The call to release Nikola Tesla’s Research – Jan. 7th 2012

[Code Name D]

(01-07-2012 05:50 PM)Montag Wrote:  When you condemn a whole thread, it's hard to know specifically what you mean. If you want to take issue with more specific things, then that's much better. I haven't read every word of this thread and examined every claim. I'm not an expert on Tesla. I have heard for some time, that some of his research may have been covered up, and may have been capable of leading to -- or he may already discovered -- free energy.

I haven't spent much time/effort to looking into any of this, so I can't offer an opinion about much of what is proffered about Tesla. To call the whole thread BS, though, I think was wrong for you to do.

Okay, I watched the video noted in the original link. Specifically, this one here: http://www.cmn.tv/videos/the-call-to-rel...-7th-2012/ provided simply for the sake of clarity.

Skepticism flags started flying fast and furious with the list of accomplishments attributed to Tesla, which I critique here using nothing more than Wikipedia.

Alternating current – Half true. The credit for inventing alternating current goes to Guillaume Duchenne in 1855. But he used the technology for “electrotherapy” and did not understand the physics behind it, or develop any practical applications.

Tesla however did conduct some of the first scientific inquiries into AC circuits as is accredited with any number of first patents on AC based technologies.

Wireless communication – No. He did not invent wireless communications. That honor goes to Alexander Gram Bell and Marconi. Nor is Tesla cited (at least not by Wikipidea, I suspect that scientific literature may be more generous however) in contributing to the technology or in researching the effect of radio waves.

Tesla’s later research is mostly dedicated to exploration of high voltage and high frequency systems and the physics behind them. All though Tesla was a major player in something called “spark-gap” generators, also known as “splash transmitters” in today’s electronic parlance.

Tesla is accredited to using the first radio receiver to study lightning strikes, a kind of earth based radio observatory if you would to study lighting. To replicate the experiment, take any AM radio and listen to it during a lighting storm. Each time lighting strikes, you will here a surge of static on the radio. Even advanced AM receivers suffer from this problem. A spark gap transmitter basically seeks to replicate that effect through man-made lighting.

There were several problems with this approach hover. First is that the information could not be modulated as AM transmissions could, it could only send pulse information, greatly limiting its possible applications.

Second, to run a spark gap transmitter, you needed a lot of power. I mean a LOT of power. Modulated RF transmitters were far more efficient in comparison, and could transmit further with far less energy,

Third, spark gap transmitters send out its pulse over virtually the entire radio spectrum. There is also no way to selectively tune into a spark gap transmission. This means that any system using spark gap transmitters would only have one frequency, and there is no way to have two spark gap networks operating with out interfering with each other.

Then there is the Wardeclyffe Tower. This was Tesla’s effort to demonstrate proof of concept. I suspect that the tower is based on spark gap technology. My impression of the photos of the tower certainly leads me to this conclusion as it looks vary similar to modern spark gap generators. (I will speak more on this later.)

Tesla also experimented and patented a verity of other novel communication methods. One sought to use the magnetic lay lines of the earth to transmit information, but could only work with shared magnetic latitudes. Another method sought to use the theoretically conductive nature of the ionosphere to transmit information, like natural accruing electrical conductors, but also proved impractical.

The electric motor – Mostly true. He did not invent the first electric AC motor, but he did radically improve on the design and made the first practical AC motors and generators.

Before Tesla, all electric motors (and generators for that mater) were based on natural magnets and were called “homopolar”. To create an electrical current, you turned a coil through an magnetic field which was created by a natural magnet. A generator was the reverse process, by passing an electrical current through the same coil against a stationary magnetic field, the coils generates a torque. But the power of both the magnet and generator were limited by the strength of your magnetic field, which in turn was limited by the strength of your permanent magnet.

