Did any of you guys learn about Tesla in high school?
I took two years of Electrical construction and maintenance after high school in the early 80s and had still never heard of him.
I think the first time I ever hear of him was reading about him on the Internet. That was probably in the late 80s.
His name is frequently used to support the "energy from thin air" crowd and they are using his icon to worship the "OverUnity" God, being the head of their church and religion.
He developed three power systems and generation. Most of the rest was just crap as he died poor, after giving away all his patents and the voices in his head told him to make wireless power transmision using high voltage. He probably went insane and his financial support (J.P. Morgan) pulled out support when it wasn't profitable (unmeterable) The OU crowd will tell you J.P. Mporgan represents "The man" and did everything from murdering him to stepping on his head to stop people from developing free power. That wasn't his goal.
I took two years of Electrical construction and maintenance after high school in the early 80s and had still never heard of him.
I think the first time I ever hear of him was reading about him on the Internet. That was probably in the late 80s.
Before high school, I'd made several disruptive tesla coils, although I probably didn't know the name 'Tesla' until a bit later, but certainly in high school.
He certainly got several mentions during my physics degree.
I knew of him before high school but high school gave (incorrectly in my opinion) more emphasis to Edison He is well known and mentioned in EE texts as well as histories of the US electrical system. He invented the polyphase (2 or 3 phase) system and the induction motor. His support of AC put him in serious contention with Edison who was defending his DC systems- Edison electrocuted dogs and convinced New York state to operate its new electric chair with AC. Tesla used his "coil" which was a high voltage high frequency transformer to produce "lightning" and take strokes from this saying "perfectly safe". Fun and games in the 1880's
His early work earned him a great deal of credit- he is given credit for some other things and has a high voltage lab in Colorado- however little came out of this as he developed serious mental problems- and his later work and patents promised a lot but gave little of use.
There's a memorial to him somewhere in midtown Manhattan, I can't remember exactly where, probably somewhere in the 34th to 42nd street area, because I've walked past it several times, and that's the part of the city that I've walked most often.
In high school I think a student built a Tesla coil. Various scientific supply house sold hand held Tesla coils. Supposedly they were used to check glass vacuum systems for leaks. I never did understand just how that would work. There was one at our high school.
In my failing memory, read a story about the original antagonism between Tesla and Edison. Fresh off the boat, Tesla got a job rom Edison to repair some kind of Edison installation on a boat or ship. Edison stiffed Tesla out of the agreed payment. I remember reading that Edison claimed that the high agreed amount was a joke. That may be the case, but he may have taken advantage of the newly arrived greenhorn who may not have realized what the going rates were. I have no idea of what Tesla's English proficiency was at the time.
Westinghouse benefited from Tesla's patents and was the beneficiary of not having to pay royalties. Although I do not know the details, my guess is that when Tesla was down on his luck Westinghouse, the corporation, could have treated him less shabbily.
Bill
I built one in high school, fired by an oil ignition transformer into a spark gap (1200:5 turn coil). They wouldn't let me fire it up on school property. Lawyers at work, even then. ;-)
Are you confusing Westinghouse and GE? Or did you change subject somewhere in there?
From What I have read Edison pretty much stayed in the background, but at least partially paid someone else who used Edison's labs for experiments and advocated for the electric chair.
The first use of an electric chair was horribly botched.
The "war of the currents" was a big deal before AC was picked for the first big generators at Niagra Falls.
There were what I believe were hand held Tesla coils where I was a lab tech. You run the high voltage tip along the glass and to some extent it ionizes the low pressure air remaining inside the system. If you get near a leak, there is a definite streamer of ionized air inside the system that goes to the leak and connects through, via air, to the Tesla coil outside.
The versions I read was that Tesla fixed (and maybe improved?) equipment and Edison reneged on a reasonable preagreed payment.
Westinghouse bought most of Tesla's AC power/motor patents and started building AC systems. There was a significant royalty per HP to Tesla. Later, in Westinghouse economic difficulties, Tesla waived his royalties to help his friend George Westinghouse. Had Tesla's royalties remained in effect he would have been a rich.
George Westinghouse eventually wound up forced out of his company (which was originally based on a major innovation - railroad air brakes).
Edison Electric became General Electric, and Edison was forced out of that company.
In addition to AC systems and the induction motor, Tesla has original patents on radio (at least in the US). Marconi infringed on them. Tesla is even less recognized for radio than AC/motors.
