Nikola Tesla

Dooey Jo · Post by **Dooey Jo** » 2003-02-07 12:38pm

Why has Nikola Tesla been erased from history? Not one of my physics books mentions him and my encyklopedia only has a few rows about him. I mean, the guy invented the AC motor and the tesla coil. Some even say that he invented the radio but I don't know about that one. He was also nominated for a Nobel prize, but he refused to accept it when he found out he was going to share it with Edison.

I mean, it's scary. Is it just here in Sweden that nobody knows who he is or is this a world-wide problem?

EmperorMing · Post by **EmperorMing** » 2003-02-07 12:49pm

A whole lot of controversy with what he has done.

Of course, *why* is he not in any history books? Good question...

Sektor31 · Post by **Sektor31** » 2003-02-07 01:17pm

Always wondered about that, I never knew about him until I saw a documentary about him on Discovery.

Something needs to be done about this.

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-02-07 02:19pm

Gov't conspiracy. He was assassinated because he wouldn't help in the Philadelphia experiment which later turned into the Montauk experiment.

He also made a Death Ray that should've ended war forever.

Of course you'd have to be severely whacked to really go for any of this. He was a very smart man though.

Stormbringer · Post by **Stormbringer** » 2003-02-07 02:27pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:He also made a Death Ray that should've ended war forever.

I've heard some speculation on that. I don't believe some of the crap out there but it's possible he did design some sort of advanced weaponary.

BlkbrryTheGreat · Post by **BlkbrryTheGreat** » 2003-02-07 02:38pm

Stormbringer wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:He also made a Death Ray that should've ended war forever.
I've heard some speculation on that. I don't believe some of the crap out there but it's possible he did design some sort of advanced weaponary.

It would explain a conspiracy, if there is one, to keep him relativly unknown.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-07 03:31pm

Stormbringer wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:He also made a Death Ray that should've ended war forever.
I've heard some speculation on that. I don't believe some of the crap out there but it's possible he did design some sort of advanced weaponary.

He did have a design for a weapon, the idea and workings behind it was all very similar to what we now call particle beam weapons. But it wouldn't have worked, and the tech of the time wasn't anywhere near what was needed.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-07 03:35pm

Dooey Jo wrote:Why has Nikola Tesla been erased from history? Not one of my physics books mentions him and my encyklopedia only has a few rows about him. I mean, the guy invented the AC motor and the tesla coil. Some even say that he invented the radio but I don't know about that one. He was also nominated for a Nobel prize, but he refused to accept it when he found out he was going to share it with Edison.

I mean, it's scary. Is it just here in Sweden that nobody knows who he is or is this a world-wide problem?

Same story in America. You never hear about him in school or in books. Though I've seen a couple documentaries with him in them, none specifically on him however. Hell he won a noble prize, but refused it because it would have been shared with Edison.

As for the radio, In 1942 an American court decided that Tesla invented the Radio, not Marconi and give the patent to him.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-02-07 06:54pm

Ended war forever huh? You mean like nukes? Oh wait..

Post by **Mr Bean** » 2003-02-07 07:00pm

Ended war forever huh? You mean like nukes? Oh wait..

No he was thinking Giant Laser
On the Moon

Thing is though he could have done it had he been born twenty years ago instead of way back when, the tecnology would not have allowed it

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2003-02-07 07:10pm

I've read a lot of information about Tesla.
First of all, he is the definite inventor of radio. There was a patent trial and Marconi lost.
The history books are messed because Edison constantly tried to slander Tesla. Edison was apparently a pretty big jerk and was jealous of what Tesla was doing, so he set out to screw him up.
About the particle beam weapon, I believe that he did create something like it and I also think it probably worked, judging by his previous proven military inventions that were ignored such as robotic submarine torpedoes.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-07 07:10pm

kojikun wrote:Ended war forever huh? You mean like nukes? Oh wait..

Actually Yeah. The US and USSR never did go to war did they? Strategic paralysis is what did that. With a particle beam system taking 1930/40's airpower out of the equation you'd get the same stalemate with ground wars, so no one would be very likely to engage in one.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-07 07:18pm

Seggybop wrote:I've read a lot of information about Tesla.
First of all, he is the definite inventor of radio. There was a patent trial and Marconi lost.
The history books are messed because Edison constantly tried to slander Tesla. Edison was apparently a pretty big jerk and was jealous of what Tesla was doing, so he set out to screw him up.
About the particle beam weapon, I believe that he did create something like it and I also think it probably worked, judging by his previous proven military inventions that were ignored such as robotic submarine torpedoes.