Tesla is credited with inventing the first “poly-phase induction” motor, which replaced the permanent magnet with another coil. And he developed the first non-dynamo generators as well with the same concept, which only requires a “starter” current to energize the first coil, thereby creating a magnetic field against which the second coil could pass through. Current from the second coil was then diverted back to the first coil until an optimal voltage was achieved. This made industrial scale electrical systems possible, displacing coal fired steam systems. (All though steam systems are still largely necessary to produce the mechanical energy needed.)

Basic laser – No. The basic foundations of the laser was actually established by Albert Einstein. Concepts which were later confirmed by Rudolf W. Ladenburg in 1928.

Radar technology – No. Heinrich Hertz in 1886 is credited with discovering that radio waves could be reflected from solid objects, with the first primitive radar being built by Christian Huelsmeyer in 1904. But the first practical systems were built largely for WWII.

Apparently Tesla did play with the idea, but is not attributed (at least according to Wikipedia) to advancing the technology or physics.

X-Rays – Half true. Tesla did not discover X-Rays. This honor goes to Wilhelm Rontgen. X-Rays were actually unknown byproducts of Cathode Ray Tubes which generated a stream of electrons.

But Tesla is given credit to exploring the concept, which did lead directly to its discovery. He invented a tube that could reliably create X-Rays and could roughly project them in a strait line. But nothing in Tesla’s notes suggested he understood the phenomena, or that he correctly identified it beyond a “radiant energy.”

He is however given credit for noting some of the first hazards for X-Ray. He apparently did know enough to realize its dangers to biological life, and authored safety protocols to be used for further experimentation.

Neon – Hum, this is a hard one. The video sited Tesla as being responsible for inventing “neon”. Well, you can’t invent neon as it is an element found on the periodic table. Nor is it with the invention of the neon sign, which is actually something called a Geissler Tube, which was invented by Heinrich Geissler in 1857.

But experimenting with X-Rays and high voltage systems, Tesla was bound to have observed numerous effects it had on ionizing various gasses. Plus, many of his high voltage systems would be needed to make neon signs practical. My problem here is that claiming he invented “Neon” is too broad a claim to confirm or deny with a goggle search.

Robotics and Remote control – Half true.

Tesla is credit with the first remote control vessel, a boat he called the “Teleautomaton.” And it is this contribution that enrolls his name in the history of Robotics. But that appears to be the extent to which he is attributed to developing robotics.

(Cool, I didn’t know this.)

Cellar technology – No, at least not beyond his contributions to wireless communications systems.

Cell system and cellular communications is actually relatively new, with the first incarnations appearing in the 1950’s. The basic idea behind cellular communications is the interaction between the mobile unit and stationary tower, with the mobile unit selecting and communicating with the strongest tower that it can detect.

Tesla however did propose a global wireless communications network. But beyond predicting its possibility, I have read noting suggesting he proposed any sort of mechanism that led to its development. Indeed, his work on the Wardeclyffe Tower would have precluded even the feasibility of such systems in any practical manner.

I suspect that what he was in fact proposing was a kind of wireless version of the telegraph system. In the final stages of the telegraph network, telegraph messages began with an address which told the receiving operator which direction to repeat the message too. More sophisticated systems then used something similar, a precursor to a phone number, to route phone conversations through switching networks. This was something that Tesla would have been familiar with as the start of his professional career was running some of the first telephone and latest incarnation telegraph systems.

Right off the bat, the opening claims made by the video are suspect.

Setting of even more flags is the overt demonization J. P. Morgan. (The narrator even called him “the devil himself.”)

The overall arching claim here is that the Wardeclyffe Tower would have transmitted “free energy” that J. P. Morgan “couldn’t meter” to the entire world. Yep, they said that this one tower would have energized the entire world with free power.

Okay, any time I see the word “free energy” I have to call out the big BS flag.


