Tesla Tower in central Texas?

An oddly shaped, but prominent, roadside construction project along Interstate 35-East just north of Carl’s Corner is actually a high-tech study into the feasibility of transmitting electricity from place to place without wires.

Driving toward Dallas on Interstate 35 East, just past Carl’s Corner on the right, there’s a unique tower. It has a large circular base, a smaller round structure jutting from the top, and on top of the pole sits a large, round, metal-looking ball.

One of the broadcast engineers at KWTX noticed the thing while coming back from Dallas, took a picture and brought it to the newsroom so a reporter could figure out what it is.
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It’s part of an experiment to study the feasibility of transmission of electric energy from source to user without using wires.

It’s being undertaken by a Waxahachie company named Viziv and it uses a technology they call a surface wave system.

“The Viziv surface wave systems will improve the quality of life for people everywhere by enabling the delivery of affordable electricity throughout the world,” Viziv Technologies states on its website.

So far the company has associated with the BRIC, the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative, on the project, as noted in a recent news release from Baylor that said the research effort, in part: “to provide the capability to safely, economically and efficiently deliver electrical power virtually anywhere in the world through the use of surface wave technologies. Research within the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative (BRIC) will inform each of these applications as commercial development continues.”

Viziv is one of six companies associated with the Baylor group that is studying similar innovations. The company is headed up by former USAF Brig. Gen. Michael W. Miller, who retired from the Air Force after 28 years of military service.

The company leases 3,055-square-feet at BRIC, a 330,000-square-foot facility that provides access to: “fundamental and applied research, industry collaboration, business acceleration and incubation, workforce development and STEM educational outreach and research,” BRIC’s website says.
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The theory behind this tower goes back more than 100 years, to scientist Nicola Tesla. Yes, that Tesla.

The man who gave us AC electric motors, which eventually turned into electric cars, had a theory about sending electricity through the air.

Now, the technology exists to make that possible, but first Viziv Technologies has other experiments to carry out.

“We’re focusing early-on, on continuous signaling, things like regional GPS, radio navigation and broadcast signaling,” said Michael Taylor of Viziv Technologies.

Eventually, it could possibly send electricity through the air doing away with high-tension electrical wires and towers.
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Viziv has a partnership with the Baylor University Research and Innovation Collaborative to help explore the many applications of their technology.

Their spokesman says we could see some of the benefits within 10 years.

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WHAT IT IS

Our Viziv surface wave system allows the Earth itself to be used for clean, safe and efficient transfer of power between any two points on the globe, wirelessly. The system represents a paradigm shift in the science of electromagnetics.

Today’s power distribution system of wired grids is fragile and aging. The transition to a global wireless system utilizing the Zenneck surface wave is a breakthrough that will effectively “cut the cord” between power generation facilities and the local distribution grids. This breakthrough will significantly enhance energy surety, reliability, and resiliency of the world’s electrical distribution systems.

HOW IT WORKS

Viziv Technologies has developed a system of patent-pending processes and equipment to efficiently launch the Zenneck surface wave. Currently, our research and commercialization efforts are focused on energy transfer and communications, but we recognize that this technology has the potential to impact numerous sectors of the economy.

A Zenneck Surface Wave is an electromagnetic wave that uses the surface of the earth as a waveguide enabling it to carry communications signals or electrical power efficiently over long distances.

This wireless power system will employ a “transmitter probe,” located near a power generation plant, to launch a Zenneck carrier wave. Receiver antennae will be positioned appropriately around the world to receive the signal and download the power into a local microgrid or conventional grid architecture.

The wave is impervious to weather effects such as lightning or geomagnetic disturbance or electromagnetic pulses (EMP), including those associated with a nuclear detonation. Unlike a wired grid, the Zenneck wave cannot be physically attacked and cyber attacks would be challenged to target or cause cascading failures to a wireless system.

When launched, the Zenneck Surface Wave literally envelops the planet like a balloon, enabling transmitter probes to be placed anywhere power can be generated and receivers to be placed anywhere power is needed.
THE HISTORY OF THE ZENNECK SURFACE WAVE

Jonathan Zenneck (1871-1959) was one of the first known scientists to study electromagnetic wave propagation over the surface of the earth. With Zenneck surface waves, electrical power is directed along the earth’s surface, in much the same way that electrical power is directed through conventional transmission lines using electromagnetic waves. In the early years of the twentieth century, two theories of electromagnetic wave theory co-existed: classic Hertzian radiated waves (ground waves) which are transmitted via conventional antennae on a line of sight path and dissipate over a distance into space. And Zenneck Surface Waves which use the surface of the earth as a waveguide and travel at high levels of efficiency but had yet to be experimentally observed. Our technology uses only surface waves (guided surface waves), and not ground waves (radiated waves).
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The Tesla antenna is a form of wireless antenna or wave launching structure developed by Tesla in which the transmitted energy propagates or is carried to the receiver by a combination of electrical current flowing through the earth, electrostatic induction and electrical conduction through plasma with an embedded magnetic field. Of course it is also part of an electric dipole, consisting of the elevated capacitance, the helical resonator and master oscillator plus connections, and the Earth itself. The above-ground structure is not intended as a source of electromagnetic radiation, rather, it is designed to minimize the production of electromagnetic radiation. The principle that the ground acts as a mirror, which reflects electromagnetic energy radiated downward by the antenna mounted over it, is not applicable.

In operation, the Tesla launching structure induces an electrical current in the earth between the transmitting and receiving stations, along with an associated surface wave, that propagate the transmitted energy. A conducting path is also establish through the rarified upper level atmosphere between the transmitting and receiving stations elevated high voltage terminals, leading Tesla to coin the term "disturbed charge of ground and air method." He stated that this method involves electrical conduction and that energy escapes from the system in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The conducting media are the earth and the atmosphere above 5 miles elevation. While the region from 5 miles up to the ionosphere is not an ohmic conductor, the density or pressure is sufficiently reduced to so that, according to Tesla's theory, the atmosphere's insulating properties can be easily impaired allowing an electric current to flow. His theory further suggests that the conducting region is developed through the process of atmospheric ionization, shifting the effected portions thereof to a plasma state. A magnetic field is developed by each plant's helical resonator, meaning that an embedded magnetic field is also involved. The atmosphere below 5 miles is also viewed as a propagating medium for a portion of the above ground circuit, and being an insulating medium, electrostatic induction or 'displacement current' would be involved rather than true electrical conduction. Tesla felt that with a sufficiently high electrical potential on the elevated terminal the practical limitation imposed upon its height could be overcome. He anticipated that a highly energetic transmitter would charge the elevated terminal to the point where the atmosphere around and above it would break down and become ionized, leading to a flow of true conduction currents between the two terminals through the troposphere path connection.
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I've always been fascinated by this subject, but I don't really understand it.

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... But did it work, I wondered, and so began a completely unsuccessful round of phone calls.

A little internet sleuthing informed me that Viziv Technologies filed for bankruptcy in 2021. ...

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