Tesla: Investigator site log (STEP I)

Run 2026-10-08 (first Investigator run, part of a full workflow run; 10-minute cap; web time used about 9.6 minutes, stopped by the cap). Chrome used for Google, the FBI Vault and loc.gov; scripted fetches (curl, archive.org APIs) for archive.org, Google Patents pages, PBS, Hackaday, Viziv, the Tesla Museum and author-posted PDFs. Public documents saved to research/files/ (listed in each note); fetched pages kept in research/pages/ as the evidence trail (not for publication). The FBI Vault PDFs were measured in the browser but not saved.

Keywords tried

• archive.org: title:(colorado springs notes) AND tesla; title:("work with alternating currents"); tesla AND (wardenclyffe) AND mediatype:texts; title:(tesla) AND (dahlstrand OR "allis-chalmers"); title:("lecture before the new york academy" OR "Tesla Science Center"); identifier:sim_electrical-world_1904-03*
• Google Patents: US787412A; inventor="Nikola Tesla" countries GB, FR, DE, CH, AT, CA, priority before 1930-01-01; FR354791A; GB190113563A; AT16480B; GB190111293A
• Google: "Transmission of Electrical Energy Without Wires" Tesla 1904 "Electrical World and Engineer" full text; Texzon OR "CPG Technologies" "guided surface wave" Corum Tesla test results measured; "John G. Trump" 1943 report Tesla papers "Office of Alien Property" full text "speculative"; "Project Nick" Tesla Craigie Wright Field 1945 OR 1946 OR 1947 record source; "Waldorf-Astoria" v. Tesla Wardenclyffe 1922 OR 1923 appellate division testimony foreclosure; Dahlstrand Tesla turbine Allis-Chalmers report 1911 OR 1912 "Hans Dahlstrand"; Tesla disc turbine experimental efficiency measured "test rig" OR "multiple-disk turbines" Rice 1965 OR Guha 2009; Corum "Nikola Tesla and the Planetary Radio Signals" OR "Tesla Coil as a Slow Wave" OR "Colorado Springs" Corum pdf
• loc.gov: nikola tesla papers (Manuscript Division); Chronicling America Tesla Shoreham tower (1917); Tesla "stationary waves" (1899-1910)
• FBI Vault: nikola-tesla listing
• Not yet tried (vary next run): "Fritz Lowenstein" Tesla 1899 OR 1904 (second observer); "Lowenstein" "stationary waves"; "Lester S. Holmes" Wardenclyffe; "Smiley Steel" Wardenclyffe 1917; "Ezra Bingham" Waldorf; "Kerr, Page & Cooper" Tesla opinion; "Tesla Electric & Manufacturing Company"; "Nikola Tesla Company" New York incorporation records; "Tesla Propulsion Company" (turbine); "Pyle National" Tesla turbine; "Edison Waterside" Tesla turbine test 1911; German: "Tesla" "stehende Wellen" 1899; French: "Tesla" "ondes stationnaires" "transmission de l'énergie"; Serbian: "Тесла" "стојећи таласи"; "Schumann resonance" Tesla priority (Jackson, Wait 1974, Sentman); "Zenneck wave" Tesla Corum IEEE; "teleforce" 1934 New York Times; "Tesla" "cosmic energy" 1931 interview; "Earth Electricity to Kill Monopoly" 1896.
• Follow-up Q19 (Google, Chrome): "Tesla hairpin circuit" Lindemann; "hairpin circuit" Tesla origin name "Eric Dollard" OR "Lindemann" OR "Bearden" 1980s OR 1990s; "hairpin circuit" Tesla (before 2008-01-01); Lindemann "Tesla's Radiant Energy" video 2000 OR 2001 hairpin "copper bars"; "Karl Palsness" "hairpin" "not a very elegant name" OR "calls it" OR "named" Atlantis Rising; "hairpin" Tesla bulb "salt water" OR saltwater lit underwater radiant; tesla hairpin circuit bulb "salt water" OR "salted water" OR "add salt"; Alvarez-Cespedes "Tesla Hairpin Circuit" Liberty University. Not yet tried: Tesla Coil Mailing List / KeelyNet / Usenet "hairpin" before 2008; Palsness YouTube 2008 descriptions; "stout copper bars" oscilloscope lamp voltage measured.

