TESLA: Man Out of Time
biography
by Margaret Cheney
"Falmboyant, eccentric, almost supernaturally gifted ... perhaps the greatest inventor the world has ever known ...He was a trailblazer who created astonishing, world-transforming devices, often without theoretical precedent." -- outside back cover
"there had been no truly successful AC motor until Tesla invented his - an induction motor that was the heart of a new system and a quantum jump ahead of the times" pg. 23
He did not just invent one simple AC motor. He "conceived of such practical alternating-current motors as polyphase induction, split-phase induction, and polyphase synchronous, as well as the whole polyphase and single-phase motor system ... indeed, "practically all electricity in the world, in time, would be generated, transmitted, distributed, and turned into mechanical power by means of the Tesla Polyphase System." pg. 24
In November and December of 1887, Tesla filed for seven U.S. patents in the field of polyphase AC motors and power transmission. These comprised a complete system of generators, transformers, transmission lines, motors and lighting. So original were the ideas that they were issued without a successful challenge, and would turn out to be the most valuable patents since the telephone.
- http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_warcur.html
"Because his motors required 60 cycle AC, that became the standard in the U.S. pg.41
He demonstrated "a motor that ran on only one wire, the return circuit occurring wirelessly through space. ... he spoke of the possibility of running motors without any wires at all." pg. 54
Tesla's Letterhead, Stationary
The "carbon-button lamp with which Tesla dazzled his audience at Columbia College on May 20, 1891, also embodied the concept of the point electron microscope. ... Tesla's description of the effect achieved with his carbon-button lamp ... stands with hardly a change in wording for a description of the million-magnification point electron microscope." ... developed by Vladimir R. Zworykin in 1939. pg. 57
"The Tesla Coil...which is today used, in one form or another, in every radio and television set was, in a very short time, to become part of the research equipment of every university science laboratory". pg. 61
"In the Electrical Experimenter of August 1917 he described the main features of modern military radar ... pulsed radar that would finally be practically developed in a crash program only months prior to the beginning of World War II." pg. 208
"in 1934, a French team under Dr. Emil Girardeau built and installed radar on both ships and land stations, using 'precisely apparatuses conceived according to the principles stated by Tesla,' says the Frenchman." pg. 213
Tesla "lectured to the New York Academy of Science on April 6, 1897, on the practical construction and safe operation of X-ray equipment" ... "He had already experimented with various metal protective devices, and soon thereafter lead shields came into general use." pg. 105
"Inventors of modern computer technology in the last half of the twentieth century repeatedly have been surprised, when seeking patents, to encounter Tesla's basic ones, already on file." pg.130
He built "high powered switches and spark gap switches" of kinds that even today "the knowledge has been lost; we don't know how he did it." pg. 282
"Ideas chased each other through his mind faster than he could nail them down. Once he understood exactly how an invention worked, in his mind, he tended to lose interest" pg. 13
"He worked not just in private, but...in secret. Thus any inventions which he did not patent or give freely to the world were more or less shrouded in mystery." pg. 268
To a Westinghouse manager, Tesla wrote "You should not be at all surprised, if some day you see me fly from New York to Colorado Springs in a contrivance which will resemble a gas stove and weigh as much." ... and could, if necessary enter and depart through a window. pg. 198
According to museum officials at The Nikola Tesla museum in Belgrade, "he left sketches of interplanetary ships. This information, however, has not been made available to western scholars." pg. 203
Tesla produced artificial fireballs (plasma) from a secondary coil in a transformer and "modern plasma physicists with the best equipped laboratories, have failed to produce plasmoids with anything near the stability of the true ball-lightning spheres that he created." pg. 281-2
His "COLORADO SPRINGS NOTES when they appeared in English in 1978 ... were eagerly awaited by many scientists. But, even this work left important questions unanswered. ... The bulk of his papers having vanished ... Only by piecing together fragmentary information could the magnitude of his experiments be comprehended." pg. 269
"Around 1928...six boxes placed in storage by Nikola Tesla would be sold by the storage warehouse...for unpaid bills." But when a friend (John O'Neill) offered to try to buy them for Tesla, "Tesla hit the ceiling," ..."He forbid me to buy them or do anything in any way about them." ... "Shortly after the inventor died, O'Neill ... was never able to get a positive statement ...about the boxes..." and got "evasive assurances that there was no reason to worry." pg. 269-270
"A young American engineer * engaged in war work consulted Tesla on a ballistics engineering problem because he could not get time on an overworked computer, and Tesla's mind was known to offer the nearest thing to it. Soon he became fascinated with Tesla's scientific papers and was allowed to take batches of them home to his hotel room where he and another American engineer pored over them each night. They were returned the next day, a procedure which continued for about two weeks prior to the inventor's death." pg. 270
(* They must have been in college as 2 years later Bloyce D. Fitzgerald was only a private in the Army. If he had gotten his degree he would be an officer.)
"Tesla had received offers to work for Germany and Russia. After the inventor died, both engineers became concerned that critical scientific information might fall into foreign hands and alerted United States security agencies and high government officials." pg. 270
"The relevant records I have obtained from federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act reveal strange twisting and inconsistencies in the handling of the inventor's estate. Tesla left tons of papers, barrels and boxes full of them." pg. 270
Agent Foxworth of the Field Division of the New York Bureau of the FBI: "Bloyce D. Fitzgerald, an electrical engineer who had been quite close to Tesla during his lifetime," [the last few weeks] continued agent Foxworth, "advised the New York office ...Within the last month, Tesla told Fitzgerald that his experiments in connection with wireless transmission of electrical power had been completed and perfected ... that Tesla had conceived and designed a revolutionary type of torpedo ... the basic theories of these things are in the personal effects of Tesla ... Bureau is requested to advise immediately what, if any, action should be taken concerning the matter by the New York Field Division." pg. 272
"Curiously, the FBI released his estate to the Office of Alien Property, which promptly sealed the contents. ... a number of times Mr. K mentioned the fact that the custodian at the storage warehouse told him that some government guys were in to microfilm some of the papers.... Hoover denied categorically that the FBI had gone into the papers...." pg. 271
"On August 21, 1945, the Air Technical Service Command requested permission from the commanding general of the U.S. Army Air Force in Washington, D.C. for Private Bloyce D. Fitzgerald to go to Washington for a period of seven days ... asking for photostatic copies of the exhibits ... from the estate of Tesla." pg. 277
Also, "at least one set of Tesla's papers had reached Wright Field, Dayton, Ohio, because on November 25, 1947 ... 'These reports are now in the possession of the Electronic Subdivision and are being evaluated.'" pg. 278
Why I Wrote About Tesla - Margret Cheney
In school I never heard of Tesla at all. And when I did hear about him, I was intrigued by the mystery about him. There are several reasons why Tesla is not well known. One was that he was a man who never married and had children. He never worked for universities or for corporations. He was very independent. And he was so far ahead of his time, so much a visionary, that his contemporary scientists really didn't understand what he was doing. The Smithsonian Institution has never adequately credited Tesla for his invention of radio. They have tended to call Marconi the "father of radio," and they have tended to give Edison credit for Tesla's work in alternating current, although Edison didn't work in that area at all. So, there are many reasons why we have not learned as much as we should about Tesla.
