Boba
Tue, 28 Feb 2006 20:06:17 -0800
Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa February 25, 2006 "NIKOLA TESLA - GENIOUS INVENTOR AND VISIONARY" By H.E. Prof. dr. Perko Vukotic, Ambassador of Serbia and Montenegro About ten years ago, a group of journalists, who were conducting a nationwide poll about our greatest scientist, asked me, as a professor of physics, for my opinion on this matter. I answered, without any hesitation, that our greatest scientist ever was Nikola Tesla. And as fate would have it, the first opportunity that I have had to explain my response is just now, here in Canada, on the occasion of 150th birthday of this great man. Tonight I am doing that with an outmost personal respect towards Nikola Tesla, the man who was far ahead of his time and who greatly indebted humankind with his inventions. In contrast to many other great men who rose to fame on only one invention, Nikola Tesla has left incredible legacy of magnificent inventions, ideas and visions for technological development. Amongst all numerous Tesla's innovations, one group of innovations, or better said - one complete and perfect system, stands out by its fundamental and far reaching impact on everyday human life. That is the polyphase system of alternating current. It is known fact that the invention of wheel is one of the most important discoveries in history of civilization. The invention of the polyphase system of alternating current, according to some historians and scientists, is like invention of the wheel and the four-wheel vehicle at the same time. This is because within the polyphase system Tesla invented all of its components as well. Those included generator, transformer, power lines and many types of electrical motors. This electrotechnical system, based on Tesla's original concept that the energy is generated in one place and is then transferred to customers according to their needs, was publicly presented for the first time in 1888 and realized in 1896, when the first long-distance transmission of electricity began flowing from Niagara Falls hydroelectric power station to Buffalo, 26 miles away. It has revolutionized the electric power production, boosting its phenomenal development. This Tesla's concept is still in use in its unchanged form as a basis of modern electroenergy systems, and Tesla would be a genious even with only this invention. If we were to recognize Tesla's greatest individual invention, that would be, without doubt, the alternating current induction motor, which was presented for the first time in 1891 at Frankfurth fair. The physics concept behind induction motor is the rotating magnetic field, which is also Tesla's invention. This induction motor is considered one of the greatest discoveries of all times. Furthermore, Tesla transformer, or Tesla coil, is one of his most famous inventions. That is in fact a high-frequency air-core transformer with coils in resonance, which can produce high voltage of several million volts and high frequency alternative current. Such transformer is capable of creating impressive long electric discharges through the air, and wirelessly light up distant fluorescent bulbs. Tesla used his coil as a source of electric oscillations in many of his great inventions, such as wireless communication and teleautomata. Nikola Tesla is also the inventor of radio technology. Following the lecture given before Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1893, in which he explained principles of wireless telegraphy, he designed and constructed, in 1896, a device with which he transmitted information between his laboratory and different parts of New York by using radio waves. The following year, he patented his original system of four tuned circuits, which has become the basis of radio technology. However, despite all these facts, it was not Nikola Tesla but Guglielmo Marconi who was awarded Nobel prize in Physics in 1909, for a contribution in wireless telegraphy. As an application of his wireless system, Tesla constructed the first teleautomaton, a device remotely. On a great amusement of the audience which attended demonstration of this invention in New York in 1898, the radio controlled boat moved and turned according to the Tesla's commands from a distance. Even then Tesla knew that his boat-robot was only a beginning of something that we now call robotics, and he gave this visionary statement: "Telautomata will be ultimately produced, capable of acting as if possessed of their own intelligence and their advent will create a revolution." Some fields of science, which are very dynamic nowadays, as well as the scientific terminology which we use today, were not existent in Tesla's time. It was only at the beginning of the 20th century that the modern physics, i.e. subatomic physics, has emerged. That is why Tesla, as a follower of the classical physics, had difficulties to explain some of important phenomena that he discovered, sometimes using inadequate terminology, and sometimes even interpreting them wrongly. In spite of that, there is evidence of Tesla's contribution many branches of modern science and engineering. Let me mention some examples: ? In 1890 Tesla was the first to provide the X-ray like photograph of the bones of his hand, by using the high-frequency current, five years before Wilhelm Roentgen discovered X- rays. ? In 1917, in the magazine "Electrical Experimenter", Tesla described a principle for detection of the hidden remote objects. This was actually the operating principle of the radar, which was discovered 20 years later, shortly before the World War II. ? Two great scientists Robert Millikan and Arthur Compton, both Nobel Laureates for Physics, have brought to attention importance of Tesla's inventions to their research of cosmic radiation. ? A well known Tesla's example of a small boy who pushes swing and each time in the moment when it has to change direction he applies a small impulse, constantly increasing speed of the swing in that way, is in fact a principle which is applied in cyclotron, a discovery for which Ernest Orlando Lawrenson received Nobel Prize for Physics in 1939. ? Within his project the "World System" of wireless transmission, Tesla was thinking about employing Earth and Ionosphere for transmission of energy without power lines. At the time when Physics of the Earth and Ionospheric Physics were not existent yet, he foresaw that Earth and stratosphere were both good electrical conductors. While conducting experiments on wireless transmission of the electrical energy in Colorado Springs in 1899, he determined the existence of natural resonant frequency of Earth and even estimated well its values, which were for the first time measured 60 years later. These examples show evidently what a genius Nikola Tesla truly was. Tesla