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Read this: http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

Sums it up better'n I ever could.

-Fred

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I love this! They should seriously open a Nikola Tesla museum somewhere!

Bests, Rockefeller

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Yeow, I did not know such a thing. If true, just one more example of why you shouldn't take history at face value.

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I have been reading up on Tesla for years, and whilst I knew a lot of what was on there, that is probably the most concise and effective summaries of the man I have ever read!

-Cub. =o)

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There's no doubt Tesla was brilliant and creative, and he got royally screwed, but he wasn't perfect.

You know that plan to wirelessly charge all your home devices from the air? Yeah, well, that was really Tesla's idea to transmit electricity wirelessly - except it can't work. It's crazy. In reality, we already have wireless electricity transmission; it's called lightning, and yeah, it kills people. And that's not even considering the other effects on the atmosphere that a wide-spread application of such a technology would have.

A brilliant, mistreated, under-appreciated man, but still human. And, like all of us, he too made mistakes.

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It's always the same story with stuff that can't be done. Someone does not know this can't be done, and does it

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At least that's a much better project than making furniture out of cement, which is something Edison attempted to sell.

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Actually, from what I remember reading, the device that would power everything wirelessly would use converted electricity - meaning AC (or Alternating Current) which is far less dangerous. It was supposedly based off of the energy we could harness from the Earth's rotation and movement, which Tesla saw as a perpetual motion device to be tapped.

The man thought big, if nothing else.

And Cub, like you, I've been reading up on Tesla for years. In fact, I started right around the time I learned about the Tesla Coil from the original C&C: Red Alert game

But over the years it's like Tesla is surfacing more and more into mainstream consciousness. Which is a good thing!

Also, from what I read, Tesla took his plans for this perpetual motion converted to AC wireless transfer of endless electricity to a certain oil magnate named Rockefeller. Rockefeller, knowing this device couldn't have a gauge on it, making it non-profitable, had Tesla's lab burned down and his plans confiscated.

Interesting stuff, history.

-Fred

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And from what there have been hints at for Project Fedora:

Greatest computer P.I. ever + Greatest Inventor ever = Greatest Adventure Game ever

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I never thought about Earth itself, but I've felt the same about the moon, or anything large in orbit around anything else, really. Might not be perpetual per say, but close enough to do something with it!

Of course, I keep being reminded about the little issue of energy transportation

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I'm not saying it's impossible to use orbital energy to generate power, only that it's a huge stretch to extrapolate that into transmitting electricity through the air.

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Wireless transfer of electricity is completely feasible, it's just very lossy. However, the immense amount of power to be harnessed from the Earth's rotation and movement around the sun can more than negate any loss.

I remember reading Tesla wanted to use this invention to power all cars, trains, planes and homes with this thing. And, apparently, it was completely feasible. With the exception, as previously mentioned, that you couldn't put a gauge on it.

Way to go, capitalism...

-Fred

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Every argument I've heard of about wireless electrical transmission wasn't actually electricity. For example, microwaves. Yeah, you can transfer power via microwaves, but that's not electricity. Tesla didn't say 'power', he said 'electricity'. Everyone's seen that famous picture of him in the coil surrounded by static electricity bolts flying everywhere.

BTW, transmission via microwaves is inherently dangerous because of the power levels required to get any meaningful use out of it. It does work great for communications (that wireless router in your house uses microwaves) but that's really information transmission, not power, and certainly not electricity.

Can you point me ot a link where they discuss actual wireless transmission of electricity and not induction or electromagnetic radiation or microwaves or lasers; I would love to finally find one?

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Um....pictures....yay? Help us out, what are these images from? Is it a good film/tv show/play/game/whatever?