Nikola Tesla: Genius or Madman?

Anyone who has ever taken even a passing interest in technology or electronics has probably heard the name Nikola Tesla. His inventions are undeniable, and have allowed us to make many steps forward in technology. He invented the vacuum tube, the light bulb (yes, he did invent it before Edison - Edison just beat him to the patent office), flourescent lights, distributors, AC power, the electric AC motor, the Tesla coil, and the radio (only credited to Tesla after his assistant, Guglielmo Marconi, sat before a court and made a sworn testimony that Tesla had in fact invented it), to name a few.



Nobody really disputes his brilliance in regards to his earlier inventions. It is the inventions he was working on after his retirement from Westinghouse that have put him into the category of world-class madman. His designs for free power, death rays, anti-gravity ships, and amphibious airships, among others still seem to be science fiction today. There is also a lot of mystery surrounding Tesla's later years, as well as what actually happened to his assistant, Marconi, after Tesla's death.

One of Tesla's better known experiments regards his famed Wardenclyffe tower, and a power experiment of world-wide proportions. Tesla questioned the Earth's own conductive properties, since we have been grounding electricity into the planet since the dawn of the electric age. The Earth has always dissipated even great charges of electricity (such as lightning) rather easilly. Tesla theorised that he could use the Earth's own conductive properties to amplify electrical current. Using the giant coil contained within his Wardenclyffe tower and a free connection to the local power plant (provided by a friend of his working for the power company), he started firing directed bursts of electricity straight into the Earth. These directed bursts of electricity would bounce off the far side of the planet, and return to the coil with a greater charge than it left with. The coil, in turn, would re-amplify this current, and send it back into the planet. After several cycles, Tesla's Wardenclyffe tower was producing millions of volts of electricity, and actually creating electrical arcs of up to 30 feet with a higher voltage than natural lightning. The experiment came to an abrupt end when the Colorado Springs Electric Company's generator was destroyed by the amount of power being backfed into the system. Tesla's experiment caused a city-wide blackout, and evidently also was responsible for killing wildlife that was in contact with the ground, melting the soles on people's shoes to the sidewalk, and also possibly causing a massive power outage on the far side of the planet that he was bouncing the electricity off of. In addition to this, his lab glowed with a blue corona, similar to St. Elmo's Fire, and turned all of the grass and other low foliage in the area blue from the electrical discharge.

From Wikipedia

Tesla became the first man to create electrical effects on the scale of lightning. The MT produced thunder which was heard as far away as Cripple Creek. People near the lab would observe sparks emitting from the ground to their feet and through their shoes. Some have observed electrical sparks from the fire hydrants (Tesla for a time grounded out to the plumbing of the city). The area around the laboratory would glow with a blue corona (similar to St. Elmo's Fire). One of Tesla's experiments with the MT destroyed Colorado Springs Electric Company's generator by backfeeding the city's power generators, and blacked out the city. The company denied Tesla further access to the backup generator's feed if he did not repair the primary generator at his own expense; it was working again in a few days.

Many of Tesla's later patent applications appeared complete, but when people tried to replicate his work, they found that certain key elements had been left out. Tesla's Death Ray, for instance - the patent application contained the power source needed for it, the effects of the death ray, physics of its operation, and even the range of the device, however, the critical element of the emission array was left out of the application. The patent was denied for this item. Tesla also submitted a patent application for his free energy system which also left out certain key elements - namely how to allow the system to sustain itself.

Tesla's stranger inventions really are quite fascinating, and one has to wonder if they actually did work, given his proven genius with earlier inventions. Some of his stranger invenions include:

The Electro Dynamic Induction Lamp - created in 1894, this lamp is said to be far advanced to anything currently available (US Patent 514,170)

The Bladeless Tesla Turbine - Patented in 1916 (US Patent 1,329,559), is said to be the most efficient engine, and is roughly 20 times more efficient than currently available turbines, though is still not in use.

