Tesla Turbine Comments (compiled by Jeffery Hayes): Difference between revisions

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FROM <br>
{{delete|content moved to [[Tesla Turbine]]}}
The TESLA BBS <br>
820 Bridger Circle<br>
Craig, CO 81625<br>
(719) 486-2775<br>
 
 
 
BOUNDARY-LAYER BREAKTHROUGH - THE TESLA BLADELESS TURBINE Compiled by Jeffery
A. Hayes
 
 
INTRODUCTION
 
Most people remember Nikola Tesla for his work and revelations in the field of
electrical energy and the invention of radio.  However, Tesla had a life long
interest in developing a flying machine.  Tesla had envisioned himself as the
first man that would fly.  He had planned to build an aircraft that would
operate on electric motors.  However, the first men who successfully flew an
aircraft used the reciprocating internal combustion engine.  Though successful
in achieving flight, aircraft using these engines were dangerous and
unpredictable, due to the engine's lack of adequate power.  Tesla turned his
attention to revamping the internal combustion engine so as to make flying
safe for all and minimize its environmental impact.  Documented in this text
is the result of Tesla's endeavors and the resulting marvel of machines called
the Bladeless Boundary- Layer Turbine.
 
Although Tesla's dream for his engines application in aircraft was not
realized in his life time, if allowed to be used in aircraft today, it would
provide a quiet, safe, simple and efficient alternative to our supposedly
advanced bladed turbine aircraft engines.  It has been estimated that an
increase in fuel efficiency of a factor of three could be realized in aircraft
and thus substantially reduce pollution.  Not only this, the Bladeless Tesla
Turbine Engine can turn at much higher speeds with total safety.  If a
conventional bladed turbine engine goes critical or fails, watch out, you have
exploding parts slicing through hydraulic lines, control surfaces and maybe
even you.  With the Bladeless Tesla Turbine this is not a danger because it
will not explode.  If it does go critical, as has been documented in tests at
85,000 rpm, the failed component will not explode but implode into tiny pieces
which are ejected through the exhaust while the undamaged components continue
to provide thrust to keep you airborne.  We. can only speculate on the human
suffering that could and should be averted.
 
The application of this amazing engine was not to be limited to aircraft. 
Tesla was setting up plans to replace what he considered the wasteful,
polluting, inefficient and complicated reciprocating engine in all its
applications, including the automobile.  Tesla's small but powerful engine has
only one moving part and is 95% efficient, which means tremendous mileage.  It
runs vibration free and doesn't even require a muffler.  Not only is this
engine 95% efficient, as compared to 25% efficiency or less of the
conventional gas engine, it can run efficiently on any fuel from sawdust to
hydrogen with no wear on the internal engine components.  This engine's
speed-torque characteristic allows full torque at the bottom of the speed
range eliminating the conventional shifting gear transmission.  This provides
additional economy as the expensive, complicated and wear prone transmission
is eliminated.
 
Unlike most people of the time, Tesla was very concerned about the long range
environmental damage the reciprocating engines would create.  He stressed over
and over how we must take the long range view and not step out of harmony with
our life support systems.  Today the widening concern for Spaceship Earth and
the renewal of an old ethic "We don't inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we
borrow it from our children" is slowly beginning to awaken people to the
concerns of Tesla.
 
Although the existence of the automobile on city streets dates back to the
first years of the century, its role as a contributor to air contamination did
not receive wide acceptance among scientists until the 60's.  Factual evidence
that urban area smog was chemically related to automobile emissions had been
produced and acknowledged by scientific groups in the 1950's.  Despite
vehement disagreement which ensued between government and the automotive
industry on this volatile issue, research and development programs were
initiated by both groups in an effort to identify the reciprocating internal
combustion engine's sources of pollution and determine what corrective action
might be taken.  Obviously Tesla's ounce of prevention was not heeded, leaving
us with well over the pound required for a cure with nearly half of all air
pollution caused by the reciprocating internal combustion engine.
 
The Boundary Layer Turbine is not only an engine that is hard to comprehend by
our currently imposed standards, but can also be used as a pump with slight
modification.  And like its cousin the engine, it has Herculean power.  Unlike
conventional pumps that are easily damaged by contaminants, the Bladeless
Tesla Pump can handle particles and corrosives in stride as well as gases with
no cavitation effect that destroys, in short order, conventional type pumps.
 
