A commemorative thunderstorm. These were standing waves. Resonance and antipodes. Burned generator. Return to New York.

During experiments with high-voltage currents - up to several million volts - conducted in the laboratory at Houston Street, 46, there were powerful discharges. These were artificial lightning, the study of nature and behavior of which Tesla paid much attention. His plans stretched far: he dreamed of conquering lightning, making these powerful discharges of atmospheric electricity perform useful work, tame nature. Tesla saw in dreams, as in the distant future this terrible and destructive phenomenon will serve man.

This time the "bliss of success" came completely unexpectedly. In April 1899, when the "agony of failure" reached its apogee, Tesla found in a morning post a letter with a stamp of a small town lost in the gorges of the Rocky Mountains. One of Tesla's many fans wrote: Lenard Kurtis, an electrical engineer who worked at the power plant of the "Colorado Sources Company" resort. He suggested Tesla move to Colorado, where he promised to provide land for the laboratory and electricity from the station where he worked. But the most tempting in the letter was a description of frequent thunderstorms with powerful lightning.

The proposal of Curtis is tempting, but where can I get money to carry out my plans? Fortunately, the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel, where Tesla lived for many years, considered him his personal friend and, having learned about the suspension of experiments due to lack of funds, handed him $ 30,000. With bright hopes for the success of the planned experiment, Tesla, with a small staff of his staff, came to Colorado in May 1899. The place recommended by Curtis - "Colorado springs" (Colorado Springs) - was located on a vast plateau at an altitude of 2 thousand meters. Tesla was struck by the exceptional purity of the mountain air, the incomparable beauty of the sky, the beautiful view of the chain of high mountains and, most importantly, the amazing silence and seclusion of the area. Immediately the work on the construction of a small laboratory and equipment with its required installation began to boil. On the entrance doors of the building being built, Tesla ordered to make an inscription from Dante's "Hell": "Leave the hope of everyone coming here!"

Tesla carefully monitored the progress of the installation and delved into all details to the smallest detail. Paving new paths in science, he had to design every detail of the devices and devices that had never been seen before, the success of his research depended on the quality of the workmanship. In addition, working with voltages of millions of volts, it was impossible to admit any negligence, inaccuracies and mistakes. Without waiting for the lab to be installed, Tesla began to observe the thunderstorms, which were really exceptionally frequent and strong in this wilderness. Many of them, Tesla wrote of the lightning he saw, resembled fire trees with a barrel pointing up or down. I did not manage to establish the way of their formation and create them artificially. "

Delight Tesla was no end: he learned about the lightning is a lot of unknown. Soon, he said, he "knew more about lightning than God himself knows about them."

He was also not disappointed that, as if in retaliation for attempting to steal from Prometheus his secret, once in a thunderstorm an air wave from a lightning strike swept the almost finished laboratory building. Such interference of nature, delaying the end of the installation of the laboratory, even pleased Tesla - he had a chance to check some of his assumptions, and the last thunderstorm completely confirmed them.

Observations of thunderstorms and the accompanying changes in the Earth's potential Tesla led by means of a specially designed installation. It was a transformer, one end of the primary winding of which was grounded, and the second, which ended with a ball, was raised to a high altitude. Since the capacity of the ball depended on the height of its ascent above the ground, the pin, on which it was fortified, was made integral, allowing to change the height of the lift.

In the secondary winding of this transformer was included a highly sensitive self-tuning device connected to a recording device.

Any change in the Earth's potential caused current pulses in the windings of the primary winding, creating secondary currents in the secondary winding marked by the recording device. Observation of these instruments has shown that the earth's potential is continuously fluctuating. Tesla was interested in studying these phenomena with interest, trying to find their explanation. Especially significant were these fluctuations during thunderstorms and lightning discharges. Tesla's attention did not slip away. One very strange, at first glance, fact is that the devices marked stronger oscillations of the Earth's potential at distant discharges than in discharges occurring near them.

How to explain this strangeness? It would seem that distant lightning discharges should cause smaller fluctuations in the electrical potential of the Earth at the location of the apparatus than the closer ones. However, Tesla and his assistants observed exactly the opposite - distant discharges at a certain moment caused stronger fluctuations in the potential.

