Though many of Tesla's ideas and inventions were influential and had a near-immediate effect on the world around him, many more were met with indifference, laughed out of the room, derided in press coverage, or simply ignored. Still, their influence in machines and technology today are tangible, even if they began as self-styled magical toys.
The New York Hall of Science unveiled its Tesla-centric exhibit, Tesla's Wonderful World of Electricity, last week in Queens, New York. With several models from the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, the exhibit highlights some of his highest-profile inventions, like the spark-producing Tesla coil, as well as less immediately successful ones, like his remote-control boat, or "teleautomaton."
While the Belgrade Tesla museum's exhibits are as good as we can get stateside for now, a US Tesla museum remains in the works. Since Matthew Inman of The Oatmeal helped raise $1.4 million for a nonprofit to acquire Wardenclyffe, the site of one of Tesla's laboratories, the property has been bought, and site cleanups have begun. Jane Alcorn, president of the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, told Ars that analyses to determine what renovation or restoration work is needed are underway.
There is no opening timeline yet for Wardenclyffe, but the NY Hall of Science Exhibit runs through October 20. Many of the photos here are accompanied by supplementary information from Marc J. Seifer's excellent book, Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla, Biography of a Genius.
Casey Johnston Tesla created a remote control boat to exhibit at Madison Square Garden back in 1898.
Casey Johnston Tesla created a remote control boat to exhibit at Madison Square Garden back in 1898.
Casey Johnston The boat's rudder and propeller. Tesla called the boat "devil automata" and knew the boat had military prospects in conducting battle remotely.
Casey Johnston The tip of one of the antennas on the boat. Called a "teleautomaton" by Tesla, it was shown up at the exhibition by remotely detonated bombs created by Marconi. Tesla emphasized the mystery and magic of the device and didn't make its innerworkings easily known to reporters; hence, it was overshadowed in the mainstream press by Marconi's invention.
Casey Johnston The remote control for the boat, a giant box with a crank. Tesla also intended to create a remote-control submersible and offered the patent and product to the government for development as a tool of war. The official he spoke to in Washington "burst out in laughter," Tesla wrote later.
Casey Johnston A Tesla coil set up at the museum, with most components, including the spark gap, encased in glass.
Casey Johnston Holding a fluorescent tube near the Tesla coil's discharge point...
Casey Johnston ...Allows it to light up. The spark jumping to the tube's contact point is a little difficult to discern, but it was visible in person.
NySci Explainers A woman lighting a fluorescent tube with the Tesla coil at the opening of the exhibition.
Casey Johnston The Tesla coil's spark gap, which works together with a high voltage capacitor to build up the voltage and frequency of the electric current. Tesla intended for his coils to provide a means for wireless energy. The distances are short and the coils are incredibly loud, but it does work.
Casey Johnston One of Tesla's pet projects, for which his last patents were filed in 1928, was a flying machine that allowed for a vertical takeoff. The machine is a cross between a biplane and a helicopter and would, presumably, stand on its wings and first be lifted by the propeller. Then it would be dropped into horizontal flight once it was sufficiently high in the air.
Casey Johnston The propeller on Tesla's design was comically small and unsuited to lifting a whole plan into the air. Because the design lacks a tail to provide an anti-torque force, Air & Space Magazine notes the plane in lift-off would "just spin maddeningly in a circle." Seifer points out influences of Tesla's "flivver" plane in the V-22 Osprey and suggests that the military adopted Tesla's design in secret.
Casey Johnston A model of Tesla's laboratory in Long Island adjacent to his planned Wardenclyffe Tower. The main part of the tower was built, but the dome was never completed. Tesla intended for the tower to be a "World Telegraphy Center." Tesla even discussed turning his 1800 acres at Wardenclyffe into a "model city" with homes, stores, and buildings with the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White.
Casey Johnston A model of Tesla's Colorado Springs laboratory, where he carried out experiments with high-frequency oscillators attempting to create wireless power. On arriving in Colorado Springs, Tesla claimed he could use his oscillator to talk to aliens on Mars (still a popular concept at the time) "if they know enough to take a message."
Casey Johnston Tesla also created a design for a bladeless turbine. Based on principles of viscosity and adhesion, the turbine had blades inside that would be turned by fluid in the chamber.
Casey Johnston For instance, pressurized steam could be released into this hole and would cause the plates to rotate, generating energy. The turbine was inefficient compared to similar devices at the time (hovering at 20 percent), though it would have circumvented the need to maintain and repair blades.
Casey Johnston A model of Tesla's induction motor with disk-shaped rotor, a development he made while working for the Continental Edison Company in 1883. These types of motors are simple, cost-effective, and still in use today (see this excellent explanation of how they work).
Casey Johnston Tesla exhibited this use of induction to drive a motor to the American Society of Electrical Engineers in 1888. Tesla originally developed the motor in order to prove wrong one of his professors who insisted that the power of the alternating current could not be harnessed.
Casey Johnston Another of Tesla's induction motors is able to spin a metal egg on its surface and even stand the egg on its end. Tesla developed the "motor" with the egg as the "rotor" rotated by magnets under plates that reverse their polarity as currents are applied to them.
Casey Johnston A side view of Tesla's "Egg of Columbus." Tesla presented the motor that could stand an egg on its end to an investor, a demo that resulted in the Tesla Electric Company in 1887.
Casey Johnston Tesla's fan was based on a similar concept: you could spin up and move fluids by adhesion rather than by the more physical forces of a blade.
Casey Johnston In a way, it's somewhat less dangerous for a child to poke their fingers at the bladeless fan. In another way, it's significantly more dangerous.
Casey Johnston As mentioned earlier, Tesla worked for Thomas Edison for a while before striking out with his own electric company (eventually, successive electric companies). Thomas Edison: the type of boss who gives you an autographed headshot.
Listing image by NySci Explainers
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