Nikola Tesla - Free-Energy Devices

HTGH FREQUKNCY AND HIGH POTENTIAL CURRENTS. 275with inconceivable rapidity? The existence of such an electrostatic,rhythmically throbbing force of a vibrating electrostaticfield would show a possible way how solids might have formedfrom the ultra-gaseous uterus, and how transverse and all kindsof vibrations may be transmitted through a gaseous medium fillingall space. Then, ether might be a true fluid, devoid ofrigidity, and at rest, it being merely necessary as a connectinglink to enable interaction. What determines the rigidity of abody ? It must be the speed and the amount of motive matter.In a gas the speed may be considerable, but the density is exceedinglysmall ;in a liquid the speed would be likely to be small,though the density may be considerable and in both cases the;inertia resistance offered to displacement is practically nil. Butplace a gaseous (or liquid) column in an intense,rapidly alternatingelectrostatic field, set the particles vibrating with enormousspeeds, then the inertia resistance asserts A itself. body mightmove with more or less freedom through the vibrating mass, butas a whole it would be rigid.There is a subject which I must mention in connection withthese experiments it is that of high vacua. This is a : subject,the study of which is not only interesting, but useful, for itmaylead to results of great practical importance. In commercial ap-'paratus, such as incandescent lamps, operated from ordinarysystems of distribution, a much higher vacuum than is obtained atpresent would not secure a very great advantage. In such a casethe work isperformed on the filament, and the is little gas concernedthe ; improvement, therefore, would be but trifling.Butwhen we begin to use very high frequencies and potentials, theaction of the gas becomes all important, and the degreeof exhaustionmaterially modifies the results. As long as ordinarycoils, even very large ones, were used, the study of the subjectwas limited, because justat a point when it became most interestingit had to be interrupted on account of the " non-striking "vacuum being reached. But at present we are able to obtainfrom a small disruptive discharge coil potentials much higherthan even the largestcoil was capable of giving, and, what ismore, we can make the potentialalternate with great rapidity.Both of these results enable us now to pass a luminous dischargethrough almost any vacua obtainable, and the field of our investigationsis greatly extended. Think we as we may, of all thepossible directions to develop a practical illnminant, the line of