Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cuae2!ltuxa!cuuxb!mwm
From: mwm@cuuxb.UUCP
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Re: Tesla coils
Message-ID: <970@cuuxb.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 10-Dec-86 09:53:57 EST
Article-I.D.: cuuxb.970
Posted: Wed Dec 10 09:53:57 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 14-Dec-86 07:48:19 EST
References: <6824@decwrl.DEC.COM> <221@netxcom.UUCP>
Reply-To: mwm@cuuxb.UUCP (Marc W. Mengel)
Organization: AT&T-IS, Software Support, Lisle IL
Lines: 38

In article <221@netxcom.UUCP> ewiles@netxcom.UUCP (Edwin Wiles) writes:
>In article <6824@decwrl.DEC.COM>
>			brandenberg@star.dec.com (Monty Brandenberg) writes:
>...edited...
>>                                          If you're simply
>>interested in the history, you will have some work ahead of
>>you:  Tesla's notes from his Colorado Lab were (as I recall)
>>seized by the Government at the time of his death and those
>>that weren't given to the Czechoslovakian Government are
>>still sealed away.
>>
>>				Monty Brandenberg
>
>Would anyone know WHY the government would do this?  I don't remember
>anything about Tesla coils or his form of 'broadcast' power that is
>especially dangerous, or useful in war.  As for the potential of using
>it for broadcast power, I remember that either it didn't work too well,
>or there was no way to keep unauthorized persons from tapping into the
>supply without paying.  (Not sure which it was, might be both!)
>-- 
>					Edwin Wiles

I seem to recall hearing the story of the time Tesla built a gadget for
a party that was designed to find the resonant frequency of the main crossbeam
supporting his house -- the Idea was to have the whole house vibrating 
by the time the party was in full swing.  It apparently worked a little too
well, and found the resonant frequency of the rock vein his house was sitting
on, and knocked down the fire house accross the street.  Supposedly he 
destroyed that particular part of his notes; but these and other gadgets
he designed could potentially have been used for weapons.

Of course, I don't know how accurate the story is, I heard it about 3rd hand.
-- 
 Marc Mengel			"All that is gold does not glitter
 ...!ihnp4!cuuxb!mwm		 Not all those who wander are lost
				 The old that is strong does not whither
				 Deep roots are not reached by the frost"
				  -- J.R.R Tolkein