Nikola Tesla

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
He doesn't get the credit he deserves. The book "Empires of Light" (which I have yet to read, but my dad talks about it a lot) has a lot about Tesla. I should pick up that book when I have time....

It's a good book IMO. I enjoyed learning about the electric wars - knew some - but the book has some good history. Fortunately, Tesla & Westinghouse came out on top; I don't really want a coal fired DC generator in my back yard!

Never saw the movie mentioned the numerous posts.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: zerocool84

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: zerocool84
Am I the only one who thinks Nikola Tesla doesn't get the credit he deserves? We wouldn't be where we are today without him. Granted Edison did do things also but Tesla's inventions had more impact and we would have none of this stuff today if not for him. You see kids getting taught about Edison and how great he was but I don't remember ever hearing about Tesla when I was in elementary school and just a little bit in high school. It's always about Edison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

You sound like every other high school/college kid who discovers Nikola Tesla and get overly impressed. It's almost clichéd at this point.

Right umm well I neither in college or highschool and it just popped into my head about him. Didn't watch anything, didn't read anything. Sorry that you feel that way.

Pro tip: You sound like a mouthbreather when you type out "umm"

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
The downside of all this is that Tesla never had the money he needed to do the work he wanted to.

Sorry, but that's just plain false.

Tesla was a millionaire by age 40 but mismanaged his money terribly. ($1,000,000 at that time is equivalent to over $24,000,000 today.) He even went so far as to simply tear up a contract with Westinghouse that could have made him a billionaire rather than renegotiating the contract when it became clear that Westinghouse would not be able to afford the terms without becoming bankrupt. Had Tesla even the smallest bit of basic budgeting ability he would never have lacked for funding.

Tesla also completely dismissed Einstein's theory of relativity.

And then, of course, there is the fact that Tesla advocated eugenics and forced sterilization of the "unfit"; not exactly something I find particularly admirable.

Tesla was a brilliant man within his limited realm, but I find it very difficult to idolize someone who demonstrated such a startling lack of ability to manage the basic parts of daily life and who promoted the idea that society should forcibly sterilize the "unfit". Excepting his phenomenal work in electricity, Tesla was a crackpot.

Some Tesla quotes:

The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct, Several European countries and a number of states of the American Union sterilize the criminal and the insane. This is not sufficient. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.

I am convinced that within a century coffee, tea, and tobacco will be no longer in vogue. Alcohol, however, will still be used. It is not a stimulant but a veritable elixir of life.

Long before the next century dawns, systematic reforestation and the scientific management of natural resources will have made an end of all devastating droughts, forest fires, and floods. The universal utilization of water power and its long-distance transmission will supply every household with cheap power and will dispense with the necessity of burning fuel.

This struggle of the human female toward sex equality will end in a new sex order, with the female as superior.

The acquisition of new fields of endeavor by women, their gradual usurpation of leadership, will dull and finally dissipate feminine sensibilities, will choke the maternal instinct, so that marriage and motherhood may become abhorrent and human civilization draw closer and closer to the perfect civilization of the bee.

ZV

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

And then, of course, there is the fact that Tesla advocated eugenics and forced sterilization of the "unfit"; not exactly something I find particularly admirable.

I find this to be an emotional argument rather than a rational one. While sterilizing people based on race or religion is a bad thing, I find nothing wrong with sterilizing people who are parasites on society. For instance, I'd be all in favor of sterilizing that "octumom" crackpot.

If sterilizing people isn't going to happen, at least make it so that the rest of society doesn't have to pay for the offspring of anyone else. Nothing stops people from having loads of kids and depending on your taxes and my taxes to pay for them. People should be self-sufficient and there should be no free rides.

Eugenics happens on a daily basis. People generally try to avoid undesirable traits, and with genetic research, pregnancy screening to abort babies with certain defects and designer babies becoming more commonplace, eugenics is becoming a reality in the form of "reproductive empowerment". The only thing that's changed is the public's acceptance of the practice.

