Month: August 2012

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Wireless and Wardenclyffe – Nikola Tesla’s Coil

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Nikola TeslaWith his huge Tesla coil ready to go, Tesla was eager to try some large scale experiments way beyond the scope that he could have accomplished in his little New York City laboratory. This new lab in Colorado Springs was perfect. His long-time assistant, Kolman Czito, had made all the preparations. The primary device was a fence-like wall seventy-five feet in diameter, around which were wound “the turns of the giant primary coil.” Inside was a secondary coil “about ten feet in diameter,” also wound with wire. In the center of this coil stood a 200-foot tall mast stretching through the open roof into the crisp Colorado sky, a three-foot copper ball gracing its point.

As instructed by Tesla, Czito closed the switch for one second exactly as Tesla watched the coil from the open doorway. Electrical charges glistened around the secondary coil, then immediately were gone as the switch was opened again. Satisfied that all was working after another short test, Tesla told Czito to close the switch on his command and then hold it closed until Tesla told him to open it. Once Tesla got outside where he could watch the copper ball on the tip of the mast, the command was given:

“Czito, close the switch—now!

As with the brief contacts, the secondary coil became immersed in electrical fire. But now with the extended contact the electricity crackled and popped with energy. Soon the crackling turned to sharper snapping like rifle fire, then roars like cannons. “The thunder was terrifying and the thunder shook the building in a most threatening fashion,” Tesla would write in his notebook.

Outside, Tesla stood in awe of his own device. Streaks of lightning shot from the ball. First extending only about 10 feet, then 20 feet, then 30…40…80 feet. Finally, bright blue bolts of lightning more than 135 feet long were shooting out from the ball further than the length of the building itself. Tesla was even creating thunder.  It was the most spectacular sight, even to the someone who had been creating electrical charges nearly all his life. Tesla marveled at all that this accomplishment could do for bettering the lives of mankind throughout the world.

And then as suddenly as a bolt of lightning, nothing. The whole apparatus went dead. No lightning, not even the slightest spark. The entire lab was dark. There was no power in the lab at all.

Furious, Tesla called up the Colorado Springs powerhouse to complain about having his power cut off. Only then did he realize that not only his lab, but the entire city, had lost power. Tesla’s experiments had knocked the city’s generator offline, and worse, it was on fire.

Tesla had overstayed his welcome. Worse, the city later charged him for all of the “free electricity” that had been promised when he agreed to move to Colorado. Feeling both elated by his discoveries and dejected by how he was treated, Tesla made plans to return to New York.

And from New York – to Wardenclyffe.

[The above is an adaptation modified for the purposes of this short space. Much more will be in my forthcoming book: Nikola Tesla: Scientific Rock Star.]

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Goodbye Neil Armstrong, The First Man to Do the Moon Walk

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Neil ArmstrongBefore there was Michael Jackson, Neil Armstrong did a moon walk. Today, at the age of 82, he began a new journey into the heavens.

Neil and I go way back. As a child I was a huge fan of the Apollo program, NASA’s manned missions to our moon. I kept a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, photographs, and even my own handwritten tributes. I still have that scrapbook today. I remember following the preparations, the launch, and the long flight. I remember holding my breath during the minutes of silence when radio contact was lost as the command module passed around the back side of the moon. And I remember “The Eagle has Landed” when Armstrong and crew mate Buzz Aldrin first landed the oddly shaped Lunar Module on the surface of the moon. And I remember feeling sad for Michael Collins, who had to pilot the command module of the Apollo 11 mission while Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon.

Armstrong’s words remain a powerful reminder of what this country can accomplish when we work together for a common goal.

“That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

They did it in 1969 with computers less powerful than an iPhone. With today’s technology, we have no excuses for denying the amazing knowledge we gain from science. Let us use it wisely. Neil would want us to move forward.

Watch the first moon walk:

Watch the second moon walk:

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Tesla Backers Raise Cash to Buy Wardenclyffe and Make it Into a Museum

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Nikola Tesla WardenclyffeA most amazing thing has happened in the past week or so. Matthew Inman, who is the creator and creative genius behind a web cartoon called “The Oatmeal,” has hooked up with a nonprofit group called the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, to raise funds to buy the Wardenclyffe property and make it into a Nikola Tesla Museum. In just a few short days, and some really funny begging for cash, the combined efforts pulled in pledges exceeding the $850,000 goal.