First, I am skeptical that Tesla ever made the claim that this would produce free energy. As I said before, Tesla is accredited for find a way to extract some energy from air using a loop antenna. But there are two major distinctions that have to be made; this isn’t free energy, but energy that first had to be put into the air by the transmitter itself. And second, the energy collected was very small, and required a massive antenna to work using hundreds if not thousands of feet of wire to function.

The first generation AM receivers did use this technology however, using large coil antennas to collect enough signals for the rest of the system to work with. And these systems were very touchy, requiring constant retuning as the length of antenna wire changed with temperature during normal operation. It wasn’t until low noise, tunable amplifiers were developed using vacuum tubes was this problem solved.

Apparently, even according to wiki, Tesla did claim that the Wardeclyffe Tower would transmit some energy, but I suspect that Tesla fully intended to pump this energy into the tower.

Wikipedia did provide a number of corrections and observations that are worth noting here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower

The wiki page does give a greater insight into the nature of the Wardenclyffe Tower. It specifically points out that it doesn’t function by wave of wave propagation as radio frequency towers do, but rather by creating a large enough electro-static field as to influence the electrical charge of the earth itself. Tesla believed that if he could effect even small changes in the earth’s charge, that this could be detected by any other receiver placed anywhere on earth.

Wiki then goes on to correct Tesla’s idea. First, Tesla falsely assumed that the earth had a “natural charge”. Tesla did measure that the earth had a negative charge, like rubbing a balloon on a shag carpet. But what he didn’t know was that this charge is actually delivered to the earth by way of the solar wind. As a result, his system would never have worked because his tower simply would not be able to compete with the raw power of the sun it self.

It also explains the principle behind the towers ability to broadcast energy, and it was based on a concept he was able to demonstrate in the lab. Picture two metal plates; one that is above you, and one that is below you. You charge the plate above you with a negative charge, and the plate that is below you with a positive charge. By reversing the process you could then draw off a negative charge from the plate above you and a negative charge from the plate below you to develop a voltage potential. The charging and tapping process was to be done using the earth’s already existing magnetic field as a giant LC circuit.

(A rather sophisticated electrical concept that. In electronic parlance, we commonly call an L(for induction) and C(for capacitance).

When you pass a current through an inductor or coil, it will want to resist any changes in that current. So an inductor works a bit like a fly wheel. When you add torque into a flywheel, it tends to want to keep that torque.

A capacitor works like a spring. The more energy you put into it, the more it wants to push back on that energy with an opposite charge. When you put the two together, they will want to trade energy back and forth in a perpetual osculation. To some effect, it can actually hold electrical energy, like an AC battery, which is why we call it a tank circuit. This makes it useful in turning applications.)

Tesla was thinking that he could use the tower to create a sympathetic oscillation which he could use to add energy into the earth’s naturally accruing LC circuit, which he believed worked like a giant tank circuit just waiting to be charged.

But again, it would not have worked for the same reason as before. For Tesla’s energy system to have worked, the earth’s electrical charge would need to be a closed system. Therefore every kilowatt of power put into the earth’s ionosphere would be retained there until drawn off. But as I have said before, the earth’s electrical charge is the result of the solar winds generated by the sun, and is not a closed system. Any power Tesla’s tower put into the ionosphere would simply bleed off into space.

Wiki (as well as my understanding) also suggest that Tesla’s assumptions of a natural Earth-LC circuit are also inconsistent with physics as we know it today. Keep in mind that radio waves, electricity, and even X-rays were poorly understood at the time. It wasn’t until Einstein’s theories regarding atomic physics did we gain a better understanding of electromagnetic theory.

[Bryn]

[TheCrone]

(01-08-2012 12:29 AM)Code Name D Wrote:  

(01-07-2012 05:50 PM)Montag Wrote:  When you condemn a whole thread, it's hard to know specifically what you mean. If you want to take issue with more specific things, then that's much better. I haven't read every word of this thread and examined every claim. I'm not an expert on Tesla. I have heard for some time, that some of his research may have been covered up, and may have been capable of leading to -- or he may already discovered -- free energy.

