Category: Nikola Tesla

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William H. Terbo, Nikola Tesla’s Grand-Nephew

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Mr. William H. Terbo. Nikola Tesla’s grand-nephew. At the Tesla Memorial Conference in New York City January 5-7, 2013.

Day 1    Day 2    Kyle Driebeek

William H. Terbo, Tesla's Grand-Nephew

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. His next book is on Abraham Lincoln, due out in 2017.

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Nikola Tesla and My Dad

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I’m currently out of pocket while I attend to my father’s aneurysm surgery and stroke. Please feel free to scroll through my previous posts and click on the page names above to get specific information about Nikola Tesla, Abraham Lincoln, Aquariums, and Travel. I’ll be back shortly. [Thank you to the Ipswich Public Library for access to the internet]

The photo below is of Nikola Tesla on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. Tesla designed the generators that first brought large scale AC current to distant cities.

Nikola Tesla Canadian side

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Tower to the People – Saving Nikola Tesla’s Wardenclyffe

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In a previous post I talked about how Nikola Tesla, though largely ignored in the history books, had caught on as somewhat of a movie rock star. With David Bowie, no less. One of the movies mentioned in that post was an independent film co-written and directed by filmmaker Joseph Sikorski. The movie is called Fragments From Olympus: “The Vision of Nikola Tesla,” and in it “the enigmatic life of electrical genius Nikola Tesla unravels through a posthumous F.B.I. investigation into his particle beam research, including a new super weapon called the ‘death ray’.”

Sikorski and Vic Elefante, Production Supervisor for the film, recently attended the Tesla Memorial Conference at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City. Joe and Vic provided us in attendance with a double treat. First they previewed Fragments, then surprised the crowd with the introduction of a second effort, this one specifically focused on helping to save Wardenclyffe. An homage to the people who have worked so hard to raise the funds and negotiate the purchase of the Wardenclyffe property, the new effort is called Tower to the People: Tesla’s Dream at Wardenclyffe Continues. Check out the trailer:

Joe and Vic and all the others who are working on Fragments deserve tremendous credit for selflessly giving of their time and skills to develop the Tower project. They have collaborated with Jane Alcorn of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, the Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, and myriad others, to help bring the name of Nikola Tesla back into its rightful place in history.

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Nikola Tesla Style – Video

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Tesla: The Wizard of ElectricityWho says Nikola Tesla isn’t cool. (Actually, no one says that)

One of the wonders of Facebook and YouTube is the ability to connect with other people that have the same interests as you do. One Facebook group is called Tesla’s Ambassadors, and I am proud to say that I am a member. Its founder is, not surprisingly, Niko Tesla, and the group has over 7000 members worldwide.

In addition to all the other great information about Nikola Tesla, this video has been getting a lot of attention. Called “Nikola Tesla Style,” it is a rap video written and performed by Benjamin Yi. The video was mixed by Niko Tesla for Tesla’s Ambassadors on FB.

To quote Monty Python – And now for something completely different…enjoy!

More information on Tesla’s Ambassadors can be found on the Facebook page (click on the name). The group is “here to honour and respect the achievements of the great genius Nikola Tesla. Over time his legacy to us has remained intact and ever more important. Nikola Tesla was so far ahead of his time, that not even scientists today can understand all of his work.”

Tesla’s story is so fascinating that I wrote a book about him. More on Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity.

Thanks to Niko Tesla, Tesla’s Ambassadors, and all others who are helping to bring the Nikola Tesla name to present and future generations.

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Nikola Tesla Gets a Stamp of Approval

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Nikola Tesla is one of the most prolific and important inventors in American history, though that fact is largely overlooked in the history books. We all know about Edison, but many don’t know that Tesla beat out Edison in the “war of the currents.” We all know about Marconi, but many don’t know that Tesla actually invented radio first. While many of Tesla’s innovations seem to be attributed to others in our memories, Tesla at least has gotten several stamps of approval.

Postage stamps, that is. A Serbian, born in 1856 in the tiny town of Smiljan of the then Austrian Empire (now part of Croatia), Tesla moved around Europe before coming to New York in 1884 and becoming an American citizen. All of these places claim Tesla as a “favorite son” and over the years have honored him with postage stamps.

Since the area he was born in is now Croatia, that country decided to issue a stamp in 1993, just two years after declaring its independence from Yugoslavia.

Croatia Tesla stamp

Yugoslavia itself, when it still existed, also honored Tesla with several stamps.

Yugoslavia Tesla stamp 3

Yugoslavia Tesla stamp 1993Yugoslavia Tesla stamp 2

 

 

 

 

Serbia, where Telsa’s parents were born and to which Tesla identified, split off from Yugoslavia in 2006 and formed an independent republic. That same year Serbia issued at least three versions of postage stamps depicting Nikola Tesla and his inventions, which include alternating current motors and transformers, and the famous Wardenclyffe tower.

Serbia Tesla stamp 2Serbia Tesla stamp 3

 

 

 

Serbia Tesla stamp

Ah, but Tesla had become an American citizen. Mostly forgotten among the great luminaries of science in the United States, Tesla had to share his fame with other scientists. In 1983 the US post office issued a set of four 20-cent stamps depicting American Inventors Nikola Tesla, Charles Steinmetz, Edwin Armstrong, and Philo T. Farnsworth, each with one of their inventions. The Tesla stamp shows his AC induction motor.

