Nikola Tesla - The forgotten wizard

Yep, I watched that a while ago. Another better one is "The Missing Secrets of Nikola Tesla". Search for it and you should get a video, hopefully they still let you watch it. It's about fourty-five minutes long and very informative.

 

The only problem with Tesla is that so many kooks, nutburgers, conspiracy followers and internet woo-woos have tried to turn the guy into a, well, kook!

I have read stuff where Tesla is linked to "colonies on Mars", "free energy", nazis, UFOs and the "Apollo Moon Hoax".

Tesla was not a kook - and I sure wish something could be done about the crazies who try to legitimize their crackpot theories by using his name.

This link is a mild example of such sillyness. Tesla DID intend to provide free energy - but what stopped it was that he was WRONG. There is no vast free energy to tap - except for solar and hydro. The guy got one thing wrong that we know of: free energy. Don't be offended, Einstein, Brahe, Kepler, Galileo - all of them got some stuff wrong - this does not take from the genius of these men.

Much of Tesla's demise can easily be explained by schizophrenia. Tesla was a brilliant man, with a very creative and original mind. Unfortunately, he was also schizophrenic. It is not at all unusual for this condition to worsen and take someone's ability to function away from them. In fact, that is what it ALMOST ALWAYS does - even with the wonderful medications we have today. It was this condition, more than any conspiracy against him, that brought him down. I know of what I speak - just listen to Tesla's own words as quoted in this video. He experienced the same type of hallucinations that my son does. He also had a hard time telling reality from hallucination - same as my son, who was diagnosed as paranoid schizophrenic in 1996. (Yea, my son has this condition, so be clear: My words about Telsa are seated in the same level of compassion and understanding as I have for my own son.)

As for Edison, he was no inventor, no scientist. He was a good businessman, period. He was also arrogant and unlikeable. It had to be absolutely dreadful to work, behind the scenes, all for the glory of that walking anus. He invented almost nothing - he had a team of people working behind the scenes to produce 'his' inventions.

The more I learn about him, the more I dislike the man.

In any event, Edison was, and forever will be, wrong about DC. AC was the only way we could build a grid and transport electrical energy across the USA. Tesla HAD to win that one, just because he WAS right and Edison WAS wrong.

 

wr8y,

What a great post! Many of my thoughts with a much better presentation than I could ever do.

 

First, Thanks Kit! It's been bugging me for some time.

I am willing to bet against that. Sure, on the scale you are talking about, I agree. But the woo-woos are looking for the elimination of power lines. And THAT is not going to happen.

 

Nice one .Thanks bertus

 

All "kooks, nutburgers, conspiracy followers and internet woo-woos" aside, I thought both videos were pretty interesting.

 

As for Edison, he was no inventor, no scientist. He was a good businessman, period. He was also arrogant and unlikeable. It had to be absolutely dreadful to work, behind the scenes, all for the glory of that walking anus. He invented almost nothing - he had a team of people working behind the scenes to produce 'his' inventions.


Unfortunately this happens all the time. Most great inventions and breakthroughs are made by lowly, broke, smart people, and they guy with the money takes the credit.

 

I lost what little respect I had for Edison when I saw an old video in which his team did the "experiment" of electrocuting an elephant with AC power. He wanted to frighten people into thinking AC was too dangerous to use. If there is any justice, he is sitting in hell with 1 megaVolts DC connected across both his ankles, using tight saltwater-soaked electrode straps.

 

And yet, Henry Ford was so star-eyed over him, he moved Edison's lab (lock, stock, and the tree outside) all the way to his museum in Michigan.

 

We used to have a museum here in Colorado Springs (never visited), but they moved it to Europe. It's really a shame they moved it!

 

"The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones..." - Mark Antony - William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

 

To the Ineffable All,

Do you remember Charles Steinmetz? If not, then the "Wizard of Schenectady" was forgotton too.

http://www.union.edu/N/DS/s.php?s=1512

Ratch

 

Although he seems to have a pretty impressive list of accomplishments, the "Wizard of Schenectady" is not a name I have ever run across.

 

StayatHomeElectronics,

That is what Charles Steinmetz was known as when he worked for General Electric in his heyday.

Truth to tell, I have never heard of a name called "The Forgotten Wizard".

Ratch

 

MIT's Eric Giller has recently demonstrated wireless transmission of electrical power (commercialised as 'WiTricity'). Check out his demo at TED - he laudably credits Telsa within the first few minutes of the talk

http://www.ted.com/talks/eric_giler_demos_wireless_electricity.html

 

It's going to have to do better than 50% efficiency and go distances greater than a couple of meters.