"As far as I can tell, the Telsa boundary layer drag turbine is an 'urban legend'. As far as I can determine, a working Telsa turbine has never been independently proven to produce any work."
Tesla turbines do produce work. Tesla's worked, the ones built and tested by various researchers in the 60's worked. They were incorporated into such oddities as dental drills, among other things. Tesla turbines have run on compressed air and steam, and there is no reason to believe that they could not run on a stream of water, though the very different kinematic viscosity of water would make the "correct" proportions very different for a Tesla hydro turbine. Where the urban legends come in is in fantastic claims of superior efficiency. Efficiency is not the Tesla turbine's claim to fame - it is simplicity and robustness. I don't know where these claims come from - Tesla certainly never made them. Except perhaps in the smallest sizes. As conventional turbomachinery gets smaller, it generally gets less efficient because clearance spaces and other sources of parasitic loss tend to predominate. At those scales, a turbine that harnessed a loss mechanism as its primary energy conversion method might be no worse than anything else, and a darn sight cheaper to build. That may be the rationale behind the dental drills. Marc ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> In low income neighborhoods, 84% do not own computers. At Network for Good, help bridge the Digital Divide! http://us.click.yahoo.com/EA3HyD/3MnJAA/79vVAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
