Tesla

Recently, I was having one of those chit-chatty, what’s on TV tonight conversations, and the person I was speaking with said, ‘I couldn’t like anyone who doesn't like Sons of Anarchy.’ And I’m pretty sure she was serious. It seemed a rather odd thing to say, at least the way she had said it. But then, after thinking on it a bit, I had to admit that on some level, I kind of, sort of feel the same way about Nicola Tesla. Well, it's not necessarily that I couldn't like someone who didn't like Tesla, I mean he's not even alive, no, no, of course not, that's crazy, still, I'm pretty sure I'd have my suspicions.

  

Nicola Tesla
 

It is a common trait amongst Scientific Visionaries, their ability to theorize and invent, guided by intuition and circumstance, but in the absence of the as yet undiscovered elements which would enable them to fully explain their concepts and creations to those of a more practical inclination.


I've always been interested in the biographies of scientists. I have a curiosity to understand what makes certain kinds of people tick, and the scientists of history rarely disappoint. In many cases their life stories are on par with their discoveries and inventions. And Mr. Tesla is no exception.

Nicola Tesla, the deliciously eccentric genius. A magician, innovator and pacifist. A man whose ideas came to him in actual flashes of light; and a pure and true visionary in the purest and truest sense of the word. Beyond his scientific insights, he foresaw the tragic consequences of the Versailles Treaty and the splitting of the atom. He regarded the harnessing of electricity as a means to reduce the burdens of humankind, not as a means for profit.

An idealistic inventor in need of a patron, he was willing to hand over patents if it meant he could continue with his research; for it was not through the lens of the present that he viewed the world, but through that of the future. A future in which electricity and information flowed freely across the globe. 

One can only wonder at what vanished into flame when his laboratory caught fire. And then there was the situation with Westinghouse, and the one with Marconi, and how they reneged on the Nobel Prize. And yet he persevered, dusting himself off and carrying on each time he was confronted with adversity.

I read Tesla’s autobiography My Inventions directly after reading Empires of Light. And I must admit I was a little disappointed. Something in me wanted to read just a little bit of spite directed toward Mr. Westinghouse, but I should have known better.

Tesla was after all a man driven by ideas, who trusted not wisely but too well. A man who failed to protect his commercial interests and paid the price.

A VERY BRIEF BIO.:

The design for Tesla's alternating current induction motor came to him in a flash of light, in a park in Budapest, while citing poetry no less. He envisioned that by powering coils of a motor in different phases, the resulting forces of magnetic attraction and repulsion would drive the motor in a circle.

Suffering a series of misfortunes along the way, young Nicola Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 with 4 cents in his pocket, an idea in his head and a letter of recommendation for one Thomas Edison. He stepped onto American soil during the industrial age of inventors and capitalists. An age lorded over by names like Astor, Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Morgan and Westinghouse. Wealthy investors, with their keen eyes fixed on practical inventions, not those trapped in the mind of a genius.

 
Thomas Edison had built a business using the direct current system to illuminate his patented incandescent bulb. But direct current had several limitations. For one, it cannot be transmitted over long distances. And Edison’s plan to overcome this limitation by placing generating stations every mile or so was simply not practical. That alternating current could overcome this limitation was known, but at the time, a fully functional ac system was not available. 
 
When Tesla presented his designs for an alternating current motor to Edison, the Wizard of Menlo Park, with his feet firmly planted in the dc camp showed no interest whatsoever.

George Westinghouse, however, was very interested. He negotiated a deal for Tesla’s poly-phase induction motor and transformer designs for $60,000 in cash, 150 shares of stock in the Westinghouse Corporation, and a royalty of $2.50 for each horse-power of electrical capacity sold by a Tesla motor. 

What happened next, as the Edison camp launched its media campaign against the Westinghouse camp, was gruesome and involved a series of events I could barely get through when reading Empires of Light. Suffice to say, a lot of pain and suffering was inflicted upon creatures of both the four and two legged variety in their attempts to illustrate the dangers of using alternating current.

The turning point came when the Westinghouse Electric Company was awarded the contract to illuminate the 1893 Columbian Exposition in Chicago. And to make a very long story short, Tesla’s ac system was an enormous success.

