Categories: Practical Electronics, Controversial issues
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One-wire power transmission - fiction or reality?
In 1892 in London, and a year later in Philadelphia, a famous inventor, a Serb by nationality, Nikola Tesla demonstrated the transmission of electricity through a single wire.
How he did this remains a mystery. Some of his records have not yet been decrypted, another part has burned down.
The sensationalism of Tesla's experiments is obvious to any electrician: after all, for the current to go through the wires, they must be a closed loop. And then suddenly - one ungrounded wire!
But, I think, modern electricians will have to be even more surprised when they find out that a person is working in our country who also found a way to transfer electricity through one open wire. Engineer Stanislav Avramenko has been doing this for 15 years.
How is a phenomenal phenomenon that does not fit into the framework of generally accepted ideas? The figure shows one of the schemes of Avramenko.
It consists of a transformer T, a power line (wire) L, two on-board diodes D, a capacitor C and a spark gap R.
The transformer has a number of features, which so far (in order to maintain priority) will not be disclosed. Let's just say that he is similar to Tesla resonant transformer, in which the primary winding is supplied with voltage with a frequency equal to the resonant frequency of the secondary winding.
We connect the input (in the figure - bottom) terminals of the transformer to an AC voltage source. Since the other two of its outputs are not closed to each other (point 1 just hangs in the air), it seems that the current should not be observed in them.
However, a spark arises in the arrester - there is a breakdown of air by electric charges!
It can be continuous or discontinuous, repeated at intervals depending on the capacitance of the capacitor, the magnitude and frequency of the voltage applied to the transformer.
It turns out that a certain number of charges periodically accumulate on opposite sides of the arrester. But they can arrive there, apparently, only from point 3 through diodes rectifying the alternating current existing in line L.
Thus, a constant current pulsating in magnitude current circulates in the Avramenko plug (part of the circuit to the right of point 3).
A V voltmeter connected to the spark gap, at a frequency of about 3 kHz and a voltage of 60 V at the input of the transformer, shows 10-20 kV before the breakdown. An ammeter installed instead of it records a current of tens of microamps.
On this “miracles” with Avramenko’s fork do not end there. At resistances R1 = 2–5 MΩ and R2 = 2–100 MΩ (Fig. 2), strangenesses are observed in determining the power released at the latter.
By measuring (according to common practice) the current with a magnetoelectric ammeter A and the voltage with an electrostatic voltmeter V, multiplying the obtained values, we obtain a power much less than that determined by the exact calorimetric method from the heat release on the resistance R2. Meanwhile, according to all existing rules, they must match. There is no explanation here yet.
Complicating the circuit, the experimenters transmitted power equal to 1.3 kW along line A. This was confirmed by three brightly burning light bulbs, the total power of which was just the named value.
The experiment was conducted on July 5, 1990 in one of the laboratories of the Moscow Energy Institute. The power source was a machine generator with a frequency of 8 kHz. The length of the wire L was 2.75 m. It is interesting that it was not copper or aluminum, which is usually used to transfer electricity (their resistance is relatively small), but tungsten! And besides, with a diameter of 15 microns! That is, the electrical resistance of such a wire was much higher than the resistance of ordinary wires of the same length.
In theory, there should be large losses of electricity, and the wire should become hot and radiate heat. But this was not, while it is difficult to explain why, tungsten remained cold.
High officials with academic degrees, convinced of the reality of the experience, were simply stunned (however, they asked their names not to be called just in case).
And the most representative delegation got acquainted with the experiments of Avramenko in the summer of 1989.
It included the deputy minister of the Ministry of Energy, chiefs of commanders and other responsible scientific and administrative workers.
Since no one could give a intelligible theoretical explanation to the effects of Avramenko, the delegation limited itself to wishing him further success and dutifully retired. By the way, about the interest of state bodies in technical innovations: Avramenko filed the first application for an invention in January 1978, but still has not received a copyright certificate.
But with a careful look at the experiments of Avramenko, it becomes clear that these are not just experimental toys. Remember how much power was transmitted through the tungsten conductor, and it did not heat up! That is, the line seemed to have no resistance. So what was she - a “superconductor” at room temperature? There is nothing further to comment on - about practical significance.
There are, of course, theoretical assumptions that explain the results of experiments. Without going into details, we say that the effect can be associated with bias currents and resonance phenomena - the coincidence of the frequency of the voltage of the power source and the natural vibration frequencies of the atomic lattices of the conductor.
By the way, Faraday wrote about instantaneous currents in a single line in the 30s of the last century, and according to electrodynamics justified by Maxwell, the polarization current does not lead to the generation of Joule heat on the conductor - that is, the conductor does not resist it.
The time will come - a rigorous theory will be created, but for now, engineer Avramenko successfully tested the transmission of electricity through a single wire over 160 meters ...
Nikolay ZAEV
See also at bgv.electricianexp.com
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