 

[Dirigible]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: manowar821
Of course you're not the only one, Tesla was a wonderful scientist.

...and 31 flavors of crazy

I'm surprised it took so long to mention how much of a psycho he was! I mean, he was an absolutely brilliant psycho, but nutty nonetheless.

Mike Daisey's monologue on Tesla was good, and highlights how wacky the man was.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: manowar821
Of course you're not the only one, Tesla was a wonderful scientist.

...and 31 flavors of crazy

I'm surprised it took so long to mention how much of a psycho he was! I mean, he was an absolutely brilliant psycho, but nutty nonetheless.

Actually, it didn't take that long.

The Prestige was right about one aspect of Tesla. He was a crazy mofo. If he had been as grounded, businesslike, and as social as Edison he would be the man to this day. Unfortunately he's the original mold for the mad scientist.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Modelworks


The Prestige really doesn't show anything accurate about Tesla, it is all fiction in that movie.

FYI: a movie doesn't have to be accurate or in any way factual to spark interest.

Imagine:

frat boy: Whoa! that David Bowie rocks! ....is that shit real?
*frat boy uses the googles.
*enters "Bowie guy with wolverine."
*enters "prestege."
*enters "prestige."
*enters "Tesler."
*enters "Tesla."
......
*grabs dictionary
frat boy: whoaaaa.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

1903: Thomas Edison stages his highly publicized electrocution of an elephant in order to demonstrate the dangers of alternating current, which, if it posed any immediate danger at all, was to Edison's own direct current.

Edison had established direct current at the standard for electricity distribution and was living large off the patent royalties, royalties he was in no mood to lose when George Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla showed up with alternating current.

Edison's aggressive campaign to discredit the new current took the macabre form of a series of animal electrocutions using AC (a killing process he referred to snidely as getting "Westinghoused"). Stray dogs and cats were the most easily obtained, but he also zapped a few cattle and horses.

Yeah that is man I want my kids to look up to.

I remember reading about this, but only had heard mention of Westinghouse. Didn't know Tesla was also screwed over by this. Figures. Still not as bad as what the CIA did to him....


anyway. further proof that Edison was a royal dick: linky (NSFW sidebars)

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: Kadarin
If I remember reading correctly, many of Tesla's notes and documentation were confiscated by the US government upon his death, and some of his work remains classified to this day. I wonder why that is...

The government admitted to it in 1980. But nobody knows even today what was taken.

Dr. D Loazado, One of the advisers to vice president Wallace concerning this matter, Lozado told Spanel that the government was vitally interested in the effects of Tesla and requested Spanel to lose no time in doing all he could to preserve them.
Bloyce Fitzgerald, an electrical engineer who had been quite close to Tesla during his life time, advised the New York office that on January seventh, nineteen forty three, Sava Kosanovich, George Clark, who is in charge of the Museum and Laboratory for RCA, and Kenneth Swezey of the one six three Milton street, Brooklyn, NY , went to Tesla's room in the New Yorker, and with the assistance of a locksmith broke into a safe which Telsa had in his room in which he kept some of his valuable papers, including important electrical formula, designs, etc. That within the past month, Tesla told Fitzferald that his experiments in connection with the wireless transmission of electrical power had been completed and perfected.

Well, you know, after experimenting with his giant Tesla coil "weapon of peace" resulted in the Tunguska event on the other side of the planet....they got kind of curious

/shifty eyes/

 

[SSSnail]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

This struggle of the human female toward sex equality will end in a new sex order, with the female as superior.

ZV

He is even more of a genius than I thought he was.

 

[zinfamous]

Originally posted by: ironwing

Nikola Tesla
Am I the only one who thinks he doesn't get the credit he deserves?

