This Wikipedia article about Nikola Tesla is pretty good.
Nikola Tesla
- Thread starter Overmind One
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Tesla's Secret of Free Energy Devices - Energy from the Atmosphere
Tesla has always been a fascination of mine. I think energy would have taken a much different route had Tesla been able to fully implement his ideas.
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Tesla has always been a fascination of mine. I think energy would have taken a much different route had Tesla been able to fully implement his ideas.
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Tesla's Secret of Free Energy Devices - Energy from the Atmosphere
Tesla has always been a fascination of mine. I think energy would have taken a much different route had Tesla been able to fully implement his ideas.
I'm interested in the papers that were confiscated right after his death.
YJ02
Well Known GateFan
Cool! A guy named after the rock band!!! (we need a stupid american emoticon)
--- merged: Dec 25, 2013 at 10:20 AM ---
Who did the confiscating?
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On 9 January, after learning of Tesla's death, the FBI ordered the Alien Property Custodian to seize all of Tesla's belongings,[149] even though Tesla was an American citizen.[154] Tesla's entire estate from the Hotel New Yorker and other New York City hotels was transported to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company under OAP seal.[149]
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YJ02
Well Known GateFan
Has anybody been able to track the custody trail? Or has it been conveniently lost?
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They never to be seen again. With Tesla, think Einstein but with electricity.
YJ02
Well Known GateFan
Oh I know. I think one of his main problems was a lack of schmoozing with the right ppl. Something Edison had in the bag.
shavedape
Well Known GateFan
You hit the nail on the head! Edison played people like a fiddle even though Tesla was actually smarter and more accomplished in many ways. Edison was also a jealous A-hole that did much to sabotage Tesla to keep him out of the spotlight.
Check out this link for a snippet of how things went down between Edison and Tesla:
http://books.google.com/books?id=P_zMW3EHnTEC&pg=PA57&lpg=PA57&dq=48 laws of power nikola tesla and thomas edison&source=bl&ots=hcntenIMVr&sig=_dvqFEXSp6gHHCdKbLGcWIQCwz4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=7Au9UpiJMcWh2QXxk4Ew&ved=0CEAQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=48 laws of power nikola tesla and thomas edison&f=false
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Yes, but that doesn't answer the question as to why the Gov would swoop in after his death to confiscate his papers. That's what I like to know, what is in his unpublished works.
Jim of WVa
Well Known GateFan
Toward the end of his life, Edison said that his biggest regret was his mistreatment of Tesla.
shavedape
Well Known GateFan
shavedape
Well Known GateFan
Gosh, I would have thought his biggest regret would have been those pain threshold experiments he did on the children he stole from that orphanage.
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YJ02
Well Known GateFan
Also as a beginner's primer-the History Channel actually has a useful episode of THE MEN WHO BUILT AMERICA that covers the rivalry and the race to be the first to wire cities and build power plants
a snip:
YJ02
Well Known GateFan
If you want ppl like Tesla to ever get the credit he deserves, or to have his stolen papers revealed, then you need to generate a mass appeal. "Pedestrian" shows like the one I linked to can serve to do that.
Otherwise, the man will just stay in the recesses of scientists' minds and the dark rooms of old men. Now that is something that I would think those that "buried" the man's papers would want-total obscurity.
Why do so many scientists want to hoard information and knowledge-in this case about Tesla-as if it is theirs alone and not fit for the masses? People at large do not need to understand or even slightly comprehend his work-they only need to know he existed and that his work rivaled and exceeded the work of Edison and others-otherwise it will be like I said-buried forever.
mzzz
Well Known GateFan
Everyone does credit him with a lot. His biggest contribution being responsible for the widespread use of electricity changing the world forever. He helped with the designs for the an AC power delivery system. DC power was limited and kinda decayed over long distances. The design/mechanism work for AC power delivery changed the entire world. Hell, he has his own unit named after him, the Tesla, forget whether this is the electric field or magnetic. He most definitely is not lost in obscurity. I think the obscurity you might be talking about has more to do with "pedestrian" lack of scientific knowledge more than anything else. Everyone in science does know him.
I think you have to ask yourself:
What would matter to Tesla more as a scientist: building and improving on his work/scientific contributions or the fame/association of scientific contributions to his name while ignoring his work/contributions altogether?
Me, personally, I think Tesla cares more about the former rather than the latter. I mean, you're honing in on one man, but he wasn't the only physicist around. There are many physicists around that "pedestrian" people don't know about: Hertz, Karl Braun, Faraday, Bardeen, Cooper, de Broglie, Planck (he's a huge one that most people don't know about). Personally, I think all that is alleviated with scientific knowledge and honours them far better than name recognition. I think they'd care more about you (general you) knowing about their works and the actual science rather than associating this and that to a name.
YJ02
Well Known GateFan
Yes, ok, but that is still a "cornering" of the market so to speak. Of course there are many notable, or better, scientist out there that are never heard of by the rest of us.
But going in response, in type, t one of the original posters on this thread-there seems to be a type of longing for Tesla to get the recognition he never got as well as an expanded look into his other works and theories and -where are his "captured" manuscripts?
If anyone ever wants any of this to happen, then they will need public opinion on their side.
The very thing you say about Tesla-and I think it is true in general about scientists, that he was more concerned in his work then with name recognition or credit goes hand in glove with some of the reasons he didn't get the credit or the contracts-he wasn't a people person and this helped Edison and others to take credit or to just get their idea sold and produced in lieu of Tesla's
Hell, I think if you asked many Americans over 35 or so about Tesla-they may give you an answer like- "They're not my kind of music." The younger, non scientific ones, would have no clue on who he was-or the band.