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Nikola Tesla—The Man Who Electrified The World!! |
| "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased" (Daniel 12:4). |
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Inventor Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). |
In 1884, a poor Serbian immigrant named Nikola Tesla arrived in the United States —at that time the land of the free. Though he was poor in this world's goods he was rich in ideas that would eventually light up the United States . . . and the entire world. While walking in Budapest Park, Hungary, Nikola Tesla had seen a vision of a functioning alternating current (AC) electric induction motor. This was one of the most revolutionary inventions in the entire history of the world. Before coming to the U.S., Nikola worked for about a year for the French branch of the Edison Electric Light Co. The Edison Company was totally locked into DIRECT CURRENT (DC) and wanted nothing to do with Tesla's AC current.
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Tesla actually offered his invention to a German company in Strassburg, Alsace, then a part of Germany. Here is what happened:
"The Mayor brought together a number of wealthy Strassburgers. To them the new motor was shown in operation, and the new system and its possibilities described, by both Tesla and the Mayor. The demonstration was a success from the technical viewpoint but otherwise a total loss. Not one member of the group showed the slightest interest. Tesla was dejected. It was beyond his comprehension that the greatest invention in electrical science, with unlimited commercial possibilities, should be rejected so completely." (O' Neill, Prodigal Genius, pp. 56-57).
The U.S. manager of the French branch of the Edison company advised him to seek his fortune in the New World. On the way to the boat he actually lost all his possessions and he arrived in New York with 4 cents in his pocket.
After Sept., 20, 1870, millions of Roman Catholic immigrants from Europe were pouring into this country and their only interest in the United States was its vast economic and military potential to restore the lost Papal States to their master in Rome.
Tesla was Greek Orthodox and only interested in the use of electricity to ease the heavy burdens of his fellow human beings.
Tesla worked for Thomas Alva Edison for 1 year!!
At that time, the most important inventor in the world was named Thomas Alva Edison—the so-called wizard of Menlo Park as he was called. Edison was famous for the invention of the DC dynamo and the electric light bulb.
Edison was locked into direct current and would not change for anything. DC had very severe limitations and was not practicable for long distance electrical transmission.
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Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931). |
Edison was a trial and error inventor. His motto was: "genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration." Tesla on the other hand just received his knowledge by "divine revelation." In other words, the Almighty just showed him how HIS universe worked and Tesla made the inventions and it worked perfectly every time. Later Edison would become good friends with J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller and especially Henry Ford. Those three persuaded him to abandon the electric car and allow Ford to pollute the world with his infamous gasoline engine while Rockefeller sought to obtain a worldwide monopoly on the use of petroleum. Almost immediately after entering the U.S., Tesla went to work for Edison. Edison set him to work fixing the many problems with DC dynamos. Tesla had remarkable mechanical and electrical ability and Edison promised him $50,000 if he could fix a particularly perplexing problem with a dynamo. |
Tesla worked for many months and finally the problem was solved. Did Edison keep his promise and pay him for all his hard work?. . . absolutely not....Tesla quit the Edison Company in disgust.
"For a paltry few thousand dollars they lost not only a man who would have saved them many times that amount each year, but they also lost an opportunity to obtain world control of the greatest and most profitable electrical invention ever made" (O' Neill, Prodigal Genius, p. 58).
After quitting the Edison Company, Tesla had to work as a manual laborer for a year digging the streets of New York. This was the worst time in his life as a poor stranger in a strange land. He was befriended by the foreman of the gang who persuaded him to form his own company.
Tesla demonstrated his AC motor to the U.S. Institute of Electrical Engineers
In 1888, Tesla held a lecture before the U.S. Institute of Electrical Engineers. This lecture brought his alternating current system before the world at last.
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Tesla's famous 1888 lecture before the U.S. Institute of Electrical Engineers at Columbia College in NYC. |
One of Tesla's 2 phase induction motors. When linked to his polyphase method of generating and transmitting electricity, this motor became the foundation stone on which the modern electrical power industry is built. |
George Westinghouse brought Tesla's polyphase system to the world!!
In spite of all the advantages of the AC system, Edison refused to acknowledge its superiority over his system, and inventor George Westinghouse of Pittsburgh came to his rescue. As a matter of fact, Edison sulked like a spoilt child and started what became known in U.S. history as the CURRENT WARS or the battles between AC and DC.
