THE WIRELESS TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY
by Gary L. Peterson
It is possible that Nikola Tesla is best known for his remarkable statements regarding the wireless transmission of electrical power. His first efforts towards this end started in 1891 and were intended to simply "disturb the electrical equilibrium in the nearby portions of the earth... to bring into operation in any way some instrument." In other words the object of his experiments was simply to produce effects locally and detect them at a distance. By 1899 the electrical potential of his transmitter had increased to the point that more room was needed for the sake of safety. This and other considerations led him to temporarily shift his wireless experiments to a location just outside of Colorado Springs.
At this Colorado "Experimental Station" Tesla had some early success in wireless power transmission. One photograph shows that "a small incandescent lamp was lighted by means of a resonant circuit grounded on one end, all the energy being drawn through the earth [from a nearby transmitter]." In 1907 he even went as far as to make this statement:
"... to make the little filament glow, the entire surface of the planet, two hundred million square miles, must be strongly electrified. This calls for peculiar electrical activities, hundreds of times greater than those involved in the lighting of an arc lamp through the human body [a far more spectacular demonstration]. What impresses him most, however, is the knowledge that the little lamp will spring into the same brilliancy anywhere on the globe, there being no appreciable diminution of the effect with the increase of distance from the transmitter."
It is not at all clear that Tesla was referring to effects produced by his large Colorado transmitter. It is quite possible that he was writing about what he felt could be done with an even bigger transmitter such as the one that he was developing in New York. If the Wardenclyffe communications facility had been finished, the 187 foot tall mushroom-shaped tower would have permanently housed a set of large coils including an immense helical resonator that would have served as the main transmitting element. Directly below the wooden tower there was a 120 foot shaft where deep underground Tesla had installed a radial array of iron pipes that served as a connection between the oscillator and the earth.
The Wardenclyffe plant was a major milestone in Tesla's researches into the application of alternating electrical currents to wireless communications and power transmission, an effort which drew a considerable amount of Tesla's attention during the period between 1891 and 1912. In the article "The Future of the Wireless Art" which appeared in Wireless Telegraphy & Telephony, 1908, Tesla made the following statement regarding the Wardenclyffe project on which he was then working:
"As soon as completed, it will be possible for a business man in New York to dictate instructions, and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science, or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing, or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind. More important than this, however, will be the transmission of power, without wires, which will be shown on a scale large enough to carry conviction. These few indications will be sufficient to show that the wireless art offers greater possibilities than any invention or discovery heretofore made, and if the conditions are favorable, we can expect with certitude that in the next few years wonders will be wrought by its application."
In the end, Tesla was never able to complete the Wardenclyffe plant, although he was able to conduct some performance tests. Nevertheless, if the above stated predictions were to be true, an interesting feature of Tesla's World System for global communications, had it gone into full operation, would have been its capacity to provide small but usable quantities of electrical power at the location of the receiving circuits. He predicted that further advances would have permitted the wireless transmission of industrial amounts of electrical energy with minimal losses to any point on the earth's surface. Had he been able to complete the prototype station on Long Island and use it to demonstrate the feasibility of wireless power transmission then a plan would have been implemented for the construction of a pilot plant for this larger system at Niagara Falls, site of the world's first commercial three phase AC power plant.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
JP Morgan admits US slavery links
The US's economic history hides some unpleasant truths
Thousands of slaves were accepted as collateral for loans by two banks that later became part of JP Morgan Chase.
The admission is part of an apology sent to JP Morgan staff after the bank researched its links to slavery in order to meet legislation in Chicago.
Citizens Bank and Canal Bank are the two lenders that were identified. They are now closed, but were linked to Bank One, which JP Morgan bought last year.
About 13,000 slaves were used as loan collateral between 1831 and 1865.
'No excuse'
'No excuse'
Important dates
1831 Canal Bank formed
1833 Citizens Bank formed
1924 Citizens and Canal join to form Canal Commercial Trust & Savings Bank (CCTSB)
1931 Chase Bank takes control of Canal
1933 CCTSB fails during Great Depression and goes into liquidation
1933 National Bank of Commerce in New Orleans (NBCNO) formed with some Canal Bank deposits and loans
1971 NBCNO becomes First National Bank of Commerce
1998 First National Bank of Commerce merged into Bank One Louisiana
2004 Bank One merged with JP Morgan Chase & Co.
Because of defaults by plantation owners, Citizens and Canal ended up owning about 1,250 slaves.
"We all know slavery existed in our country, but it is quite different to see how our history and the institution of slavery were intertwined," JP Morgan chief executive William Harrison and chief operating officer James Dimon said in the letter.
"Slavery was tragically ingrained in American society, but that is no excuse."
"We apologise to the African-American community, particularly those who are descendants of slaves, and to the rest of the American public for the role that Citizens Bank and Canal Bank played."
"The slavery era was a tragic time in US history and in our company's history."
JP Morgan said that it was setting up a $5m scholarship programme for students living in Louisiana, the state where the events took place.
The bank said that it is a "very different company than the Citizens and Canal Banks of the 1800s".
Thousands of slaves were accepted as collateral for loans by two banks that later became part of JP Morgan Chase.
The admission is part of an apology sent to JP Morgan staff after the bank researched its links to slavery in order to meet legislation in Chicago.
Citizens Bank and Canal Bank are the two lenders that were identified. They are now closed, but were linked to Bank One, which JP Morgan bought last year.
About 13,000 slaves were used as loan collateral between 1831 and 1865.
'No excuse'
'No excuse'
Important dates
1831 Canal Bank formed
1833 Citizens Bank formed
1924 Citizens and Canal join to form Canal Commercial Trust & Savings Bank (CCTSB)
1931 Chase Bank takes control of Canal
1933 CCTSB fails during Great Depression and goes into liquidation
1933 National Bank of Commerce in New Orleans (NBCNO) formed with some Canal Bank deposits and loans
1971 NBCNO becomes First National Bank of Commerce
1998 First National Bank of Commerce merged into Bank One Louisiana
2004 Bank One merged with JP Morgan Chase & Co.
Because of defaults by plantation owners, Citizens and Canal ended up owning about 1,250 slaves.
"We all know slavery existed in our country, but it is quite different to see how our history and the institution of slavery were intertwined," JP Morgan chief executive William Harrison and chief operating officer James Dimon said in the letter.
"Slavery was tragically ingrained in American society, but that is no excuse."
"We apologise to the African-American community, particularly those who are descendants of slaves, and to the rest of the American public for the role that Citizens Bank and Canal Bank played."
"The slavery era was a tragic time in US history and in our company's history."
JP Morgan said that it was setting up a $5m scholarship programme for students living in Louisiana, the state where the events took place.
The bank said that it is a "very different company than the Citizens and Canal Banks of the 1800s".
JP Morgan-Chase supported Nazis
US: US banks named in Holocaust suit
BBC News
December 24th, 1998
Lawyers acting on behalf of victims of the Jewish holocaust and their families have accused two US banks of seizing their wealth during the Nazi occupation of France.
The families filed a class-action lawsuit against two leading banks, Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan, alleging that they were complicit in the seizure of wealth stolen from Jews as they were transported to death camps.
Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan are the first US banks to be named in legal action; several French banks are already facing similar lawsuits in the US courts.
A Chase Manhattan statement described the action as "unnecessary", as they were already working to reimburse with interest any Jewish customers or their heirs.
It said that only 100 accounts were in question.
JP Morgan said they would examine the allegations carefully.
