Nikola Tesla - Free-Energy Devices

HIGH FREQUENCY AND HIGH POTENTIAL CURRENTS. 321tinued experiment and observation, both with steady and varyingcurrents, is elicited by the interest which is at present taken inthis subject, and by the manifestly erroneous ideas which aredaily propounded in journals on this subject.I may illustrate an effect of the electrostatic force by anotherstriking experiment, but before, I must call your attention to oneor two facts. I have said before, that when the medium betweentwo oppositely electrified bodies is strained beyond a certainlimit it gives way and, stated in popular language, theopposite electric chargesunite and neutralize each other. Thiswhen the forcebreaking down of the medium occurs principallyacting between the bodies is steady, or varies at a moderate rate.Were the variation sufficiently rapid, such a destructive breakwould not occur, no matter how great the force, for all the en-convection and mechanical andergy would be spent in radiation,chemical action. Thus the spark length, or greatest distancewhich a spark will jump between the electrified bodies is theFIG. 170a. FIG. 170b.smaller, the greater the variation or time rate of change. Butthis rule may be taken to be true only in a general way, whencomparing rates which are widely different.I will show you by an experiment the difference in the effectproduced by a rapidly varying and a steady or moderately varyingforce. I have here two large circular brass plates p p (Fig.170# and Fig. 1706), supported on movable insulating stands onthe table, connected to the ends of the secondary of a coil similarto the one used before. I place the plates ten or twelve inchesapart and set the coil to work. You see the whole space betweenthe plates, nearly two cubic feet,filled with uniform light, Fig.170. This lightis due to the streamers you have seen in the firstexperiment, which are now much more intense. I have alreadypointed out the importance of these streamers in commercial apparatusand their still greater importance in some purely scientificinvestigations. Often they are too weak to be visible, but