Nobody is suggesting Tesla was not a major figure in early AC development, Edison never disputed that. Nobody disputes that today. For some reason, though, there are a large number of people who want to make him out to be some sort of selfless martyr who eschewed patents and was pretty much the be all end all of tech during that era. But there were several others, with names far less know than Tesla's. One such man was William Stanley, who wrote that he personally saw Ferraris's motor a year before Tesla claims to have dreamed it up independently, a claim Tesla made in a testimony in which Tesla was fighting on behalf of Westinghouse for patent protection for technology that may very well have been public domain. This is public record, and a record that wholly disputes the assertions of the "meme" in the OP and Internet lore. Why can't you see this?

He did have an electric personality

Well, my family consensus is that Tesla was the real deal...

My great grandfather was from Slovakia and ended up in Youngstown, OH working his trade as a glass maker in the 1900's (08, I think...). He ended up making alot of the transistor tubes for custom applications and saw some of Tesla's later work.

BLEW HIS FREAKING MIND!!!

As I was told, some of the early comics using Tesla as the villain used to REALLY piss him off. He did not like "seeing a great man reduced to a character..." Or something like that.

Mind you, my great grandfather was not a scientist. He was just a simple (albeit successful) tradesman glass maker. But what he said he saw was like magic.

For what it's worth...

Thank you for the laugh.

Tesla actually had a full back piece and sleeves.  Koi, dragons, all kinds of things.  It's why he always wore a coat.

Tesla was made to be an evil villain or at least a crazy mad scientist in a book by Koontz (one of the Odd Thomas series) and a young adult series by Westerfeld. Irritated me but they are books of fiction.

Oh, I know it is just fiction. I guess it is all about the narrative. Tesla did kind of set himself up, however... He was of the mentality that the reality of the science would sell itself, whereas his personal opponents were predominantly one step ahead in the propaganda game.

Geniuses tend to lose focus on the big picture, I suppose...

Tesla is the patron saint of Feel the Bern.


His reality is shrouded in bullshit mythology at this point.    Thanks, theoatmeal.

That does seem to be where all this nonsense started. In the '80s and '90s, if you studied Edison you read about his rivalry with Westinghouse. Tesla was one of many brilliant engineers and scientists who helped develop the tech of the era, but the corporate - "CEO" rivalry was between Edison and Westinghouse.

And the whole "invented AC power" thing is so readily falsified, it's continued persistence is amazing to witness. This isn't even a claim Tesla himself made, at least not that I am aware of.

Tesla's induction into the Church of Bernie was not of his doing.  Left-tards of the 60's did same thing to Bob Dylan, but he, still being above ground, was able to later excomunicate himself from them.  Tesla does not have that option.

Again, I'll acknowledge that Tesla wasn't the first in the field but I will return to the Wright Brothers comparison.  They started by reviewing all relevant info on flight and then built a glider based on Otto Lilienthal's research data.  Otto Lilienthal had already built functional gliders with his data but died testing one of them.  The Wright Brothers took that data and glider, tested it in preparation for building a powered vehicle and in that testing they realized that Otto Lilienthal data was inaccurate.  They built a wind tunnel(based on others work) and devised a testing balance fixture that allowed them to test wing designs in the tunnel.  They were able to develop accurate data from that testing and went on to build proper lifting wings.  The Wright Brothers also developed a concept called wing warping which is still used today to fly machines but they got the idea by watch birds a twisting an inertube cardboard carton.  A say all that t o say that the Wright Brothers are commonly considered the inventors of powered flight as we know it but they did all of their work by starting with what was already present. It's also worth noting that the Wrights spent a good bit of energy, time and money fighting off patent infringement before selling the rights.  After that Willbur died and Orrville spent most of his remaining life as spokes person about their place in history.

Tesla was blessed with an almost intuitive grasp of electromagnetic principles and their possibilities.

Unfortunately he could rarely be bothered to actually develop the technology and products based on it, so he was constantly defending his patents in court against people who did.

I just want to know where the "he made a death ray hurrr" idiocy came about. Because I'm pretty sure it's from people playing too much Command and Conquer: Red Alert.



 

Why?  We out of geese?

More likely Bill Gates saw a Xerox Alto.

It was never built AFAIK.  Tesla claimed to have invented it (basically a particle-beam) but never showed it to anyone who mattered and later in life, during his "broke-ass mad scientist phase", kept dangling it like bait to get grants.

