OT - Nikola Tesla

[JohnGavin]

Completely off-topic - I apologize in advance, but I'm so deeply
impressed by this great scientist of late. He strikes me as a very
great man, who has been slighted by history. Studying his life has
revealed him as a far more high-minded genius than the more celebrated
Thomas Edison. Funny how the history books create their own reality.

Tesla discovered the efficacy of alternating current, invented the
well-known Tesla coil, but how many more visionary projects he came up
with - it's quite astounding. He was done in when the powers-that-be
realized that he wanted to provide the world with free energy. His
selflessness did him in.

Certainly, one of the most fascinating men in history.

[William Sommerwerck]

There is at least one History Channel program about Tesla. It's shown
occasionally.

No question -- without Tesla, we would not have the world we do.

[M forever]

He was very lucky to have lived in the time he lived when his very
special talents were very much needed and appreciated, and he was able
to develop his scientific mind more or less without restraints.
Imagine if he had lived 200, 300 years earlier, how much trouble he
could have gotten into with the churches!

[bassppn]

On Dec 16, 2:03 pm, JohnGavin <dagd...@gmail.com> wrote:

when I taught science we would use the Tesla Coil in various
demos........ the damn thing made a scary noise!

AB

[Romy the Cat]

On Dec 16, 2:03 pm, JohnGavin <dagd...@gmail.com> wrote:

John, history is not what took place but what I comfortable to sell.
If to take not-colored view on history then very many people and
events will be very much not where they shall be. Tesla was gifted
orders of magnitude better then Edison, they are not even the people
of the same scale. Read about numerous experiments that Tesla
conducted, for instance bombarding the Moon surface with radio waves
and you will recognize the amplitude of his mind. BTW, Tesla is not
forgotten in scientific word and praised very high. He did not make
the American pop culture. So, good for him, as far as I concern the
American pop-culture, right along with celebrated History Channel,
are mostly a refuge for idiots, formed to sell coca-cola poison during
commercial breaks.

[JohnGavin]

Well, actually he wasn't that lucky. For one thing, he immigrated to
the U.S. with the idea of meeting with his then hero, Thomas Edison,
and very naively explained to Edison his theories on alternating
current.
Edison recognized him as a genius and as a threat to his established
patent on direct current and underhandedly did all in his power to
squash Tesla's discoveries.

Edison emerges as a first class jerk in the story of Tesla's life -
and by the way, Edison was an avowed atheist. "I have never seen the
slightest proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of
future life for individuals, or of a personal God...If there is really
any soul, I have found no evidence of it in my investigations."

So you see, atheists can also be anti-science, if greed and jealousy
are the motives.

[JohnGavin]

Yes, I'm in total agreement with you on all points.

[Kip Williams]

JohnGavin wrote:

> So you see, atheists can also be anti-science, if greed and jealousy
> are the motives.

Atheists aren't perfect. They just don't believe in gods.


Kip W

[Kip Williams]

bassppn wrote:
> when I taught science we would use the Tesla Coil in various
> demos........ the damn thing made a scary noise!

If only such a thing could be harnessed for good. For, oh, I dunno...
classical music recordings!

Also Sprach Zarathustra:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVDmjnCQ1g4

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Opf5jIukSBM

(More at YT, of course)


Kip W
rasfw

[Oscar]

A few times a week I take a walk around the lake, the northern-most
boundary is Tesla Av. http://tiny.cc/6qctr My neighborhood was laid
out in the 1910's, thirty years after Tesla's arrival in the US. So
he had an impact on someone here in 'Red Gulch' (as the neighborhood
would later be nicknamed because of the 'commie' presence).

[whisky...@yahoo.com]

Sorry to rain on your parade, but there are good reasons why Nikola
Tesla is not a leading light in present day Physics or Electrical
Engineering textbooks. He *did* make some contributions to early
Alternating Current motors and distribution but that was in
conjunction with many other pioneers and there are very good reasons
to give prior precedence to Galileo Ferraris (see the "Inventors,"
"Timeline" buttons on the link below):
http://edisontechcenter.org/AC-PowerHistory.html

Who Invented the Polyphase Electric Motor?
After Galileo Ferraris died in 1897, Westinghouse(with Nikola Tesla)
manage to rewrite history using the US court system.
http://edisontechcenter.org/GalileoFerraris.html

A similar controversy occurs with Tesla's claims to be the sole
inventor of Radio. He used the courts again this time. In 1943 the US
Supreme Court gave precedence to his patents over Marconi's, but this
has probably more to do with the fact that the Marconi Company was
suing the US over its use of radio in WWI.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio

Tesla was limited in his education and did not keep up with
developments in Physics (he said some rather silly things about
Einstein). His "Death Ray," his attempts to broadcast power, and his
Free Energy concepts are, quite frankly, ludicrous. His career after
the early a/c days is increasingly that of a crank and a crackpot.
http://www.nuenergy.org/alt/tesla_energy.htm

The trouble is that he has been adopted as a patron saint of the
Latter-Day Church of Internet Pseudo-Science, so you'll have no
trouble in finding literally thousands of websites that praise him to
the skies. Also he has been adopted as one of the old Yugoslavia's
(now Serbia's) favorite sons and their government spews out propaganda
about him (including bronze busts). You'll notice that his Wikipedia
entry is basically a laundry list of unsupported claims and anecdotal
evidence -- I expect there were many battles fought over it by his
fans.

