Abraham Lincoln and the Forces of Nature

Lincoln Quote BustSeveral times in 1858 Lincoln delivered a lecture he called “Discoveries and Inventions.” Not a particularly successful lecture – the fragments we have remaining suggest it was a bit rambling and lacking in his later eloquence – it presented what was essentially the “American System” of economics based on continuing intellectual and technological improvements.

In his lecture he notes that man has figured out to substitute for his own brawn other “forces of nature” such as “the power of the wind” and of “running streams.” Lincoln strongly highlights the power of the wind:

“Of all the forces of nature, I should think the wind contains the largest amount of motive power—that is, power to move things. Take any given space of the earth’s surface—for instance, Illinois—- and all the power exerted by all the men, and beasts, and running-water, and steam, over and upon it, shall not equal the one hundredth part of what is exerted by the blowing of the wind over and upon the same space. And yet it has not, so far in the world’s history, become proportionably valuable as a motive power. It is applied extensively, and advantageously, to sail-vessels in navigation. Add to this a few wind-mills, and pumps, and you have about all. That, as yet, no very successful mode of controlling, and directing the wind, has been discovered; and that, naturally, it moves by fits and starts—now so gently as to scarcely stir a leaf, and now so roughly as to level a forest—doubtless have been the insurmountable difficulties. As yet, the wind is an untamed, and unharnessed force; and quite possibly one of the greatest discoveries hereafter to be made, will be the taming, and harnessing of the wind. That the difficulties of controlling this power are very great is quite evident by the fact that they have already been perceived, and struggled with more than three thousand years; for that power was applied to sail-vessels, at least as early as the time of the prophet Isaiah.”

Here is Lincoln fifty years before Nikola Tesla, using much of the same language, referring to motive power and the taming of the power of the wind. He also advocated for the power of running streams as “a motive power,” in particular its “application to mills and other machinery by means of the “water wheel” – a thing now well known, and extensively used.” In fact, Lincoln supposedly invented a water wheel as early as the spring of 1834, long before his lecture on Discoveries and Inventions.

Of course, Lincoln’s water wheel provided mechanical power. We would have to wait a few more decades before Nikola Tesla invented a means for large-scale use of the motion of water to create hydroelectric power, but Lincoln was already anticipating the idea. A few years later in the Civil War Lincoln worked closely with Joseph Henry, who prior to becoming the first Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution had developed the precursors to the induction motor.

Ah, but this wasn’t the first foray into science for Abraham Lincoln. More to come.

[The above is adapted from my e-book, Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate, available for download on Amazon.com.]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Nikola Tesla’s Views on Marriage and Celibacy

Nikola TeslaNikola Tesla spent much time learning to exert self-control over his will. Once an addicted gambler, he worked hard to rid himself of that destructive desire. Not leaving a trace of desire apparently extended to his views on marriage and celibacy.

The late William H. Terbo (the son of Tesla’s sister’s son) once suggested that “womanizing” may have contributed in part to Tesla never completing his studies in Graz. Yet despite the opinion of a professional palmist, who opined that Tesla’s hand revealed “a flirtatious streak,” Tesla purposefully chose celibacy throughout his life. This did not stop the media of the time (even the technical journals) from urging him to get married—after all, “important people were expected to procreate for the good of the country.” As young science writer and close friend Kenneth Swezey later put it, “Tesla’s only marriage has been to his work and to the world…he believes…that the most enduring works of achievement have come from childless men…” Swezey described Tesla as “an absolute celibate.” Tesla himself claimed that to be a great inventor one must not allow himself to be distracted by love. When asked if he believed in marriage, he replied that:

“for an artist, yes; for a musician, yes; for a writer, yes; but for an inventor, no. The first three must gain inspiration from a woman’s influence and be led by their love to finer achievement, but an inventor has so intense a nature with so much in it of wild, passionate quality, that in giving himself to a woman he might love, he would give everything, and so take everything from his chosen field. I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.”

While rumors abounded over Tesla’s relationship with Katharine Johnson, wife of The Century editor (and Sierra Club co-founder) Robert Underwood Johnson, he never did marry, hence why his grandnephew William Terbo was so active in keeping Tesla’s name alive.

[Adapted from my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity]

Fire of Genius

Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America is available at booksellers nationwide.

Limited signed copies are available via this website. The book also listed on Goodreads, the database where I keep track of my reading. Click on the “Want to Read” button to put it on your reading list. Please leave a review on Goodreads and Amazon if you like the book.

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David J. Kent is President of the Lincoln Group of DC and the author of Lincoln: The Fire of Genius: How Abraham Lincoln’s Commitment to Science and Technology Helped Modernize America and Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America.

