Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency

Electrical lamps become a testing ground for Nikola Tesla's work with currents of high potential and high frequency. This volume presents a lecture delivered before the Institution of Electrical Engineers in London, accompanied by a biographical sketch. The opening traces his education, early employment in telegraphs and lighting, and development of alternating current motors. It gives a personal background to the technical lecture printed in this 1892 edition.

Inside the lecture, Tesla describes experimental bulbs, glass stems, aluminium tubes, and the insulation needed to keep electrical discharges from damaging the apparatus. He compares arrangements for supplying energy and explains why mica powder serves his purposes. The account includes failed effects as well as proposed improvements, letting readers follow the practical difficulties behind an experiment. For readers interested in the history of electrical engineering, these detailed observations show how lamp construction and the behaviour of rarefied gases entered Tesla's investigation of light.