These pumps and engines, though unknown to most, are available for commercial
sale.  If large scale commercial production was implemented, these engines and
pumps would be extremely affordable due to their simplicity of manufacture,
longevity, almost total lack of maintenance and the added bonus that they
require no crank case oil.
 
Almost a quarter of the air pollution today comes from the coal being burned
to generate electricity.  Fuel consumption, resulting in air pollution and
acid rain, could be significantly reduced simply by replacing the conventional
blade steam turbines currently used by utilities with the Bladeless Tesla
Steam Turbine.  This also would have the added bonus of drastically reducing
maintenance.  But the real solution lies in using low temperature wet steam
occurring naturally from the ground in the form of geothermal energy.  This
energy would destroy a conventional bladed steam turbine, unless expensive
steam drying is employed.  However, the Bladeless Tesla Steam Turbine
requires�no drying and can be connected directly to the geothermal source.  It
has been estimated that the geothermal potential in just Southern California
alone, could power the entire North American Continent with NO POLLUTION! 
Large oil companies have comprehended the potential of geothermal energy and
have purchased many of these large tracks of prime geothermal land.
 
Due to the revolutionary concepts embodied in this engine, we can easily end
the so called energy crisis and dramatically reduce pollution.  Even the
vested energy interests are beginning to understand that now is the time for
change, realizing their future health and wealth is directly linked to that of
the environment.  You can't hide or buy your way out of a devastated planet.
There must also be a move forward for the many misinformed environmentalists
who see our future as one of regression from technology instead of its proper
usage.
 
 
Tesla from his 1919 autobiography, My Inventions:
 
"My alternating system of power transmission came at a psychological moment,
as a long-sought answer to pressing industrial questions, and altho
considerable resistance had to be overcome and opposing interests reconciled,
as usual, the commercial introduction could not be long delayed.  Now, compare
this situation with that confronting my turbine, for example.  One should
think that so simple and beautiful an invention, possessing many features of
an ideal motor, should be adopted at once and, undoubtedly, it would under
similar conditions.  But the prospective effect of the rotating field was not
to render worthless existing machinery; on the contrary, it was to give it
additional value.  The system lent itself to new enterprise as well as to
improvement of the old.  My turbine is an advance of a character entirely
different.  It is a radical departure in the sense that its success would mean
the abandonment of the antiquated types of prime movers on which billions of
dollars have been spent.  Under such circumstances the progress must needs be
slow and perhaps the greatest impediment is encountered in the prejudicial
opinions created in the minds of experts by organized opposition."
 
H.G. Wells once said that future history will be a race between education and
catastrophe.  This book is dedicated to the race for education.
 
Reprinted from: Boundary-Layer Breakthrough - The Tesla Bladeless Turbine
pages 114-118.
 
 
Scientific American September 30, 1911, page 290
 
From the Complex to the Simple
 
A MARKED step was taken in the simplification of prime movers when Watt's
cumbersome beam engine, with its ingenious but elaborate parallel motion, gave
way to the present standard reciprocating type, with only piston rod, cross
head and connecting rod interposed between piston and crank.  An even greater
advance toward ideal simplicity occurred when, after years of effort by
inventors to produce a practicle rotary, Parsons brought out his compact,
though costly, turbine, in which the energy of the steam is developed on a zig
zag path through multitudinous rows of fixed and moving blades.
 
And now comes Mr. Tesla with a motor which bids fair to carry the steam
engine another long step toward the ideally simple prime mover - a motor in
which the fixed and revolving blades of the turbine give place to a set of
steel disks of simple and cheap construction.  If the flow of steam in spiral
curves between the adjoining faces of flat disks is an efficient method of
developing the energy of the steam, the prime mover would certainly appear to
have been at last reduced to its simplest terms.
 
The further development of the unique turbine which we describe elsewhere will
be followed with close attention by the technical world.  The results attained
with this small high-pressure unit are certainly flattering, and give reason
to believe that the addition of a low pressure turbine and a condenser would
make this type of turbine as highly efficient as it is simple and cheap in
construction and maintenance.
 
