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Tesla Memorial Conference 2013 – A Tribute to Nikola Tesla

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I had the distinct pleasure of spending this past weekend in the company of many of the most influential experts and enthusiasts of the great Serbian-American inventor, Nikola Tesla. Held in the New Yorker Hotel on the 70th anniversary of Tesla’s death, the conference consisted of two full days of presentations, preceded by a gala Spirit Awards Benefit Reception. By all measures the conference was a great success.

Tesla Science Foundation, under the leadership of President Nikola Lonchar, Executive Director Marina Schwabic, and Chairman David Vujic, sponsored the event, along with support by the New Yorker Hotel, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Westinghouse, and the General Consulate of Serbia. Those who know about Nikola Tesla will have heard that he lived the last ten years of his life in Room 3327 of the New Yorker. There is a plaque on his door.

Tesla room plaque New Yorker Hotel

For this event I was lucky enough to have the room immediately next to the Tesla room. From 3326 I was able to see and hear a stream of people stopping by to take photos by Tesla’s door. I also learned that Tesla had a two room suite – he used Room 3328 as a study.

The first day of the Conference was filled with a wide variety of presentations based on the theme “Why Tesla Matters.” New Yorker Hotel engineer Joe Kinney opened with a history of Tesla and the hotel. He was followed by one of the most fascinating and inspiring talks of the day, by 12-year old Kyle Driebeek (I’ll have more on Kyle in a future piece). Other highlights of the first morning were presentations by Tesla expert and author Marc Seifer and his screenwriting partner Tim Eaton, updates on a movie in development by award-winning filmmaker Joe Sikorski, Tesla as artistic inspiration by Miriam Seidel, Terry O’Reilly and Melissa Dunphy, and Tesla in film by Milan Knezevic.

I also made a presentation on my forthcoming book, Tesla: Wizard of Electricity. The recording of my presentation can be viewed on this website (skip to about the 10:50 mark to see me literally trip up the stage steps).

The biggest highlights of the day were the presentations by Jane Alcorn, President of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, and Matt Inman, creator of The Oatmeal. Jane provided an update on the progress in purchasing Tesla’s last laboratory, the Wardenclyffe property in Shoreham, Long Island. The contract is nearing completion and the Science Center is hard at work drawing up plans for the renovation and restoration of the property. Photos of the facility show that age and vandalism have taken a toll so this will be a long-term project, likely achieved in a series of steps. Following her presentation Jane introduced The Oatmeal, aka Matt Inman. Matt had used the reach of his wonderful comic site and the power of crowdfunding to help raise nearly $1.4 million within 45 days, all of which is being used to fund the purchase of Wardenclyffe. In three days of applause for the speakers, Matt Inman is the only person to receive a full standing ovation from the crowd. His efforts were clearly very much appreciated.

Matthew Inman The Oatmeal

After Inman was a very special surprise guest that wasn’t on the agenda. While Nikola Tesla never married, and in fact lived a celibate life, his sister had a son, Tesla’s nephew. That son married and had a son, Tesla’s grand-nephew. And Mr. William H. Terbo, Nikola Tesla’s grand-nephew, graced the conference with his ebullient presence.

William H. Terbo, Tesla's Grand-Nephew

Terbo is Executive Secretary of the Tesla Memorial Society and enjoys every chance to help continue his grand-uncles name and heritage. He talked of the many dedications of statues and plaques, including the one on the outside of the New Yorker Hotel. He even related the story of meeting Tesla in 1940, when Mr. Terbo was 10 years old. I had the pleasure of a delightful conversation with Mr. Terbo, who promised to read my book as soon as it was available.

Rounding out the first day were short presentations by other writers and visual art creators, updates on the UNESCO activities honoring Tesla, the IEEE’s Tesla Award, a heartfelt homage to the contributions of Serbs in America, and the activities of the Tesla Memorial Society of New York.

Phew. As I look back, this was a packed program – and it was only the first day of presentations! I’ll have more on the second day in a follow up article, including live Tesla coils on stage.

More on Tesla: Wizard of Electricity.

