Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Modern Marvels on Tesla

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Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 07-07-2010, 11:52 AM:

Anyone else catch the "Modern Marvels" on Nicoli Tesla? (sp?)I found it pretty interesting. Considering how important the tesla coil is to xenon lamp igniters I found it interesting.

Posted by Bruce McGee (Member # 131) on 07-09-2010, 01:20 PM:

I've always been facinated with the work of Mr. Tesla.

I built a Tesla coil as part of a science project when I was in the fifth grade. I lit up fluorescent lamps, too! Got an "A" for the project, too. The coil is still around buried in my mom's basement. I havent seen it in at least 25 years.

Posted by Ian Parfrey (Member # 5122) on 07-09-2010, 03:06 PM:

Just downloading the show as I type this.

Tesla, loony or genius? Depends on who's side you look at it. The man had so many brilliant ideas that we now take for granted, but one I am fascinated with was the construction and consequent forced destruction of his towers. If his idea of wireless power transmission had been given a chance, could you imagine the benefits!

..and who else would subject themselves to his surface conduction idea and experiments?

Yep, definitely a loony. [Big Grin]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 07-09-2010, 03:21 PM:

Who says he has to be either loony OR genius? He can certainly be both.

This sums it up

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 07-10-2010, 12:54 PM:

I find it fascinating that Edison told him he would give him a $50,000.00 bonus for engineering a prject for him and then renegged on it and said that basically he (tessla) was gullible. Instead of sucking it up and staying with the sure thing Tesla stood up for himself, quit and dug ditches for a year. He also tore up his royalties contract with Westinghouse for having invented the Alternating Current system because the company was going through a rough patch financially. Imagine how rich this guy would have been!

As far as the wireless power transmission towers it is too bad that Marconi beat him to the punch on the wireless telegraph (with work and ideas stolen from Tesla) because that was how Tesla got his funding to develop the system by telling investors it was for "radio" not power transmission. Even though the amount of energy it would have taken to transmit power through the air would have made it extremely inefficent it would have certainly changed our world.

Who knows what else this man came up with? The federal government confiscated all of his work after his death. They say they have released everything but who knows if that is true. There are rumors he had perfected a "death ray" as well as an earth quake machine.

In my opinion Tesla was a true genius and it is a shame that he does not get the credit he deserves. Edison get's all the credit but if he had his way we wiykd be stuck with DC generating "booster" plants every couple of miles and a rats nest of transmission wires so thick that they are said to have blocked out the sun in New York city.

Posted by Martin McCaffery (Member # 37) on 07-10-2010, 01:18 PM:

Great book about Tesla Edison and Westinghouse:
Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World
http://www.amazon.com/Empires-Light-Edison-Westinghouse-Electrify/dp/0375758844/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1278785600&sr=8-1

Edison comes off as a real pig (which, given his behavior at the dawn of motion pictures isn't surprising), Tesla a genius loon and Westinghouse as a surprisingly good person. This may be, as the book points out, there has never been a biography of Westinghouse.

And if you like this book, her book about the Eiffel Tower is also a good read.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 07-10-2010, 06:13 PM:

quote: Ian Parfrey
Tesla, loony or genius?

Something of both I'd say. Thank goodness his his high-Voltage three phase system was able to beat Edison's low-Voltage d.c. one. It must have been far from obvious at the time that this was the way to go. When generators served just a few buildings, or a few streets, and about the only use that most people had for electricity was a few low-Wattage incandescent lamps the Edison system worked fine; Edison designed a system for his day; Tesla designed one for the future. If Edison had won it would probably have set progress back by years.

If Edison had won not only would there have been no high-Voltage transmission, but no synchronous or induction motors, another Tesla invention, and no large generators; there's a limit to how large you can build a dynamo.

I'm much more skeptical about the wireless transmission of power and beam weapon ideas. How would you transmit three phase power wirelessly for one thing?

The Tesla turbine is an interesting device, though it's never been widely used. Many people build model ones out of old hard drives, but there's a rather nice one available here:

web page

Unfortunately, it's expensive, and seems to be always out of stock. It's incredible that the tiny three phase alternator can put out enough power to light three 20 W lamps.

There's a video of it here:

web page

An another one of an older plastic version actually running here:

web page

Gyroscopes sell some other interesting things; I'd never heard of this one before:

Vortex tube

Their model of Hero's steam turbine also works much better than the toy one which I used to have.

Posted by David Favel (Member # 1125) on 07-18-2010, 01:57 AM:

Also for an account of Edison/Westinghouse battles check out "Edison and the electric chair"

Posted by Sean McKinnon (Member # 612) on 07-19-2010, 01:30 PM:

Yeah that's right... Edison tried to publicize the fact that Tesla's A/C system was used for the first electric chairs to try to convince people that A/C was a dangerous system. Speaking as someone who has gotten "bit" by 120 Volts A/C and 70 Volts D/C I would take the higher A/C shock over a lower D/C shock any day!

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 07-20-2010, 01:59 AM:

Also a connection to film, see 'Electrocuting an elephant'; it's probably on the Internet somewhere.

Posted by Stephen Furley (Member # 1277) on 07-20-2010, 05:03 AM:

Link to 'Electrocuting an Elephant' video

Electrocuting elephants, or people, doesn't really say anything about the real advantages of either system. Edison didn't really seem to say much about real advantages of his system. I suspect that he realised that in this case Tesla/Westinghouse had the better system, and he was getting desperate to say anything that would turn people against them.

quote:
Speaking as someone who has gotten "bit" by 120 Volts A/C and 70 Volts D/C I would take the higher A/C shock over a lower D/C shock any day!

I've never had 120 V; I've had 100V d.c. from a fairground ride but I can't really remember what it fealt like now. I've had 240 V across me probably about half a dozen times over the years; all but one of these were when I was really too young to understand the danger and had a habit of taking things apart to see how they worked. The last, about 25 years ago, was caused by a faulty connector. All of these were at 50 Hz.

Most people who get 240 V survive the experience, but some do not; it's not pleasant, and certainly something to try to avoid. I'm more careful with electricity these days.

I've also had 415 V just once, and have no wish to repeat the experience. I was standing on some scaffolding which was not earthed, and due to a fault was live on one phase, it had rubbed against a cable and worn through the insulation. Through my own carelessness I then touched a conductor which was, quite properly, live on another phase. That was about 35 years ago. It was very painful, and threw me off the scaffolding about three metres onto the floor.