna, triggered by a high-voltage electrical capacitive spark discharge, as his source of radio waves. His detector in some experiments was another dipole antenna connected to a narrow spark gap. A small spark in this gap signified detection of the radio wave. When he added cylindrical reflectors behind his dipole antennas, Hertz could detect radio waves about 20 metres from the transmitter in his laboratory. He did not try to transmit further because he wanted to prove electromagnetic theory, not to develop wireless communications

Hertz was uninterested in the practical importance of his experiments. He stated that "It's of no use whatsoever ... this is just an experiment that proves Maestro Maxwell was right - we just have these mysterious electromagnetic waves that we cannot see with the naked eye. But they are there." Asked about the ramifications of his discoveries, Hertz replied, "Nothing, I guess." Hertz also stated, "I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application." The art of radio was left to other to implement into a practical useful form. His discoveries would later be taken up by entrepreneurs looking to make their fortunes. Marconi's 1895 experiments followed Hertz's work (among others) by using a spark source in what became known as a spark-gap transmitter.

Using mathematical models, James Clerk Maxwell had earlier suggested that two different types of electrical disturbances could possibly exist in Nature. One type was a longitudinal electric wave which required alternating concentrations of densified and rarefied pulsations of electrostatic fields that moved along a single vector. (Today, we refer to these as scalar waves). Maxwell ultimately rejected this idea because he was convinced that this type of wave propagation was impossible to achieve, but his assumption was erroneous and would later portend formidable consequences for Tesla and the world at large.

Maxwell's second wave postulation was that of a transverse electromagnetic wave that exhibited a rapid alternation of electric fields along a fixed axis that radiated away from its point of origin at the speed of light and was detectable at great distances. Maxwell had more faith in the existence of this type of wave and encouraged experimenters to look in this direction. It was the discovery of this type of wave that Hertz had laid claim to, but Tesla was meticulous and fastidious in replicating Hertz's experimental parameters and he could not obtain the results claimed by Hertz.

Tesla discovered a fundamental flaw in Hertz's experiment: Hertz had failed to take into account he presence of air in his experiments. Hertz had mistakenly identified electrostatic inductions or electrified shockwaves as true electromagnetic waves. Tesla was saddened to bring this news to the distinguished academician, but felt scientific honesty was paramount if progress was to be achieved. Tesla visited Hertz in Germany and personally demonstrated the experimental error to him. Hertz agreed with Tesla and had planned to withdraw his claim, but reputations, political agendas, national pride, and above all, powerful financial interests, intervened in that decision and set the stage for a major rift in the 'accepted' theories that soon became transformed into the fundamental "laws" of the electric sciences that have held sway in industry and the halls of academia to the present day.

Tesla's introduction to the phenomena of Radiant Energy began with early observations by linesmen working for Thomas Edison, Tesla's former employer

Before Tesla's invention of the Polyphase AC generator became the industry standard and overtook Thomas Edison's use of DC generators, the DC electrical system was the only system available to deliver electricity to America's homes and factories. Due to the resistance offered by long transmission lines, Edison had to produce very high DC voltages from his generators in order to deliver enough voltage and current to its final destination. He also had to provide additional 'pumping' stations along the way to boost the sagging voltage which dwindled from line losses. A curious anomaly occurred in the very first instant of throwing the power switch at the generating station:  In Purple/blue colored spikes radiated in all directions along the axis of the power lines for just a moment.As addition, a stinging, ray-like shocking sensation was felt by those who stood near the transmission lines. In some cases, when very large DC voltages surged from the generators, the "stinging" sensation was so great that occasionally a blue spike jumped from the line and grounded itself through a workman, killing him in the process.

Tesla realized almost immediately that electrons were not responsible for such a phenomena because The blue spike phenomena ceased as soon as the current stated flowing in the lines. Something else was happening just before the electrons had a chance to move along the wire. At the time, no one seemed to be very interested in discovering why these dramatic elevations in static electrical potential were taking place, but rather, engineering design efforts were focused on eliminating and quenching this strange anomaly which was considered by everyone to be a nuisance-except Tesla. Tesla viewed it as a powerful, yet unknown form of energy which needed to be understood and harnessed if possible. The phenomena only exhibited itself in the first moment of switch closure, before the electrons could begin moving. There seemed to be a "bunching" or "choking" effect at play, but only briefly. Once the electrons began their movement within the wire, all would return to normal. What was this strange energy that was trying to liberate itself so forcefully at the moment of switch closure? .

The following recital on Tesla's work with Radiant Energy is an excerpt from the book, Secrets of Cold War Technology by Gerry Vassilatos, pages 86-93.

The "fountain effects" which surrounded his station are not responsible for the ever-growing power observed by Tesla. This was the result of an incoming aetheric supply for which his Transmitter gave low-resistance passage. The incoming aetheric flow preferred the transmitter terminal to adjacent, more resistant rock. This gradual flow process soon evidenced itself in magnification effects, ever increasing volumes of flowing aether being measured in his system. Some have argued that Tesla merely stored energy in the earth, extracting it for use later. This is a basic error, the result of imagining the Colorado Springs experiment to be one consisting entirely of electrical effects. It is in this light alone that we may comprehend the evident anomalous magnification of aetheric phenomena in his Colorado Springs photographs.

Once aetheric energy had been obtained from space, it had to be conveyed to consumers. Tesla had arranged for the automatic activation of aether-rebroadcast circuits in the station. The down pouring aether was automatically shunted to side circuits through capacitors. In these side branches, aether pulsed through dielectrics and expanded over the surfaces of his smaller coils. Thus stimulated to more rapid pulsation rates, they were ready for "rebroadcast". Being rebroadcast away from the station through large vacuum globes, poised on elevated platforms, these were the aetheric pulsations, which would be utilized in home and industry. Simple and compact receivers would be established in every home and factory, set to receive aetheric current through the ground. Tests were thrilling. The distant appliances, lamps and motors responded to the powerful pulsations, as if they were physically connected to the station by wire. A small house-like structure was established some 26 miles away from the station. In it, an aetheric power receiver was tuned to one of the rebroadcast rates. The 200 lamps housed within this structure, each of 50 watts rating, all remained brilliantly illuminated throughout the test runs. This apparently stimulated enough excitement and concern for word of this development to get back east.

Engineers were enraged. Those who had missed his most early shift from alternations to impulses, failed to comprehend the vast distinction between "stationary waves" and " standing waves". The quizzical use of specific terms such as these was a Tesla trademark, one designed to puzzle the minds of those who criticized him the most. With the exception of a very few colleagues who continually made related discoveries in aether physics, most academes had chosen to remain totally ignorant of the new study area. This for example was the case with the Teslian use of the term "frequency" and of "resonance" words which had completely different meanings for Tesla. Teslian "frequency" refers to the repetition of pulses per second. Teslian "resonance" refers to conditions in which aether flows with little or no resistance through systems, whether proximal or widely separated.

Photographs, which Tesla sent to his "financiers", were analyzed and reexamined repeatedly for their encrypted meaning. None could decipher the cunning puzzle which Tesla had set before them. Tesla stated that photographs of the aetheric white fire streamers required several minutes' exposure time before registering the faintest sort of impression. Most of the plates were therefore the results of more than 20 minutes' exposure time. There are a very few plates which, though stated to be the result of "one brief switch closure", are covered with dense, thick white streamers. One fraction of a second closure on the system switch resulted in a twenty-minute or more aether avalanche. Magnifying Transformers continued discharging long after the initial impulse had been withdrawn.

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