Nikola Tesla and You!

[thesyntaxera]

The OP's question was, how would society be "different" if our modern-day technology were based on Tesla technology. The answer is "no different", because our modern day technology largely IS based on Tesla technology - the premise that a lot of Tesla's work has been "repressed", ignored, kept hidden, or made secret, is not accurate. Everything that Tesla thought up that actually works is being used - widely. Tesla's...."special" projects, like death rays and all that, are not in use because they don't work.

I must not have explained myself well enough then. What I am actually interested in are the hypothetical applications of his wild claims regardless of if they were practical or not. My question assumes that scientists had found a way to make some of those sci-fi idea's tangible.

But I took the hypothetical to be, what if through the air transmission worked. How would things look? I took it to be an invitation to speculate on a contrary-to-fact situation. (Sort of like, what would the Earth look like if it had no moon?)

Exactly, thank you!

 

[thesyntaxera]

Well following this line of speculation, I think it would have actually slowed down progress in electronics and computers. With all that electromagnetic radiation in the air, everything outside of the receivers would have to be resistant to it. You couldn't have a form factor that didn't incorporate a Faraday cage. Forget iPhones, mobile phones would probably all still be bricks and any of our modern computers and electronics transported to this parallel world would likely be instantly fried.

Something I seem to remember being mentioned about the wireless transmission was that it utilized different resonant electrical frequencies so that it wouldn't interfere with matter the way we normally think of electricity frying things. It's a foggy memory but I do recall a youtube video where a person held a coin and a piece of paper in between it and the tesla coil. The paper burned but the finger remained unharmed as the electricity passed through the person.


Anyways...Why would everything be instantly fried?

 

[MRC_Hans]

So, wireless electricity is the only thing that could have been made possible?

Not even that. Oh, it is possible, easy even, but outrageously lossy. And potentially dangerous.

No death rays?

We can make death rays. But ultimately all they do is make holes, and that can be done with cheapo, easy to maintain gun technology.

No protective forcefields?

Nope. Again the energy consumption would be outrageous, and the side-effects dangerous.

No machines that could shake the earth to pieces?

Nope. Tesla plum forgot about losses when he speculated about resonance effects. Ultmately, all resonant systems loose their energy to losses, instead of building it up indefinitely, as Tesla speculated.

Lets say you did have a city all huddled around a giant tesla coil or whatever; would the amount power needed potentially be damaging to biology considering that it's wireless?

Probably, yes.

What about noise? Wouldn't a giant coil generate a huge amount of electrical crackling similar to the smaller versions?

It would.

Hans

 

[Trent Wray]

We would have an endless supply of Hugh Jackman's running around ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prestige_(film))

 

[bluesjnr]

But what happened to the third part of the Tesla Trinity? The USA has one part, Russia has the other. God help us all if they find out I use the third part as a door stop.

 

[Toke]

The radiated energy works, at least for small shortwave radios.
I build one powered solely by the antenna.

There is something called "inverse square law" that makes radiated power rather impractical. And no, I am pretty sure that Teslas's ideas have been examined carefully and the working ones put into practice.

 

[luchog]

Maybe the SI would name a unit of measurement after him.

Seriously, Tesla's discoveries were not ignored as some people would have you believe. Anybody who's studied the history of electricity knows who he is.

And a lot of his inventions have been attributed to others; particularly known patent thief Thomas Edison. There are also a number of inventions of others, which were impractical until he refined them.

Florescent lights were one of his, although it needed refinement to make it commercially successful; and modern radio owes far more to Telsa than to Marconi.

 

[Dr H]

The OP's question was, how would society be "different" if our modern-day technology were based on Tesla technology. The answer is "no different", because our modern day technology largely IS based on Tesla technology

Point taken.

- the premise that a lot of Tesla's work has been "repressed", ignored, kept hidden, or made secret, is not accurate.

I did not see that premise in the OP's post.

