The electrical problems of the present day lie largely in the economical transmission of power and in the radical improvement of the means and methods of illumination. To many workers and thinkers in the domain of electrical invention, the apparatus and devices that are familiar, appear cumbrous and wasteful, and subject to severe limitations. They believe that the principles of current generation must be changed, the area of current supply be enlarged, and the appliances used by the consumer be at once cheapened and simplified. The brilliant successes of the past justify them in every expectancy of still more generous fruition.
The present volume is a simple record of the pioneer work done in such departments up to date, by Mr. Nikola Tesla, in whom the world has already recognized one of the foremost of modern electrical investigators and inventors. No attempt whatever has been made here to emphasize the importance of his researches and discoveries. Great ideas and real inventions win their own way, determining their own place by intrinsic merit. But with the conviction that Mr. Tesla is blazing a path that electrical development must follow for many years to come, the compiler has endeavored to bring together all that bears the impress of Mr. Tesla's genius, and is worthy of preservation. Aside from its value as showing the scope of his inventions, this volume may be of service as indicating the range of his thought. There is intellectual profit in studying the push and play of a vigorous and original mind.
Although the lively interest of the public in Mr. Tesla's work is perhaps of recent growth, this volume covers the results of full ten years. It includes his lectures, miscellaneous articles and discussions, and makes note of all his inventions thus far known, particularly those bearing on polyphase motors and the effects obtained with currents of high potential and high frequency. It will be seen that Mr. Tesla has ever pressed forward, barely pausing for an instant to work out in detail the utilizations that have at once been obvious to him of the new principles he has elucidated. Wherever possible his own language has been employed.
It may be added that this volume is issued with Mr. Tesla's sanction and approval, and that permission has been obtained for the re-publication in it of such papers as have been read before various technical societies of this country and Europe. Mr. Tesla has kindly favored the author by looking over the proof sheets of the sections embodying his latest researches. The work has also enjoyed the careful revision of the author's friend and editorial associate, Mr. Joseph Wetzler, through whose hands all the proofs have passed.
December, 1893.
T. C. M.
The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla - pdf
PART I.
CHAPTER I. - Biographical and Introductory.
CHAPTER II. - A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers.
CHAPTER III. - The Tesla Rotating Magnetic Field.—Motors with Closed Conductors.—Synchronizing Motors.
—Rotating Field Transformers.
CHAPTER IV. - Modifications and Expansions of the Tesla Polyphase Systems.
CHAPTER V. - Utilizing Familiar Types of Generators of the Continuous Current Type.
CHAPTER VI. - Method of Obtaining Desired Speed of Motor Or Generator.
CHAPTER VII. - Regulator for Rotary Current Motors.
CHAPTER VIII. - Single Circuit, Self-starting Synchronizing Motors.
CHAPTER IX. - Change from Double Current to Single Current Motors.
CHAPTER X. - Motor with "Current Lag" Artificially Secured.
CHAPTER XI. - Another Method of Transformation from a Torque to a Synchronizing Motor.
CHAPTER XII. - "Magnetic Lag" Motor.
CHAPTER XIII. - Method of Obtaining Difference of Phase by Magnetic Shielding.
CHAPTER XIV. - Type of Tesla Single-Phase Motor.
CHAPTER XV. - Motors With Circuits of Different Resistance.
CHAPTER XVI. - Motor with Equal Magnetic Energies in Field and Armature.
CHAPTER XVII. - Motors with Coinciding Maxima of Magnetic Effect in Armature and Field.
CHAPTER XVIII. - Motor Based on the Difference of Phase in the Magnetization of the Inner and Outer Parts
of an Iron Core.
CHAPTER XIX. - Another Type of Tesla Induction Motor.
CHAPTER XX. - Combinations of Synchronizing Motor and Torque Motor.
CHAPTER XXI. - Motor with a Condenser in the Armature Circuit.
CHAPTER XXII. - Motor with Condenser in One of the Field Circuits.
CHAPTER XXIII. - Tesla Polyphase Transformer.
CHAPTER XXIV. - Constant Current Transformer with Magnetic Shield Between Coils of Primary
and Secondary.
PART II.
CHAPTER XXV. - Introductory.—The Scope of The Tesla Lectures.
CHAPTER XXVI. - The New York Lecture. Experiments with Alternate Currents of Very High Frequency,
and Their
Application to Methods of Artificial Illumination, May 20, 1891.
CHAPTER XXVII. - The London Lecture. Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential
and High Frequency, February 3, 1892.
CHAPTER XXVIII. - The Philadelphia and St. Louis Lecture. On Light and Other High Frequency Phenomena,
February and March, 1893.
CHAPTER XXIX.- Tesla Alternating Current Generators for High Frequency.
CHAPTER XXX.- Alternate Current Electrostatic Induction Apparatus.
CHAPTER XXXI. - "Massage" with Currents of High Frequency.
CHAPTER XXXII. - Electric Discharge in Vacuum Tubes.
PART III.
CHAPTER XXXIII. - Method of Obtaining Direct from Alternating Currents.
CHAPTER XXXIV. - Condensers with Plates in Oil.
CHAPTER XXXV. - Electrolytic Registering Meter.
CHAPTER XXXVI. - Thermo-Magnetic Motors and Pyro-Magnetic Generators.
CHAPTER XXXVII. - Anti-Sparking Dynamo Brush and Commutator.
CHAPTER XXXVIII. - Auxiliary Brush Regulation of Direct Current Dynamos.
CHAPTER XXXIX. - Improvement in Dynamo and Motor Construction.
CHAPTER XL.- Tesla Direct Current Arc Lighting System.
CHAPTER XLI. - Improvement in Unipolar Generators.
PART IV.
CHAPTER XLII. - Mr. Tesla's Personal Exhibit at the World's Fair.
CHAPTER XLIII. - The Tesla Mechanical and Electrical Oscillators.