Lotta geeks in CA.
In Livermore, CA, home of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), a govt research lab staffed by 10K geeks, there's the well known and well traveled Tesla Rd that borders the South of town. Having once lived in Livermore and worked at LLNL, I've no doubt the name is no coincidence. WV has a DOE lab, too.
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Agent can set it self to use the Agent servers when you install it. First step though, is to know that news servers exist and news readers read them. Pick 10 computer users at random and see how many know about newsgroups. Even Google groups for that matter.
Is that "Forte Agent" ?
Aside from ancient versions of that software - is it still only offered only as a paid ($) product?
Maybe that's why the company has their own nntp server?
That's a different issue compared to whether or not usenet is "easy" to access for the average person.
I remember reading that The FBI confiscated Tesla's papers after he died. I suppose he was one of the first American inventors to have the body of his work wind up seized and "classified" by the government. Perhaps that's one of the reasons not much is written about him because the bulk of his work has not been available to researchers and historians? O_o
TDD
Almost 65 months? ^_^
TDD
aioe.org is a wonderful service but I seem to recall a 25 post per day limit. ^_^
TDD
Better than political stuff, but probably still OT, as marked. To get beyond OT filters and to still discuss Tesla, you might have started discussing what it would take to repair the building they're talking about - the one that's been home to raccoons and other critters according to one article I read. That's a legitimate topic.
What does it take to do historically accurate repairs to a home? I know someone who bought a house that was on a historic register and who had to agree to restore it as accurately as possible. Very pricey and labor-intensive. In this case, there are wildly varying estimates of what it would take to restore Tesla's labs, probably based on wildly varying visions of what a restoration should look like.
In America, that's simple. Tesla came from behind the Iron Curtain and such people tend to fade away from American history. That's not unusual, though. Look at Harry: The British educational system he grew up in really taught Brits to believe they had won the war with just a little help from America. Talk to a Russian about world history and you'll get a very different picture of the last 100 years. Each country has its own perspective. My K-12 education basically omitted the existence, in any positive way, of the Soviet Union. I attribute that to the McCarthy witch hunts for communists and the effect it had on the educational system of this country. The fact that he went bonkers before his died dead broke didn't help his cause. (-:
But many do. A brilliant scientist, a bad businessman and somewhere between Michael Jackson and Mel Gibson on the crazy spectrum.
Neil Armstrong. Ben Franklin. Alexander Graham Bell. Henry Ford. Thomas Edison. Nikola Tesla. That last one doesn't quite fit.
During which large animals, like elephants, were publicly electrocuted.
It was that eccentricity that helped deny the fame that would be equal to his contribution to society.
Too bad that realistic estimates for the restoration of the grounds, the building and his laboratories outrun that money collected by millions. If all the smaller Tesla charities pooled their resources, they might succeed. Not many people seem to believe that will ever happen. The money they've raised so far is probably enough to stem further deterioration but not enough to really restore the laboratory.
He was the mold from which geeks are cast. His genius attracted financial backers but his oddness then repelled them and they tended not to follow through on financing promises. Sort of ironic that the man responsible for alternating current had an alternating personality and was probably bipolar - or worse.
Would *you* want to invest in a guy who had a brilliant track record but had a thing for pigeons? I tend to believe that some people like Tesla are able to redirect the part of the brain normally dedicated to social interaction into their research and thereby make connections normal people might never see. The cost, however, is being a hermit. Or worse. Lots of great people fit that mold.
We've already got death rays and I've seen a UFO so maybe he really was one of those people that seem to be able to look into the future. (-:
-- Bobby G.
It might have also been due to there not being any. Tesla had a photographic memory and was notorious for not keeping plans/docs, etc. Besides, anything the FBI says is suspect. This is interesting:
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He was well known in his productive years, but had some odd ideas in old age that were covered too well by the media. About all I knew about Tesla up through an ee degree was Tesla coils, which were in electronics magazines. There are some good biographies on Tesla.
What may be the best reason he is close to unknown is, ironically, that he successfully covered induction motor design with patents. Induction motors could not be made without infringing on Tesla patents (that were bought by Westinghouse). And companies did infringe on his patents. It was not in the interest of companies to give Tesla any credit. And that influenced the writing of the history of technology. One of the very often used engineering books then was written by Steinmetz, who worked for GE, which was the successor company to Edison Electric. Steinnmetz pretty much ignored Tesla' contributions.
In another field, Tesla's patent priority over some of Marconi's was not established until after WW2 by the Supreme Court. Not exactly headline news then.
Exaggerations by some of his current fans don't help either.
Tesla did not come from behind the iron curtain. He emigrated to the USA in the late 1800's long before communism took over Eastern Europe and long before the iron curtain existed.
It also assumes some bias on the part of Americans to ignore major inventors because of where they came from. It's not that inventors from behnd the iron curtain fade away. It's that those in the class of Edison didn't exist. What inventor from behind the iron curtain was in the class of Edison? It's what you'd expect from a system that crushes personal freedom, incentives to produce and generates countries that are for the most part, failures at technology. There were definitely some inventors behind the iron curtain that achieved major results in specific fields, but none that touched the lives of people the world over as Edison did. He invented the phonograph, stock ticker, added sound to movies. His light bulb lit up peoples homes and cities and they could hold it in their hands. Those are major inventions in very different fields and ones that people interacted with in their everyday lives.