Leads for review

1. The inventor's own work

• Stout copper bars (follow-up Q19). IRW pp.194-195 (Figs. 128-129), IRW p.127 (Martin: "several hundred volts" between points a few inches apart), On Light pp.36-37 (Figs. 19a-c: 50 V and 100 V lamps and a tube burn properly in parallel only after "carefully determining the positions"; Tesla credits "time rate of change"), 1898 electrotherapy paper (sliding contacts give "from a few volts to many thousands"). Bears on the impedance/standing-wave side of claims 1-3. research/2026-10-08-followup-Q19.md.
• Colorado Springs Notes, 3 July 1899 (closes a source gap in claims.md). Tesla's diary: the instrument kept responding at intervals of about half an hour after the storm was "greater than 200 miles" away; "It showed clearly the existence of stationary waves"; he thinks reflection from the antipode "difficult to believe" and prefers reflection from the lightning strike point as a node. Bears on claim 1: the diary is more cautious than the 1904 article and the patents. Saved text; deep read recommended (entries of 3 July, 30 July, 6 Aug water-pipe stationary waves, and the lines listed in the note). research/2026-10-08-archive-org.md §1.
• 1904 Electrical World article (primary scan and transcription). Tesla's full public account of 3 July 1899, with storm retreating "about three hundred kilometers", nodes and loops, and the conclusion of power "to any terrestrial distance and almost without loss". Claim 1. research/2026-10-08-archive-org.md §2.
• 1916 legal interview (Anderson 1992). Tesla explains that his "18 million horsepower" activities in Colorado were capacitor energy discharged in very short intervals: 1 kW of generator gives 2,000-5,000 kW of "activity" with damped waves, but an undamped wave "gives you only ... 1 kilowatt and nothing more". Bears on claims 1 and 4 (and on readings of "thousands of times greater" in US 787,412): in Tesla's own words these are peak rates, not net gain. research/2026-10-08-archive-org.md §3.
• Foreign family members of the wireless and turbine patents: GB 1901/11293 (radiant energy, natural media), GB 1901/13563 and AT 16480 (transmission of electrical energy), FR 354,791 (1905, transmission), GB 186,082 / GB 174,544 / FR 549,259-549,261 (1921 turbines). Claims 1, 2, 5. research/2026-10-08-google-patents.md.
• Tesla to Rankine, 19 April 1904 (Smithsonian): Wardenclyffe's state and promised earnings; Morgan and Astor interests; Kerr, Page & Cooper patent opinion enclosed. Claim 1 context, historical record. research/2026-10-08-archive-org.md §4.

2. Supporting information by others

• Hairpin replications (follow-up Q19). Palsness 2008-2009 (Energetic Forum; tap-water bulb; qualitative); Kraakman about 2018 (all four of Tesla's lamp types lit together; counter 45-60 kHz; LCR 182.23 µH; no nodes, shorted-line profile); Liberty University poster 2018 (unread); Davy Oneness salt-water photo (Manning 2026, no measurement). None reports input against output power. research/2026-10-08-followup-Q19.md.
• Fritz Lowenstein named by Tesla (1904) as having made "similar observations" of the 3 July-type effect. Second observer; no account by Lowenstein found yet. Claim 1. research/2026-10-08-archive-org.md §2.
• Marinčić (CSN editor, 1978), quoting J. R. Wait (IEEE Trans. Comm., April 1974) and J. D. Jackson: Tesla's idea of the earth as a resonant circuit, lowest mode estimated ~6 Hz (6.6 Hz for a perfectly conducting sphere; Schumann resonances observed ~8, 14, 20 Hz); Marinčić also states Tesla's errors (frequency range, need for high voltage, earth-ionosphere cavity rather than the earth alone). Claims 1-2. research/2026-10-08-archive-org.md §1.
• Corum & Corum reconstructions of the 1899 receivers (RF-biased coherer with frequency-selective negative resistance; "more than adequate" sensitivity) and their planetary-signal analysis (Jovian/Io events, 21-22 July 1899). Claims 1 and 7. research/2026-10-08-corum-papers.md.