I haven't spent much time/effort to looking into any of this, so I can't offer an opinion about much of what is proffered about Tesla. To call the whole thread BS, though, I think was wrong for you to do.

Okay, I watched the video noted in the original link. Specifically, this one here: http://www.cmn.tv/videos/the-call-to-rel...-7th-2012/ provided simply for the sake of clarity.

Skepticism flags started flying fast and furious with the list of accomplishments attributed to Tesla, which I critique here using nothing more than Wikipedia.

Alternating current – Half true. The credit for inventing alternating current goes to Guillaume Duchenne in 1855. But he used the technology for “electrotherapy” and did not understand the physics behind it, or develop any practical applications.

Tesla however did conduct some of the first scientific inquiries into AC circuits as is accredited with any number of first patents on AC based technologies.

Wireless communication – No. He did not invent wireless communications. That honor goes to Alexander Gram Bell and Marconi. Nor is Tesla cited (at least not by Wikipidea, I suspect that scientific literature may be more generous however) in contributing to the technology or in researching the effect of radio waves.

Tesla’s later research is mostly dedicated to exploration of high voltage and high frequency systems and the physics behind them. All though Tesla was a major player in something called “spark-gap” generators, also known as “splash transmitters” in today’s electronic parlance.

Tesla is accredited to using the first radio receiver to study lightning strikes, a kind of earth based radio observatory if you would to study lighting. To replicate the experiment, take any AM radio and listen to it during a lighting storm. Each time lighting strikes, you will here a surge of static on the radio. Even advanced AM receivers suffer from this problem. A spark gap transmitter basically seeks to replicate that effect through man-made lighting.

There were several problems with this approach hover. First is that the information could not be modulated as AM transmissions could, it could only send pulse information, greatly limiting its possible applications.

Second, to run a spark gap transmitter, you needed a lot of power. I mean a LOT of power. Modulated RF transmitters were far more efficient in comparison, and could transmit further with far less energy,

Third, spark gap transmitters send out its pulse over virtually the entire radio spectrum. There is also no way to selectively tune into a spark gap transmission. This means that any system using spark gap transmitters would only have one frequency, and there is no way to have two spark gap networks operating with out interfering with each other.

Then there is the Wardeclyffe Tower. This was Tesla’s effort to demonstrate proof of concept. I suspect that the tower is based on spark gap technology. My impression of the photos of the tower certainly leads me to this conclusion as it looks vary similar to modern spark gap generators. (I will speak more on this later.)

Tesla also experimented and patented a verity of other novel communication methods. One sought to use the magnetic lay lines of the earth to transmit information, but could only work with shared magnetic latitudes. Another method sought to use the theoretically conductive nature of the ionosphere to transmit information, like natural accruing electrical conductors, but also proved impractical.

The electric motor – Mostly true. He did not invent the first electric AC motor, but he did radically improve on the design and made the first practical AC motors and generators.

Before Tesla, all electric motors (and generators for that mater) were based on natural magnets and were called “homopolar”. To create an electrical current, you turned a coil through an magnetic field which was created by a natural magnet. A generator was the reverse process, by passing an electrical current through the same coil against a stationary magnetic field, the coils generates a torque. But the power of both the magnet and generator were limited by the strength of your magnetic field, which in turn was limited by the strength of your permanent magnet.

Tesla is credited with inventing the first “poly-phase induction” motor, which replaced the permanent magnet with another coil. And he developed the first non-dynamo generators as well with the same concept, which only requires a “starter” current to energize the first coil, thereby creating a magnetic field against which the second coil could pass through. Current from the second coil was then diverted back to the first coil until an optimal voltage was achieved. This made industrial scale electrical systems possible, displacing coal fired steam systems. (All though steam systems are still largely necessary to produce the mechanical energy needed.)