His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Nikola Tesla and the Power of the Tides

Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time “Many a deluded inventor has spent years of his life in endeavoring to harness the tides.” – Nikola Tesla

Anyone who has seen the tidal surge in the Bay of Fundy can envision the potential of harnessing the natural power of tides for electricity generation. And today some people are doing just that.

The basic principle is simple. Depending on where you are on the planet, either once or twice each day there is a rise and fall of ocean water we call tides. For any given location this ebb and flow is highly predictable; tide tables can be printed up years in advance. It is possible to build reservoirs to capture the water in rising tides, then during low tide allow that water to flow downward through power plants to generate electricity.

The most common mechanism for harnessing tidal energy is the tidal barrage, which looks like a dam or the locks in canals. Incoming tidal water is allowed to move freely upstream. At peak high tide the barriers are closed and the water shunted through turbines. Another modern option would be to set fixed direct drive turbines underwater in areas with large tidal flows. Other more speculative methods include building what in essence is a “tidal reef,” vertical-axis turbines, and even something called “push plates.” The benefit of tidal power, which Tesla would have appreciated, is that once the system is built the energy would be free, predictable, and naturally renewable. On the down side, which Tesla would also appreciate from experience, the initial development and construction is very expensive.

During Tesla’s time there were some engineers who looked at the potential of tidal-generated power with favor. Tesla was not one of them. In fact, he was rather disdainful in his dismissal of the attempts. “Many a deluded inventor has spent years of his life in endeavoring to harness the tides, and some have even proposed to compress air by tide or wave power for supplying energy,” he snorted. With an estimated “little more than one horsepower” possible over an acre of ground, Tesla felt that a “wave or tide motor would have but small chance of competing commercially” with other natural sources of energy. So here Tesla was in agreement with Lord Kelvin, one of the world’s most respected scientists during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, who had stated that “the tides cannot furnish any power worth speaking of.”

Tesla may have been correct in his assessment. Today, tidal power has been employed only in a small number of locations around the world. The first was located in La Rance, France; the largest is in South Korea. Prospective sites where tidal power would be financially feasible in the United States are few and while countries such as China, France, the UK, Canada and Russia may have greater number of feasible sites, until recently not much has been done to utilize this form of renewable energy.

In the end, Tesla was convinced that only “in exceptional locations can the power of the tides be profitably developed.” He would leave tidal power development for others to pursue. Tesla had other renewable resources on his mind.

[Adapted from my e-book, Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time, available on Amazon]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Tesla Book Makes #1 on Illuminating Biographies of Notable Figures

Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity has made #1 in the list of 13 Illuminating Biographies of Notable Figures created by Ezvid Wiki.

Click here to watch the short video

Tesla Ezvid

Founded in 2011, Ezvid Wiki was the world’s first video wiki, and is now among the top 3,000 websites in the United States. Their YouTube channel has over 425,000 subscribers, 250 million views since founding, and they have informed over $200 million in purchasing decisions to date. They write:

In the #1 spot we have David J. Kent’s “Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity,” which tells the extraordinary tale of Nikola Tesla, the Croatian* genius who invented alternating current, wireless transmission, and the radio. During his nomadic life, Tesla encountered historical figures including Thomas Edison and Mark Twain, all while dealing with the many compulsions of his eccentric nature. Kent explores Tesla’s decidedly unusual career and his many contributions to modern science, which have fundamentally shaped the modern world.

*Note that Tesla was actually of Serbian heritage. The people who made the video and the text above copied from it likely conflated his place of birth (in an area that is now part of present-day Croatia) with his heritage.

This is just one of many acknowledgements of the book in the online and print press. Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity has seen eight printings and several foreign translations (so far) and been read in many countries around the world. I’ve been lucky enough to advise the off-Broadway play TESLA and meet Tesla royalty in Serbia and the book has received widespread accolades.

Want to know more about Nikola Tesla? Click here for previous posts about Tesla and his work.

Take a look at the Ezvid Wiki video and check out all 13 Illuminating Biographies.

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two specialty e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

 

Tesla and Edison: From Paris to America

tesla vs edisonIn 1882, Nikola Tesla’s time in Budapest was coming to an end. His close relationship with the Puskas brothers led him to Charles Batchelor, who was Thomas Edison’s man in Paris. Batchelor was an Englishman and mechanic supreme, having learned his trade in the textile mills of Manchester. But Batchelor was more than just a good technician; he was a natural salesman and organizer. Nearly single-handedly he had overseen the spread of Edison’s direct current system across Europe, mostly as isolated power plants for individual factories, hotels, shipyards, and railroad stations. This highlighted the big problem with direct current—it was limited to low voltages and could not be transmitted more than a short distance. Direct current power plants had to be installed every mile or so to light up a city, a logistical problem that meant despite his sales skills Batchelor was only able to install three central power stations, one each in the cities of Milan, Rotterdam, and St. Petersburg.

