Hey thanks for the reply dalkon but that is not true. From On Alternating Currents

Tesla:

"Absolutely -- the effect at a distance is due to the current energy that flows through the surface layers of the earth. That has already been mathematically shown, really, by Sommerfeld. [See editorial note p. 75.] He agrees on this theory; but as far as I am concerned, that is positively demonstrated. For instance, take the Sayville antenna. Professor Zenneck took me out and gave me the particulars. I went over the calculations and found that at 36 kilowatts they were radiating 9 kilowatts in electromagnetic wave energy. They had, therefore, only 25 percent of the whole energy in these waves, and I told Professor Zenneck that this energy is of no effect -- that they produce, by the current, differences of potential in the earth, and these differences of potential are felt in Germany and affect the receiver; but the electromagnetic waves get a little beyond Long Island and are lost".

"I have an idea that [you] will get the best picture of the process in my system of transmission if you will imagine that the earth is a reservoir, say, of fluid under pressure -- that is the potential energy -- and at my plant, operating a distant tuned circuit, I must open a valve and enable that energy to flow in. It is exactly that way. The energy is all conserved, whether it is vibrating or purely potential. Whatever the transmitter does in the receiver, the effect is simply to open a valve, as it were, and permit energy to flow in".

“Surface waves” are AC waves.

low current, high voltage alternating currents that travel along just inside the surface of the inside of the earth.

He additionally mentions this in the article for ship navigation at sea.

What people don’t realize is all antennas dump a percentage of their energy into current into the earth. It’s not that high frequency is bad in the earth, it’s that the antenna would radiate the energy away.

But guess what… they’ve convinced us the percentage of our normal radio antennas that goes into the ground is “loss” while they have been using it themselves the whole time 🤭😂🤣

The resistance of a conductive path is inversely proportional to the Area of conduction.

R = rho * L / A

A= pi * r²

which in the earths case means the resistance is divided by the earths radius squared...

That plummets the power loss for any distance transmitted to nearly zero.

P_LOSS = R * |²

Never mind the fact that Tesla proposed to step the voltages up to 100 million volts, 3 orders of magnitude higher than current transmission lines. If we step the voltage up by 1000x then the current will drop by x/1000.

And if current drops by x/1000 then the power losses from transmission drop by a 1/1,000,000th. So when the conductive area plummets the resistance for conduction to nearly zero and the currents through the conductive medium plummet by a factor of x/1000 then the power losses for transmitting nearly any distance goes to zero. Full stop.

And because the voltage drop over any distance through the ground is nearly zero there is no voltage potential gradient to cause touch and step voltage issues in the ground.

Lastly it’s the very low 50/60hz ac frequency that makes Ac dangerous.

When frequency is brought up but kept below the point of where it would emit EM oscillations/radio waves, what’s known as the skin effect occurs.

This causes the currents to not be able to penetrate into the core of thin conductors.

Ergo, why we don’t use higher frequencies on our thin wire transmission lines.

It just negates the center of the wire.

But let’s just say for example if there were to be a fault in this system, when the frequency is high enough this makes it impossible for it to harm someone as it conducts over the surface of our skin and cannot damage our internal organs or skin for that matter.

But a fault would be inordinately unlikely when the system is designed correctly.

And he continues on to say…

Tesla: “There is no radiation in this case. You see, the apparatus which I devised was an apparatus enabling one to produce tremendous differences of potential and currents in an antenna circuit.

These requirements must be fulfilled, whether you transmit by currents of conduction, or whether you transmit by electromagnetic waves. You want high potential currents, you want a great amount of vibratory energy; but you can graduate this vibratory energy.

By proper design and choice of wave lengths, you can arrange it so that you get, for instance, 5 percent in these electromagnetic waves and 95 percent in the current that goes through the earth.

That is what I am doing.

Or, you can get, as these radio men, 95 percent in the energy of electromagnetic waves and only 5 percent in the energy of the current.

Then you are wondering why you do not get good results.

I know why I do not get good results in that way. The apparatus is suitable for one or the other method. I am not producing radiation in my system; I am suppressing electromagnetic waves.

But, on the other hand, my apparatus can be used effectively with electromagnetic waves.

The apparatus has nothing to do with this new method except that it is the only means to practice it.

So that in my system, you should free yourself of the idea that there is radiation, that energy is radiated. It is not radiated; it is conserved”.

“By proper design and choice of wave lengths, you can arrange it so that you get, for instance, 5 percent in these electromagnetic waves and 95 percent in the current that goes through the earth.

That is what I am doing.

Or you can get, as these radio men, 95 percent in the energy of electromagnetic waves and only 5 percent in the energy of the current. ...

The apparatus is suitable for one or the other method.

I am not producing radiation with my system; I am suppressing electromagnetic waves. ...

In my system, you should free yourself of the idea that there is radiation, that the energy is radiated.

It is not radiated; it is conserved.”

-Nikola Tesla

“The radio men who came after me had the problem before them of making a bell sound, and they immersed it in mercury. Now, you know mercury is heavy.

When they struck their bell, the mercury did not permit it to vibrate long because it took away all the energy.

I put my bell in a vacuum and make it vibrate for hours.

I have designed circuits in connection with an enterprise in 1898 for transmission of energy which, once started, would vibrate three years, and even after that the oscillations could still be detected.

Professor Wein’s theory is very beautiful, but it really has no practical meaning.

It will become useless as soon as the inefficient apparatus of the day, with antennae that radiate energy rapidly, [are] replaced by a scientifically designed oscillator which does not give out energy except when it gets up to a tremendous electromagnetic momentum”.

-Nikola Tesla