Basic laser – No. The basic foundations of the laser was actually established by Albert Einstein. Concepts which were later confirmed by Rudolf W. Ladenburg in 1928.

Radar technology – No. Heinrich Hertz in 1886 is credited with discovering that radio waves could be reflected from solid objects, with the first primitive radar being built by Christian Huelsmeyer in 1904. But the first practical systems were built largely for WWII.

Apparently Tesla did play with the idea, but is not attributed (at least according to Wikipedia) to advancing the technology or physics.

X-Rays – Half true. Tesla did not discover X-Rays. This honor goes to Wilhelm Rontgen. X-Rays were actually unknown byproducts of Cathode Ray Tubes which generated a stream of electrons.

But Tesla is given credit to exploring the concept, which did lead directly to its discovery. He invented a tube that could reliably create X-Rays and could roughly project them in a strait line. But nothing in Tesla’s notes suggested he understood the phenomena, or that he correctly identified it beyond a “radiant energy.”

He is however given credit for noting some of the first hazards for X-Ray. He apparently did know enough to realize its dangers to biological life, and authored safety protocols to be used for further experimentation.

Neon – Hum, this is a hard one. The video sited Tesla as being responsible for inventing “neon”. Well, you can’t invent neon as it is an element found on the periodic table. Nor is it with the invention of the neon sign, which is actually something called a Geissler Tube, which was invented by Heinrich Geissler in 1857.

But experimenting with X-Rays and high voltage systems, Tesla was bound to have observed numerous effects it had on ionizing various gasses. Plus, many of his high voltage systems would be needed to make neon signs practical. My problem here is that claiming he invented “Neon” is too broad a claim to confirm or deny with a goggle search.

Robotics and Remote control – Half true.

Tesla is credit with the first remote control vessel, a boat he called the “Teleautomaton.” And it is this contribution that enrolls his name in the history of Robotics. But that appears to be the extent to which he is attributed to developing robotics.

(Cool, I didn’t know this.)

Cellar technology – No, at least not beyond his contributions to wireless communications systems.

Cell system and cellular communications is actually relatively new, with the first incarnations appearing in the 1950’s. The basic idea behind cellular communications is the interaction between the mobile unit and stationary tower, with the mobile unit selecting and communicating with the strongest tower that it can detect.

Tesla however did propose a global wireless communications network. But beyond predicting its possibility, I have read noting suggesting he proposed any sort of mechanism that led to its development. Indeed, his work on the Wardeclyffe Tower would have precluded even the feasibility of such systems in any practical manner.

I suspect that what he was in fact proposing was a kind of wireless version of the telegraph system. In the final stages of the telegraph network, telegraph messages began with an address which told the receiving operator which direction to repeat the message too. More sophisticated systems then used something similar, a precursor to a phone number, to route phone conversations through switching networks. This was something that Tesla would have been familiar with as the start of his professional career was running some of the first telephone and latest incarnation telegraph systems.

Right off the bat, the opening claims made by the video are suspect.

Setting of even more flags is the overt demonization J. P. Morgan. (The narrator even called him “the devil himself.”)

The overall arching claim here is that the Wardeclyffe Tower would have transmitted “free energy” that J. P. Morgan “couldn’t meter” to the entire world. Yep, they said that this one tower would have energized the entire world with free power.

Okay, any time I see the word “free energy” I have to call out the big BS flag.


First, I am skeptical that Tesla ever made the claim that this would produce free energy. As I said before, Tesla is accredited for find a way to extract some energy from air using a loop antenna. But there are two major distinctions that have to be made; this isn’t free energy, but energy that first had to be put into the air by the transmitter itself. And second, the energy collected was very small, and required a massive antenna to work using hundreds if not thousands of feet of wire to function.

The first generation AM receivers did use this technology however, using large coil antennas to collect enough signals for the rest of the system to work with. And these systems were very touchy, requiring constant retuning as the length of antenna wire changed with temperature during normal operation. It wasn’t until low noise, tunable amplifiers were developed using vacuum tubes was this problem solved.

