Mining & Scientific Press, "Electrical Progress" Nikola Tesla Is Credited With Statement", 11 April 1896 Seeming to borrow from a common idea at the time that the Earth's atmosphere was conductive, he proposed a system composed of balloons suspending, transmitting, and receiving, electrodes in the air above 30000 feet in altitude, where he thought the lower pressure would allow him to send high voltages (millions of volts) long distances.