83 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
83 lines
4.7 KiB
Plaintext
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Tue 29 Mar 94 18:48
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By: David Arnold
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To: All
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Re: Tesla's Experiments With Resonance
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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what follows is part of an article and interview with Tesla by Allan L. Benson,
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published in The World To-Day, Vol. XXI, No. 8, February 1912, Page 1763-1767.
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The principle embodied in [experiments with resonance] interested Tesla, and he
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determined to try it upon a larger scale. He ordered from a steel company a
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steel link, two feet long and two inches thick. He was careful to specify that
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the steel should be of the best quality. As a matter of fact, the link was
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strong enough to bear a weight of hundreds of tons.
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Tesla fastened to this link an electric vibrator, no larger than an alarm-
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clock, but so constructed that the frequency of the vibrations could be altered
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at will. He set the vibrator to going and then began to vary the vibrations
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for the purpose of getting the vibrator in "tune" with the link. For a long
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time, nothing happened -- the vibrations of the link and of the machine did not
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chance to coincide. But at last he got them together, the great steel link
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began to tremble, increased its trembling until it dilated and contracted like
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a beating heart -- and finally broke!
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Sledge hammers could not have done it; crowbars could not have done it, but a
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fusillade of taps, no one of which would have harmed a baby, did it.
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Tesla was pleased. He had learned something. He wanted to learn more. He put
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his little vibrator in his coat pocket and went out to hunt a half-erected
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steel building. Down in the Wall Street district, he found one -- ten stories
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of steel framework without a brick or a stone laid around it. He clamped his
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vibrator to one of the beams, and fussed with the adjustment until he got it.
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"In a few minutes", he said, "I could feel the beam trembling. Gradually, the
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trembling increased in intensity and extended throughout the whole great mass
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of steel. Finally, the structure began to creak and weave, and the steel-
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workers came to the ground panic-stricken, believing that there had been an
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earthquake. Rumors spread that the building was about to fall, and the police
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reserves were called out. Before anything serious happened, I took off the
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vibrator, put it in my pocket and went away. But if I had kept on ten minutes
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more, I could have laid that building flat in the street. And, with the same
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vibrator, I could drop Brooklyn Bridge into the East River in less than an
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hour."
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Tesla says that he can split the earth in the same way -- split it as a boy
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would split an apple -- and forever end the career of man.
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This seems like quite a large order -- but see what he says about it.
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"The vibrations of the earth," said he, "have a periodicity of approximately
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one hour and forty-nine minutes. That is to say, if I strike the earth this
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instant, a wave of contraction goes through it that will come back in one hour
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and forty-nine minutes in the form of expansion. As a matter of fact, the
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earth, like everything else, is in a constant state of vibration. It is
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constantly contracting and expanding.
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"Now, suppose that at the precise moment when it begins to contract, I explode
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a ton of dynamite. That accelerates the contraction and, in one hour and
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forty-nine minutes, there comes an equally accelerated wave of expansion. When
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the wave of expansion ebbs, suppose I explode another ton of dynamite, thus
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further increasing the wave of contraction. And, suppose this performance be
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repeated, time after time. Is there any doubt as to what would happen? There
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is no doubt in my mind. The earth would be split in two. For the first time
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in man's history, he has the knowledge with which he may interfere with cosmic
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processes."
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I asked Tesla how long he thought it would take him to split the earth in two.
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He said he didn't know. Months might be required; perhaps a year or two.
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"But in a few weeks," he said, "I could set the earth's crust into such a state
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of vibration that it would rise and fall hundreds of feet, throwing rivers out
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of their beds, wrecking buildings, and practically destroying civilization.
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"The principle cannot fail. It is as powerful when applied to the earth as it
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is when applied to a [violin note shattering a] wineglass, a [boy pushing a man
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on a] swing, or a steel link. Any one who doubts should only bear in mind the
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illustration of the swing. A small boy, by each time adding a pound to the
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force with which a 200-pound man swings, can soon set the man swinging with the
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force of 500 pounds. It is necessary only to keep adding a little force at the
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right time."
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---
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* Origin: RAD BBS, Melrose, Oregon (93:9705/4)
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