[TCML] Question on Tesla quote...

[Anthony Etersque <etersque26@xxxxxxxx>]

Hello everyone,

I am trying to figure out what several paragraphs from “The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla,” mean. I seem to be somewhat confused as to the terminology. The paragraphs in question are on pages 136-137:

“One of the most interesting results arrived at in pursuing these experiments, is the demonstration of the fact that a gaseous medium, upon which vibration is impressed by rapid changes of electrostatic potential, is rigid. In illustration of this result an experiment made by Mr. Tesla may be cited....This vibration would seem to show beyond doubt that the thread possessed rigidity, at least to transversal displacements.

Many experiments were tried to demonstrate this property in air at ordinary pressure. Though no positive evidence has been obtained, it is thought, nevertheless, that a high frequency brush or streamer, if the frequency could be pushed far enough, would be decidedly rigid. A small sphere might then be moved within it quite freely, but if thrown against it the sphere would rebound. An ordinary flame cannot possess rigidity to a marked degree because the vibration is directionless; but an electric arc, it is believed, must possess that property more or less. A luminous band excited in a bulb by repeated discharges of a Leyden jar must also possess rigidity, and if deformed and suddenly released should vibrate."

These two paragraphs, I have no problem with. If I am understanding them correctly, they are saying that Tesla wished to prove that a gas subjected to high frequency current is rigid. He apparently succeeded in doing so. The next paragraph, however, I have trouble with:

"From like considerations other conclusions of interest are reached. The most probable medium filling the space is one consisting of independent carriers immersed in an insulating fluid. If through this medium enormous electrostatic stresses are assumed to act, which vary rapidly in intensity, it would allow the motion of a body through it, yet it would be rigid and elastic, although the fluid itself might be devoid of these properties. Furthermore, on the assumption that the independent carriers are of any configuration such that the fluid resistance to motion in one direction is greater than in another, a stress of that nature would cause the carriers to arrange themselves in groups, since they would turn to each other their sides of greatest electric density, in which position the fluid resistance to approach would be smaller than to receding. If in a medium of the above characteristics a brush would be formed by a steady potential, an exchange of the carriers would go on continually, and there would be less carriers per unit of volume in the brush than in the space at some distance from the electrode, this corresponding to rarefaction. If the potential were rapidly changing, the result would be very different; the higher the frequency of the pulses, the slower would be the exchange of the carriers; finally, the motion of translation through measurable space would cease, and, with a sufficiently high frequency and intensity of the stress, the carriers would be drawn towards the electrode, and compression would result.”

What does this paragraph mean? First off, when he says “the most probable medium filling the space is one consisting of independent carriers immersed in an insulating fluid,” what “space” is it that he is referring to? Does he mean empty space (i.e. a vacuum)? By “independent carriers” are we to understand individual atomic charges? But then what would the “insulating fluid” be?

I am really dumbfounded by this sentence: “Furthermore, on the assumption that the independent carriers are of any configuration such that the fluid resistance to motion in one direction is greater than in another, a stress of that nature would cause the carriers to arrange themselves in groups, since they would turn to each other their sides of greatest electric density, in which position the fluid resistance to approach would be smaller than to receding.”

I will greatly appreciate any help anyone can give. The reason I want to understand this is because I would like to know how Tesla did a later experiment relating to this, at a lecture before the Commercial Club in Chicago. If anyone would like the newspaper article from 1899 describing this most interesting experiment, please email me off-list.

Anthony Etersque
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