Experiment with Tesla's Mechanism for Harnessing Radiant Energy

Our first experiment will involve using Tesla's theory on harnessing radiant energy.  According to Tesla, one simply had to build an antenna and put it high enough into the atmosphere (at least 30 feet (9.14 meters)) and start collecting free energy.  Now Tesla was a pretty smart guy, so I am not going to doubt him.  However, if it was that easy, how come everyone isn't doing it.  Yes, Westinghouse covered it up and destroyed all his work and notes and such.  True, but even that isn't enough to prevent it from leaking out to the public.  So there must be more to it.  But what?  That is what Kevin and I intend to find out.

The first thing that I believe stopped it from happening on a large scale is the availability of the right technology.  While Tesla was able to harness this energy for himself at his lab in Colorado Springs, he had a large area to develop the correct machinery and stuff to collect this radiant energy.  (By the way, the term radiant energy is the term Tesla gave it and is the wrong name for the energy he was collecting.)  Most homes don't have the kind of room his laboratory had (before the Marines blew it up) therefore would not have the ability to store the devices necessary as the technology of the time meant the devices were quite large and bulky.  Today, on the other hand, we live in an age of miniaturization.  The large capacitors and such of Tesla's day are now scaled down to the size of a fingernail.  This makes harnessing this energy much more practical today.  Additionally, with today's metallurgy technology, we can produce much purer metals and other materials than Tesla's contemporary's could.

So let's look at how we can begin to harness this "radiant energy" that Tesla discovered.  In order to do this, we must first figure out what exactly it was that Tesla was really harnessing.  What is really going on?  Based on my research into the theories and inventions of Tesla, I believe the energy source he was referring to is simply electromagnetic waves.  We know the Earth is a giant magnet with a north pole and a south pole.  And usually, the magnetic force travels in an arc around the planet from the north to the south poles.  When radiation from the sun comes into contact with this we can sometimes see what is known as the Auroras. I believe this is what Tesla was learning to "harvest" in his experiments.

To prove or disprove this theory, let us experiment with some of Tesla's ideas and some modern technology to see what we can develop.

First, we need a way to harvest the energy.  To do this, I will build a small scale antenna using 20 feet (6.1 meters) of 1/4" refrigeration tubing and coiling it so it has approximately 1/2" to 1" of gap between each turn.  This will be placed on top of a short pole measuring 5'-10" (1.78 meters).  This pole with its copper coil on top will have a 14 gauge wire attached to it leading down to some mag wire (30) which will attach to a circuit which will be described later.  The circuit will also be attached to a ground wire which will be attached to a 14 gauge wire thrust 6" (.15 meters) into the ground.  The antenna will be held into the air by my nephew Kevin as high as the wiring and his arms will allow.  Total altitude should be around 12 feet (3.66 meters).

Here is the circuit (photos and video included with this post will show you how it is put together).  Using two ceramic capacitors rated at 50v .22 microfarad (yes that is POINT 22 microfarad), two electrolytic capacitors rated at 50v 100 microfarads and four germanium diodes, we are going to create a circuit which will allow us to measure the voltage collected by the antenna, if any.

 

And here are a couple of pictures showing the antenna:

 

Here is how we conducted the first experiment.  We videotaped the whole experiment but, unfortunately, the camcorder we have is almost 10 years old and is not compatible with our computers so we could not download the video.  So I will have to write about the experiment.

We conducted the experiment on October 30, 2010.  The purpose of this experiment is merely a proof of concept.  All we are interested in doing with this experiment is determining whether or not the theory has any merit and, if so, is it worth exploring further.

The temperature on October 30, 2010 in Salem, Oregon was rain and fog with the temperature at 50 degrees Fahrenheit at 11:00 a.m.

I took a primary reading after building the device.  I was shocked to see that I had a 0.04v charge stored.  It immediately dissipated.  I took the reading several times before connecting the circuit to the antenna and found this same charge stored in the device.  Interesting.  Maybe something that needs to be explored later.

We placed a 14 gauge wire six inches into the ground and attached mag wire to it.  The other end of the mag wire we attached to the circuit between the two electrolytic capacitors.  We attached a 14 gauge wire to the copper coil which is the top of the antenna.  At the end of that wire we attached more mag wire.  The other end of that piece of mag wire we attached between the other two capacitors completing our circuit.  Kevin then lifted the antenna to a height of approximately 12 feet.  I took a reading with my digital voltmeter.  We had a current of 1.8v DC.  It rose to 2.4v DC where it leveled out.

This is enough to prove the concept.  It is, indeed, possible to harness Tesla's "radiant energy".  Unfortunately, the levels of energy are very small and the amperage is smaller still.  But, that doesn't mean that when we ramp up the tests we won't get better results.  Before we do that, though, we need to conduct a few more small scale experiments.  Once we have done this, we can move on to larger scale.

Overall, the first test was a success!  There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the energy can be harvested in quantities large enough to perform meaningful work.  This experiment will continue.

