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Post by 3victrolas on Jan 14, 2010 19:58:19 GMT -6
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Post by MTPhono on Jan 15, 2010 10:39:26 GMT -6
Very interesting article. Thanks for posting the link.
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Post by edisone on Jan 15, 2010 12:23:33 GMT -6
Fiction, basically. Edison's rival was Westinghouse, not Tesla. When Tesla's lab burned, Edison invited him to use his West Orange lab, and Tesla accepted the offer - hardly the actions of enemies!
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Starkton
Two Spring Motor
How do you get that
Posts: 61
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Post by Starkton on Jan 16, 2010 14:33:29 GMT -6
It was a healthy competition between two inventors, no mud-slinging. Edison wrote Tesla in March 1896: "I hope you are progressing and will give us something that will beat Roentgen."
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Post by doughouston on Jan 20, 2010 16:03:17 GMT -6
The strong issue between Edison and Tesla was power transmission. Alternating current involves some rather intense mathematics, and DC involves very little math, and much simpler, at that. Edison was self-educated, and was never exposed to the heavy math that AC involves. In Electrical Engineering curricula, the senior year fairly drowns the student in AC math. It's just not simple. Thus, Edison stayed with the power technology that he understood.
Edison was a genius in his own way. He was inventive, and produced the things that he is credited for today. His tenacity and determination were his stronges attributes
Tesla was a genius in theory, and practical applications. He developed the concept of the rotating field, which is the heart of the AC motor. He founded power transmission, using transformers, which cannot be done with DC, and its attendant power losses. Along with AC power transmission, he began the use of polyphase power transmission, utilizing three phase systems as we see them today.
Tesla had other ideas that reached beyond his practical achievements. He wanted to be able to literally broadcast electrical power, as a radio signal woud be, and for that power to be received by some form of receiver, much as the radio receivers that we know today. It was far from being a practical idea, and following some experimentation, proved to be totally impractical (and rather dangerous!).
The article referenced was interesting, in that it did touch on some factual events of Tesla's life, but it was cluttered with a good bit of non-contributory chatter.
It's obvious that Edison's back was to the wall, when AC power transmission was beginning to dominate over DC. Edison hired a PR firm, of sorts, to "prove" that AC will cause death by electrocution. He neglected to mention that DC has just as much ability to fry anyone getting across a voltage source!
While historians manage to ignore it, there was no love lost between Edison and Tesla. Edison's disposition was gentle, though not wimpy. Tesla is reported to have been more of the "mad scientest" and intense type. In the field of power transmission, Edison and his DC equipment lost a lot of ground to Tesla.
But, each method of power transmission and applications still stands on its individual merits. DC Motors can be controlled smoothly, from dead stop to full speed. This is the best for elevators, and railway traction motors. In Detroit, where I grew up, Edison had a generating plant in the heart of the downtown district. The many buildings that surrounded it depended on the DC power generated there for their elevator operation. In addition, since the plant was a steam powered one, Detroit Edison sold steam, piped all over downtown, for heating buildings.
AC motor speed is determined solely by the number of poles in the motor, and power line frequency, neither of which can be changed. In order to have the smooth speed control with AC that DC affords, mechanical speed changing devices must be used. Today, solid state AC generating circuitry is frequently used to provide variable frequency AC to power AC motors, where variable speed is needed.
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wjw
Two Spring Motor
Posts: 89
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Post by wjw on Jan 20, 2010 23:06:17 GMT -6
Tesla's story is fascinating. I wonder if he was born at the right time or too early? As for Edison, it's odd that he had a chemist like Aylsworth working with him but no electrical wizards.
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Post by doughouston on Jan 21, 2010 22:37:02 GMT -6
Stories tell that Edison worked with General Electric for the design and construction of equipment. Tesla's alliance was with Westinghouse.
Interesting that, when the Secretary of the Navy needed to establish a wireless supremacy in this country, he prevailed on both GE and Westinghouse to form a "Radio Corporation" to do the job. That "Radio Corporation", with "America" added later, manufactured nothing until it bought Victor Talking Machine Company in 1929.
It appears that Tesla came along at about the right time, when power generating stations were being built, and electrical power began to be in high demand. Only AC can be transmitted long distances with minimal power losses, while DC can only be transmitted shorter distances, without booster stations.
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Post by phonophan79 on Mar 25, 2010 16:46:22 GMT -6
LOL.. OK, so... there is a series of web videos called "Drunk History"... the narrator gets drunk and tells the story of an historical event... and then various celebrities act out the story, as told by the drunk narrator. To see some of these videos, search "Drunk History" at YouTube or just go to... www.funnyordie.com/search/a?q=drunk+historyBUT... the point of this post is one of their latest videos had me cracking up at work. Check it out. Drunk History Presents Nikola Tesla
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Post by edisone on Mar 27, 2010 18:44:42 GMT -6
The Drunk History people seem to have blocked access via uTube, and I cannot find that video on their site.
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