Question- Diode, what would Tesla have used?

[MagnaProp]

What would Tesla have used in place of a diode? What would have been available in his time to achieve the same result as a diode?

[jojo500]

mercury .. uhm arround 1900 Peter cooper Hewit got patent for this..

how ever simple form of it and its funktion was known since 1894 .
later on they went to real valves ..

[MagnaProp]

Thank you jojo500. The info is much appreciated.

[shylo]

Just provide 2 paths ,put resistance in the path you don't want it to flow?I think I read where Tesla actually does this.artv

[MagnaProp]

Thanks. I've been reading up on how Tesla used longer pieces of metal to create phase shift delays and such. Maybe something like that will work. I'm guessing a diode is more efficient but then again I'm worried about sticking present day items into a system since I'm not 100 percent convinced that isn't part of the problem we keep running into when trying to get our devices to work.