6.3. Electrical conduction

Electrical energy can also be transmitted by means of electrical currents made to flow through naturally existing conductors, specifically the earth, lakes and oceans, and through the atmosphere — a natural medium that can be made conducting if the breakdown voltage is exceeded and the gas becomes ionized. For example, when a high voltage is applied across a neon tube the gas becomes ionized and a current passes between the two internal electrodes. In a practical wireless energy transmission system using this principle, a high-power ultraviolet beam might be used to form a vertical ionized channel in the air directly above the transmitter-receiver stations. The same concept is used in virtual lightning rods, the electro laser electroshock weapon and has been proposed for disabling vehicles.

The Tesla effect

A "world system" for "the transmission of electrical energy without wires" that depends upon the electrical conductivity was proposed by Nikola Tesla as late as 1904. The Tesla effect (named in honor of Tesla) is an archaic term for an application of a type of electrical conduction (that is, the movement of energy through space and matter; not just the production of voltage across a conductor). Tesla stated,

"Instead of depending on induction at a distance to light the tube [... the] ideal way of lighting a hall or room would [...] be to produce such a condition in it that an illuminating device could be moved and put anywhere, and that it is lighted, no matter where it is put and without being electrically connected to anything. I have been able to produce such a condition by creating in the room a powerful, rapidly alternating electrostatic field. For this purpose I suspend a sheet of metal a distance from the ceiling on insulating cords and connect it to one terminal of the induction coil, the other terminal being preferably connected to the ground. Or else I suspend two sheets as [...] each sheet being connected with one of the terminals of the coil, and their size being carefully determined. An exhausted tube may then be carried in the hand anywhere between the sheets or placed anywhere, even a certain distance beyond them; it remains always luminous."

Through longitudinal waves, an operator uses the Tesla effect in the wireless transfer of energy to a receiving device. The Tesla effect is a type of high field gradient between electrode plates for wireless energy transfer.

The Tesla effect uses high frequency alternating current potential differences transmitted between two plates or nodes. The electrostatic forces through natural media across a conductor situated in the changing magnetic flux can transfer power to the conducting receiving device (such as Tesla's wireless bulbs).

Currently, the effect has been appropriated by some in the fringe scientific community as an effect which purportedly causes man-made earthquakes from electromagnetic standing waves, for example Tesla's teleforce via mechanical earth-resonance concepts. A number of modern writers have "reinterpreted" and expanded upon Tesla's original writings. In the process, they have invoked behavior and phenomena that are often inconsistent with experimental observation and mainstream science. The wireless system would combine electrical power transmission along with broadcasting and wireless telecommunications, allowing for the elimination of many existing high-tension power transmission lines and facilitate the interconnection of electrical generation plants on a global scale.