3. Closely related work

• Name "hairpin" and the Moray comparison (follow-up Q19). Earliest use found: Karl Palsness, 27 Dec 2008; Atlantis Rising No. 77 (2009) says he prefers the name; Lindemann endorsed the demonstration, no evidence he coined it. Moray's "draft of current is adapted to the load" (Radiant Energy p.19) contrasts with Tesla's position-matched lamps. Lecher lines (1890) are the closest mainstream relative (Kraakman). research/2026-10-08-followup-Q19.md.
• CPG Technologies / Viziv (Texas): "guided surface wave" (Zenneck) wireless power, >100 patents citing US 787,412, a tower near Milford, TX; no published field measurement found. Interested party. Claim 1. research/2026-10-08-viziv-cpg.md.
• MIT/WiTricity resonant non-radiative transfer (Karalis, Joannopoulos, Kurs patents cite US 787,412): near-field resonant coupling, the short-range relative of claim 3. research/2026-10-08-google-patents.md.
• Measured Tesla-turbine efficiencies by others: Armstrong 1952 (14%), Rice 1965 and others (20-35%), Hoya & Guha 2009 (140 W, ~25%, nozzle losses dominant). Claim 5. research/2026-10-08-turbine-literature.md.

4. The historical record

• Wardenclyffe demolition, 1917: competing accounts. The Sun (NY) 19 July 1917 says the Federal Government had the tower dynamited as a wartime precaution; the 5 Aug 1917 Sun feature repeats it but says the buyer's identity was unknown; Anderson (1992) and Wikipedia say it was destroyed for commercial development or scrap after Boldt's foreclosure. Deciding records: the foreclosure-appeal transcript (extracts in the 1916-interview book, Appendix III: Tesla, Bingham, Exhibit B inventory), salvage records, 1917 Navy radio-station orders. research/2026-10-08-chronicling-america.md.
• FBI Vault holds three parts (~354 pp. by object count) against 265 pp. in the folder; Part 03 (Final) not yet compared. Claim 6. research/2026-10-08-fbi-vault.md.
• Trump report and "Project Nick": only the quoted sentence of Trump's 1943 report is online; "Project Nick" (Wright Field, Brig. Gen. L. C. Craigie) is documented in a popular source chain (PBS 2000; probably Cheney 1981) with no primary record found yet. Records: NARA RG 131 (OAP Tesla case file), RG 342 (Wright Field). Claim 6. research/2026-10-08-papers-fate.md.
• Nikola Tesla Museum archive: 163,911 call numbers in 548 boxes, seven units (incl. Legal Affairs & Finance; Plans and Drawings); the deciding record for what the 1943 papers contained. Claim 6. research/2026-10-08-tesla-museum.md.
• Allis-Chalmers (Dahlstrand) report: no primary copy online; only O'Neill's quotation. Claim 5. research/2026-10-08-turbine-literature.md.

Corrections to earlier documents

• claims.md "Source gap" lists the Colorado Springs Notes and the 1904 Electrical World article as not in the folder. Both are now obtained (research/files/colorado-springs-notes-1899-1900_djvu.txt, electrical-world-1904-03-05_djvu.txt, tesla-1904-transmission-without-wires.pdf). The orchestrator should update the gap note: claim 1's 3 July 1899 evidence no longer rests only on secondary quotation.
• claims.md claim 1 says "The 3 July 1899 storm observation in Colorado is his stated experimental evidence" for transmission "to any distance". The diary entry itself supports only stationary waves from a storm more than 200 miles away and calls antipodal reflection "difficult to believe"; the antipodal generalisation is in the 1904 article and later. Suggest the claim text separate the two.
• The FBI file in the folder (1998 copies, 265 pp.) may not be the complete released file: the FBI Vault has three parts, the last marked "Final". Any statement that the folder holds "the FBI file" should say "the 1998 release, 265 pp.".