[Antennas] Tesla antenna?

Sat, 8 Feb 2003 14:15:30 -0500

Before the 'antenna' story, the 'DC story'..
DC in Manhattan
Quite a few companies in the meat packing business, located on the west side
(around 23rd street and the river) continued to use DC until about 1966. I
do believe it was something like 90V DC. There was (still is?) a railroad
tunnel that crossed under the Hudson River south of 34th St., bringing
freight and meat into a west side commercial terminal (I used to 'play' on
the tracks when I was a kid).
The trolleys (with overhead electric) used the same DC, supplied by Con
Edison, that the subways used. The subway '3rd rails' were 600V DC and
VERRRYYY high amperage. One major trolley line in Brooklyn (that ran right
to the beach at Coney Island) ran underneath the elevated portions of the
subway and shared the same DC power.
I had a relative who repaired, refurbished, and resold the slicers, saws,
and the mechanical mover/conveyer systems used to move the sides of beef to
upper floors. He eventually got into reselling and maintaining the very
early 'computers' (actually mechanical accounting machines) manufactured by
NCR which could be ordered with DC motors - but only in NYC, Chicago, and
St. Louis. NCR maintained this "DC" product line of accounting machines,
early nixie-tube calculators, and cash registers only for the meat packing
industry until about 1970.
There were a few blocks of non-residential buildings in this area that were
DC only. By 1965, you could have AC and.or DC in your business in this
district. By then, DC bulbs and appliances were getting very hard to find..
There still are a number of wholesale meat suppliers there -- but certainly
all on AC now.
The subways may still run on the 600V DC....
-----------------
and on to 'antennas'...
There were a few building of about 10-12 stories in this same area that had
long wire antennas strung between short roof top towers and water towers on
the buildings. Some of the antennas were a city block long -- about 800'.
I had lived on the west side as a kid in the 50's and rumors amongst us
street rats was that they were for secret government work. Stories even
circulated around the neighborhood about mad scientists working in top floor
lofts trying to contact aliens on other planets. You could imagine the
thinkings of 12 and 13 year old minds in an age of science fiction comic
books and before almost everyone had a TV set! Stories abounded (early
'urban legends'?) about how kids went missing after telling their friends
they were going to climb the fire escape ladders to the rooftops the next
night....
Much later, while attending school in NYC, I came to find out that at least
part of this antenna farm was a 'lowfer' radio research facility run by a
consortium of city based technical schools - including my alma-mater. The
rest of the gear was on Long Island - both near Montauk Point and around the
Farmingdale airport. The DC was needed for some reason that I never
uncovered.
Next time I'm in NYC, I may run over to the Brooklyn Public Library and look
through the microfilm archive of all the NYC newspapers going back to the
late 1800s. This might even be the makings of a sequel to 'The Fly' - a
movie about mad scientists 'radioing' themselves (and the 'missing' kids?)
to MARS and the MOON.
Showing my age....
73, Frank
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Wilder" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Cc: <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, February 08, 2003 8:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Antennas] Tesla antenna?
> At 06:59 AM 2/8/2003 -0500, Haines Brown wrote:
>> ***Snip***
>> >I grew up in Manhattan, which still ran on DC thanks to Edison. When
> >TV came in, we had to get an alternator to convert the DC to AC. I
> >don't recall when Manhattan went over to AC, but my vague sense is
> >that it was around the end of WWII. Anyone know for sure?
>> I hope you meant this a tongue and cheek...It was about 1922 when the
> last of the DC came out of NYC for general use...There was some DC still
> being used
> in the city up to WW2 on the trolly system.
>
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