From one name Nikola Tesla breathes some kind of mystery and mystery. Nikola Tesla is a genius in many areas of physics. The name of Nikola Tesla is on a par with the brilliant scientist and inventor Leonardo Da Vinci. Tesla's ideas served to create various systems, for example, they formed the basis of such now necessary things as the Internet, television, electricity, torpedoes. Almost flying saucers are considered just an invention of Nikola Tesla. His genius is incomprehensible. On June 15, 1903, at midnight, New Yorkers witnessed man-made lightning. And the events of 1908 still amaze the imagination. It is difficult to say, is it true or not that the Tunguska meteorite is the work of Tesla? Many articles and, possibly, books have been written about the mystery of the Tunguska meteorite. But mystics can sometimes smile, saying that at this time Tesla was conducting his own specific experiments. He came up with wireless electricity, radio, Tesla turbine, Tesla coil and some other inventions. Tesla managed to win the "current war" of Edison, proving that the currents approved by Tesla AD could somehow be unsafe. Tesla himself was terribly worried about speculation, and what he could have reflected in his personal biography, which you can read if you wish. After the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and a number of other failures, in 1931 Tesla was nicknamed "the sorcerer and black magician." Nikola Tesla managed to save one of his sponsors - Morgan. It was he who dissuaded him from sailing on the Titanic. Tesla could not dissuade his other sponsor, John Jacob Astor IV, from the fateful voyage. Then it was strange, how could Tesla know about everything that people could only guess about? Biographers of the scientist refer to Tesla's phrase: "My brain is only a receiving device." "Tesla's method is to see the unseen through imagination." Through imagination, the scientist could see those worlds that were inaccessible to ordinary people. The mysteries of the son of a Serbian priest still remain unsolved. But the fact is that he could have inherited a passion for inventions from his mother, who, apparently, in the form of a lack of funds, was forced to save and constantly invent something. Nikola Tesla easily turned fantasy into reality, more often shocking his contemporaries than delighting, but nevertheless his success as a scientist was grandiose. It must be said that Tesla was a man of his era - a man of the 20th century, and the scientist could share all his success, the tragedy of the century, his mistakes and miscalculations with his contemporaries. At the turn of the century, in 1900, Tesla published an article “The Problem of Increasing the Energy of Mankind”, in which, in particular, Tesla wrote: “Naturally generated electricity is another source of energy that can become available. Lightning discharges contain a huge amount of electrical energy, which we could use by converting and accumulating it.” This man, born on July 10, 1856, became the most brilliant scientist of the 20th century. Nikola Tesla's father Milutin Tesla served in the church. His mother helped her husband and raised the children. The success of Nikola Tesla always attributed to his parents. “My mother was an inventor of the highest order,” he wrote in his memoirs. She was always up to something. Genes made themselves felt when the boy was 8 years old. Nikola was born in the now Croatian village of Smiljany. Tesla read a lot. At an early age, he could read such serious books as Ben Hur. Here is what Tesla recalled: “At the age of seven or eight, I read a novel called The Son of Aba. The ideas in this novel are similar to those of Ben Hur's novel, and in this he can be seen as a precursor to Wallace." And as a child, having read such serious novels, Tesla began to train himself. For example, a boy really wanted to eat a cake, but he gave it to another, more needy boy. At the same time, the boy, of course, experienced "hellish torments", but he liked his sacrifice, and he loved to help others. “If I had a difficult task ahead of me, I pounced on it again and again. This is the whole secret of the success that I have achieved. Nikola graduated from elementary school in the city where his father was transferred in connection with the rise in dignity - in Gospić. In 1870, Tesla entered a real military school. As the scientist himself recalls, he had one life path, one choice - to become a priest, like his father. But he had an almost morbid desire to do science, specifically engineering. By nature, his father was firm and decisive, and Tesla's genius could not have taken place if it were not for the tragedy that gripped his hometown. An unexpected cholera epidemic was suffered by the entire family of the young man somewhere around 1873, when he had already completed his studies and returned home. Nicola caught the disease, and would not have coped with it if his father had not promised him that his son would study at the best educational institution in the country. Perhaps the desire to get into the educational institution of his dreams contributed to Tesla's recovery. Here is how the scientist himself recalled this: “Just at that time, a terrible epidemic of cholera broke out in my homeland.
The people did not know anything about the nature of the disease, and the means of sanitation were depressing. People burned huge bundles of fragrant bushes to purify the air, but they drank the contaminated water in abundance and died in multitudes, like sheep. Against my father's unquestioned orders, I rushed home, and the disease crippled me. Nine months in bed, almost without movement, seemed to have exhausted all my vitality, and the doctors abandoned me. It was a harrowing experience, not so much because of the suffering, but because of my great desire to live. During one of my weaknesses, my father cheered me up by promising to let me study engineering; but this would have remained unfulfilled if an old woman had not miraculously cured me.
It must be said that Tesla's father kept his promise and allowed him to go to study as an engineer. Having overcome the disease, the young man entered a technical school in Graz in 1875, where he studied electronics. Tesla had phenomenal abilities. In his third year, Nicola suddenly became interested in gambling, which in fact was for him an attempt to escape from life's troubles.
Nikola managed to win money, which in itself is quite difficult in gambling, but he gave the money to the losers. In 1879 Nikola's father died. Nicola is trying to help the family, and got a job as a teacher. Then, not without the help of relatives, he entered the Faculty of Philosophy, but escaped from there and moved to Hungary. In 1880, the future scientist, fulfilling his parent's will, went to study in Prague. At this time, he met with one person who advised him to perform physical exercises. "He possessed great strength" and "his body could serve as a model for a statue of Apollo." Teacher and student practiced daily. But Tesla, who loves books, recited them by heart. One of Nikola's favorite books was Goethe's Faust:
“..wonderful dream! But the day is gone.
Alas, only the spirit soars from the body having abandoned it.
We cannot soar with bodily wings!
When the scientist uttered the lines of the great poet, he managed to draw up the scheme of the project he needed. Here is how Tesla recalled this: “When I, immersed in my thoughts, uttered these words of the great poet, the decision came like lightning.” The revelation that a man had become an inventor pleased him greatly. “My ideal was Archimedes. I admired the creations of artists who, thanks to their thoughts, could give an unusual form. In 1882, the installation of telephones was completed, and Tesla "received an offer to go to Paris." At that time, the scientist visited Paris, Strastbourg and Alsace, bringing from Paris the materials he needed. In 1883, Nikola Tesla received an invitation to visit America, where he arrived in 1884. In 1884, upon arrival in the States, according to a preliminary agreement, Nikola Tesla entered the Edison factory. As his biographers write, Nikola Tesla and Edison were connected by friendly relations. However, it was a slightly strange friendship. It was in America that Nikola Tesla developed the modern electrical system. Work at the Edison factory was very hard, and the man had to work hard from 10 am the previous day until 5 am the next. One of Tesla's strangest experiences happened while working at an Edison factory. As Tesla himself recalled it. “..I had growing anxiety about my invention ... one day I saw Edison in the company of his ex-wife, and I wanted to talk to him about this issue, but at that moment some strange tramp jumped out and dragged Edison away.” Tesla did not fulfill his intention. The negotiations were disrupted by some strange accident. When the contract with the Edison factory was strangely terminated, Tesla became an independent inventor, having found financial support from outsiders. But since 1888, he began some protracted lawsuits over patents with a number of persons known to history or more or less unknown. Tesla lived in New York for over 60 years. His addresses are in New York. For example, as American biographers of the scientist write, there is even a “Nikola Tesla Corner” with his own personal sign on 40th Street, where he worked in 1900, at the turn of the era. There is a memorial plaque to Tesla on Bryan Park Place, and the park where he later fed the pigeons is marked with his name. A Tesla coil is a type of electrical circuit "used to generate low-voltage, high-voltage electricity." Today they are used in radio and television. In 1901, Tesla received patent support from Morgan to build his laboratory, the facility of which included the "Tesla Tower". His abandoned laboratory can become a museum with time, the Nikola Tesla Museum. Fascinated by science, Nikola Tesla never married, however, having many admirers.
Text: Olga Sysueva
He gave mankind electric light and hundreds of outstanding scientific and technical developments... Who is he - this mysterious scientist? According to the rating compiled by the American Academy of Sciences, this scientist is one of the five greatest inventors of mankind. Napoleon’s expression is applicable without any reservations to a bright extraordinary personality: “Genius people are meteors, designed to burn out in order to illuminate their age.”
Tesla holds a gas lamp without wires, powered by a Tesla coil field.
L Ord Kelvin wrote about him: "Tesla has invested more in the development of electrical engineering than anyone else." William Crookes, whose name was uttered with trepidation as a youth by Nicola, wrote to him: "You are a real prophet."
Nobel laureate Armstrong wrote: "... I think that the world will have to wait a long time for the appearance of a genius who could become a rival to Nikola Tesla in his accomplishments and in his inspiration."
Rutherford highly appreciated Tesla's merits: “I am well aware of what Tesla did in various fields of technology. In my research I often used the Tesla transformer as a means of obtaining high voltages.