In 1896 a super-sized version of Tesla’s system went online at Niagara Falls. The waters of Niagara Falls were harnessed to turn enormous turbines connected to massive generators. The current from the generators was stepped up and sent out over long distance lines. It was then stepped back down to light nearby municipalities.

Despite these successes, Westinghouse was in serious financial trouble. He may have won the propaganda war, but it had cost him dearly. In order to save the Company, Tesla agreed to sell his patents to Westinghouse. And with that business sorted, Tesla moved on to his next big idea.
(In case anyone was wondering what the value of a $2.50/horse-power of electrical capacity/Tesla motor royalty would be worth today, well, just imagine any number with lots and lots of zeros attached.)

Tesla now began experimenting with high frequency electricity. His breakthrough came in the form of the Tesla coil. An apparatus capable of generating high voltages and stepping up current to high frequencies.

He soon discovered that his Tesla coils could transmit and receive powerful radio signals when they were tuned to resonate at the same frequency. But tragically, before he had a chance to demonstrate this discovery, fire broke out in the building housing his lab. He was completely devastated. But such are the advantages of being a genius with a photographic memory, that all was not lost ...

In 1900, he was granted patents for a "system of transmitting electrical energy" and "an electrical transmitter." The fundamental technology of radio.

Initially, Guglielmo Marconi’s patent was rejected because it too closely resembled Tesla’s. But in 1904 the US Patent office reversed its decision and granted Marconi the patent for radio.

Marconi would go on to accomplish the feat of the day, transmitting a radio signal across the Atlantic by using 17 of Tesla’s patents and claiming the ideas as his own. Ideas for which Marconi was awarded the Nobel Prize.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves ...

In 1899 Tesla had moved to Colorado Springs, intent upon figuring out how to transmitting electric power through the upper atmosphere.

Looking to nature’s example, he had a machine constructed to create artificial lightning. For nearly a year he conducted his experiments. During one, massive bolts of artificial lightning shot out from the top of his station. The experiment set fire to the town’s generator causing the power to go out in the surrounding area. 

Another approach he pursued was to transmit extra-low-frequency signals through the space between the surface of the earth and the ionosphere. Tesla calculated that the resonant frequency of this area was approximately 8-hertz. It was not until the 1950s that this idea was taken seriously and researchers were surprised to discover that the resonant frequency of this space was indeed in the range of 8-hertz.

He also attempted to transmit electrical power to the area 80-kilometers above the earth known as the ionosphere. Tesla speculated that his region of the atmosphere would be highly conductive and again his suspicions were correct. What he lacked was the technical means to send electrical power to such a high altitude.

Though the question of whether or not he ever managed to transmit wireless power in Colorado was never definitively answered, his actions upon returning to New York suggest his mindset was confident he had uncovered lightning's secrets.

Arriving back in New York, he approached JP Morgan for financing to develop a global system of wireless communications.

The tower he had built at Wardenclyffe with JP’s money could have easily transmitted radio signals across the Atlantic but that was never his intention. And when Marconi accomplished this in 1901, Tesla was forced to confess to Morgan that what he had been working on was not the mere transmission of a message, but rather the transmission of electrical power. JP was not amused. He refused to provide any more financing, and instead chose to back Marconi. 

By 1905 Tesla was broke and disheartened. In desperate need of money, he brought suit against Marconi’s company claiming his patent rights had been infringed, but lacking the resources to undertake the legal battle he was forced to give up the fight.

In the end, the elegant creature, like the birds whose limbs he mended, was grounded; his body and spirit bent and broken beyond repair.

When he was 81, Westinghouse executives agreed to pay his room and board for the rest of his life. He also received a small pension from the Yugoslavian government.

He died in 1943, at the age of 87.

It was not until five months after Tesla’s death that the US Supreme Court ruled elements of the Marconi patent invalid. The decision confirmed the priority of the Tesla Patent for the fundamental technology of the radio.

So, again, why do I feel everyone should appreciate the accomplishments of Nicola Tesla?