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5 Things You Didn’t Know About Nikola Tesla

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Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla is one of the most prolific inventors of all time, and yet many have never heard of him. Born in the little village of Smiljan in what is now Croatia, Tesla’s family was actually Serbian. From a young age Tesla liked to experiment, even to the point of gluing June bugs to sticks to create a self-propelled windmill. He later went on to work for Thomas Edison, then became one of Edison’s biggest rivals in the “war of the currents.” Tesla was the one that made it possible to put alternating current, AC, into widespread use, much to the dismay of Edison who had been pushing direct, DC, current.

Unfortunately, Telsa’s name is often ignored in the history books. Here are five things that you probably didn’t know about Nikola Tesla.

1) Tesla was a showman, but also a recluse: Yes, that does appear to be a paradox, but it’s true. Tesla would often hide himself in his lab with the shades closed to keep the light out. Sleeping only a few hours a day he would work from late morning one day well into the wee hours of the morning the next day. And yet at other times he would be a much sought after socialite, partying with the likes of writer Mark Twain and poet Robert Underwood Johnson and his beautiful wife Katharine. When Tesla gave presentations to the scientific community he would enthrall the audience with magical shows of light and energy. Then he could disappear from the public eye for months on end, digging himself into his work and, later, feeding the pigeons in his lonely hotel suite.

2) Tesla inspired Google’s Larry Page to become an inventor: When Larry Page was 12 years old his father gave him a copy of Nikola Tesla’s autobiography, My Inventions. Page was impressed with all of the innovations that sprung from Tesla’s mind. And yet, Page decided later that it was better to be more like Thomas Edison. Whereas Tesla focused on fundamental research, Edison knew how to develop a practical way to market the discoveries and make money. Edison died rich, Tesla died in poverty. Meanwhile, Larry Page has invested in Tesla Motors, the electric car company named after you know who.

3) Nikola Tesla was a proponent of renewable energy: Tesla lived from 1856 to 1943, and yet more than 100 years ago he said “long before this consummation, coal and oil must cease to be important factors in the sustenance of human life on this planet.” He advocated for the development of energy from the sun, from windmills, and from hydroelectric power. His inventions allowed the first major production and long-distance distribution of alternating current hydroelectricity on a large scale – from Niagara Falls. And he sought ways to tap the energy of nature, believing that the best way “to obtain power would be to avail ourselves of the sun’s rays.”

4) Tesla was from Venus: Okay, this one isn’t actually true, at least to most people. But there are some who believe that Tesla was born on Venus and sent here to prepare mankind for the eventual arrival of Venusian culture. Whether he was Venusian or not doesn’t change the fact that Tesla believed that he had received signals from outer space while he was experimenting with radio technology in Colorado Springs. In any case, Tesla did discover radio before Marconi made millions of dollars (and received a Nobel Prize) after having “borrowed” ideas from Tesla. The question wasn’t settled until many decades later, mere months after Tesla had passed away in his sleep at the New Yorker Hotel on January 7, 1943. [I was at the New Yorker Hotel on January 6 and 7, 2013 – 70 years to the day after Tesla died. I attended the Tesla Memorial Conference.] Oh, and his body wasn’t returned to Venus. Tesla’s ashes are held in a Tesla coil-shaped sphere at the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.

5) Wardenclyffe Lives!: Tesla’s last formal laboratory was on Long Island in what is now Shoreham. Called Wardenclyffe, Tesla had spent many frustrating years building a huge tower that would serve as the base of operations for his World Wireless System. Essentially a radio station to broadcast wirelessly across the world, Tesla also saw Wardenclyffe as the center of his wireless electrical power system. The Earth would serve as a conductor and everyone would be able to simply tap into the energy wherever they were. For free. The idea never came to fruition due to both technical and financial problems. While the tower was torn down to pay debts early in the 20th century, the laboratory property remains. Astonishingly, the property came up for sale and, through the most amazing crowdfunding feat in modern history, the lab is being purchased by the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, a non-profit group led by Jane Alcorn that plans to restore it as a working science center and tribute to Nikola Tesla.

So in the not to distant future visitors will be able to take themselves back in time to watch Nikola Tesla shoot bolts of lightning through his body and electrify the Earth. Perhaps Tesla’s dream of bringing free energy to all will finally come to fruition.

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 July 2017.