But lawyers claim that Chase Manhattan's Paris operation was closely allied with the Nazi regime and thrived on its patronage.
They also allege that JP Morgan openly boasted of its anti-Jewish record and policies.
Morgan's response has been guarded. In a statement it said bank officials understood the seriousness of the case and would study the allegations with care.
Victories for claimants
A week ago, the United Kingdom's Barclays Bank agreed to a $3.6m payout to compensate the families of those whose assets were seized by Barclays branches in France during the Nazi occupation.
Earlier this year, Swiss banks settled after a long-running battle, with restitution payments to families of more than $1bn.
The banks had been under pressure from certain US states which had threatened to block business with the institutions unless they agreed to compensation.
In a landmark case in May, Estelle Sapir, whose father died in the Holocaust, received a sum reported to be worth $500,000 from a Swiss bank in compensation for lost assets.
BBC News
December 24th, 1998
Lawyers acting on behalf of victims of the Jewish holocaust and their families have accused two US banks of seizing their wealth during the Nazi occupation of France.
The families filed a class-action lawsuit against two leading banks, Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan, alleging that they were complicit in the seizure of wealth stolen from Jews as they were transported to death camps.
Chase Manhattan and JP Morgan are the first US banks to be named in legal action; several French banks are already facing similar lawsuits in the US courts.
A Chase Manhattan statement described the action as "unnecessary", as they were already working to reimburse with interest any Jewish customers or their heirs.
It said that only 100 accounts were in question.
JP Morgan said they would examine the allegations carefully.
But lawyers claim that Chase Manhattan's Paris operation was closely allied with the Nazi regime and thrived on its patronage.
They also allege that JP Morgan openly boasted of its anti-Jewish record and policies.
Morgan's response has been guarded. In a statement it said bank officials understood the seriousness of the case and would study the allegations with care.
Victories for claimants
A week ago, the United Kingdom's Barclays Bank agreed to a $3.6m payout to compensate the families of those whose assets were seized by Barclays branches in France during the Nazi occupation.
Earlier this year, Swiss banks settled after a long-running battle, with restitution payments to families of more than $1bn.
The banks had been under pressure from certain US states which had threatened to block business with the institutions unless they agreed to compensation.
In a landmark case in May, Estelle Sapir, whose father died in the Holocaust, received a sum reported to be worth $500,000 from a Swiss bank in compensation for lost assets.
The Indictment of Marcus Garvey
UNITED STATES CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
For the Second Circuit
MARCUS GARVEY, Plaintiff-in-Error (Defendant below)
against
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant-in-Error (Plaintiff below).
Marcus Garvey, Ely Garcia, George Tobias and Orlando M. Thompson were indicted on two indictments, each of which contained counts charging various substantive offenses, of using the mails to defraud, and each of which contained a count charging conspiracy to commit the substantive offense.
All of the defendants were acquitted of the charge of conspiracy, and only one defendant, Marcus Garvey, was found guilty of the substantive offense, and this, under only one count of the indictment. Upon this single count, Garvey was sentenced to serve five years in the penitentiary at Atlanta and to pay a fine of $1,000 and the costs of the suit. A trial was had before Judge Julian W. Mack and a jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and judgment of conviction was rendered on the verdict of the jury on June 22, 1923. The plaintiff-in-error, Marcus Garvey, comes here by writ of error on a bill of exceptions,
The Count of the Indictment Upon Which Garvey Was Convicted
The indictment charged a single scheme to defraud. The various counts which charged the substantive offense of the use of the mails in execution of the scheme to defraud are based upon the separate mailing of letters to different addresses. The conspiracy counts charge a conspiracy to execute this scheme to defraud through the intended use of the mails.
Garvey was acquitted of all the charges in both the indictments, except the charge contained in the third count of the second indictment, that on or about December 13, 1920, "for the purpose of executing said scheme and artifice," Garvey placed in a post office in the Southern District of New York "a certain letter or circular enclosed in a postpaid envelope addressed to 'Benny Dancy, 34 W. 131 St., N. Y. C.'"
There is not a scintilla of evidence that Garvey placed or caused to be placed in the mails the circular or letter described or referred to in this count of the indictment. This is so far beyond any question, that we propose to shorten the labors of the Court in consideration of the lengthy record of the testimony by addressing ourselves at the outset to this proposition. And no other demovstration is required than to refer the Court to the testimony of Dancy and to the exhibits in the record, introduced in evidence to support this count of the indictment.
POINT I
There is not a scintilla of evidence, competent or otherwise, to establish the mailing of the indictment letter, upon which the third count of the second indictment was based. It was upon this count and only this count that Garvey was convicted
For the Second Circuit
MARCUS GARVEY, Plaintiff-in-Error (Defendant below)
against
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Defendant-in-Error (Plaintiff below).
Marcus Garvey, Ely Garcia, George Tobias and Orlando M. Thompson were indicted on two indictments, each of which contained counts charging various substantive offenses, of using the mails to defraud, and each of which contained a count charging conspiracy to commit the substantive offense.
All of the defendants were acquitted of the charge of conspiracy, and only one defendant, Marcus Garvey, was found guilty of the substantive offense, and this, under only one count of the indictment. Upon this single count, Garvey was sentenced to serve five years in the penitentiary at Atlanta and to pay a fine of $1,000 and the costs of the suit. A trial was had before Judge Julian W. Mack and a jury in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and judgment of conviction was rendered on the verdict of the jury on June 22, 1923. The plaintiff-in-error, Marcus Garvey, comes here by writ of error on a bill of exceptions,
The Count of the Indictment Upon Which Garvey Was Convicted
The indictment charged a single scheme to defraud. The various counts which charged the substantive offense of the use of the mails in execution of the scheme to defraud are based upon the separate mailing of letters to different addresses. The conspiracy counts charge a conspiracy to execute this scheme to defraud through the intended use of the mails.
Garvey was acquitted of all the charges in both the indictments, except the charge contained in the third count of the second indictment, that on or about December 13, 1920, "for the purpose of executing said scheme and artifice," Garvey placed in a post office in the Southern District of New York "a certain letter or circular enclosed in a postpaid envelope addressed to 'Benny Dancy, 34 W. 131 St., N. Y. C.'"
There is not a scintilla of evidence that Garvey placed or caused to be placed in the mails the circular or letter described or referred to in this count of the indictment. This is so far beyond any question, that we propose to shorten the labors of the Court in consideration of the lengthy record of the testimony by addressing ourselves at the outset to this proposition. And no other demovstration is required than to refer the Court to the testimony of Dancy and to the exhibits in the record, introduced in evidence to support this count of the indictment.
POINT I
There is not a scintilla of evidence, competent or otherwise, to establish the mailing of the indictment letter, upon which the third count of the second indictment was based. It was upon this count and only this count that Garvey was convicted
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
THE NEGRO WEB
-What if Garvey had started the Internet?
Marcus Garvey, whose birthday comes up in just about three months time (August 17), was born some thirty years after the legendary Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, of whom the 153rd anniversary of his birth will be marked on July 10 this year. They died within three years of each other, Garvey in 1940 and Tesla in January, 1943.
There are other parallels between these two seemingly disparate figures. Both were outsiders who managed, through sheer force of personality and prodigious gifts, to make a significant impact on the social landscape of early 20th Century America; Garvey, through his oratory and the spread of his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and Tesla, through his development of alternating current (AC) power generation, radio (He was acknowledged, only after a Supreme Court ruling, as the ‘real father of radio’) and later – ideas deemed even more fanciful at the time, but commonplace today.
