Science Fridays
This week the world of the sciences has many stories to report; so many of them that it might have been hard to choose which one to publish for this week's Science Friday. In the world of drones, the Navy had success with a drone that can land on the deck of an aircraft carrier. A hovercraft golf cart has been developed. In Spain a computer program has been developed and used that mimics a 14 year old girl in order to catch online sexual predators. Those are just a few of the things this week from the world of science and technology.
So that makes this week perfect for observing the birthday of Nikola Tesla, and it is only fitting then that this week's post be about him. Maybe I can save the other stories for weeks that are scientifically and technologically weak.
Nikola Tesla was born in Serbia on July 10th, 1856 (died on Jan. 7, 1943). This man thought so far out of the box for his era that people are still trying to figure out all of his works. The world was just simply not ready for him yet. Someone during his lifetime, in his defense said something to the effect of, if you invent some great new life changing creation, everyone will pat you on the back and congratulate you. If you invent two things like that people still like it but you won't get the adulation. If you make three great things people will still use the invention, but will be leery of you. If you create any more than that people will fear you, refuse to acknowledge or use the invention, and they will brand you as a mad scientist.
Nikola was already well established in the world of science when he came to America at the invitation of Thomas Edison to work for him. His time with Edison was short lived and filled with stress and disappointment. He was basically treated as Edison's slave, and was only paid a very minimum wage. To get anything done he had to argue with Edison every step of the way, and anything he did accomplish for him was Edison's property. When he quit, Edison declared that Tesla owed him money, and that he had stolen some of Edison's inventions. After this Tesla built a lab just outside of Colorado Springs. His lab was raided and ransacked by some of "Edison's Men."
Some of the things that Tesla invented that are used all over today are the electric motor, radio, neon lights, remote control, and he made what can be called the first robot (the last two took a century for people to finally use and embrace). One of the things he argued with Edison over was using AC current instead of DC current for a number of reasons. DC current has too much "heat loss," (lines can't go too far from the power source before they lose power), is far more dangerous (what would be a shock with AC current would instantly kill a man who accidentally bumped a live DC line (many men died horrifyingly working with Edison's DC cables), and DC current is just way more expensive to operate. There are many other issues with DC current, but these are the main three. Edison refused to budge. Westinghouse, however did listen and after his ill fated stint with Edison Tesla worked with Westinghouse to develop a system for using AC power. The reason you can read this right now and have your lights on and a refrigerator keeping your food from spoiling, as well as a host of many other conveniences, is because of Tesla's work in this field.
Some of Tesla's most amazing work was from his years in Colorado Springs. In 1886 (a very early date for work such as this) he set up a bank of lights at the end of a field, each one equipped with something like a radio receiver. He then on the other end of the field set up an AC generator (an alternator - yes thank him for the fact that your car runs well and has lights and radio and the rest). With this alternator he had a device not unlike a radio transmitter and he broadcast the electricity to the lights on the other end of the field. He and his assistant were able to walk between the transmitter and the lights without any harm (below is an old photo of this experiment). What he had there was wireless transmission of electricity.
Tesla had a deep understanding of the workings of magnetism. He understood how the earth is a giant magnet, and he also used the earth itself to create electricity. He said that using just the static electricity from the earth people everywhere could have free electricity for all their needs.
One of his most controversial inventions was what he called the Teleforce. By his description, both of how it is made, and what it would be capable of doing, it would be the equivalent to a Star Wars blaster, or a Jaffa staff weapon. The US army upon hearing of it called it the Death Ray. Tesla's own description of it is a particle gun that "[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." In 1937 a banquet was given him in his honor for his experiment with the Death Ray. He explained though, "But it is not an experiment... I have built, demonstrated and used it. Only a little time will pass before I can give it to the world." None of the governments he approached however, wanted to by it. Someone did break in to his lab though, and try to steal it.
The same technology that would make a charged particle weapon possible would also make possible things such as force shields, cloaking, and propulsion for hovering, flying, and even space travel. He also claimed to be able to teleport both in space and time. Nearly every tech idea found in Science Fiction books and movies are derived from his works (both confirmed and claimed works). Conspiracy theory nuts love to cite his works.
Many inventions have been named after him (such as the Tesla coil), and so have been universities, labs, streets, and even a unit of measurement. Nikola Tesla was part of that generation that took the world from the last vestiges of the Medieval world into the modern world - from a world of mostly animal powered travel, and candle and lantern lighting to the speeding world of cars and electricity and radio. Had people not feared him and branded his work as balderdash and the ravings of a mad scientist, he would have completely bypassed the world we live in today and taken us straight into the world of Star Wars or Star Trek.
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