Apparently, even according to wiki, Tesla did claim that the Wardeclyffe Tower would transmit some energy, but I suspect that Tesla fully intended to pump this energy into the tower.

Wikipedia did provide a number of corrections and observations that are worth noting here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower

The wiki page does give a greater insight into the nature of the Wardenclyffe Tower. It specifically points out that it doesn’t function by wave of wave propagation as radio frequency towers do, but rather by creating a large enough electro-static field as to influence the electrical charge of the earth itself. Tesla believed that if he could effect even small changes in the earth’s charge, that this could be detected by any other receiver placed anywhere on earth.

Wiki then goes on to correct Tesla’s idea. First, Tesla falsely assumed that the earth had a “natural charge”. Tesla did measure that the earth had a negative charge, like rubbing a balloon on a shag carpet. But what he didn’t know was that this charge is actually delivered to the earth by way of the solar wind. As a result, his system would never have worked because his tower simply would not be able to compete with the raw power of the sun it self.

It also explains the principle behind the towers ability to broadcast energy, and it was based on a concept he was able to demonstrate in the lab. Picture two metal plates; one that is above you, and one that is below you. You charge the plate above you with a negative charge, and the plate that is below you with a positive charge. By reversing the process you could then draw off a negative charge from the plate above you and a negative charge from the plate below you to develop a voltage potential. The charging and tapping process was to be done using the earth’s already existing magnetic field as a giant LC circuit.

(A rather sophisticated electrical concept that. In electronic parlance, we commonly call an L(for induction) and C(for capacitance).

When you pass a current through an inductor or coil, it will want to resist any changes in that current. So an inductor works a bit like a fly wheel. When you add torque into a flywheel, it tends to want to keep that torque.

A capacitor works like a spring. The more energy you put into it, the more it wants to push back on that energy with an opposite charge. When you put the two together, they will want to trade energy back and forth in a perpetual osculation. To some effect, it can actually hold electrical energy, like an AC battery, which is why we call it a tank circuit. This makes it useful in turning applications.)

Tesla was thinking that he could use the tower to create a sympathetic oscillation which he could use to add energy into the earth’s naturally accruing LC circuit, which he believed worked like a giant tank circuit just waiting to be charged.

But again, it would not have worked for the same reason as before. For Tesla’s energy system to have worked, the earth’s electrical charge would need to be a closed system. Therefore every kilowatt of power put into the earth’s ionosphere would be retained there until drawn off. But as I have said before, the earth’s electrical charge is the result of the solar winds generated by the sun, and is not a closed system. Any power Tesla’s tower put into the ionosphere would simply bleed off into space.

Wiki (as well as my understanding) also suggest that Tesla’s assumptions of a natural Earth-LC circuit are also inconsistent with physics as we know it today. Keep in mind that radio waves, electricity, and even X-rays were poorly understood at the time. It wasn’t until Einstein’s theories regarding atomic physics did we gain a better understanding of electromagnetic theory.

First of all, you are seeming to forget that Tesla was born in the eighteen sixties. So whenyou suggest that any idiot could investigate lightning through the use of an AM radio, just what are you suggesting? This is sort of like saying it wasn't an accomplishment for Columbus to sail to the New World - afer all you fly from Lisbon Portugal to Havana Cuba every week!

Marconi himself said that Tesla deerved a great deal of credit for the "invention" for which Marconi won the Nobel Prize.

[TheCrone]

For anyone wondering about how much suppression, death, patent with holding et al occurs in the field of "free energy" there is this piece over at Rense.

http://www.rense.com/general72/oinvent.htm

And this is from a non-Rense affiliated reporter - who does not have any connection to that end of Rense site which feels every misdeed in the history of man can be connected to the Jewish bankers anbd teir decision to destroy humanity.

