WEBVTT - What's Up with the New 'Tesla Tower'?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to Brainstuff from how Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuff.

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<v Speaker 1>Lauren bogelbam here late in a business called Visive Technologies

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<v Speaker 1>formerly Texan, completed a tower off of I thirty five

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<v Speaker 1>near Milford, Texas. With its lattice style structural supports and

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<v Speaker 1>bulbous top. It bears a distinct resemblance to Nicola Tesla's

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<v Speaker 1>Warden Cliff Tower, sometimes called the Tesla Tower, which was

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<v Speaker 1>an ill faded power project envisioned by the famous engineer

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<v Speaker 1>in the early twentieth century. The tower was meant to

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<v Speaker 1>provide free energy all over the planet using wireless technology,

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<v Speaker 1>but instead wound up scrapped by creditors after Tesla couldn't

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<v Speaker 1>pay the mortgage on the property. Viziv's vision statement, rendered

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<v Speaker 1>in all caps on its website, is to power the

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<v Speaker 1>planet and bring light to the world, indicating that its

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<v Speaker 1>primary goal is indeed power related. They're aiming to offer

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<v Speaker 1>up electricity without traditional infrastructure as part of a partnership

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<v Speaker 1>with Baylor University. If it's anything like Tesla system, it

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<v Speaker 1>could also offer new ways to send signals for radio

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<v Speaker 1>communications and global positioning systems, and it could bring electricity

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<v Speaker 1>to the one point three billion people worldwide who don't

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<v Speaker 1>have it and don't have the infrastructure to get it.

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<v Speaker 1>According to company literature, the endeavor relies heavily on what

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<v Speaker 1>are called Zenic surface waves. These waves, named for Jonathan Zenic,

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<v Speaker 1>a twenty century physicist and electrical engineer, are electromagnetic waves

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<v Speaker 1>that harness Earth's surface. Is a sort of waveguide or

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<v Speaker 1>conduit for electricity and communication signals, so powerful that they

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<v Speaker 1>enveloped the entire planet without the need for wires. Unlike

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<v Speaker 1>so many other types of transmissions, zenic waves don't suffer

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<v Speaker 1>degradation from challenges like solar flares, lightning, or other electromagnetic pulses.

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<v Speaker 1>Sounds like a fairly straightforward corporate experiment so far right.

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<v Speaker 1>Set up power transmitters in one location and then the

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<v Speaker 1>receivers in another, tweak the variables of it, and then

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<v Speaker 1>determine if you can make your theories work in real

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<v Speaker 1>world conditions. The thing is, when it comes to Nicola

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<v Speaker 1>Tesla's legacy, nothing is simple. His legend is fertile ground,

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<v Speaker 1>not only for real modern science, but also for fringe

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<v Speaker 1>theories of all kinds. Down the rabbit hole we go.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's review in Tesla brilliant possibly mentally ill scientist died

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<v Speaker 1>in the hotel he was living in. U S officials

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<v Speaker 1>immediately seized the scientists research, partially in hopes of finding

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<v Speaker 1>plans for a secret death ray particle being weapon, and

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<v Speaker 1>of course, also to prevent access spies from getting their

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<v Speaker 1>hands on any useful scientific revelations. Hundreds of pages of

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<v Speaker 1>those documents were subsequently classified and went missing. It wasn't

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<v Speaker 1>until sixteen that a Freedom of Information Act forced authorities

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<v Speaker 1>to unveil some of those papers. It's possible that Tesla's

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<v Speaker 1>tower had potential applications in some sort of particle ray weapon,

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<v Speaker 1>hence the classified files. Some have even taken to calling

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<v Speaker 1>the device a piece ray, a kind of defense system

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<v Speaker 1>that the war hating test created to prevent countries from

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<v Speaker 1>attacking each other, a powerful, invisible wall of force that

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<v Speaker 1>would keep enemies at bay without resorting to the violence

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<v Speaker 1>of bullets or bombs. Flash forward to modern times. Fringe

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<v Speaker 1>theorists pounced on the fact that two of visive technologies

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<v Speaker 1>top leaders are ex military with histories in ballistic missile defense.

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<v Speaker 1>This at a time when the U S Commander in

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<v Speaker 1>chief is speaking about a space based missile defense system

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<v Speaker 1>and the residents of Milford, Texas reasonably worried about the

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<v Speaker 1>tower's purpose. But there's more. When Tesla died in three

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<v Speaker 1>and U S authorities snapped up his research, they called

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<v Speaker 1>in a well regarded electrical engineer from m I T

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<v Speaker 1>to sift through the papers and note anything useful. That

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<v Speaker 1>engineer was Dr John G. Trump, uncle to President Donald Trump.

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<v Speaker 1>After evaluating Tesla's work, John Trump scoffed at many of

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<v Speaker 1>the genius's ideas as speculative. But why then were these

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<v Speaker 1>documents classified for so long? And is it just a

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<v Speaker 1>coincidence that Visit Tower was constructed after a Trump family

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<v Speaker 1>member was elected to office. Visit Technologies did not respond

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<v Speaker 1>to the request of the How Stuff Works editorial staff

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<v Speaker 1>for comment on this story, but Michael Taylor, vice president

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<v Speaker 1>of Communications at Visive, had indicated previously that the first

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<v Speaker 1>rounds of testing involved low power waves that wouldn't have

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<v Speaker 1>any negative effects on humans or animals, and has said

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<v Speaker 1>that the company only wants to improve the lives of

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<v Speaker 1>people in the community and quote the world around us.

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<v Speaker 1>As of June eighteen, the company had planned to conduct

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<v Speaker 1>tests for perhaps six months to a year and then

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<v Speaker 1>use those results to reevaluate its future plans for further experiments.

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<v Speaker 1>As to what sort of plans those might be, we'll

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<v Speaker 1>just have to wait and see. Today's episode was written

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<v Speaker 1>by Nathan Chandler and produced by Tyler Clang for iHeart

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<v Speaker 1>Media and how Stuff Works. For more on this and

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<v Speaker 1>lots of other electrifying topics, visit our home planet, how

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<v Speaker 1>stuff works dot com