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Inventor George Westinghouse (1846-1914). |
By 1891, the Westinghouse Company was one of the biggest and most successful in the entire world. George Westinghouse invented the AIR BRAKE which used compressed air to stop locomotives. He was a Protestant Christian gentleman and totally unlike the robber barons of that era. His motto was the golden rule and his employees shared in the success of his company. He believed in doing his good works in secret and many charities throughout the country were helped by his largess. He offered to buy all the AC patents from Tesla for the staggering sum of 1 million dollars cash and royalties of $1.00 per horsepower of electricity produced. |
Tesla became an instant millionaire!!
Unlike Edison, George Westinghouse was a man of his word, and offered Tesla a staggering sum for all his AC patents.
"So favorably impressed was Westinghouse that he decided to act quickly. The story was related to the author by Tesla.
"I will give you one million dollars cash for your alternating current patents, plus royalty," Westinghouse blurted at the startled Tesla. This tall, suave gentleman, however, gave no outward sign that he had almost been bowled over by surprise.
"If you will make the royalty one dollar per horsepower, I will accept the offer," Tesla replied.
"A million cash, a dollar a horsepower royalty," Westinghouse repeated.
"That is acceptable," said Tesla.
"Sold," said Westinghouse. "You will receive a check and a contract in a few days."
Here was a case of two great men, each possessed with the power of seeing visions of the future on a gigantic panorama, and each with complete faith in the other, arranging a tremendous transaction with utter disregard of details." (O'Neill, Prodigal Genius, p. 74-75).
Tesla electrified Niagara Falls!!
In 1895, the Westinghouse Company and Nicola Tesla built the first hydroelectric alternating current system at Niagara Falls. Tesla was determined that the awesome power of the Falls should be harnessed to the awesome power of polyphase alternating current. Tesla had an invention to transmit the power of Niagara Falls long distance without the use of wires. This invention was never tried because of powerful interests in the existing wire transmission systems.
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Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. |
Tesla Monument at Niagara Falls, unveiled on July 9, 2006. Tesla is standing atop an AC motor, one of the 700 inventions he patented. |
Tesla Monument at Goat Island, Niagara Falls, New York. A gift of Yugoslavia to the United States in 1976. |
The War of the Currents almost bankrupted the Westinghouse Company!!
By 1897, the War of the Currents between AC and DC or between Westinghouse and Edison continued unabated. In 1895, Tesla's laboratory in New York City was totally destroyed by fire. Half a lifetime of priceless inventions were destroyed. Tesla usually worked through the night but that particular night he was not in his shop and miraculously escaped death.
Hugh mergers took place between J. P. Morgan and Rockefeller controlled companies like Thomson-Houston and Edison General Electric to form the present day General Electric Co. This new General Electric Co. tried to take over Westinghouse and force them to abandon AC. They insisted that Westinghouse STOP paying royalties to Tesla:
"One of the requirements was that Westinghouse get rid of the contract with Tesla calling for royalty payments of $1.00 per horsepower on all alternating current articles sold under his patents. Financial advisers pointed out that if the business which Westinghouse expected the company would do under the Tesla patents in the ensuing year was anywhere near as great as estimated, the amount to be paid out under this contract would be tremendous, totaling millions of dollars; and this, at the time of reorganization, appeared a dangerous burden, imperiling the ability which they were trying to attain for the new organization. Westinghouse strenuously objected to the procedure. This patent-royalty payment, he insisted, was in accordance with usual procedures and would not be a burden on the company, as it was included in costs of production, was paid for by the customers, and did not come out of the company's earnings. Westinghouse, himself an inventor of first magnitude, had a strong sense of justice in his dealings with inventors." (O'Neill, Prodigal Genius, p. 79).
Tesla saved the Westinghouse Company by tearing up his royalty contract!!
In one of the most magnanimous acts ever recorded in human history, Tesla tore up his royally contract with George Westinghouse in order to save his company from bankruptcy and the AC system from destruction. Tesla stood to lose over 12 million dollars in royalty payments:
"It would be a tough job for any executive, no matter how shrewd or clever, to talk a man out of a contract that would net many millions of dollars, or induce him to accept a reduction in rates amounting to millions. Westinghouse called on Tesla, meeting him in the same South 5th Avenue laboratory where he had purchased the patents four years before. Without preliminaries or apologies Westinghouse explained the situation.
"Your decision," said the Pittsburgh magnate, "determines the fate of the Westinghouse Company." "Suppose I should refuse to give up my contract; what would you do then?" asked Tesla.
