My Report On Nikola Tesla
This Paper was submitted to:
Mr. Lemyre
English 10R: Period 1
June 1, 1998
by: Chris Werner
Nikola Tesla: He changed our way of life
Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia in 1856, and went on to become a great scientist. Nikola Tesla's inventions and experiments with electricity have changed the world. He invented Alternating Current (AC) electric motors and generators, and his experiments with electrified gases, and wireless transmission of electricity, led to the inventing of the neon sign and radio. He also had many other devices in his head that he never created, like his primitive radar systems, his death rays, and his mysterious earthquake device. All around, he did his share in bringing us many of the things we have today.
Nikola Tesla, invented the alternating current (AC) generator which brought us the electricity we use today. "It was Tesla's invention of the poly-phase alternating-current system that was directly responsible for harnessing Niagara Falls and opened the modern electrical superpower era in which electricity is transported for hundreds of miles, to operate the tens of thousands of mass-production factories of industrial systems. Every one of the tall Martian-like towers of the electrical transmission lines that stalk across the earth, and whose wires carry electricity to distant cities, is a monument to Tesla; every powerhouse, every dynamo and every motor that drives every machine in the country is a monument to him." (O'Neill 6). He is responsible for the electricity we use every day of our lives, to run everything in our houses. The opposite of his generator, to create electricity, was his motor, which used electricity to do work. The starter of a car engine is the best example. It also includes the motors in all hardware tools, like saws and drills. So, you can see how these inventions impacted the world.
He also created the first dynamo electric generator or induction coil, which is, basically, the electric motors you're used to seeing. It uses magnets to generate an electric field and do work. Thus, he invented the first rotary field. Before the induction coil, they had to use brushes and other parts that caused a lot more friction than magnets.
His Tesla Coil is, perhaps, one of the strongest transformers ever created. "The high- frequency current transformers which Tesla developed were spectacular performers. They were air-core transformers and consisted merely of concentric primary and secondary coils. The voltages he was able to produce with these transformers, which became known as Tesla coils, were very high." (O'Neill 72). His coils are still used and no other transformer has ever matched their out put.
Tesla's experiments with electrified gases led to neon signs and flourescent lamps. "Nikola picked up two glass tubes each a yard long and about a half inch thick. Each was filled with gas and the ends sealed. An assistant turned a switch that lit the glass tubes up. Little did Tesla suspect that this principle would be the foundation of modern flourescent lamps." (Walters 98-99). These principals also led to neon lamps. "Neon signs gleamed like jewels, telling the mute story, ‘Tesla was here'" (Walter 168).
Nikola made a new type of lighting with an incandescent button, instead of Edison's incandescent filament. This would eventually lead to an atom smasher.
"Nikola's "magic" lamp gave out twenty times more light for the same amount of current, than Edison's. His button was attached to a single wire protruding from a 3 - 6 inch globe. When high frequency current was applied, the button glowed. Tesla also discovered that the button gradually disappeared. He maintained that there were "trillions of invisible hammers" that shot from the button, bounced off the glass and pounded the button until it glowed. He invited scientists in to discuss the issue. They agreed with his principle, but didn't understand the purpose of the device. Tesla had no way of guessing that his molecular-bombardment lamp was the far ancestor of a modern atom smasher. His globe, no more than six inches in diameter, weighed almost nothing; today a small cyclotron weighs more than a huge Diesel engine." (Walter 114-115)
So, Nikola's lamp led to huge atom smashers. He was leading to cutting edge technology in the early 1900's.
His experiments with wireless transmission led to remote control and the radio. "Nikola guided his miniature ship around the tank by touches on his control board. Then he asked the spectators to call out commands, and he made the ship obey." (Walter 119). His electrically guided ship was the first remote controlled vehicle. He also "invented" the radio or what he called his "wireless talk". "‘With the transformer I call my ‘magnifying transmitter', I will transmit electrical energy as a telescope transmits celestial observations. I have also perfected a tuning device. Two persons may communicate on their own wave length in utter secrecy. And there is almost no limit to the number of stations which can operate at the same time without interfering with each other,' Tesla said. He was building a transmitting tower outside of New York, known as the Wardenclyffe tower, but there was such a delay he ran low on funds. Although his Wardenclyffe tower was eventually completed, it never transmitted anything. In order to make his broadcasting tube, he had to hire highly skilled glass blowers, which he never did do to lack of funds. All this took place a dozen years before Lee DeForest invented the modern radio tube. The details of Nikola's secret tube died with him." (Walters 147-148). There is still a controversy over who invented the radio first.
His earthquake device was a very powerful machine. He designed it as a back massager originally, but hid the plans and the idea when it was suggested as a weapon.
"Nikola fastened his vibrator to the main pillar of his laboratory. He felt reasonably sure the huge building would silence the vibrations. After all, his gadget was only a small cylinder in which a piston moved back and forth. Further details of it are not known. After its destruction he refused to publish a description. On this morning he blithely turned on the current. Gradually the engine built up higher and higher vibrations. After a few minutes his helpers began calling in alarm of the vibrations in the floor.
Somewhat amazed that his small vibrator was proving stronger than a solid building, he began casting about in his mind for ways to apply this on a large scale. Later he said he could shake down the Empire State Building in less than a quarter of an hour by an engine small enough to hide in his pocket. At first, the building would tremble gently. Gradually this would increase to such force that the beam rivets would crack. The outer wall would crumble and the steel skeleton collapse.