As usual Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope says it all:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/934/whats-up-with-broadcast-power

[Romy the Cat]

On Dec 17, 2:27 am, "whiskynspl...@yahoo.com"

<whiskynspl...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> On Dec 16, 1:03 pm, JohnGavin <dagd...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Completely off-topic - I apologize in advance, but I'm so deeply
> > impressed by this great scientist of late.  He strikes me as a very
> > great man, who has been slighted by history.  Studying his life has
> > revealed him as a far more high-minded genius than the more celebrated
> > Thomas Edison.  Funny how the history books create their own reality.
>
> > Tesla discovered the efficacy of alternating current, invented the
> > well-known Tesla coil, but how many more visionary projects he came up
> > with - it's quite astounding.  He was done in when the powers-that-be
> > realized that he wanted to provide the world with free energy.  His
> > selflessness did him in.
>
> > Certainly, one of the most fascinating men in history.
>
> Sorry to rain on your parade, but there are good reasons why Nikola
> Tesla is not a leading light in present day Physics or Electrical
> Engineering textbooks. He *did* make some contributions to early
> Alternating Current motors and distribution but that was in
> conjunction with many other pioneers and there are very good reasons
> to give prior precedence to Galileo Ferraris (see the "Inventors,"
> "Timeline" buttons on the link below):http://edisontechcenter.org/AC-PowerHistory.html
>
> Who Invented the Polyphase Electric Motor?
> After Galileo Ferraris died in 1897, Westinghouse(with Nikola Tesla)

> manage to rewrite history using the US court system.http://edisontechcenter.org/GalileoFerraris.html

>
> A similar controversy occurs with Tesla's claims to be the sole
> inventor of Radio. He used the courts again this time. In 1943 the US
> Supreme Court gave precedence to his patents over Marconi's, but this
> has probably more to do with the fact that the Marconi Company was

> suing the US over its use of radio in WWI.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio

>
> Tesla was limited in his education and did not keep up with
> developments in Physics (he said some rather silly things about
> Einstein). His "Death Ray," his attempts to broadcast power, and his
> Free Energy concepts are, quite frankly, ludicrous. His career after

> the early a/c days is increasingly that of a crank and a crackpot.http://www.nuenergy.org/alt/tesla_energy.htm

>
> The trouble is that he has been adopted as a patron saint of the
> Latter-Day Church of  Internet Pseudo-Science, so you'll have no
> trouble in finding literally thousands of websites that praise him to
> the skies. Also he has been adopted as one of the old Yugoslavia's
> (now Serbia's) favorite sons and their government spews out propaganda
> about him (including bronze busts). You'll notice that his Wikipedia
> entry is basically a laundry list of unsupported claims and anecdotal
> evidence -- I expect there were many battles fought over it by his
> fans.
>

> As usual Cecil Adams of The Straight Dope says it all:http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/934/whats-up-with-broadcast-...

Whiskynspl,

With replies like this you are well qualified to run on republican
ticket for US presidency: these idiots do need your help with your
thinking. My favorite in your comment is accusation that Tesla said
“silly things about Einstein”. I guess the Fox news commercials and
discovery channel taught you too much about Einstein between selling
to you new vacuum cleaners and hair growth mixture. I know, for the
idiots who divided World on the countries that we already bombed and
not bombed yet it would be difficult to grasp…

[whisky...@yahoo.com]

On Dec 17, 6:51 am, Romy the Cat <R...@goodSoundClub.com> wrote:
> Whiskynspl,
>
> With replies like this you are well qualified to run on republican
> ticket for US presidency: these idiots do need your help with your
> thinking.  My favorite in your comment is accusation that Tesla said
> “silly things about Einstein”. I guess the Fox news commercials and
> discovery channel taught you too much about Einstein between selling
> to you new vacuum cleaners and hair growth mixture. I know, for the
> idiots who divided World on the countries that we already bombed and

> not bombed yet it would be difficult to grasp…- Hide quoted text -
>

Romy the Cat, you are one hell of a confused feline. How on earth did
you manage to introduce a political dimension into my critical
assessment of Tesla's alleged accomplishments from a purely scientific
point of view? Have you ever taken a hard science or mathematics
course in your life? You claim in your earlier posting that Tesla
"bombarded the moon with radio waves." He didn't have the equipment to
do so, and even if he could, he didn't have the ability to take any
useful measurements of an echo. If anything, he may have made one of
his many conjectures about the possibility of doing it, but even that
is unproven see[1]. And Tesla did not have education or ability to
make the leap from a nineteenth century electrical engineer to
understanding Einstein's new physics. To the end of his pigeon-keeping
days in cheap hotels, he believed in the physical reality of the
"luminiferous aether," a nineteenth century kludge introduced to
explain the propagation of light in a vacuum, see [2].

