Chapter 17

An Article on Tesla

"When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign; that all

the dunces are in confederacy against him."

Jonathan Swift

An Article on Tesla By Steve Silverman

This article was taken from the web site:

http://members.tripod.com/~earthdude1/tesla/tesla.html

Here's a task for you to try:

Go check your encyclopedia to find the answers to the following questions:

(answers are given in parentheses)

1) Who invented the radio? (Marconi)

2) Who discovered X-rays? (Roentgen)

3) Who invented the vacuum tube amplifier? (de Forest)

In fact, while you're at it, check to see who discovered the fluorescent bulb, neon

lights, speedometer, the automobile ignition system, and the basics behind radar,

electron microscope, and the microwave oven.

Chances are that you will see little mention of a guy named Nikola Tesla, the

most famous scientist in the world at the turn of the century.

In fact, few people today have ever heard of the guy. Good old Tommy Edison

made sure of that.

After all, Tesla was considered an eccentric who talked of death rays that could

destroy 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 250 miles, claimed to be able split the

Earth in two, believed that both voice and image could be transmitted through the

air (in the late 1800's), and essentially told Edison to take his DC electrical

system and stick it you know where.

In other words, anyone that has even heard of Tesla probably considers him to

be a first class wacko.

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But, the times are a changin'.

The problem is that Tesla probably could do all these things that he claimed were

possible. In fact, Tesla invented every single one of the items listed above (but

gets no credit) and much more. Look around you and chances are Tesla is

somehow responsible for most of the things that make modern life so modern.

No doubt about it, Nikola Tesla is the greatest mind since da Vinci.

So who is this genius?

Little Nicky Tesla was born in Smijlan, Croatia way back in 1856. He had an

extraordinary memory and spoke six languages. He spent four years at the

Polytechnic Institute at Gratz studying math, physics, and mechanics.

What made Tesla great, however, was his amazing understanding of electricity.

Remember that this was a time when electricity was still in its infancy. The light

bulb hadn't even been invented yet.

When Tesla first came to the United States in 1884, he worked for Thomas

Edison. Edison had just patented the light bulb, so he needed a system to

distribute electricity.

Edison had all sorts of problems with his DC system of electricity. He promised

Tesla big bucks in bonuses if he could get the bugs out of the system. Tesla

ended up saving Edison over $100,000 (millions of $$$ by today's standards),

but Edison refused to live up to his end of the bargain.

Tesla quit and Edison spent the rest of his life trying to squash Tesla's genius

(and the main reason Tesla is unknown today).

Tesla devised a better system for electrical transmission - the AC (alternating

current) system that we use in our homes today. AC offered great advantages

over the DC system. By using Tesla's newly developed transformers, AC

voltages could be stepped up and transmitted over long distances through thin

wires. DC could not (requiring a large power plant every square mile while

transmitting through very thick cables).

Of course, a system of transmission would be incomplete without devices to run

on them. So, he invented the motors that are used in every appliance in your

house. This was no simple achievement - scientists of the late 1800's were

convinced that no motor could be devised for an alternating current system,

making the use of AC a waste of time. After all, if the current reverses direction

60 times a second, the motor will rock back and forth and never get anywhere.

Tesla solved this problem easily and proved everyone wrong.

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He was using fluorescent bulbs in his lab some forty years before industry

"invented" them. At World's Fairs and similar exhibitions, he took glass tubes and

molded them into the shapes of famous scientists' names - the first neon signs

that we see all around us today. I almost forgot - Tesla designed the world's first

hydroelectric plant, located in Niagara Falls. He also patented the first

speedometer for cars.

Word began to spread about his AC system and it eventually reached the ears of

one George Westinghouse.

Tesla signed a contract with Westinghouse under which he would receive $2.50

for each kilowatt of AC electricity sold.

Suddenly, Tesla had the cash to start conducting all the experiments he ever

dreamed of.

But Edison had too much money invested in his DC system, so Tommy did his

best to discredit Tesla around every turn. Edison constantly tried to show that AC

electricity was far more dangerous than his DC power.

Tesla counteracted by staging his own marketing campaign. At the 1893 World

Exposition in Chicago (attended by 21 million people), he demonstrated how safe

AC electricity was by passing high frequency AC power through his body to

power light bulbs. He then was able to shoot large lightning bolts from his Tesla

coils to the crowd without harm. Nice trick!

When the royalties owed to Tesla started to exceed $1 million, Westinghouse ran

into financial trouble. Tesla realized that if his contract remained in effect,

Westinghouse would be out of business and he had no desire to deal with the

creditors. His dream was to have cheap AC electric available to all people. Tesla

took his contract and ripped it up! Instead of becoming the world's first billionaire,

he was paid $216,600 outright for his patents.