Both also had to face the skepticism and even outright hostility of the American financial and political power structure, and both died in a markedly diminished stature than at their lofty peaks.
No evidence -at least none of which this writer is aware – exists to confirm the hypothesis of such a meeting. Indeed, it seems likely, that Tesla, who developed a heightened germophobia in later years, and who would always carefully limit his circle of ‘friends’ may have avoided or shunned Garvey if the latter had even made such an overture. Then again, he may not, and may have seen the “Negro With A Hat” as an intriguing curiosity.
It is almost certain that Tesla would have been aware of Garvey and his African nationalist crusade. No less a figure than J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI had dubbed Garvey “one of the most dangerous individuals in America.” At its peak, the UNIA numbered some …..adherents across the US and was frequently the subject of newspaper articles. Garvey’s own news organ, The Negro World, was said to have a circulation of … As an ethnic Serb born in Croatia, Tesla would certainly have been no stranger to nationalist struggle.
For his part, Garvey was almost certainly aware of Tesla’s groundbreaking work in wireless electrical transmission, as well as his more mundane, but no less important development of AC power generation. Garvey arrived in new York at the height of the black intellectual movement, and by 1918, was the most influential black man in America, albeit not universally revered.
One of Tesla’s pet projects was the wireless generation of electrical power, and it was for this purpose that the massive Wardenclyffe tower was built with backing from the infamous J.P. Morgan. However, when Tesla – whose vision encompassed free electricity underwritten by municipal and other taxes - had no answer for Morgan’s question “where do we put the meter?” then Morgan cancelled further support and effectively shut Tesla out of the circle of investors whom he led in the city.
All this took place in the first decade of the 1900s, and the tower and site were shut down by 1907, long before Garvey came to the US. But again, its almost certain he would have read of Tesla’s work and seen the immense value of such a utility. If Garvey’s own enterprises had been allowed to remain untrammeled, could he have perhaps been an unlikely ally to Tesla in revitalizing the project, a project which if successful, would have been used to transmit pictures and other information – a World Wide Web, so to speak, long before the web came into being in the 1980s ( indeed, visions of such server-client networks were being espoused from the early 1940s). We’ll never know, but the questions in and of themselves are tantalizing.
Whether or not a meeting took place or could even have conceivably taken place between the two is beside the point, at least for the purposes of this article. In these two great, flawed yet Protean figures, we have a model for a new axis of collaboration – not an “evil axis” a la Ronald Reagan in his 80s heyday, but certainly an axis with the potential to radically shift the world’s financial and - just as important – socio-cultural order, not for mere aggrandizement, but for genuine collective development. As evidenced in the recent meltdown and ongoing recession, the process ahs already been initiated and the opportunity for writing a new chapter in history awaits.
Truly, the past is prologue
Michael A. Edwards is a writer/editor with extensive experience covering entertainment, cultural and social topics. He currently runs several blogs of his own and contributes to several others. He is writing both a book and a stage/screen play around the idea of a possible collaboration between Marcus Garvey and Nikola Tesla as well as a novel on the life and times of musical genius Don Drummond
Marcus Garvey, whose birthday comes up in just about three months time (August 17), was born some thirty years after the legendary Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla, of whom the 153rd anniversary of his birth will be marked on July 10 this year. They died within three years of each other, Garvey in 1940 and Tesla in January, 1943.
There are other parallels between these two seemingly disparate figures. Both were outsiders who managed, through sheer force of personality and prodigious gifts, to make a significant impact on the social landscape of early 20th Century America; Garvey, through his oratory and the spread of his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and Tesla, through his development of alternating current (AC) power generation, radio (He was acknowledged, only after a Supreme Court ruling, as the ‘real father of radio’) and later – ideas deemed even more fanciful at the time, but commonplace today.
Both also had to face the skepticism and even outright hostility of the American financial and political power structure, and both died in a markedly diminished stature than at their lofty peaks.
No evidence -at least none of which this writer is aware – exists to confirm the hypothesis of such a meeting. Indeed, it seems likely, that Tesla, who developed a heightened germophobia in later years, and who would always carefully limit his circle of ‘friends’ may have avoided or shunned Garvey if the latter had even made such an overture. Then again, he may not, and may have seen the “Negro With A Hat” as an intriguing curiosity.
It is almost certain that Tesla would have been aware of Garvey and his African nationalist crusade. No less a figure than J. Edgar Hoover of the FBI had dubbed Garvey “one of the most dangerous individuals in America.” At its peak, the UNIA numbered some …..adherents across the US and was frequently the subject of newspaper articles. Garvey’s own news organ, The Negro World, was said to have a circulation of … As an ethnic Serb born in Croatia, Tesla would certainly have been no stranger to nationalist struggle.
For his part, Garvey was almost certainly aware of Tesla’s groundbreaking work in wireless electrical transmission, as well as his more mundane, but no less important development of AC power generation. Garvey arrived in new York at the height of the black intellectual movement, and by 1918, was the most influential black man in America, albeit not universally revered.
One of Tesla’s pet projects was the wireless generation of electrical power, and it was for this purpose that the massive Wardenclyffe tower was built with backing from the infamous J.P. Morgan. However, when Tesla – whose vision encompassed free electricity underwritten by municipal and other taxes - had no answer for Morgan’s question “where do we put the meter?” then Morgan cancelled further support and effectively shut Tesla out of the circle of investors whom he led in the city.
All this took place in the first decade of the 1900s, and the tower and site were shut down by 1907, long before Garvey came to the US. But again, its almost certain he would have read of Tesla’s work and seen the immense value of such a utility. If Garvey’s own enterprises had been allowed to remain untrammeled, could he have perhaps been an unlikely ally to Tesla in revitalizing the project, a project which if successful, would have been used to transmit pictures and other information – a World Wide Web, so to speak, long before the web came into being in the 1980s ( indeed, visions of such server-client networks were being espoused from the early 1940s). We’ll never know, but the questions in and of themselves are tantalizing.
Whether or not a meeting took place or could even have conceivably taken place between the two is beside the point, at least for the purposes of this article. In these two great, flawed yet Protean figures, we have a model for a new axis of collaboration – not an “evil axis” a la Ronald Reagan in his 80s heyday, but certainly an axis with the potential to radically shift the world’s financial and - just as important – socio-cultural order, not for mere aggrandizement, but for genuine collective development. As evidenced in the recent meltdown and ongoing recession, the process ahs already been initiated and the opportunity for writing a new chapter in history awaits.
Truly, the past is prologue
Michael A. Edwards is a writer/editor with extensive experience covering entertainment, cultural and social topics. He currently runs several blogs of his own and contributes to several others. He is writing both a book and a stage/screen play around the idea of a possible collaboration between Marcus Garvey and Nikola Tesla as well as a novel on the life and times of musical genius Don Drummond
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Correction: 30 years
Enthusiasm got the better of me, and so I wrote in the previous post that Nikolai Tesla and Marcus Garvey were born within 3 years of each other.
In fact, Tesla was born in 1856, and Garvey in 1887 (so its roughly 31 years). I apologize for that.
But the thrust of the project remians plausible. Its almost certain that they had each heard of the other (if Garvey was attracting the attention of J Edgar Hoover and Tesla was engaged in a rivalry with Thomas Edison, then some paper must have brought the respective stories to each man's attention)
What if they met, and what could they possibly have said to each other. I'm not sure where this will lead, but I'm still very excited.
Follow me won't you?
