Nikola Tesla - Free-Energy Devices

888 INVENTIONS OF NIKOLA TESLA.consumed ; though the writer has observed some irregularities inthis respect.The second cause alluded to, which possibly may not be present,is due to the tendency of a machine of such high frequencyto maintain a practically constant current. When the arc islengthened, the electromotive force rises in proportion and thearc appears to be more persistent.Such a machine iseminently adapted to maintain a constantcurrent, but it is very unfit for a constant potential. As a matterof fact, in certain types of such machines a nearly constant currentis an almost unavoidable result. As the number of poles orpolar projections is greatly increased, the clearance becomes ofgreat importance. One has really to do with a great number ofvery small machines. Then there is the impedance in the armature,enormously augmented by the high frequency. Then,again, the magnetic leakage is facilitated. If there are three orfour hundred alternate poles, the leakage is so great that it isvirtually the same as connecting, in a two-pole machine, the polesby a piece of iron. This disadvantage, it is true, may be obviatedmore or less by using a field throughout of the same polarity,but then one encounters difficulties of a different nature. Allthese things tend to maintain a constant current in the armaturecircuit.In this connection it is interesting to notice that even to-dayengineers are astonished at the performance of a constant currentmachine, just as, some years ago, they used to consider it an extraordinaryperformance if a machine was capable of maintaininga constant potential difference between the terminals. Yet oneresult is just as easily secured as the other. It must only beremembered that in an inductive apparatus of any kind, if constantpotential is required, the inductive relation between theprimary or exciting and secondary or armature circuit must bethe closest possible ; whereas, in an apparatus for constant currentjust the opposite is required. Furthermore, the oppositionto the current's flow in the induced circuit must be as small aspossible in the former and as great as possible in the latter case.But opposition to a current's flow may be caused in more thanone way. Itmay be caused by ohmic resistance or self-induction.One may make the induced circuit of a dynamo machineor transformer of such high resistance that when operating devicesof considerably smaller resistance within very wide limits a