Deadly Weapon Nikola Tesla to End the War Tesla inherited from his father a deep hatred of war. Throughout his life, he sought a technological way to end warfare. He thought that war could be converted into, a mere spectacle of machines. In 1931 Tesla announced to reporters at a press conference that he was on the verge of discovering an entirely new source of energy. Asked to explain the nature of the power, he replied, The idea first came upon me as a tremendous shock... I can only say at this time that it will come from an entirely new and unsuspected source. War clouds were again darkening Europe. On 11 July 1934 the headline on the front page of the New York Times read, TESLA, AT 78, BARES NEW DEATH BEAM. The article reported that the new invention will send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles... Tesla stated that the death beam would make war impossible by offering every country an invisible Chinese wall. The idea generated considerable interest and controversy. Tesla went immediately to J. P. Morgan, Jr. in search of financing to build a prototype of his invention. Morgan was unconvinced. Tesla also attempted to deal directly with Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain of Great Britain. But when Chamberlain resigned upon discovering that he had been out-maneuvered by Hitler at Munich, interest in Teslas anti-war weapon eventually collapsed. By 1937 it was clear that war would soon break out in Europe. Frustrated in his attempts to generate interest and financing for his peace beam, he sent an elaborate technical paper, including diagrams, to a number of Allied nations including the United States, Canada, England, France, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. Titled New Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy Through Natural Media, the paper provided the first technical description of what is today called a charged particle beam weapon. What set Teslas proposal apart from the usual run of fantasy death rays was a unique vacuum chamber with one end open to the atmosphere. Tesla devised a unique vacuum seal by directing a high-velocity air stream at the tip of his gun to maintain high vacua. The necessary pumping action would be accomplished with a large Tesla turbine. Of all the countries to receive Teslas proposal, the greatest interest came from the Soviet Union. In 1937 Tesla presented a plan to the Amtorg Trading Corporation, an alleged Soviet arms front in New York City. Two years later, in 1939, one stage of the plan was tested in the USSR and Tesla received a check for $25,000. Tesla hoped that his invention would be used for purely defensive purposes, and thus would become an anti-war machine. His system required a series of power plants located along a countrys coast that would scan the skies in search of enemy aircraft. Since the beam was projected in a straight line, it was only effective for about 200 miles — the distance of the curvature of the earth. Tesla also contemplated peacetime applications for his particle beam, one being to transmit power without wires over long distances. Another radical notion he proposed was to heat up portions of the upper atmosphere to light the sky at night — a man-made aurora borealis. Whether Teslas idea was ever taken seriously is still a mater of conjecture. Most experts today consider his idea infeasible. Though, his death beam bears an uncanny resemblance to the charged-particle beam weapon developed by both the United States and the Soviet Union during the cold war. Nonetheless, Teslas dream for a technological means to end war seems as impossible now as it did when he proposed the idea in the 1930s. . About the Death Ray of Tesla Also called the Peace Ray and teleforce, the account refers to Teslas macroscopic particle beam projector, first mentioned publicly in the New York Sun, July 10, 1934 [Tesla Said, p.108]. The device, which was based upon a large Van de Graaff generator of unique design and a special type of open ended vacuum tube, comprised a system for the acceleration of very small charged metallic particles to prodigiously high velocity—about 48 times the speed of sound—according to Tesla. The particles were projected out of the tube by means of electro-static repulsion. As can be seen from Teslas words written in a letter to J.P. Morgan, Jr. on November 29, 1934 it was intended for use in national defense. Teslas van de Graff generator. I have made recent discoveries of inestimable value which are referred in the marked passage of the clipping enclosed... [possibly Dr. Tesla Visions the End of Aircraft In War, Syracuse Herald, October 21, 1934] The flying machine has completely demoralized the world, so much that in some cities, as London and Paris, people are in mortal fear from aerial bombing. The new means I have perfected afford absolute protection against this and other forms of attack. The tube was designed to project a single row of highly charged particles. According to Tesla there would be no dispersion whatever, even at great distance. Since the cross section of the carriers might be reduced to almost microscopic dimensions, an immense concentration of energy, practically irrespective of distance, could be attained. In 1934 Tesla spoke with an S. M. Kintner of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company regarding further development of the particle-beam device. There are two letters dated April 5, 1934 tfcbooks/images/correspondence/ntc-17.htm#IMG and April 7, 1934 tfcbooks/images/correspondence/ntc-18.htm#IMG that refer to these discussions. A Machine to End War, Liberty, February 1935 tfcbooks/tesla/1935-02-00.htm Tesla Tries to Prevent World War II, Prodigal Genius, 1944 — Unpublished Chapter 34 tfcbooks/tesla/1944-00-00.htm The Eternal Source of Energy of the Universe, Origin and Intensity of Cosmic Rays, New York, October 13, 1932 tfcbooks/tesla/1932-10-13.htm SELECTED TESLA PATENTS: Electrical Transformer — High-frequency power supplies for lighting and electrical transmission. tfcbooks/patents/transform.htm Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels or Vehicles — Wireless remote control tfcbooks/patents/vessel.htm Valvular Conduit — A mechanical diode or one-way valve with no moving parts and a high temperature gas disk turbine tfcbooks/patents/valvular.htm
Posted on: Fri, 01 Aug 2014 19:49:09 +0000
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