1 00:00:02,040 --> 00:00:07,080 Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff. 2 00:00:07,120 --> 00:00:12,200 Speaker 1: Lauren bogelbam here late in a business called Visive Technologies 3 00:00:12,360 --> 00:00:16,160 Speaker 1: formerly Texan, completed a tower off of I thirty five 4 00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:20,159 Speaker 1: near Milford, Texas. With its lattice style structural supports and 5 00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:23,640 Speaker 1: bulbous top. It bears a distinct resemblance to Nicola Tesla's 6 00:00:23,640 --> 00:00:26,880 Speaker 1: Warden Cliff Tower, sometimes called the Tesla Tower, which was 7 00:00:26,920 --> 00:00:29,880 Speaker 1: an ill faded power project envisioned by the famous engineer 8 00:00:29,960 --> 00:00:32,960 Speaker 1: in the early twentieth century. The tower was meant to 9 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,400 Speaker 1: provide free energy all over the planet using wireless technology, 10 00:00:36,680 --> 00:00:39,880 Speaker 1: but instead wound up scrapped by creditors after Tesla couldn't 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:44,360 Speaker 1: pay the mortgage on the property. Viziv's vision statement, rendered 12 00:00:44,360 --> 00:00:46,879 Speaker 1: in all caps on its website, is to power the 13 00:00:46,960 --> 00:00:50,000 Speaker 1: planet and bring light to the world, indicating that its 14 00:00:50,000 --> 00:00:53,880 Speaker 1: primary goal is indeed power related. They're aiming to offer 15 00:00:53,960 --> 00:00:57,720 Speaker 1: up electricity without traditional infrastructure as part of a partnership 16 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:01,240 Speaker 1: with Baylor University. If it's anything like Tesla system, it 17 00:01:01,240 --> 00:01:03,640 Speaker 1: could also offer new ways to send signals for radio 18 00:01:03,680 --> 00:01:08,080 Speaker 1: communications and global positioning systems, and it could bring electricity 19 00:01:08,080 --> 00:01:10,680 Speaker 1: to the one point three billion people worldwide who don't 20 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:13,200 Speaker 1: have it and don't have the infrastructure to get it. 21 00:01:14,319 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 1: According to company literature, the endeavor relies heavily on what 22 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:21,840 Speaker 1: are called Zenic surface waves. These waves, named for Jonathan Zenic, 23 00:01:21,920 --> 00:01:25,800 Speaker 1: a twenty century physicist and electrical engineer, are electromagnetic waves 24 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:28,600 Speaker 1: that harness Earth's surface. Is a sort of waveguide or 25 00:01:28,680 --> 00:01:32,600 Speaker 1: conduit for electricity and communication signals, so powerful that they 26 00:01:32,680 --> 00:01:37,360 Speaker 1: enveloped the entire planet without the need for wires. Unlike 27 00:01:37,400 --> 00:01:40,520 Speaker 1: so many other types of transmissions, zenic waves don't suffer 28 00:01:40,560 --> 00:01:45,520 Speaker 1: degradation from challenges like solar flares, lightning, or other electromagnetic pulses. 29 00:01:46,560 --> 00:01:50,080 Speaker 1: Sounds like a fairly straightforward corporate experiment so far right. 30 00:01:50,760 --> 00:01:53,200 Speaker 1: Set up power transmitters in one location and then the 31 00:01:53,320 --> 00:01:55,920 Speaker 1: receivers in another, tweak the variables of it, and then 32 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:57,960 Speaker 1: determine if you can make your theories work in real 33 00:01:58,000 --> 00:02:01,559 Speaker 1: world conditions. The thing is, when it comes to Nicola 34 00:02:01,600 --> 00:02:05,880 Speaker 1: Tesla's legacy, nothing is simple. His legend is fertile ground, 35 00:02:05,960 --> 00:02:09,079 Speaker 1: not only for real modern science, but also for fringe 36 00:02:09,120 --> 00:02:12,720 Speaker 1: theories of all kinds. Down the rabbit hole we go. 37 00:02:13,400 --> 00:02:20,119 Speaker 1: Let's review in Tesla brilliant possibly mentally ill scientist died 38 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:22,920 Speaker 1: in the hotel he was living in. U S officials 39 00:02:22,960 --> 00:02:26,919 Speaker 1: immediately seized the scientists research, partially in hopes of finding 40 00:02:26,919 --> 00:02:29,880 Speaker 1: plans for a secret death ray particle being weapon, and 41 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:32,960 Speaker 1: of course, also to prevent access spies from