Read Online Tesla: The Life and Times of an Electric Messiah by Nigel Cawthorne - Free Book Online
Authors: Nigel Cawthorne
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beautiful effects like the âspokes of a wheel of glowing moonbeamsâ, the Electrical Engineer said.
Towards the end of the performance, Tesla held up one of his phosphorescent lamps , the precursory of fluorescent lights, and announced that he would illuminate it by touching the terminal of his oscillating transformer with his other hand. When he did, the lamp lit up.
âThere was a stampede in the two upper galleries and they all rushed out,â said Tesla. âThey thought it was some part of the devilâs work.â
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An All-American Joke
Returning to New York, Tesla acquired his US citizenship. To get back at Edison for his jibe years earlier of âYou are still a Parisianâ, Tesla decided, now that he was a fully-fledged American, to find out if Edison could take an all-American joke. He set up an experiment pitting a carbon-filament incandescent light that Edison had invented against an identical bulb that was empty.
Applying a current at a frequency of around one million cycles per second, the empty bulb glowed brightly â more brightly than Edisonâs bulb which was being run on direct current. Whatâs more, the empty bulb stayed cool to the touch. Edison was far from amused and, once again, Tesla had shot down his former mentor in the popular press.
An incandescent light bulb is only 5 per cent efficient. The other 95 per cent is lost in the form of heat. This waste, Tesla said, was âon a par with the wanton destruction of whole forests for the sake of a few sticks of lumberâ.
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Tesla Keeps Inventing
However, to Tesla, the attention of the press was a distraction. He went to work increasing the power of his oscillators until he reached one million volts. Then he immersed a high-frequency oscillator in a vat of oil. By modulating the frequency he could get the oil to rotate at different rates.
Tesla then invented a new steam-driven generator that produced as much power as one 40 times its size. Instead of using the piston action of the steam engine to turn a crankshaft and flywheel, which then turn the generator, he put the cylinder inside the coils of the generator so that the metal pistons moving up and down generated electricity.
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Chicago Worldâs Fair 1893
Westinghouse had won the contract to light the Worldâs Columbian Exposition, aka the Chicago Worldâs Fair, in May 1893 by putting in a bid much lower than that of General Electric, which now owned Edisonâs patents. The buildings at the fair were to be illuminated with 200,000 bulbs, so this was an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how Teslaâs AC system could be used to light an entire city.
GE had initially estimated that it would cost $1.8 million to light the fair. When this was rejected, they revised it down to $554,000. Westinghouse came in at $399,000. At that price, Westinghouse had to devise a more economical system. In less than six months, they designed and built bigger generators than had ever been built before. Using AC at high-voltage, they could distribute this throughout the fair on thin wires, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of copper. The fair site would be a blaze of light and consume three times the amount of electricity then being utilized by the whole of the city of Chicago.
Westinghouse also had come up with a new design for an incandescent lamp to avoid infringing Edisonâs patents and manufactured 250,000 of them. Consequently when Westinghouse went to see Tesla when he arrived back in New York, he had not put much thought to promoting his motors or his polyphase system. But realizing the importance of the Worldâs Fair as a showcase, Tesla went to Pittsburgh, he said, âto bring the motor to high perfectionâ.
Â
Words Are Not Enough
The Columbian Exposition covered almost 700 acres (283 Hectares) and attracted some 28 million visitors from all over the world. The centre-piece was a Ferris wheel standing 264
Towards the end of the performance, Tesla held up one of his phosphorescent lamps , the precursory of fluorescent lights, and announced that he would illuminate it by touching the terminal of his oscillating transformer with his other hand. When he did, the lamp lit up.
âThere was a stampede in the two upper galleries and they all rushed out,â said Tesla. âThey thought it was some part of the devilâs work.â
Â
An All-American Joke
Returning to New York, Tesla acquired his US citizenship. To get back at Edison for his jibe years earlier of âYou are still a Parisianâ, Tesla decided, now that he was a fully-fledged American, to find out if Edison could take an all-American joke. He set up an experiment pitting a carbon-filament incandescent light that Edison had invented against an identical bulb that was empty.
Applying a current at a frequency of around one million cycles per second, the empty bulb glowed brightly â more brightly than Edisonâs bulb which was being run on direct current. Whatâs more, the empty bulb stayed cool to the touch. Edison was far from amused and, once again, Tesla had shot down his former mentor in the popular press.
An incandescent light bulb is only 5 per cent efficient. The other 95 per cent is lost in the form of heat. This waste, Tesla said, was âon a par with the wanton destruction of whole forests for the sake of a few sticks of lumberâ.
Â
Tesla Keeps Inventing
However, to Tesla, the attention of the press was a distraction. He went to work increasing the power of his oscillators until he reached one million volts. Then he immersed a high-frequency oscillator in a vat of oil. By modulating the frequency he could get the oil to rotate at different rates.
Tesla then invented a new steam-driven generator that produced as much power as one 40 times its size. Instead of using the piston action of the steam engine to turn a crankshaft and flywheel, which then turn the generator, he put the cylinder inside the coils of the generator so that the metal pistons moving up and down generated electricity.
Â
Chicago Worldâs Fair 1893
Westinghouse had won the contract to light the Worldâs Columbian Exposition, aka the Chicago Worldâs Fair, in May 1893 by putting in a bid much lower than that of General Electric, which now owned Edisonâs patents. The buildings at the fair were to be illuminated with 200,000 bulbs, so this was an ideal opportunity to demonstrate how Teslaâs AC system could be used to light an entire city.
GE had initially estimated that it would cost $1.8 million to light the fair. When this was rejected, they revised it down to $554,000. Westinghouse came in at $399,000. At that price, Westinghouse had to devise a more economical system. In less than six months, they designed and built bigger generators than had ever been built before. Using AC at high-voltage, they could distribute this throughout the fair on thin wires, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of copper. The fair site would be a blaze of light and consume three times the amount of electricity then being utilized by the whole of the city of Chicago.
Westinghouse also had come up with a new design for an incandescent lamp to avoid infringing Edisonâs patents and manufactured 250,000 of them. Consequently when Westinghouse went to see Tesla when he arrived back in New York, he had not put much thought to promoting his motors or his polyphase system. But realizing the importance of the Worldâs Fair as a showcase, Tesla went to Pittsburgh, he said, âto bring the motor to high perfectionâ.
Â
Words Are Not Enough
The Columbian Exposition covered almost 700 acres (283 Hectares) and attracted some 28 million visitors from all over the world. The centre-piece was a Ferris wheel standing 264
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