Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Who was Nikola Tesla?

Rate this topic


Axiomatic

Recommended Posts

You do know that TFH is a novel correct? The simple fact of the matter is that people who are as eccentric as Tesla are often overshadowed by lesser men because their disposition makes them damn near impossible to deal with.

No, I live in a completely delusional fantasy-world. :)

As I said before, the alienation is true for many a genius.

Roark was written as a hero and the novel had a suitable (for literary purposes) heroic end. But the fact is that real people don't deal well with people like Tesla, (or Roark) and the historical record and Tesla's practical nonexistence in it is proof of that and even if he'd delivered the courtroom speech he'd still have been overshadowed by Edison and his ilk..

My point is that I don't care how well he delat with people, his achievements stand on their own.

Yes OCD is a real disorder, so what, what is your point? People are not going to cut an inventor slack because he has OCD, and obviously history has not cut Tesla any.

Well that's obvious. History has not been kind to Tesla. But if the price of the contract for him was too high (and lets be honest, the full reasons are not completely clear from a single sentence in a Wiki article) then, I don't see a problem with him ripping up the contract. The tragedy that sticks out at me from the Tesla story is how JP Morgan stopped the funding on his ultimate invention.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tesla's ideas are great and all, but it's not like he actually made a whole lot of things. What happened with JP Morgan was unfortunate, but that didn't have to be the end.

EH !!! :) Do some research friend...

No man before or since acquired such mastery of current. He could literally play with lightning in his hands. The most objective and well known work on Tesla is actually called: 'lightning in his hand'.

Observe his early education, it was ALL imagination building. No progressive-nonsense system slowing him down.

His mother in an attempt to curb his boredom would say "Nikolai imagine a horse/building/fork and make it a different colour, turn it upside down and change it's shape". He had powerful training from childhood....accidentally!

Edited by Seanjos
Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, I live in a completely delusional fantasy-world. :)

As I said before, the alienation is true for many a genius.

My point is that I don't care how well he delat with people, his achievements stand on their own.

Well that's obvious. History has not been kind to Tesla. But if the price of the contract for him was too high (and lets be honest, the full reasons are not completely clear from a single sentence in a Wiki article) then, I don't see a problem with him ripping up the contract. The tragedy that sticks out at me from the Tesla story is how JP Morgan stopped the funding on his ultimate invention.

To quote you...

I'm not sure I understand what cause and effect relationship you are trying to indicate here?

Do you still hold to that statement? That is the only thing I was trying to point out to you.

I don't care how bright the guy was or what his underlying psychosis was, and the statement I quoted, which you wrote, indicates that you don't understand the connection between anti-social and/or abnormal behaviour and the common reaction of normal people when confronted with such behaviour.

I am not disputing his genius, as I said before.

Imagine what Tesla could have done with a Billion Dollars.

Here's another interesting article...

Westinghouse already understood the advantages of AC electricity, and had been one of its' early advocates. He had dreamed of someday being able to provide electricity throughout the country, but the technology to do so reliably had not yet existed. Learning of Tesla's successes, Westinghouse had found what he needed to make that dream a reality.

Westinghouse soon purchased the patents to Tesla's polyphase AC systems, and hired Tesla as a consultant as well. Westinghouse then began to develop AC systems across the country, systems which are now in use throughout the entire world.

The agreements between Westinghouse and Tesla called for the businessman to pay the inventor a royalty of two dollars and fifty cents - for every horsepower of AC equipment sold. Even a century ago, the royalties would be enough to make Tesla one of the wealthiest men in the world. (Were such royalties to be paid on equipment in use today, the royalties on AC generators alone would be worth more than seven and a half billion dollars.)

...

The House of Morgan therefore went after Westinghouse in a different manner, spreading rumors to Wall Street investors that Westinghouse's finances were unstable. Investors began to shy away from providing Westinghouse with new capital, capital being the lifeblood of his efforts to implement AC. Eventually it became clear that, if AC and the Westinghouse business were to survive, the remarkable royalty contract between Westinghouse and Tesla would have to be drastically altered.

Westinghouse came to Tesla and described the situation. Tesla replied with these words:

"Mr. Westinghouse, you have been my friend, you believed in me when others had no faith; you were brave enough to go ahead... when others lacked courage; you supported me when even your own engineers lacked vision... you have stood by me as a friend...

"Here is your contract, and here is my contract. I will tear both of them to pieces, and you will no longer have any troubles from my royalties. Is that sufficient?"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed. My point was that even if Tesla had only invented AC power distribution, for example, I would still call him one of the greatest inventors, based on the fundamental nature of this invention, and its incalculable impact on civilization.

Btw, Eric Daniels did a lecture on Tesla, and in the lecture he conjectured about Tesla's thinking methods, which made the lecture that much more edifying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...
I just watched this youtube video online. I had no idea who Tesla was but this video really struck a chord with me. Tesla and his life is a true Roark type story. I wonder now what secrets of his inventions are kept classified by the US government and exactly how much of our lives today are impacted by Tesla's inventions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gt8Y93k0pB0

I've been reading a biography of Tesla, and the same idea occurred to me more than once, the way he was so innovative and productive and had to fight against those who wanted to stick to the old way of doing things and against financial troubles and other problems. Working countless hours just for the love of what he does, going without sleep and without rest for so long. There's just so many parallels to Roark and Rand's heroes.