getting their 42 00:02:33,000 --> 00:02:36,880 Speaker 1: hands on any useful scientific revelations. Hundreds of pages of 43 00:02:36,919 --> 00:02:40,920 Speaker 1: those documents were subsequently classified and went missing. It wasn't 44 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,440 Speaker 1: until sixteen that a Freedom of Information Act forced authorities 45 00:02:44,440 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: to unveil some of those papers. It's possible that Tesla's 46 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:52,000 Speaker 1: tower had potential applications in some sort of particle ray weapon, 47 00:02:52,520 --> 00:02:55,880 Speaker 1: hence the classified files. Some have even taken to calling 48 00:02:55,919 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 1: the device a piece ray, a kind of defense system 49 00:02:58,919 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: that the war hating test created to prevent countries from 50 00:03:01,720 --> 00:03:05,359 Speaker 1: attacking each other, a powerful, invisible wall of force that 51 00:03:05,400 --> 00:03:08,079 Speaker 1: would keep enemies at bay without resorting to the violence 52 00:03:08,120 --> 00:03:13,320 Speaker 1: of bullets or bombs. Flash forward to modern times. Fringe 53 00:03:13,360 --> 00:03:16,399 Speaker 1: theorists pounced on the fact that two of visive technologies 54 00:03:16,440 --> 00:03:20,440 Speaker 1: top leaders are ex military with histories in ballistic missile defense. 55 00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:22,800 Speaker 1: This at a time when the U S Commander in 56 00:03:22,880 --> 00:03:26,600 Speaker 1: chief is speaking about a space based missile defense system 57 00:03:26,639 --> 00:03:29,880 Speaker 1: and the residents of Milford, Texas reasonably worried about the 58 00:03:29,919 --> 00:03:34,800 Speaker 1: tower's purpose. But there's more. When Tesla died in three 59 00:03:34,840 --> 00:03:37,440 Speaker 1: and U S authorities snapped up his research, they called 60 00:03:37,520 --> 00:03:39,880 Speaker 1: in a well regarded electrical engineer from m I T 61 00:03:40,120 --> 00:03:43,440 Speaker 1: to sift through the papers and note anything useful. That 62 00:03:43,560 --> 00:03:48,320 Speaker 1: engineer was Dr John G. Trump, uncle to President Donald Trump. 63 00:03:48,840 --> 00:03:52,080 Speaker 1: After evaluating Tesla's work, John Trump scoffed at many of 64 00:03:52,080 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: the genius's ideas as speculative. But why then were these 65 00:03:55,960 --> 00:03:58,720 Speaker 1: documents classified for so long? And is it just a 66 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,200 Speaker 1: coincidence that Visit Tower was constructed after a Trump family 67 00:04:02,200 --> 00:04:06,600 Speaker 1: member was elected to office. Visit Technologies did not respond 68 00:04:06,680 --> 00:04:08,840 Speaker 1: to the request of the How Stuff Works editorial staff 69 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:12,360 Speaker 1: for comment on this story, but Michael Taylor, vice president 70 00:04:12,360 --> 00:04:15,720 Speaker 1: of Communications at Visive, had indicated previously that the first 71 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:19,080 Speaker 1: rounds of testing involved low power waves that wouldn't have 72 00:04:19,120 --> 00:04:22,240 Speaker 1: any negative effects on humans or animals, and has said 73 00:04:22,240 --> 00:04:24,240 Speaker 1: that the company only wants to improve the lives of 74 00:04:24,240 --> 00:04:27,280 Speaker 1: people in the community and quote the world around us. 75 00:04:28,880 --> 00:04:31,679 Speaker 1: As of June eighteen, the company had planned to conduct 76 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:34,240 Speaker 1: tests for perhaps six months to a year and then 77 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:38,040 Speaker 1: use those results to reevaluate its future plans for further experiments. 78 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,400 Speaker 1: As to what sort of plans those might be, we'll 79 00:04:41,440 --> 00:04:48,640 Speaker 1: just have to wait and see. Today's episode was written 80 00:04:48,680 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang for iHeart 81 00:04:51,279 --> 00:04:53,479 Speaker 1: Media and how Stuff Works. For more on this and 82 00:04:53,520 --> 00:04:56,360 Speaker 1: lots of other electrifying topics, visit our home planet, how 83 00:04:56,400 --> 00:05:08,800 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com