You and Nemesisis 1.

you know, most of the time I'm glad Nemesis migrated over to P&N; but I wish it didn't cause me to miss brilliant OPs such as that one.

what a shame.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: TastesLikeChicken

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler

Originally posted by: manowar821
Of course you're not the only one, Tesla was a wonderful scientist.

...and 31 flavors of crazy

I'm surprised it took so long to mention how much of a psycho he was! I mean, he was an absolutely brilliant psycho, but nutty nonetheless.

Actually, it didn't take that long.

The Prestige was right about one aspect of Tesla. He was a crazy mofo. If he had been as grounded, businesslike, and as social as Edison he would be the man to this day. Unfortunately he's the original mold for the mad scientist.

yes, but your post languished in obscurity while mine sold like hotcakes. now i'm going to demonstrate the dangers of your post by killing an elephant with it.

 

[postmortemIA]

did you guys know that Tesla was basically never involved with any female?

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Originally posted by: zerocool84
Am I the only one who thinks Nikola Tesla doesn't get the credit he deserves? We wouldn't be where we are today without him. Granted Edison did do things also but Tesla's inventions had more impact and we would have none of this stuff today if not for him. You see kids getting taught about Edison and how great he was but I don't remember ever hearing about Tesla when I was in elementary school and just a little bit in high school. It's always about Edison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

I agree. If it were left to Edison, we would have a DC electrical grid. Man, that would have sucked. To those that don't know anything about electricity, let's just say that we would have exhausted the world supply of copper by now.

 

[Vic]

Am I the only one who thinks he doesn't get the credit he deserves?

Not even remotely. The man was a genius who was almost singlehandedly responsible for much of the electric world we enjoy today.

 

[nineball9]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA
did you guys know that Tesla was basically never involved with any female?

Neither did Isaac Newton who died a virgin. Albert Einstein, on the other hand, was married twice and had numerous liaisons. I doubt there is much, if any, correlation between sexuality and genius.

 

[StageLeft]

Tesla Towers were always bad ass defense in RA.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: IHateMyJob2004

Originally posted by: zerocool84
Am I the only one who thinks Nikola Tesla doesn't get the credit he deserves? We wouldn't be where we are today without him. Granted Edison did do things also but Tesla's inventions had more impact and we would have none of this stuff today if not for him. You see kids getting taught about Edison and how great he was but I don't remember ever hearing about Tesla when I was in elementary school and just a little bit in high school. It's always about Edison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

I agree. If it were left to Edison, we would have a DC electrical grid. Man, that would have sucked. To those that don't know anything about electricity, let's just say that we would have exhausted the world supply of copper by now.

No we wouldn't have. If Tesla didn't invent AC, somebody else would have. Maybe even Edison would have. He was against it mainly because he had tons of money invested in DC. However, like any businessman, if he could make even more money converting everyone to AC he'd do that.

Tesla was only the first to get to it, but the concepts would have eventually become obvious to other scientists who studied electricity.

 

[Legendary]

Didn't Tesla discover the benefits of alternating current?

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: Legendary
Didn't Tesla discover the benefits of alternating current?

Well he did discover it, but he may not have been the first to discover it. It was a pretty simple concept, really, he was just the first to make it popular. It was during a time when electricity generation was still in its infancy, so he was a pioneer.

Saying that the world would be still be without AC if Tesla didn't discover it is like saying that the world still wouldn't know about America is Columbus didn't discover it.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: Legendary
Didn't Tesla discover the benefits of alternating current?

Well he did discover it, but he may not have been the first to discover it. It was a pretty simple concept, really, he was just the first to make it popular. It was during a time when electricity generation was still in its infancy, so he was a pioneer.

Saying that the world would be still be without AC if Tesla didn't discover it is like saying that the world still wouldn't know about America is Columbus didn't discover it.

Your point isn't valid, and your example shows it as well.

What would happen if America was discovered one 100 years later? I doubt American countries will be today as they are if that was the case.