As the Oatmeal puts in on facebook:

“Someone jumped in at the last minute and donated $33,333. WE JUST HIT OUR GOAL: $873,169! With the matching grant from NY state, this puts us at $1.7 million raised in 6 days!”

[For those who don’t know, Tesla had an obsession with numbers divisible by three, hence the normally odd $33,333 amount]

Who would have expected that so many people would rush to remember a largely forgotten electrical scientist who died in poverty nearly 70 years ago? But they do. In an article published on the CNN website, Inman explains it this way:

“Tesla is an unsung hero, and there are very few monuments to him in the United States. I feel like that’s something we need to fix,” Inman said. “I made a comic about Tesla on my site. It got the most ‘likes’ on Facebook that I’ve ever seen in my career. Combine (the fact) that I’ve got this army of Tesla fans and the experience and success with my other fund-raiser, I felt like I was the ideal person to step in to control.”

The site is what is left of Wardenclyffe, the “World Wireless” facility built by Nikola Tesla over 100 years ago. He had planned on making it the focal point of wireless communication (radio) and electrical power. Besides the 94-foot by 94-foot laboratory building it featured a “187 feet high tower, having a spherical terminal about 68 feet in diameter.” Unfortunately, funding dried up and it fell into disuse. In 1917 the tower was demolished for scrap and Nikola Tesla became more and more reclusive before his eventual death in 1943.

For nearly 50 years the site would house a film processing company, after which it became a Superfund site, but has since changed hands several times and “has now been cleaned up and is no longer harmful.”

While the money has been raised to buy the property there is still some uncertainty as to whether the seller will agree to the sale. And if the Tesla Science Center is successful in acquiring the property it would still need to raise additional money to clean up and restore it for use as a museum. Jane Alcorn, President of the group, “expects it will be a couple of years before the museum opens, while additional funding and exhibits are arranged.”

Those wanting to donate further to the effort can go the Indiegogo site. Inman’s The Oatmeal can be found on Facebook and his website.

More information on The Tesla Science Center can be found here.

More information on Nikola Tesla: Scientific Rock Star can be found here.

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A passion for public aquariums

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Lisbon AquariumI have a passion for public aquariums. The ones with big tanks, the sharks, the whales. This probably started when I was young and first went to the New England Aquarium in Boston. Its huge central tank with fish larger than me – and made to seem even larger by the refraction of the glass – was fascinating. It isn’t surprising that by the time I was in junior high school I knew I wanted to be a marine biologist. Just like Jacques Cousteau.

It was only later that I realized there was only one good-paying gig in marine biology, and Monsieur Cousteau had that locked up pretty tight.

But still, my fascination with aquariums has never waned. I’ve made it a point to visit the big public aquariums all over the United States, with not a small number also from other parts of the world.

I’ll talk about the features that make each one interesting in the future. For now check out my new Aquariums page to see a list of the aquariums I’ve visited in North America, Europe, and Asia.

And since I’m posting this during what seems to be the ubiquitous “shark week” on the telly, here’s one to wet your appetite for future posts.

Shark, Lisbon Aquarium

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Tesla, Edison, Westinghouse, and the Electric Chair

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Nikola TeslaDuring the “War of the Electric Currents,” the battle was waged over whether Direct Current (DC) would hold off Alternating Current (AC) for the future of America’s electricity. Nikola Tesla invented the system and components that made it possible to transmit alternating current to virtually unlimited distances, a limitation that had plagued direct current. Tesla teamed up with George Westinghouse, which shot them to the forefront of the race to get lucrative contracts lighting the Chicago World’s Fair and getting hydroelectric power from Niagara Falls.

Edison’s reaction to the teamwork of Westinghouse and Tesla was immediate. He had pamphlets printed and mailed to reporters and lighting utilities that accused Westinghouse and other Edison competitors of being in violation of his patents. Edison also started pushing the idea of the dangers of alternating current at high voltages versus the safety of his low voltage direct current.

The technical battle was mostly the dry stuff of scientists and argued deep inside the technical journals and scientific meetings.  Most of this was not visible, and certainly not understandable, to the general public.  But one thing that was understandable was the occasional death by electrocution.  And with cities like New York strung tight with hundreds of electrical wires from a dozen electric light utilities, the public feared the occasional might become more frequent.

