Nikola Tesla’s 156th birthday.
Give thanks as you enjoy the convenience of polyphase AC
Not to mention the Tesla Coil. Makes your hair stand on end. Ya think it could replace Viagara?
Oops, wait, maybe I was thinking of the Van de Graaff generator. Sorry, I flunked physics.
So what is the Tesla Coil?
Shoulda Googled first. Turns out the Tesla Coil and the Van de Graaff Generator are somewhat similar and presumably can produce the same effects (i.e. make your hair stand on end). Back in the day, my neighbor, good friend and mentor introduced me to one of these devices at the University of Buffalo’s science lab. And yeah, it did make his sister’s hair stand on end (we guys weren’t about to do it to ourselves).
And radio and TV. Marconi filed his patent for “wireless transmission” a year after Tesla did. Tesla was awarded the patent around 1900 but it was overturned in 1915. Tesla sued and it took 30 years for the supreme court to reinstate the patent to Mr. Tesla but it was a little late - Tesla had died the year before.
He was always one of my heroes. He was definitely a unique and brilliant individual. He worked on so many things at the same time. There are a lot of conspiracy theories about powerful weapons he developed based on resonance theory, and about the infamous Philadelphia Experiment. He still has a cult like following to this day.
Bruce
I wouldn’t mind a 2012 Tesla all electric roadster. 200 mile range on a charge.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/jebouck/Tesla.jpg)
Yes, but can you get in and out of it? I know I could not, too old and too stiff! Make it a bit larger and I would be interested.
Paul
HS Physics teacher had a handheld tesla coil that could throw steady arcs half way across the room. It was fun to play with. One day, he asked, "If I was to zap you with this, would you rather be holding this insulated tool, or this uninsulated one.
Of course, somebody volunteered to hold the insulated one and got zapped. It would make you shout “YOW!” Since I knew the physics of the thing, I held the uninsulated one, and as it was zapping away, the teacher was explaining why it wasn’t hurting me. It’s the spark itself that hurts, not the tiny, high frequency current. That’s how they do those demos where the guy has huge sparks all over the place. As I was feeling smug, I got too close to one of those little rivets in the school desk, and it arced through my pants and “YOW!” So I got to explain why that DID hurt.
For a pep rally, we ran a wire along the sophomore bleachers, right under the edge of the wood seat where nobody would notice. They then introduced a game to see which class could jump on time best with the cheerleaders. The seniors did it. The juniors did it. The freshmen did it (somebody should have been getting suspicious by now). Then it was the sophomore turn, and we’d been cranking the vandegraph all along, and right as the cheerleader got to “JUMP”, we hit the… The sophomores won.