There is some actual fodder for the conspiracy theorists re Tesla, though: shortly after his death his papaers and other effects were seized by the US government. Add to that the fact that he had been trying (unsuccessfully) to market his "death ray" idea to the military, and throw in his known eccentricities, and you have fertile ground for the many conspiracy theories (and books) that came in his wake.

Everything that Tesla thought up that actually works is being used - widely. Tesla's...."special" projects, like death rays and all that, are not in use because they don't work.

Not entirely accurate. In some cases he thought up things that he never had the chance to adequately develop or test. Some things would have worked, but would have been -- as shown by subsequent research -- to be impractical. Transmission of usable electric power through the air is quite possible, for example, but entails a lot of safety and logistical problems that Tesla never anticipated.

Basically, though, I think we're on the same page. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[Dr H]

Or it would have led to the idea that electricity is a public utility, and we just pay for it by our taxes.

Anyway, I don't think these are the reasons why it never happened.

Tesla's idea was that eventually electricity would be a free public commodity. He is, of course, not the only one to have had such utopian dreams. You may recall that the fledgling nuclear industry once predicted that, thanks to nuclear power, electricity would be so cheap to produce that one day we wouldn't even bother metering it. More than one source placed the date for this achievement at around 1980.

ETA: The 'free electircity' system Tesla proposed wasn't all through-the-air transmission, either. It also included a low frequency ground-based transmission component. Anyway, Hans suscinctly pointed out the reasons why none of these schemes were ever brought to fruition.

 

[JoeTheJuggler]

Well following this line of speculation, I think it would have actually slowed down progress in electronics and computers. With all that electromagnetic radiation in the air, everything outside of the receivers would have to be resistant to it. You couldn't have a form factor that didn't incorporate a Faraday cage. Forget iPhones, mobile phones would probably all still be bricks and any of our modern computers and electronics transported to this parallel world would likely be instantly fried.

Yup.

There would be a significantly reduced demand for electricians (no breaker boxes, outlets and so on in homes). No huge tangle of cords.

Development of medical diagnostic equipment that require a lot of power (MRIs and such) would probably be hurt. (Either that, or we'd end up with a hybrid transmission system anyway--broadcast and hard-wired. In which case, we'd almost certainly lose the broadcast system anyway. . . .)

 

[xXMoshtradamusXx]

As of late I have been spending some free time playing Fallout 3, and it being an alternate future they take liberties with history and suggest that huge innovations in technology were made based on Tesla technology. I have almost zero working knowledge of electricity, or electronics or the engineering that makes them possible, but as I play I do often wonder how things may have played out.

The question for me is: What would the world have looked like had his inventions taken over the mainstream? Would any of them actually have worked? What was his plan for world domination...you know...being an mad scientist and all?

Fallout Wiki source for you.
http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Tesla
Also,
The Tesla cannon is one of the most powerful weapons in the game and uses only a single electron pack for a shot possibly due to the experimental coil you recover, it is capable of destroying an Enclave Vertibird with a single hit on the lower difficulty settings. (Nothing says awesome like blowing your enemies clean out of the sky. )

 

[rdaneel]

Something I seem to remember being mentioned about the wireless transmission was that it utilized different resonant electrical frequencies so that it wouldn't interfere with matter the way we normally think of electricity frying things. It's a foggy memory but I do recall a youtube video where a person held a coin and a piece of paper in between it and the tesla coil. The paper burned but the finger remained unharmed as the electricity passed through the person.


Anyways...Why would everything be instantly fried?

Well maybe fried was a bit strong a term, but electronics would certainly be interfered with. Even if transmitting megawatts of power efficiently was possible, and even if it could be done in a way harmless to people, I seriously doubt it could be done without completely disrupting any unshielded electronics within the area of transmission.

Of course I'm no expert so someone who actually knows what they're talking about may come along and say I'm full of it.

 

[Toke]

Found it !!

Waldo by R. A. Henlein deal with the medical side effects of broadcast power.
Well ok, it is not the main point of the story, but still an interesting look at what could have been if physics worked differently.