In fact, Tesla was born in 1856, and Garvey in 1887 (so its roughly 31 years). I apologize for that.
But the thrust of the project remians plausible. Its almost certain that they had each heard of the other (if Garvey was attracting the attention of J Edgar Hoover and Tesla was engaged in a rivalry with Thomas Edison, then some paper must have brought the respective stories to each man's attention)
What if they met, and what could they possibly have said to each other. I'm not sure where this will lead, but I'm still very excited.
Follow me won't you?
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Radio Free Afrika - the parallels
Nikola Tesla, the iconic physicist and electrical pioneer and Marcus Garvey, the pan Afircanist progenitor, were born with in 3 years of each other, and died within 3 years of each other.
That aside, andtheir pioneering spirit, the two were almost certainly in New York atthe same time before garvey's deportation from the United States in 1927. Its certainly plausible that they may have at least heard of each other, given the stir their repsaective acitivities caused in their respective fields.
Could they have met?
Could have exchanged ideas?
What would they have said to each other?
What possible repercussions could such a conversation have hahd for present-day civilization?
Thisp roject explores those questions and others. Below are basic biographies of both men
Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940), a black man from the West Indies, was the first to forcefully articulate the concept of African nationalism - of black people returning to Africa, the continent of their forefathers, to build a great nation of their own.
Marcus Garvey was born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on Aug. 17, 1887. He went to elementary school there and at the age of 14 became an apprentice in the printing trade. In 1903 he went to the capital, Kingston, to work as a printer. He soon became involved in public activities and helped form the Printers Union, the first trade union in Jamaica. He subsequently published a periodical called the Watchman.
In 1910 began a series of travels that transformed Garvey from an average person concerned about the problems of the underprivileged to an African nationalist determined to lift an entire race from bondage and debasement. He visited Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador. After briefly returning home, he proceeded to England, where contacts with African nationalists stimulated in him a keen interest in Africa and in black history. In each country he visited, he noted that the black man was in an inferior position, subject to the whim, caprice, and fancy of stronger races. His reading of Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery at this time also had great effect upon him.
On his return in 1914 from England, where he had done further study, Garvey formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities League. These organizations were intended "to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world."
In 1916 Garvey went to the United States to raise funds to carry on the work of his Jamaican organizations. He was immediately caught up in the agitation of the times, and his voice thundered in the evenings on the streets of Harlem in New York City. A New York branch of the UNIA was established, soon followed by branches in other cities in the United States, in Central and South America, and in the Caribbean. The expansion of the UNIA was fostered by its official organ Negro World, a newspaper published in English, Spanish, and French. Published in New York City from 1918 to 1933, it was succeeded by the monthly Black Man, which ran through the 1930s, published after 1934 in London.
The Negro World reached out to black communities all over the world. It even penetrated into the interior of Africa, although it had been banned there by the white rulers. Garvey stressed the need for blacks to return to Africa for the building of a great nation, but he realized that until this was accomplished Africans needed to make themselves economically independent wherever they were. He encouraged blacks to start their own businesses, taking the commerce of their ghettos into their own hands.
Together with the American clergyman Archbishop George A. McGuire, Garvey formed the African Orthodox Church. This was in accordance with one of his basic principles, for he believed that each race must see God through its own racial spectacles. The Black Christ and the Black Madonna were proclaimed at the UNIA convention of 1924.
The Black Star Line shipping company and the Negro Factories Corporation were to be the commercial arms of the Garvey movement. It was the failure of the shipping venture that gave Garvey's enemies their chance to destroy him. Investments in the line were lost, and Garvey was imprisoned in 1925 in the United States. After serving 2 years 10 months of a 5-year sentence, he was deported to Jamaica. Previously, his plans for colonization in Liberia had been sabotaged by the colonial powers who brought pressure to bear on the Liberian government. As a result, the land which had been granted to the Garvey organization for the settlement of overseas Africans was given to the white American industrialist Harvey Firestone, and the expensive equipment shipped to Liberia for the use of Garvey's colonists was seized.
In Jamaica, Garvey attempted to enter local politics, but the restricted franchise of the time did not allow the vote to the black masses. He went to England and continued his work of social protest and his call for the liberation of Africa. He died in London on June 10, 1940.
Marcus Garvey was married twice. His second wife, Amy Jacques, whom he married in 1922, bore him two sons.
The Garvey movement was the greatest international movement of African peoples in modern times. At its peak, in 1922-1924, the movement counted over 8 million followers. The youngest cadres were taken in at 5 years of age and, as they grew older, they graduated to the sections for older children.
Garvey emphasized the belief in the One God, the God of Africa, who should be visualized through black eyes. He told black people to become familiar with their ancient history and their rich cultural heritage. He called for pride in the black race - for example, he made black dolls for black children. His was the first voice clearly to demand black power. It was he who said, "A race without authority and power is a race without respect."
In emphasizing the need to have separate black institutions under black leadership, Garvey anticipated the mood and thinking of the future black nationalists by nearly 50 years. He died, as he lived, an unbending apostle of African nationalism. The symbols which he made famous, the black star of Africa and the red, black, and green flag of African liberation, continued to inspire younger generations of African nationalists.
Further Reading
For Garvey's views the definitive work is edited by his widow, Amy Jacques Garvey, Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (2 vols., 1923-1925). Her Garvey and Garveyism (1963) is a biography. E. David Cronon, Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1955), is a well-documented work which, however, fails to assess accurately Garvey's impact. A biographical sketch of Garvey is in Wilhelmena S. Robinson, Historical Negro Biographies (1967). See also E. Franklin Frazier, "The Garvey Movement" in August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, eds., The Making of Black America: Essays in Negro Life and History (1969), and C. L. R. James, A History of Pan-African Revolt (1969).
Nikola Tesla symbolizes a unifying force and inspiration for all nations in the name of peace and science. He was a true visionary far ahead of his contemporaries in the field of scientific development. New York State and many other states in the USA proclaimed July 10, Tesla’s birthday- Nikola Tesla Day.
Many United States Congressmen gave speeches in the House of Representatives on July 10, 1990 celebrating the 134th anniversary of scientist-inventor Nikola Tesla. Senator Levine from Michigan spoke in the US Senate on the same occasion.
The street sign “Nikola Tesla Corner” was recently placed on the corner of the 40th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. There is a large photo of Tesla in the Statue of Liberty Museum. The Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey has a daily science demonstration of the Tesla Coil creating a million volts of electricity before the spectators eyes. Many books were written about Tesla : Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla by John J. O’Neill and Margaret Cheney’s book Tesla: Man out of Time has contributed significantly to his fame. A documentary film Nikola Tesla, The Genius Who Lit the World, produced by the Tesla Memorial Society and the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, The Secret of Nikola Tesla (Orson Welles), BBC Film Masters of the Ionosphere are other tributes to the great genius.
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika, which was then part of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, region of Croatia. His father, Milutin Tesla was a Serbian Orthodox Priest and his mother Djuka Mandic was an inventor in her own right of household appliances. Tesla studied at the Realschule, Karlstadt in 1873, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague. At first, he intended to specialize in physics and mathematics, but soon he became fascinated with electricity. He began his career as an electrical engineer with a telephone company in Budapest in 1881. It was there, as Tesla was walking with a friend through the city park that the elusive solution to the rotating magnetic field flashed through his mind. With a stick, he drew a diagram in the sand explaining to his friend the principle of the induction motor. Before going to America, Tesla joined Continental Edison Company in Paris where he designed dynamos. While in Strassbourg in 1883, he privately built a prototype of the induction motor and ran it successfully. Unable to interest anyone in Europe in promoting this radical device, Tesla accepted an offer to work for Thomas Edison in New York. His childhood dream was to come to America to harness the power of Niagara Falls.