As for the contract thing that Zip and Axiomatic were discussing, that actually came up in the biography. Apparently, he was good friends with JP Morgan, and the contract he had would have netted him so much money that it would have put JP Morgan out of business and made it impossible for his inventions relating to alternating current to become popular and get installed. It was his choice to rip up the contract for his own benefit, as well as JP Morgan's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

...The tragedy that sticks out at me from the Tesla story is how JP Morgan stopped the funding on his ultimate invention.

Actually from the below description, his "Ultimate" invention would have never worked. To me, it sounds not unlike the electrostatic ion thruster that, while it is long lived in it's thrust, it's actual force amounts the the weight of a single sheet of paper I believe. (It adds up quick in space, since there is no air resistance) Note: It could never work as a "weapon" in an atmosphere, at least. That pesky air gets in the way. In space, it might take a while to damage anything. (HOLD STILL FOR 1.8 YEARS I'M KILLING YOU!)

His records indicate that it was based on a narrow stream of atomic clusters of liquid mercury or tungsten accelerated via high voltage (by means akin to his magnifying transformer). Tesla gave the following description concerning the particle gun's operation:

[The nozzle would] send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 200 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies to drop dead in their tracks.[87]

The weapon could be used against ground based infantry or for antiaircraft purposes.[88] Tesla tried to interest the US War Department in the device.[89] He also offered this invention to European countries.[90] None of the governments purchased a contract to build the device. He was unable to act on his plans.[91]

-Wikipedia

Description of the electrostatic ion thruster:

Propellant atoms are injected into the discharge chamber and get ionized by electron bombardment forming a plasma. There are several ways of producing the energetic electrons for the discharge: (1) The electrons are emitted from a hollow cathode and are accelerated on their way to the anode (Kaufman type ion thruster). (2) The electrons can be accelerated by the oscillating electric field induced by an alternating magnetic field of a coil, which results in a self-sustaining discharge and omits any cathode (radiofrequency ion thruster). (3) Microwave heating

The positively charged ions move towards the extraction system (2 or 3 multi-aperture grids) of the chamber due to diffusion. Once ions enter the plasma sheath at a grid hole they will be accelerated by the potential difference between the first (screen) and the second (accelerator) grid of the extraction system. The ions are ion-optically focused by the rather large electric field to pass through the extraction holes. The final ion energy is determined by the potential of the plasma (the plasma potential is a few volts larger than the screen grid voltage).

The negative voltage of the accelerator grid prevents electrons of the beam plasma outside the thruster from streaming back to the discharge plasma. Electron backstreaming occurs if the potential within the grid is not sufficiently negative, this can mark the end-of-life of the ion thruster. By increasing the negative voltage electron backstreaming can be avoided.

The expelled ions propel the spacecraft in the opposite direction according to Newton's 3rd law.

Electrons are emitted from a separate cathode placed near the ion beam, called the neutralizer, towards the ion beam to ensure that equal amounts of positive and negative charge are ejected. Neutralizing is needed to prevent the spacecraft from gaining a net negative charge.

[edit]Performance

The ion optics are constantly bombarded by a small amount of secondary ions and erode or wear away, thus reducing engine efficiency and life. Ion engines need to be able to run efficiently and continuously for years. Several techniques were used to reduce erosion; most notable was switching to a different propellant. Mercury or caesium atoms were used as propellants during tests in the 1960s and 1970s, but these propellants adhered to, and eroded the grids. Xenon atoms, on the other hand, are far less corrosive, and became the propellant of choice for virtually all ion thruster types. NASA has demonstrated continuous operation of NSTAR engines for over 16,000 hours (1.8 years), and test are still ongoing for double this lifetime. Electrostatic ion thrusters have also achieved a specific impulse of 30-100 kN·s/kg, better than most other ion thruster types. Electrostatic ion thrusters have accelerated ions to speeds reaching 100 km/s.

-ALSO wikipedia

ok ok...Mercury is a bit heavier than Xenon but still...if Tesla had ever tried it in space he might have had corrosion problems...lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Tesla is the father of the modern science, he once said to his detractors in electricity: "the Present is Yours, The Future belongs to me". tesla is awesome, but i dont know about humans becoming bee-like to that extent. Even though he is not as famous as Einstein or Newton his contributions to science can not be forgotten, as you see his work every single day of your life. Nikola Tesla made so much for our word that I think he could never be forgotten. TESLA RULES!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
Tesla is the father of the modern science, he once said to his detractors in electricity: "the Present is Yours, The Future belongs to me". tesla is awesome, but i dont know about humans becoming bee-like to that extent. Even though he is not as famous as Einstein or Newton his contributions to science can not be forgotten, as you see his work every single day of your life. Nikola Tesla made so much for our word that I think he could never be forgotten. TESLA RULES!

I dont really think he is "father" of modern science as really he followed in the lines of many earlier scientists to some degree. If you were to say anyone was , that would be somebody like Galileo whom was one of the first to properly combine a rigourous system of mathematics with careful scientific experiments / observation. As compared to earlier fledging scientists that arose around his time whom were mostly more concerned with either one or the other.

It would be far more fair to say that Tesla is the father of many of the invention that make the modern technological world.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Tesla, and no, Edison didn't steal it from him. Tesla just didn't bother to commercialize them, a man name George Claude did.

I may be generalizing all you message board folks under one banner, but if you're for intellectual property then doesn't it also mean that you believe it is a NATURAL right, not one that's created by a choice of whether or not to commercialize it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...
  • 3 months later...
  • 10 months later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...