Edison got some help in this regard from a few grizzly electrocutions that occurred over a short period of time. One such occasion was the unfortunate circumstance of an electrical repairman named John Feeks, who fell into a spider web of charged wires and was slowly incinerated as the horrified pedestrians on the street below gazed up at the gruesome scene. Needless to say this bolstered Edison’s case that alternating current current was too dangerous to be used while direct current – on which his own systems were based – was perfectly safe.

But a few accidents weren’t going to be enough to convince the public that alternating current should be banned from all use. It would take a lot more death to do that.

Ever the opportunist, Edison enlisted the help of Harold Pitney Brown, an electrician with a decade of experience and a bit of a mean streak.  Brown set up shop in Edison’s laboratory and proceeded to electrocute stray dogs – which he paid neighborhood kids to acquire – with alternating current electricity. Edison called these animal executions getting “Westinghoused” because of the use of the alternating current system that his main competitor, using Tesla’s technology, was developing. Later the term “Westinghoused” would be applied to the first execution by electrical current. On August 6, 1890, New York State accomplished the first execution using the new alternating current electric chair. William Kemmler had murdered his philandering wife with an axe and then calmly asked his son to contact the local police. He was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. Edison had convinced the board that Kemmler’s death would be rapid and painless because of the incredibly high voltages by the dangerous alternating current.

When the day came, however, the execution did not go smoothly. No, it did not go smoothly at all.

[The above is an adaptation modified for the purposes of this short space. Much more (and the riveting execution) will be in my book: Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity.]

David J. Kent is the author of Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) (both Fall River Press). He has also written two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

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Science Traveler – New Name, Same Me

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David J. KentI’ve changed my name. I’m now Science Traveler.

The Traveling Scientist was nice, but it had way too many syllables. And nothing is more important to a writer than having exactly the right number of syllables. [Yes, I counted the number of syllables in that sentence.]

As I’ve mentioned in the past, this site is a work in progress. Which is appropriate because every writer has a work in progress, or the shorthand version, WIP. I actually have several WIPs, but we’ll get to those in good time.

Note the Twitter feed has also changed names to Science Traveler. Be sure to follow me here, there, and everywhere.

Another WIP as it relates to this site is a redesign that will take place after I deliver the Nikola Tesla book to the publisher. The new Science Traveler will make it easier to track posts in different categories, and of course, highlight some of the key tidbits from my books.

More to come.

 

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Happy Birthday, Robert Todd Lincoln – Witness to Three Assassinated Presidents

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Robert Todd LincolnRobert Todd Lincoln turns 169 years old today. Or he would have if he hadn’t died 87 years ago at the age of 82. A very ripe old age that was quite unusual for his family. Father Abraham Lincoln was, of course, assassinated in 1865 at the age of 56. Robert was born in 1843, the oldest of Abe and Mary Todd’s four sons. But Robert was not only the first to be born, he was the last to die, and the only Lincoln child to even reach adulthood.

Second born Eddie lived only three years, dying from tuberculosis. Then there was Willie, who died in the White House at age eleven. Thomas – Tad – managed to recover from the same sickness that took his brother Willie, only to see his father’s life taken a few years later. Tad made it to the age of 18 before dying of heart failure, perhaps from the strain of his mother’s fragile mental state after the trauma of her husband’s demise.

Robert went on to great accomplishments in his own right. He served as Secretary of War under President’s Garfield and Arthur, then minister to the United Kingdom under President Benjamin Harrison. He then went on to be legal counsel to the Pullman railroad car company, and eventually became its president.

But perhaps the most interesting factoid is that Robert was either present or nearby at three Presidential assassinations. The first was his father’s, where he was nearby and came to see his father’s last hours. Then while serving as his Secretary of War he witnessed the assassination of President Garfield at the Sixth Street train station. And if that wasn’t enough, Robert was present at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York at the invitation of President William McKinley. McKinley was shot and killed. Robert is said to have refused any further presidential invitations after that, though I suspect Presidents also thought better about inviting him.

Robert was the only Lincoln son to have children, with the last drop of Lincoln lineage – “Bud” Beckwith, grandson to Robert – passing away in 1985.

Robert is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

More on Abraham Lincoln on my Lincoln page.

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