On this day in 1894 Nikola Tesla was granted the patent for MEANS FOR GENERATING ELECTRIC CURRENTS. U.S. Patent No. 514,168.
The invention is an improvement applicable more especially to the method or system of generating and utilizing electrical energy, and which involves the maintenance of an intermittent or oscillatory discharge of a condenser or circuit of suitable capacity into a working circuit containing translating devices. In systems of this character when the high frequency of the currents employed is due to the action of a disruptive or intermittent discharge across an air gap or break at some point of the circuit, it has been found to be of advantage not only to break up or destroy the least tendency to continuity of the are or discharge, but also to control the period of the re-establishment of the same, and from investigations made with this object in view it has been found that greatly improved results are secured by causing the discharge to take place in and through an insulating liquid, such as oil, and instead of allowing the terminal points of the break to remain at a uniform distance from each other, to vary such distance by bringing them periodically in actual contact or sufficiently near to establish the discharge and then separating them, or what is the equivalent of this, throwing in and out of the gap or break a conducting bridge at predetermined intervals. To obtain the best results, moreover, it was found essential to maintain at the point of discharge a flow of the insulating medium, or, in general, such a circulation of the same as will constantly operate to cut off or break up the discharge as fast as it is established. The accomplishment of this latter result involves the employment of some mechanism for maintaining the flow or circulation of the insulating medium past the points of discharge, the advantage of the presence of such mechanism to accomplish a further and beneficial result which is the maintenance of a flow or circulation of the insulating liquid which is immersed in the converter coils used for raising the potential of the current, and also the condenser plates when such are required and used. By this means the insulating liquid surrounding the said coils and plates may be prevented from heating, either by its circulation alone or by the application to it while in motion of a cooling medium, and its requisite qualities preserved for an indefinite time.