Tesla's Ozone Generator - Patented in 1896 (US Patent 568,177). Ozone generators are currently banned for medical use in the U.S. despite claims of some doctors that ozone therapy can cure cancer and AIDS.

Anti-Gravity and the Wall of Light - Tesla theorized that a "wall of light" could be created using the sun's own rays, and within this wall, time, space, gravity, and matter could be manipulated. Furthering on this theory, it is thought that Tesla had designs for anti-gravity aircraft that would draw power from his famed Wardenclyffe tower (a giant Tesla coil, and one of the most efficient and highest output power plants ever created). If Tesla had these plans in his head, it's possible that all he needed to create the craft was a wealthy backer. Is it possible that this kind of craft could have been built in secret? Also of note, Tesla's design for an electric submarine could have also been the basic design for these airships, since the cigar-shaped craft can allegedy also go underwater and act as submarines, as well as airships.

Given these fantastic technologies that Tesla had invented, Marconi decided to approach several financial backers with his own ideas, after seeing the slighting that Tesla had gotten from other backers in his later years. After having the death ray technology condemned by the Pope in 1936, Marconi allegedly faked his death in early 1937, and fled to South America with almost 100 other physicists and scientists, to set up shop in the crater of an extinct volcano. It is also rumored that Tesla himself did not actually die in 1943, as the records state, but also faked his own death, and joined Marconi and the others in South America.

Rumors abound about this hidden high technology city in South America. Many UFO sightings have been attributed to Marconi and others in this city. Assuming Tesla's theories about anti-gravity ships were true, it's quite possible that inhabitants of this hidden city have been flying around in disc-shaped craft. It was theorized in the 1950s that the level of technology within the hidden city is decades ahead of even current 21st Century technology. Rumors of the harnessing of cosmic energy along with free-energy systems abound. Anti-gravity airships are commonplace, and by today, I'd be willing to speculate that they've already mastered nanotechnology to further their own designs.

Is it possible that a city such as this exists? Given the advanced technology that Tesla and Marconi were both working on before their public deaths, I'd have to say that it is possible.

[edit on 25-4-2005 by obsidian468]

Tesla was a genius. It is proported that in the 1930's and 1940's he was able to perform certain feats with electricity that modern scientists are unable (or unwilling!) to replicate.

A fine, unbiased biography of this man can be found here:

Tesla: Man Out of Time

Have they ever made any tv programmes about tesla? I've always seen stuff about other top rated scientists, but tesla is never talked about....strange.

I don't consider Tesla: Man Out of Time to be all that unbiased.

I don't think anyone will argue that Nikola Tesla was a brilliant engineer who came up witn many great things, including a radio-controlled remote control, AC, and things like that.

And I also woud bet that everyone agrees that he was screwed over by Edison, just like Philo T. Farnsworth, the inventor of television, was shafted by David Sarnoff & Co.

But Tesla, to put it mildly, was eccentric, even early in his career. I'm sure everyone knows about his napkins and his counting obsessions, etc. I think that this basic whatever-the-psychologists-want-to-call-it, coupled with his background of losing out to Edison in his lawsuits, his inability to raise funds, etc. drove him around the bend.

I don't think anyone knows the truth about the capability of the Wardenclyffe Tower work, as well as a lot of his other sci-fi type stuff.

My belief is that none of it panned out, and I base this on two facts.

First, no one that I know of has seen any documentation that shows this stuff; if they had, some smart person would've built one of his whizz-bangs long ago.

Second, the Government probably isn't covering it up, buecause if any of his inventions were actually workable, they'd have perfected them and we'd be using them today, just like we're using other then-Top Secret stuff like nuclear power and radar. If, on the other hand, his inventions were unworkable, they wouldn't be secret any more.

I know a lot about Tesla. Your post is full of misinformation and speculation, so I'd have to say, "No, there probably isn't a secret volcano base in South America full of scientists building UFO's and nanotechnology."

Originally posted by shbaz
I know a lot about Tesla. Your post is full of misinformation and speculation, so I'd have to say, "No, there probably isn't a secret volcano base in South America full of scientists building UFO's and nanotechnology."

