Tesla Coil Power Transfer Experiment
Transferring usable current with a single conductor
Up today we have a fairly simple experiment involving two Tesla coils connected by a single conductor.
This is a recreation of Nikola Tesla's famous experiment demonstrating the practicality of power transfer between two Tesla coils and how it is supposed to work.
As shown in the video below, the coils work similarly to two water pumps connected by a single pipe. The action in the first water pump directly affects the action of the second water pump, transferring physical power between the two. A Tesla coil works on similar principles, transferring useable electrical power between devices.
Most experiments I've seen involving Tesla coils just produce big sparks, play music or whatever else, rarely have I seen them used for power transfer. This demonstrates that power transfer between Tesla Coils is not limited by the inverse square law, the losses are more akin to that found in a standard transmission line.
The system works at any scale, so can be used for power transfer between large or small devices, as long as the system is tuned correctly. Small motors, bigger lights etc. can be run off a device that is working with higher power.
I tried to keep the components and wiring as simple as possible so it is easy to replicate the experiment and understand what each component does. I've conducted this same experiment with higher power, running motors and lights using many watts of power.
Good efficiency along with the effectiveness shown here can be obtained by using better components, but since we are transmitting power directly through a conductive medium, the losses in the system can be compared to that of a standard transmission line, with voltage and current dropping with relative distance to the receiving device.
As stated in the video, the entire system needs to be in resonance for this to work properly, so if attempting to transmit power via the earth (a good conductor), it would need to be brought into electrical resonance for the system to work on a wider scale. This would require a much bigger, more powerful and more precise system like the one Nikola Tesla was building at Wardenclyffe.
