ELECTRIC AUTOS by Nikola Tesla
Special Correspondence, Manufacturers' Record (December 29, 1904, P.583). Manufacturer’s Record, New York, December 17 and 27:
Tesla advocates in the above letter using a multiphase induction motor to increase the efficiency of an electric car. It is likely that his electric car that he built in the 1930′s utilized one of his multi-phased induction motors. The power source, according to his assistant Authur Matthews first hand account, invented by Tesla, was a unique primary battery that was used to power the car. This battery was unique in that it had replaceable zinc electrodes. When the zinc was used up it was simply replaced. This system would require a direct current to multiphase power converter.
Tesla states that he made numerous statements in publications in regards to using electricity to power a car. Tracking down these statements should dispel the myth that his car was powered by radiant energy.
New York, December 27:
In view of the great interest which is being taken in the articles published by the Manufacturers' Record and some of the magazines on the development of new power-producers, through the internal-combustion engine, for use for transportation purposes both by land and sea, the following signed statement, made by Mr. Nicola Tesla after a discussion of a new type of auto-bus designed by Mr. Charles A. Lieb, mechanical engineer of the Manhattan Transit Co., will doubtless be read with much general interest:
Mr. Albert Phenis, Special Correspondent Manufacturers' Record, New York, December 17:
Dear Sir - Replying to your inquiry of yesterday, the application of electricity to the propulsion of automobiles is certainly a rational idea. I am glad to know that Mr. Lieb has undertaken to put it into practice. His long experience with the General Electric Co. and other concerns must have excellently fitted him for the task.
There is no doubt that a highly-successful machine can be produced on these lines. The field is inexhaustible, and this new type of automobile, introducing electricity between the prime mover and the wheels, has, in my opinion, a great future.
I have myself for many years advocated this principle. Your will find in numerous technical publications statements made by me to this effect. In my article in the Century, June, 1900, I said, in dealing with the subject: 'Steamers and trains are still being propelled by the direct application of steam power to shafts or axles. A much greater percentage of the heat energy of the fuel could be transformed in motive energy by using, in place of the adopted marine engines and locomotives, dynamos driven by specially designed high-pressure steam or gas engines, by utilizing the electricity generated for the propulsion. A gain of 50 to 100 percent, in the effective energy derived from the fuel could be secured in this manner. It is difficult to understand why a fact so plain and obvious is not receiving more attention from engineers.
At first glance it may appear that to generate electricity by an engine and then apply the current to turn a wheel, instead of turning it by means of some mechanical connection with the engine, is a complicated and more or less wasteful process. But it is not so; on the contrary, the use of electricity in this manner secures great practical advantages. It is but a question of time when this idea will be extensively applied to railways and also to ocean liners, though in the latter case the conditions are not quite so favorable. How the railroad companies can persist in using the ordinary locomotive is a mystery. By providing an engine generating electricity and operating with the current motors under the cars a train can be propelled with greater speed and more economically. In France this has already been done by Heilman, and although his machinery was not the best, the results he obtained were creditable and encouraging. I have calculated that a notable gain in speed and economy can also be secured in ocean liners, on which the improvement is particularly desirable for many reasons. It is very likely that in the near future oil will be adopted as fuel, and that will make the new method of propulsion all the more commendable. The electric manufacturing companies will scarcely be able to meet this new demand for generators and motors.
In automobiles practically nothing has been done in this direction, and yet it would seem they offer the greatest opportunities for application of this principle. The question, however, is which motor to employ - the direct-current or my induction motor. The former has certain preferences as regards the starting and regulation, but the commutators and brushes are very objectionable on an automobile. In view of this I would advocate the use of the induction motor as an ideally simple machine which can never get out of order. The conditions are excellent, inasmuch as a very low frequency is practicable and more than three phases can be used. The regulation should offer little difficulty, and once an automobile on this novel plan is produced its advantages will be readily appreciated.
Yours very truly,
N. Tesla.
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Cars powered by Radiant Energy, in 1930 - no fuel - Free energy
In 1930, Nikola Tesla asked his nephew, Petar Savo, who was born in Yugoslavia in 1899, to come to New York. Petar was 43 years younger than his uncle. Up to that date, he had lived under stringent conditions in Yugoslavia, Tesla's country of birth. During the summer of 1931, Tesla took his nephew to Buffalo to unveil and test a new automobile. Tesla had developed it with his own personal funds.
It was a Pierce Arrow, one of the luxury cars of the period. The engine had been removed, leaving the clutch, gearbox and transmission to the rear wheels undisturbed. The gasoline engine had been replaced with a round, completely enclosed electric motor of approximately 1 meter in length and 65 cm in diameter, with a cooling fan in front. Reputedly, it had no distributor. Tesla was not willing to say who had manufactured the engine. It was possibly one of the divisions of Westinghouse.