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What is Watch Night? The Emancipation Proclamation Turns 150

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514_pg01One hundred and fifty years ago, on December 31, 1862, a wide array of current and former slaves, freemen, abolitionists, and others anxiously awaited the coming of the new year. This new year would be different from all others, as President Abraham Lincoln had stated in his preliminary Emancipation Proclamation that the final Proclamation would be signed on January 1, 1863. [Click on the image to the left to see all five pages at the Archives.]

Assembling in churches, community houses, even fields, across a country still at war with itself, the people waited. Some with hope for freedom. Some with trepidation that the final Proclamation would somehow not be issued. Others with trepidation that it would.

Tonight marks the 150th anniversary of Watch Night. Churches in Washington DC, Springfield, IL, and elsewhere hold services to celebrate that fateful night. The Metropolitan Baptist Church in Washington DC has held Watch Night services for 35 years. According to the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum in Washington DC:

Frederick Douglass wrote that December 31, 1862 was “a day for poetry and song, a new song.  These cloudless skies, this balmy air, this brilliant sunshine, (making December as pleasant as May), are in harmony with the glorious morning of liberty about to dawn up on us.” President Lincoln had promised a proclamation emancipating slaves in the states in rebellion 99 days earlier; and on “watch night,” Americans of African descent faithfully “watched” for his proclamation to be issued on the 100th day.

And so it was issued. The National Archives is displaying the original Emancipation Proclamation from December 30 to January 1 only. [Below, Lincoln depicted reading the Emancipation Proclamation to his cabinet, painting by Francis Bicknell Carpenter]

Emancipation_proclamation

When the day arrived for issuance of the Proclamation Abraham Lincoln first had to entertain hundreds of visitors to the White House. For three hours he stood in a receiving line and shook hands. Afterward he went to his office and prepared to sign the document but found his hand shaking, not from hesitation but from the exhaustion of having greeted so many. Frederick Seward, son of Secretary of State William Seward, recorded the event:

At noon, accompanying my father, I carried the broad parchment in a large portfolio under my arm. We, threading our way through the throng in the vicinity of the White House, went upstairs to the President’s room, where Mr. Lincoln speedily joined us. The broad sheet was spread open before him on the Cabinet table. Mr. Lincoln dipped his pen in the ink, and then, holding it a moment above the sheet, seemed to hesitate. Looking around, he said:

“I never in my life felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper. But I have been receiving calls and shaking hands since nine o’clock this morning, till my arm is stiff and numb. Now this signature is one that will be closely examined, and if they find my hand trembled they will say ‘he had some compunctions.’ But anyway, it is going to be done.”

So saying, he slowly and carefully wrote his name at the bottom of the proclamation. The signature proved to be unusually clear, bold, and firm, even for him, and a laugh followed at his apprehension. My father, after appending his own name, and causing the great seal to be affixed, had the important document placed among the archives. Copies were at once given to the press.

The rest, as they say, is history.

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New Update on Nikola Tesla Book…Plus…Upcoming Events

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Nikola TeslaToday marked a milestone in the production of my forthcoming book, Nikola Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. I received a check. Receiving money in the mail is always a good thing (at least to most people) and this was no exception. After a bit of a delay due to Hurricane Sandy and a slew of holidays the publisher finally released the second half of the “advance on royalties.” My agent, Marilyn Allen of Allen O’Shea Literary Agency passed along the proceeds. As they say on the extremely dignified professional author circuit – Woo hoo!!

Chris Barsanti, editor extraordinaire at Sterling Publishing, informs me that the photos, other artwork, and layout, aka, “the design phase,” are coming together nicely. The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe have been very helpful in identifying some additional photos to grace the pages. The Tesla Science Center is the organization led by Jane Alcorn that successfully raised well over a million dollars this past summer to buy Tesla’s last remaining laboratory space – Wardenclyffe in what is now Shoreham, Long Island. All appears to be on schedule for sending the book to the printer in January.

January will also mark another milestone. I’ll be attending the Tesla Science Foundation’s annual Tesla Commemorative Conference in the New Yorker Hotel from January 5th to 7th. This past November I talked to a lot of toxicologists and chemists at the annual SETAC meeting, but this will be my first opportunity to talk to genuine Tesla experts about the book. I’m both excited and anxious.

