Dawn of Tesla
1856, Nikola Tesla was born in the Croatian region of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (Yugoslavia)—rumor has it during an electrical storm at exactly midnight. His father, Milutin, was a Serbian Orthodox Priest. An example of the great wit Milutin passed on to Nikola: A friend Milutin was taking for a drive carelessly allowed his expensive fur coat to rub on the carriage wheel—Milutin brought it to the friend’s attention by saying, “Pull in your coat, you are ruining my tire.” Nikola’s mother, Djuka Mandic, whom he described as “A Truly great woman”, was blessed with a photographic memory. She descended from one of the country’s oldest families and a line of inventors. Following in their tradition of inventing numerous implements for household, agricultural and other uses, Djuka also invented many domestic labor-saving devices.
Through his education in physics and mathematics, Tesla became fascinated with electricity. He began his career in 1881 as an electrical engineer with a telephone company in Budapest. Tesla was walking with a fellow engineer a Budapest park when the solution to a problem that haunted him suddenly bloomed in Tesla’s mind—the rotating magnetic field! With a stick he drew a diagram in the dirt to help explain to his companion the principle of the induction motor—the electrical principle destined to revolutionize the electrical industry, and power the 20th Century....
Tesla pointed out the inefficiency of Edison’s direct current (DC) powerhouses that were spreading up and down the Atlantic seaboard. And while Tesla described how he could improve the efficiency of Edison’s dynamo, Edison said, “There’s $50,000 in it for you if you can do it.” And Tesla did it with many months of intense and relentless work, leaving Edison poised to profit greatly from the improved machines. But when Tesla asked for his well-earned $50,000 bonus, Edison refused to pay, introducing Tesla to reptilian currents in American business by saying, “Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor.” Tesla was unamused, done working for Edison, and done trying to convince him of the superiority of alternating current (AC) over (DC).
After a short stint as perhaps the most intelligent ditch digger of all time, Tesla found financial backing for his AC work, and began patenting his polyphase AC motors, transformers and distribution systems. Enter George Westinghouse. He knew that AC had great advantages over DC—especially in power transmission because AC could be stepped up by transformers to high pressure (voltage) needed for long-distances, then stepped down by transformers for distribution and consumption. DC remained at a constant voltage, requiring a generating station within every two miles, and spider webs of distribution lines. Motors to run on AC had been a major problem solved, thanks to Tesla’s AC induction motors born of his rotating magnetic field. Westinghouse teamed with Tesla, buying his patents and signing Tesla to a contract paying $1 million cash, plus royalties of $2.50 per horsepower produced by the Tesla system. A more reptilian Tesla could have become a billionaire, but....
The War of Currents---AC versus DC
Forget common good. Leading financiers like “robber baron” J. P. Morgan were sinking major capital into electrifying America with DC. They regarded anything that challenged DC—no matter how superior—simply as a threat to profits. Morgan didn’t care about the kind, of electricity, only that he control it. He controlled Edison’s DC patents. Even Edison did not completely understand the light bulbs he’d invented, wrongly believing they could only work with DC. But he did know that AC could not be challenged on technical merits (in fact, shortly before he died, Edison said the biggest mistake he ever made had been pushing direct current, instead of accepting the vastly superior alternating system that Tesla had put within his grasp). Together, Edison and Morgan primarily, stepped up the propaganda—reptilian theater and scare tactics—to super-high “voltage”.
Pets paid a high price, dogs and cats snatched from areas around Edison’s labs for gruesome weekend demonstrations of the “dangers of high-voltage electricity”. Besides frying (or “Westinghousing”) a lot a pets, cattle and horses, an elephant...even a death row inmate in very messy, smoky inhumanity, the DC reptiles distributed pamphlets screaming the likes of: “Just as certain as death, AC power will kill a customer within 6 months!” They also lobbied in New York State to make 800 volts the legal limit of electricity. Plans were made to increase the price of Edison streetlights by $2, and use the additional funds to pay off local politicians.....
The war between the technologies of Tesla and Edison, between AC and DC, was largely a battle between Westinghouse and Morgan for control of America’s electric future. The decisive battle was won at the World Fair in Chicago, 1893. Westinghouse underbid Morgan for the electrification and lighting of the fair. Westinghouse’s AC system dazzled toward a major victory for America, and the world. But thanks to reptilian powers of Morgan, the victory for Westinghouse and Tesla soon grew a very dark side.
But first, another great victory for AC came in 1895, when Tesla’s first generating unit became operational at Niagra Falls. His contract with Westinghouse was set to make Tesla immensely wealthy as his generating and distribution systems—which we still use today—electrified the continent.
Reptilian forces intervened in the form of “Morganization”. Rumors of Westinghouse’s finances being unstable spread through Wall Street as Morgan and his agents steered financiers away from providing new capital to Westinghouse—the key to his further implementation of AC. It came down to an ultimatum for Westinghouse to get out of the contract with Tesla, or else....
Westinghouse leveled with Tesla, admitting he was in financial trouble after the War of Currents. Tesla replied that Westinghouse had been his friend...had believed in him when others did not, and had the courage to invest in the AC patents. To help Westinghouse survive financially so the technology could be further developed, Tesla took a cash settlement...and tore up the contract, waiving vast riches to help his friend.
Winning of the War of Currents by Tesla and Westinghouse had cost some major financiers a lot of money, something destined to eventually dry up Tesla’s funding—lifeblood of any inventor. Wall Street was a dark den of snakes, same as today’s trillion dollar bailout beggars, and Tesla had spooked the reptiles with brilliant humanity.
Power tycoons aggressively positioned to make fortunes in utility companies. Power towers like money trees covering the continent as dams tapped rivers for hydro power...people paying for every watt surging through the tycoons’ copper arteries.... The last thing the tycoons wanted to hear about was wireless power. And that was the next gem from Tesla’s mother lode mind: Earth resonance.
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