The idea of harnessing cosmic rays came to Tesla when he was working on early developments in radioactivity, something he was doing prior to Roentgen, who later was credited with the discovery of X-rays. Tesla found that the sun was emitting a “peculiar radiation of great energy,” which he later determined to be cosmic rays. While others focused on cosmic rays from far off stars, Tesla noted that this was far outshined by cosmic energy coming from our own sun. He believed that the sun emits “a ray marvelous in the inconceivable minuteness of its particles and transcending speed of their motion, vastly exceeding that of light.” This ray, “by impinging against the cosmic dust generates a secondary radiation.” The energy was “relatively feeble but fairly penetrative.”
Could this cosmic, or radiant, energy be harnessed? Some thought so. In 1901, Tesla patented an “Apparatus for the Utilization of Radiant Energy.” The apparatus consisted of an antenna stuck high into the air and wired to one side of a capacitor and to an earth ground. The difference in potential would charge the capacitor, the oscillating output of which could be controlled with a switching device. Since energy comes from both the sun and “other sources of radiant energy, like cosmic rays,” the device would work both day and night.
Alas, while Tesla did claim to have harnessed cosmic rays, he lamented that, again, technological capabilities were not yet advanced enough to efficiently capture the cosmic force and use it as a reliable source of energy.
On the eve of his 76th birthday Tesla still hoped to build a large scale version of this “motive device.” Being able to do so would “eliminate the need of coal, oil, gas” as energy sources. Unfortunately for all of us, he recognized that circumstances were not favorable at the time. Today, engineers are still trying to figure out how to harness radiant energy.
[The above is extracted from my e-book, Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time, downloadable on Amazon]
David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.
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I always enjoy reading your posts.
I’m glad you like them!
Kind of reminds me of a brilliant but peculiar old acquaintance who had made his millions creating some of that software that decides when to buy and sell stocks. He had also figured out a way to “power the grid” by collecting electrical energy from the atmosphere through thin wires held aloft by kites or balloons. Alas, no millions from that one.
Hope the acquaintance shared some of his/her millions with you. People have made the argument that Tesla was “ahead of his time” in the sense that technological capacity wasn’t ready yet for his ideas. On the other hand, people like Gates and Jobs and Musk are known for pushing the envelope and (at least to some extent) creating the advances to make their ideas feasible (and profitable). I suppose it comes down to having great ideas, the drive and financing to put them into practice, and a bit of lucky timing.
I’m intrigued by the kite/balloon flown wires idea. Doesn’t sound like it would work, but who am I to judge. 🙂
I didn’t think it was something that would work either. There was a bit of “conspiracy-think” going on in the background of the whole thing. (“Rich” people suffer from all the same maladies as everyone else.)
Richard Branson once suggested that a good way to get rich is to take something already existing, improve it in some way or another, and then re-brand it. If you think about it, that’s a great deal of what people like Musk do.
Electric cars and batteries aren’t something new, but Musk invested in the improvement of both while at the same time creating a brand (and market) in much the way Steve Jobs did with Apple. Likewise with SpaceX, which finds easy targets in the products of companies allowed to slack for government contracts.
“Disruptive” technologies perhaps, but mainly in the business sense. Truly big shifts are usually the result of many, many ideas arriving at the same place, like the development of modern computers or jetliners.
Excellent points. Edison was big on rebranding. Tesla tried for big disruption and he died destitute.
I agree with your final point. It’s basically what Obama meant when he spoke to counter the “We built this” tagline of Republicans. He perhaps didn’t get it out right and it was mercilessly and dishonestly re-interpreted to suit the Republican party’s abuse of it (similar to Clinton’s “deplorables” comment), but he basically meant that everything we do, all our achievements, rely not just on our own initiative and skills (without which not much would be accomplished), but also on both the prior work of others and the current work that goes unnoticed (e.g., cars and oil profits would not have taken off as much as it did if the U.S. hadn’t put tons of money into building an interstate highway infrastructure).