Lightning blasted in all directions of Richard Hull’s home laboratory, jittering louder than a buzz saw as sparks flew from the giant Tesla coil he and his team dubbed “Nemesis.”
The power from the 15,000-watt device set fire to parts of the lab before finding its way into Hull’s home wiring, destroying two computers 100 feet away, blowing out his washing machine, and setting his television ablaze.
Like any true inventor, Hull was ecstatic. From his home in Richmond, Virginia, the electronic systems engineer accomplished what others had attempted for decades—he built an electric magnifier based off notes left by famed inventor Nikola Tesla from the early 20th century.
“[Tesla’s] magnifying transmitter—which was his greatest thing—was probably his best invention, yet his least understood,” Hull said.
Hull is one of thousands who are following the footsteps of past inventors—taking the reins on unfinished technology to realize dreams that are otherwise lost with time.
“The scientific mind is so prolific—and sometimes so devious—that plenty of inventions, curiosities and discoveries lie ‘by the wayside,’ awaiting follow-up researchers who have the requisite curiosity, playfulness or desperation,” Hull wrote in a 1993 report in scientific research magazine, R&D Innovator.
There are many reasons the devices, which Hull refers to as “lost technologies,” were left unfinished. Some may have been abandoned due to indifference, a belief they would serve no use, or simply because people of the time did not believe such things were scientifically possible. “Science often sets a discovery aside until a theory explaining it becomes available,” Hull wrote.
He adds, however, that “the most common cause for these delays, I think, is the lack of materials or technology needed to complete the original work,” which he believes was the stopping point for Tesla coils.
The Tesla magnifiers Hull built add to Tesla’s iconic electric coils by magnifying voltage. Plugged into an ordinary outlet, the magnifiers can take energy from a 20,000-volt transformer and amplify the energy to millions of volts, while keeping an energy current on par with a flashlight.
Unlike Tesla, however, Hull doesn’t see much potential in the technology, aside from experiments that need high voltages. Hull experimented with Tesla coils from 1987 until 2000, before his interest switched to neutrons and fusion energy—picking up on the unfinished work of Philo T. Farnsworth.
He said he moved on after he got the technologies “about as far as I could get them,” yet has heavily documented his research so that others can pick up where he left off.
Next: Great Minds
The power from the 15,000-watt device set fire to parts of the lab before finding its way into Hull’s home wiring, destroying two computers 100 feet away, blowing out his washing machine, and setting his television ablaze.
Like any true inventor, Hull was ecstatic. From his home in Richmond, Virginia, the electronic systems engineer accomplished what others had attempted for decades—he built an electric magnifier based off notes left by famed inventor Nikola Tesla from the early 20th century.
“[Tesla’s] magnifying transmitter—which was his greatest thing—was probably his best invention, yet his least understood,” Hull said.
Hull is one of thousands who are following the footsteps of past inventors—taking the reins on unfinished technology to realize dreams that are otherwise lost with time.
“The scientific mind is so prolific—and sometimes so devious—that plenty of inventions, curiosities and discoveries lie ‘by the wayside,’ awaiting follow-up researchers who have the requisite curiosity, playfulness or desperation,” Hull wrote in a 1993 report in scientific research magazine, R&D Innovator.
There are many reasons the devices, which Hull refers to as “lost technologies,” were left unfinished. Some may have been abandoned due to indifference, a belief they would serve no use, or simply because people of the time did not believe such things were scientifically possible. “Science often sets a discovery aside until a theory explaining it becomes available,” Hull wrote.
He adds, however, that “the most common cause for these delays, I think, is the lack of materials or technology needed to complete the original work,” which he believes was the stopping point for Tesla coils.
The Tesla magnifiers Hull built add to Tesla’s iconic electric coils by magnifying voltage. Plugged into an ordinary outlet, the magnifiers can take energy from a 20,000-volt transformer and amplify the energy to millions of volts, while keeping an energy current on par with a flashlight.
Unlike Tesla, however, Hull doesn’t see much potential in the technology, aside from experiments that need high voltages. Hull experimented with Tesla coils from 1987 until 2000, before his interest switched to neutrons and fusion energy—picking up on the unfinished work of Philo T. Farnsworth.
He said he moved on after he got the technologies “about as far as I could get them,” yet has heavily documented his research so that others can pick up where he left off.
Next: Great Minds
Great Minds
Many of history’s great inventors made breakthroughs by toying with ideas that society at the time may not have believed in. Tesla was a testament to this.
People still romanticize his dreams and ambitions, the things he worked toward in a time when innovation was a gentleman’s work. Donning a top hat, coat, and gloves, Tesla was soft spoken, yet with an indefinable intelligence.
