Tesla. Inventor of the Electrical Age

507 Pages·2013·4.609 MB·English

by  W. Bernard Carlson

Inventor of the eleCtrICal age
W. Bernard Carlson
PrInCeton UnIversItYP rPIrneCseston and oXford
Copyright © 2013 by Princeton University Press
Carlson, W. Bernard.
Tesla : inventor of the electrical age / W. Bernard Carlson.
Provided by publisher.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0 - 691- 05776- 7 (hardback : acid- free paper)
1. Tesla, Nikola, 1856– 1943. 2. Electrical engineers— United States- - Biography. 3.
Inventors— United States— Biography. I. Title.
TK140.T4C37 2013 621.3092— dc23
[B] 2012049608
British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Introduction
Dinner at Delmonico’s 1
Chapter one
An Ideal Childhood (1856– 1878) 12
Chapter two
Dreaming of Motors (1878– 1882) 34
Chapter three
Learning by Doing (1882– 1886) 60
Chapter four
Mastering Alternating Current (1886– 1888) 76
Chapter five
Selling the Motor (1888– 1889) 100
Chapter six
Searching for a New Ideal (1889– 1891) 117
Chapter seven
A Veritable Magician (1891) 129
Chapter eight
Taking the Show to Europe (1891– 1892) 143
viii © Contents
Chapter nine
Pushing Alternating Current in America (1892– 1893) 158
Chapter ten
Wireless Lighting and the Oscillator (1893– 1894) 176
Chapter eleven
Efforts at Promotion (1894– 1895) 193
Chapter twelve
Looking for Alternatives (1895– 1898) 214
Chapter thirteen
Stationary Waves (1899– 1900) 262
Chapter fourteen
Wardenclyffe (1900– 1901) 302
Chapter fifteen
The Dark Tower (1901– 1905) 331
Chapter sixteen
Visionary to the End (1905– 1943) 368
epilogue 396
Note on Sources 415
Abbreviations and Sources 421
Notes 423
Acknowledgments 473
Index 477
Illustrations
figure 0.1. “Showing the Inventor [Tesla] in the Effulgent
Glory of Myriad Tongues of Electric Flame After He Has
Saturated Himself with Electricity.” 2
figure 1.1. Tesla’s father, Milutin. 15
figure 1.2. Tesla’s birthplace in Smiljan in Lika. 16
figure 2.1. Faraday’s principle of electromagnetic induction. 36
figure 2.2. Diagram illustrating the right- hand rule. 36
figure 2.3. Hippolyte Pixii’s magneto with the first
commutator from 1832. 38
figure 2.4. Simplified view of an electric generator. 39
figure 2.5. Simplified view of a commutator in an electric
generator. 40
figure 2.6. Gramme generator for classroom
demonstrations. 42
figure 2.7. Arago’s spinning disk and Babbage and
Hershel’s modification. 53
figure 2.8. Eddy currents in a disk spinning in a magnetic
field. 54
figure 2.9. Baily’s electric motor from 1879. 56
figure 3.1. First transformers developed by Zipernowsky,
Bláthy, and Déri in 1884– 85. 62
figure 3.2. Tesla when he was in Paris in 1883. 63
ix
x © Illustrations
figure 3.3. Tesla’s system in which the generator produced
three separate alternating currents that were delivered to
the motor over six different wires. 65
figure 3.4. Tesla’s AC motor in Strasbourg in 1882. 67
figure 3.5. Edison Machine Works on Goerck Street in
New York. 71
figure 3.6. Tesla in 1885. 74
figure 4.1. Tesla’s thermoelectric motor, 1886. 77
figure 4.2. Tesla’s pyromagnetic generator, 1886– 87. 83
figure 4.3. Tesla’s AC motor, 1887. 86
figure 4.4. Tesla’s egg of Columbus apparatus, circa 1887. 91
figure 4.5. Tesla’s experimental arrangement for
experimenting with AC motors, fall 1887. 93
figure 4.6. Tesla motor built in 1887– 88. 94
figure 5.1. Ferraris’ AC motor, circa 1885. 109
figure 6.1. Apparatus used by Hertz to study
electromagnetic waves. 121
figure 6.2. Diagram of a Tesla coil. 122
figure 7.1. Circuit used by Tesla for his 1891 lecture at Co-
lumbia College. 135
figure 7.2. Tesla demonstrating his wireless lamps before
the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in May 1891. 136
figure 7.3. Diagram showing how Tesla grounded his
transmitter and receiver. 139
figure 8.1. Apparatus used by Tesla in his 1892 London
lecture to illuminate Sir William Thomson’s name. 149
figure 8.2. Single- wire motor demonstrated by Tesla in his
1892 London lecture. 150
figure 8.3. Tesla lecturing before the French Physical
Society and the International Society of Electricians
in 1892. 153
figure 10.1. Receiver used by Tesla to detect electromagnetic
waves in the mid- 1890s. 180
figure 10.2. Tesla’s oscillator, or combination steam engine
and generator. 182
figure 10.3. Circuit used by Tesla to deliver wireless power
to his lamps in his South Fifth Avenue laboratory,
circa 1894. 189
Illustrations © xi
figure 10.4. Receiving coil for Tesla’s resonant transformer,
as used in the South Fifth Avenue laboratory, circa 1894. 190
figure 10.5. Three phosphorescent bulbs as used in the