Same with AC - if Tesla did not popularize it through practical utilities, then modern era wouldn't have started when it started; it would happen decades, or maybe even centuries later. In other words, you can thank Tesla for being in modern age now.

 

[Born2bwire]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: Legendary
Didn't Tesla discover the benefits of alternating current?

Well he did discover it, but he may not have been the first to discover it. It was a pretty simple concept, really, he was just the first to make it popular. It was during a time when electricity generation was still in its infancy, so he was a pioneer.

Saying that the world would be still be without AC if Tesla didn't discover it is like saying that the world still wouldn't know about America is Columbus didn't discover it.

Your point isn't valid, and your example shows it as well.

What would happen if America was discovered one 100 years later? I doubt American countries will be today as they are if that was the case.

Same with AC - if Tesla did not popularize it through practical utilities, then modern era wouldn't have started when it started; it would happen decades, or maybe even centuries later. In other words, you can thank Tesla for being in modern age now.

Oh come on. AC would have won out for the same reasons it did originally, plus, Tesla didn't invent AC. When it comes down to it, AC was much more economically viable than DC at the time in terms of generation and transmission.

 

[91TTZ]

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Your point isn't valid, and your example shows it as well.

What would happen if America was discovered one 100 years later? I doubt American countries will be today as they are if that was the case.

Same with AC - if Tesla did not popularize it through practical utilities, then modern era wouldn't have started when it started; it would happen decades, or maybe even centuries later. In other words, you can thank Tesla for being in modern age now.

My point is valid, and my example does show it well. I think it's important for you to realize that Tesla did not invent AC. Many people incorrectly assume that he invented it.

If you read his bio and the history of electricity generation you'll see that companies realized that AC was the future long before Tesla entered the game. He began pushing for AC between 1884 and 1886. However, the fundamental devices used for the transmission for AC power such as the power transformer had already been invented in 1881, and other inventors and companies had already been developing AC. By 1886, Westinghouse was already experimenting with AC transmisisons networks in Pittsburgh, and others had already been installed in Massachusetts and Italy. Only after these events did Tesla begin working with Westinghouse in 1888.

What Tesla contributed was an incremental improvement to the AC system, a system other people had been working on for years.

To state that AC wouldn't have caught on until "decades, or maybe even centuries later" shows complete ignorance about the subject.

 

[91TTZ]

lol, I'm reading more about this and I see that he went to school for electrical engineering where he learned about the benefits of AC electricity. Apparently the concept was already understood and they were already teaching it in schools by the time he went to college. So yeah, he definitely didn't invent it.

 

[postmortemIA]

Originally posted by: 91TTZ

Originally posted by: postmortemIA

Your point isn't valid, and your example shows it as well.

What would happen if America was discovered one 100 years later? I doubt American countries will be today as they are if that was the case.

Same with AC - if Tesla did not popularize it through practical utilities, then modern era wouldn't have started when it started; it would happen decades, or maybe even centuries later. In other words, you can thank Tesla for being in modern age now.

My point is valid, and my example does show it well. I think it's important for you to realize that Tesla did not invent AC. Many people incorrectly assume that he invented it.

If you read his bio and the history of electricity generation you'll see that companies realized that AC was the future long before Tesla entered the game. He began pushing for AC between 1884 and 1886. However, the fundamental devices used for the transmission for AC power such as the power transformer had already been invented in 1881, and other inventors and companies had already been developing AC. By 1886, Westinghouse was already experimenting with AC transmisisons networks in Pittsburgh, and others had already been installed in Massachusetts and Italy. Only after these events did Tesla begin working with Westinghouse in 1888.

What Tesla contributed was an incremental improvement to the AC system, a system other people had been working on for years.

To state that AC wouldn't have caught on until "decades, or maybe even centuries later" shows complete ignorance about the subject.

Wikipedia disagrees

EDIT: nobody said he discovered AC, he made it possible for everybody to use. He did invent AC motor, a thing that has terrific efficiency.