Tesla knew he had the answer to this problem—the alternating current induction motor. But newly arrived in Paris and taking a job as a junior engineer at Société Industrielle, part of the Compagnie Continental Edison, Tesla was hardly yet in a position to change the world. While he pitched his alternating current system to Batchelor and others in Paris, Edison’s people simply did not want to listen. After all, Edison had invested himself completely in making and selling direct current throughout Europe, the United States, and the world. No, Edison thought, Tesla’s alternating current system simply would not do.

Tesla’s time at Continental Edison was initially spent as a kind of traveling repairman sent to fix some of the tougher problems with the direct current system. Moving about mainly in France and Germany, he would “cure the ills” and return to Paris. This experience led him to propose improvements to the dynamos, which he implemented. “My success was complete,” Tesla would write, “and the delighted directors accorded me the privilege of developing automatic regulators which were much desired.” Having quickly built a reputation as someone who could save the day, not to mention his proficiency in the German language, Tesla was the obvious choice to send to Strasbourg, Alsace (part of Germany at the time, now Strasbourg, France). A catastrophic event had occurred during the opening ceremony of the new lighting plant at the railroad station, and help was needed fast.

The Strasbourg rail station, originally built in 1846, had just been remodeled in the current year of 1883. Dignitaries, including the aging Emperor William I of Germany, were gathered to watch the newly installed direct current electric lighting system showcase the station. The flip of the switch turned out to be more dramatic than expected, however, and a large part of a wall collapsed by a huge explosion, nearly taking William with it. Following this major malfunction and a series of other quality-control issues—lightbulbs were burning out as fast as they could be replaced—the talented Tesla was dispatched to see what he could do to repair the damage, both to the direct current system and the sensitivities of the Alsace people.

Upon arrival he realized that this was not merely a case of crossed wires; there were fundamental flaws in the direct current system design. Batchelor had been warning Edison that generators coming to Europe from America were defective—“fires from faulty armatures and poor insulation were becoming all too common.” According to Tesla, the wiring was defective and the explosion that took down the wall resulted from a massive short circuit. Tesla took on the task of correcting the problem and spent nearly a year redesigning the generators and reinstalling the lighting system. His work was a stunning success.

With the Strasbourg rail station now fully lit and accepted by the Alsace government, Tesla “returned to Paris with pleasing anticipations.” Administrators at Edison’s European works had promised Tesla “a liberal compensation” should he succeed in fixing the Strasbourg problem, “as well as fair consideration of the improvements [Tesla] had made in their dynamos.” He, perhaps naively, hoped to “realize a substantial sum.” That sum was never to be realized.

The Edison men passed around non-decisions until Tesla finally recognized that his promised compensation was more rhetorical than realistic. While hugely disillusioned by how he had been treated, Tesla was simultaneously being pressed by Charles Batchelor to move to America, ostensibly to redesign and improve on the Edison dynamos and motors. Seeing an opportunity to present his alternating current designs directly to the great Thomas Edison himself, Tesla put aside his disappointment and agreed to make the cross-Atlantic voyage to the “land of the golden promise.”

Though its actual existence is disputed, O’Neill states that Batchelor penned a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison in which he stated simply: “I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young man.”

Tesla was off to America. But things were not to go exactly as planned.

In 1884 Edison had installed a complete direct current system on the S.S. Oregon, one of the most modern ships of the time. On the Oregon Edison would first put new employee Nikola Tesla to the test. Both of the twin dynamos had failed, so the ship was sitting in port with no way to run. Edison had sent several men to try to fix it, but with no luck. He was desperate, so when Tesla walked into his office Edison sent him straight to the docks. Tesla was eager to please Edison, so he packed up the necessary tools and arrived on board that evening. “The dynamos were in bad condition,” Tesla later wrote, “with several short circuits and breaks.” Seizing the initiative, Tesla put the ship’s crew to work helping him, and by daybreak he had “succeeded in putting them in good shape.” Another major success.

This incident raised Tesla’s stock in Edison’s eyes and henceforth Tesla “had full freedom in directing the work.” The work was interesting and Tesla was happy. Always the hard worker, for nearly a year Tesla regularly worked from 10:30 a.m. to five o’clock the next morning, seven days a week. Edison was duly impressed, saying, “I have had many hard-working assistants but you take the cake.” Tesla occasionally dined with Edison and other key leaders in Edison’s various companies. Sometimes they would shoot billiards, where Tesla “would impress the fellows with his bank shots and vision of the future.”

