In Praise of the Mad Scientist [Genius Inventor Nikola Tesla]

The Village Voice ^ | January 4th, 2005 | Samantha Hunt

[The Loan Arranger]

Inventor Nikola Tesla is beginning to remind me of the Michigan Mushroom—that underground fungus, nearly as large as its native state. He keeps cropping up unexpectedly like a truth suppressed. In 2004 this once forgotten scientist peppered films as motley as the smoky Coffee and Cigarettes, the silicone-sleek Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, and the shoestring Primer. Tesla, beside inventing the radio (check with the Supreme Court, Marconi fans), the radar, remote control, and alternating current (AC electricity), also tinkered with a series of dreamy though equally ingenious ideas: plans to light the oceans, photograph thoughts, use insects to create a harnessable power supply, communicate with life in outer space, harvest free energy from the Earth's atmosphere, control the weather with electricity, even build a ring about the equator that, by remaining stationary while the planet rotates, would make it possible to travel around the entire world in one day.

At the start of the last century, Tesla's mind-bending inventions foreshadowed a future in which an enlightened citizenry, wardrobed in silver space suits, would travel about a world where no one was ever hungry and war existed only in memory—where scientific wonders were invented every day in backyards, garages, and small workshops. Tesla, the cult hero of independent invention, is materializing again, a bright-red streak on the gray background of corporatized science, to remind us that something went awry.

[DaveTesla]

"Tesla magnanimously (stupidly) surrendered his rights to royalty payments

This is just NOT SO. Westinghouse was in a hostile takeover.
J. P. Morgan, hoping to bring all U.S. hydroelectric power
under his control, proceeded to manipulate the stock market
with the intention of starving out Westinghouse and
buying the Tesla patents. Thanks in part to Tesla, this
did not happen.

[Drammach]

We'll have to differ on interpretation on that one..

from your former post:
Tesla took to the grave with him a $7.00 a horsepower royalty (about a penny a watt) for anything that produced or ran off alternating current. this he gave up to keep his system from being monopolized and to save George Westinghouse form a hostile takeover.

If he gave it up, how could he take it to his grave??
He had it, he gave it up to help Westinghouse, who was crying that the royalties were too much, that it would be the end of his business..
Westinghouse could have re-instated those royalties once the company was secured.. He didn't.. Never even offered..
Not necessarilly Westinghouse's fault, he was a businessman in the "robber baron" era, and did what he had to..
But the fact remains, Tesla gave up those rights..

[X_CDN_EH]

Mad scientist?

[Darkwolf377]

You're right about Westinghouse's behavior--truly dishonorable.

[DaveTesla]

What difference would it make how much money he had in
the bank? He couldn't take it with him.
I don't think he was eating dog food at the Waldorf before
he died.
He lived out his dreams and HE LIT UP THE WORLD.
HE was the father of the radio (US SCOTUS Confirmed this),
father of the power generation turbine, (now the rage of the
aerospace industry)(Tesla Turbine), father of the UAV
(unmanned vehicle), father of A.C. power, father of the
electron microscope, father of elf communications, father
of the florescent light, etc the list goes on and on.
VanAllen plagiarized his work and won the Nobel prize
(VanAllen later admitted this).
And people here call him stupid?
He was not stupid, he got to do what he loved.
How stupid can that be.

[Wiz]

Without Tesla, military revolution may have been more slow than what it was today nor many military equipments in Iraq may have been something different. Radar, remote control for drones, radio for communication... thanks to Tesla for supporting our country with all these great inventions.

[DaveTesla]

But the fact remains, Tesla gave up those rights..

Tesla Gave control away to all AMERICANS.
Once Morgan couldn't get his hands on the patents he lost
interest.
Westinghouse manufactured Tesla's invention and honored
Tesla's wishes. Tesla was no Indian giver.
He wanted all Americans to benefit from his invention.
Which is why he did what he did.
And by doing he accelerated the technological growth of
the twentieth century tremendously. Westinghouse had more at stake than Tesla.
He had banked his air brake business, his foundry's,
and his entire fortune in Tesla's idea's.
Later on Tesla took Morgan for a dam good ride (financially).
Tesla had the last laugh.

[DaveTesla]

Psst....
He is still doing it.
Tesla TM
0VWE2 (a legacy)

[Swordmaker]

...royalty (about a penny a watt) for anything that produced or ran off alternating current. This he gave up to keep his system from being monopolized and to save George Westinghouse form a hostile takeover.

I recall reading that they found hundreds of uncashed royalty checks in his hotel room when he died.

[DaveTesla]

True
He never cashed his Social Security checks either.

[pt17]

The famous story goes that he was brought in to a power plant in 1920 or so to fix a generator.......

Were you perhaps confusing Tesla with Charles Proteus Steinmetz at General Electric?

[Hoosier43fan]

niko nimo sto srbn imade!

[DaveTesla]

Exsisto Comis ut bardus.
Steinmetz Square root -1 (i,j)
hysteresis in iron and silicon steel

[texas booster]

There are still those who chase the dream of wireless power distribution.

If only they can find a way to keep the patents intact and make a living from it.