[deMolay]

This is a cool link. It show's Art Bell's power generating antenna. 350 volts without any input source other than the atmosphere and the earth? Check it out maybe Nickola Tesla was onto something. http://www.ccrane.com/library/art-bell.11.19.02.aspx

[gnm]

And I have a 200,000 volt finger of doom! Static electricity that is... I doubt if he can jack an inverter into it and run a light bulb. Or even run a flashlight.

-G

[deMolay]

Would it be static? Read any of Tesla's work?

[animal]

but thats useless if its 0.00001 amps.

P = IV

[Googolplex]

Soon after the antenna went up, Art put his hand to it and, well, as he put it, "I had the crap shocked out of me. . . several times." Somehow that enormous antenna, free from any connections to a power source, was generating 350 volts. "There's no wind," Art says, "and it's not static generated." The power company couldn't give him any answers, and the only way to get rid of the voltage before it ruined Art's equipment - or really hurt someone - was to take it to ground. "I drove eight-foot rods into the ground . . . and finally got rid of the voltage. It's very curious. Where is the power coming from? It's coming from . . . I don't know where.

He doesn't know? Really? And hes a HAM??

Gee, it can recieve radio waves from everywhere on earth. You don't suppose that maybe, I don't know, an antenna designed to pick up as much electromagnetic radiation as possible which is as big as this one might pick up a god awful lot of electromagnetic radiation? Who'd a thunk it?

[FoxV]

just feel glad he didn't start talking about Zero point energy

[gnm]

Whatever - so static might not be the right word - but its just voltage differential - BFD - Its like 2k volts on a 200 ft antenna tower -- like the ones the radio station use. No big secret. I think mister Bell needs to take a basic electrical engineering oourse at the local college. Voltage it is... POWER it ain't....

-G

[bobcousins]

The Tesla effect : invoking the mystical/occult power of the mad genius Nikola Tesla to propose alternative physics and/or perfectly ordinary physics that just isn't significant. Usually used by people with little real understanding of physics.

[deMolay]

I wouldn't discount Tesla. He build the first hydro electric generating station in the world, it is still running at Niagara Falls. He invented the induction motor. He had over 700 patents. He was eccentric yes, a genius yes. I dare say he knew more about electricity than any of you crystal radio neophytes. http://www.nickf.com/tesla.htm

[oiless]

http://www.fieldlines.com/comments/2005 ... showrate=1

[deMolay]

Thanks for the answer oiless. It was an honest question.

[Devil]

I wouldn't discount Tesla. He build the first hydro electric generating station in the world, it is still running at Niagara Falls. He invented the induction motor. He had over 700 patents. He was eccentric yes, a genius yes. I dare say he knew more about electricity than any of you crystal radio neophytes. http://www.nickf.com/tesla.htm

Sorry, not true

The first industrial use of hydropower to generate electricity occurred in 1880, when 16 brush-arc lamps were powered using a water turbine at the Wolverine Chair Factory in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The first U.S. hydroelectric power plant opened on the Fox River near Appleton, Wisconsin, on September 30, 1882.

Niagara was not switched on until 1896. He also invented such things as death rays, extraterrestial communications with other planets etc. Genius he may have been but he was also a fruitcake.

[gnm]

Thanks for the answer oiless. It was an honest question.

And I gave an honest answer. If you think you can get POWER and not just volts outta something like that then by all means build one. I have played with antenna differentials, homemade batteries and such when I was a teenager. Interesting yes, POWER no...
If you really want to make power try these guys
Otherpower

IMHO Tesla's best contribution was his skill with and promotion of AC power....

-G

[Yossarian]

IMHO Tesla's best contribution was his skill with and promotion of AC power....

Making all of our communications here possible today We owe a lot to that "crank"

[Caoimhan]

Don't forget that he invented radio. Franconi got the patent, but it was later proven that Tesla had invented it first, and was retroactively granted the patent (a year after his death).

[gnm]

Well you won't hear me calling him a crank.. He was a genius! An eccentric one perhaps - but show me one who isn't... I will disagree with the people that think the government is hiding brilliant free-power inventions of Tesla... etc..etc...

-G