Is a Small Scale Tesla Tower Possible Today?

AI Thread Summary
Building a small-scale Tesla Tower for wireless electrical energy transmission is an intriguing project, but it faces significant challenges. While energy can be transmitted via radio waves, the efficiency of such methods is low, and there are legal risks associated with FCC regulations in the U.S. Historical attempts to harness energy from power lines have led to legal issues, highlighting the impracticality of such methods. The original theories from Tesla's time may not be fully applicable today due to advancements in technology and understanding of energy transmission. Overall, while the project is ambitious, it may not yield the desired results for practical applications.
Eric Ho
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Hello,
We are two students trying to build a small scale Tesla Tower (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower) that perhaps would transmit electrical energy wirelessly through a house. But first, before we start building this, we are starting on a small scale electrical energy transmitter (http://www.tfcbooks.com/patents/tower.htm). Would you please give us your opinion on the subject? We would like to know if this is possible to build and if his theories which date a century ago are still applicable today (and if not, what makes this impossible).
Thank you!
 
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Energy IS carried by radio waves. It happens all the time for small power per square meter in all radio and television broadcasting, Bluetooth, etc. It happens also at high power per surface in microwave ovens. In Tesla time, it was not clear if it was better to transmit electrical power with power lines or by others means, as radio waves. You can try to do it in your home. It is not very efficient and you risk violating FCC regulations if you are in USA and similar laws in other countries.
 
lpfr said:
You can try to do it in your home. It is not very efficient and you risk violating FCC regulations if you are in USA and similar laws in other countries.
There was some guy in the US (I think) who lived under large powerlines and he built a large magnetic coil within his loft which would have electric currents induced in it from the powerlines over his house. He got free electricity, until the drain was noticed on the grid and he got busted.

Got to admit, it's a pretty clever way of stealing.
 
I think that was tells AlphaNumeric is just a hoax. When you go to real figures, it doesn't seem feasible.
 
In any case, you probably don't have enough electricity running to your house to power a tesla coil with enough juice to power ordinary appliances. They are that wasteful.
 
well, you know, we're just two high school students trying to get to the science fair finals
 
It may be shown from the equations of electromagnetism, by James Clerk Maxwell in the 1860’s, that the speed of light in the vacuum of free space is related to electric permittivity (ϵ) and magnetic permeability (μ) by the equation: c=1/√( μ ϵ ) . This value is a constant for the vacuum of free space and is independent of the motion of the observer. It was this fact, in part, that led Albert Einstein to Special Relativity.
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