 

[CORed]

We have Tesla to thank for the fact that we almost universally use commercial AC power in our homes and industries. This is a legacy of huge impact: had we gone the Edison/DC route a lot of things about the day-to-day technology we use would be very different.

As you mention, he also invented the AC motor. Pretty much every plug-in motorized appliance you use -- clocks, can openers, refrigerators, clothes washers & driers, garbage disposals, electric drills and saws, etc., etc. -- use some variation of Tesla's invention.

It was Tesla that very likely invented, or at least first demonstrated the real-world feasibility of radio. Marconi's famous demonstration in 1901 was achieved using devices and components covered by 17 different Tesla patents, going back as far as 7 years. Tesla sued Marconi, and in 1943 (after Tesla's death) the case had worked its way to the Supreme Court, which found in favor of Tesla.

Tesla was a pioneer in concepts of heterodyning, RF feedback, high-frequency transformers, and ELF transmission. Experiments he performed in 1917 laid the groundwork for the development of radar.

He was not without his woo-woo side -- I'd call him an eccentric (rather than "unstable") genius--he brought genius to every project he undertook, even when the project was nutty. He was a horribly impractical businessman, and repeatedly had his inventions and patents ripped-off by people who made their own fortunes on them. Usually he let this go by; the Marconi case was unusual. He believed in extraterrestrial civilizations and spent time developing means to try to contact them. He was obsessive/compulsive, inordinately fond of pigeons, and had a horror of germs. He came to believe that high-frequency / high-power AC transmission was the solution to a vast array of practical problems from defense (his "death ray") to free electricity for home and industry.

But come to that, there are plenty of other highly intelligent and accomplished scientists and engineers who developed a fascination with one or another woo idea in their lives. Think of Nobel prize-winning Linus Pauling, and his almost fanatical advocacy of vitamin C, or Shockley, and his obsession with race, intelligence, and eugenics.

All in all, Tesla is either unknown or under-appreciated by much of the society he helped to make possible.

This is not a bad place to start, if you want to learn more about this fascinating man:

http://www.amazon.com/Prodigal-Geni...=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1266453416&sr=1-4

A word of warning, though: there are a lot of "Tesla" books out there; I recommend avoiding any that have the word "Lost," "Hidden," "Secret," or "Occult" in the title. As didalb said, there is a lot of nonsense about Tesla in circulation.

Tesla, for all practical purposes, invented the electrical power system we used today. He was not the first to use alternating current, but prior to Tesla, alternating current had one significant flaw: It didn't work as well for motors as direct current. Tesla's invention of polyphase alternating current and the induction motor changed this. Alternating current has the advantage that it is easy to change the voltage, allowing the use of very high voltages for long distance transmission, which can be "stepped down" to lower, safer voltages for use in the home or industrial plant. The three phase induction motor is a masterpiece of simplicity. It has some windings with iron cores monted in the shell, and a copper or aluminum "squirrel cage" with iron cores attatched to the shaft. There are no brushes, commutator or slip rings.

After inventing the electrical power system we are still using today, Tesla concentrated his efforts on high frequency phenomena. He conducted experiments in Colorado Springs which led him to believe that he could transmit power wirelessly worldwide. He then attempted to apply this with the Wardenclyffe project, a giant tower with a huge Tesla coil which was intended to be his worldwide communication and power transmission facility. This project was never completed, and eventually Tesla was unable to get any more investors to fund it. The project was abandoned in 1911, and the failure of this project marked, for the most part, the end of Tesla's career as a productive inventor. In his later years, he announced many spectacular inventions, such as force fields, death rays, etc., but these "inventions" existed only in his head.

 

[MRC_Hans]

Tesla is a good example of the futility of the "genious or crackpot" question. Tesla was both.