Young Nikola Tesla came to the United States in 1884 with an introduction letter from Charles Batchelor to Thomas Edison: “I know two great men,” wrote Batchelor, “one is you and the other is this young man.” Tesla spent the next 59 years of his productive life living in New York. Tesla set about improving Edison’s line of dynamos while working in Edison’s lab in New Jersey. It was here that his divergence of opinion with Edison over direct current versus alternating current began. This disagreement climaxed in the war of the currents as Edison fought a losing battle to protect his investment in direct current equipment and facilities.
Tesla pointed out the inefficiency of Edison’s direct current electrical powerhouses that have been build up and down the Atlantic seaboard. The secret, he felt, lay in the use of alternating current ,because to him all energies were cyclic. Why not build generators that would send electrical energy along distribution lines first one way, than another, in multiple waves using the polyphase principle?
Edison’s lamps were weak and inefficient when supplied by direct current. This system had a severe disadvantage in that it could not be transported more than two miles due to its inability to step up to high voltage levels necessary for long distance transmission. Consequently, a direct current power station was required at two mile intervals.
Direct current flows continuously in one direction; alternating current changes direction 50 or 60 times per second and can be stepped up to vary high voltage levels, minimizing power loss across great distances. The future belongs to alternating current.
Nikola Tesla developed polyphase alternating current system of generators, motors and transformers and held 40 basic U.S. patents on the system, which George Westinghouse bought, determined to supply America with the Tesla system. Edison did not want to lose his DC empire, and a bitter war ensued. This was the war of the currents between AC and DC. Tesla -Westinghouse ultimately emerged the victor because AC was a superior technology. It was a war won for the progress of both America and the world.
Tesla introduced his motors and electrical systems in a classic paper, “A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers” which he delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1888. One of the most impressed was the industrialist and inventor George Westinghouse. One day he visited Tesla’s laboratory and was amazed at what he saw. Tesla had constructed a model polyphase system consisting of an alternating current dynamo, step-up and step-down transformers and A.C. motor at the other end. The perfect partnership between Tesla and Westinghouse for the nationwide use of electricity in America had begun.
In February 1882, Tesla discovered the rotating magnetic field, a fundamental principle in physics and the basis of nearly all devices that use alternating current. Tesla brilliantly adapted the principle of rotating magnetic field for the construction of alternating current induction motor and the polyphase system for the generation, transmission, distribution and use of electrical power.
Tesla’s A.C. induction motor is widely used throughout the world in industry
and household appliances. It started the industrial revolution at the turn of the
century. Electricity today is generated transmitted and converted to mechanical
power by means of his inventions. Tesla’s greatest achievement is his polyphase
alternating current system, which is today lighting the entire globe.
Tesla astonished the world by demonstrating. the wonders of alternating current electricity at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Alternating current became standard power in the 20th Century. This accomplishment changed the world. He designed the first hydroelectric powerplant in Niagara Falls in 1895, which was the final victory of alternating current. The achievement was covered widely in the world press, and Tesla was praised as a hero world wide. King Nikola of Montenegro conferred upon him the Order of Danilo.
Tesla was a pioneer in many fields. The Tesla coil, which he invented in 1891, is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment. That year also marked the date of Tesla's United States citizenship. His alternating current induction motor is considered one of the ten greatest discoveries of all time. Among his discoveries are the fluorescent light , laser beam, wireless communications, wireless transmission of electrical energy, remote control, robotics, Tesla’s turbines and vertical take off aircraft. Tesla is the father of the radio and the modern electrical transmissions systems. He registered over 700 patents worldwide. His vision included exploration of solar energy and the power of the sea. He foresaw interplanetary communications and satellites.
The Century Magazine published Tesla's principles of telegraphy without wires, popularizing scientific lectures given before Franklin Institute in February 1893.
The Electrical Review in 1896 published X-rays of a man, made by Tesla, with X-ray tubes of his own design. They appeared at the same time as when Roentgen announced his discovery of X-rays. Tesla never attempted to proclaim priority. Roentgen congratulated Tesla on his sophisticated X-ray pictures, and Tesla even wrote Roentgen's name on one of his films. He experimented with shadowgraphs similar to those that later were to be used by Wilhelm Rontgen when he discovered X-rays in 1895. Tesla's countless experiments included work on a carbon button lamp, on the power of electrical resonance, and on various types of lightning. Tesla invented the special vacuum tube which emitted light to be used in photography.
The breadth of his inventions is demonstrated by his patents for a bladeless steam turbine based on a spiral flow principle. Tesla also patented a pump design to operate at extremely high temperature.
Nikola Tesla patented the basic system of radio in 1896. His published schematic diagrams describing all the basic elements of the radio transmitter which was later used by Marconi.
In 1896 Tesla constructed an instrument to receive radio waves. He experimented with this device and transmitted radio waves from his laboratory on South 5th Avenue. to the Gerlach Hotel at 27th Street in Manhattan. The device had a magnet which gave off intense magnetic fields up to 20,000 lines per centimeter. The radio device clearly establishes his piority in the discovery of radio.
The shipboard quench-spark transmitter produced by the Lowenstein Radio Company and licensed under Nikola Tesla Company patents, was installed on the U.S. Naval vessels prior to World War I.
In December 1901, Marconi established wireless communication between Britain and the Newfoundland, Canada, earning him the Nobel prize in 1909. But much of Marconi's work was not original. In 1864, James Maxwell theorized electromagnetic waves. In 1887, Heinrich Hertz proved Maxwell's theories. Later, Sir Oliver Logde extended the Hertz prototype system. The Brandley coherer increased the distance messages could be transmitted. The coherer was perfected by Marconi.
However, the heart of radio transmission is based upon four tuned circuits for transmitting and receiving. It is Tesla's original concept demonstrated in his famous lecture at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1893. The four circuits, used in two pairs, are still a fundamental part of all radio and television equipment.
The United States Supreme Court, in 1943 held Marconi's most important patent invalid, recognizing Tesla's more significant contribution as the inventor of radio technology.
Tesla built an experimental station in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1899, to experiment with high voltage, high frequency electricity and other phenomena.
When the Colorado Springs Tesla Coil magnifying transmitter was energized, it created sparks 30 feet long. From the outside antenna, these sparks could be seen from a distance of ten miles. From this laboratory, Tesla generated and sent out wireless waves which mediated energy, without wires for miles.
In Colorado Springs, where he stayed from May 1899 until 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery-- terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that the Earth could be used as a conductor and would be as responsive as a tuning fork to electrical vibrations of a certain frequency. He also lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles( 40 kilometers) and created man-made lightning. At one time he was certain he had received signals from another planet in his Colorado laboratory, a claim that was met with disbelief in some scientific journals.
The old Waldorf Astoria was the residence of Nikola Tesla for many years. He lived there when he was at the height of financial and intellectual power. Tesla organized elaborate dinners, inviting famous people who later witnessed spectacular electrical experiments in his laboratory.
Financially supported by J. Pierpont Morgan, Tesla built the Wardenclyffe laboratory and its famous transmitting tower in Shoreham, Long Island between 1901 and 1905. This huge landmark was 187 feet high, capped by a 68-foot copper dome which housed the magnifying transmitter. It was planned to be the first broadcast system, transmitting both signals and power without wires to any point on the globe. The huge magnifying transmitter, discharging high frequency electricity, would turn the earth into a gigantic dynamo which would project its electricity in unlimited amounts anywhere in the world.