The "energy receiver" (gravitational energy converter) had been built by Nikola Tesla himself. The dimensions of the converter housing were approximately 60 X 25 X 15 cm. It was installed in front of the dashboard. Among other things, the converter contained 12 vacuum tubes, of which three were of the 70-L-7 type. A heavy antenna, approximately 1.8 meters long, came out of the converter. This antenna apparently had the same function as that on the Moray converter (see below). Furthermore, two thick rods protruded approximately 10 cm from the converter housing. Tesla pushed them in, saying "Now we have power." the motor achieved a maximum of 1,800 rpm. Tesla said it was fairly hot when operating, and therefore a cooling fan was required. For the rest, he said there was enough power in the converter to illuminate an entire house, besides running the car engine. The car was tested for a week, reaching a top speed of 90 miles per hour effortlessly. Its performance data were at least comparable to those of an automobile using gasoline. At a stop sign, a passerby remarked that there were no exhaust gases coming from the exhaust pipe. Petar answered "We have no motor."
Learn more: Nikola Tesla's Automobile
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The following are some of the contents narrated by people who have consulted confidential documents about Nikola Tesla. But they are followers of certain sects, or they are academically unorthodox. So they use some confusing terms, for example: "space reptile Jews".
The Mystery Of Nikola Tesla’s Batteryless Electric Car
Taken into a small garage, Dr. Tesla walked directly to a Pierce Arrow, opened the hood and began making a few adjustments. In place of the engine, there was an AC motor.
This measured a little more than 3 feet long, and a little more than 2 feet in diameter. From it trailed two very thick cables which connected with the dashboard. In addition, there was an ordinary 12 volt storage battery. The motor was rated at 80 horsepower.
Maximum rotor speed was stated to be 30 turns per second. A 6 foot antenna rod was fitted into the rear section of the car.
Dr. Tesla stepped into the passenger side and began making adjustments on a “power receiver” which had been built directly into the dashboard.
The receiver, no larger than a short-wave radio of the day, used 12 special tubes which Dr. Tesla brought with him in a boxlike case.
The device had been prefitted into the dashboard, no larger than a short-wave receiver. Mr. Savo told Mr. Ahler that Dr. Tesla built the receiver in his hotel room, a device 2 feet in length, nearly 1 foot wide, a[nd] 1/2 foot high. These curiously constructed tubes having been properly installed in their sockets, Dr. Tesla pushed in 2 contact rods and informed Peter that power was now available to drive.
Several additional meters read values which Dr. Tesla would not explain. Not [a] sound was heard. Dr. Tesla handed Mr. Savo the ignition key and told him to start the engine, which he promptly did. Yet hearing nothing, the accelerator was applied, and the car instantly moved. Tesla’s nephew drove this vehicle without other fuel for an undetermined long interval.
Mr. Savo drove a distance of 50 miles through the city and out to the surrounding countryside. The car was tested to speeds of 90 mph, with the speedometer rated to 120.
This same basic story comes up on many websites, some more reputable than others, but all have the same format. The person said to be taken for the ride is Peter Salvo, Tesla’s nephew (there’s no evidence he was), and the area is always around Buffalo, NY.
The story seems to have been first published in 1934 (New York Daily News, April 2, 1934 titled ‘Tesla’s Wireless Power Dream Nears Reality’) and has been more widely circulating since about 1967 — here’s an account from 1981.
So where did this electric car story come from, and why is it so persistent? I suspect the story is so resilient for several reasons, first and foremost being that Tesla has an almost god-like status among many people, especially people inclined to be at best, more open minded and imaginative, and at worst absolutely batshit free-energy crazy.
But there’s also the tantalizing grain of possibility in all this as well. From 1901-1917 Tesla built and was experimenting with Wardenclyffe Tower, a facility used to (among other things) test the broadcast of electricity as EM waves through the air, much as we broadcast audio as EM waves through the air for radio.
Such a system, if perfected, would in fact allow electric cars to operate without batteries. Ideally, it would allow anything to operate without batteries, as long as you were within range of receiving electrical broadcast power. If this had worked, and my telco got involved, however, I’d probably end up pushing my wireless electric car all over my stupid neighbourhood, based on the way they get a signal to my mobile phone.
So, if one reads the account in the context of a car driven by broadcast electricity, produced by more or less conventional means, and not a car driven by a Magic Black Box, then the story becomes much more interesting, because it is just possible that Tesla could have installed a receiver in an electric car (or car modified to be electric) that would have worked. There’s no actual hard evidence he did this, but electric cars did exist and he had already demonstrated the ability to broadcast electricity, so the pieces were certainly there.
Tesla did seem to have some reservations about wireless power to vehicles, as seen in this November 1922 interview in Radio News:
Question : Will not wireless transmission of energy result in time in the moving of practically all means of transportation with electrical energy from central power stations?
MR. TESLA : No, I do not expect that such will be the case, for the transportation systems now used present certain important practical advantages which cannot be disregarded.
Question: Will not automobiles, for instance, be operated merely by the operative “cutting in” on electrical energy supplied by wireless from power stations?
MR. TESLA : I fear we shall not live to see the wireless system in general use for this purpose. It is difficult to propel an automobile by the new method for reasons with which experts are familiar. Success can be much more easily achieved in the case of airships.
I wonder if the “reasons with which the experts are familiar” are “tunnels.”
So, it looks like the popular story of the batteryless Teslamobile likely aren’t true. But with batteries being the heaviest and most problematic component of electric cars today, Tesla’s research and ideas may be deserving of a rethink. Wireless power transmission technology is making something of a comeback recently, and you’d think electric car manufacturers would love the idea.
Aside from saving huge amounts of weight and solving the range issues, they’d be in a position to charge you a “power subscription” for your car. A wireless contract for your car — that’s got to get them excited.
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