Hans

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

Tesla did some cool things. He had a bit of a scattershot approach to inventing though. I've read his patent list. Some really cool things there, and some that are just plain inane. He invented a lamp and magnet powered motor that would have been lucky to turn at 1 RPM while overcoming its own friction, for example.

For the folks who buy into the 'he's so awesome but edison stole all his stuff' thing, I suggest you read the patent lists of the two folks. They have completely different styles. The Tesla v.s. Edison thing, with Edison as the sneaky evil guy who can't invent but steals others ideas is modern steampunk fiction. There was some historical rivalry, and Tesla did at one poing claim that Edison had cheated him out of a performance bonus for a generator wiring job, but nothing like what's modernly speculated. Sort of like Otto Von Titsling stealing the inventions of Messr. Brassiere, or Professor Shadenfreude stealing the inventions of damn near everyone...

Now if you want a true unsung, unremembered genius, who's inventions shaped the modern world, with some actual conspiracy and supression of inventions going on, look up Philo Farnsworth. If you're reading this, you're probably looking at a table covered with Farnsworth inventions.

A

 

[zooterkin]

You've never heard of people piggy-backing on their neighbor's wi-fi?

Ah, the wonders of technology. In the old days, you had be content with piggy-backing one's neighbours wife...

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

Ah, the wonders of technology. In the old days, you had be content with piggy-backing one's neighbours wife...

Ahh, the good old days. I remember as a child wondering why the usage of the word 'pork' in some people's vocabulary seemed to have nothing at all to do with the livestock and everything to do with being in places you're not supposed to be, doing things you're not supposed to be doing, while nekkid.

A

 

[kmortis]

Well maybe fried was a bit strong a term, but electronics would certainly be interfered with. Even if transmitting megawatts of power efficiently was possible, and even if it could be done in a way harmless to people, I seriously doubt it could be done without completely disrupting any unshielded electronics within the area of transmission.

Of course I'm no expert so someone who actually knows what they're talking about may come along and say I'm full of it.

Ahh, but it would make my profession that much more in demand.

What would happen is the measures we tend to reserve for aerospace/defence/medical devices would be used on all electronic devices. This would increase the overall cost of...everything. Special filters, shielding etc would be commonplace and those damned cheater plugs would be outlawed. OUTLAWED I TELL YOU!!!!!


Ok, I'm better now...

 

[kmortis]

Tesla is a good example of the futility of the "genious or crackpot" question. Tesla was both.

Hans

RAmen! And sometimes he was both at the same time.

Basically, if his invention isn't currently used, it's cause it don't actually work the way he'd have liked it to.

Tesla did some cool things. He had a bit of a scattershot approach to inventing though. I've read his patent list. Some really cool things there, and some that are just plain inane. He invented a lamp and magnet powered motor that would have been lucky to turn at 1 RPM while overcoming its own friction, for example.

For the folks who buy into the 'he's so awesome but edison stole all his stuff' thing, I suggest you read the patent lists of the two folks. They have completely different styles. The Tesla v.s. Edison thing, with Edison as the sneaky evil guy who can't invent but steals others ideas is modern steampunk fiction. There was some historical rivalry, and Tesla did at one poing claim that Edison had cheated him out of a performance bonus for a generator wiring job, but nothing like what's modernly speculated. Sort of like Otto Von Titsling stealing the inventions of Messr. Brassiere, or Professor Shadenfreude stealing the inventions of damn near everyone...

Now if you want a true unsung, unremembered genius, who's inventions shaped the modern world, with some actual conspiracy and supression of inventions going on, look up Philo Farnsworth. If you're reading this, you're probably looking at a table covered with Farnsworth inventions.

A

They way I usually explain the difference between Tesla ans Edison is that Tesla was a true creative genius. Edison was way more plodding in his work. Both invented great things, but where Edison capitalized on existing technology and made it better, faster, cheaper, more reliable; Tesla invented new technology. Some of it was clunky, expensive, fragile and slow, but it revolutionalized the way we think about electricity. Both were necessary, and, in some ways, were equals.