[Montag]

(01-08-2012 12:29 AM)Code Name D Wrote:  Alternating current – Half true. The credit for inventing alternating current goes to Guillaume Duchenne in 1855. But he used the technology for “electrotherapy” and did not understand the physics behind it, or develop any practical applications.

Tesla however did conduct some of the first scientific inquiries into AC circuits as is accredited with any number of first patents on AC based technologies.

Highly suspect conclusion here... The war of the currents is said to have been Edison vs. Westinghouse (this is long after Duchenne is out of the picture, though you are technically correct that that he had the first recorded practical application of it via electrotherapy). Westinghouse was just the money man though. Westinghouse purchased seven of Tesla's patents...

from: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_warcur.html

Quote:In spite of the bad press, good things were happening for Westinghouse and Tesla. The Westinghouse Corporation won the bid for illuminating The Chicago World's Fair, the first all-electric fair in history. The fair was also called the Columbian Exposition — in celebration of the 400th Anniversary of Columbus discovering America. Up against the newly formed General Electric Company (the company that had taken over the Edison Company), Westinghouse undercut GE's million-dollar bid by half. Much of GE's proposed expenses were tied to the amount copper wire necessary to utilize DC power. Westinghouse's winning bid proposed a more efficient, cost-effective AC system.

The Columbian Exposition opened on May 1, 1893. That evening, President Grover Cleveland pushed a button and a hundred thousand incandescent lamps illuminated the fairground's neoclassical buildings. This "City of Light" was the work of Tesla, Westinghouse and twelve new thousand-horsepower AC generation units located in the Hall of Machinery. In the Great Hall of Electricity, the Tesla polyphase system of alternating current power generation and transmission was proudly displayed. For the twenty-seven million people who attended the fair, it was dramatically clear that the power of the future was AC. From that point forward more than 80 percent of all the electrical devices ordered in the United States were for alternating current.

[Montag]

I must say on all the other facets your knowledge is impressive, and far exceeds what I know on these matters. Instead of being cute, you should have just made an extensive/thought out post -- like you just did, and I think that it would have been far better received.

[Code Name D]

(01-08-2012 01:56 PM)TheCrone Wrote:  First of all, you are seeming to forget that Tesla was born in the eighteen sixties. So whenyou suggest that any idiot could investigate lightning through the use of an AM radio, just what are you suggesting? This is sort of like saying it wasn't an accomplishment for Columbus to sail to the New World - afer all you fly from Lisbon Portugal to Havana Cuba every week!

Marconi himself said that Tesla deerved a great deal of credit for the "invention" for which Marconi won the Nobel Prize.

That is what I love about this place. Keen minds that will let not fault go unnoticed.

What I actually meant to say was that we can repeat Teslas original observations using an ordinary AM radio. But obviously Tesla himself didn't have access to such technology early on. But that is not to say that they didn't know any thing about it at the time.

The vary first "detector" was likely a "spark gap detector." This consists of a simple loop of wire (that would be yards if not hundreds of yards long) connected to two steel balls found at the ends of the loop of wire. The two balls are placed inside a dark room and are separated by about a millimeter or so.

When a lighting strike hits nearby, the electrical energy will be captured by the wire and generate spark between the balls. In fact, you would probably see two sparks, which gave insights into how lighting works, which is some times reported to strike twice along a single path. The second strike is called a "return stroke."

In Tesla's day, they would also have crystal detectors. This is where a crystal of some kind is clamped in between the balls. When electrified, the crystal would vibrate, generating an audible sound.

Unlike spark gap detectors, crystal detectors could "hear" lighting strikes from further way, and even detect cloud to cloud lighting that you couldn't see because of cloud cover.

