Tesla's Bladeless Boundary Disk Tur

Tesla's Bladeless Boundary Disk Turbine and Pump"
This page will give you one of the most comprehensive historical perspectives of Nikola
Tesla's turbine and pump found on the web.
It is a pretty large page...let it load fully.
INDEX to the Frank.Germano.com website
Help Frank Germano bring this technology to the world!
Would you like to see what Frank Germano has done with Nikola Tesla's turbine? Click here.
Historical Background of the Tesla Turbine and Pump
Here is an abstract from US patent # 1,329,559, issued to Nicola Tesla in 1916.
It covers the Internal Combustion version of Tesla's Turbine .
Tesla's Valvular Conduit Patent: Fig. 4 (left)
exemplifies a particularly valuable application of the
invention to which reference has been made above.
The drawing shows in vertical cross section a turbine
which may be of any type but is in this instance one
invented and described by me and supposed to be
familiar to engineers.
Suffice it to state that the rotor 21 of the same is
composed of flat plates which are set in motion
through the adhesive and viscous action of the
working fluid, entering the system tangentially at the
periphery and leaving it at the center.
Such a machine is a thermodynamic transformer of
an activity surpassing by far that of any other prime
mover, it being demonstrated in practice that each
single disk of the rotor is capable of performing as
much work as a whole bucket-wheel.
Besides, a number of other advantages, equally
important, make it especially adapted for operation
as an internal combustion motor.
This may be done in many ways, but the simplest and most direct plan of which I am aware is the one
http://www.frank.germano.com/teslaturbine.htm (1 of 15)2004/11/22 09:47:13 AM
Tesla's Turbine: The Tesla, Bladeless Boundary Disk Turbine
illustrated here. Referring again to the drawing, the upper part of the turbine casing 22 has bolted to it a
separate casting 23, the central cavity 24 of which forms the combustion chamber.
To prevent injury through excessive heating a jacket 25 may be used, or else water injected, and when these
means are objectionable recourse may be had to air cooling, this all the more readily as very high
temperatures are practicable. The top of casting 23 is closed by a plate 26 with a sparking or hot wire plug
27 and in its sides are screwed two valvular conduits communicating with the central chamber 24. One of
these is, normally, open to the atmosphere while the other connects to a source of fuel supply as a gas main
28. The bottom of the combustion chamber terminates in a suitable nozzle 29 which consists of separate
piece of heat resisting material. To regulate the influx of the explosion constituents and secure the proper
mixture of air and gas conduits are equipped, respectively, with valves 30 and 31. The exhaust openings 32
of the rotor should be in communication with a ventilator, preferably carried on the same shaft and of any
suitable construction. Its use, however, while advantageous, is not indispensable the suction produced by
the turbine rotor itself being, in some cases, at least, sufficient to insure proper working. This detail is omitted
from the drawing as unessential to the understanding. But a few words will be needed to make clear the
mode of operation. The air valve 30 being open and sparking established across terminals 27, the gas is
turned on slowly until the mixture in the chamber 24 reaches the critical state and is ignited. Both the
conduits behaving, with respect to influx, as closed valves, the products of combustion rush out through the
nozzle 29 acquiring still greater velocity by expansion and, imparting their momentum to the rotor 21, start it
from rest.
Upon the subsidence of the explosion the pressure in the
chamber sinks below the atmosphere owing to the pumping
action of the rotor or ventilator and new air and gas is permitted
to enter, cleaning the cavity and channels and making up a fresh
mixture which is detonated as before, and so on, the successive
impulses of the working fluid producing an almost continuous
rotary effort. After a short lapse of time the chamber becomes
heated to such a degree that the ignition device may be shut off
without disturbing the established regime. This manner of
starting the turbine involves the employment of an unduly large
combustion chamber which is not commendable from the
economic point of view, for not only does it entail increased heat
losses but the explosions cannot be made to follow one another
with such rapidity as would be desirable to insure the best
valvular action. When the chamber is small an auxiliary means
for starting, as compressed air, may be resorted to and a very quick succession of explosions can then be
obtained.