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The energy of the Tunguska event is estimated at around 60,000,000,000 megajoules. Assuming no transmission losses whatsoever, this can only mean that Tesla bui

The energy of the Tunguska event is estimated at around 60,000,000,000 megajoules. Assuming no transmission losses whatsoever, this can only mean that Tesla built the world's first nuclear power plant and that it still dwarfs the output of all modern nuclear power plants today -- combined! He was truly a remarkable inventor.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago
Actually you can reconcile this. Maybe Tesla’s transmitter acted like one of the laser targeting pods the military uses. The laser itself is minuscule energy, but it serves as guidance to a bomb or missile that is a lot more energetic. Maybe Tesla was in league with the aliens who wanted to test one of their missiles. Not wanting to cause a lot of casualties, they talked with Tesla about where they could target. Tesla used his device to help them target a very remote area of Siberia.
- ivalm 4y ago
  Why would these super advanced aliens need Tesla? They can just target whatever themselves.
  - RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago
    Tesla was actually the equivalent of an alien spy/special forces. Just like In Afghanistan, the US used embedded special ops forces on the ground to do targeting for missiles launched from fighters at high altitude.
- robertlagrant 4y ago
  How about we compromise and say that Tesla made a Magnabeam from Forts[0], and that guided an iron-rich meteorite to Tesla's target? [0] https://forts.fandom.com/wiki/Magna_Beam https://forts.fandom.com/wiki/Magna_Beam
miles 4y ago
From "Tesla Wireless and the Tunguska Explosion"[0]: "Tesla said his transmitter could produce 100 million volts of pressure and currents up to 1000 amperes, with experimental power levels of billion or tens of billions of watts.(18) If that amount of power were released in 'an incomparably small interval of time,'(19) the energy would be equal to the explosion of millions of tons of TNT, that is, a multi-megaton explosion. Such a transmitter would be capable of projecting the force of a nuclear warhead by radio." "18. Tesla, Nikola, New York Times, 'How to Signal Mars,' May 23, 1909, pg. 10. He claims to have sent 'a current around the globe' on the order of '15,000,000' horsepower or 11 billion watts." "19. Secor, H. Winfield, 'The Tesla High Frequency Oscillator,' The Electrical Experimenter, March 1916, pg. 615." [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20040203060110/http://www.frank.germano.com/tunguska.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20040203060110/http://www.frank....
- Oxidation 4y ago
  Good to know the venerable "credulously repeat what the charismatic technology man said" school of journalism is now well into its second century of utility.
- pixl97 4y ago
  Tesla said a lot of shit, some of it was even true.
  - RajT88 4y ago
    This. He was a smart guy ahead of his time. He also had some wacky not-true ideas, which honestly couldn't be disproven at the time. I expect some of our most brilliant minds today may end up with a similar retrospective.
- unusualmonkey 4y ago
  > Tesla said his transmitter could produce 100 million volts of pressure and currents up to 1000 amperes, with experimental power levels of billion or tens of billions of watts.(18) Where did this power come from? > If that amount of power were released in 'an incomparably small interval of time,'(19) the energy would be equal to the explosion of millions of tons of TNT, that is, a multi-megaton explosion. Err what? Watts is a measure of 'rate' not total energy. The smaller the unit of time the less the total energy transferred. 1 megaton of TNT is equivalent to 1.162 trillion watt hours. If you could generate and transmit 1 billion watts of energy, you would need to do this for 48 days and 10 hours before you've released the equivalent of a single megaton. Or, flipped around, 1 gigawatt over say 0.1s is only ~23.9 kilograms of TNT. A decent amount of energy, but nothing on the order of Tunguska.
JoeAltmaier 4y ago
Or it somehow 'grounded' the entire ionosphere, producing the mother of all lightning discharges.
- generalizations 4y ago
  I think that'd be possible by inducing a standing wave reaching from ground to the ionosphere. That would ionize the air in between and create a channel to induce the lighting strike.

RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago

Actually you can reconcile this. Maybe Tesla’s transmitter acted like one of the laser targeting pods the military uses. The laser itself is minuscule energy, but it serves as guidance to a bomb or missile that is a lot more energetic. Maybe Tesla was in league with the aliens who wanted to test one of their missiles. Not wanting to cause a lot of casualties, they talked with Tesla about where they could target. Tesla used his device to help them target a very remote area of Siberia.

ivalm 4y ago
Why would these super advanced aliens need Tesla? They can just target whatever themselves.
- RcouF1uZ4gsC 4y ago
  Tesla was actually the equivalent of an alien spy/special forces. Just like In Afghanistan, the US used embedded special ops forces on the ground to do targeting for missiles launched from fighters at high altitude.
robertlagrant 4y ago
How about we compromise and say that Tesla made a Magnabeam from Forts[0], and that guided an iron-rich meteorite to Tesla's target? [0] https://forts.fandom.com/wiki/Magna_Beam https://forts.fandom.com/wiki/Magna_Beam

miles 4y ago

From "Tesla Wireless and the Tunguska Explosion"[0]: "Tesla said his transmitter could produce 100 million volts of pressure and currents up to 1000 amperes, with experimental power levels of billion or tens of billions of watts.(18) If that amount of power were released in 'an incomparably small interval of time,'(19) the energy would be equal to the explosion of millions of tons of TNT, that is, a multi-megaton explosion. Such a transmitter would be capable of projecting the force of a nuclear warhead by radio." "18. Tesla, Nikola, New York Times, 'How to Signal Mars,' May 23, 1909, pg. 10. He claims to have sent 'a current around the globe' on the order of '15,000,000' horsepower or 11 billion watts." "19. Secor, H. Winfield, 'The Tesla High Frequency Oscillator,' The Electrical Experimenter, March 1916, pg. 615." [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20040203060110/http://www.frank.germano.com/tunguska.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20040203060110/http://www.frank....

Oxidation 4y ago
Good to know the venerable "credulously repeat what the charismatic technology man said" school of journalism is now well into its second century of utility.
pixl97 4y ago
Tesla said a lot of shit, some of it was even true.
- RajT88 4y ago
  This. He was a smart guy ahead of his time. He also had some wacky not-true ideas, which honestly couldn't be disproven at the time. I expect some of our most brilliant minds today may end up with a similar retrospective.
unusualmonkey 4y ago
> Tesla said his transmitter could produce 100 million volts of pressure and currents up to 1000 amperes, with experimental power levels of billion or tens of billions of watts.(18) Where did this power come from? > If that amount of power were released in 'an incomparably small interval of time,'(19) the energy would be equal to the explosion of millions of tons of TNT, that is, a multi-megaton explosion. Err what? Watts is a measure of 'rate' not total energy. The smaller the unit of time the less the total energy transferred. 1 megaton of TNT is equivalent to 1.162 trillion watt hours. If you could generate and transmit 1 billion watts of energy, you would need to do this for 48 days and 10 hours before you've released the equivalent of a single megaton. Or, flipped around, 1 gigawatt over say 0.1s is only ~23.9 kilograms of TNT. A decent amount of energy, but nothing on the order of Tunguska.

JoeAltmaier 4y ago

Or it somehow 'grounded' the entire ionosphere, producing the mother of all lightning discharges.

generalizations 4y ago
I think that'd be possible by inducing a standing wave reaching from ground to the ionosphere. That would ionize the air in between and create a channel to induce the lighting strike.