This Wikipedia article about Nikola Tesla is pretty good.
YouTube said:Over 100 years ago Nikola Tesla discovered the secret of how to pull free radiant energy from the atmosphere, magnetic energy from the earth and cosmic energy from space for electrical power. What happened to these discoveries? Why aren't they in widespread use by now? At the time, J.P. Morgan wouldn't back him because he couldn't figure out a way to charge for it. Who owns the patents now? Does the government hold then to keep them out of production? Even if they do, you can still build these devices for yourself for less money and with less difficulty than you might think.
Check it out...
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.
This Wikipedia article about Nikola Tesla is pretty good.
I'm interested in the papers that were confiscated right after his death.
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?
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]
Has anybody been able to track the custody trail? Or has it been conveniently lost?
They never to be seen again. With Tesla, think Einstein but with electricity.
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.
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
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
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.
Toward the end of his life, Edison said that his biggest regret was his mistreatment of Tesla.
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
I hate how Tesla attracts all these pseudoscience people that are easily swayed by "how-it-benefits-me" buzzwords. People that don't care about the science and hone in on the buzzwords.
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.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.
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.