Tesla Changed History

By BILL NELSON
Gazette Staff Writer

THE DEMOLITION of the Edward Dean Adams Power Station in Buffalo Avenue will close another chapter in the story of a man whose genius changed the course of history, yet whose name has been forgotten by all but a few.

He was Nikola Tesla, inventor of the Tesla coil, who designed the first "polyphase" alternating "revolving field" generators that made long distance power transmission possible and revolutionized industry.

On Nov. 16, 1896, the generators at the Adams plant, designed by Tesla, lighted street lamps in Buffalo in the first practical demonstration of long-distance power transmission in the nation.

The foresight of Edward Dean Adams and Lord Kelvin, England's leading scientist of the day, spearheaded the drive to make the Adams plant possible. Before this greatest of hydro-electric projects was attempted, only direct current, produced by steam driven turbines or waterwheels, was available anywhere.

Nikola Tesla made possible the age of abundant, inexpensive electric power which made possible the commercial use of the electric furnace.

THE PITTSBURGH REDUCING CO., predecessor to the Aluminum Co. of America, introduced the electro-metallurgical industry to this city. Soon afterward, the Carborundum Co. introduced the abrasives industry. The Niagara Electro-Chemical Co. was the first to make sodium electrically.

But what of the man who made all this possible?

Nikola Tesla has many claims to fame.

Several years before Marconi began his very first experiments in radio, Tesla had developed high-frequency alternators and his famous "Tesla coil," for producing high voltages, a device which today is used in one form or another in every radio and television set in the world.

Before 1897, Tesla had developed a number of wirelessly-controlled mechanism and in that year built several boats that were started, stopped, steered and maneuvered by radio. This work, called by Tesla, "telautomatics," was the beginning of a concept used today in the world's array of wirelessly guided weapons.

DURING THE 1890's he developed and demonstrated at the World's Fair of 1893 neon and other fluorescent lights.

Before Marconi flashed his famous "S" across the Atlantic, Tesla was advocating a "World Wireless" system that would take in all the messages sent around the world as well as all the telephone systems: all the stock tickers. By 1900 he had devised a system of radio broadcasting that did not blossom for several decades.

How extensive was the scope of his inventions was illustrated by the publication of a book, "Invention, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla," by Thomas C. Martin, published in 1894.

In Strassburg, in the summer of 1883, he built his first induction motor. Determined to sell the idea to Thomas Edison, he took his motor and all his belongings and left for America. But in a Paris railroad station, all his possessions, in- cluding his money and precious motor, were stolen, but he continued on his way.

He arrived in New York with four cents in his pocket and an idea in his head.

After many trials he was received by Thomas Edison, who listened patiently while the young man explained his idea.

"Forget it," Edison said at last. "The people want direct current. Alternating current is impractical."

TESLA ACCEPTED an offer of employment, but he did not forget his idea, but merely put it away for a while.

While employed by Edison, he was the victim of a cruel joke. He was told to design short field pole generators to replace the "long field" generators then in use. His basic salary was only $18 a week, but spurred on by a promise of $50,000 if he could complete the task, he worked impossible hours for a year and succeeded. When he asked for the promised bonus, he was told that it was all a joke. He promptly quit.

It was just as well for history that he did, for Edison long remained an enemy of alternating current.

Not so was George Westinghouse, a man with great vision, who had started an electrical business with direct current and was well aware of its limitations. After hearing a lecture by Tesla at a meeting, Westinghouse acquired Tesla patents and the services of the inventor himself.

THE SUCCESS of polyphase alternating current became inevitable when Westinghouse was able to underbid Edison for the contract to light the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, using the Tesla system.

Westinghouse supplied the Tesla generators for the Adams Plant and in August, 1895, the first commercial power was delivered to the first customer in Niagara Falls, the Pittsburgh Reduction Co.

Almost overnight, the Adams plant became the electrical wonder of the world.

In 1896, the New York Edison Co. began to expand the range and usefulness of its direct current system by means of polyphase transmission and several years later, it capitulated and adopted the Tesla system for all its new stations. By 1903, all new generating stations in the United States were being built for Tesla generators. The age of modern electric power had begun.