Nikola Tesla with Roger Boskovich's book "Theory of Natural Philosophy" against the background of a spiral coil of a high-voltage transformer in a laboratory on the street. East Houston, New York
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in the village of Smilany, in the province of Lika (present-day Yugoslavia). He was the fourth child in the family, and it seemed that he was destined for the usual fate of a rural teenager, especially since Nikola's father is Milutin Tesla. It is appropriate to say: a born person is not a sheet of white paper on which parents, teachers and circumstances write down this or that. Man is already born as a person. And his path is not accidental, he is determined by his own destiny, and this is gradually, not immediately, realized by him sometimes throughout his life. And if we do something else that does not correspond to our true goal (and we do this very often), we do not go well or even we just get sick. There is an instructive episode in Tesla's biography that confirms what has been said. His father predicted a spiritual career for him and sharply opposed his electrical inclinations. He insisted and put pressure on little Nikola, until he suddenly fell ill - fell ill with some incomprehensible and serious illness. When the crisis came, the doctors informed the father that the child might not survive. He was melting before our eyes, and the father, heartbroken, left his stubborn instructions and was generally ready for anything, if only his son would recover. Wanting to encourage his son, his father officially allowed him to go to college. And little Nikola, having received freedom, began to quickly recover in front of the astonished doctor. So he defended, without knowing it, the right to his own destiny.
78 Tesla's birthday. Hotel in New York
After suffering an illness, he began to have visions accompanied by flashes of light. Tesla wrote in his diary that strong flashes of light covered pictures of real objects and simply replaced my thoughts. These pictures of objects and scenes had the property of reality, but were always perceived as visions. In order to get rid of the anguish caused by the appearance of "strange realities", I focused on the visions from everyday life. I soon found that I felt best when I relaxed and allowed my imagination to take me further and further. Constantly I had new experiences, and so began my mental journey. Every night, and sometimes during the day, I, left alone with myself, went on these journeys - to unknown places, cities and countries, lived there, met people, made acquaintances and struck up friendships, and, no matter how incredible it may seem, it remains the fact that they were as dear to me as my family, and all these other worlds were just as intense in their manifestations. "To his delight, Tesla noticed that he could clearly visualize his discoveries, without even needing experiments, models, drawings. So he developed his new method of materializing creative concepts. Tesla made a very clear distinction between ideas that are built into thought through visions, and those that arise through hyperbolization (exaggeration). Later, Nikola admitted that thanks to these visions, he could "design" any device in your head and check its performance there, without resorting to any real experiments.
Tesla at New York Lab (8th East 40th Street, New York City)
"The moment one constructs an imaginary device is connected with the problem of passing from a crude idea to practice. Therefore, any discovery made in this way lacks detail and is usually incomplete. My method is different. I am in no hurry with empirical verification. When an idea arises, I immediately begin to refine it in my imagination: I change the design, improve and "turn on" the device so that it heals in my head. It does not matter to me whether I test my invention in the laboratory or in my mind. I even manage to notice if "something prevents it from working properly. Similarly, I am able to develop an idea to perfection without touching anything with my hands. Only then do I give a concrete shape to this final product of my brain. All my inventions have worked this way. In twenty years there has not been a single exception It is unlikely that there is a scientific discovery that can be predicted purely mathematically, without visualization. waste of time and energy...
Tesla laboratory in New York
Tesla graduated from the Polytechnic Institute in Graz in 1878, and two years later from the University of Prague. In his second year at university, in 1880, he was struck by the idea of an induction alternator. Professor Peshl, with whom Tesla shared the idea, found it crazy. But the professor's conclusion only spurred the inventor on, and in 1882 a working model was built. Then he worked as an engineer in Budapest and Paris, and in 1883, at the age of 27, he went to work in an electrical company in Strasbourg. A year later, he sells everything he had in order to buy a ticket for a transatlantic steamer. The goal is to conquer America. I went to Thomas Edison - with a recommendation from a Parisian friend: "I know two great people. One of them is you, the second is this young man."
Calorado Springs Experimental Station.
The station was a hangar 25 by 30 meters, on the roof of which was a wooden ball 30 inches in diameter, covered with copper foil.
Directly from the pier goes to Edison - "the king of inventors". He kindly listened to the guest. Edison was only nine years older than Nikola Tesla, but was at the zenith of his fame. The carbon microphone, the electric light bulb, the phonograph, the dynamo, and dozens of other inventions made Edison a millionaire. But all the works of the eminent American in the field of electricity were based on direct current. And then some Serbian with burning eyes talks about alternating current. Nonsense, of course, but, you see, one day he will break out into dangerous competitors ... Smelling the danger with his nose, Edison nevertheless offered Tesla a job in his company. Bring to mind him, Edison, DC generators. The American looked searchingly at the young emigrant, but he readily agreed. While working for Edison, Tesla did not stop improving his alternating current system and received a patent for it in October 1887. Nikola Tesla worked enthusiastically, worked tirelessly: his working day lasted from 10:30 am to 5 am the next day. But his relationship with Edison, alas, did not work out. Edison, scolding the "ungrateful adopted son" to himself, began to publicly and sharply criticize Tesla's generators ... "If you are so sure that you are right," the opponent retorted, "then what do you preventing me from letting me try out my system in your facility?" After another argument, Edison promised Nicola $50,000 if he could re-equip the factory with AC machines. He was convinced that it was impossible. The young scientist successfully coped with the task: - he prepared twenty-four types of devices and in a short time carried out his plan. But Edison acted like a pig and did not pay him a cent, citing his sense of humor: "When you become a real American, you will be able to appreciate this joke."
Experimental station at Calorado Springs, 1899.
Edison's system used direct current, for which powerful stations had to be built every few miles. Tesla tried to convince him that alternating current was more efficient and less expensive. But Edison persisted and felt in Tesla a talented competitor. The genius of this young man truly surpassed the merit of Edison himself! Edison tried so hard to prove the danger of Tesla's ideas that he did not hesitate to defiantly kill a dog with alternating current. But it didn't help. The main reason for the controversy was the divergence of views on the origin of electricity. Edison adhered to the well-known theory of "the movement of charged particles", Tesla had a different vision. In Tesla's theory of electricity, the concept of ether was fundamental - a kind of invisible substance that fills the whole world and transmits vibrations at a speed many times greater than the speed of light. Each millimeter of space, Tesla believed, is saturated with limitless, endless energy, which you only need to be able to extract.
Laboratory at Wardenclyffe in 1903 (interior restored as described)
The laboratory included mechanical workshops and a glass-smelter.
Until now, theorists of modern physics have not been able to interpret Tesla's views on physical reality. Another question arises: why did he not formulate his own theory? Was he a spiritual harbinger of a new civilization, in which the only, inexhaustible source of energy will be the asynchrony of various levels of physical processes, that is, Time itself? Edison, who threw all his efforts into creating DC power systems, could not accept the concept of AC electric machines proposed by Tesla. In September 1889, Thomas Alva Edison arrived in Berlin. German electrical engineers wanted to involve him in the development of a three-phase current system and a motor, but the famous inventor recklessly declared: “Alternating current is nonsense that has no future. Not only do I not want to inspect an AC motor, but I also don’t want to know about it ”... After the deception, they finally quarreled, and Tesla ended up on the street without a job and without money.
Wardenclyffe Laboratory since 1902. The tower is still under construction.
Tesla sold some of his patents for $15 million. He became rich and independent. Established his laboratory in New York. And he devoted himself completely to scientific research. He wore expensive suits, was a welcome guest in any aristocratic house, brides from the highest circle looked at him. But Tesla avoided social gatherings, and women too. Journalists dubbed him a "lone wolf" - for many hours of walking. They stimulated the work of thought. Nikola Tesla's obsession with science knew no bounds. He set aside four hours for sleep, of which two were usually spent thinking over ideas. In addition to electrical engineering, Tesla was professionally engaged in linguistics and wrote poetry. He spoke eight languages fluently, knew music and philosophy very well. Tesla lived in the most expensive hotels. The servants were surprised that he demanded eighteen fresh towels every day. If a fly landed on the table during lunch, he forced the waiter to bring a new order. Today's psychiatrist would easily make a diagnosis - an exacerbated form of mesophobia (fear of germs). Tesla had no children and never had relationships with women. Nevertheless, his social and social life corresponded to the secular standards of the early twentieth century.
Wardenclyffe Laboratory after construction. Designed by "Stanford White"
On May 16, 1888, Tesla made a presentation and demonstrated his invention at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. The demonstration of the generator shocked George Westinghouse, a millionaire and inventor of the hydraulic locomotive brake, who was in the hall. He was just about to build a hydroelectric power station on Niagara and was looking for a suitable technical solution for his enterprise. Having received a million dollars from Westinghouse for his invention, Tesla sets up a laboratory in Colorado Springs and starts experimenting. One day during a thunderstorm, while observing lightning discharges, Tesla came up with the idea of transmitting electrical energy in the same way. He understood this task as follows: "there is no need to transmit, radiate and consume power as a radio transmitter does."