Tesla played a key role in developing AC power systems. But manyt of his contributions were improvements on existing work. They were major improvements, but still improvements. For example, key to AC power was the induction motor. Tesla didn't invent the motor itself, he found a way to make an AC motor that was far superior. But I think it's kind of obvious why people would not remember that or give it the significance of Edison's inventions.
I found another discussion about the BBC article on Tesla at Reddit. It wasn't very interesting but one of the messages had a link to this:
Let me set the record straight about myself.
All you have to do is look up the "Philadelphia Experiment", also known as the "Montauk Experiment".
The Philadelphia Experiment was a time travel experiment that took place in Philadelphia Harbor in August of 1943. It was also an invisibility experiment. The goal of the US government was to make the navy ships invisible to defeat the German navy. The Philadelphia experiment was our government's first attempt at stealth technology, making a ship invisible to radar.
The navy ship, US Eldridge became invisible for a period of time. The ship became invisible but the personnel couldn't take the effects. When it materialized again, several hours later the bodies of many of the crew members were actually part of the physical makeup of the ship. Many of them died. Body parts had to be amputated. Many of the men went insane.
Carlos Allende was a merchant marine in the Philadelphia harbor when the Philadelphia experiment was tried. In his notes he spoke of a terrible experiment he had witnessed on a ship named the USS Eldridge back in the days of World War II. The notes verify this story.
The initial research that led up to the disastrous experiment in the Philadelphia naval ship yard in 1943 was conducted years earlier by Albert Einstein and myself. In the 1930's I became involved with a group that was experimenting with moving through the Time/Space continuum.
Experiments started in Princeton University back in 1939. We made small objects invisible. We presented this technology to the government. The military, because we were at war wanted to pursue it in their direction. I had finally come to the same conclusion that Einstein did that this technology if developed would not be used for the benefit of mankind.
In 1943 the government conducted a test using domestic animals on a ship. They were placed in metal cages on the USS Eldridge. The ship became invisible but when it materialized many of the animals were missing on had radiation and other burn marks on them.
On August 12, 1943 the USS Eldridge with a full crew aboard underwent the Philadelphia experiment. The men did not know what was to happen. The generators were fired up. The switches were thrown. The ship disappeared and all seemed real.
But the ship was gone from the harbor for about 4 hours, not just a few minutes. The ship was transported through space and time. It arced through Space / Time.
Four hours later it returned to its original place. There was a greenish haze on deck. Some of the sailors were on fire. Some seemed insane. All were sick. Some had heart attacks. Some were dead. Some were part of the super structure of the ship, buried in the deck or walls of the ship. Some men just seemed to disappear and were never seen again.
But where had the ship gone for 4 hours? Some witnesses placed it in Norfolk Harbor (but this was not correct). It actually 40 years into the future and wound up at Montauk, New York.
The Navy denied everything and said the men were lost at sea. Perhaps one day the truth will be known.
Hence the world's best battery-powered car is named for him. :-|
I think you wouldn't have typed that without prior awareness that his employees are rumored to have done most of the work.
The induction motor made AC not only practical, but superior. I believe Tesla also invented multiphase AC - both motors and power systems. And Tesla was a strong advocate for AC power systems. In his productive years Tesla was well known.
Edison, I believe, invented the industrial research lab. Would be interesting how many inventions were from Edison, or had major contributions from Edison, as opposed to his employees.
That doesn't say much for battery-powered cars.
The ratio would still be interesting; how true are the rumors?
Likely uses a DC powered VFD converter with a version of an AC motor.
Diesel locomotives used DC traction motors but new ones, as far as I know, convert DC to variable frequency AC.
Actually I have not heard rumors. I know Edison probably invented the industrial research lab and had many employees. Some employees were in support functions, like machinist. Would be interesting how may patents had significant contributions from Edison. He was hard working, but probably didn't have much background in science.
Any good biographies that cover good and bad?
OK, now the name makes more sense. Tesla Motor's machines do indeed use a 3-phase induction motor.
Haven't read any bios. I think it was a TV documentary years ago that talked about Edison's "invention sweat shop."
Wow, interesting article. We do have a bit of room for improvement in battery technology, certainly. Lithium-ion is known for high energy density, but it's not a forgiving technology as far as recharge requirements.
The thing that Tesla has going for it has always been that their cars are not golf carts, like other "alternative" cars. I'd still buy one if it was in my price range, despite the dead battery concern. Maybe they have an optional baseball bat accessory that whacks you in the head when the battery gets dangerously low.
How about the scenario where you drive to the airport and leave it for an extended vacation. It's only "low" when you get there but two weeks later it's now "dangerously low" going on "bricked". Who does the baseball bat whack? My suggestion would be the dealer, but...
No thanks.
Obviously, the airport parking lot is not an option for this car ... not a concern for my particular lifestyle, though. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
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