A real look at Tesla

[FrankM]

duplicate post

[alexander]

I know that it has nothing to do with what was recently discussed, but i found this article on Tesla's lost inventions, I thought that it was pretty good and descided to share... there's a whole lot more info on the site, the link is all the way at the end of the quote.

I thought that this was the most interesting part of the entire article, but you'd have to bear with me to read it through, it is pretty long;

"Tesla speculated, that, perhaps the most valuable application of wireless energy, will be the propulsion of the flying machine, which will carry no fuel and be free from any limitations of the present airplanes and dirigibles. The possibility of electric flight intrigued Tesla, though he never did patent an electric aircraft. But he did patent an electric railway using his high frequency, high-potential electricity in a by-wire mode, and also patented a radical aircraft that, while not electric, did have an advanced power plant: his disk turbine. Tesla's railway and aircraft can be numbered among the lost inventions. The closest transport technology has come to putting any of Tesla into actual practice is with diesel-electric power using Tesla poly phase motors, an early and notable example of which was the ocean liner Normandy. In the field of transport, Tesla is more commonly identified with antigravity flight and UFOs. Although this identification is based upon nothing more than a few public utterances, his suggestions charge the imagination with possibilities.

 

High-frequency railway

 

Tesla's high-frequency, high-potential railway picks up its power inductively without the use of the rolling or sliding contacts used in conventional trolley or third-rail systems. A pickup bar travels near a cable carrying the oscillating energy. This cable, which Tesla specifically invented to carry such currents, is the precursor of the grounded shielded cable used today to carry TV and other high-frequency signals. But unlike today's cables, which carry energy only of signal strength and shield by means of a continuous grounded static screen of fine braided copper wire, Tesla's high voltage cable uses metal pipe or screen that is broken up into short lengths, very much shorter, says Tesla in his patent, than the wave lengths of the current used. This feature reduces loss. Since the shielding must not be interrupted, the short sections are made to overlap but are insulated from one another. To further reduce loss to ground, an inductance of high ohmic resistance or a small capacity is placed in the ground line.

 

Motor mystery

 

A conundrum raised by Tesla's railway patent is that the vehicle is powered by an electric motor, but nowhere among Tesla's inventions is to be found an electric motor that runs off of high-frequency currents. Was Tesla planning to use a lower frequency here, something under 1,000 cycles? Did he have a converter in mind that could bring the frequency down? Or did Tesla invent a high-frequency motor that never made it into patent, an invention that may be among his unpublished notes? Anyway, Tesla proceeds in many of his discussions of high-frequency power as if this problem were solved. I've seen references post-Tesla to the existence of such a motor. Free-energy inventor, Hermann Plauson, (next chapter) refers to high-frequency motors. These motors have magnetic cores made of very thin laminations insulated from each other, a design that would limit damping effects.

 

Turbine aircraft

 

Tesla's only patented aircraft is a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plane that he intended as an improvement upon the helicopter, already invented at this time (1921): The helicopter type of flying machine, especially with large inclination angle of the propeller axis to the horizontal, at which it is generally expected to operate, is quite unsuitable for speedy aerial transport; it is incapable of proceeding horizontally along a straight line under prevailing air conditions; it is subject to dangerous plunges and oscillations ... and it

[FrankM]

Many of the patents issued, such as Paulson's, were because the patent examiners were totally ignorant

as to the source of atmospheric "electricity". All it took was an aggressive inventor, that seemed to be

pushing the frontiers of science, to convince the examiners that what they were doing was based on

real science. Atmospheric physicists now have a better grasp on what creates the potential difference

between the earth and the atmosphere.

 

They now know that near the surface, the earth-air potential is approximately 100 V per meter in fair

weather conditions. This potential has been measured with balloon borne instruments and the potential

decreases linearly with altitude and will eventually be zero at the ionosphere. You could raise a balloon

a 1000 meters in the air and have a 100,000 volt differential between the balloon and the ground. The

problem is that the potential level can have drastic changes when there are thunderstorms in the area,

and you are not in complete control of the polarity. The other issue is that whenever a conducting

object is introduced into the earth-air potential field, the characteristics of that field is altered.

 

If you measured the earth-air potential field at the peak of the Las Vegas pyramid, it would be

significantly different than what would be at the peak of the Great Pyramid (given they were in the

same location and had the same height). The Las Vegas pyramid is a steel framed structure whereas

the Great Pyramid is stone. Those that construct lightning suppression systems actually alter the

characteristics of the earth-air field to reduce the possibility of a dangerous discharge. Their desire

is to never have a lightning strike by creating field dissipation arrays that constantly bleed away

any rising potential.

 

Tesla would have done many things quite differently if he had known the true nature of the source for

atmospheric electricity.

[ruko]

Thanks for the Tesla history. He is responsible for AC current being used the world over. He saw the advantages of AC over DC and in spite of Edison's attempt to dissuade the public Tesla prevailed because, of course, he was right. Edison was so enamored with DC that he electrocuted a large elephant, as a public spectacle, with AC just to prove it was so dangerous. The elephant took an agonizing long time to die. He should have used DC as it probably would have been quicker.

 

Perhaps some of you will bring up the recent power line advancements where DC is sent thousands of miles with less transmission loss than an equivalent AC line. Yes this is true. The voltages needed for these transmissions are in the 250,000 to 1,000,000 category. At the other end this has to be converted to voltages we home owners can use. With AC simple transformers are used. With DC it is a whole different story. The efficiency, however, is getting better for this conversion and soon we all will probably be served by a very high voltage DC line some where in the system. Edison’s idea for DC home use was far from this however. He couldn’t use simple transformers so he had to build individual and costly power generating stations in every neighborhood served by his DC system.

[Turtle]

Frank said, "One of Tesla's pneumatic devices was a platform upon which he invited

people to stand, but they didn't stay very long, quickly exiting to the nearest bathroom, the vibration having induced a very liquid bowel movement."

One of these people was no less than Mark Twain. This frequency is what we now call "Brown Noise" (google it).

Tesla was posessed of no less than a Monster intellect.