Aside from his uncanny talent as an inventor—creating technologies including radar and microwaves—he also spoke eight languages and had a photographic memory that allowed him to recall plans as if he read them from a blueprint, states a description of him in a document from war-time drama “Tesla’s Letters.”
He was also odd—too odd for some to grasp. He suffered from hallucinations and became highly sensitive to light and sound in his later years. He also stayed clear of relationships, believing celibacy helped him invent, the document adds.
For Hull, developing new technologies is a hobby, yet for Tesla, it was the future. “Tesla had ideas that were very grandiose, but were never proven,” Hull said.
Tesla once famously stated, “Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.”
Of Tesla’s more than 700 patents, the Tesla coil was among his most ambitious invention. “He was looking to transmit power by sucking electricity right out of the air,” Hull said.
A patent filed by Tesla on March 15, 1900, contains illustrations of an update to the device, called the “Apparatus for Transmission of Electrical Energy.” It describes it as a device to transmit energy through the atmosphere.
Tesla wrote, “As the main object for which the apparatus is designed is to produce a current of excessively high potential...where the atmosphere is rarefied the stratum of air will serve as a conducting medium for the current produced and the latter will be transmitted through the air, with, it may be, even less resistance than through an ordinary conductor.”
JP Morgan financed Tesla’s work in this field, until “Tesla made the mistake of telling him that once his device started working that people could just put these special systems outside their homes and take electricity right out of the air.”
Tesla wanted people to have free energy, yet JP Morgan wasn’t interested in giving anything away for free. After losing its funding, the device was left unfinished.
Current inventors are picking it back up, however. Hull notes that through his own and other’s research it has been found that “Tesla coils work with resonance, and if you tune a resonance circuit, it can absorb energy if it’s there.”
If there is any sort of energetic frequency, the coil can absorb it, “and it can become an energy source.”
The problem is that there needs to be enough energy present for it to be usable. There are groups developing Tesla coils with the same ambitions as Tesla—some have even succeeded to a degree. Hull said that one group in particular is able to turn on light bulbs with Tesla coils pulling energy from the atmosphere, yet the devices throw “about 400,000 times the energy of a cell phone” into the air.
For inventors, however, the pursuit of what is not yet deemed possible is what spurs them ahead. As Tesla once stated, “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success...”
People still romanticize his dreams and ambitions, the things he worked toward in a time when innovation was a gentleman’s work. Donning a top hat, coat, and gloves, Tesla was soft spoken, yet with an indefinable intelligence.
Aside from his uncanny talent as an inventor—creating technologies including radar and microwaves—he also spoke eight languages and had a photographic memory that allowed him to recall plans as if he read them from a blueprint, states a description of him in a document from war-time drama “Tesla’s Letters.”
He was also odd—too odd for some to grasp. He suffered from hallucinations and became highly sensitive to light and sound in his later years. He also stayed clear of relationships, believing celibacy helped him invent, the document adds.
For Hull, developing new technologies is a hobby, yet for Tesla, it was the future. “Tesla had ideas that were very grandiose, but were never proven,” Hull said.
Tesla once famously stated, “Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.”
Of Tesla’s more than 700 patents, the Tesla coil was among his most ambitious invention. “He was looking to transmit power by sucking electricity right out of the air,” Hull said.
A patent filed by Tesla on March 15, 1900, contains illustrations of an update to the device, called the “Apparatus for Transmission of Electrical Energy.” It describes it as a device to transmit energy through the atmosphere.
Tesla wrote, “As the main object for which the apparatus is designed is to produce a current of excessively high potential...where the atmosphere is rarefied the stratum of air will serve as a conducting medium for the current produced and the latter will be transmitted through the air, with, it may be, even less resistance than through an ordinary conductor.”
JP Morgan financed Tesla’s work in this field, until “Tesla made the mistake of telling him that once his device started working that people could just put these special systems outside their homes and take electricity right out of the air.”
Tesla wanted people to have free energy, yet JP Morgan wasn’t interested in giving anything away for free. After losing its funding, the device was left unfinished.
Current inventors are picking it back up, however. Hull notes that through his own and other’s research it has been found that “Tesla coils work with resonance, and if you tune a resonance circuit, it can absorb energy if it’s there.”
If there is any sort of energetic frequency, the coil can absorb it, “and it can become an energy source.”
The problem is that there needs to be enough energy present for it to be usable. There are groups developing Tesla coils with the same ambitions as Tesla—some have even succeeded to a degree. Hull said that one group in particular is able to turn on light bulbs with Tesla coils pulling energy from the atmosphere, yet the devices throw “about 400,000 times the energy of a cell phone” into the air.
For inventors, however, the pursuit of what is not yet deemed possible is what spurs them ahead. As Tesla once stated, “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success...”