Wardenclyffe Laboratory. Front view 1912
Tesla's range of research was very wide. He discovered the phenomenon of a rotating magnetic field, on the basis of which he built electrical generators, invented a high-frequency transformer, alternating current, and the first high-frequency electromechanical generators. Investigated the possibility of wireless transmission of signals and energy over long distances, and in 1899 demonstrated lamps and motors operating wirelessly at high-frequency currents. He designed a number of radio-controlled self-propelled mechanisms. Studied the physiological effect of high frequency currents. In 1899 he built a 200 kW radio station in Colorado and a 57.6 m high radio antenna in Long Island. He invented an electric meter, a frequency meter, etc. Practically without Tesla's inventions, it is not possible to operate any device that uses electricity. Many modern studies in the field of new energy sources, space exploration, vacuum, high-frequency currents, the use of electromagnetic waves, and so on are based on his works. The discoveries of Nikola Tesla formed the basis of modern electrical engineering. Tesla received a big name and general fame when the powerful generators he developed were installed at the then largest in the world, the Niagara hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 50,000 horsepower. Suffice it to say that 13 patents 9 applied during the construction of this first power plant in the world belonged to Tesla. The richest people of the time participated in the financing of the project: Morgan, Astor, Rothschild and Vanderbilt. Even the topics of his patents are difficult to enumerate. These are electric motors, rectifiers, power generators, transformers, fluorescent lamps, high-frequency equipment, lighting systems and much more. Tesla created the first samples of a two-phase alternating current generator and a high-frequency transformer. His work on wireless transmission of signals over a distance had a great influence on the development of radio engineering; he designed a number of radio-controlled self-propelled mechanisms, which he called "tele-automatic machines", developed the principle of radar. While working for Westinghouse Electric, Tesla received patents for polyphase electrical machines, for an asynchronous electric motor, and for a system for transmitting electricity by means of alternating polyphase current. He discovered fluorescent light, built the first electric clock, turbine, solar-powered engine. On his patents, in fact, the entire energy industry of the 20th century grew.
The famous Wardenclyffe Tower
The 60m tower was designed by W.D. Crow so that any part can be dismantled and repaired at any time. It was crowned with a "dome" - a sphere weighing 55 tons, 20 meters in diameter, was the ONLY metal element. The entire structure was made of wood. Construction of the Wardenclyffe Tower began in 1901, but in 1917 it was dismantled. In fact, the tower was never completed, as Morgan withdrew funds from Tesla's project. Interestingly, Global Energy Technologies is going to build an exact copy of the tower, but only with donations from enthusiasts.
And finally, the most famous photograph of Tesla in the laboratory with sparkling lightning:
Inventor in his experimental laboratory in Colorado Springs, 1899
But this was not enough for him. Tesla was especially interested in transmitting energy over a distance without wires. He has achieved outstanding success in this area. So, he experimentally transmitted such an amount of energy over a distance of 40 km that it was enough to light 200 light bulbs! By the way, Tesla's widely known experiment has not been repeated to this day. Tesla worked on the problem of the energy of the entire universe for several decades. He studied what moves the Sun and the luminaries. He worked on the construction of artificial intelligence, he wanted to learn how to photograph thoughts, believing that this is quite possible. (This refers not to thoughts, but to the electromagnetic field of a person, called the Kirlian effect http://ntesla.at.ua/rubl/3-1-0-17 Patented in 1949 after the death of Tesla, who demonstrated it back in 1890 -s years). At the same time, Tesla is developing new, unprecedented ways to transfer energy. How do we connect any electrical appliance to the network? Fork - i.e. two conductors. If we connect only one, there will be no current - the circuit is not closed. And Tesla demonstrated the transfer of power through a single conductor. Or no wires at all. I tried to learn how to manage cosmic energy myself. And connect with other worlds. Tesla did not consider all this his merit. He assured that he was simply acting as a conductor of ideas coming from the ether.
Tesla's dream - wireless transmission of electricity
Learn more about Tesla's unique experiment. First, in 1892 in London, and a year later in Philadelphia, in the presence of experts, he demonstrated the possibility of transmitting electrical energy through one wire without using the grounding of the second pole of the energy source. And then he had the idea to use as this single wire ... Earth! And in the same year, at the St. Louis Electric Lighting Association convention, he demonstrated electric lamps that burn without wires and an electric motor that works without being connected to the electrical network. He commented on this unusual exposition as follows: “A few words about an idea that constantly occupies my thoughts and concerns all of us. I mean the transmission of signals, as well as energy, over any distance without wires. We already know that electrical vibrations can be transmitted through a single conductor. Why not use the Earth for this purpose? If we can establish the period of oscillation of the Earth's electric charge when it is perturbed by the action of an oppositely charged circuit, this will be a fact of extreme importance, which will serve the benefit of all mankind. Seeing such a spectacular demonstration, such well-known oligarchs as J. Westinghouse and J. P. Morgan invested over a million dollars in this promising business by buying Tesla's patents (huge, by the way, for those times!).
Tesla turbine, initial view of the device
In 1898, a presentation of Tesla's new invention took place in Madison Square Park. In the middle of the park there was a pond in which a small boat floated. The audience was shocked - the ship was moving, following the orders of the scientist. When Tesla jokingly invited them to talk with his invention, someone (also jokingly) asked: “What will be the cube root of 64?”. The beacon on the ship flashed four times. A little earlier, in 1891, in his laboratory in the town of Colorado Springs, Tesla designed a huge resonant transformer that made it possible to obtain high-frequency voltage with an amplitude of up to several million volts (energy was provided by the El Paso power plant). The scientist proceeded from the hypothesis that our planet is an excellent conductor of electricity, and energy can be transmitted through it at any distance. Tesla worked in his laboratory for 9 months and came to the conclusion that energy is best transmitted by "reflecting it from the earth and the ionosphere." The scientist calculated that the frequency required for this is about 8 hertz. This theory was experimentally confirmed only in 1950.
Tesla turbine, design, modern look
During his life, N. Tesla made about 1000 different inventions and discoveries, received almost 800 patents for inventions. He invented in various fields of technology. You can also name an electric meter, a frequency meter, a number of improvements in radio equipment, steam turbines, etc. Without Tesla's inventions, our life would simply be impossible now. Tesla said: "I do not work for the present, I work for the future!" Many of Tesla's technical ideas, ahead of their time, were hardly accepted in America. So, for example, he built a model of a ship and showed how it can be controlled from a distance. Even after such a public experiment, he had to convince the expert council to issue a patent for the invention for a long time. In 1917, Tesla argued: "It is possible to determine the location of a ship or submarine using electromagnetic waves." This idea was not taken seriously. And only in the 1930s the first radars began to be created in the world.
In his early letters addressed to friends, Tesla stated that, while investigating high-frequency discharge, he “discovered a thought”, and soon they (friends) would be able to personally read Homer’s poems and discuss their discoveries with Archimedes. This, as well as some other facts of the scientist's biography, gave rise to a rumor that Tesla (together with Einstein, to whose work he was skeptical, arguing that energy is contained not in matter itself, but in the space between atoms) participated in the famous experiment " Philadelphia". (invented after Tesla's death, refutation and facts here). In 1893, Westinghouse and Tesla won a state competition (beating General Electric) to install lighting for the World's Fair in Chicago. On May 1, during the grand opening, US President Stephen Cleveland pressed a button and turned on several hundred thousand lamps, which turned, in the words of journalists, "night into day." It should be said that so far no private company has been able to implement a lighting project of this magnitude. During his lecture on the high-frequency electromagnetic field in front of the scientists of the Royal Academy, Tesla turned on and off the electric motor remotely, in his hands light bulbs lit up by themselves. In some, there was not even a spiral - just an empty flask. Then it was 1892! After the lecture, physicist John Rayleigh invited Tesla into his office and solemnly proclaimed, pointing to a chair: “Please sit down. This is the chair of the great Faraday. After his death, no one sat in it. In 1893, Tesla put on a real show at the Chicago World's Fair. Standing on a podium in the center of the exhibition hall, he passed through himself a current of two million volts. According to Edison, not even dust should have remained from the “crazy Serb”. However, Tesla smiled calmly, and an Edison light bulb was burning in his hand, receiving energy as if from nowhere. Now we know that it is not voltage that kills, but current strength and that high-frequency current passes only through surface covers. Then this trick seemed like a miracle.
After the experiments at Wardenclyffe, Tesla stopped and, as if on someone's orders, abruptly ended the experiments, leaving all the instruments and papers. He never appeared there again, went into the shadows. He lived for another 40 years, patenting something, but little things, and from time to time there were mysterious rumors about his successes: a car on gas discharge tubes; a synchronous motor operating on the gravitational waves of the planets; force beams, with which he destroyed some crater on the moon; receiving messages from Mars... The mysterious Wardenclyffe Tower was looted over time, dilapidated, but never revealed its secrets. Evil tongues said that the reason for everything was the termination of funding for the project, and without Morgan it was unthinkable to carry it out. Like it or not, we most likely will not know. However, the words of Tesla himself from his Autobiography can explain something to us: “Contrary to what the world says, Morgan fulfilled all his obligations to me. My project was delayed by the laws of nature. The world was not yet ready to receive it." He was way ahead of his time. But the same laws will eventually prevail, and the project will be repeated with triumphant success. Tesla did not patent many of his discoveries, he did not even leave drawings (this, among other things, is to blame for the fire in the laboratory, which destroyed all Tesla's developments). Most of his diaries and manuscripts have not survived (nevertheless, the collection of records in the Tesla Museum has several tons of paper - 156 thousand documents), and only fragmentary information has survived about many inventions. He himself assured that he received his technical and scientific revelations from the unified information field of the Earth. The radio waves of his devices spread there, from there he received signals inaudible to anyone.
