The Tesla Experimental Station was a laboratory in

Colorado Springs, Colorado Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

, USA built in 1899 by inventor

Nikola Tesla Nikola Tesla ( ; ,"Tesla"
''

wireless power Wireless power transfer (WPT), wireless power transmission, wireless energy transmission (WET), or electromagnetic power transfer is the transmission of electrical energy without wires as a physical link. In a wireless power transmission system ...

transmission. Tesla used it for only one year, until 1900, and it was torn down in 1904 to pay his outstanding debts.

History

In May 1899, Tesla, several of his assistants, and a local contractor commenced the construction of Tesla's laboratory shortly after arriving in Colorado Springs, a high-altitude location where he would have more room than in his downtown

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

laboratory for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments. Tesla moved there to study the conductive nature of low pressure air, part of his research into wireless transmission of

electrical power Electric power is the rate at which electrical energy is transferred by an electric circuit. The SI unit of power is the watt, one joule per second. Standard prefixes apply to watts as with other SI units: thousands, millions and billions of ...

. The lab possessed the largest

Tesla coil A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high-frequency alternating-current electricity. Tesla experimented with a number of different ...

ever built, in diameter, which was a preliminary version of the

magnifying transmitter A Tesla coil is an electrical resonant transformer circuit designed by inventor Nikola Tesla in 1891. It is used to produce high-voltage, low-current, high-frequency alternating-current electricity. Tesla experimented with a number of differen ...

planned for installation in the

Wardenclyffe Tower Wardenclyffe Tower (1901–1917), also known as the Tesla Tower, was an early experimental wireless transmission station designed and built by Nikola Tesla on Long Island in 1901–1902, located in the village of Shoreham, New York. Tesla inten ...

. Upon his arrival, he told reporters that he planned to conduct

wireless telegraphy Wireless telegraphy or radiotelegraphy is transmission of text messages by radio waves, analogous to electrical telegraphy using cables. Before about 1910, the term ''wireless telegraphy'' was also used for other experimental technologies for ...

experiments, transmitting signals from

Pikes Peak Pikes Peak is the List of mountain ranges of Colorado#Mountain ranges, highest summit of the southern Front Range of the Rocky Mountains, in North America. The Ultra-prominent peak, ultra-prominent fourteener is located in Pike National Forest ...

to Paris.

Experiment in wireless power transmission by Nikola Tesla at his laboratory in Colorado Springs in 1899

He produced artificial

lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electric charge, electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the land, ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous ...

, with discharges consisting of millions of volts and up to long. People walking along the street observed sparks jumping between their feet and the ground. Sparks sprang from water line taps when touched. Light bulbs within of the lab glowed even when turned off. Horses in a livery stable bolted from their stalls after receiving shocks through their metal shoes. Butterflies were electrified, swirling in circles with blue halos of

St. Elmo's fire St. Elmo's fire — also called Witchfire or Witch's Fire — is a weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a corona discharge from a rod-like object such as a mast, spire, chimney, or animal hornHeidorn, K., Weather Element ...

around their wings. TeslaWirelessIllustration

While experimenting, Tesla inadvertently faulted a power station generator, causing a

power outage A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an electricit ...

. In August 1917, Tesla explained what had happened in ''The Electrical Experimenter'': "As an example of what has been done with several hundred kilowatts of high frequency energy liberated, it was found that the dynamos in a power house away were repeatedly burned out, due to the powerful high frequency currents set up in them, and which caused heavy sparks to jump through the windings and destroy the insulation!" During his time at his laboratory Tesla observed unusual signals from his receiver which he concluded might be communications from another planet. He mentioned them in a letter to reporter

Julian Hawthorne Julian Hawthorne (June 22, 1846 – July 14, 1934) was an American writer and journalist, the son of novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne and Sophia Peabody. He wrote numerous poems, novels, short stories, mysteries and detective fiction, essays, t ...

at the

Philadelphia North American ''The North American'' was an American newspaper published in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1839, though it could claim a lineage back to 1771, and published until 1925, when it was purchased by the owner of the rival '' Public Led ...

on 8 December 1899 and in a December 1900 letter about possible discoveries in the new century to the

Red Cross Society The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, the world's largest group of non-governmental organizations working on humanitarian aid, is composed of the following bodies: *The ''International Committee of the Red Cross'' (ICRC), a comm ...

where he referred to messages "from another world" that read "1 ... 2 ... 3 ...". Reporters treated it as a sensational story and jumped to the conclusion Tesla was hearing signals from

Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury (planet), Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Mars (mythology), Roman god of war. Mars is a terr ...

. He expanded on the signals he heard in a 9 February 1901 ''Collier's Weekly'' article "Talking With Planets" where he said it had not been immediately apparent to him that he was hearing "intelligently controlled signals" and that the signals could come from Mars,

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

, or other planets. It has been hypothesized that he may have intercepted Marconi's European experiments in July 1899—Marconi may have transmitted the letter S (dot/dot/dot) in a naval demonstration, the same three impulses that Tesla hinted at hearing in Colorado—or signals from another experimenter in wireless transmission. On 7 January 1900 Tesla made his final entry in his journal while in

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

. In 1904 Tesla was sued for unpaid bills in Colorado Springs, his lab was torn down in that year, and its contents were sold two years later in an auction at the court house to satisfy his debts.

Location

The Experimental Station was located on empty land on the highest local point ( Knob Hill) between the 1876

Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind The Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind (CSDB) is a K-12 residential school, located on Knob Hill, east of downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, near the famous laboratory of Nikola Tesla. The school was founded in 1874 as ''The Colorado Inst ...

and the

Union Printers Home The town of Colorado Springs, Colorado played an important role in the history of tuberculosis in the era before antituberculosis drugs and vaccines. Tuberculosis management before this era was difficult and often of limited effect. In the 19th c ...

, where Tesla conducted the research described in the Colorado Springs Notes, 1899-1900. A few papers of the times listed Tesla's lab as about 200 feet east of the Deaf and Blind School and 200 feet north of Pikes Peak Avenue. This put it on top of the hill at E. Kiowa Street and N. Foote Avenue (facing west), as documented by Pikes Peak Library District.

References

{{Nikola Tesla 1899 establishments in Colorado Buildings and structures in Colorado Springs, Colorado Nikola Tesla Demolished buildings and structures in Colorado Buildings and structures demolished in 1904

History

Location

See also

References