After that I’ll start getting the book jacket blurbs and Sterling will provide the pre-order information. Meanwhile I’m working on some preliminary options for book signing locations. Since Sterling is a subsidiary of Barnes & Noble there may be a few automatic spots. I’ll also want to do some signings in my hometown of Ipswich and environs.

Anything I’m missing? Please let me know.

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Berry and Lincoln: Frontier Merchants by Zarel C. Spears and Robert S. Barton (A Book Review)

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Abraham LincolnThis delightful book published in 1947 is considered a classic in Abraham Lincoln literature, and is fairly rarely found on the book market.  The subtitle “The Store that ‘Winked Out,’” is in reference to Lincoln’s famous quote about how at one time he was a partner in a general store and that it sort of fell out of existence (winked out).  Lincoln’s time as a storekeeper is generally given short mention in the big full life biographies of him, and usually to state that Lincoln’s partner died a drunkard and Lincoln, in his famous honesty, took on and eventually paid all debts.

Spears and Barton have dug into the scant information available and come up with a somewhat different and certainly better-rounded picture.  They fill out the portrait of William F. Berry to an extent no one has ever done, in part because Zarel C. Spears is a descendant of the Berry clan.  This historical relationship possibly influences the writing to a degree, but Spears and Berry document their story well and so it seems that their tale has considerable merit.

In short, Lincoln found himself a 22 year old stranded in the tiny hamlet of New Salem, Illinois in 1832.  Largely by chance he entered into a partnership with William Berry, another young man whom Lincoln had known from their just completed tours in the Black Hawk wars.  The partnership survived several twists and turns, and a move to a larger building across the muddy street, before “winking out” in 1834.  The store never made much money, as there was stiff competition in a town whose peak population was only around 100 people.

The authors do a good job of piecing together the limited records of the day, finding court records of notes signed and suits against those notes (notes are essentially IOUs and were commonly used in the cash-poor wilderness prior to the advent of a formal banking system).  In reconstructing the debt burden, the authors find that most of the debt was attributable to Lincoln himself.  This isn’t surprising given that he had no money at the time and thus needed to move forward on credit.  Berry actually came from a fairly influential family in the area and co-signed Lincoln’s notes and at one point actually put his house up as collateral on one debt (for $250) that had come due in order to protect his own half interest in the store.  Income to the store was meager in the best of times and both partners worked other jobs to keep their heads above water – Lincoln as postmaster and a surveyor, Berry as constable.  Berry also started college, but after one year he was back home and had died from some illness (many suspect drunkenness but the authors, while not disputing it, suggest otherwise).  In his last few weeks home before Berry’s death the store was sold at auction to pay off the debts.  Not long after Lincoln began his first of four terms in the Illinois state legislature.

The book is a fascinating and in-depth look at this little known period in Lincoln (and Berry)’s lives.  The authors do justice to both of these men, as well as give us an insight into the hardships of frontier life in the antebellum period of American history.

More about Abraham Lincoln.

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Tesla Memorial Conference program is coming together

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Nikola TeslaAs discussed previously, the Tesla Science Foundation is sponsoring a Nikola Tesla Memorial Conference in New York City from January 5 to 7, 2012. The site is the New Yorker Hotel where Tesla lived his final years and died on January 7, 1943.

A Tesla Spirit Award Benefit Reception will take place on the evening of January 5th, then the next two days are filled with speakers bringing everyone up to date on exciting Tesla-related projects. Included are the Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Telsa on film, and Tesla as inspiration for music, books, and art. Renowned Tesla expert Marc Seifer will be there, as will Jane Alcorn from the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, who will bring us up to date on the magnificent effort to raise money and purchase Tesla’s old Wardenclyffe property on Long Island. I’ll be there too talking about my forthcoming book Nikola Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity.

The final day gets deep into the technical discoveries of Tesla, including some new ideas for further development of principles he originated a century ago. Definitely a man ahead of his time.

If you’re interested in Tesla and haven’t yet signed up please follow this link to register. Time is getting short.

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Nikola Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity

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Nikola TeslaThings are moving along with my book Nikola Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. The manuscript has been accepted by my editor at Sterling Publishing and their team is working on the design – layout, photos, colors, sidebars, and much much more. Sometime in January it will go to the printer and pre-orders will start sometime in the spring.