No - we do not use wing-warping to fly.  We use ailerons, which are much superior for what wing-warping is intended to accomplish.

Further, you analogy falls apart - prior to the Wrights, no one had sustained powered flight in a heavier than air vehicle.  AC electricity was produced before Tesla got his hands on it.

deleted

Tesla is a good barometer to see if someone has even a shred of mathematics, science, or engineering background. Or if they are a retarded hippy that thinks Tesla invented everything and was magic.

Semantics. AC power existed, but everyone scoffed at using it to do useful work. Tesla changed that. And how.

deleted

Oh, simplistic nonsense. Tesla was one of many rapidly advancing the technology at the time. Tesla built on others and others built on Tesla.

Here's another article addressing the absurd hyperbole and caricatures of the Tesla fanboys:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/05/18/nikola-tesla-wasnt-god-and-thomas-edison-wasnt-the-devil/#3be541c71dbd

Interesting, looks like the Oatmeal guy responded to this Forbes article.

http://theoatmeal.com/blog/tesla_response

Doesn't help his position much.

He is self contradictory, trying to suggest the Forbes guy is being hypocritical about the light bulb A/C power invention thing. But it's the Oatmeal comic that dismisses Edison's "invention" of the light bulb while simultaneously asserting Tesla's "invention" of A/C power.

For the most salient points, he closes with the tired "I'm a comedian, going for hyperbole for comic effect" canard. It's the same line people
Mike Rush Limbaugh or John Stewart use when challenged on the facts of a political screed on their shows. But, they try to have it both ways, and are perfectly content to let their listeners convey the stories with no sense that they might no t be the whole truth.

Then, to admit he accepts Tesla was Loonie Tunes by the time he was 30, while being a key contributor to the "the stereotype of Tesla as a 'mad scientist' was unfair and rooted in bigotry" trope. Ridicule one sided smearing of Edison and over-hyping of Tesla.

I mean, to claim Tesla had been forgotten by history when he had a unit of measure named after him! Ridiculous.

Your understanding of wing warping and ailerons appears to be lacking.  Ailerons function under the same principles as wing warping.  Ailerons are a natural evolution of wing warping when combined with more modern materials and more efficient mechanical power systems of the times.  The Wrights had to use wing warping due to the weight restrictions of their lift capacity which was a direct result of their engine power, existing flyer+pilot weight and the maximum lift their wings could tolerate due to the fabric/wood/bolt/cable construction.  Wing warping still causes lateral (roll) movement of a plane by moving the edges of the wings up on one side and down on the other, just like you'll see Aileron's do on modern planes.  The difference is the entire wing system would flex in wing warping but that was due to the inability to put a fixed wing with independent controlling tips into the air with the equipment at the disposal of the Wrights.  Had they been able to construct such a system while still trying to create the same aerodynamic principles of the their wing warping design, it would have been what we now know as Ailerons.  How do we know the Wrights would have done it if they could have?.. Take a look at the tail they used on the glider which articulated side to side and the horizontal stabilizer they used on the front to control pitch.

As to the Wright vs Tesla analogy, no it doesn't fall apart.  AC power existed in some form prior to Tesla but not in today's form.  If you compared the changes to AC post Tesla to flight post Wright's you'll see the same level of progression.  Unmanned but powered flight did exist prior to the Wright brothers.  Some of the most spectacular failures at powered man flight were attempts to up scale unmanned machines. [See Langley's Aerodrome program: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langley_Aerodrome ] The materials weren't caught up and the math was off.

The Wright's took a ton of existing work, perfected it and put it all together. Heck they had a tech in their bicycle shop cut the crank shaft for their engine by hand.  They were dedicated to accomplishing their goals and they worked with many who were already in the field, like Octave Chanute, to make it a reality.  At the end of the day, they are credited for being the fathers/inventors of manned flight but they got there with a lot of concepts and ideas that were initiated before they got into the game.

The assertion that Tesla is essentially an equivalent for AC power as we see it in the United States still today is quite similar as Tesla took a lot of ideas and moved them from concept and infantile functioning examples to a point that we don't see much difference in todays AC electrical systems if we are using the Wright Flyer and modern Jets as the comparable.

Anyway it's clear that we are going to have to agree to disagree and I'm fine with that.  I appreciate the conversation!