You are proof, if any is needed, that the Internet is lousy with crazy
people who elevate charlatans to the level of prophets and
tenaciously cling to any mumbo-jumbo like revealed religion. Now go
away before I tie a tin can to your mangy tail and shy a brick at you,
you yowling tabby.

NOTES:
[1] The use of the Moon as a passive communications satellite was
proposed by Mr. W.J. Bray of the British General Post Office in 1940.
It was calculated that with the available microwave transmission
powers and low noise receivers, it would be possible to beam microwave
signals up from Earth and reflect off the Moon. It was thought that at
least one voice channel would be possible.

The "moon bounce" technique was developed by the United States
Military in the years after World War II, with the first successful
reception of echoes off the Moon being carried out at Fort Monmouth,
New Jersey on January 10, 1946 by John H. DeWitt as part of Project
Diana.

[2] In the late 19th century, luminiferous aether or ether, meaning
light-bearing aether, was the term used to describe a medium for the
propagation of light.

Due to the negative outcome of aether-drift experiments like the
Michelson-Morley experiment, aether as a mechanical medium having a
state of motion is no longer an explanation made use of in modern
physics and has been replaced by the theory of relativity and quantum
theory.

[M forever]

You mean you actually understand what he is talking about? How? Did
you use Google Translate?

[M forever]

Indeed, but that has nothing to do with what you wrote here - at all.
One thing doesn't follow from the other. Edison's behavior had nothing
to do with whether or not he believed in a god. What a bizarre idea.

[M forever]

On Dec 17, 9:26 am, "whiskynspl...@yahoo.com"

Interesting. I also used to believe that Tesla was this misunderstood
and unfairly exploited mega genius. He certainly was a genius in some
ways, but it seems that he is also the object of a genius cult.

[Romy the Cat]

On Dec 17, 9:26 am, "whiskynspl...@yahoo.com"
<whiskynspl...@yahoo.com> wrote:

Whiskynspl,

Your political dimension is self-indicative as it screams of itself in
you demagogically use of bogus, superficial facts without your ability
to understand the facts. Your dismissing of Tesla is truly emblematic.
You might fancy yourself as some kind of scientific scholar and your
might cover your status quo with referenced to Einstein (not
particularly smart figure BTW). However, what you apparently are not
able to understand is that with demise of Tesla and similar to him
thinkers science got converted from practical, applied, imperative
discipline to theoretical BS that help idiots to maintain bogus
scientific titles and express laughable authority in their false
verbalization of reality. If you feel that Tesla thinking pattern was
charlatan-like then I guess I am in my rights to feel that the
scientists like you had to be killed at birth. Now you have to live
with it.

[M forever]

And you have to go on living with all the terrible things all those
terrible scientists invented, your computer, your cell phone, your
car, all the many things that make your life so much easier and so
much more comfortable...

[Mark S]

On Dec 16, 3:42 pm, JohnGavin <dagd...@gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Edison emerges as a first class jerk in the story of Tesla's life -
> and by the way, Edison was an avowed atheist.  "I have never seen the
> slightest proof of the religious theories of heaven and hell, of
> future life for individuals, or of a personal God...If there is really
> any soul, I have found no evidence of it in my investigations."
>
> So you see, atheists can also be anti-science, if greed and jealousy
> are the motives.

What a silly statement. Edison wasn't anti-science. He was anti-
competition. He didn't want competition for his scientific discoveries
from other scientific discoveries.

Following your logic, the oil companies are anti-science because they
don't want to see electric cars on the streets.

[M forever]

One could actually say that, because it means that their ultimate goal
is not to advance science, but to make profit. I think what Gavin
doesn't get is that science is not supposed to be a replacement for
religion, it is not supposed to be a creed - we used to believe in
god, now we believe in science -, so he doesn't get that people who
"worship science" don't always act in scientific ways. So he thinks
that that fact that "science doesn't have all the answers" and that
"scientists don't always act rationally either" means that it can't be
"the answer" either.
What he is looking for is a simple to understand, reassuring world
view in which there are absolute truths that he doesn't need to really
grasp, he just wants to trust in it. He just wants it to promise him
the things he wants, like a child wants to believe in Santa because
that will guarantee that the child gets what it wants.

So when people like you and me are talking about science, he doesn't
get that we are talking about a *process*, a way of thinking and
looking at the world, not a replacement for religion, an absolute
truth that gives him the kind of reassurances he is looking for. That
is why the concept of science without religion is so scary for him.
That is why he is looking for childish examples like the above to
prove that "scientists don't always believe in science themselves".

[Mark S]

John exhibits a cloudy way of thinking that we can pretty much
determine comes from his religious mindset.

To John, a cancer patient who dies in a car crash died from cancer,
because it's inevitable that you die from cancer. The rational mind
says the person died from injuries sustained in the car crash. Now, if
the person was on their way to chemo when they crashed...

[M forever]

I don't quite get what that comparison illustrates...