The Giza Power Plant (32 page)

If we assume that there are no coincidental features in the Great Pyramid, then the ancient Egyptians have proved that they were knowledgeable about the dimensions of the Earth, as well as its physical relationship to the
sun and the moon. We can reasonably speculate that the knowledge of astronomy, embodied in the Great Pyramid, was not coincidental or a fanciful idea of the builders, but a necessary element in tuning their power plant to the pulse of our dynamic Earth.

We know very little about the pyramid builders and the period of time when they erected these giant monuments; yet it seems obvious that the entire civilization underwent a drastic change, one so great that the technology was destroyed with no hope of rebuilding. Hence a cloud of mystery has denied us a clear view of the nature of these people and their technological knowledge. Considering the theory presented in this book, I am compelled to envision a fantastic society that had developed a power system thousands of years ago that we can barely imagine today. This society takes shape as we ask the logical question, "How was the energy transmitted? How was it used?" These questions cannot be fully answered by examining the artifacts left behind. However, these artifacts can stimulate our imaginations further; then we are left to speculate on the causes for the demise of the great and intelligent civilization that built the Giza power plant. This speculation is the subject of the remainder of this book.

Chapter Fourteen

A GLIMPSE INTO THE PAST

O
ur lives are dependent on the switch. How many times do we use
the switch in a day? Ever count them? Have you ever followed the wire back to the source, in your mind, and paused in wonderment at the true power you have at your fingertips? How many miles of electrical cable will your mind travel along before it reaches the 500-megawatt turbine generators at the power station? Now think about what life would be like without electricity. Actually, we do not have to go too far back in time to relive that scenario. Every device that uses electricity has been developed within the past one hundred years. We are now so dependent on electricity and the switch that it would be inconceivable to be without them. Some of us will remember when there were no electric lights in our homes, and gaslight and candles provided illumination. To others, such an existence will be beyond comprehension. The electricity that feeds the homes of developed countries is synonymous with shelter and has become as basic a staple as food and clothing. How did we come so far so fast?

Modern electrical power distribution technology is largely the fruit of the labors of two men—Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. Compared with Edison, Tesla is relatively unknown, yet he invented the alternating electric current generation and distribution system that supplanted Edison's direct current technology and that is the system currently in use today. Tesla also had a vision of delivering electricity to the world that was revolutionary and unique. If his research had come to fruition, the technological landscape would be entirely different than it is today. Power lines and the insulated towers that carry them over thousands of country and city miles would not distract our view. Tesla believed that by using the electrical potential of the Earth, it would be possible to transmit electricity through the Earth and the
atmosphere without using wires. With suitable receiving devices, the electricity could be used in remote parts of the planet. Along with the transmission of electricity, Tesla proposed a system of global communication, following an inspired realization that, to electricity, the Earth was nothing more than a small, round metal ball. In a letter to
Electrical World and Engineer
magazine, March 5, 1904, Tesla wrote:

When the great truth, accidentally revealed and experimentally confirmed is fully recognized, that this planet, with all its appalling immensity, is to electric currents virtually no more than a small metal ball and that by this fact many possibilities, each baffling imagination and of incalculable consequence, are rendered absolutely sure of accomplishment; when the first plant is inaugurated and it is shown that a telegraphic message, almost as secret and non-interferable as a thought, can be transmitted to any terrestrial distance, the sound of the human voice, with all its intonations and inflections, faithfully and instantly reproduced at any other point plying light, heat or motive power, anywhere—on sea, or land, or high in the air—humanity will be like an ant heap stirred up with a stick: See the excitement
coming.
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With $150,000 in financial support from J. Pierpont Morgan and other backers, Tesla built a radio transmission tower at Wardenclyffe, Long Island, that promised—along with other less widely popular benefits—to provide communication to people in the far corners of the world who needed no more than a handheld receiver to utilize it.

In 1900, Italian scientist Guglielmo Marconi successfully transmitted the letter "S" from Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland and precluded Tesla's dream of commercial success for transatlantic communication. Because Marconi's equipment was less costly than Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower facility, J. P. Morgan withdrew his support. Moreover, Morgan was not impressed with Tesla's pleas for continuing the research on the wireless transmission of electrical power. Perhaps he and other investors withdrew their support because they were already reaping financial returns from those power systems both in place and under development. After all, it would not have been possible
to put a meter on Tesla's technology—so any investor could not charge for the electricity!

Without the support of Morgan, Tesla's other sources for finance dried up and he became depressed and infirm. He was forced to leave his opulent apartment at the Waldorf Astoria hotel; and his partially manifested dream at Wardenclyffe was torn down and sold for scrap to payoff his debt. As Marconi's stature and fortune rose, Tesla's decline drained his vitality; he passed from this life in a New York hotel room in 1943, leaving a legacy that, even today, still inspires and feeds the intellect of researchers all over the world.

