ATDTDA (1): De Forest and Kimura (29:32-3)

[rich]

monte--

with a deregulated energy market currently (haha) the norm where most energy
needs are bought on the market, probably from producers hundreds of miles
away, the problem of broadcasting power distances would seem to be a big
problem.

the question is if most power used by communities was locally produced,
usually in the hands of public utilities, like it used to be, is it feasible
that broadcast power would work if the distances for transmission were
radically reduced?

i understand it could still be an insurmountable problem in any case, seeing
as the growing needs of power seems to be ever expanding

also, Pynchon could be using the Vibe-Tesla scenario in AtD as a way of
highlighting or directing his ire at the Enron type folks, the explicit
manipulation of energy markets that Vibe seems to be a precursor in some way
of the latter-day crooks.

rich

On 2/1/07, David Casseres <david.casseres at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thank you, Monte.  Tesla's woo-woo is a lot of fun, but it's still just a
> bunch of woo-woo.
>
> On 1/31/07, Monte Davis < monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
> >
> > > Comparing to power transmission without wire,
> > > Tesla said sneering that the wireless telegraphy was not at
> > > all such a great invention.
> >
> > The central tenet of the Weird Science cult of Tesla, as I understand
> > it, is
> > that if you can broadcast *signals*, then you ought to be able to
> > broadcast
> > *power*. (Science fiction fans might remember the backdrop of broadcast
> > power in Heinlein's 1942 story "Waldo".) A little bit of speculation is
> > usually followed by a lot of ideologically charged riffing about how
> > that
> > would liberate us all from the grasping, evil utility monopolies, about
> > how
> > the Powers That Be suppressed Tesla's potentially world-changing
> > technology,
> > etc. etc.
> >
> > But there is -- and always was-- a boring, quantitative problem right at
> > the
> > heart of the idea. The strength of any electromagnetic field that is
> > omnidirectional (= "broadcast") falls off as the square of the distance
> > from
> > the source. Sun, lightbulb, KCUF transmitter... visible light, UV,
> > radio,
> > X-rays, ... all the same. Picture a series of concentric spherical
> > shells,
> > with a given amout of energy passing through a portion of the surface at
> > distance X; geometry tells you that at distance 2X the energy flux is
> > 1/4 as
> > much per unit area, at distance 3X it's 1/9th as much, and so on.
> >
> > For *signals* that's OK. Your radio doesn't care that its little antenna
> > is
> > intercepting only a kazillionth of a watt from KCUF's 500KW broadcast,
> > because what it cares about is the "information* -- the tiny variations
> > in
> > amplitude (AM) or frequency (FM). It uses *local* power (battery or wall
> > current) to amplify them multi-kazillionfold (see: De Forest et al) and
> > drive a speaker. The power can be arbitrarily small; as long as the
> > signal
> > it carries is reliably distinguishable from other signals and from
> > ambient
> > electronic noise, you're in business.
> >
> > But for *power* transmission, that's not the case. If you want your
> > foot-square Teslantenna (TM) a thousand miles from Wardenclyffe to be
> > able
> > to draw say 1 kilowatt, the same-sized antenna at 100 miles would
> > experience
> > a flux of 100 KW... at 10 miles, 10 megawatts... at 1 mile, a
> > gigawatt...
> > Are we seeing some potential environmental issues here? Is it occurring
> > to
> > us that while our bodies (and everything else) are effectively
> > indifferent
> > to femtowatts of *signals* passing through on the way to far-away
> > receivers,
> > they would hardly be indifferent to nuke-the-ramen  levels of *power*
> > passing through?
> >
> > When you talk to Tesla cultists about this, you get a lot of jive about
> > "ground currents" and "using the Earth as a resonating circuit" and so
> > on.
> > Well, yes, between terrestrial and solar electromagnetic fields,
> > lightning
> > and auroras and so on, there *are* some big numbers for power involved.
> > But
> > now we're talking about currents in circuits, aren't we -- no longer
> > about
> > "broadcast" at all? And if you want to start manipulating power -- not
> > signals -- in circuits involving six sextillion tons of planet with two
> > hundred million square miles of surface area, in a magnetosphere of
> > billions
> > of cubic miles, you're going to need components that are significant
> > fractions of that mass, area, and volume. Could run into money.
> >
> > In his youth and in his prime, Nicola Tesla grasped electromagnetic
> > theory
> > and practice far better than I ever will, and accomplished things that
> > changed the world. But gradually, along the way, "change the world" took
> > priority -- and increasingly in his last decades, whatever bending of
> > the
> > science might be necessary to make that possible, so be it.
> >
> > In other words... fun and titillating as it may be to say "Vibe, Morgan,
> > the
> > GTE-Siemens Bulb Cabal et al plotted to derail Tesla's efforts and
> > discredit
> > him as a crackpot"... foax, he really *did* become a crackpot.
> >
> > -Monte (designated wet blanket)
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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