At the very beginning of the 20th century, Tesla explored the possibility of transmitting colossal energy through the air. Already in 1905, he patented the "Method of transmitting electrical energy through the natural environment", according to the inventor, such a method of delivering electricity would be completely free for the consumer, no one could trade this energy. However, his wonderful plans never came to fruition. Energy companies would never accept free energy as it would break their energy monopoly. The influential millionaire financier J. G. Morgan, who financed both Tesla and Edison, by monopolizing the world's discoveries in the field of electricity, closed his access to funds. But this did not stop the scientist. It is known that shortly before his death, Tesla announced that he had invented "death rays" that could destroy 10,000 aircraft from a distance of 400 km. About the secret of the rays - not a sound. In the 1960s, both the United States and Russia took full advantage of the fruits of Tesla's research. One of the technologies developed by the brilliant scientist attracted the greatest attention of military specialists and became the subject of secret developments. Tesla called this invention a radio frequency oscillator, it was used, in particular, in his death ray. The main idea of the invention is the transmission of energy in the atmosphere and its focusing for various purposes. These technologies, largely based on Tesla's inventions, were later used in the Star Wars program. The urn is now kept in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade. The world will have to wait a long time for the appearance of a genius equal to Nikola Tesla, says museum director Vladimir Elenkovich. The Belgrade Museum of Nikola Tesla is a real temple, as it contains his legacy, his personal items, about a thousand original photographs, more than 156 thousand documents, originals of his patents, drawings, manuscripts, correspondence, a collection of orders, diplomas and medals, which he was awarded. A large number of exhibits are working models, including Tesla's egg, a high-frequency oscillator, the famous radio-controlled boat, the forerunner of today's telecommunications and radio-controlled machinery.
If an ordinary person is asked who he knows from the founders of the era of electric current, light and incandescent lamps, then the vast majority will remember (of those who know) the famous Thomas Edison, and few will remember Nikola Tesla, the physicist, after whom the unit is named magnetic induction and whose name is now well-known only in connection with the brand name of an expensive electric car. For some reason, Tesla is not very much remembered on the pages of school physics textbooks, although without his works, discoveries and inventions it is difficult to imagine the existence of ordinary things, such as, for example, electric current in our apartments. Like Lomonosov, Nikola Tesla was ahead of his time and did not receive the deserved recognition during his lifetime, however, his work has not yet been properly evaluated.
It all started in 1856 in the small village of Smilyan (now the territory of Croatia): a fourth son was born in the family of a Serbian Orthodox priest, who was christened Nikola. Having learned to read, the boy literally "swallowed" books one after another, often reading at night. As a student at the University of Prague, already in his second year, young Tesla put forward the idea of an induction alternator. However, university professors considered this idea crazy and delusional. But this negative verdict of pundits only inspired the inventor, and already in 1882 a working model was built.
Tesla was eager to turn his offspring into a real industrial plant. He leaves for the USA and simply goes from the ship to Thomas Edison, already famous then - the inventor of the electric light bulb, carbon microphone, phonograph and dynamo. Thanks to the patents received on them, Edison had already managed to become famous and get rich at that time. The famous inventor listened to the young emigrant and, although he was rather cool about his idea, nevertheless offered him a job in his laboratory. The cool attitude to the idea of an alternating current generator was explained simply: all the inventions and all the scientific developments of Edison were based on the use of direct current, he did not want to hear about the alternating current. But already in October 1887, without ceasing to work for Edison, Nikola Tesla was able to obtain a patent for his invention. Edison "felt" a dangerous competitor and publicly began to criticize him. He also promised Tesla $50,000 for a difficult and very important job for the company, and when the latter successfully completed it, he simply refused to pay, saying that the emigrant apparently did not understand English and American humor well. Scientists parted as enemies, Tesla ended up on the street without a job and without money.
But the talent was lucky. Having managed to interest some businessmen, Tesla soon opens his own Tesla Electric Light Company, enters into a contract with Westinghouse Electric, a millionaire firm, and even participates in the construction of a hydroelectric power station on Niagara Falls.
The 90s of the 19th century were marked by an irreconcilable struggle between the two companies. On the one hand, it was General Electric, which defended the interests of Edison, who was a supporter of the use of direct current. She was opposed by Westinghouse Electric, which created its products on the basis of many of Nikola Tesla's patents in the field of alternating current. This time entered the history of industry as the "Period of transformer battles." Journalists hired by General Electric in the press spread all sorts of tall tales about alternating current. In 1887 in New Jersey, Edison spoke to the public for a long time, stigmatizing his competitors Tesla and Westinghouse, and then connected a metal plate to a Westinghouse Electric generator producing a current of 1000 volts, on which he had previously placed a dozen animals. Those died. In 1888, when the New York authorities were looking for a more humane form of capital punishment, Edison advocated that the "alternating current" electric chair be chosen. He believed that a normal person would not want to use a device "made according to the technology of the electric chair."
But the indefatigable Tesla came up with a spectacular counter move. His performance, which took place at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, shocked the whole world. With a straight face, he passed through himself an alternating current of millions of volts - lightning danced on the surface of his skin, but he himself remained unharmed. And when the "crazy" covered with electric discharges with a smile picked up incandescent lamps (by the way - Edison!), which were not connected to any wires, they obediently lit up in his hands. It seemed like real magic. And this despite the fact that Edison has previously stated in numerous speeches that high voltage alternating current will kill anyone who touches the wires!
Tesla continued scientific research with maniacal persistence. Some of his ideas were embodied in the form of numerous patents for inventions. In a lecture held in 1893 at Franklin University (Philadelphia), Tesla spoke about the possibility of practical applications of electromagnetic waves. “I would like to say a few words about a subject that is on my mind all the time, which affects the well-being of all of us. I mean the transmission of meaningful signals, perhaps even energy, to any distance without wires at all. Every day I am more and more convinced of the practical feasibility of this scheme.” Such statements were not unfounded. Back in 1891, during experiments with high frequency oscillations, the scientist created one of the most original instruments of his time. Tesla managed to combine the properties of a transformer and the phenomenon of resonance in one device. Thus, the famous resonance transformer was created, which played an important role in the development of many branches of electrical engineering, radio engineering and is widely known as the “Tesla transformer”. The inventor suggested using a resonance transformer to excite an emitter raised high above the ground and capable of transmitting high frequency energy without wires. Speaking in modern terminology, it was about the antenna! Thus, a few years before Popov and Marconi, the idea of wireless communication had already been implemented.
In 1899, in the mountainous region of Colorado, with the financial support of friends, Tesla organized a scientific laboratory. There, being at an altitude of two thousand meters above sea level, he began to study lightning discharges and determine the presence of an electric charge on the earth. He created the original design of the "amplifying transmitter", resembling a transformer and allowing you to get a voltage of up to several million volts at a frequency of up to 150 thousand periods per second. A 60-meter mast was connected to this transmitter. Turning on the transmitter caused lightning discharges in the atmosphere with lightning up to 135 feet long. In one of his experiments, Tesla attached a certain device to an iron beam in the attic of the building in which his laboratory was located. After a while, the walls of houses a few miles from the laboratory began to vibrate, and people ran out into the street in a panic. Because of the huge lightning bolts that often appeared over the mast, the locals dubbed the scientist "the mad inventor". And when the strange vibrations of the houses began, people immediately suspected Tesla of this. The police and reporters were called. The scientist managed to turn off and destroy his device, realizing in time that it could cause a serious disaster. "I could bring down the Brooklyn Bridge in an hour," he later admitted. The experiments had to be stopped.
Then Tesla received financial support from John Pierpont Morgan, one of the millionaires of that time, who became interested in his developments. With the allocated money, a laboratory for signal transmission to Europe was built in New York on Long Island, and a 57-meter-high tower with a steel shaft buried 36 meters deep into the ground was erected next to it. The tower was crowned with a 55-ton metal dome with a diameter of 20 meters. The scientific project was named Wardenclyffe. Tesla cherished the dream, in addition to transmitting signals, to seriously engage in the transmission of energy over a distance. The cunning physicist hid from Morgan that the tower was intended not only for broadcasting radio waves, but also for wireless transmission of electricity. As soon as Morgan realized this, he immediately refused to finance Tesla. After all, this invention could bring down the energy market: who will buy what you can get almost for free? As a co-owner of the world's first Niagara hydroelectric power station and large copper plants, Morgan could not allow this to happen. The Wardenclyffe tower was mothballed in 1903, stood abandoned for several years, and in 1917 it was blown up, having come up with a very strange reason - supposedly it could be used by German spies. It is also impossible not to mention the theory according to which the cause of the explosion at Podkamennaya Tunguska in Russia in 1908 (the so-called Tunguska meteorite) could also be the Wardenclyffe project. According to another version, with the help of Wardencliff, Tesla was going to light up the sky for Robert Peary, who made his way in the arctic darkness to the North Pole. However, these versions do not stand up to criticism, because the fall of the Tunguska body occurred on June 30, 1908, and Robert Peary went to the Pole on February 20, 1909.
The awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics for 1915 caused general bewilderment: the day before, The New York Times wrote that it would be divided between two people, almost enemies - Tesla and Edison. There were a lot of rumors on this topic, Tesla accepted congratulations, but was going to refuse the award, although at that time he needed money - he basically did not want to share this recognition of his merits with Edison. But a week later, the Nobel Committee announced that the English professor William Henry Bragg and his son William Lawrence Bragg would receive the prize in physics for their merits in the study of the structure of crystals using X-rays. Thus, Nikola Tesla did not receive world recognition of his merits.
As time went on, Tesla grew old, but did not leave his dream of transmitting energy without wires. In 1931, with the support of the Pierce-Arrow Co. and General Electric Tesla removed the gasoline engine from the new Pierce-Arrow car and replaced it with a standard 80 hp AC motor. (1800 rpm) Without any traditionally known external power supply. According to eyewitnesses, at a local radio store, he bought 12 vacuum tubes, some wires, a handful of various resistors and assembled all this equipment into a box 60 cm long, 30 wide and 15 high with a pair of 7.5 cm rods that stuck out from the outside. Reinforcing the box behind the driver's seat, he extended the rods and announced, "Now we have power!" After that, he drove the car for a week, accelerating it to 150 km / h. To all questions, where does the electric motor get energy from, Tesla answered: "From the ether around all of us." Not believing his words, the townsfolk spread rumors that the scientist, one way or another, was in league with the dark forces. Tesla was angered by this, he removed the mysterious box from the car and returned to his laboratory in New York. The mystery of the energy source has remained unsolved to this day.
