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Google Patents: US 787,412 and Tesla's foreign patents, 2026-10-08

Pages fetched by script (curl) to research/pages/gp-*.html (Chrome rendered the page with no extractable text). Investigator (STEP I).

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US 787,412 "Art of transmitting electrical energy through the natural mediums"

[web: https://patents.google.com/patent/US787412A/en] - Filed 16 May 1900 (application 112,034), granted 18 April 1905. Google lists no foreign family members (family ID 2855902, US only); the French patent FR 354,791 (below) has the same title in French and may be its counterpart; not confirmed. - Text points (Tesla's own words, OCR): the length of conductor from ground plate to elevated terminal "should be equal to one-quarter of the wave length ... or else equal to that length multiplied by an odd number"; the earth's diameter through the pole "should be an odd multiple of the quarter wave length"; he has produced "an electrical movement thousands of times greater than the initial" and reached rates "measured by many tens of thousands of horse-power". (Compare Tesla's 1916 explanation that such "activities" are capacitor-discharge peak rates: research/2026-10-08-archive-org.md.) - Cited by 431 later patents (Google count; the page lists several thousand rows across families). Assignees by count of rows: Energous Corp. (450 rows), WiTricity Corp. (238), CPG Technologies LLC (133 + 10 as CPG Technologies Inc.), Ethicon (120, surgical), MIT (35), Aristeidis Karalis (32), John D. Joannopoulos (10, "Wireless non-radiative energy transfer", 2005 priority), André Kurs (8), Ut-Battelle LLC ("Directional Reactive Power Ground Plane Transmission", 2009). - Bears on priority 3: the MIT/WiTricity "non-radiative" resonant coupling patents and the CPG Technologies "guided surface wave" patents cite Tesla's 787,412. CPG's titles ("Excitation and use of guided surface wave modes on lossy media", "Measuring and reporting power received from guided surface waves", "Return coupled wireless power transmission", "Hybrid guided surface wave communication") are the closest modern work using Tesla's grounded, earth-guided idea in other words (Zenneck surface wave). See research/2026-10-08-viziv-cpg.md. A citation is an examiner's or applicant's reference, not an endorsement.

Tesla's foreign patents found (priority date, title as given by Google)

  • GB 189620981A (1896-09-22) Production, regulation and utilization of [electrical currents]
  • GB 189724421A (1897-09-02) Systems for the transmission of electrical energy and apparatus (family of US 645,576 / 649,621?)
  • CH 18652A (1898-07-01) Controlling machinery of a vehicle from a distance (teleautomaton; family of US 613,809)
  • GB 189812866A (1898-06-08) Electrical circuit controllers
  • AT 9098B (1900-06-15) Method of insulating electrical conductors
  • GB 190111293A (1901-06-01) "Improvements relating to the Utilization of Electromagnetic, Light, or other [Radiant Energy]": the abstract describes two methods of transmitting impulses through the natural media, one varying the potential of a region of the earth through one terminal with the other connected to an insulated (elevated) body. Probably the family of US 685,957/685,958 (radiant energy) and 685,012; confirm.
  • GB 190113563A (1901-07-03) "Improvements in, and relating to, the Transmission of Electrical Energy" (no text on Google).
  • AT 16480B (1901-07-17) "Device for the transmission of electrical energy": German text describes two primary circuits each "almost in resonance with its secondary", a toothed disc connected to conductor F and the earth plate E.
  • FR 354791A (1905-04-17) "Perfectionnements dans la transmission de l'énergie électrique" (no text on Google; original scan on Espacenet not yet viewed).
  • AT 60332B (1909-10-21) disc power machine or pump; GB 186082A (1921) steam and gas turbines; GB 174544A (1921) generation of power by elastic fluid; FR 549259A, 549260A, 549261A (1921) steam energy, steam as motive power, high vacuum; FR 541113A (1921) balancing rotating parts; FR 549628A (1921) air transport; FR 515388A (1913) fountains; FR 540616A / 540617A (1916) valvular conduit, lightning rods; CA 24348A (1885) arc lamp; CA 29537A, 30172A, 33317A (undated) power transmission and current conversion.
  • Bears on priority 1: foreign family members of the wireless (claims 1-2) and turbine (claim 5) patents exist; their texts may differ from the US texts (European practice sometimes kept more description). Next run: Espacenet originals of FR 354,791, GB 1901/13563, GB 1901/11293 and the 1921 French turbine set.