In 1898, he demonstrated to the world the first remote controlled model boat at

Madison Square Garden. So you can thank Tesla for the invention of those

remote controlled planes, cars, and boats (and televisions!), also.

Tesla had a dream of providing free energy to the world. In 1900, backed by

$150,000 from financier J.P. Morgan, Tesla began construction of his so called

"Wireless Broadcasting System" tower on Long Island, New York. This

broadcasting tower was intended to link the world's telephone and telegraph

services, as well as transmit pictures, stock reports, and weather information

worldwide. Unfortunately, Morgan cut funding when he realized that it meant

FREE energy for the world.

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Many stories claim that the U. S. government destroyed the tower during World

War One for fear that the German u-boat spies would use the tower as a

landmark to navigate by. In reality, Tesla ran into financial trouble after Morgan

cut funding for the project and the tower was sold for scrap to pay off creditors.

The world thought he was nuts - after all, transmission of voice, picture, and

electricity was unheard of at this time.

What they didn't know was that Tesla had already demonstrated the principles

behind radio nearly ten years before Marconi's supposed invention. In fact, in

1943 (the year Tesla died), the Supreme Court ruled that Marconi's patents were

invalid due to Tesla's previous descriptions. Still, most references do not credit

Tesla with the invention of radio. (Side note: Marconi's radio did not transmit

voices - it transmitted a signal - something Tesla had demonstrated years

before.)

At this point, the press started to exaggerate Tesla's claims.

Tesla reported that he had received radio signals from Mars and Venus. Today

we know that he was actually receiving the signals from distant stars, but too little

was known about the universe at that time. Instead, the press had a field day

with his "outrageous" claims.

In his Manhattan lab, Tesla made the earth into an electric tuning fork. He

managed to get a steam-driven oscillator to vibrate at the same frequency as the

ground beneath him (like Ella Fitzgerald breaking the glass with her voice in

those old Memorex commercials).

The result? An earthquake on all the surrounding city blocks. The buildings

trembled, the windows broke, and the plaster fell off the walls.

Tesla contended that, in theory, the same principle could be used to destroy the

Empire State Building or even possibly split the Earth in two. Tesla had

accurately determined the resonant frequencies of the Earth almost 60 years

before science could confirm his results.

Don't think he didn't attempt something like splitting the Earth open (well, sort of).

In his Colorado Springs lab in 1899, he sent waves of energy all the way through

the Earth, causing them to bounce back to the source (providing the theory for

today's accurate earthquake seismic stations). When the waves came back, he

added more electricity to it.

The result? The largest man-made lightning bolt ever recorded - 130 feet! - a

world's record still unbroken!

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The accompanying thunder was heard 22 miles away. The entire meadow

surrounding his lab had a strange blue glow, similar to that of St. Elmo's Fire.

But, this was only a warm-up for his real experiment! Unfortunately, he blew out

the local power plant's equipment and he was never able to repeat the

experiment.

At the beginning of World War I, the government desperately searched for a way

to detect German submarines. The government put Thomas Edison in charge of

the search for a good method. Tesla proposed the use of energy waves - what

we know today as radar - to detect these ships. Edison rejected Tesla's idea as

ludicrous and the world had to wait another 25 years until it was invented.

His reward for a lifetime of creativity? The prized (to everyone but Tesla) Edison

Medal! A real slap in the face after all the verbal abuse Tesla took from Edison.

The stories go on and on.

Industry's attempt (obviously very successful) to purge him from the scientific

literature had driven him into exile for nearly twenty years. Lacking capital, he

was forced to place his untested theories into countless notebooks.

The man who invented the modern world died nearly penniless at age 86 on

January 7, 1943. More than two thousand people attended his funeral.

In his lifetime, Tesla received over 800 different patents. He probably would have

exceeded Edison's record number if he wasn't always broke - he could afford

very few patent applications during the last thirty years of his life.

Unlike Edison, Tesla was an original thinker whose ideas typically had no

precedent in science. Unfortunately, the world does not financially reward people

of Tesla's originality. We only award those that take these concepts and turn

them into a refined, useful product.

Scientists today continue to scour through his notes. Many of his far flung

theories are just now being proven by our top scientists. For example, the Tesla

bladeless disk turbine engine that he designed, when coupled with modern

materials, is proving to be among the most efficient motors ever designed. His

1901 patented experiments with cryogenic liquids and electricity provide the

foundation for modern superconductors. He talked about experiments that

suggested particles with fractional charges of an electron - something that

scientists in 1977 finally discovered - quarks!

Wow!

Maybe history will finally recognize a true genius when it sees one.

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[Kehr Note: As the author correctly states - what he mentions is just the

beginning of what Tesla did. I just found out the other day, for example, that the

best way to make ozone, for medical purposes, even today, is to use a device

that Tesla invented.]

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