 
Scientific American September 30, 1911, page 296
 
The Rotory Heat Motor Reduced to its Simplest Terms
 
It will interest the readers of the Scientific American to that Nikola Tesla,
whose reputation must, naturally, stand upon the contribution he made to
electrical engineering when the art was yet in its comparative infancy, is by
training and choice a mechanical engineer, with a strong leaning to that
branch of it which is covered by the term "steam engineering."  For several
years past he has devoted much of his attention to improvements in
thermo-dynamic conversion, and the result of his theories and practical
experiments is to be found in an entirely new form of prime movers shown in
operation at the waterside station of the New York Edison Company, who kindly
placed the facilities of their great plant at his disposal for carrying on
experimental work.
 
By the courtesy of the inventor, we are enabled to publish the accompanying
views, representing the testing plant at the Waterside station, which are the
first photographs of this interesting motor that have yet been made public.
 
The basic principle which determined Tesla's investigations was the well-known
fact that when a fluid (steam, gas or water) is used as a vehicle of energy,
the highest possible economy can be obtained only when the changes in velocity
and direction of the movement of the fluid are made as gradual and easy as
possible.  In the present forms of turbines in which the energy is transmitted
by pressure, reaction or impact, as in the De Laval, Parsons, and Curtiss
types, more or less sudden changes both of speed and direction are involved,
with consequent shocks, vibration and destructive eddies.  Furthermore, the
introduction of pistons, blades, buckets, and intercepting devices of this
general class, into the path of the fluid involves much delicate and difficult
mechanical construction which adds greatly to the cost both of production and
maintenance.
 
�The desiderata in an ideal turbine group themselves under the heads of the
theoretical and the mechanical.  The theoretically perfect turbine would be
one in which the fluid was so controlled from the inlet to the exhaust that
its energy was delivered to the driving shaft with the least possible losses
due to the mechanical means employed.  The mechanically perfect turbine would
be one which combined simplicity and cheapness of construction, durability,
ease and rapidity of repairs, and a small ratio of weight and space occupied
to the power delivered on the shaft.  Mr. Tesla maintains that in the turbine
which forms the subject of this article, he has carried the steam and gas
motor a long step forward toward the maximum attainable efficiency, both
theoretical and mechanical.  That these claims are well founded is shown by
the fact that in the plant at the Edison station, he is securing an output of
200 horse-power from a single-stage steam turbine with atmospheric exhaust,
weighing less than 2 pounds per horse-power, which is contained within a space
measuring 2 feet by 3 feet, by 2 feet in height, and which accomplishes these
results with a thermal fall of only 130 B.T.U., that is, about one-third of
the total drop available.  Furthermore, considered from the mechanical
standpoint, the turbine is astonishingly simple and economical in
construction, and by the very nature of its construction, should prove to
possess such a durability and freedom from wear and breakdown as to place it,
in these respects, far in advance of any type of steam or gas motor of the
present day.
 
Briefly stated, Tesla's steam motor consists of a set of flat steel disks
mounted on a shaft and rotating within a casing, the steam entering with high
velocity at the periphery of the disks, flowing between them in free spiral
paths, and finally escaping through exhaust ports at their center.  Instead of
developing the energy of the steam by pressure, reaction, or impact, on a
series of blades or vanes, Tesla depends upon the fluid properties of adhesion
and viscosity--the attraction of the steam to the faces of the disks and the
resistance of its particles to molecular separation combining in transmitting
the velocity energy of the motive fluid to the plates and the shaft.
 
By reference to the accompanying photographs and line drawings, it will be
seen that the turbine has a rotor A which in the present case consists of 25
flat steel disks, one thirty-second of an inch in thickness, of hardened and
carefully tempered steel.  The rotor as assembled is 3 1/2 inches wide on the
face, by 18 inches in diameter, and when the turbine is running at its maximum
working velocity, the material is never under a tensile stress exceeding
50,000 pounds per square inch.  The rotor is mounted in a casing D, which is
provided with two inlet nozzles, B for use in running direct and B' for
reversing.  Openings C are cut out at the central portion of the disks and
these communicate directly with exhaust ports formed in the side of the
casing.
 