It is distinctly clear that tenuous timing and fickle social circumstances surrounding key inventors and their inventions have shaped our technological landscape. The greatest influence on whether an invention comes to fruition or not is its investors' desire for profit. If Tesla had succeeded before Marconi in achieving transatlantic transmission, would our power delivery systems look like they do today? Perhaps they would if the motivating force behind their construction had been only profit, a profit realized through the metered flow of electricity. It would have been next to impossible to convince investors to give for free what was already reaping handsome rewards. Would such restraints on innovation occur today? Perhaps, but the technology for metering the use of wireless electricity could be accomplished in the same way telephone companies charge for cellular calls. The voice you hear on your cell phone is actually wireless transmitted energy—albeit very little—that is sold to you at a metered rate.

Other, more recent proposals for alternative power delivery also have not been realized on a large scale. The inhabitants of Reykjavik, Iceland, heat their homes and power their processing plants with a natural resource—geothermal energy. Icelanders enjoy year-round benefits in their geothermal heated swimming pools. They have such an abundance of geothermal power that at one time they proposed selling their surplus energy to other countries. Because it would be impractical to build steam pipes across the ocean (not that they even thought of such a folly), an idea was put forward that combined the technology of geothermal energy with some popular suggestions for harnessing solar energy by geosynchronous satellites and transmitting the energy to Earth via microwave beam.

FIGURE 70.
Egyptian Relay Satellite

If a satellite could harness solar energy, convert it into electromagnetic energy, and transmit this energy through space to be collected on the Earth, then Earth-based power plants could convert their energy to microwave energy and transmit it into space. A collimated microwave beam could be directed into space to a passive microwave reflector satellite and reflect to a distant point on the Earth (see Figure 70). A microwave beam can pass through clouds and rain with very little attenuation, or loss of energy. A ground-based antenna could then convert it to usable electrical power. It is even possible that a series of satellites could split the energy and deliver it to several points around the globe. Such an energy distribution method is technically feasible, but, like many other proposals for technological innovation, the funding necessary to bring it into physical manifestation is not always immediately forthcoming.

The point of this discussion is that there are many viable energy systems,
but those chosen for use are often the ones that make economic, not technological, sense. We must keep in mind, therefore, that what makes sense to us may not have made sense to past cultures. When we try to envision past energy systems we have many layers of cultural blinders to see through. As we search through the remnants of ancient Egypt looking for the power plants that provided energy to the machine tools that accurately shaped the granite blocks on the Giza Plateau or the granite boxes in the rock tunnels at Saqqara, we cannot assume that their power plants looked like ours or that the infrastructure supporting the distribution of energy was the same. Considering the extremely tenuous circumstances by which inventions are developed, promoted, and utilized, it would be very surprising to find an ancient artifact, or evidence of an artifact, that is identical to one we use or have used in the recent past.

F
IGURE
71.
Crookes Tube

This is why I was flabbergasted and stunned when, while looking through a chemistry book one day, I came across an illustration of a Crookes tube (see Figure 71). I had seen such an electrical device before—in photographs taken of an Egyptian temple! The wall carvings at Dendera in the lower crypt in the temple of Hathor contain an image that looks similar to a Crookes tube (see Figure 72).

F
IGURE
72.
Wall Carving at Dendera

Then, while I was working on the final stages of this book, I came across another
reference to the wall carving at Dendera and its graphical representation of a Crookes tube in Brad Steiger's book
Worlds Before Our Own.
As I had read this book in 1978, the information probably receded into my subconscious mind and, without a conscious link to this book, resurfaced only after I had actually seen the illustrations many years later. The question of how the ancient Egyptians were able to illuminate the passageways and chambers in their pyramids and tombs has puzzled many people; the walls and ceilings of the tunnels and chambers are not marked with the smut that would accumulate in the use of blazing torches. While pondering this phenomenon, Steiger referred to the research of Joey R. Jochmans who presented an analysis of the wall carvings at Dendera:

When the [Crookes] tube is in operation, the ray originates where the cathode electrical wire enters the tube to the opposite end. In the temple picture, the electron beam is represented as an outstretched serpent. The tail of the serpent begins where a cable from the energy box enters the tube, and the serpent's head touches the opposite end. In Egyptian art, the serpent was the symbol of divine energy.

. . . The Temple picture shows one tube, on the extreme left of the picture, to be operating under normal conditions. But with the second tube, situated closest to the energy box on the right, an interesting experiment has been portrayed. Michael R. Freeman, an electric and electromagnetic engineer, believes that the solar disc on Horus' head is a Van de Graaff generator, an apparatus which collects static electricity. A baboon is portrayed holding a metal knife between the Van de Graaff—solar disc and the second tube. Under actual conditions, the static charge built up on the knife from the generator would cause the electron beam inside the Crookes tube to be diverted from the normal path, because the negative knife and negative beam would repel each other. In the Temple picture, the serpent's head in the second tube is turned away from the end of the tube, repulsed by the knife in the baboon's
hand.
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