Tesla's concept of wireless electricity was used to power ocean liners, destroy warships, run industry and transportation and send communications instantaneously all over the globe. To stimulate the public's imagination, Tesla suggested that this wireless power could even be used for interplanetary communication. If Tesla were confident to reach Mars, how much less difficult to reach Paris. Many newspapers and periodicals interviewed Tesla and described his new system for supplying wireless power to run all of the earth's industry.
Because of a dispute between Morgan and Tesla as to the final use of the tower. Morgan withdrew his funds. The financier's classic comment was, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?"
The erected, but incomplete tower was demolished in 1917 for wartime security reasons. The site where the Wardenclyffe tower stood still exists with its 100 feet deep foundation still intact. Tesla's laboratory designed by Stanford White in 1901 is today still in good condition and is graced with a bicentennial plaque.
Tesla lectured to the scientific community on his inventions in New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis and before scientific organizations in both England and France in 1892. Tesla’s lectures and writings of the 1890s aroused wide admiration among contemporaries popularized his inventions and inspired untold numbers of younger men to enter the new field of radio and electrical science.
Nikola Tesla was one of the most celebrated personalities in the American press, in this century. According to Life Magazine's special issue of September, 1997, Tesla is among the 100 most famous people of the last 1,000 years. He is one of the great men who divert the stream of human history. Tesla's celebrity was in its height at the turn of the century. His discoveries, inventions and vision had widespread acceptance by the public, the scientific community and American press. Tesla's discoveries had extensive coverage in the scientific journals, the daily and weekly press as well as in the foremost literary and intellectual publications of the day. He was the Super Star.
Tesla wrote many autobiographical articles for the prominent journal Electrical Experimenter, collected in the book, My Inventions. Tesla was gifted with intense powers of visualization and exceptional memory from early youth on. He was able to fully construct, develop and perfect his inventions completely in his mind before committing them to paper.
According to Hugo Gernsback, Tesla was possessed of a striking physical appearance over six feet tall with deep set eyes and a stately manner. His impressions of Tesla, were of a man endowed with remarkable physical and mental freshness, ready to surprise the world with more and more inventions as he grew older. A lifelong bachelor he led a somewhat isolated existence, devoting his full energies to science.
In 1894, he was given honorary doctoral degrees by Columbia and Yale University and the Elliot Cresson medal by the Franklin Institute. In 1934, the city of Philadelphia awarded him the John Scott medal for his polyphase power system. He was an honorary member of the National Electric Light Association and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On one occasion, he turned down an invitation from Kaiser Wilhelm II to come to Germany to demonstrate his experiments and to receive a high decoration.
In 1915, a New York Times article announced that Tesla and Edison were to share the Nobel Prize for physics. Oddly, neither man received the prize, the reason being unclear. It was rumored that Tesla refused the prize because he would not share with Edison, and because Marconi had already received his
Tesla died on January 7th, 1943 in the Hotel New Yorker, where he had lived for the last ten years of his life. Room 3327 on the 33rd floor is the two-room suites he occupied.
A state funeral was held at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City. Telegrams of condolence were received from many notables, including the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Vice President Wallace. Over 2000 people attended, including several Nobel Laureates. He was cremated in Ardsley on the Hudson, New York. His ashes were interned in a golden sphere, Tesla’s favorite shape, on permanent display at the Tesla Museum in Belgrade along with his death mask.
In his speech presenting Tesla with the Edison medal, Vice President Behrend of the Institute of Electrical Engineers eloquently expressed the following: "Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the result of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark and our mills would be idle and dead. His name marks an epoch in the advance of electrical science." Mr. Behrend ended his speech with a paraphrase of Pope's lines on Newton: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid by night. God said 'Let Tesla be' and all was light."
That aside, andtheir pioneering spirit, the two were almost certainly in New York atthe same time before garvey's deportation from the United States in 1927. Its certainly plausible that they may have at least heard of each other, given the stir their repsaective acitivities caused in their respective fields.
Could they have met?
Could have exchanged ideas?
What would they have said to each other?
What possible repercussions could such a conversation have hahd for present-day civilization?
Thisp roject explores those questions and others. Below are basic biographies of both men
Marcus Mosiah Garvey (1887-1940), a black man from the West Indies, was the first to forcefully articulate the concept of African nationalism - of black people returning to Africa, the continent of their forefathers, to build a great nation of their own.
Marcus Garvey was born in St. Ann's Bay, Jamaica, on Aug. 17, 1887. He went to elementary school there and at the age of 14 became an apprentice in the printing trade. In 1903 he went to the capital, Kingston, to work as a printer. He soon became involved in public activities and helped form the Printers Union, the first trade union in Jamaica. He subsequently published a periodical called the Watchman.
In 1910 began a series of travels that transformed Garvey from an average person concerned about the problems of the underprivileged to an African nationalist determined to lift an entire race from bondage and debasement. He visited Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador. After briefly returning home, he proceeded to England, where contacts with African nationalists stimulated in him a keen interest in Africa and in black history. In each country he visited, he noted that the black man was in an inferior position, subject to the whim, caprice, and fancy of stronger races. His reading of Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery at this time also had great effect upon him.
On his return in 1914 from England, where he had done further study, Garvey formed the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) and the African Communities League. These organizations were intended "to work for the general uplift of the Negro peoples of the world."
In 1916 Garvey went to the United States to raise funds to carry on the work of his Jamaican organizations. He was immediately caught up in the agitation of the times, and his voice thundered in the evenings on the streets of Harlem in New York City. A New York branch of the UNIA was established, soon followed by branches in other cities in the United States, in Central and South America, and in the Caribbean. The expansion of the UNIA was fostered by its official organ Negro World, a newspaper published in English, Spanish, and French. Published in New York City from 1918 to 1933, it was succeeded by the monthly Black Man, which ran through the 1930s, published after 1934 in London.
The Negro World reached out to black communities all over the world. It even penetrated into the interior of Africa, although it had been banned there by the white rulers. Garvey stressed the need for blacks to return to Africa for the building of a great nation, but he realized that until this was accomplished Africans needed to make themselves economically independent wherever they were. He encouraged blacks to start their own businesses, taking the commerce of their ghettos into their own hands.
Together with the American clergyman Archbishop George A. McGuire, Garvey formed the African Orthodox Church. This was in accordance with one of his basic principles, for he believed that each race must see God through its own racial spectacles. The Black Christ and the Black Madonna were proclaimed at the UNIA convention of 1924.
The Black Star Line shipping company and the Negro Factories Corporation were to be the commercial arms of the Garvey movement. It was the failure of the shipping venture that gave Garvey's enemies their chance to destroy him. Investments in the line were lost, and Garvey was imprisoned in 1925 in the United States. After serving 2 years 10 months of a 5-year sentence, he was deported to Jamaica. Previously, his plans for colonization in Liberia had been sabotaged by the colonial powers who brought pressure to bear on the Liberian government. As a result, the land which had been granted to the Garvey organization for the settlement of overseas Africans was given to the white American industrialist Harvey Firestone, and the expensive equipment shipped to Liberia for the use of Garvey's colonists was seized.
In Jamaica, Garvey attempted to enter local politics, but the restricted franchise of the time did not allow the vote to the black masses. He went to England and continued his work of social protest and his call for the liberation of Africa. He died in London on June 10, 1940.
