Tesla’s turbine

Can an invention be too good? Too ahead of its time? Certainly, if any inventor seemed to be ahead of his time it was Nicola Tesla, the father of AC current we now use to light our homes and run our air conditioners. He was a prolific inventor who examined problems from their most basic level, finding solutions where others wouldn’t know to even look—a talent shared by very few.

At the beginning of the 20th century, engines were big, heavy, and slow. The biggest ones were steam engines, while the internal combustion engine was powering Ford’s cars, and the Wright’s airplanes. Even today, they are still horribly inefficient, overweight, and expensive to manufacture, even though they are as common as coconuts.

Much of the energy consumed by the internal combustion engine is used just running the valves, compressing the fuel/air mixture, and transferring power to the wheels. To make them more powerful, we (as we’d say today) “put the pedal to the metal.” We ignore efficiencies and simply consume more fuel. When fuel was cheap, and people cared little about efficiency or the environment, it seemed like the thing to do.

However, Tesla focused in on the basic problem of turning a high-pressure fluid into rotary power. His first choice was, logically, a turbine, because they don’t need a cam, valves, a timed ignition system, and all that peripheral stuff to make them work. In fact, they have only one mechanical moving part…the turbine itself. But what kind of a turbine?

Instead of just slamming fluid against blades as in conventional turbines, Tesla focused in on the fundamentals of fluid flow. In addition to speed and pressure, fluids of all types also have viscosity (that’s what makes motor oil take its time pouring out of the oil can) and adhesion (that is, it tends to stick to things.) Today, we understand how such things are produced by interacting resonant fields.

Tesla placed a stack of 9-inch (23 cm) plane metal disks side by side with a space of about a sixteenth of an inch (1.5 mm) between them. By directing high speed fluid between the disks, and out through holes in their center, the moving fluid would adhere to the disks just enough to cause them to spin. Simple, effective and efficient. What’s more, if you powered the disks in the opposite direction and put in fluid the other way, it made a great pump.

The figure illustrates a Tesla pump, operating as a turbine by merely reversing the direction of fluid flow. Its operation is very simple. A pressurized fluid, liquid or gas enters on the left, circulates between the rotor plates and exits through the fluid output holes in the middle of each plate.

In 1911, Julius C. Czito’s machine shop on Long Island, New York, built one for Tesla having only eight 9.75-inch disks, spinning at only 9,000 rpm, which developed 110 horsepower.

Today, Tesla turbines can be used in a number of practical settings. Co-generation of electric power uses waste heat from conventional diesel generators to provide additional energy from the same fuel, which makes the entire process more efficient. They can also be used for generating electric power from hydro, thermal solar, and ocean-waves.

Nicola Tesla was far ahead of his time. He studied rotating resonant fields in order to invent his AC electric power distribution system. Imagine how much more he could have accomplished with a more comprehensive understanding of all resonant fields.

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Today, technology is advancing at breakneck speed. Are you a student? Are you hoping to land a job in science, engineering, or education? Could you actually be obsolete even before you graduate? Today’s most advanced information explains the resonant fields that everything in the universe is made of. Read the exciting E-book: “Resonant Fields, the Fundamental Mechanism of Physics, Made Easy To Understand,” available online at www.coolscience.info. Click on Beyond Einstein. © 2005 by CoolScience