Because he conceived of, built, fought for and suffered greatly to bring the alternating current induction motor, and thus electricity to the world.

Because in 1926 he said things like this:

“But the female mind has demonstrated a capacity for all the mental acquirements and achievements of men, and as generations ensue that capacity will be expanded; the average woman will be as well educated as the average man, and then better educated, for the dormant faculties of her brain will be stimulated to an activity that will be all the more intense and powerful because of centuries of repose. Woman will ignore precedent and startle civilization with their progress.”
(From a 1926 interview by John B. Kennedy, “When Woman Is Boss.") 

Because while exploring high frequency electricity, he developed some of the first neon and fluorescent lights and took what was perhaps one of the first x-ray photographs - of Mark Twain no less. (But we'd rather see Twain's face than a piece of metal, right?)


Because he had a photographic memory, could perform integral calculus in his head, spoke at least 8 languages fluently, was always impeccably dressed, was partial to the number 3, and had quirky phobias, lots of them: He couldn’t touch hair, had an aversion to pearls, earrings and jewellery in general, and did not like shaking hands. And yet, in his later years he befriended pigeons, even brought injured birds into his room to nurse them back to health. He had several near death experiences. In fact it was his contracting cholera that led to his father’s allowing him to pursue his dream of becoming an engineer. He obtained around 300 patents for his inventions. He disagreed with Einstein on many points, though both were in agreement on the potential negative consequences of splitting the atom. 

Because in the late 1890’s while exploring cosmic rays, he attached a small mechanical oscillator to an iron pillar. And precisely timed pulses from the device caused the entire building to tremble. Oh, and it was around this time he also invented a radio control boat. (left)




And because maybe all that crazy business in Colorado Springs wasn't so crazy after all:

... Using Tesla’s patents, the Haarp Project uses the ionosphere like an enormous electric circuit to transmit power.



Tesla: Master of Lightning (2000)













UPDATES/RELATED

War of Currents, War of Words -- Who Said It: Tesla or Edison / howstuffworks / June 19, 2015



REFERENCES 

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird-science/conspiracy-theories-abound-u-s-military-closes-haarp-n112576
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB882PSnnJY
http://www.teslaenergy.org/tcoil.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nikola_Tesla_patents http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
http://mentalfloss.com/article/51617/13-nikola-tesla-quotes-his-birthday

Jonnes, Jill; (2004) Empires Of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, And The Race To Electrify The World. Random House.
Tesla, Nikola; (2005) My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla. Wildside Press LLC




IMAGE CREDITS 

"Tesla circa 1890" by Napoleon Sarony - postcard (radiographics.rsna.org). Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_circa_1890.jpeg#mediaviewer/File:Tesla_circa_1890.jpeg

"RMFpatent" by Original uploader was Rotating magnetic field at en.wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia; transferred to Commons by User:Oxyman using CommonsHelper.. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RMFpatent.PNG#mediaviewer/File:RMFpatent.PNG

"Tesla boat1" by Nikola Tesla 1898 - Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrad. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_boat1.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Tesla_boat1.jpg

"Tesla colorado adjusted". Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_colorado_adjusted.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Tesla_colorado_adjusted.jpg

"Original Tesla Coil" by Original uploader was Reddi at en.wikipedia Later versions were uploaded by Zcrayfish at en.wikipedia. - U.S. Patent 1,119,732Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is/was here.. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Original_Tesla_Coil.png#mediaviewer/File:Original_Tesla_Coil.png

"Tesla Broadcast Tower 1904" by Unattributed(Life time: Unattributed) - Original publication: Unknown Immediate source: http://www.sftesla.org/images/Tesla_Broadcast_Tower.JPG. Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tesla_Broadcast_Tower_1904.jpeg#mediaviewer/File:Tesla_Broadcast_Tower_1904.jpeg

"Twain in Tesla's Lab" by Unknown - Originally published as part of an article by T.C. Martin called "Tesla's Oscillator and Other Inventions" that appeared in the Century Magazine (April 1895). Licensed under Public domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Twain_in_Tesla%27s_Lab.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Twain_in_Tesla%27s_Lab.jpg