But on this morning, it didn't take long for the vibrations to reach the police station about a half block away. Without warning a desk backed off from the captain. A sergeant's chair rolled as he was about to sit down. Windows cracked. An upstairs pipe broke, releasing a torrent of water.
"It's that Tesla!" shouted the captain above the confusion. Then to his men: "Get up there!" He jerked his head toward the laboratory. "Stop whatever he's doing!"
At once the men raced for the building around the corner. All knew where to go. The neighborhood had been buzzing with tales of magic done by the mysterious inventor using some dangerous stuff he called electricity. Forcing the outer door, the officers dashed up the stairs. The laboratory was shaking as if in its death struggle. Plaster was hailing down. There was a grinding noise inside the walls. Was this a warning before collapse?
No man knew what to expect when he reached the top. The vibrations were so strong it seemed that the nails would shake from the building. Tesla might destroy New York. The door to the top floor was askew. The officers tumbled into the room. Instead of finding lightning sprouting from the iron monsters around the floor they saw a tall figure with a sledge hammer raised above his head. In an instant he brought it down on a small device attached to a pillar. The trembling stopped abruptly. Iron pieces clattered to the floor. Silence sank over the room. The policemen blinked in the dusty air. One officer suggested that the device would make a good weapon, to which Tesla responded, "I do not make things for war, I shall never reveal how I made this." And he never did. "(Walters 125-127)
Tesla's oscillator was so powerful, he never revealed the plans at all.
Tesla has been forever placed on film for his invention of his death rays.
In the 1930's several Death Ray weapon films came out, including The Death Ray (1938) with Boris Karloff, and such serials as Flash Gordon and Radar Men From the Moon. In fact, the very first of the Max Fletcher Superman cartoons of the 1940's featured Tesla in The Mad Scientist (Sept. 1941) in which a crazed, eccentric scientist, obviously patterned after Tesla, battles Superman while he terrorizes New York with his "electrothenasia death ray." In the next cartoon, The Mechanical Monsters (Nov. 1941) Superman again battles Tesla, the mad scientist, who this time unleashes an army of robots on Manhattan. Superman battled Tesla and his Death Ray one last time in Magnetic Telescope (April 1942), where Tesla is using a special magneto-gravitic ray that pulls asteroids out of orbit and sends them crashing to earth. With Japateurs in September of 1942, the Superman cartoons turned toward War themes, featuring Japanese spies and, to a lesser part, Nazi agents. (Childress 247-248)
The New York Times on July 11, 1934 ran a story which was headlined, "‘TESLA AT 78 BARES NEW ‘DEATH-BEAM,' Invention Powerful Enough to Destroy 10,000 Planes 250 Miles Away, He Asserts. DEFENSIVE WEAPON ONLY. Scientist, in Interview, Tells of Apparatus That He Says Will Kill Without Trace.', said the New York Times." (Childress 247). Tesla's death ray was very feared during these times, even when the poor man couldn't even pay his bills and obviously didn't have a prototype.
His ‘thought photography device' was a device mentioned in passing, like so many others that haven't been mentioned. "Tesla once said in 1933, when 78 years old, ‘I expect to photograph thoughts...In 1893, while engaged in certain investigations, I became convinced that a definite image formed in thought must, by reflex action, produce a corresponding image on the retina, which might be read by a suitable apparatus. This brought me to my system of television which I announced at that time...My idea was to employ an artificial retina receiving an object of the image seen, an optic nerve and another retina at the place of reproduction...both being fashioned somewhat like a checkerboard, with the optic nerve being a part of earth.'" (Childress 276-278). This fantastic invention, like so many of his others, never came to light, and died with him.
His dreams of a future of anti-gravity airships, are marvelous to hear. "He often spoke of the coming world in which anti-gravity aircraft will carry cargo across the continent, drawing power from centrally located power stations along the earth grid. In Tesla's mind he had no doubt created an electrogravitic craft that would draw power from his Wardenclyffe Tower plant. It is also interesting to note that Tesla's electric submarine could also be the proto-design for the airship, as these cigar-shaped craft can allegedly go underwater, and act as submarines, as well as airships." (Childress 278) His dreams were certainly amazing, and he probably could have built them, given enough time and money.
In conclusion, Nikola Tesla's inventions changed the way we live each day, and brought electricity to our homes. He had so many other designs and plans in his head, though, like anti- gravity and death rays, that who knows where we'd be if he had created them. "America's great genius left this world during the night of January 7, 1943, in the dark quiet of a lonely hotel room. He was alone, except for his feathered friends nesting in baskets atop his desk. Outside, streets glistened with gay lights from his alternating-current system. Radios filled the air with music and words; neon signs gleamed like jewels; motors of automobiles purred. All told the same mute story, ‘Tesla was here.'" (Walter 168). Therefore, you can see, our lives would not be the same without Nikola Tesla!
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Works Cited
Childress, David Hatcher and Nikola Tesla. The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla.
Stelle, Illinois: Adventures Unlimited Press, 1993.
O'Neill, John J. Prodigal Genius. New York: Ives Washburn, Inc., 1944.
Walters, Helen B. Nikola Tesla: Giant of Electricity. Binghamton, New York: Vali-Ballou
Press, Inc., 1961.
Acknowledgements
This paper was written by me, Chris Werner, and was dedicated to Nikola Tesla, who contributed so much and yet died in poverty, almost unknown.
When I submitted my rough draft of this paper, to the affore menitoned Mr. Lemyre, he accepted it as my Fianl Copy, and gave me a 97 out of 100 on it.
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Any comments, or discussions on Tesla, email me at tr6er@hotmail.com