The technology of the time would not allow you to build a particle beam weapon. Though the Soviets did buy a copy of the plans. I'm not sure what torpedo your talking about exactly, but many of his invetions couldn't have been built or at least not with any degree of reliability with the tech on hand.

Reliability and producability where driving factors behind weapons developments during WW2 and before that funds where very limited for most services.. Many quite conventional weapons never saw service or where delayed for years just because building them would disrupt existing production.

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2003-02-07 07:26pm

Tesla built several remote-controlled submarine robots that he intended to sell to the American government for the Spanish-American war. He was rejected, even though at the World's Fair he demonstrated the device's effectiveness.

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Andrew J. · Post by **Andrew J.** » 2003-02-07 07:49pm

Who?

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2003-02-07 07:55pm

The SI unit for the magnetic field is named after him. That's pretty much as near immortality as a scientist can hope.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-02-07 08:01pm

Sea Skimmer wrote:
Seggybop wrote:I've read a lot of information about Tesla.
First of all, he is the definite inventor of radio. There was a patent trial and Marconi lost.
The history books are messed because Edison constantly tried to slander Tesla. Edison was apparently a pretty big jerk and was jealous of what Tesla was doing, so he set out to screw him up.
About the particle beam weapon, I believe that he did create something like it and I also think it probably worked, judging by his previous proven military inventions that were ignored such as robotic submarine torpedoes.

The technology of the time would not allow you to build a particle beam weapon. Though the Soviets did buy a copy of the plans. I'm not sure what torpedo your talking about exactly, but many of his invetions couldn't have been built or at least not with any degree of reliability with the tech on hand.

I heard one of is experiment was responsible for the Toungouska incident.

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-02-07 08:07pm

Teslas "death ray" supposedly involved firing a beam "one- hundred-millionth of a square centimeter in diameter" (1 nm which is particle-beam sized). It was supposed to operate with an input of 80 MegaVolts, and supposedly Tesla had eliminated the need for a "high vacuum". Sounds like he did indeed build a particle accelerator during tests and the big one would have been quite powerful. I've seen some schematics that use a special pump that maintains a regional hard vacuum by moving lots of air very quickly away from a part in a contain. I'll try and find a link. It supposedly used a vacuum chamber kept vacuum by passing high pressure air over the end of the exit of the chamber in teh direction it points. I dont know if this would actually suck air out, but it might..

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2003-02-07 08:15pm

Tesla didn't like it when people called his weapon a 'death ray' since it was a particle beam type device. Anyway, this is the only picture of part of the diagrams of it that is available:

Artist's conception of effect:

Seggybop · Post by **Seggybop** » 2003-02-07 08:16pm

There is a story circulating on the internet that a test of this weapon caused the 35MT Tunguska explosion. No evidence either way. Decide for yourself what happened with that...

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-02-07 08:17pm

Yes here we go: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_wendwar.html

Look at the right. It LOOKS like Teslas weapon was a Van de Graff accelerator particle beam, possibly used as an ionizer to produce a tight beam conductor for high voltaged. I question the range however. I think the particles would slow too quickly in the atmosphere. Tho I could be wrong. If it were neutral it might pass nicely through the air slowed only by drag (which would be enormous for the size of the particles).

Seems like Tesla is yet again the father of modern electrical everything, inventing particle beam weapons before anyone dreamt of them. Anyone care to get a overpressure vacuum pump made and test it?

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-02-07 08:22pm

damnit seggy you beat me to it

HemlockGrey · Post by **HemlockGrey** » 2003-02-07 09:05pm

I only know him from a physics counsler from a science camp. The class had great fun with this mini-Tesla coil the guy had built.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2003-02-07 09:29pm

Seggybop wrote:There is a story circulating on the internet that a test of this weapon caused the 35MT Tunguska explosion. No evidence either way. Decide for yourself what happened with that...

Hell that’s made its way onto TV more then once. The idea was that he fired to try and score a hit near some major expedition to reach the North Pole that the world was watching, thus gaining form real recognition for him. But that he missed and hit Siberia. I don't see how he could get an energy charge in the multi megaton range with the power generation and transmission technology of the time though.

I find the comet fragment entering at a very steep angle far more believable

kojikun · Post by **kojikun** » 2003-02-07 09:37pm

Yes, it was entirely a comet. No way in hell he could generate that much energy with electronic devices. But the beam weapon idea deserves to be looked at. The vacuum system might work, I've seen similar devices which pass high velocity air over a hole in a vessel and suck air out, so the ide of an open vacuum might be possible.

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