Energy carries in the EARTH for huge distances if broadcast at the right frequencies and can be tapped with a simple grounding rod anywhere on the planet.
grounding rod
If the Earth is at a higher potential energy than the ground state, what is the return path for the tapped off electricity? Sure voltages can flow from two energy potentials that are both higher than the ground state, but in the case of the "tap power from the Earth", you have a parasitic capacitance that couples to the ground state of the Earth itself which is not at ground potential. What will this parasitic capacitance couple to to create a return path for the electrons to flow? Tesla coils rely on this parasitic capacitance to couple to the primary coil or the Earth ground potential in order to flow electrons. Your explanation does not provide a circuit path.
Even radio broadcast relies on the parasitic capacitance or inductance to work. A radio receiver parasitically couples to the Earth ground potential to provide a return path for the electrons. Both the transmitter and receiver will couple to the Earth which is why you have losses in the broadcast signal when too many objects couple the energy in the air to the ground. This is how a Faraday cage works. Now given that knowledge, what does the energy directed into the Earth from a Wydencliff style transmitter use to complete a return path? Have you thought about this?
Its been a while since I studied this but my recollection is Tesla was setting up a reverberating current that was in tune with the earths diameter (6 hz?) and the way it would be tapped was a person put a ground rod in and had a mushroom cap top and tapped the oscillating current from in between the cap and ground rod.
The purpose of the mushroom cap is to provide no need for two ends of the circuit. The mushroom cap acts like a terminator because its an oscillating energy.
Think of having a earth sized vibrating metal bell. If a person was on the other side and put a high density rubber pole against the bell he could tap the mechanical energy between the bell and the rubber rod.
Electrically the mushroom cap act like the rubber rod terminating the electrical oscillation at a different potential than the ground so the energy can be tapped in between.
The purpose of the mushroom cap is to provide no need for two ends of the circuit.
Um, this makes no sense. The rod with its mushroom cap would be the entire circuit. It would literally be a useless circuit as you could not tap electricity off of it to do anything at all. Just because there is a high frequency "reverberation" (your words) does not make a difference. The rod and mushroom shaped end are a complete short circuit. Also, you said the mushroom cap on the transmitter was to focus the energy down into the Earth so how would a similar mushroom cap at the receiver do anything different?
Yeah, I think you're not understanding the technology either. Tesla gave us many practical and useful technologies such as the induction motor and fluorescent lighting, but not all of his inventions were useful or worked as history inaccurately describes them. He was a man not a god. People have exaggerated his works to elevate them to magic rather than science. I think Wydencliff is one of those exaggerations.
No, it's pretty obvious your understanding of electricity is not complete. Electrical ground can be anything really. In this circuit it would be the air.
The air becomes ground in the area surrounding the tower.
I've installed a few +50m towers with lightning rod grounding for remote access communications. I've seen how electricity arcs from the lightning rod cables to the copper ground banks we install at about a foot distance from each other before we solder them together in clear weather. That's just one lightning rod, imagine a larger surface area like the Wydencliff tower. There's huge amounts of electricity we could be pulling from the air.
If you could draw that into the ground at sufficient quantities you could use the ground to transmit electricity within a certain distance of the tower. The air would become the ground within the bubble area the tower creates.
Also, soil does not have a net 0 electrical charge, even if it acts as the ground for many applications. Soil has plenty of electrical activity and is the reason plants can absorb and move ions and cations into their roots. The electrical conductivity of soil is measured all over the agricultural world everyday and is used as a metric for soil health.
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