In operation, the steam, or gas, as the case may be is directed on the
periphery of the disks through the nozzle B (which may be diverging, straight
or converging), where more or less of its expansive energy is converted into
velocity energy.  When the machine is at rest, the radial and tangential
forces due to the pressure and velocity of the steam cause it to travel in a
rather short curved path toward the central exhaust opening, as indicated by
the full black line in the accompanying diagram; but as the disks commence to
rotate and their speed increases, the steam travels in spiral paths the length
of which increases until, as in the case of the present turbine, the particles
of the fluid complete a number of turns around the shaft before reaching the
exhaust, covering in the meantime a lineal path some 12 to 16 feet in length. 
During its progress from inlet to �exhaust, the velocity and pressure of the
steam are reduced until it leaves the exhaust at 1 or 2 pounds gage pressure.
 
The resistance to the passage of the steam or gas between adjoining plates is
approximately proportionate to the square of the relative speed, which is at a
maximum toward the center of the disks and is equal to the tangential velocity
of the steam.  Hence the resistance to radial escape is very great, being
furthermore enhanced by the centrifugal force acting outwardly.  One of the
most desirable elements in a perfected turbine is that of reversibility, and
we are all familiar with the many and frequently cumbersome means which have
been employed to secure this end.  It will be seen that this turbine is
admirably adapted for reversing, since this effect can be secured by merely
closing the right-hand valve and opening that on the left.
 
It is evident that the principles of this turbine are equally applicable, by
slight modifications of design, for its use as a pump, and we present a
photograph of a demonstration model which is in operation in Mr. Tesla's
office.  This little pump, driven by an electric motor of 1/12 horse-power,
delivers 40 gallons per minute against a head of 9 feet.  The discharge pipe
leads up to a horizontal tube provided with a wire mesh for screening the
water and checking the eddies.  The water falls through a slot in the bottom
of this tube and after passing below a baffle plate flows in a steady stream
about 3/4 inch thick by 18 inches in width, to a trough from which it returns
to the pump.  Pumps of this character show an efficiency favorably comparing
with that of centrifugal pumps and they have the advantage that great heads
are obtainable economically in a single stage.  The runner is mounted in a
two-part volute casing and except for the fact that the place of the buckets,
vanes, etc., of the ordinary centrifugal pump is taken by a set of disks, the
construction is generally similar to that of pumps of the standard kind.
 
In conclusion, it should be noted that although the experimental plant at the
Waterside station develops 200 horse-power with 125 pounds at the supply pipe
and free exhaust, it could show an output of 300 horse-power with the full
pressure of the Edison supply circuit.  Furthermore, Mr. Tesla states that if
it were compounded and the exhaust were led to a low pressure unit, carrying
about three times the number of disks contained in the high pressure element,
with connection to a condenser affording 28 1/2 to 29 inches of vacuum, the
results obtained in the present high-pressure machine indicate that the
compound unit would give an output of 600 horse-power, without great increase
of dimensions.  This estimate is conservative.
 
The testing plant consists of two identical turbines connected by a carefully
calibrated torsion spring, the machine to the left being the driving element,
the other the brake.  In the brake element, the steam is delivered to the
blades in a direction opposite to that of the rotation of the disks.  Fastened
to the shaft of the brake turbine is a hollow pulley provided with two
diametrically opposite narrow slots, and an incandescent lamp placed inside
close to the rim.  As the pulley rotates, two flashes of light pass out of the
same, and by means of reflecting mirrors and lenses, they are carried around
the plant and fall upon two rotating glass mirrors placed back to back on the
shaft of the driving turbine so that the center line of the silver coatings
coincides with the axis of the shaft.  The mirrors are so set that when there
is no torsion on the spring, the light beams produce a luminous spot
stationary at the zero of the scale.  But as soon as load is put on, the beam
is deflected through an angle which indicates directly the torsion.  The scale
and spring are so proportioned and adjusted that the horse-power can be read
directly from the deflections noted.  The indications of this device are very
accurate and have shown that when the turbine is running at 9,000 revolutions
under an inlet pressure of 125 pounds to the square inch, and with free
exhaust, 200 brake horse-power are developed.  The consumption under these
conditions of maximum output is 38 pounds of saturated steam per horse-power
per hour - a very high efficiency when we consider that the heat-drop,
measured by thermometers, is only 130 B.T.U., and that the energy
transformation is effected in one stage.  Since about three times this number
of heat units are available in a modern plant with super-heat and high vacuum,
the above means a consumption of less than 12 pounds per horse-power hour in
such turbines adapted to take up the full drop.  Under certain conditions,
however, very high thermal efficiencies have been obtained which demonstrate
that in large machines based on this principle, in which a very small slip can
be secured, the steam consumption will be much lower and should, Mr. Tesla
states, approximate the theoretical minimum, thus resulting in nearly
frictionless turbine transmitting almost the entire expansive energy of the
steam to the shaft.
 