Seeing opportunities to improve Edison’s dynamos, Tesla outlined a plan, stressing the output and cost efficiency of his intended changes. Edison, perhaps in a temporarily charitable moment, promised Tesla $50,000 if he could accomplish the task. Tesla immediately set to work and over the next year he designed twenty-four different types of dynamos, “eliminating the long-core field magnets then in use and substituting the more efficient short cores” as well as introducing some automatic controls. The financial benefits to the Edison operations were enormous, but when Tesla demanded payment, Edison’s response was to laugh and say, “You are still a Parisian. When you become a full-fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke.”

Tesla, feeling “a painful shock” at what he felt was being cheated once again by Edison, immediately resigned. Tesla would set out on his own, and in the end, have the last laugh on Edison.

[Adapted from my two books, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World, both available at Barnes and Noble stores nationwide.]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Nikola Tesla and the Flying Machines

Like da Vinci, Nikola Tesla had visions of creating flying machines. Since the Wright brothers had made the first practical, powered heavier-than-air flight in 1903, the development of airplane technology had proceeded rapidly. Fixed-wing aircraft, mainly biplanes, were widely used in World War I by both sides of the conflict. Never satisfied with standard airplanes, Tesla put his efforts into inventing a completely “new type of flying machine,” which he called a “helicopter-plane.” A precursor to what we today call a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft.

The invention consists of a new type of flying machine, designated “helicopter-plane”, which may be raised and lowered vertically and driven horizontally by the same propelling devices and comprises: a prime mover of improved design and an airscrew, both especially adapted for the purpose, means for tilting the machine in the air, arrangements for controlling its operation in any position, a novel landing gear and other constructive details, all of which will be hereinafter fully described.

 

 

The plane would look and act like no other plane. After rising from the ground vertically, the pilot would tilt the plane forward while his seat tilted to maintain an upright position and the wings repositioned horizontally. Besides the unique system for both vertical and horizontal propulsion, the helicopter-plane was also one of the first attempts to use turbine engines in rotor aircraft. Tesla may have been thinking of this technology for even more broadly useful purposes; he may have traveled to Detroit to market his design as a “flying automobile.”

Unfortunately, the aircraft idea was not further developed and became, in 1928 when he was seventy-two years of age, the last patent Tesla would receive.

[Adapted from my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Nikola Tesla Has Died, January 7,1943

Nikola Tesla portraitDuring his illustrious scientific career, Nikola Tesla developed many inventions that changed the world, including his unique design for a rotating magnetic field motor that enabled the use of alternating current on a commercial basis, wireless communication across vast distances, and even early “shadowgraphs,” precursors to X-rays. He also made forays into areas that, while he did not succeed in commercializing, set the stage for future developments, including wireless remote control of boats and other devices (robotics). Tesla did make some grandiose claims that did not come to fruition, the biggest of which included the wireless transmission of power through the Earth, plus a directed energy weapon. He also claimed to have communicated with intelligent beings from the planet Venus or Mars.

Tesla died peacefully during the night of January 7, 1943 in Room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel in New York City, where he had lived in poverty the last ten years of his life. “The superman died as he had lived—alone,” his first biographer John O’Neill wrote shortly after Tesla’s passing. The local coroner declared his death to be from “natural causes incident to senility.”

At nearly eighty-seven years old this would normally be the end of the story, but this was 1943 and the United States was in the midst of World War II. Everyone was suspicious of everyone and fears of spies infiltrating the populace were routine. O’Neill perhaps planted the initial seed for conspiracies to grow when he wrote “operatives from the Federal Bureau of Investigation came and opened the safe in his room and took the papers it contained, to examine them for a reported important secret invention of possible use in the war.”

The stage was set for a series of mystery plays that continue to the present day.

[Adapted from my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity. Chapter 8 looks at conspiracy theories following his death.]

David J. Kent is an avid science traveler and the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Nikola Tesla and the Invention of Bladeless Turbines

Tesla Pot Belly cropWhen he was not taking on Einstein, Nikola Tesla was thinking about some of the fundamental “truths” of science. In one case he disagreed with the idea that turbines needed to have blades like a propeller to catch the air or water as they moved in a particular direction. Tesla had experimented with what would come to be called the bladeless turbine as far back as his youth when he played with waterwheels of his own invention. His updated version of a bladeless turbine could be used, Tesla mused, to power “automobiles, locomotives and steamships,” not to mention airplanes and ocean liners, all new creations of the modern world of the early twentieth century.