A fun fact is that this is in fact an AM radio, not far removed from modern radios. So once they learned how to transmit and modulate an RF wave using AM or amplitude modulation, these crystals would actually sing, replicating a very spooky similarity to a human voice. In fact, the very first AM transmission of human voice, scared the living daylights out of radio telegraph operators out at see near the transmitter. Instead of hearing dots and dashes that they were use to, suddenly heard a human voice talking to them. This will give you an idea of just how similar these technologies were.

In fact, the science of research into electricity and radio waves was surprisingly advanced in his day. The first solid state diode, was invented in 1874, when Tesla was only 18, and the first piratical diode, made from oxidized copper and selenium, was patented in 1899, when he was 43. The first vacuum tube diodes were made in 1973, based in part on Edison's design. And many of Tesla's patents were in fact vacuum tubes of various functions.

The diode is one of the basic building blocks of all electronics. An AM detector circuit consist literately of just one diode. So a modern AM receiver was very much within Tesla's reach.

[Code Name D]

(01-08-2012 06:44 PM)Montag Wrote:  

(01-08-2012 12:29 AM)Code Name D Wrote:  Alternating current – Half true. The credit for inventing alternating current goes to Guillaume Duchenne in 1855. But he used the technology for “electrotherapy” and did not understand the physics behind it, or develop any practical applications.

Tesla however did conduct some of the first scientific inquiries into AC circuits as is accredited with any number of first patents on AC based technologies.

Highly suspect conclusion here... The war of the currents is said to have been Edison vs. Westinghouse (this is long after Duchenne is out of the picture, though you are technically correct that that he had the first recorded practical application of it via electrotherapy). Westinghouse was just the money man though. Westinghouse purchased seven of Tesla's patents...

from: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_warcur.html

Perhaps. I wouldn't challenge you on this point. The battle of the currents is one of those epic stories of mythical proportions.

Edison was basically thinking ahead and realized that any sophisticated electrical system would require a constant and regulated level of DC voltage. While Tesla's AC motors were useful for industrial applications, for consistent performance, such as the steady turning of a phonograph turn table, required a constant speed and required a constant DC voltage. Too high or too low a voltage would cause the record to play sharp or flat.

And this is still true today. All electronic systems first utilizes a a power supply system to convert raw AC into a steady and regulated DC.

But Tesla was simply right on far to many factors here. A testament to his genius and industrial practicality.

It wasn't piratical to send DC over long distances. And even then you still ended up with a very noisy DC voltage that still needed to be regulated. It was difficult to step DC voltages up or down in voltage. They even weren't as efficient.

So yes, it is possible.

BTW. Thanks for the thread. Usually my research is on dry economics. I enjoyed my research into Tesla.

[Bryn]

Here's a link for:

A collection of scientific papers and articles by Tesla and others
about Tesla's work primarily in the field of electrical engineering.

http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/contents.htm

I find this one very interesting: His views on women

Quote:"It is clear to any trained observer," he says, "and even to the sociologically untrained, that a new attitude toward sex discrimination has come over the world through the centuries, receiving an abrupt stimulus just before and after the World War.

"This struggle of the human female toward sex equality will end in a new sex order, with the female as superior. The modern woman, who anticipates in merely superficial phenomena the advancement of her sex, is but a surface symptom of something deeper and more potent fermenting in the bosom of the race.

"It is not in the shallow physical imitation of men that women will assert first their equality and later their superiority, but in the awakening of the intellect of women.

"Through countless generations, from the very beginning, the social subservience of women resulted naturally in the partial atrophy or at least the hereditary suspension of mental qualities which we now know the female sex to be endowed with no less than men.

I wonder if he knew God used to be a woman for thousands of years before she got suppressed just 6,000 or less years ago and changed over to male, re-written stories by misogynistic, patriarchal priests like Eve being created from Adam's rib which is laughable because it was lifted from earlier Sumerian scriptures referring to the belief that the Goddess Nin-Ti, "Lady of Life" and "Lady of the Rib" gave mothers the power to create their babies' bones from one of their own ribs.

Smart man Telsa was indeed!