The Problem of Increasing Human Energy

NIKOLA TESLA was one of the most influential inventors of the last century. Eventually holding over 700 patents, Tesla worked in a number of fields, including electricity, robotics, radar, and the wireless transmission of energy. His discoveries laid the groundwork for many of the twentieth century's greatest technological advances.
This book explains Tesla's thoughts on humanity's relationship with the universe, and also his explanation and scientific extrapolation on the technological advancements embodied in his work.
This text, first published in Century Illustrated Magazine in June 1900, is yet another example of the genius of Nikola Tesla.Contents
IntroductionThe onward movement of humanity
The energy of the movement
The three ways of increasing human energy


1The first problem: how to increase human mass
The burning of atmospheric nitrogen


2The second problem: how to reduce the force retarding the human mass
The art of telautomatics


3The third problem: how to increase the force accelerating the human mass
The harnessing of the Sun's energy


4The source of human energy
The three ways of drawing energy from the Sun


5Great possibilities offered by iron for increasing human performance
Enormous waste in iron manufacture


6Economical production of iron by a new process


7The coming of age of aluminium
The doom of the copper industry
The great civilizing potency of the new metal


8Efforts toward obtaining more energy from coal
Electric transmission
The gas engine
The cold-coal battery


9Energy from the medium
The windmill and the solar engine
Motive power from terrestrial heat
Electricity from natural sources


10A departure from known methods
The possibility of a 'self-acting' engine or machine
The ideal way of obtaining motive power


11First efforts to produce the self-acting engine
The mechanical oscillator
The work of Dewar and Linde
Liquid air


12Discovery of unexpected properties of the atmosphere
Strange experiments
Transmission of electrical energy through one wire without return
Transmission through the Earth without any wire


13Wireless telegraphy
The secret of tuning
Errors in the Hertzian investigations
A receiver of wonderful sensitivity


14Development of a new principle
The electrical oscillator
Production of immense electrical movements
The Earth responds to man
Interplanetary communication now probable


15Transmission of electrical energy to any distance without wires now possible
The best means of increasing the force accelerating the human mass