Tesla thought about this phenomenon for a long time. He remembered that even when preparing for the lecture at the Franklin Institute and the National Association in St. Louis, he had an idea that he then rejected as incredible, about the possibility of using the planet itself to transmit electricity over long distances. It was possible to do this only by creating standing waves in the Earth, causing their appearance by changing the Earth's potential. Perhaps, it was this phenomenon that he was observing right now, here in the "Colorado Sources"? Instinctively, Tesla felt that in the coming days he would find an explanation for strange observations, and it would confirm his previous guesses. Finally, during one of the thunderstorms, the solution was found. Tesla described this discovery:

"The third of July - I will never forget this date - I received the first irrefutable experimental proof of the truth, which is of great importance for the progress of mankind.The dense mass of heavily charged clouds accumulated in the west, and a terrible storm broke out in the evening.To spend most of his rage in the mountains, It raced at an incredible speed over the plains.Over long intervals of time, there were long-lasting lightning discharges.My observations were now made easier and became more accurate due to the experience I gained.I learned how to operate quickly with my instruments and prepared for observation.The recording instruments were appropriately adjusted, And their testimony became weaker as the distance to the thunderstorm increased until they disappeared completely.I watched, full of passionate expectation.As I thought, after a while the readings of the instrument appeared again, becoming stronger and going through the maximum, gradually fell off and again The same thing was repeated many times at regular intervals, until the thunder, which, as it followed from simple calculations, moved with an almost constant speed, did not retire over a distance of about three hundred kilometers. However, even then these strange phenomena did not stop, but continued with a non-decreasing intensity. Subsequently, similar observations were made by my assistant Fritz Lowenstein, and soon the collected information allowed to establish irrefutably the true nature of this miraculous phenomenon. There was no doubt left - I watched the standing waves. "

One of the most important tasks that Tesla sought to solve at the Colorado Laboratory was to obtain a clear answer to the question: is the Earth an electrically charged body or not? If the answer to this question were negative, Tesla's plan would have been unfulfilled.

However, the observation of the phenomenon of standing waves in the Earth clearly indicated both the presence of an electric charge of the Earth and the possibility of causing standing waves in it artificially.

The elucidation of this fact enabled Tesla to carry out an experiment that was very important for the possible implementation of his further plans. Is it possible to create standing waves in the Earth artificially by a powerful discharge, cause resonance oscillations in it and then use them for various purposes?

Tesla thought deeply about this very difficult experience. In a tall wooden laboratory building with an opening, like an astronomical observatory, a reinforcing transformer was mounted on the roof. It consisted of two coils: on a huge fence-like base, coils of an unusual in size primary coil were wound. The secondary coil of this "amplifying transmitter" was connected to a mast, towering 60 meters above the ground and ending with a copper ball with a diameter of 1 meter. The mast consisted of separate sections and could be lengthened or shortened. Due to the fact that the roof above the building was sliding, there were no objects around the secondary coil and mast for a considerable distance.

All windings of these coils were designed so that when a current of several thousand volts passed through the primary coil and at a standard frequency of alternating current (60 cycles per second), a current of very high voltage and high frequency could be obtained in the secondary coil. When this coil was discharged to earth, the voltage reached several million volts at a frequency of up to 150,000 cycles per second.

The laboratory equipment consisted not only of the amplifying transformer described, but also of many other devices, mainly induction coils with different winding characteristics.

As soon as electric power was supplied from the power plant of the resort "Colorado springs" to a laboratory on a special line, it was possible to start an unusually bold experiment. From the words of Tesla himself and one of his closest assistants Koloman Chito, the experiment was as follows.

"When I give the signal, turn on the current, but not for more than a second," said Tesla Chito, who stood at the switchboard. The inventor himself placed himself so that he could see both the switchboard and the top of the mast.

"Let's begin," Tesla commanded.

Chito turned on the disconnector and turned it off immediately. A lot of lightning in the form of hairy discharges appeared on the windings of the secondary coil and at the top of the mast. - Great! Everything goes well. Once more, "Tesla said, and Chito repeated the switch-on and off. The phenomenon of discharges was repeated.

"Now I want to look at the discharge through the top of the mast." I'll be outside. Chito, turn on the current and do not turn it off until I give a signal. "With that, Tesla left the laboratory and soon ordered the power to turn on.

When the disconnector was switched on again, there was a characteristic cracking of discharges, which soon assumed ominous dimensions. The sounds grew louder and louder and resembled an artillery cannonade. The building of the laboratory lit up with a bluish light, all equipment emitted fiery needles, the characteristic smell of ozone flew. Continuous discharges created noise, supplementing the roar at the top of the mast. Chito, who was standing by the shield, saw sparks flying out of his fingers, becoming longer and longer. They pricked like needles, and Chito thought with excitement that he could not turn off the current when he heard Tesla's signal. But there was no signal, and the rumbling was intensifying.

Outside, the picture was even more grand. From a ball fixed on a mast, more and more large sparks popped up, which soon turned into blue, and then blue threads. But the threads gave way to the fire bars thickness from the arm, and finally, lightning strikes lasted less than 135 feet (41 m), there was a thunder that was heard, as the eyewitnesses later told, at a distance of up to 15 miles (24.1 km) .

Tesla clapped his hands and rejoiced like a child: the entire course of the experiment confirmed his assumptions. A little more, one or two more minutes, and you can start watching the standing waves. But suddenly everything stopped. There was a silence, like silence, coming after a fierce artillery battle.

