Nikola Tesla

[Freeman]

If anyone deserved a thread it's him. Thought I'd share this link I was given today:

 

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

[Halitosis Romantic]

Yes, the Oatmeal is very funny. This doesn't deserve a thread.

[PunkStep]

I liked his weapons in Fallout.

[Loki]

I'll bite, as I'm a fairly big Tesla fan (Christ that sounds weird).

 

He did indeed invent, and fail to capitalise on, a ridiculous number of the most important discoveries of the early 20th century. Of course, a lot of the evidence for that is, er, from him but he's still an incredibly cool guy.

 

The coolest, kind of fortean type bit of the story is definitely wireless energy transfer. This is the holy grail of electro engineering, and is only just now starting to appear in practical applications, like those pads you can put your phone on that charges them. Yeah, we can do about an inch. There's a couple of companies that claim they can light things like lamps at a distance of a couple of metres, but they've been claiming that for some time and I still don't see their tech in Argos.

 

But Tesla managed it in 1893. And not only that but he had a system worked out that could pretty much wirelessly transfer as much energy as needed anywhere in the world, from one point source.

 

NOW... I'm not one for conspiracy theories (hi Duane) but it would seem to me that there'd be a lot of people over the years in whose interests it would be that that particular technology never saw the light of day.

[Richie Freebird]

 

"Mr. Edison, we

[neil's bitch]

I'm a Tesla fan.

 

For me, I am so interested in some of his work that didnt see the light of day. Various power providing/trasportational methods, as well as various weaponry (aparantly) that we'll sadly never know about. According to conspiricy theorys, the CIA/FBI were after alot of his invetions we he had died, and as such supposedly had stolen some of his paper work upon his death.

 

I cant help but think of any of his ideas in a strange 18-1900's "Steam-punk" sort of way though, but a great chap who deserves alot more recognition than he ever got. Then again David Bowie did play him in "The Prestige" (which is a great film by the way).

 

Movie spoiler:

 

<-- click on 'spoiler' to show/hide the spoiler

Although i'm not sure Tesler ever built a crazy Clone machine, but then again who knows!

 

[close spoiler]

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[Loki]

Some more detail on his wireless energy stuff on this Wikipedia entry:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower

 

He is the stuff of steampunk fantasy. I like to think Bowie's portrayal is spot on

[BigJag]

There's a documentary called Shock and Awe The Story of Electricity. The Tesla Edison rivalry is covered in that 3 part series. Well worth watching.

It pops up on BBC 4 regularly.

On I player too http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer/episode/p00kjqcv