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.