was gifted with extraordinary imagination, which enabled him very effective and economical method of transforming his ideas into new discoveries and inventions. This is what he wrote on this subject: "I could visualize with the greatest facility. I needed no models, drawings or experiments. I could picture them all as real in my mind..... When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination. I change the construction, make improvements and operate the device in my mind. It is absolutely immaterial to me whether I run my turbine in thought or test it in my shop. ... There is no difference whatever, the results are the same. In this way I am able to rapidly develop and perfect a conception without touching anything. When I have gone so far as to embody in the invention every possible improvement I can think of and see no fault anywhere, I put into concrete form this final product of my brain. Invariably my device works as I conceived that it should, and the experiment comes out exactly as I planned it." It is really for admiration what a great visionary of technical progress Tesla was and how he has anticipated global communication network. Just listen to this citation from his autobiography "My Inventions", published in 1919, in which he indicates the results which could come out from his ideas and experiments within the project "World-System" of wireless transmission: - "The inter-connection of the existing telegraph exchanges or offices all over the world; - The inter-connection of all the present telephone exchanges or offices on the Globe; - The universal distribution of general news, by telegraph or telephone, in connection with the Press; - The world transmission of typed or handwritten characters, letters, checks, etc.; - The world reproduction of photographic pictures and all kinds of drawings or records; - The establishment of a 'World-System' of musical distribution; - The universal registration of time by cheap clocks indicating the hour with astronomical precision and requiring no attention whatever; - The establishment of a universal marine service enabling the navigators of all ships to steer perfectly without compass, to determine the exact location, hour and speed, to prevent collisions and disasters, etc." At the same time, Tesla was also a realist, and for these his ideas I just mentioned he wrote later: "My proposal was deemed chimerical at that time and nothing came from it." However, self confidently and with outmost conviction he adds that: "My project was retarded by laws of nature. The world was not prepared for it. It was too far ahead of time. But the same laws will prevail in the end and make it a triumphal success." And with a great wisdom he synthesizes experience of the development of civilization: "The wonders of yesterday are today common occurrences." Today, modern generations could testify that Tesla was right, and that all his above mentioned ideas are realized, and they became a part of our everyday life. His project the "World-System" of wireless transmission, founded on Tesla's invention of Magnifying Transmitter, "a peculiar transformer specially adapted to excite the Earth", as well as on "The Terrestrial Stationary Waves", Tesla himself thought to be by far the most important of all his ideas on whose realization he has been working. Unfortunately this great idea of wireless transmission of energy to customers at any points on the Globe he did not realize, and so far no other scientist has succeeded in that. Amongst many recognitions that Nikola Tesla received for his remarkable work, during his life and posthumous, I would single out two, which I believe are the most important. First is that in 1960 the International Unit measuring Magnetic Flux Density was named the Tesla in his honour, which is definitely the most important and the most distinctive award that a scientist can get. Second is that LIFE magazine, in its special issue of September 1997, has placed Tesla amongst the 100 most important people in the last thousand years. Think about Newton, Einstein, Darwin, Descartes, Kant, Freud, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Picasso, Bethoven, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Columbus, Napoleon, Peter the Great, Gandhi, Luther King and other greats which are there in company with Nikola Tesla. I would also like to mention Tesla's profound and wise thoughts on peace in world, since they are very relevant even today. "War can not be avoided until the physical cause for its recurrence is removed and this ... is the vast extent of the planet on which we live. Only thru annihilation of distance in every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport of passengers and supplies and transmission of energy will conditions be brought about some day, insuring permanency of friendly relations. What we now want most is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth, and the elimination of that fanatic devotion to exalted ideals of national egoism and pride which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife. ... Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment and merging of races, and we are still far from this blissful realization." Those are the words of the great man who has always emphasized with pride that he is Serb, and who was a sterling patriot but at the same time a true citizen of the world. Nikola Tesla was and still is the example of a man who has, with great self discipline and life sacrifices, dedicated his entire life to science and wellbeing of a mankind. A coherence of technical genius and dedication to one goal, which existed in the character of Nikola Tesla, has enabled one man, in a short human lifetime, to create and leave behind an incredible treasure of inventions as a legacy to a mankind. I will end my presentation with the well known words of I.C.M. Brentano about Tesla's magnificent achievements, because I find I would not be able to put it better myself: "There are three aspects of Tesla's work which particularly deserve our admiration: The importance of the achievements in themselves, as judged by their practical bearing; the logical clearness and purity of thought, with which the arguments are pursued and new results obtained; the vision and the inspiration, I should almost say the courage, of seeing remote things far ahead and so opening up new avenues to mankind." =============== Group Moderator: [EMAIL PROTECTED] page at http://magazine.sorabia.net for more informations about current situation in Serbia http://www.sorabia.net Slusajte GLAS SORABIJE nas talk internet-radio (Serbian Only) http://radio.sorabia.net Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sorabia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! 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