Marcus Garvey was married twice. His second wife, Amy Jacques, whom he married in 1922, bore him two sons.
The Garvey movement was the greatest international movement of African peoples in modern times. At its peak, in 1922-1924, the movement counted over 8 million followers. The youngest cadres were taken in at 5 years of age and, as they grew older, they graduated to the sections for older children.
Garvey emphasized the belief in the One God, the God of Africa, who should be visualized through black eyes. He told black people to become familiar with their ancient history and their rich cultural heritage. He called for pride in the black race - for example, he made black dolls for black children. His was the first voice clearly to demand black power. It was he who said, "A race without authority and power is a race without respect."
In emphasizing the need to have separate black institutions under black leadership, Garvey anticipated the mood and thinking of the future black nationalists by nearly 50 years. He died, as he lived, an unbending apostle of African nationalism. The symbols which he made famous, the black star of Africa and the red, black, and green flag of African liberation, continued to inspire younger generations of African nationalists.
Further Reading
For Garvey's views the definitive work is edited by his widow, Amy Jacques Garvey, Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey (2 vols., 1923-1925). Her Garvey and Garveyism (1963) is a biography. E. David Cronon, Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (1955), is a well-documented work which, however, fails to assess accurately Garvey's impact. A biographical sketch of Garvey is in Wilhelmena S. Robinson, Historical Negro Biographies (1967). See also E. Franklin Frazier, "The Garvey Movement" in August Meier and Elliott Rudwick, eds., The Making of Black America: Essays in Negro Life and History (1969), and C. L. R. James, A History of Pan-African Revolt (1969).
Nikola Tesla symbolizes a unifying force and inspiration for all nations in the name of peace and science. He was a true visionary far ahead of his contemporaries in the field of scientific development. New York State and many other states in the USA proclaimed July 10, Tesla’s birthday- Nikola Tesla Day.
Many United States Congressmen gave speeches in the House of Representatives on July 10, 1990 celebrating the 134th anniversary of scientist-inventor Nikola Tesla. Senator Levine from Michigan spoke in the US Senate on the same occasion.
The street sign “Nikola Tesla Corner” was recently placed on the corner of the 40th Street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan. There is a large photo of Tesla in the Statue of Liberty Museum. The Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, New Jersey has a daily science demonstration of the Tesla Coil creating a million volts of electricity before the spectators eyes. Many books were written about Tesla : Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla by John J. O’Neill and Margaret Cheney’s book Tesla: Man out of Time has contributed significantly to his fame. A documentary film Nikola Tesla, The Genius Who Lit the World, produced by the Tesla Memorial Society and the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, The Secret of Nikola Tesla (Orson Welles), BBC Film Masters of the Ionosphere are other tributes to the great genius.
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika, which was then part of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, region of Croatia. His father, Milutin Tesla was a Serbian Orthodox Priest and his mother Djuka Mandic was an inventor in her own right of household appliances. Tesla studied at the Realschule, Karlstadt in 1873, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague. At first, he intended to specialize in physics and mathematics, but soon he became fascinated with electricity. He began his career as an electrical engineer with a telephone company in Budapest in 1881. It was there, as Tesla was walking with a friend through the city park that the elusive solution to the rotating magnetic field flashed through his mind. With a stick, he drew a diagram in the sand explaining to his friend the principle of the induction motor. Before going to America, Tesla joined Continental Edison Company in Paris where he designed dynamos. While in Strassbourg in 1883, he privately built a prototype of the induction motor and ran it successfully. Unable to interest anyone in Europe in promoting this radical device, Tesla accepted an offer to work for Thomas Edison in New York. His childhood dream was to come to America to harness the power of Niagara Falls.
Young Nikola Tesla came to the United States in 1884 with an introduction letter from Charles Batchelor to Thomas Edison: “I know two great men,” wrote Batchelor, “one is you and the other is this young man.” Tesla spent the next 59 years of his productive life living in New York. Tesla set about improving Edison’s line of dynamos while working in Edison’s lab in New Jersey. It was here that his divergence of opinion with Edison over direct current versus alternating current began. This disagreement climaxed in the war of the currents as Edison fought a losing battle to protect his investment in direct current equipment and facilities.
Tesla pointed out the inefficiency of Edison’s direct current electrical powerhouses that have been build up and down the Atlantic seaboard. The secret, he felt, lay in the use of alternating current ,because to him all energies were cyclic. Why not build generators that would send electrical energy along distribution lines first one way, than another, in multiple waves using the polyphase principle?
Edison’s lamps were weak and inefficient when supplied by direct current. This system had a severe disadvantage in that it could not be transported more than two miles due to its inability to step up to high voltage levels necessary for long distance transmission. Consequently, a direct current power station was required at two mile intervals.
Direct current flows continuously in one direction; alternating current changes direction 50 or 60 times per second and can be stepped up to vary high voltage levels, minimizing power loss across great distances. The future belongs to alternating current.
Nikola Tesla developed polyphase alternating current system of generators, motors and transformers and held 40 basic U.S. patents on the system, which George Westinghouse bought, determined to supply America with the Tesla system. Edison did not want to lose his DC empire, and a bitter war ensued. This was the war of the currents between AC and DC. Tesla -Westinghouse ultimately emerged the victor because AC was a superior technology. It was a war won for the progress of both America and the world.
Tesla introduced his motors and electrical systems in a classic paper, “A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers” which he delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1888. One of the most impressed was the industrialist and inventor George Westinghouse. One day he visited Tesla’s laboratory and was amazed at what he saw. Tesla had constructed a model polyphase system consisting of an alternating current dynamo, step-up and step-down transformers and A.C. motor at the other end. The perfect partnership between Tesla and Westinghouse for the nationwide use of electricity in America had begun.
In February 1882, Tesla discovered the rotating magnetic field, a fundamental principle in physics and the basis of nearly all devices that use alternating current. Tesla brilliantly adapted the principle of rotating magnetic field for the construction of alternating current induction motor and the polyphase system for the generation, transmission, distribution and use of electrical power.
Tesla’s A.C. induction motor is widely used throughout the world in industry
and household appliances. It started the industrial revolution at the turn of the
century. Electricity today is generated transmitted and converted to mechanical
power by means of his inventions. Tesla’s greatest achievement is his polyphase
alternating current system, which is today lighting the entire globe.
Tesla astonished the world by demonstrating. the wonders of alternating current electricity at the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Alternating current became standard power in the 20th Century. This accomplishment changed the world. He designed the first hydroelectric powerplant in Niagara Falls in 1895, which was the final victory of alternating current. The achievement was covered widely in the world press, and Tesla was praised as a hero world wide. King Nikola of Montenegro conferred upon him the Order of Danilo.
Tesla was a pioneer in many fields. The Tesla coil, which he invented in 1891, is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment. That year also marked the date of Tesla's United States citizenship. His alternating current induction motor is considered one of the ten greatest discoveries of all time. Among his discoveries are the fluorescent light , laser beam, wireless communications, wireless transmission of electrical energy, remote control, robotics, Tesla’s turbines and vertical take off aircraft. Tesla is the father of the radio and the modern electrical transmissions systems. He registered over 700 patents worldwide. His vision included exploration of solar energy and the power of the sea. He foresaw interplanetary communications and satellites.
The Century Magazine published Tesla's principles of telegraphy without wires, popularizing scientific lectures given before Franklin Institute in February 1893.
