Page - 58 - in Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech

58 In the autumn of 1897, Tesla submitted patents for wireless message trans- mission and for a system of wireless energy transmission for industrial pur- poses. Guglielmo Marconi made use of all of Tesla’s discoveries and built up a world monopoly for wireless radiotelegraphy. He is still called the founder of the radio today. Within a short period of time, radio technology spread across the whole world. After the development of undamped transmitters, radio ama- teurs started transmitting language and music. Broadcasting developed into a mass product as big industrial enterprises took over the production and sale of radio appliances. In the 1920s, a worldwide radio industry rapidly emerged /3/. Tesla did not continue his work in the field of radio technology. Instead, in 1899, he became more interested in the idea of wireless energy transmission. With the help of his patent lawyer, Leonhard Curtis, Tesla was able to build a new laboratory in Colorado Springs in May 1899 which was significantly larger than his laboratory in New York. The sides of the square-shaped lab were 30 metres long and a rod-shaped antenna extended 50 metres high from the middle of the building. In the in- terior of the lab was the biggest and most powerful Tesla coil that had ever been built. It had a diameter of more than 15 metres and a height of 2.7 me- tres, and it could produce a high-frequency voltage of almost 20 million volts. Using the world’s then most powerful transmitting and receiving equipment, Tesla wanted to prove his theory that high-frequency electromagnetic waves could be used for transmitting energy. The experiments carried out in Colora- do Springs confirmed Tesla’s assumption that he had found a system which could transmit energy wirelessly.