Nikola Tesla (Apr. 1971)

Gone and almost forgotten is Nikola Tesla (1856-1943), electrical wizard of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The alternating electric power which we use and the ubiquitous fluorescent tube both result from early discoveries by Tesla. Every alternating-current electric motor now in use is the result of his mastery of the riddle of the "rotating magnetic field" — an idea that elicited hoots of derision when he first suggested it.

Thomas Edison was a "direct current" man, Tesla an "alternating current" man. Because these two men held almost opposite views relative to what basic electrical current should be used, they were not friends. Edison fought alternating current vehemently — and lost.

Tesla manufactured the first man-made lightning on earth, so far as is known now. In Colorado, in 1899, he created "sheets of violet electric flame" 30 feet long (see cut), whose "thunder" was heard 15 miles away. Using the knowledge he gained from making this lightning and combining it with his discovery of "stationary or standing waves" in the earth, Tesla was able to transmit 13 electric horsepower more than 25 miles without wires, using only the earth as a conductor, in a model plant constructed in Colorado. He said this method of power transmission took place at better than 95% efficiency — considerably higher than the best transmission systems we use today with wires. Tesla believed that with this method one could stab the right sort of rod and lamp into the earth anywhere and the lamp would light — providing, of course, his specially designed system was operating. So far as we know, no other research has ever been carried on along these lines anywhere in the world since.

These results, coupled with further research and thought, led Tesla to conclude that several other dramatic possibilities lay in store for his system of generated, very high frequency, high potential alternating currents. One of these was termed the "death ray". Today it might be called a "giant laser beam" or even an "E-" or "Electric-bomb"! Tesla claimed that this proposed weapon would be capable of destroying an army of 250,000 men as soon as that force showed above the horizon on land, sea, or in the air. Presumably this device was never demonstrated even in model form.

While Edison did invent and perfect his incandescent electric lamp first, Tesla invented the "carbon button lamp" which gave off an intense white light rather than the then weaker and much more yellow light of Edison's lamp.

Tesla looked at the sun and saw an incredible source of energy. On the 5th November, 1901, he was granted two U. S. Patents, No. 685,957 and No. 685,958, covering devices for extracting power from the sun, under the title "Methods of Utilizing Radiant Energy". As earth pollution grows and power sources become restricted, we may find ourselves using still more of Tesla's 'discarded' ideas.

Guglielmo Marconi received a Nobel Prize for inventing the "wireless" i.e. what we call "radio" today. But Tesla had already described this several years before. He also did basic research in radio-controlled robots and successfully produced and demonstrated them in model form.

But Tesla's inventive mind did not deal exclusively with things electrical. He devised a steam turbine. Its rotor was a completely smooth plate rather than a "wheel-of-cups" or vanes as used in conventional turbines. His machine was said to perform very efficiently and was much smaller and less expensive to produce as well. Tesla patented this (No. 1,061,206, issued 6 May 1913); but by that time conventional steam turbines were so well established that the manufacturers, fearing economic disaster to themselves, refused to change over, and nothing was ever done commercially with Tesla's machine.

Tesla produced a mechanical "vibrator" about the size of a derby hat; it was so powerful that it could shake a building to pieces in a few minutes. Once he saved his own New York laboratory from destruction only by the quick and effective application of a sledgehammer!

But perhaps the most remarkable and mysterious thing about Nikola Tesla was his 'mind' per se. That it was prodigious there can be little question. He could and did repeatedly think out complete machines, down to the closest measurements of all fitting parts, without ever drawing a single diagram. Those who knew him testify that he could read a page once, close the book, and repeat verbatim what he had read, even years afterward! Because of this phenomenal memory we know little today about his work: he kept no notes. It seems strange that Tesla is not even mentioned in Fred Barlow's book Mental Prodigies, for surely Tesla ranked as high as many others mentioned there.

This year marks the 115th anniversary of his birth. For those who wish to know more of him, the following reading list is offered.

Martin, Thomas Commerford. The Inventions. Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla, Milwaukee, Wis., Lee Engineering Co., 1952 (reprint), 483 pp., illustrated extensively, indexed.

Tesla, Nikola. Experiments with Alternating Current of High Potential and High Frequency. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1904, 146 pp., illustrated. Appendix outlines some of the Colorado experiments.

Hunt, Inez, and Draper, Wanetta W. Lightning in His - Hand The Life Story of Nikola Tesla, Denver, Col., Sage Books, n.d., 269 pp., illustrated, index, extensive bibliography.

O'Neill, John J. Prodigal Genius Nikola Tesla, New York, Ives, Washburn, Inc., 326 pp., index, list of Tesla's U. S. Patents. Frontispiece, Tesla at 77.