Nikola Tesla's Teleforce & Telegeodynamics Proposals

by Nikola Tesla

In the 1930s inventor Nikola Tesla announced to the world two astonishing new inventions. The first was a particle-beam projector that Tesla intended to be used as an instrument of national defense. He called his system "teleforce." One year later, on July 10, 1935, Tesla claimed a method to transmit mechanical energy with minimal loss over any terrestrial distance, allowing for a new means of communication and a technique for the location of subterranean mineral deposits. He dubbed it the "art of telegeodynamics." These two important papers, hidden for more than 60 years, are presented for the first time in NIKOLA TESLA'S TELEFORCE AND TELEGEODYNAMICS PROPOSALS. The principles behind teleforce the particle-beam weapon, and telegeodynamics the mechanical earth-resonance concept for seismic exploration, are fully addressed. In addition to copies of the original documents, typed on Tesla's official stationery, this work also includes two Reader's Aid sections that guide the reader through the more technical aspects of each paper. The papers are followed by Commentary sections which provide historical background and functional explanations of the two devices. Significant newspaper articles and headline accounts are provided to document the first mention of these proposals. A large Appendix provides a wealth of related material and background information, followed by a Bibliography section and Index.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist. He is best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.
Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla first studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree. He then gained practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His AC induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.
Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.
After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943. Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the International System of Units (SI) measurement of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.