The last years of Nikola Tesla's life are also shrouded in mystery. There are versions that he was engaged in research in the American military corporation RCA. It is known for sure that he led the N.Terbo project (this was his mother's maiden name). Some sources mention the Rainbow Project, which allegedly carried out the famous Philadelphia experiment. Equipment for generating a protective field was installed on the US Navy destroyer Eldridge, which would make the ship invisible to radars, but as a result of the experiment, the ship became invisible to the human eye. They wrote that the Eldridge instantly moved in space from one coast of America to another, that part of the crew died, part disappeared without a trace, and those who survived spent the rest of their lives in a mental hospital. However, later it was possible to prove that there was no experiment. The Eldridge was then in the wrong place, and, in general, all this was invented by one semi-literate sailor who saw how the ship was wrapped with copper wire - a very real way to demagnetize the hull so as not to explode on a magnetic mine.
Also, the whole world is very interested in Tesla's "devil weapon". At the beginning of the 20th century, and then in the early 1940s at the age of 84, the scientist frightened journalists with his new invention. He promised to send a thin, but extremely powerful beam of some particles or waves into the ionosphere, and they would heat this ionosphere so that it would incinerate the enemy below it. Installations of this kind exist, they are called heating stands, but they are never used at full capacity, firstly, because of the unpredictability of the consequences for the experimenters themselves and, secondly, because of the complete meaninglessness of such experiments.
The great scientist died in 1943, leaving almost no notes, diaries and research results. With regard to Tesla's scientific heritage, far from everything is clear. Some of his friends and biographers claimed that the scientist destroyed most of his records at the beginning of World War II, realizing that humanity was not ready to use his discoveries, and they, used as a powerful weapon, could do more harm than good. Some of Tesla's contemporaries who worked with him in his last years claim that the physicist's archive was confiscated by the secret services immediately after his death. This is also one of the versions shrouded in mystery and mysteries. More practical is that the surviving papers of Tesla are in the Belgrade Museum named after him, whose employees publish them from time to time.
Incredible facts about Nikola Tesla
- Tesla claimed that he sleeps only 2 hours at night (although he admitted that he could lie down to rest during the day), and once spent 84 hours at work without feeling tired.
- He was famous for his ingenious photographic memory, he could even memorize entire books!
- According to family legend, after the birth of the boy, the midwife declared that Nicola was destined to be a child of darkness (perhaps because he was born during a thunderstorm, and lightning promises evil fate). His mother, however, to this prophetically said: "No, he will be a child of light."
- One of Tesla's oddities was that he hated touching his hair.
- As a child, Nicola was tormented by nightmares, and, according to historians, later in life this helped him mentally represent his inventions, and very clearly.
- He was obsessed with the number 3.
- Tesla was a strong proponent of hygiene. It is said that this was due to the fact that in his youth he fell ill with cholera and nearly died.
- One of Tesla's most unusual quirks was his aversion to round objects!
- Seeking financial support from Morgan in 1901, Tesla told him about his new invention he was working on, the cell phone! Of course, the name was different, but, in fact, he meant precisely communication without wire.
- At some point, Tesla saw both X-ray and radar in his mind.
- He was a supporter of eugenics - the selection of people and birth control.
- Tesla hated pearls and avoided talking to women who wore pearl jewelry.
- He held the belief that family life, the birth of children are incompatible with scientific work. But shortly before his death, the scientist admits that the rejection of his personal life was an unjustified sacrifice.
Prepared by Ivan Kuparvas
Nikola Tesla - a lone genius
They say geniuses are sent to Earth by Heaven. Each one with his own, special super-task. But the Lord sent Nikola Tesla, probably too early.
When will his time come?
New York, East Houston Street, 48. A strange scientist lived at this address, unsociable, with a feverish gleam in his black eyes. There were rumors that he was a "relative of Count Dracula" and a vampire himself, could not stand sunlight ... And they also said that he created a weapon capable of blowing the globe to pieces.
In fact, Nikola Tesla had nothing to do with Dracula. On the contrary, he was born in the family of an Orthodox priest. And he really avoided sunlight - because he often fell under the influence of powerful electromagnetic fields and his nerves acquired a special sensitivity. The bright light hurt the eyes, the quiet rustles sounded like thunder. But he could see perfectly in the dark.
Rumors about destructive weapons were also not born out of nowhere. Once Tesla conducted a series of experiments, studying the processes of self-oscillations. And suddenly the tables and cabinets in the laboratory shook. Then the glass in the windows rang... Passers-by on the streets heard a strange rumble. Buildings vibrated, glass fell from windows, gas and heating pipes and water pipes burst. It was the Great New York earthquake. They say that the whole city did not lie in ruins only because Tesla turned off the devices in time. True, official science claims that the experiment simply coincided in time with a natural cataclysm. But there is another opinion - the vibrations of the earth caused the work of its installation. This possibility does not seem entirely unbelievable. After all, we are talking about Nikola Tesla!
This greatest inventor is undeservedly rarely mentioned in physics textbooks.
He discovered alternating current, fluorescent light, wireless power transmission, and built the first electric clock, turbine, solar-powered engine, etc.
He invented radio before Markoni and Popov, received a three-phase current before Dolivo-Dobrovolsky.
On his patents, in fact, the entire energy industry of the 20th century grew. But this was not enough for him. Tesla worked for several decades on the problem of energy and the entire universe.
He studied what moves the sun and the luminaries. I tried to learn how to control cosmic energy myself. And connect with other worlds. Tesla did not consider all this his merit. He assured that he was simply acting as a conductor of ideas coming from the ether.
Constant is good, variable is better
A brilliant inventor is born in Serbia in the town of Smilyan on July 9, 1856. Already in his youth, Tesla looked demonic: tall, thin, sunken cheeks, the gaze of burning eyes. From childhood, he was haunted by strange visions: flashes of light invisible to others. Sometimes for many hours he was immersed in the contemplation of some other, unknown worlds, so bright that he confused them with reality. Out of this almost madness, completely rational technical ideas were born. The young man was especially fascinated by electricity. Something that cut through the sky in fiery zigzags and fell like gentle sparks from the fur of a caressed cat.
The father saw in his son the future priest. But against his will, Nikola went to study at the Higher Technical School in Graz (Austria), then at the University of Prague.
In his sophomore year, Tesla was struck by the idea of an induction alternator. The professor with whom Tesla shared the idea thought it was crazy. But this conclusion only spurred the inventor, and in 1882, already working in Paris, he built a working model. In 1884, Tesla went to conquer America. To Thomas Edison - with a recommendation from a Parisian acquaintance: "I know two great people. One of them is you, the second is this young man."
Nicola traveled to New York with adventures. First of all, he was robbed. The traveler arrived in America hungry, without luggage, with four cents in his pocket.
And I was immediately convinced that this is a country of great opportunities: I saw people on Broadway trying to fix an electric motor, and immediately earned $20. Edison took the young electrical engineer into his company, but friction between the inventors began immediately. Because they approached creative tasks in different ways.
Edison liked only that which gave immediate profit. Tesla did what was interesting. All the works of the eminent American were based on direct current. And then some Serbian with burning eyes talks about alternating current. Edison tried so hard to prove the danger of Tesla's ideas that he did not hesitate to defiantly kill a dog with alternating current. But it didn't help. Won - we know what. After all, alternating current flows through the wires in our apartments.
Free son of ether
The main reason for the gap was ... a divergence in views on the origin of electricity. Edison adhered to the well-known theory of the "motion of charged particles", Tesla had a different vision.
In his theory of electricity, the concept of ether was fundamental - a kind of invisible substance that fills the whole world and transmits vibrations at a speed many times greater than the speed of light. Each millimeter of space, Tesla believed, is saturated with limitless, infinite energy, which you only need to be able to extract.
Theorists of modern physics have not been able to interpret Tesla's views on physical reality. Why didn't he formulate his theory himself? Was he a spiritual harbinger of a new civilization, in which the only, inexhaustible source of energy will be the asynchrony of various levels of physical processes, that is, Time itself?
Open circuit
After the break with Edison, Tesla was taken in by the famous industrialist George Westinghouse, founder of the Westinghouse Electric Company. In the process of working for the company, he receives patents for multi-phase electrical machines, for an asynchronous electric motor and for a system for transmitting electricity and by means of alternating multi-phase current.
And at the same time he is developing new, unprecedented ways of transmitting energy and. How do we connect any electrical appliance to the network? Fork - i.e. two conductors.
If we connect only one, there will be no current - the circuit is not closed. And Tesla demonstrated the transfer of power through a single conductor. Or no wires at all.
During his lecture on the high-frequency electromagnetic field to the scientists of the Royal Academy, he turned on and off the electric motor remotely, in his hands light bulbs lit up by themselves. In some, there was not even a spiral - just an empty flask. It was 1892! After the lecture, physicist John Rayleigh invited Tesla into his office and solemnly proclaimed, pointing to a chair: “Please sit down. This is the chair of the great Faraday. After his death, no one sat in it.