"Chito, Chito," cried Tesla, "why did you do this?" Rather turn it on again, I have not signaled yet.

In response, Chito silently pointed to the instruments: the arrows of ammeters and voltmeters stood at zero. Tesla immediately realized that the line was off.

"Chito, call the station soon." They broke the contract. They should not have turned off the current without my order.

At the power station "Colorado Springs" a telephone rang.

- Why did you turn off the line? We do not get electricity. Turn it on immediately.

- Enable? Why, you burned the generator, "Chito heard an angry voice. - You will never receive electricity again.

Tesla did not foresee this. He calculated all his equipment for the currents needed for the experiment, but the generator at the power plant was not protected from overload, and its winding burned down. The station administration refused to connect the line to another generator and reported that in the future Tesla would receive electricity only from the burnt generator when it was repaired. But it will happen, according to the chief engineer, not earlier than a month.

Tesla persuaded him to allow himself to lead the repair and really managed to organize the work so that the generator was repaired in a week. This time, he calculated his winding for a short circuit and provided protection. Ten days later the experiments were continued. As a result, Tesla confirmed the possibility of causing in the Earth the phenomenon of electrical resonance and getting standing waves. He assumed that the spread of the waves that appeared in it occurred from the "Colorado sources" in all directions, all expanding circles, reaching the surface of the earth. They allegedly converged with an allegedly increasing intensity at a point diametrically opposite to Colorado, somewhere near the French islands of New Amsterdam and St. Paul, between the southern tip of Africa and the south-western corner of Australia. Returning back to the "Colorado Springs", the wave echo was again amplified by an oscillator (an amplifying transformer) and sent back to the antipodes, to the opposite point of the globe.

What could give this for practical purposes? Is it realistic to grasp the "whims" of these standing waves anywhere in the world? Where is the equipment by means of which it would be possible to realize at least the power spent on creating a standing wave?

Tesla subsequently answered all these questions. He was well aware of the wide variety of possibilities for using those high frequency currents that he was going to transmit by standing waves for lighting, heating, control, movement of electric vehicles on land and in the air, and the actions of teleautomatics.

In the early autumn of 1899, he returned to New York with a huge supply of new observations, many photographs, unparalleled in the laboratory discharge and, he thought, a remarkable discovery of the possibility of creating standing waves. Sincere friends of his, delighted with the results achieved, asked to publish a scientific article, which justifies the possibility of transmitting electricity without wires through the Earth to any distances. Johnson, whose friendship became even closer, offered to publish such an article in the magazine Century Magazine edited by him and soon received it from Tesla. But what kind of article was it? Johnson read it, and in his heart anger aroused against his friend, the raging fantasy that took him far from reality. Philosophical arguments, pictures of the distant future and not a single fact, not a solid scientific proof of the feasibility of the project!

Johnson returned Tesla three times to his article until he obtained from him the version that was placed in the June 1900 issue of the magazine titled "The problem of increasing mankind's energy reserves, with special recommendations on the use of solar energy."

How many truly prophetic thoughts Tesla expressed in her! On the role of the muscular power of man in the development of civilization and about the ways of its increase; On the role of other energy resources and on the three ways of extracting the energy of the Sun; The role of iron in the development of human society and the metal of the future - aluminum; On ways to increase coal production and gas engines; On the use of the internal heat of the Earth; About the possibility of creating "self-acting" machines and machines that have a "brain"; On the principle of selectivity and the possibility of controlling automata at any distance; About the transmission of electricity without wires to anywhere in the world and the possibility of interplanetary radio messages, and dozens of thoughts, the most important of which is boundless optimism, faith in the power of the human mind.

The article made a great impression. Again the name of Tesla did not disappear from the pages of the press. Experiments of the scientist in October 1899 interested in John Pierpont Morgan. The head of the world-famous banker's house did not differ in philanthropy and would not pay attention to projections, but Tesla's experiments could not help shaking even his imagination. Soon the scientist was invited to the house of Morgan, secretly nourished by the passion of being a patron of geniuses.

It is not known whether this passion of Morgan or the far-reaching calculations of the huge profits that promised the implementation of Tesla's plans in case of their reality led the banker to help in the implementation of the idea of ​​a worldwide transmission of electricity, but at the end of 1899 Morgan, after learning about the financial difficulties of Tesla And his complete loneliness, offered the inventor 150 thousand dollars. Such an insignificant compared with his colossal capital costs gave Morgan the opportunity to use all the knowledge and experience of Tesla to create what, if implemented, promised unheard of revenues. Pierpont Morgan took part in the implementation of the plans of Nikola Tesla! "Will he be the second Westinghouse? That's what the success of the matter depends on," Tesla thought.

But before Westinghouse lay all forty specific Tesla patents for multiphase currents. Before Morgan on the coffee table lay only the room "Century Magazine" with an article full of bright hopes of an inspired dreamer.