US inventors stamps

Tesla’s break-through induction motor was featured at the 1893 Columbian Exposition, aka the Chicago World’s Fair. The twenty-nine cent stamps say 1892 because the Exposition honored the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ 1492 “discovery” of America even though the Exposition was actually a year later in order to avoid conflicting with the presidential election (in which Cleveland won his second non-consecutive term as President, which is a story in itself).

Columbian Exposition stamp

A few other countries have also gotten into the act to honor Tesla, as can be seen in these postage stamps by the South Pacific country of Palau and the African countries of Mali and Ghana.

Palau Tesla stampGhana Tesla stamp 2

 

 

 

Ghana Tesla stampTesla and Planck stamp

So it seems Nikola Tesla hasn’t been completely forgotten after all. At the very least he is remembered enough to warrant postage stamps in his honor. Recently Tesla has gotten a lot more attention and has been featured in movies, TV shows, comic strips, and books like my own coming out in a few months.

Please let me know in the comments if you are aware of any additional postage stamps honoring Tesla as I plan to catalog them for posterity.

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Nikola Tesla Corner

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In New York City, where West 40th Street meets the Avenue of the Americas (aka, Sixth Avenue), stands Nikola Tesla Corner.

Photo 48 - Tesla Corner

Dedicated in 1994, the corner sits at the entrance to Bryant Park, a place well known to Nikola Tesla. Seeking solitude or companionship, we’re still not sure which, Tesla would in his later years wander the streets near the New York Public Library and Bryant Park feeding pigeons. When he came across injured birds he would often take them back to his modest rooms in the New Yorker Hotel to nurse them back to health. He became particularly enamored of a certain stunning white pigeon. Ah, the stuff of legends.

More on Nikola Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity.

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Update on Nikola Tesla book

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Nikola TeslaAfter a busy (okay, rough) week that kept me away it seems like a good time to provide an update on my book, Nikola Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. In early January I attended a Tesla Memorial Conference in New York City, which if you missed my articles you can read about by clicking on this link.

Meanwhile, the book design part of the publishing process has been moving forward at a glacial pace. My editor confirmed this week that they are “proofing the interiors,” which is publisher-speak for making sure all the pictures and layout look right on the page. They also queried about a citation I had in the footnotes but was missing from the bibliography, so I provided that source. The book should be headed to the printer soon.

I also provided a book jacket cover design for their consideration. I really like my “new perspective” tagline, which goes well with the photo taken from an interesting perspective at Niagara Falls. Ultimately, the final book jacket design is up to them. I am working on how to send advance copies to folks so I can get blurbs for the back cover. Nikola Tesla’s grand-nephew, William H. Terbo, recently asked for a copy of the book so I am anxious to get him one as soon as available.

Beyond the waiting for the book production I have been busy planning for my “world tour” (of sorts). There is no guarantee that there will be enough interest to warrant book signings but I am working on the assumption that more than a handful of friends will want a copy. I will be visiting my hometown soon for a family obligation so plan to meet with local bookshops and maybe even get an interview for the local paper.

I will provide another update as soon as the book goes to the printer and I have the pre-order information. The waiting is difficult but the idea that I will be holding the book in my hands soon is incredibly exciting.

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Nikola Tesla Makes a Robot Boat

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Recently I attended the Tesla Memorial Conference held at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City. Click on these links to read about Day 1, Day 2, and a special presentation by 12-year-old Kyle Driebeek. One of the presentations on Day 2 was by Marko Popovic of Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Dr. Popovic mentioned that Nikola Tesla developed a remote-controlled boat he called a telautomaton.

In “The Art of Telautomatics,” written as part of his My Inventions autobiography in 1919, Tesla reminds us that he first demonstrated his robotic boat way back in 1898.

Tesla robot remote controlled boat

In order to show how wireless technology could be used to command ships and missiles from a distance, Tesla had a large tank built in the center of Madison Square Garden and “in this places an iron-hulled boat a few feet long, shaped like an arc.” The audience, mostly attendees of the first annual Electrical Exhibition, was requested to ask questions and the automaton would answer them by signs, usually by turning left or right or reversing direction. “This was considered magic at the time,” writes Tesla in My Inventions, “but was extremely simple, for it was myself who gave the replies by means of the device.”

Tesla-PSJul1956

He repeated the exercise with a more advanced and larger telautomatic boat in 1919.

Telsa robotic boat

While Tesla acknowledged that these were “the first and rather crude steps in the evolution of the art of telautomatics,” it did signal the beginning of what today we call robotics. Consider Tesla’s designs then and the remote-controlled drones used in our more recent military and terrorist control efforts and you can see how far he was ahead of his time.

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. His next book, Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, is scheduled for release in summer 2017.