Tesla Bladeless TurbineTesla had begun working on bladeless turbines when he was consulting with the Westinghouse Company in Pittsburgh, but this project, like so many others, was put on hold while he toiled on his alternating current designs of high potential and high frequency. But in 1906 he gave himself a fiftieth birthday present by demonstrating his bladeless turbine in public. The basic design of the turbine relies on the principle of boundary layer flow, that is, where the movement of the liquid or gas passes over a series of smooth disks. Some of the liquid or gas adheres to the disks, which creates a vortex that spirals toward the center and spins the turbine. Tesla described it in an interview with the New York Herald in 1911:

“Now, suppose we make this metal plate that I have spoken of circular in shape and mount it at its centre on a shaft so that it can be revolved. Apply power to rotate the shaft and what happens? Why, whatever fluid the disk happens to be revolving in is agitated and dragged along in the direction of rotation, because the fluid tends to adhere to the disk and the viscosity causes the motion given to the adhering particles of the fluid to be transmitted to the whole mass.”

This resulted in very large power output for a very small size and weight. Because no projecting blades were needed, the turbine could withstand much greater pressures.

But that wasn’t the only unusual device he mentioned. More on that in the book.

[Adapted from Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity, now into its 8th printing and translated into multiple languages.]

David J. Kent is the author Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World, plus two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate. His latest book is Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. 

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Nikola Tesla Harnesses the Radiant Energy of Cosmic Rays

Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its TimeThe idea of harnessing cosmic rays came to Tesla when he was working on early developments in radioactivity, something he was doing prior to Roentgen, who later was credited with the discovery of X-rays. Tesla found that the sun was emitting a “peculiar radiation of great energy,” which he later determined to be cosmic rays. While others focused on cosmic rays from far off stars, Tesla noted that this was far outshined by cosmic energy coming from our own sun. He believed that the sun emits “a ray marvelous in the inconceivable minuteness of its particles and transcending speed of their motion, vastly exceeding that of light.” This ray, “by impinging against the cosmic dust generates a secondary radiation.” The energy was “relatively feeble but fairly penetrative.”

Could this cosmic, or radiant, energy be harnessed? Some thought so. In 1901, Tesla patented an “Apparatus for the Utilization of Radiant Energy.” The apparatus consisted of an antenna stuck high into the air and wired to one side of a capacitor and to an earth ground. The difference in potential would charge the capacitor, the oscillating output of which could be controlled with a switching device. Since energy comes from both the sun and “other sources of radiant energy, like cosmic rays,” the device would work both day and night.

Alas, while Tesla did claim to have harnessed cosmic rays, he lamented that, again, technological capabilities were not yet advanced enough to efficiently capture the cosmic force and use it as a reliable source of energy.

On the eve of his 76th birthday Tesla still hoped to build a large scale version of this “motive device.” Being able to do so would “eliminate the need of coal, oil, gas” as energy sources. Unfortunately for all of us, he recognized that circumstances were not favorable at the time. Today, engineers are still trying to figure out how to harness radiant energy.

[The above is extracted from my e-book, Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time, downloadable on Amazon]

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

Nikola Tesla and the Beginning of Robotics

Tesla robot remote controlled boatPeople today are fascinated by artificial intelligence and robotics. But did you know that Nikola Tesla was the first to demonstrate robotics in 1898? He enthralled onlookers with his robot boat in New York City long before Isaac Asimov made robots chic.

I wrote about this in my book, Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity:

While his Tesla coil research was proceeding, Tesla was also moving forward with his wireless radio experimentation. In “The Art of Telautomatics,” Tesla refers to a remote-controlled boat he described in The Century Magazine and demonstrated in Madison Square Garden back in 1898. 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 the arena in which he placed “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, “but was extremely simple, for it was myself who gave the replies by means of the device.” He repeated the exercise with a more advanced and larger telautomatic boat in 1919. 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 might 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.

Tesla’s experiments with wireless technology eventually led him to Colorado Springs, whose dramatic local lightning phenomena gave him a superb testing grounds. After about a year in Colorado he returned to New York and set up his famed Wardenclyffe laboratory and tower on Long Island. More on that at the link.

[The above is adapted from Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity]

David J. Kent is the author of Lincoln: The Man Who Saved America, in Barnes and Noble stores now. His previous books include Tesla: The Wizard of Electricity (2013) and Edison: The Inventor of the Modern World (2016) and two e-books: Nikola Tesla: Renewable Energy Ahead of Its Time and Abraham Lincoln and Nikola Tesla: Connected by Fate.

Check out my Goodreads author page. While you’re at it, “Like” my Facebook author page for more updates!

[Daily Post]