"In that event you would have to deal with the bankers, for I would no longer have any power in the situation," Westinghouse replied.
"And if I give up the contract you will save your company and retain control so you can proceed with your plans to give my polyphase system to the world?" Tesla continued.
"I believe your polyphase system is the greatest discovery in the field of electricity," Westinghouse explained. "It was my efforts to give it to the world that brought on the present difficulty, but I intend to continue, no matter what happens, to proceed with my original plans to put the country on an alternating current basis."
"Mr. Westinghouse," said Tesla, drawing himself up to full height of six feet two inches and beaming down on the Pittsburgh magnate who was himself a big man, "you have been my friend, you believed in me when others had no faith; you were brave enough to go ahead and pay me a million dollars when others lacked courage; you supported me when even your own engineers lacked vision to see the big things ahead that you and I saw; you have stood by me as a friend. The benefits that will come to civilization from my polyphase system mean more to me than the money involved. Mr. Westinghouse, you will save your company so that you can develop my inventions. 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?"
Matching his actions to his words Tesla tore up the contract and threw it in the waste basket; and Westinghouse, thanks to Tesla's magnificent gesture, was able to return to Pittsburgh and use the facilities of the reorganized company, which became the present Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, to make good his promise to Tesla to make his alternating current system available to the world." (O'Neill, Prodigal Genius, pp. 81-82).
By cheating him out of millions in royalty payments, Morgan and Rockefeller put a financial squeeze on the great inventor. Tesla had already lost a fortune because of the arson to his laboratory and now he was severely strapped for cash to perfect his latest inventions. The arsonists could squeeze him financially but they could NEVER stop the Niagara of new inventions that kept flowing from his fertile brain.
A few of the inventions of Nikola Tesla!!
Tesla had over 700 patents so it would be time consuming to list them all. Here are 3 of the major ones:
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A wireless light bulb powered by the magnetic field surrounding it. |
Tesla turbine. This small steam turbine produced over 200 horsepower and ran at over 16,000 revolutions per minute. |
One of the first X-ray photographs—an accidental exposure of Tesla's foot made shortly before his lab was burned down. |
Wireless transmission of electricity
Tesla's last major construction project was the erection of a tower to transmit electricity to Europe. He had to practically crawl on his hands and knees to J.P. Morgan to get the necessary funding to begin the project.
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Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island, New York. |
Tesla's ingenious design for the wireless transmission of electricity. |
In 1899, Tesla demonstrated the feasibility of transmitting electricity through the earth without the use of wires in Pikes Peak, Colorado. He was able to measure accurately the resonance and the frequency of the earth.
He was able to light hundreds of light bulbs situated at over 26 miles from his transmitter.
Tesla knew that his system would deliver cheap electric power to ANY LOCATION on the globe without the use of wires.
Tesla envisioned building more generators at Niagara Falls and then using his tower to transmit the electricity to Paris, France, (or any point on the glove) to light up the French Exposition of 1900.
The project had to be completely abandoned because skinflint J. P. Morgan refused to give him the money to finish the project. The tower was eventually blown up and completely destroyed with the loss of priceless inventions which Mr. Tesla designed just for that application.
Tesla, Einstein and the luminiferous ether!!
Up to the year 1900, most scientists believed in what was called the luminiferous ether or simply the ether. This was simply space or the invisible medium that carries electromagnetic waves. Here is the dictionary definition of that term:
5. Physics. An all-pervading, infinitely elastic, massless medium FORMERLY postulated as the medium of propagation of electromagnetic waves.
(Webster's Dictionary).
The famous Michelson-Morley experiment of 1887 showed no movement of the earth through the ether. So what did the "scientists" do?....They simply got rid of the ether and stated that it did not exist and that was the reason for the NULL results in the experiment.
This necessitated the invention of Albert Einstein and his BIZARRE theories of the universe without an ether.
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Albert Einstein, Nikola Tesla and Charles Steinmetz as they appeared in 1921, in a visit to the transoceanic station, at New Brunswick, NJ. |
Einstein invented absolutely NOTHING that was of any benefit to the human race. Even the famous equation E=MC2 was already known in 1875. It seems that he was just a smokescreen to hide the identity of the great scientist and inventor Nikola Tesla. Tesla had nothing but contempt for the "physics" of Einstein. He absolutely believed in the ether and the possibly of taking electricity out of this ether without splitting the atom and causing dangerous radiation. Tesla said at a lecture in 1891:
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Strange is it not how Tesla didn't think about splitting these atoms to obtain enormous power. He knew that his system of wireless transmission harnessed to Niagara Falls would provide all the safe, clean power that was necessary to run the modern industrial world.
