In 1901, Nikola Tesla began construction of what came to be known as the Wardenclyffe Tower, which was supposed to be used for worldwide wireless transmissions.
Wireless transmission is ubiquitous today. In fact, I’m writing this article from my laptop, transmitting via WiFi to my router. I am in the highlands of Perú, and this website originates in Romania, so my data may be transmitted via satellite on its jump from South America to Eastern Europe. Still, no matter where you are in the world, you can read this posting, perhaps wirelessly, via 3g or 4G mobile signal or WiFi on a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or desktop, in your car, in a café, or in your bed. You take us to bed? That’s sweet. Still, this isn’t the wireless transmission that Nikola Tesla ultimately had in mind.
While Wardenclyffe Tower was originally destined to make wireless communcations worldwide, Nikola Tesla also envisioned it could do something far more impressive, transmit power worldwide. Now, my laptop may be communicating via WiFi, but it still needs a power source, and that’s provided by a good old AC/DC converter. Thank you Thomas Edison. Eventually, due to lack of interest and funding, as well as multiple changes to the tower design specifications, as genius are wont to do, the project was abandoned. The tower was eventually demolished in 1917. Nikola Tesla’s many inventions and patents didn’t give him a life of luxury and fame, however, and he died alone, at 86 years of age, in 1943.
Russian physicists Leonid Plekhanov and Sergey Plekhanov have spent the last five years studying Nikola Tesla’s designs, specifically those pertaining to the Wardenclyffe Tower, and plan on rebuilding. “Nikola Tesla had left us a very detailed description of the design of his Magnifying Transmitter System and the physical principles of its operation. We’ve conducted a thorough scientific expertise of his works and came to the conclusion that Tesla was on the right track,” they say.
That Nikola Tesla was a genius has never been in doubt, but whether his designs would work has many times been subject of great debate. Perhaps Tesla was just too far ahead of his time? Leonid and Sergey Plekhanov believe that perhaps modern materials and processes will prove his designs were right all this time.