Death-Rays as Life-Savers in the Third Reich - Pedro Waloschek ...

without any of the losses that are incurred using conventional
techniques. Tesla assumed that it was possible to produce extremely
thin ‘ionised channels’ similar to those mentioned by Grindell-Matthews
and Peter Schlesinger. Tesla believed his ‘channels’ would be able to
transfer energy not only through the atmosphere, but also through solid
materials as it would be the case under the surface of the earth.
Tesla was a committed pacifist and generally concentrated his
efforts on useful civilian applications. However, he does in several
instances mention the destruction of machinery and human life. His
‘death rays’ ideas earned him headlines in the American press in 1934,
by which time he was already 78 years old. At the time he claimed that
he had developed and tested his ‘death rays’ prior to 1900. He supposed
them to be sufficiently powerful to destroy aeroplanes from a distance
of 400 kilometres by interrupting the aircrafts’ ‘magnetic ignition’, which
was an idea that had also been proposed by other people. Later on
Tesla offered his ideas to the governments of several countries.
No really detailed technical documents on Nicola Tesla’s death ray
ideas are preserved. It is therefore possible to speculate only on the
basis of vague descriptions, some of which he gave at press
conferences while others are contained in a few notes and drawings
found after his death. Most of the drawings were not produced by Tesla
who was not a good draughtsman; they were drawn following his
instructions, or on the basis of his written descriptions by graphic
designers.
For the production and transmission of Tesla’s energy loaded beams
a very strong repulsive force was required. Such force was not known
at the time, nor has it ever been observed. The beams themselves had
to be very thin, with a cross sectional diameter measuring less than 1/
10,000 of a millimetre. Beams of such thinness would ensure that
‘ionised’ (electrically charged) air molecules would be repulsed, that is,
kept away, thereby providing a practically empty channel. Within this
channel the beam would be kept collimated, again thanks to the
repulsive force of the surrounding air ions. In this way the propagation
of electric currents would be secured without losses. A very interesting
idea perhaps, but far removed from reality.
Tesla claimed that his ‘beam’ would have an ‘electromagnetic
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