 
AUTOMOBILE COOLING SYSTEM PUMP
 
These are photographs of a four inch diameter water pump.  It is specifically
designed to pump cooling water for internal combustion engines of all sizes
and types.  It has an inch and a quarter inlet and a one inch outlet.  It will
pump approximately 1,000 gallons of water per hour at 12 PSI.  It is driven by
a flat pancake type D. C. motor that is only 1?2" thick.  It's power
requirement is 100 watts.  The pump itself is fabricated from 6061 aluminum,
hard anodized, which is equivalent to a type of stainless steel that is
capable of going through a 200 hour salt spray test.  The bladeless pump can
pump boiling water without cavitation without loosing its prime.  Conventional
pumps cannot pump boiling water, leading to engine damage if the cooling
system does reach the boiling point.  This will allow a new type of cooling
system for automobiles that will replace the belt driven water pump.  The
electric motor that drives this pump will not operate when the temperature
engine indicates that it is not required.  The pump will only operate when it
is needed.  The operating temperature can easily be adjusted in the field from
180 degrees to 200 degrees without having to replace a mechanical thermostat
as is the normal procedure.  The conventional lifting surface centrifugal pump
that is normally used requires from 6 to 10 HP to drive it off a belt.  The
new bladeless pump will operate only when needed and then consumes less than
one HP.  Another example of reduction of parasitic horse-power.  This pump is
currently available for commercial sale and has been fully tested.
 
 
BOUNDARY-LAYER BREAKTHROUGH - THE TESLA BLADELESS TURBINE
 
Journey back to the future and discover the fascinating secret behind the most
powerful and economic internal or external combustion engine of all time:
Tesla's Bladeless Boundary-Layer Turbine.
 
You will experience the excitement of understanding as Tesla's mechanical
breakthrough is explored, shattering the boundaries of our current mechanical
standard.  You will be swept into the awareness of discovery as the simplicity
of this whirl wind machine of natural harmony is revealed.  Unveiled here
today how it is possible to convert the normally undesired energy of drag into
the tremendous vortex energy of Tesla's perfectly controlled mechanical
tornado.  The real answer to energy.
 
The history of Tesla's monarch of machines is then followed into the present
day work of researcher and inventer C.R. "Jake" Possell [1].  You will learn
how modern day applications of the bladeless turbine could improve all aspects
of our mechanical life.  Today's applications range from indestructible pumps
and freon free air conditioning to speed boats and supersonic aircraft.
 
Conventional pumps and engines pale in comparison.  This jewel of mechanics
has no equal.  It stands alone above all others.  No other pump or engine can
match the longevity, economy, size, safety, silence and vibration free
Herculean power of this truly elegant machine.  It waits patiently to solve
the efficiency and pollution problems of today and could literally usher in A
NEW WORLD.  Fully Illustrated
 
 
[1] Mr. C. R. "Jake" Possell Is President of a Public Company called
QUADRATECH, Inc., 1417 South Gage Street, San Bernardino, CA  92408
 
BOUNDARY-LAYER BREAKTHROUGH - THE BLADELESS TESLA TURBINE Volume II. The Tesla
Technology Series, ISBN 1-882137-01-9
 
To order send $19.95 US plus $2.50 (US); $3.50 (Canada); and $6.75 (Elsewhere)
for Shipping and Handling, to:
 
 
Gary L. Peterson
P. O. Box 2001
Breckenridge, CO  80424
ent of a Public Company called
QUADRATECH, Inc., 1417 South Gage Street, San Bernardino, CA  92408
 
BOUNDARY-LAYER BREAKTHROUGH - THE BLADELESS TESLA TURBINE Volume II. The Tesla
Technology Series, ISBN 1-882137-01-9
 
To order send $19.95 US plus $2.50 (US); $3.50 (Canada); and $6.75 (Elsewhere)
for Shipping and Handling, to:
 
 
Gary L. Peterson
P. O. Box 2001
Breckenridge, CO  80424

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