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12-year-old Kyle Driebeek Inspires the Crowd at Nikola Tesla Conference

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Twelve-year-old Kyle Driebeek first learned about Nikola Tesla when he was only 8 years old. Four years later he is one of the star attractions at the Nikola Tesla Memorial Conference held in New York City January 5-7, 2013. [Day 1 and Day 2] The conference was held on the 70th anniversary of Tesla’s death in the very place that he lived the last 10 years of his life – the New Yorker Hotel. Many luminaries in the field were in attendance including Tesla Science Foundation President Nikola Lonchar, Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe President Jane Alcorn, The Oatmeal’s Matthew Inman, and William H. Terbo, the grand-nephew of Nikola Tesla. But Kyle was the real star.

Kyle Driebeek

Amazingly poised and well-spoken for someone so young, Kyle walked up to the microphone and quickly awed the roomful of Nikola Tesla experts. He related how he first came to hear about Tesla on a History Channel program called Modern Marvels. That same year his 3rd Grade class gave him an assignment to study a famous person. Kyle chose Tesla. For his research Kyle and his family came to the New Yorker, stayed in the very room that was Tesla’s, and toured the property with engineer Joe Kinney. He also went out to Long Island and peered at Wardenclyffe through the fence. It would be the first of many visits to the New Yorker and to Wardenclyffe.

His research continued for a 5th Grade class project. In 2011 Kyle attended the Long Island Tesla Conference and got to stand on the octagonal base of the Wardenclyffe tower. He learned to play the Theremin, the electronic instrument played without physical contact. He smiled as the contributions rolled in during Matthew Inman’s crowd-funding efforts in 2012, an effort that raised nearly $1.4 million and has allowed Jane Alcorn’s Tesla Science Center to purchase the Wardenclyffe property to be made into a museum and educational center. And now here he was an invited speaker at the Tesla Memorial Conference. [You can watch Kyle’s presentation beginning at about minute 37:00 in this video.]

Kyle Driebeek was inspired by Nikola Tesla. The attendees at the conference were inspired by Kyle Driebeek. Like Kyle, we all feel that the world needs to know more about Nikola Tesla’s contributions to science. Kyle vows to help spread the word. And after his inspiring presentation, so will we all.

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Day 2 Tesla Memorial Conference – Tesla’s Technical Side

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In my last post I introduced the first day of the Tesla Memorial Conference held January 5-7, 2013 in the New Yorker Hotel. While Day 1 focused primarily on various ongoing projects (e.g., acquisition of Wardenclyffe) and artistic endeavors (e.g., my book and other inspirations), Day 2 focused on Tesla’s technical contributions.

Starting us off was Manoj Shah, the 2012 recipient of the IEEE Nikola Tesla Award, which is given annually to “an individual or team that has made an outstanding contribution to the generation or utilization of electric power.” Dr. Shah is an electrical engineer at GE Global Research. In his presentation he highlighted some of the electrical machines produced by GE and how Tesla’s work influenced their designs.

Manoj Shah

Other speakers included Thomas Valone of Integrity Research Institute discussing electrotherapeutic devices (a little zap a day will do ya), Nicholas Simos of Brookhaven Labs discussing wireless energy transmission, and my personal favorite, Marko Popovic of Worcester Polytechnic Institute discussing Tesla and Robotics. Dr. Popovic reminded us that it was none other than Nikola Tesla who developed what can be considered the first robot, a remote controlled boat he called a telautomaton that he first publicly demonstrated in Madison Square Garden in 1898.

Tesla robot remote controlled boat

Popovic also mentioned another inventor, John Hays Hammond, Jr., who collaborated with Tesla for a while and eventually made a larger remote controlled robotic boat. I mention Hammond briefly here because of a connection I have with him, which I’ll talk about in a later post. For now, here is the slide in which Popovic showed Hammond and his boat.

John Hays Hammond Jr.

Tesla expert and author Marc Seifer then discussed the significance of the later years of the Wardenclyffe, when Tesla had run out of funding and was desperately trying to interest new investors. Unfortunately he was unsuccessful and the Wardenclyffe tower was torn down for scrap to pay off some of Tesla’s debts.

DSC09395

The morning ended with math. Musical math. David Pokrajac explained the technical basis behind a unique musical instrument called the Theremin, which is the world’s first electronic device and the only wireless instrument. The performer, in this case Mano Divina, “captures electricity in mid-air and bends it with his hands to sing Opera,” all without touching the instrument at all.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fthKn4F4sdc&hl=en_US&version=3&rel=0]

The day continued with demonstrations of Tesla coils, wireless energy transmissions, gyroscopes, a few sparks and much more, all of which can be seen on the video recordings kindly provided by Kevin Wood Media. After closing remarks many attended a memorial service for Nikola Tesla and celebrated the Serbian Orthodox Christmas at St. Sava, a nearby Serbian Orthodox Cathedral. Meanwhile, I hopped a train back to DC (work beckons). Before I left I took this photo of the plaque honoring Nikola Tesla on the side of the New Yorker Hotel, where he lived the last ten years of his life.

Tesla plaque New Yorker Hotel

Many thanks to the Tesla Science Foundation, especially to Nikola Lonchar and Marina Schwabic, for organizing a wonderful conference. I was proud to have contributed my small part and enjoyed the conference and attendees immensely.

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