Popular Science

Decades before skin friction began to pester airplane designers, Nikola Tesla harnessed it to produce power. Tesla, the Croatian-born engineer who gave us alternating current and the induction motor...

Made with Aid of Junked Ignition Coil By KENDALL FORD Here is a high-frequency outfit capable of giving a good 3-in. spark and providing an endless number of weird and interesting experiments, yet it...

Once telegraph messengers spent all their time delivering telegrams—but that was in the days when drug stores specialized in drugs, and cigar stores in tobacco. Today, you can call upon a messenger...

Gives 200,000-volt Current for Many Dazzling Experiments By Kenneth M. Swezey Purple streamers of sparks from eight to ten inches long, potentials of several hundred thousand volts, beautiful...

TO: Reader FROM: Editor The first Tuesday of every month, rain or shine, a chap turns up in the offices of Popular Science with a manuscript and some photographs in one hand and a can of salted...

To the Editor: In the New York Sun for January 3, Mr. Nikola Tesla has an article that deserves a word. The word is one of warning to all sober-minded readers to remind them that Mr. Tesla's recently...

Readers Talk Back The excellent article "X-Wing and We make a conscious effort to provide Tilt-Rotor: Hybrid Aircraft That Get accurate prices and addresses of Up and Go" [July] brought to mind...

Want to see just how crazy high voltage can get? This rig will do some fascinating tricks for you. Have you ever let 50,000 volts jump through you? Or seen electric flames climb a wire? Or made a...

The leading article of the June number of the Century Magazine is entitled " The Problem of increasing Human Energy ," and is written by Nikola Tesla. Mr. Tesla offers the reader some naive verbal...

Works Weird Wonders "Is there, I ask, can there be a more interesting study than that of alternating currents?" With this question, put to a group of outstanding engineers and scholars more than half...