Above: Maschinenmensch Maria (aka Futura) from Fritz Lang's 1927 film Metropolis.
Below: Nikola Tesla in his Colorado Springs laboratory, 1900 (a multiple-exposure photo).
Below: Nikola Tesla in his Colorado Springs laboratory, 1900 (a multiple-exposure photo).
The tesla beam
Nikola Tesla was a legendary genius, an inventor and engineer who gave the world so much, including his alternating-current generators, transformers, and motors. Turn on just about any electric device in your home or office -- Tesla designed the system for supplying it with power. He invented remote control, the Tesla coil, bladeless turbines, and the wireless transmission of electrical power. He worked on fluorescent bulbs and telephony, and made great contributions to the fields of wireless telegraphy and radio.
In 1934, with war threatening in Europe, Tesla claimed to be working on a particle beam that could shoot down enemy air- planes at great distances. He wrote:
"My apparatus projects particles which may be relatively large or of microscopic dimensions, enabling us to convey to a small area at a great distance trillions of times more energy than is possible with rays of any kind. Many thousands of horsepower can thus be transmitted by a stream thinner than a hair, so that nothing can resist."
Tesla claimed that the nozzle would send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 200 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies to drop dead in their tracks." Tesla stated that the death beam would make war impossible by offering every country an "invisible Chinese wall."
"My apparatus projects particles which may be relatively large or of microscopic dimensions, enabling us to convey to a small area at a great distance trillions of times more energy than is possible with rays of any kind. Many thousands of horsepower can thus be transmitted by a stream thinner than a hair, so that nothing can resist."
Tesla claimed that the nozzle would send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 200 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies to drop dead in their tracks." Tesla stated that the death beam would make war impossible by offering every country an "invisible Chinese wall."
In 1935, Tesla wrote a treatise called The New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media, concerning charged particle beam weapons. In this paper, he explained:
"The successful carrying out of the plan involves a number of more or less important improvements but the principal among these include the following:
1. A new form of high vacuum tube open to the atmosphere.
2. Provisions for imparting to a minute particle an extremely high charge.
3. A new terminal of relatively small dimensions and enormous potential.
4. An electro-static generator on a new principle and of very great power."
What set Tesla's proposal apart from the usual run of fantasy "death rays" was a unique vacuum chamber with one end open to the atmosphere. Why did he need that?
He wrote: "In the first place, a closed vacuum tube could not be employed as no window could withstand the force of the impact. This made it absolutely necessary to project the particles in free air..."
Figure 1 -- ILLUSTRATING OPEN VACUUM TUBE
Tesla wrote: "These devices and methods of operation will be explained by reference to the attached drawings in which Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 represent forms of the new open tube...
...It will be observed that in this tube I do away with the solid wall or window indispensable in all types heretofore employed, producing the high vacuum required and preventing the inrush of the air by a gaseous jet of high velocity. Evidently, to secure this result, the dynamic pressure of the jet must be at least equal to the external static pressure."
Tesla wrote: "These devices and methods of operation will be explained by reference to the attached drawings in which Fig. 1 and Fig. 2 represent forms of the new open tube...
...It will be observed that in this tube I do away with the solid wall or window indispensable in all types heretofore employed, producing the high vacuum required and preventing the inrush of the air by a gaseous jet of high velocity. Evidently, to secure this result, the dynamic pressure of the jet must be at least equal to the external static pressure."
Figure 2 SHOWING A MODIFIED FORM OF OPEN VACUUM TUBE
Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943. His scientific papers were confiscated by the US government, an act which almost inevitably led to widespread speculation about what was in those papers. In popular terms, had Tesla perfected his "death ray", and did the US government now possess his secrets?
In this novel, Defense Mechanism, the beams designed to defend American from missile attack are Tesla beams.
* * *
Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943. His scientific papers were confiscated by the US government, an act which almost inevitably led to widespread speculation about what was in those papers. In popular terms, had Tesla perfected his "death ray", and did the US government now possess his secrets?
In this novel, Defense Mechanism, the beams designed to defend American from missile attack are Tesla beams.
* * *
Other Topics to discuss:
Holograms and Holodecks
"Personal" computers and Artificial Intelligence
Robot guards
Fusion reactors
copyright © Steven J. Maricic 2019