The Carismatic Generator utilizes a Boundary Layer Turbine to power the Generator. This type of turbine was invented and patented by Nikola Tesla in 1913. The Boundary Layer Turbine is a bladeless centripetal flow turbine. It is referred to as a bladeless turbine. It is also known as a cohesion-type turbine, and Prandtl-layer turbine (after Ludwig Prandtl) because it uses the boundary-layer effect and not a fluid impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine. Bioengineering researchers have referred to it as a multiple disk centrifugal pump.
A Tesla turbine consists of a set of smooth disks, with nozzles applying a moving fluid or air to the edge of the disk. The fluid or air drags on the disk by means of viscosity and the adhesion of the surface layer of the fluid or air. As it slows and adds energy to the disks, it spirals into the center exhaust. Since the rotor has no projections, it is very sturdy.
Tesla wrote: "This turbine is an efficient self-starting prime mover that may be operated as a steam or mixed fluid turbine at will, without changes in construction and is on this account very convenient. Minor departures from the turbine, as may be dictated by the circumstances in each case, will obviously suggest themselves but if it is carried out on these general lines it will be found highly profitable to the owners of the steam plant while permitting the use of their old installation. However, the best economic results in the development of power from steam by the Tesla turbine will be obtained in plants especially adapted for the purpose."
Tesla's design attempted to sidestep the key drawbacks of the bladed axial turbines, and even the lowest estimates for efficiency still dramatically outperformed the efficiency of axial steam turbines of the day.
