What would be the ultimate solution to distribute the generated power all over the world, even to the most remote places?
You can read all of this in Tesla’s own words in these articles:
- 1919 Feb, Famous Scientific Illusions - part III: The Singular Misconception of the Wireless.
- 1919 May, The True Wireless
Both published in the Electrical Experimenter.
(there are more articles, but these are the most detailed)
Single Wire
To understand true wireless we must first understand single wire power distribution. We are so used to using two wires that we never even realize that the same can be accomplished using only one wire. Tesla uses a gas analogy to explain this, which in a way is funny because he believes that electricity actually is caused by a gaseous medium.
To make gas flow through a device it will have to go in on one end and out on another, that is why we use two wires. But we could connect a rubber balloon on the exit of our device leaving only one opening through which we can supply our gas flow. Then, instead of using a continuous flow we use an intermittent flow. First we fill our balloon, then we let our balloon empty again through our device, using the same air twice.
This can be done with a gas, and also with electricity. Using high frequency, high voltage we can light a bulb with only one wire going to the power supply. (the other wire goes to a small capacitance, our balloon)
In this picture you see this demonstrated. In the middle of the picture you see the lightbulb with two wires on the right. One is hanging down with an aluminium ball/cylinder attached to it, the other goes straight to the right to the top load of a small Tesla coil. So only one wire supplies power, the other goes to a temporary reservoir.
No wires
Now that we know this is possible it is not a big step to replace that one wire with the Earth.
You may think that the Earth is a bad conductor for electricity, but that is not true. Due to its immense size its conductance is excellent. 99% of the resistance is in the connection to the Earth, but once inside the Earth there is almost no resistance to speak of.
If we use the best ground connection we can make and a very high voltage we’ll have no trouble sending impulses through the entire Earth.
These impulses can be amplified by using a properly tuned coil, much like a radio uses to receive signals through the air.
So everywhere around the world you can connect your receiver coil to the ground and receive electricity.
how about mobile devices?
The ground connection of the receiver is the only thing standing in our way to use this system for mobile devices. But since most mobile devices use very little energy, that energy can easily be collected by a properly tuned coil without ground connection. The high frequency currents in the ground will induce magnetic effects that you can pick up with such a coil.
Is that safe?
Although both Tesla and I have not suffered from any adverse effects of high frequency high voltage encounters and Tesla has passed several million volts through his body (I have been a bit reluctant to repeat those experiments), RF-burns have caused lasting injuries to some people in the past. Also, this scheme is a pretty big change in our living environment and even if we are not affected, there may be animals or plants that are. This should certainly be investigated before it is installed on a large scale.
Where do we put the meter?
The (unconfirmed!) story goes that JP Morgan who financed the Wardenclyffe project learned about Tesla’s plan to distribute power worldwide and asked Tesla this question before cancelling his support. "If anyone, anywhere can use our power, where do we put the meter?"
This story is probably not true as Tesla would have had an answer. Tesla had already worked out a plan that would enable him to send power only to specific receivers, thus he would have complete control over who gets how much.
In “the Problem of Increasing Human Energy” we read:
Such an automaton evidently had to have motive power (1), organs for locomotion (2), directive organs (3), and one or more sensitive organs (4) so adapted as to be excited by external stimuli.
---//---
and, above all, the mind (5) which would be wanting to make the model complete.
(the numbers between brackets are added in this quote)
Tesla could derive energy from the ambient medium (“motive power”). He could also selectively send (“organs for locomotion”) it to specific (“directive organ”) receivers (“one or more sensitive organs”) all over the world. But he needed a controlling mechanism (“mind”) so to make it possible to send specific amounts of energy to specific receiving-stations who had paid for it.
He repeats this in 1907-05-03: “Tesla's Tidal Wave to Make War impossible”
The telautomatic art is the result of endeavours to produce an automaton capable of moving and acting as if possessed of intelligence and distinct individuality. Disconnected from its higher embodiment, an organism, such as a human being, is a heat - or thermodynamic engine - comprising:- (1) a complete plant for receiving, transforming, and supplying energy; (2) apparatus for locomotion and other mechanical performance; (3) directive organs; and (4) sensitive instruments responsive to external influences, all these parts constituting a whole of marvellous perfection.
---//---
That much is done, but more is to come. A mechanism is being perfected which without operator in control, left to itself, will behave as if endowed with intelligence of its own. It will be responsive to the faintest external influences and from these, unaided, determine its subsequent actions as if possessed of selective qualities, logic, and reason. It will perform the duties of an intelligent slave. Many of us will live to see Bulwer's dream (“the House and the Brain”?) realised.
(the numbers and text between brackets are added in this quote)
So there you have it. What he needed was only a computer to control this system, and that wasn’t available in his time….
But it is today….