I never heard of Tesla (other than tesla coils) while going through an EE degree. One of the Tesla biographies suggests that the absence of Tesla in texts was the result of Tesla's patents essentially covering all forms of induction motors. It was not in the interest of other companies to give Tesla any credit while those companies were infringing and trying to break the control of the field by Tesla's patents. In particular, one of the early very influential electrical engineering texts was written by Charles Proteus Steinmetz, who was an engineer at General Electric.
Nope. I understand that Edison (GE) referred to penal electrocutions as Westinghousing.
Bill
I have two things to add.
On my soapbox I declare that inventors and authors, although supposedly specifically benefited in the US constitution, get the short end of the stick. In that clause no mention is made of corporations or employers. Nevertheless, Congress. in its wisdom. Except for a very small number of inventors, it is the inventors' employers who get the benefit outlined in the Constitution. Have you ever tried finding employment without have to give up ALL of your patent rights. Moreover, many of those one-sided contracts also want to claim rights to any invention developed by their inventor employees. It seems that whenever a literary work with any profit potential is about to go into the Public Domain, Congress extends the length of copyrights.
One thing about old Bell Labs is that they were not strong enforcers of their patent rights unless those rights impinged on the telephone business. At old Hughes Aircraft, many business were allowed to start up when Hughes held patents that Hughes did not want to develop.
It was Steinmetz who may have been most instrumental in making knowledge of alternating current analysis widespread. By that time alternating current had prevailed even at GE. The essence of phasor analysis dates back at least as far as Rayleigh if not before. It derived from the attempts to find particular solutions for linear differential equations with constant coefficients.
Bill
"You Can Be Sure, If It's Westinghouse"
Bill
"Live better electrically"
What you say is essentially what I remember. I don't remember older EE texts giving a great deal of time to history and it certainly was relatively late that Tesla was honoured by having a unit given his name. I know of no unit called the Edison. I had read about Tesla well before university and I recall a book "Men and Volts" which, although published by GE, gave Tesla his dues, along with an early biography of Tesla. Certainly others who contributed greatly were not generally mentioned, Brush, Elihu Thompson, Gaullard & Gibbs- all of whom contributed as much or more than Edison. Edison is often called the "father of the modern electrical system" - he wasn't.
Westinghouse and Edison were better known-because they were good promoters and established companies .
You mean "Eddie currents" weren't named after from Edison?
Perhaps his middle name was "Phill(ament)"
LOL
Westinghouse and Edison were better known-because they were good promoters and established companies .
"You Can Be Sure Its Crap, If It's Westinghouse"
On Aug 9, 12:12=A0am, bud-- wrote: ...
Westinghouse bought most of Tesla's AC power/motor patents and started building AC systems. There was a significant royalty per HP to Tesla. Later, in Westinghouse economic difficulties, Tesla waived his royalties to help his friend George Westinghouse. Had Tesla's royalties remained in effect he would have been a rich.
George Westinghouse eventually wound up forced out of his company (which was originally based on a major innovation - railroad air brakes).
Edison Electric became General Electric, and Edison was forced out of that company.
Best post so far, bud.
There is widespread of misinformation about Tesla and it is almost impossible to clear it all up.
I have written a very short Tesla bio at
The 2006 movie "The Prestige" has a very mystical appearance by Tesla at his Colorado Springs lab, played by David Bowie. Check it out. I have visited the lab site. Today it is in the middle of the suburbs of CS, where a house now stands.
Glenn.
Understood. You said (it would have helped if you hadn't trimmed so close) that Tesla got hired by Edison, then switched to Westinghouse paid him no royalties. Confusing.
You have the right not to work for them and they have the right not to hire you. It really is that simple; contract law.
The copyright thing is a problem, though Disney is often cited, I don't think there should be a limitation on Goofy trademarks. ;-)
I don't understand the relevance of the last paragraph.
That's funny. The Discovery channel states that his lab grounds are now owned by a company, and they showed video of them exploring the actual lab portion, which was left undisturbed, right next door to the manufacturing company's current operating facilities. It was a pretty cool little piece of video. Then, they stepped outside. The plot that the original tower was on is still there, and is bare now, save for the footer stones.
I feel you missed the point. This was an old advertising slogan used for years and the joke was the on the sign over the electric chair.
Living in Canuckistan we didn't see much Westinghouse stuff for a few decades. It seemed to reappear about ten years ago again as White/Westinhouse.
"You Can Be Sure Its Crap, If It's Westinghouse
"Josepi wrote:
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