Novermber 1, 2010.  Need to make a correction in the original data results.  I did not pay attention to where I had placed my meter setting.  It was set at 200m in the DCV section.  Therefore my results were actually 2.4 mV.  Sorry for this confusion.  Please see the next video and post addition for some interesting news on the next phase of the experiment.

Introduction or "Why this blog?"

My name is Robert and I am a nobody.  Literally.  Nobody outside of a few friends and my family knows about me.  This is the case with 99.9% of the people in the world.  I am ok with being a nobody.  However, I am tired of the Somebody's taking advantage of us nobody's.  Whenever I surf the 'net, I am bombarded with all sorts of junk and crap that seems to be too good to be true.  Most of it is.

Here is the thing, though.  Some of it isn't.  So how is a nobody with an average intelligence and average education supposed to know the difference between the crap that isn't true and the stuff that is mostly untrue and the stuff that is mostly true and the stuff that is the truth?  The simple fact is, most of the time one can't tell the difference.

Like most people in the world, I am concerned with certain global issues such as the global economy, wars, Iran's steadfast refusal to civilize itself and join the rest of the civilized world, global environmental issues, energy and the like.  Since there is little I can do about Iran (except hope that one day their leaders grow up and start acting like adults), the economy, environmental issues and wars, I will leave these issues to those who want us to believe that they have the answers.

Energy, on the other hand, is something in which anyone with a high school education can participate.  Personally, I don't know the first thing about most forms of energy that I didn't learn in high school physics and some research I have completed online.  Energy is something we all use every day in various forms.  From the food we consume to the electricity used to store and prepare that food, to the fuel used to propel our vehicles to various locations to procure said food, we, as a world, consume more energy in one day than the whole world did from the year 1CE through the year 1950 CE. 

That is an alarming statistic.  Since our insatiable appetite for energy usually takes the form of things like fossil fuels (coal, natural gas, oil, etc.) it is obvious that the Earth's finite stores of these resources are rapidly diminishing.  New sources of energy MUST be found in order to maintain a healthy and civilized world (despite Iran's best efforts to the contrary).  Man has made great strides in developing many alternate forms of generating electricity such as wind turbines, photovoltaics, geothermal and nuclear.

But there are serious faults with each of these.

First is efficiency.

Solar cells only work when the sun is shining and are only at peak performance for a couple of hours per day depending on the angle of the sun in the sky in relation to the solar panel.  During night, these panels are, of course, totally worthless.  

Wind generators only work when the wind blows above a certain speed.  Some wind turbines will work in wind speeds as low as four miles per hour (or 6.4 kph) and others need speeds to exceed 20 mph ( 32 kph) just to turn the blades.  The biggest problem with wind generators, though, is that they do not generate a lot of power.

Geothermal is still in its infancy stages of development.  Geothermal energy is difficult to produce though it is capable of producing huge quantities of power.

Nuclear has its own issues and they are quite obvious and I won't go into them here except to say that it is a myth that nuclear plants are inherently dangerous.  Yes, there are two very good examples of what happens when they do have problems, but the fact is that there are ONLY two examples.  Compared to the number of nuclear plants currently operating and those which have been shut down over the years, that is a very good safety record.

The one thing that all these forms of energy production have in common is expense.  It is VERY expensive to generate meaningful amounts of power using these methods.  Until the world overcomes this insane idea that it MUST use money, we are going to have to live with this concept.  Cost rules everything.  Don't even get me started on the insanity of all this.

So, until humankind comes to its senses regarding money, we have to find ways to generate energy (particularly, electricity) that are both fuel and cost efficient.

And that, friends, is the purpose of this blog.  Find ways to generate electricity that are both fuel and cost efficient.  Find a way that EVERY house in the WORLD can generate its own electricity at little or no cost to the occupant(s).

Now you are asking yourself, "But if you are as you say, average intelligence and average education, how do you plan to develop these technologies?  Do you have lots of money?"  The answers are, No, I do not have lots of money, in fact I live in a lower middle class neighborhood bordering on the lower economic class.  And the other answer is; that is the beauty of this blog, it can also be named "... for Dummies" if it wasn't already copyrighted. 

So, let's review.  Here are the goals of this blog.

1.  Experiment with alternate, alternate power generation methods.  (Yes, alternate is in that sentence twice on purpose.)
2.  Keep these methods inexpensive.
3.  Develop methods using little to no external fuel sources such as fossil fuels, batteries, etc.
4.  Conduct experiments in a manner that even I can understand them.

It is my intention to experiment with ONE concept at a time.  I don't want to get bogged down with having so many experiments running that I lose track of what I am doing.  I, with the help of my nephew, Kevin, will experiment with one concept at a time until we can take that concept no further.  Being of only average intelligence, I imagine that won't take too long in most cases.  But if the experimentation takes years to prove or disprove a concept, then I am dedicated to taking that time.

I hope to generate a following of people who can offer advice, assistance or comments about things we haven't thought about (or just don't know about) or just offer encouragement.  Hopefully, we can learn together and develop something the world can use.  And if we don't, well, at least we had a hell of a lot of fun trying.

Robert (and Kevin)