Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/17/84 chuqui version 1.7 9/23/84; site nsc.UUCP Path: utzoo!utcs!lsuc!pesnta!amd!nsc!chongo From: chongo@nsc.UUCP (Landon C. Noll) Newsgroups: net.physics Subject: Re: Tesla Message-ID: <2436@nsc.UUCP> Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 07:01:06 EST Article-I.D.: nsc.2436 Posted: Tue Mar 5 07:01:06 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 6-Mar-85 00:44:39 EST References: <131@azure.UUCP> Reply-To: chongo@nsc.UUCP (Landon C. Noll) Distribution: net Organization: Rational Swamiconductor, Sanivale Lines: 156 Summary: In article <131@azure.UUCP> eugenez@azure.UUCP (Eugene Zinter) writes: > ... Tesla, >however, would design some aparatus for sensing the needle >so it wouldn't be necessary to search through every straw. Tesla worked on an invention from two ends, in "day dreams" and on paper. Normally, Tesla would get inspired about an idea and he would begin to dream about how it would look, feel, and be used. On the other hand he would begin to gather facts, both in experimeants (i.e. the some "aparatus" you talked about) and in theory. At first there would be a wide gap between what Tesla could prove, and what he could dream of. But as time went on, he would get more facts and his vision would become even more clear. (Tesla claimed that he knew the shape, sound, principle and usefulness of the 3-phase A/C motor in his mind years before it ever went down on paper) One day, his dream and his research would meet half way and quickly an invention would follow. What was real, law of physics, cost, etc., did not stop Tesla from dreaming. His dreams would become more real as time went on. One can see this in some of the laughable things he tried to make. Yet it was the fact that people laughed at too many of his early staged ideas that forced him to work more and more alone. Tesla said: "A fatal flaw in a dream is not a reason to quit the dream; it need to understand your dream better" >Tesla had NO ONE helping him designing his devices. This was mostly because it was hard for Tesla to explain an idea when the facts and his dreams were so far apart. By the time Tesla could explain to someone an idea and have the facts to justify it, the work was nearly (if not already) done. >I would like to know where Kevin Szabo got his information >about Tesla sending Edison's technicians strange devices. >This is new to me and sounds fascinating. Perhaps some of >these are locked up somewhere. One must be careful about some of the stories invented around Tesla. Here is an example: There is a myth given in a number of books around the fact that Tesla could make a sort of fire ball on command. This fireball was said to be about baseball sized and could last a number of seconds. The myth is in how he formed it and that it has never been duplicated. Tesla could make such things, but only in a very controlled setting. He made it look like the snap of the finger made it, but it was mearly a trigger to start up his fireball machine. What Tesla did was made what is known as St. Elmo's fire. I don't understand it very well (but then nobody does) but it has something to do with forming a magnetic knot in a high energy electric field. Folks at Sandia labs, for example, have formed similar things though not as simply as the tales of Tesla state. This is not ment to take anything away from what Tesla did, just that folks did figure out how to make such fireballs (only much later). The fireball effect can be created in nature as well. St. Elmo's fire is often seen during very high wind storms in connection with lightning. I myself saw such a thing in Oregon (1981) that lasted for nearly 60 seconds. It was a white glowing ball about grapefruit in size. It floated slowly in mid air and moved around a car for a while and then went out. >Tesla indeed sold his patents to Westinghouse. Westinghouse >himself wanted to pay Tesla, but the board of directors >overruled. J.P. Morgan (sp?) figured out how much money Tesla stood to collect in royalty from A/C power and got scared. I have heard that Tesla first had a deal where he got a 15 cents(confirm?) for every kilowatt generated from one of his A/C power plants. Morgan guessed that Tesla stood to collect close to a BILLION dollars (and these are early 1900's dollars folks!) during his life. Such a sum was seen as a threat to Morgan's power (or so Morgan thought. one wonders what Tesla would have built with the $'s) so Morgan pulled the strings on Westinghouse company to force them to buy out Tesla. > Alternating Current as >we use it today is directly attributed to Nikola Tesla. >The inventor of the Alternating Current Motor, Alternating >Current Power Transmitting Systems, and a host of other things. Don't forget the invention of radio! Books don't always show it, but Tesla won (after he already died) the first patent for a wireless communication device in a Supreme court case. (or so the story goes does anyone know more about this legal case?) >Tesla NEVER used any dirty tricks on Edison. He was too good of >a person. Tesla loved to make strange toys however. In about 1890(?) he built a radio controlled mini-sub (about 2 feet long) and had it spin around New York Harbor. Lots of folks freaked out when they saw the metal "monster". During one period he had an electric field around his law that extended for a mile or two (he once lighted 100 Watt tubes at a dist. of 50 miles with such a field). He would make little mobile "things" powered off of the field and send them off down the hill. (saw a picture of a "quasi-tank" like object the police picked up once) You might think of them as the early version of remote controlled cars. >Keith Doyle: If you find out where the elephant eloctrocution >footage is, please tell me. I sure never heard of this one. >I have a VERY poor opinion of Edison. And this will seal >my opinion. I too have seen this film. There is a major film about animal rights which shows this event, though I forget the name. I have a very poor opinion of Edison. And let me tell you, that elephant simply did not just fall over, it died in pain. > ...I have always wondered what he may have >written down (diagrams, or messages, or ?). Since he no doubt >knew of their presence, I bet he pulled some good tricks on them. The dreams of a person can be unbounded. But my guess is that we know most of what Tesla was able to actually do (see below). The loss is perhaps his dreams that others could have followed. *snif* A group that went around hounding him was the media. The early MAD scientist that one sees in a lab full of strange sounds and sparking things (Jacob ladders, dials, Tesla coils...) was patterned after his labs. Take a look at some photos on some of his labs and then look at a MAD scientist lab in an old silent film. At one time, after his public demos of how safe A/C could be, Tesla got hooked up in showmanship. He got thrills out of playing the role of an "electrical magic showman". He later had to hind himself away when people began hounding him for his stage shows. This period in Tesla's life did not help his "MAD scientist" image. It is also a period from which many mythical stories written by unknowing reporters were generated. > ... the "Death Ray" experimeants. He knows >how to build all these things. But he is passed of as being >crazy and won't show anyone anything anyway. This is because >he is bitter about how the world treated Tesla. ... It is my guess that the Tesla "Death Ray" was built around the formation of St. Elmo fireballs under very high power at long dist. One would think that such a device would be easy to defeat and/or defend against. Anyone have a guess as to what it might have been? chongo/\ee/\ -- If Tesla had been born in the early 60's, he might have been the builder of desk top Cray-VI like computers running a super 4.9BSD like operating system. Edison on the other hand, would have searched by trial and error for the ultimate 4004 based j-random spread sheet micro while claiming that the power of the Tesla machine could kill a programming project. Worse yet, historians might later credit Edison with forming the personal computer industry.