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I read that Tesla could have had something to do with the explosion in Tunguska area in Russia — that he was supposedly trying to get the attention of a explorer that was near the region at the time. Something about a tower and sending a ball of current through the air, then it exploded over Tunguska.  Could you explain what that might be about?

Recent speculations about Tesla's involvement in the 1908 Tunguska event were initially fueled by a few statements made some time ago in the New York Times. In the first of these, published in March 1907 he speaks of "projecting wave-energy" and again in April 1908 reference was made to the "direct application of electrical waves without the use of aerial engines or other implements of destruction."  And, in 1915 he stated,

"It is perfectly practicable to transmit electrical energy without wires and produce destructive effects at a distance. I have already constructed a wireless transmitter which makes this possible, and have described it in my technical publications, among which I may refer to my patent 1,119,732 recently granted."

All three of these statements suggest the capacity of a Wardenclyffe-type plant to transmit a destructive impulse of electrical energy.  Presumably this would manifest itself as an explosive release of energy such as can be created by the discharge of a large value, high voltage capacitor.  Electric fireballs, spherical plasmoids, or ball lightning have also been reported to explode in a similar fashion.  The books Ball Lightning & Tesla's Electric Fireballs and Tesla's Fuelless Generator and Wireless Method touch upon this subject.  See Tunguska — A Tesla Connection? for the full text of the 1908 and 1915 articles.

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