Visitors to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago watched in horror as a thin, nervous scientist with a funny last name passed an electric current of two million volts through him daily. In theory, there should not have been even a piece of coal left from the experimenter. And Tesla smiled as if nothing had happened, and electric lamps burned brightly in his hands. Now we know that it is not the voltage that kills, but the strength of the current, and that the high-frequency current passes only through the surface. Then this trick seemed like a miracle.
This crazy inventor
In 1895, Westinghouse commissioned the world's largest hydroelectric power plant, the Niagara Hydroelectric Power Plant. Powerful Tesla generators worked on it. At the same time, the inventor designed a number of radio-controlled self-propelled mechanisms - "teleautomatic machines". At Madison Square Garden, he demonstrated the remote control of small boats. People thought it was witchcraft. Those who managed to visit Tesla's laboratory recalled with horror how the inventor juggled in the air with luminous energy clots and - ball lightning - and put them in a suitcase. In 1898, Tesla attached a device to an iron beam in the attic of the building that housed the laboratory. Soon, the walls of the surrounding houses began to vibrate, and people poured into the street in a panic. Of course, these are the tricks of the "mad inventor"! Journalists and police immediately rushed to Tesla's house, but Tesla managed to turn off and destroy his vibrator. "I could bring down the Brooklyn Bridge in an hour," he later admitted. And he assured that it was possible to split the Earth as well, all that was needed was a suitable vibrator and an accurate timing.
Earth-battery
At the end of the century before last, a tower with a large copper sphere on top was built in Colorado Springs for Tesla's experiments. There, the scientist generated potential s, which were discharged by lightning bolts up to 40 meters long. The experiments were accompanied by thunderous peals. A huge ball of light blazed around the tower. People on the streets shied away in fright, watching in horror as sparks jumped between their legs and the ground. The horses received electric shocks through iron horseshoes. Even the butterflies "circled helplessly in circles on their wings, beating with jets of blue halos."
St. Elmo's fires shone on metal objects. All this electric phantasmagoria was not arranged in order to scare people.
The purpose of the experiments was different: twenty-five miles from the tower, 200 electric bulbs lit up at once. Electric charge was transmitted wirelessly, through the ground.
world communications tower
In the end, high-profile experiments in Colorado Springs destroyed the generator at the local power plant, and had to return to New York, where in 1900, on behalf of the banker John Pierpont Morgan, Tesla undertook the construction of the World Wireless Power Station and. The project was based on the idea of resonant buildup of the ionosphere, involved 2000 people and was named "Wardenclyffe".
On the island of Long Island, construction began on a huge science city. The main structure was a frame tower 57 meters high with a huge copper "plate" at the top - a giant amplifying transmitter. And with a steel shaft deepened into the ground by 36 meters. A trial run of an unprecedented structure took place in 1905 and produced a stunning effect. "Tesla lit up the sky over the ocean for thousands of miles," the newspapers wrote. The second tower - for transmitting powerful energy flows without wires - the inventor intended to build at Niagara Falls. But the project required huge costs. All Tesla's own money went into this hole.
And Morgan realized that the superstation was unlikely to provide commercial benefits. Moreover, on December 12, 1900, Marconi sent the first transatlantic signal from English Cornwall to Canada. His communication system proved to be more promising.
Although Tesla built the first wave radio transmitter in 1893, years ahead of Marconi (in 1943, the US Supreme Court confirmed Tesla's priority), he admitted to Morgan that he was not interested in communication, but in wireless transmission of energy to any point on the planet.
But this was not part of Morgan's plans, and he stopped funding. And when the First World War began, the American government, concerned about the possibility of using the tower by enemy spies, decided to blow it up. This is how Tesla's blue dream about the information unification of the world collapsed.
Lonely somersault in the alleys of the park
After the failure of Wardencliff, Tesla sold some of his patents for $15 million. He became rich and independent. Established his laboratory in New York. And he devoted himself completely to scientific research. He wore expensive suits, was a welcome guest in any aristocratic house, brides from the highest circle looked at him. But Tesla avoided social gatherings, and women too. Journalists dubbed him a "lone wolf" - for many hours of walking. They stimulated the work of thought. Tesla's obsession with science knew no bounds. He set aside four hours for sleep, of which two were usually spent thinking over ideas. “Technical solutions came to mind on their own.” Tesla took patent after patent, inventions rained down like from a cornucopia.
In addition to electrical engineering, Tesla was professionally engaged in linguistics and wrote poetry. He spoke eight languages fluently, knew music and philosophy very well.
Tesla lived in the most expensive hotels. The servants were surprised that he demanded eighteen fresh towels every day. If a fly landed on the table during lunch, he forced the waiter to bring a new order. Today's psycho atr would easily make a diagnosis - an exacerbated form of mesophobia (fear of germs). Phobias and obsessive-compulsive states combined with Tesla with amazing energy. Walking down the street, he could do somersaults in a sudden impulse. Or stop on the alley of the park and read by heart a couple of chapters from Faust. Sometimes he froze and stood for a long time, thinking hard about something, not noticing anyone around. The inventor himself claimed that he could completely turn off his brain from the outside world.
And in this state, "outbursts of enthusiasm", "inner vision" and "attacks of hypersensitivity" descended on him. At these moments, the scientist believed, his consciousness penetrated into the mysterious subtle world. Rutherford called him "an inspired prophet of electricity." Indeed, Tesla He knew everything about electricity!It was he who predicted the possibility of treating patients with high-frequency current, the appearance of electric furnaces, fluorescent lamps, and an electron microscope.
The squares and streets of New York were illuminated by Tesla-designed arc lamps. His electric motors, rectifiers, electric generators, transformers, high-frequency equipment worked at the enterprises. Although Marconi received the first patent in the field of radio, many of his other applications were rejected, because Tesla managed to get a lot of patents for improvements in radio equipment. In 1917, Tesla proposed the principle of operation of a device for radio detection of submarines.
What did the Martians whisper
Tesla did not patent many of his discoveries, he did not even leave drawings. Most of his diaries and manuscripts have not survived, and only fragmentary information has survived about many inventions to this day. And hundreds of legends. Tesla is also credited with the Tunguska catastrophe (1908). The Wardenclyffe tower could very well have transmitted enormous energy through the ionosphere to another part of the world. But the ita meteor was never found ... True, he left the project in 1905. But all the equipment was in place ... There is a suspicion that Tesla created a time machine, or something like that. He himself assured that he received his technical and scientific revelations from the unified information field of the Earth. The radio waves of his devices spread there, from there he received signals inaudible to anyone. In 1926, Tesla installed radio masts at the Waldorf Astoria and at his laboratory in New York. And he caught mysterious signals of man-made nature of unknown origin, one of the possible sources of which he called Mars. In the newspapers of that time, you can find mocking notes about the connections of the mad inventor with the Martians. But the scientist himself took this more than seriously: "In order to accomplish this miracle, I would give my life!" Tesla also had other extraordinary abilities. Once he felt a strong desire to detain his guests who were staying with him, and literally by force did not let them on the train. Thus, he saved them, possibly from death, because the train really went off the rails, and many passengers died or were injured.
Another time he had a dream that his sister Angelina fell mortally ill and died. And it turned out to be true.
Oh, I'll ride
In 1931, Tesla demonstrated a mysterious car to the public. The gasoline engine was removed from the luxury limousine and an electric motor was installed. Then Tesla, in front of the public, placed a nondescript box under the hood, from which two rods protruded, and connected it to the engine. Saying: "Now we have energy," Tesla got behind the wheel and drove off. The car was tested for a week. She developed speeds up to 150 km / h and, it seems, did not need recharging at all. Everyone asked Tesla: "Where does the energy come from?" He replied: "From the ether." Probably, today we would already drive cars with a perpetual motion machine, if those - long-standing - spectators did not talk about evil spirits. The angry scientist took the mysterious box out of the car and took it to the laboratory. Its mystery has not yet been solved.
Geniuses go unnoticed
Shortly before his death, Tesla announced that he had invented "death rays" capable of destroying 10,000 aircraft from a distance of 400 km. About the secret of the rays - not a sound.
It was said that in the last years of his life he worked on the construction of artificial intelligence. And I wanted to learn how to photograph thoughts, considering it quite possible.
Tesla died on Christmas Day, January 7, 1943. At 86 years old. World War II was going on in Europe, and Tesla's projects for the military department remained unfinished.
Maybe that's why he stubbornly refused the help of doctors. In the morning the maid came into the room - Tesla lay dead on the bed. The body of the great inventor was cremated, and the urn with the ashes was installed at the Ferncliff Cemetery in New York. Thus ended the life of the most mysterious, perhaps, of all the great scientists.
Where did the stealth destroyer go?
In the pre-war years, Tesla began working on secret projects for the US Navy. This included the wireless transmission of energy to defeat the enemy, and the creation of resonant weapons, and attempts to control time. From 1936 to 1942, he was director of the Rainbow Project—stealth technology—which included the infamous Philadelphia Experiment.