The Electrical Review in 1896 published X-rays of a man, made by Tesla, with X-ray tubes of his own design. They appeared at the same time as when Roentgen announced his discovery of X-rays. Tesla never attempted to proclaim priority. Roentgen congratulated Tesla on his sophisticated X-ray pictures, and Tesla even wrote Roentgen's name on one of his films. He experimented with shadowgraphs similar to those that later were to be used by Wilhelm Rontgen when he discovered X-rays in 1895. Tesla's countless experiments included work on a carbon button lamp, on the power of electrical resonance, and on various types of lightning. Tesla invented the special vacuum tube which emitted light to be used in photography.
The breadth of his inventions is demonstrated by his patents for a bladeless steam turbine based on a spiral flow principle. Tesla also patented a pump design to operate at extremely high temperature.
Nikola Tesla patented the basic system of radio in 1896. His published schematic diagrams describing all the basic elements of the radio transmitter which was later used by Marconi.
In 1896 Tesla constructed an instrument to receive radio waves. He experimented with this device and transmitted radio waves from his laboratory on South 5th Avenue. to the Gerlach Hotel at 27th Street in Manhattan. The device had a magnet which gave off intense magnetic fields up to 20,000 lines per centimeter. The radio device clearly establishes his piority in the discovery of radio.
The shipboard quench-spark transmitter produced by the Lowenstein Radio Company and licensed under Nikola Tesla Company patents, was installed on the U.S. Naval vessels prior to World War I.
In December 1901, Marconi established wireless communication between Britain and the Newfoundland, Canada, earning him the Nobel prize in 1909. But much of Marconi's work was not original. In 1864, James Maxwell theorized electromagnetic waves. In 1887, Heinrich Hertz proved Maxwell's theories. Later, Sir Oliver Logde extended the Hertz prototype system. The Brandley coherer increased the distance messages could be transmitted. The coherer was perfected by Marconi.
However, the heart of radio transmission is based upon four tuned circuits for transmitting and receiving. It is Tesla's original concept demonstrated in his famous lecture at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1893. The four circuits, used in two pairs, are still a fundamental part of all radio and television equipment.
The United States Supreme Court, in 1943 held Marconi's most important patent invalid, recognizing Tesla's more significant contribution as the inventor of radio technology.
Tesla built an experimental station in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1899, to experiment with high voltage, high frequency electricity and other phenomena.
When the Colorado Springs Tesla Coil magnifying transmitter was energized, it created sparks 30 feet long. From the outside antenna, these sparks could be seen from a distance of ten miles. From this laboratory, Tesla generated and sent out wireless waves which mediated energy, without wires for miles.
In Colorado Springs, where he stayed from May 1899 until 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery-- terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that the Earth could be used as a conductor and would be as responsive as a tuning fork to electrical vibrations of a certain frequency. He also lighted 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles( 40 kilometers) and created man-made lightning. At one time he was certain he had received signals from another planet in his Colorado laboratory, a claim that was met with disbelief in some scientific journals.
The old Waldorf Astoria was the residence of Nikola Tesla for many years. He lived there when he was at the height of financial and intellectual power. Tesla organized elaborate dinners, inviting famous people who later witnessed spectacular electrical experiments in his laboratory.
Financially supported by J. Pierpont Morgan, Tesla built the Wardenclyffe laboratory and its famous transmitting tower in Shoreham, Long Island between 1901 and 1905. This huge landmark was 187 feet high, capped by a 68-foot copper dome which housed the magnifying transmitter. It was planned to be the first broadcast system, transmitting both signals and power without wires to any point on the globe. The huge magnifying transmitter, discharging high frequency electricity, would turn the earth into a gigantic dynamo which would project its electricity in unlimited amounts anywhere in the world.
Tesla's concept of wireless electricity was used to power ocean liners, destroy warships, run industry and transportation and send communications instantaneously all over the globe. To stimulate the public's imagination, Tesla suggested that this wireless power could even be used for interplanetary communication. If Tesla were confident to reach Mars, how much less difficult to reach Paris. Many newspapers and periodicals interviewed Tesla and described his new system for supplying wireless power to run all of the earth's industry.
Because of a dispute between Morgan and Tesla as to the final use of the tower. Morgan withdrew his funds. The financier's classic comment was, "If anyone can draw on the power, where do we put the meter?"
The erected, but incomplete tower was demolished in 1917 for wartime security reasons. The site where the Wardenclyffe tower stood still exists with its 100 feet deep foundation still intact. Tesla's laboratory designed by Stanford White in 1901 is today still in good condition and is graced with a bicentennial plaque.
Tesla lectured to the scientific community on his inventions in New York, Philadelphia and St. Louis and before scientific organizations in both England and France in 1892. Tesla’s lectures and writings of the 1890s aroused wide admiration among contemporaries popularized his inventions and inspired untold numbers of younger men to enter the new field of radio and electrical science.
Nikola Tesla was one of the most celebrated personalities in the American press, in this century. According to Life Magazine's special issue of September, 1997, Tesla is among the 100 most famous people of the last 1,000 years. He is one of the great men who divert the stream of human history. Tesla's celebrity was in its height at the turn of the century. His discoveries, inventions and vision had widespread acceptance by the public, the scientific community and American press. Tesla's discoveries had extensive coverage in the scientific journals, the daily and weekly press as well as in the foremost literary and intellectual publications of the day. He was the Super Star.
Tesla wrote many autobiographical articles for the prominent journal Electrical Experimenter, collected in the book, My Inventions. Tesla was gifted with intense powers of visualization and exceptional memory from early youth on. He was able to fully construct, develop and perfect his inventions completely in his mind before committing them to paper.
According to Hugo Gernsback, Tesla was possessed of a striking physical appearance over six feet tall with deep set eyes and a stately manner. His impressions of Tesla, were of a man endowed with remarkable physical and mental freshness, ready to surprise the world with more and more inventions as he grew older. A lifelong bachelor he led a somewhat isolated existence, devoting his full energies to science.
In 1894, he was given honorary doctoral degrees by Columbia and Yale University and the Elliot Cresson medal by the Franklin Institute. In 1934, the city of Philadelphia awarded him the John Scott medal for his polyphase power system. He was an honorary member of the National Electric Light Association and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. On one occasion, he turned down an invitation from Kaiser Wilhelm II to come to Germany to demonstrate his experiments and to receive a high decoration.
In 1915, a New York Times article announced that Tesla and Edison were to share the Nobel Prize for physics. Oddly, neither man received the prize, the reason being unclear. It was rumored that Tesla refused the prize because he would not share with Edison, and because Marconi had already received his
Tesla died on January 7th, 1943 in the Hotel New Yorker, where he had lived for the last ten years of his life. Room 3327 on the 33rd floor is the two-room suites he occupied.
A state funeral was held at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City. Telegrams of condolence were received from many notables, including the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Vice President Wallace. Over 2000 people attended, including several Nobel Laureates. He was cremated in Ardsley on the Hudson, New York. His ashes were interned in a golden sphere, Tesla’s favorite shape, on permanent display at the Tesla Museum in Belgrade along with his death mask.
In his speech presenting Tesla with the Edison medal, Vice President Behrend of the Institute of Electrical Engineers eloquently expressed the following: "Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the result of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark and our mills would be idle and dead. His name marks an epoch in the advance of electrical science." Mr. Behrend ended his speech with a paraphrase of Pope's lines on Newton: "Nature and nature's laws lay hid by night. God said 'Let Tesla be' and all was light."
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