Nikola Tesla's electric car
After the AC induction motor, we think that the greatest invention of Nikola was the electric car. This was no ordinary battery driven car because this car took its power from the ether just like an automobile antenna picks up radio waves from the ether.
In 1931, under the financing of Pierce-Arrow and George Westinghouse, a 1931 Pierce-Arrow was selected to be tested at the factory grounds in Buffalo, N. Y. The standard internal combustion engine was removed and an 80-H.P. 1800 r.p.m electric motor installed to the clutch and transmission. The AC motor measured 40 inches long and 30 inches in diameter and the power leads were left standing in the air—no external power source and no recharging of any batteries was necessary.
At the appointed time, Nikola Tesla arrived from New York City and inspected the Pierce-Arrow automobile. He then went to a local radio store and purchased a handful of tubes (12), wires and assorted resistors. A box measuring 24 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high was assembled housing the circuit. The box was placed on the front seat and had its wires connected to the air-cooled, brushless motor. Two rods 1/4" in diameter stuck out of the box about 3" in length.
Mr. Tesla got into the driver's seat, pushed the two rods in and stated, "We now have power". He put the car into gear and it moved forward! This vehicle, powered by an AC motor, was driven to speeds of 90 m.p.h. and performed better than any internal combustion engine of its day! One week was spent testing the vehicle. Several newspapers in Buffalo reported this test. When asked where the power came from, Tesla replied, "From the ether all around us".
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Similar 1931 Pierce-Arrow that was converted to electric power by Tesla. |
Here is a report of the incident from Tesla biographer Marc J. Seifer: "The
car [was] a standard Pierce Arrow, with the engine removed and
certain other components installed instead. The standard clutch,
gear box, and drive train remained.... Under the hood, there was
a brushless electric motor, connected to [or in place of] the
engine.... Tesla would not divulge who made the motor. |
Tesla's car drove J.P. Morgan, Rockefeller and Henry Ford CRAZY!!
With the discovery of electricity, everybody expected that all cars would be electric and run on rechargeable batteries. Tesla had gone one better and actually produced a working automobile that ran on electricity taken from the surrounding ether like an antenna picks up radio waves. This would revolutionize travel just like his AC induction motor had revolutionized the industrial world.
Morgan, Rockefeller and Ford had to sabotage his idea at all costs....No air polluting gasoline engine meant no oil monopoly for Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Co. No oil monopoly meant no excuse for Rockefeller to own the U.S. government, and no excuse to be involved in foreign countries . . . especially those surrounding Russia.
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Bulbous nosed baboon J.P. Morgan (1837-1913), was the chief enemy of Tesla's AC system; his wireless transmission system and his electric car. He actually died in Rome during a visit to his boss. |
J. D. Rockefeller (1838-1937) was the founder of the Standard Oil Co. His killing of the electric car allowed Standard Oil to amass a vast fortune which is still pouring into Rockefeller controlled companies to this very day. |
Henry Ford (1863-1947) is credited with mass producing the noisy air polluting gasoline engine. By 1932, Ford controlled over 1/3 of gasoline engine production worldwide. He was very familiar with electricity because he worked for George Westinghouse and Thomas Edison. Hitler admired Ford so much that he kept Ford's picture in his office. Many of the trucks used by the Nazis during WWII were built by the Ford German and French subsidiaries. |
Vital links
Tesla
Memorial Society
References
Cheney, Margaret. Tesla, Man out of Time. Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1981.
Cheney, Margaret, & Uth, Robert. Tesla, Master of Lightning. Barnes & Noble Books, New York, 1999.
Garbedian, Gordon H. George Westinghouse: Fabulous Inventor. Dodd, Mead & Co., New York, 1943.
Jones, Jill, Empires of Light. Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify the World. Random House, New York, 2003.
O' Neill, John J. Prodigal Genius. The Life of Nikola Tesla. Ives Washburn, New York, 1944.
Seifer, Marc J. Wizard. The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla. Biography of a Genius. Carol Publishing Group, Secacaus, NJ, 1996.
Copyright © 2007 by Niall Kilkenny