The speculation in this article is simply a quoting of prior speculation. Notice the liberal use of the terms "rumor" and "alleged." I, myself, have done no speculation in this article. Tesla was very interesting, to say the least, and even if most of his later career was complete bunk, I find it necessary to post the speculation in order to fully explore the impact he made on the world.

Originally posted by rufi0o
Have they ever made any tv programmes about tesla? I've always seen stuff about other top rated scientists, but tesla is never talked about....strange.

PBS has a publicly available series on Tesla here: www.pbs.org...

I haven't yet had a chance to watch it, but I stumbled across it while looking for further info on Tesla.

Hey he's just like me, a genius but insane

He had some ideas that were out there, but thats what makes a scientists great isnt it? Being able to think of all those strange new ideas. Imagine when people heard about the wheel.

An insane genious he was. Thats what science needs right now. And also - he was a Croatian, not a serbian as the serbs love to say in their textbooks!

Originally posted by obsidian468

The speculation in this article is simply a quoting of prior speculation. Notice the liberal use of the terms "rumor" and "alleged." I, myself, have done no speculation in this article.

If that's not your article, please post the source to the original one.

Anyway, Tesla was a genius, and was able to do something that practically no one else in recorded history has been able to do. He was able to build/picture these machines entirely in his imagination before actually starting to build it in reality. He was actually able to fix malfunctions in his mind before repairing the machines in reality as well. That is what I call a supreme and strong imagination.

Originally posted by croatianguy
An insane genious he was. Thats what science needs right now. And also - he was a Croatian, not a serbian as the serbs love to say in their textbooks!

So true, so true. Any good thing we do they take credit for.

Tesla was certainly a genius, albeit an insane one. My favorite factoid was that Tesla, like Leonardo Da Vinci, often wrote many of his theoretical notebooks in code. Unlike Da Vinci's code (no pun intended) which was nothing more than mirror writing (which was probably sufficient to baffle the mirror bereft folk of his day), Tesla's code has never been deciphered in spite of the fact that some of the worlds finest cryptologists have been hard at it for years.

most geniuses are madmen, but that is how your society defines intelligent humans

what does it matter anyways?

Originally posted by Annunaki
what does it matter anyways?

theres a fine line there somewhere

Tesla, apparently quite the Philadelphia Experiment project just before the first test, as he knew the potential dangers to humans if used in the experiment. Tesla died soon after?, his notes and theories were confiscated and classified, and I beleive still are to this day.

Dallas

Originally posted by benevolent tyrant
Tesla was certainly a genius, albeit an insane one. My favorite factoid was that Tesla, like Leonardo Da Vinci, often wrote many of his theoretical notebooks in code. Unlike Da Vinci's code (no pun intended) which was nothing more than mirror writing (which was probably sufficient to baffle the mirror bereft folk of his day), Tesla's code has never been deciphered in spite of the fact that some of the worlds finest cryptologists have been hard at it for years.

he wrote stuff in code ???

neat. show me

Originally posted by obsidian468
These directed bursts of electricity would bounce off the far side of the planet, and return to the coil with a greater charge than it left with. The coil, in turn, would re-amplify this current, and send it back into the planet.
...
and also possibly causing a massive power outage on the far side of the planet that he was bouncing the electricity off of.

I find this pretty much impossible. The Earth would dissipate a charge quickly, not allow it to go in a straight path through it. Even if it did, certainly it would have been stopped by the Earth's iron core and not allowed to go through to the other side.

I had never heard about him before this thread....other than the tesla coil in Red Alert....but I'm interested in the tower experiment now!

Originally posted by TheBandit795
If that's not your article, please post the source to the original one.

The words are mine, however, the prior speculation I mention is what I have gleaned from various webites and texts regarding Tesla.

The primary source I took information from was from a book called "The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla" by David Hatcher Childress.

I assure you, there is no plagarism in my article, yet many of the concepts and prior speculation was gleaned from the above mentioned book, among other sources.