[TheForge] Light bulbs and shop power

[Jerry Frost]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andrew Vida" <osan at netlabs.net>
To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 05, 2012 5:20 AM
Subject: Re: [TheForge] Light bulbs and shop power


>
>
> On 8/3/2012 7:37 PM, Jerry Frost wrote:
>> Yeah, edison was an SOB but Tesla had less sense for business than a 
>> beaver
>> has for saving trees,
>
> Yes, Tesla was very naive.  But he had Edison beaten hands down in the
> smarts department.
>

No question, one of the smartest people ever, just crazy as a human can get. 
Good crazy though, he just needed a keeper.

>> such without any help. Heck Tesla was an outright thief, he converted
>> virtually all the profit he owed Westinghouse for AC generation and
>> transmission to build the Wyrdcliff power transmission tower. I'll 
>> happily
>> accept corrections on missed details, say Westinghouse NOT being the 
>> company
>> that got snookered by backing Tesla.
>
> This I do not recall as ever having read, and to be honest I find it
> less than credible.  I may be wrong, but George Westinghouse even
> screwed Tesla in the end under pressure from outside elements.
>>

I did some side looking seeing as I was darned interested in Tesla's power 
transmission theories. The Wyrdcliff power transmission tower was his 
biggest experiment and a success to an extent. The tower required more than 
a megawatt and lit a 30w bulb about 1/2 mile away. This isn't a very good 
way to transmit power, IMHO. He also posited zero point energy and more 
practical yet drawing on Earth's magnetic and electrical field currents for 
power, these experiments were more successful than Wyrdcliff but who can 
sell Earth power all there was was initial hardware sales for the recievers.

What surprised me was how Tesla got it financed. He convinced his backers it 
would work and they could simply replace the other power companies. It was 
all very vague and he didn't say how much Wyrdcliff would cost, not even an 
estimate, not a close to realistic one anyway. As I recall he estimated a 
few tens of thousands that would come back almost immediately where the 
actual cost was a couple few million for such a limited success as to amount 
to a practical failure. After one experiment he just walked away and left 
his backers holding the bag.

>> In short, Tesla had a better product on all counts, cheaper to produce,
>> safer, more and efficiently easily moved over a distance and he STILL 
>> lost
>> it. Nobody's fault but his own.
>
> Yes and no.  I agree that he should have had better sense and not
> trusted the likes of vermin such as Edison, but that does not justify
> the outright theft that was perpetrated against him.  We can assign
> guilt to all sides on this one, methinks.
>

Oh yeah, there's plenty of blame to spread on all sides. Edison and 
Westinghouse had similar phylosiphies where profit should go; very victorian 
gentlemen both. I think theft is a matter of perspective seeing as Tesla 
made no effort to hold onto his interest in AC and the rest. He as much gave 
it all away as had it stolen. I see similar thinking in the final results as 
who paid for Wyrdcliff and some of his odder research, say the Tesla death 
ray. He spent several happy years trying to get that to work at someone 
elses expense.

I have no way to even estimate who came out ahead outside of us, the ones 
who have electrified homes and shops. I feel good about the results myself.

Jer

>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Andrew Vida"<osan at netlabs.net>
>> To: "Blacksmithing List Sponsored by ABANA"<theforge at mailman.qth.net>
>> Sent: Friday, August 03, 2012 4:24 AM
>> Subject: Re: [TheForge] Light bulbs and shop power
>>
>>
>>> Edison was a rotten SOB.  He robbed Tesla blind and that electrocution
>>> deal on Coney Island earned him a place in hell.
>>>
>>> On 8/3/2012 7:47 AM, Ron Childers wrote:
>>>> They hold water- Edison said so. (: His biography is interesting; he 
>>>> had
>>>> over 1,000 patents and was a very precocious kid but for some reason he
>>>> was hung up on DC electric power. I think it was Tesla who developed 
>>>> AC.
>>>> My grandfather told me Edison said radio waves would eventually
>>>> interfere with the weather patterns. If our shops were DC the cables
>>>> would be huge.
>>