 

So, what can you expect from the book? Here’s a tickler – my chapter titles…

Chapter 1:      A Scientific Rock Star is Born

Chapter 2:      Coming of Age in Europe

Chapter 3:      The Odd Mr. Tesla

Chapter 4:      Of Edison and Westinghouse

Chapter 5:      A Man Always at War

Chapter 6:      Wireless and Wardenclyffe

Chapter 7:      Taking on Einstein

Chapter 8:      Beyond the Grave – Conspiracies Abound

Chapter 9:      A Lasting Legacy

I’ll have more when I return from my trip.

More about Nikola Tesla.

 

 

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Vietnam for Americans – Part 2: A Cup of Tea and a Conversation I Didn’t Understand

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VietnamIn my last post I reminisced about my first real traveling experience out of the USA – to Hanoi, Vietnam. Of all my memorable experiences there I enjoyed most meeting the Vietnamese people and eating the amazing food.

After traveling half way around the world I met up with a friend who had been in Hanoi for several months already. Not one of the rare western-style hotels for me; I lived in the local dorm of the National University, which was less impressive than it sounds. The small room in a stark building down a narrow street in a corner of town not usually seen by tourists meant that I spent most of my time in the midst of the locals and experienced Vietnamese life first hand. That included the local kids begging for money (one 4 year old put on her saddest looking face for my benefit) and the occasional swarm of 10 year olds competing to offer their shoe-shining prowess to me.

Many of my meals took place on the streets. And I mean this literally – squatting on the sidewalk eating Bun Nhan (duck noodle soup), Bun Oc (snail and noodle soup) or Bun Mum Tom (noodles dipped into a ghastly smelling shrimp paste). The proprietor would grab a handful of noodles, throw them briefly in boiling broth (with the chicken or duck bones still swimming around), and then ladle it into a bowl. You grabbed your own chopsticks from a cup holding a dozen or so (making sure you wiped them off before using, if you’re smart). Clean up is easy, you just throw everything on the ground. Generally an open sewer ran along the curb and everything went into it, including children relieving themselves as their proud parents looked on. As startling as this may seem to westerners, it was a normal occurrence. It also emphasized what was Vietnam’s greatest resource at the time – its people. There were so many people in Hanoi that each evening an army of men and women came out with large straw brooms and swept up the city. They even separated out usable materials from materials that have unquestionably reached the final state of being trash. Quite amazing.

Here’s a quick look at the street food in Hanoi posted on YouTube by uncorneredmarket. Note that this looks exceptionally upscale compared to most of the spots I ate.

Though my time in Vietnam was way too short I didn’t just stay in Hanoi. Hopping on the back of one of the Xe Om motorbike taxis I had rented for the day ($20 for two, a month’s income for the drivers), I ventured far out from the city to two of the small villages. Bach Trang specialized in making pottery, most of which was brought into Hanoi on bicycles or carts pulled by an ox or pony. The other village was called Nhing Heip, which was reached by an extremely bumpy Xe Om ride over rough roads. Nhing Heip is where they make fabric, and was the location of one of my fondest memories from the trip. Because very few westerners ever make it there, my oddly pale face attracted a great deal of attention. This was especially true with three little girls of about 4 years old who would run up to me and then run away and push their friends toward me, all the while laughing hysterically. My companion informed me that they kept saying “Look how white he is.” The commotion they were causing led to one of the girls’ grandfather seeing us and inviting us into his house for tea.

Hanoi house

The house was actually a single room that resembled more a garage with a simple fabric covering the large opening. Over the course of the next 20 minutes or so we drank many cups of tea while he chatted away in Vietnamese about how America is rich and Vietnam is very poor but they work very hard (he was obviously proud of his culture). Of course, most of this I found out after the fact from my companion since I had learned only about 10 words of the language in my four days in Vietnam. I had no idea what he was saying but I enjoyed it immensely. It was a most delightful and memorable experience and one that I will treasure forever.

A conversation I didn’t understand of which I would be reminded years later when I engaged in another discussion where neither I nor the gentleman I was conversing with had any idea what we were saying to each other. More on that event in a later article.

More on my travels.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, now available. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (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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