Tesla foresaw the possibility of human casualties and delayed the experiment, insisted on reworking the equipment. However, in the conditions of war, there was neither time nor money for this, and casualties were considered inevitable. Ten months after Tesla's death, the US Navy conducted an experiment to make a ship invisible to radar. To do this, the Eldridge destroyer created an "electromagnetic bubble" - a screen that would divert radar radiation past the ship. With the help of Nikola Tesla generators. During the experiment, a completely unforeseen side effect was revealed. The ship became invisible not only to the radar. But also to the naked eye. Moreover, witnesses claim that they suddenly saw him in Norfolk, hundreds of miles away. For the people involved in the project, this teleportation was a disaster. While the ship "moved" from the Philadelphia Naval Base to Norfolk and back, the members of the ship's crew completely lost their bearings. In time and space. Upon returning to base, many could not move without leaning on the walls. And they were in a state of inescapable horror. Subsequently, after a long period of rehabilitation, all members of the team were dismissed as "mentally unbalanced". As a result, the Rainbow project was closed. And the results of the experiment were classified. What really happened there, no one knows. The author of the phantasmagoria, capable of explaining what had happened, was no longer alive.
The worlds discovered by Tesla
Only now we are beginning to realize the door to which unknown world Tesla opened.
The Kirlian effect, for example, was patented in 1949, and Tesla demonstrated the effect of an amazing glow of the "aura" of objects at the end of the 19th century. Half a century after Tesla juggled ball lightning, Nobel Prize winner P.L. Kapitsa. In the 1980s, at the experimental facility for the creation of ball lightning, I.M. Shakhparonov received a "by-product" in the form of magnetic graphite with unique properties. Moreover, the elements of the installation itself were the source of an unknown field that reduces blood clotting, improves the taste of food products and even vodka. To date, the impact of strong magnetic fields on living organisms is actually demonstrated in Japan, where frogs and dogs are sent into "weightlessness". Animals "float in the air" in superstrong magnetic fields. However, people do not yet fly - the consequences of the actions of such fields have not been studied.
Some scientists are now carried away by the study of the torsion field, and they are looking for information about it in Tesla's fragmentary notes. But there are few of them left.
Most of the diaries and manuscripts of Nikola Tesla disappeared under unclear circumstances.
Where are they today? What secrets do they contain? Maybe they're in the Pentagon's vaults, waiting in the wings.
Or maybe, as some biographers believe, Nikola burned them himself at the beginning of World War II, making sure that this knowledge was too dangerous for unreasonable humanity...
They say geniuses are sent to Earth by Heaven. Each one with his own, special super-task. But the Lord sent Nikola Tesla, probably too early.
When will his time come?
New York, East Houston Street, 48. A strange scientist lived at this address, unsociable, with a feverish gleam in his black eyes. There were rumors that he was a "relative of Count Dracula" and a vampire himself, could not stand sunlight ... And they also said that he created a weapon capable of blowing the globe to pieces. Nikola Tesla.
In fact, Nikola Tesla had nothing to do with Dracula. On the contrary, he was born in the family of an Orthodox priest. And he really avoided sunlight - because he often fell under the influence of powerful electromagnetic fields and his nerves acquired a special sensitivity. The bright light hurt the eyes, the quiet rustles sounded like thunder. But he could see perfectly in the dark.
Rumors about destructive weapons were also not born out of nowhere. Once Tesla conducted a series of experiments, studying the processes of self-oscillations. And suddenly the tables and cabinets in the laboratory shook. Then the glass in the windows rang… Passers-by on the streets heard a strange rumble. Buildings vibrated, glass fell from windows, gas and heating pipes and water pipes burst. It was the Great New York earthquake. They say that the whole city did not lie in ruins only because Tesla turned off the devices in time. True, official science claims that the experiment simply coincided in time with a natural cataclysm. But there is another opinion - the vibrations of the earth caused the work of its installation. This possibility does not seem entirely unbelievable. After all, we are talking about Nikola Tesla!
Nikola Tesla, the greatest inventor, is unfairly rarely mentioned in physics textbooks.
He discovered alternating current, fluorescent light, wireless energy transmission, built the first electric clock, turbine, solar-powered engine.
He invented radio before Markoni and Popov, received a three-phase current before Dolivo-Dobrovolsky.
On his patents, in fact, the entire energy industry of the 20th century grew. But this was not enough for him. Tesla worked on the problem of the energy of the entire universe for several decades.
He studied what moves the sun and the luminaries. I tried to learn how to manage cosmic energy myself. And connect with other worlds. Tesla did not consider all this his merit. He assured that he was simply acting as a conductor of ideas coming from the ether.
Constant is good, variable is better
The brilliant inventor was born in Serbia in the town of Smilyan on July 9, 1856. Already in his youth, Tesla looked demonic: tall, thin, sunken cheeks, the gaze of burning eyes. From childhood, he was haunted by strange visions: flashes of light invisible to others. Sometimes for many hours he was immersed in the contemplation of some other, unknown worlds, so bright that he confused them with reality. Out of this almost madness, completely rational technical ideas were born. The young man was especially fascinated by electricity. Something that cut through the sky in fiery zigzags and fell like gentle sparks from the fur of a caressed cat.
The father saw in his son the future priest. But against his will, Nikola went to study at the Higher Technical School in Graz (Austria), then at the University of Prague. In his second year, he was struck by the idea of an induction alternator. The professor with whom Tesla shared the idea thought it was crazy. But this conclusion only spurred the inventor, and in 1882, already working in Paris, he built a working model. In 1884, Tesla went to conquer America. To Thomas Edison - with a recommendation from a Parisian acquaintance: “I know two great people. One of them is you, the other is this young man.”
Nicola traveled to New York with adventures. First of all, he was robbed. The traveler arrived in America hungry, without luggage, with four cents in his pocket.
And I was immediately convinced that this is a country of great opportunities: I saw people on Broadway trying to fix an electric motor, and immediately earned $20. Edison took the young electrical engineer into his company, but friction between the inventors began immediately. Because they approached creative tasks in different ways.
Edison liked only that which gave immediate profit. Tesla did what was interesting. All the works of the eminent American were based on direct current. And then some Serbian with burning eyes talks about alternating current. Edison tried so hard to prove the danger of Tesla's ideas that he did not hesitate to defiantly kill a dog with alternating current. But it didn't help. Won - we know what. After all, alternating current flows through the wires in our apartments.
Free son of ether
The main reason for the gap was ... a divergence in views on the origin of electricity. Edison adhered to the well-known theory of "the movement of charged particles", Tesla had a different vision.
In his theory of electricity, the concept of ether was fundamental - a kind of invisible substance that fills the whole world and transmits vibrations at a speed many times greater than the speed of light. Each millimeter of space, Tesla believed, is saturated with limitless, endless energy, which you only need to be able to extract.
Theorists of modern physics have not been able to interpret Tesla's views on physical reality. Why didn't he formulate his theory himself? Was he a spiritual harbinger of a new civilization, in which the only, inexhaustible source of energy will be the asynchrony of various levels of physical processes, that is, Time itself?
Open circuit
After breaking with Edison, Tesla was taken in by the famous industrialist George Westinghouse, founder of the Westinghouse Electric Company. In the process of working for the company, he receives patents for multi-phase electrical machines, for an asynchronous electric motor and for a system for transmitting electricity through alternating multi-phase current.
And at the same time he is developing new, unprecedented ways of transferring energy. How do we connect any electrical appliance to the network? Fork - i.e. two conductors.
If we connect only one, there will be no current - the circuit is not closed. And Tesla demonstrated the transfer of power through a single conductor. Or no wires at all.
During his lecture on the high-frequency electromagnetic field to the scientists of the Royal Academy, he turned on and off the electric motor remotely, in his hands light bulbs lit up by themselves. In some, there was not even a spiral - just an empty flask. It was 1892! After the lecture, physicist John Rayleigh invited Tesla into his office and solemnly proclaimed, pointing to a chair: “Please sit down. This is the chair of the great Faraday. After his death, no one sat in it.
Visitors to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago watched in horror as a thin, nervous scientist with a funny last name passed an electric current of two million volts through him daily. In theory, there should not have been even a piece of coal left from the experimenter. And Tesla smiled as if nothing had happened, and electric lamps burned brightly in his hands. Now we know that it is not the voltage that kills, but the strength of the current, and that the high-frequency current passes only through the surface. Then this trick seemed like a miracle.
This crazy inventor
In 1895, Westinghouse commissioned the world's largest hydroelectric power plant, the Niagara Hydroelectric Power Plant. Powerful Tesla generators worked on it. At the same time, the inventor designed a number of radio-controlled self-propelled mechanisms - "teleautomatic machines". At Madison Square Garden, he demonstrated the remote control of small boats. People thought it was witchcraft. Those who managed to visit Tesla's laboratory recalled with horror how the inventor juggled in the air with luminous energy clots - ball lightning - and put them in a suitcase. In 1898, Tesla attached a device to an iron beam in the attic of the building that housed the laboratory. Soon, the walls of the surrounding houses began to vibrate, and people poured into the street in a panic. Of course, these are the tricks of the "mad inventor"! Journalists and police immediately rushed to Tesla's house, but Tesla managed to turn off and destroy his vibrator. “I could bring down the Brooklyn Bridge in an hour,” he later admitted. And he assured that it was possible to split the Earth as well, all that was needed was a suitable vibrator and an accurate timing.
Earth-battery
At the end of the century before last, a tower with a large copper sphere on top was built in Colorado Springs for Tesla's experiments. There, the scientist generated potentials that were discharged by lightning bolts up to 40 meters long. The experiments were accompanied by thunderous peals. A huge ball of light blazed around the tower. People on the streets shied away in fright, watching in horror as sparks jumped between their legs and the ground. The horses received electric shocks through iron horseshoes. Even the butterflies "whirled helplessly in circles on their wings, beating with wisps of blue halos."
On metal objects shone the "fires of St. Elmo". All this electric phantasmagoria was not arranged in order to scare people.