South Fifth Avenue laboratory, circa 1894. 192
figure 11.1. Tesla, circa 1894– 95. 194
figure 11.2. Robert Underwood Johnson and Tesla in the
South Fifth Avenue laboratory. 198
figure 11.3. Katharine Johnson. 199
figure 11.4. Photograph of Tesla taken by phosphorescent
light. 200
figure 11.5. Mark Twain in Tesla’s laboratory in 1894. 202
figure 11.6. Tesla’s vision of transmitting power and
messages contrasted with that of other inventors in
the 1890s. 210
figure 11.7. Tesla coil for ascertaining and discharging the
electricity of the Earth. 212
figure 12.1. Tesla’s laboratory at East Houston Street. 219
figure 12.2. Tesla seated in his laboratory in 1896. 220
figure 12.3. Shadowgraph made by Tesla of a human foot
in a shoe in 1896. 223
figure 12.4. Diagram showing interior of Tesla’s first
radio- controlled boat in 1898. 226
figure 12.5. Diagram showing Tesla’s radio- controlled boat
and transmitter in 1898. 228
figure 12.6. Newspaper sketch from 1898 showing how
Tesla planned to demonstrate his radio- controlled boat
at the Paris Exposition. 236
figure 12.7. Pencil sketch of Tesla at a café. 238
figure 12.8. Richmond P. Hobson. 241
figure 12.9. NT, “Electrical Transformer.” 250
figure 12.10. Demonstration done in Tesla’s Houston
Street laboratory to show the feasibility of conducting
high- frequency currents through a low- pressure
gas, 1898. 251
figure 12.11. “System of Transmission of Electrical
Energy.” 253
figure 12.12. “Tesla’s proposed arrangement of balloon
stations for transmitting electricity without wires.” 254
xii © Illustrations
figure 12.13. Tesla’s system of electrical power transmission
issuing streamers in the East Houston Street laboratory
in 1898. 255
figure 13.1. Colorado Springs in the early twentieth century. 263
figure 13.2 View of Tesla’s experimental station in
Colorado Springs. 266
figure 13.3. Interior of the experimental station showing
the components that provided power to the primary coil
of the magnifying transmitter. 268
figure 13.4. Diagram showing how Jupiter’s moon Io passes
through a torus of charged particles. 277
figure 13.5. Notebook sketch of circuit typically used by
Tesla at Colorado Springs. 280
figure 13.6. Diagram of tuned circuit used by Tesla in
Colorado Springs. 287
figure 13.7. The magnifying transmitter at Colorado
Springs with several secondary coils energized by the
primary coils on the circular wall. 288
figure 13.8. Three incandescent lamps located outside the
experimental station and powered by the magnifying
transmitter. 290
figure 13.9. “Experiment to illustrate the transmission
of electrical energy without wire.” 291
figure 13.10. Unidentified assistant at main power switch
in the experimental station. 293
figure 13.11. “Discharge of ‘extra coil’ issuing from many
wires fastened to the brass ring.” 296
figure 13.12. Tesla seated in magnifying transmitter, with
discharge passing from the secondary coil to another coil. 298
figure 14.1. Tesla’s laboratory at Wardenclyffe. 319
figure 14.2. The Machine Shop at Wardenclyffe. 320
figure 14.3. The Engine and Dynamo Room at
Wardenclyffe. 321
figure 14.4. The Electrical Room at Wardenclyffe. 322
figure 14.5. The laboratory and tower at Wardenclyffe. 323
figure 14.6. Patent diagram for the Wardenclyffe Tower
showing one version of the elevated terminal as well
as the circuitry Tesla planned to use. 324
Illustrations © xiii
figure 14.7. The tower at Wardenclyffe showing
hemispherical terminal on top. 325
figure 15.1. “Tesla’s Wireless Transmitting Tower, 185 feet
high, at Wardenclyffe, N. Y., from which the city of New
York will be fed with electricity, . . . ” 340
figure 15.2. DeForest Wireless Automobile operating in
the New York financial district in 1903. 351
figure 15.3. Tesla in 1904. 355
figure 15.4. Tesla’s prospectus from February 1904. 356
figure 15.5. Tesla’s vision of the Earth as filled with an in-
compressible fluid. 363
figure 16.1. Tesla turbine. 370
figure 16.2. Tesla’s turbine test apparatus at the Edison Wa-
terside Station, New York, in 1912. 372
figure 16.3. Tesla in his office in the Woolworth Building,
circa 1916. 374
figure 16.4. Tesla at one of his birthday interviews, 1935. 381
figure 16.5. Tesla’s plan for a high potential generator
to be used as a particle beam weapon. 383
figure 16.6. Diagram showing the projector in Tesla’s
particle beam weapon. 385
There is something within me that might be illusion as
it is often [the] case with young delighted people, but
if I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it
would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity.
Nikola Tesla, 1892