The purpose of the experiments was different: twenty-five miles from the tower, 200 electric bulbs lit up at once. Electric charge was transmitted wirelessly, through the ground.
world communications tower
In the end, high-profile experiments in Colorado Springs destroyed the generator at the local power station, and had to return to New York, where in 1900, on behalf of the banker John Pierpont Morgan, Tesla undertook the construction of the World Wireless Power Station. The project was based on the idea of a resonant buildup of the ionosphere, involved 2000 people and was called "Wardenclyffe".
On the island of Long Island, construction began on a huge science city. The main structure was a frame tower 57 meters high with a huge copper "plate" at the top - a giant amplifying transmitter. And with a steel shaft deepened into the ground by 36 meters. A trial run of an unprecedented structure took place in 1905 and produced a stunning effect. “Tesla lit up the sky over the ocean for thousands of miles,” the newspapers wrote. The second tower - to transmit powerful energy flows without wires - the inventor intended to build at Niagara Falls. But the project required huge costs. All Tesla's own money went into this hole.
And Morgan realized that the superstation was unlikely to provide commercial benefits. Moreover, on December 12, 1900, Marconi sent the first transatlantic signal from English Cornwall to Canada. His communication system proved to be more promising.
Although Tesla built the first wave radio transmitter in 1893, years ahead of Marconi (in 1943, the US Supreme Court confirmed Tesla's priority), he admitted to Morgan that he was not interested in communication, but in wireless transmission of energy to anywhere in the world.
But this was not part of Morgan's plans, and he stopped funding. And when the First World War began, the American government, concerned about the possibility of using the tower by enemy infiltrators, decided to blow it up. This is how Tesla's blue dream about the information unification of the world collapsed.
Lonely somersault in the alleys of the park
After the failure of Wardencliff, Tesla sold some of his patents for $15 million. He became rich and independent. Established his laboratory in New York. And he devoted himself completely to scientific research. He wore expensive suits, was a welcome guest in any aristocratic house, brides from the highest circle looked at him. But Tesla avoided social gatherings, and women too. Journalists dubbed him the "lone wolf" - for many hours of walking. They stimulated the work of thought. Nikola Tesla's obsession with science knew no bounds. He set aside four hours for sleep, of which two were usually spent thinking over ideas. “Technical solutions came to mind on their own.” Tesla took patent after patent, inventions rained down like from a cornucopia.
In addition to electrical engineering, Tesla was professionally engaged in linguistics and wrote poetry. He spoke eight languages fluently, knew music and philosophy very well.
Tesla lived in the most expensive hotels. The servants were surprised that he demanded eighteen fresh towels every day. If a fly landed on the table during lunch, he forced the waiter to bring a new order. Today's psychiatrist would easily make a diagnosis - an exacerbated form of mesophobia (fear of germs). Phobias and obsessive-compulsive states were combined with Tesla with amazing energy. Walking down the street, he could do somersaults in a sudden impulse. Or stop on the alley of the park and read by heart a couple of chapters from Faust. Sometimes he froze and stood for a long time, thinking hard about something, not noticing anyone around. The inventor himself claimed that he could completely turn off his brain from the outside world.
And in this state, "outbursts of enthusiasm", "inner vision" and "attacks of hypersensitivity" descended on him. At these moments, the scientist believed, his consciousness penetrated into the mysterious subtle world. Rutherford called him "the inspirational prophet of electricity." Indeed, Tesla knew everything about electricity! It was he who predicted the possibility of treating patients with high-frequency current, the appearance of electric furnaces, fluorescent lamps, and an electron microscope.
The squares and streets of New York were illuminated by Tesla-designed arc lamps. His electric motors, rectifiers, electric generators, transformers, high-frequency equipment worked at the enterprises. Although Marconi received the first patent in the field of radio, many of his other applications were rejected, because Tesla managed to get a lot of patents for improvements in radio equipment. In 1917, Tesla proposed the principle of operation of a device for radio detection of submarines.
What did the Martians whisper
Tesla did not patent many of his discoveries, he did not even leave drawings. Most of his diaries and manuscripts have not survived, and only fragmentary information has survived about many inventions to this day. And hundreds of legends. Tesla is also credited with the Tunguska catastrophe (1908). The Wardenclyffe Tower, through the ionosphere, could very well transmit enormous energy to another part of the world. But the meteorite was never found ... True, he left the project in 1905. But all the equipment was in place ... There is a suspicion that Tesla created a time machine, or something like that. He himself assured that he received his technical and scientific revelations from the unified information field of the Earth. The radio waves of his devices spread there, from there he received signals inaudible to anyone. In 1926, Tesla installed radio masts at the Waldorf Astoria and at his laboratory in New York. And he caught mysterious signals of man-made nature of unknown origin, one of the possible sources of which he called Mars. In the newspapers of that time, you can find mocking notes about the connections of the mad inventor with the Martians. But the scientist himself took this more than seriously: “In order to accomplish this miracle, I would give my life!” Tesla also had other extraordinary abilities. Once he felt a strong desire to detain his guests who were staying with him, and literally by force did not let them on the train. Thus, he saved them, possibly from death, because the train really went off the rails, and many passengers died or were injured.
Another time he had a dream that his sister Angelina fell mortally ill and died. And it turned out to be true.
Oh, I'll ride
In 1931, Nikola Tesla demonstrated a mysterious car to the public. The gasoline engine was removed from the luxury limousine and an electric motor was installed. Then Tesla, in front of the public, placed a nondescript box under the hood, from which two rods protruded, and connected it to the engine. Saying: "Now we have energy," Tesla got behind the wheel and drove off. The car was tested for a week. She developed speeds up to 150 km / h and, it seems, did not need recharging at all. Everyone asked Tesla: "Where does the energy come from?" He replied: "From the ether." Probably, today we would already drive cars with a perpetual motion machine, if those - long-standing - spectators did not talk about evil spirits. The angry scientist took the mysterious box out of the car and took it to the laboratory. Its mystery has not yet been solved.
Geniuses go unnoticed
Shortly before his death, Tesla announced that he had invented "death rays" capable of destroying 10,000 aircraft from a distance of 400 km. About the secret of the rays - not a sound.
It was said that in the last years of his life he worked on the construction of artificial intelligence. And I wanted to learn how to photograph thoughts, considering it quite possible.
Tesla died on Christmas Day, January 7, 1943. At 86 years old. World War II was going on in Europe, and Tesla's projects for the military department remained unfinished.
Maybe that's why he stubbornly refused the help of doctors. In the morning the maid came into the room - Tesla lay dead on the bed. The body of the great inventor was cremated, and the urn with the ashes was installed at the Ferncliff Cemetery in New York. Thus ended the life of the most mysterious, perhaps, of all the great scientists.
Where did the stealth destroyer go?
In the pre-war years, Tesla began working on secret projects for the US Navy. This included the wireless transmission of energy to defeat the enemy, and the creation of resonant weapons, and attempts to control time. From 1936 to 1942, he was the director of Project Rainbow—stealth technology—which included the infamous Philadelphia Experiment.
Nikola Tesla foresaw the possibility of human casualties and delayed the experiment, insisted on reworking the equipment. However, in the conditions of war, there was neither time nor money for this, and casualties were considered inevitable. Ten months after Tesla's death, the US Navy conducted an experiment to make a ship invisible to radar. To do this, the Eldridge destroyer created an “electromagnetic bubble” - a screen that would divert radar radiation past the ship. With the help of Nikola Tesla generators. During the experiment, a completely unforeseen side effect was revealed. The ship became invisible not only to the radar. But also to the naked eye. Moreover, witnesses claim that they suddenly saw him in Norfolk, hundreds of miles away. For the people involved in the project, this teleportation was a disaster. While the ship "moved" from the Philadelphia Naval Base to Norfolk and back, the members of the ship's crew completely lost their bearings. In time and space. Upon returning to base, many could not move without leaning on the walls. And they were in a state of inescapable horror. Subsequently, after a long period of rehabilitation, all members of the team were fired as "mentally unstable". As a result, the Rainbow project was closed. And the results of the experiment were classified. What really happened there, no one knows. The author of the phantasmagoria, capable of explaining what had happened, was no longer alive.
The worlds discovered by Tesla
Only now we are beginning to realize the door to which unknown world Nikola Tesla opened.
The Kirlian effect, for example, was patented in 1949, and Tesla demonstrated the effect of an amazing glow of the "aura" of objects at the end of the 19th century. Half a century after Tesla juggled ball lightning, Nobel Prize winner P.L. Kapitsa. In the 1980s, at the experimental facility for the creation of ball lightning, I.M. Shakhparonov received a "by-product" in the form of magnetic graphite with unique properties. Moreover, the elements of the installation itself were the source of an unknown field that reduces blood clotting, improves the taste of food products and even vodka. To date, the impact of strong magnetic fields on living organisms is actually demonstrated in Japan, where frogs and dogs are sent into "weightlessness". In super-strong magnetic fields, animals "float in the air." However, people do not yet fly - the consequences of the actions of such fields have not been studied.
Some scientists are now carried away by the study of the torsion field, and they are looking for information about it in Tesla's fragmentary notes. But there are few of them left.
Most of the diaries and manuscripts of Nikola Tesla disappeared under unclear circumstances.
Where are they today? What secrets do they contain? Maybe they're in the Pentagon's vaults, waiting in the wings.
Or maybe, as some biographers believe, Nikola Tesla burned them himself at the beginning of World War II, making sure that this knowledge was too dangerous for unreasonable humanity ...
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