Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, someone linked me this.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/let-s-build-a-planetary-energy-transmitter

Essentialy a project to build Tesla's patented energy transmitter, could be interesting.

Regardless, their page is quite a fun read.

KICKSTARTER!!!!

I wouldn't want to be anywhere near the test area.

That electric field could have a lot of nasty unintended consequences to any electronics in the area.

I have a lot of concerns about using the planet as a giant inductor. My grasp on this stuff is far above the average person, I'm no expert though, but Tesla's work is extraordinary even by a lot of today's comparisons. If you could make it workable though, I'm not so certain it wouldn't have unintended consequences.

Just for an example, the weather.

I wonder how many more lightning strikes there would be around those things. The atmosphere would be much more charged than it would be normally.


My firm belief is that, while Tesla may have originally had good ideas, he quickly went off the deep end. Good fodder for science fiction novels, but little real world application.

Frankly, by all accounts I've read, he was brilliant. Terrifyingly brilliant. I bet he could have found a way to actually do it. I think the results would be unspeakably disastrous. At the same time, I feel like he saw the writing on the wall too late and kneejerked quite a bit to keep the lights on in the end. The magic electricity idea could have been snake oil pitched too late. As much of a hard on as I have for the guy, I kinda hope that's the case.

Like I said in the original post. It's interesting.

A good idea? No clue. Though, if it does work I will be happy.

He was way way way wwwwaayyyyyyyy ahead with his idea and the last test he did in Conn. I think was freaking huge. I believe politics got him. Reaching in my foggy mind that Bell(?) influence Senators to consider Tesla experiments dangerous

Which, given that the plan was to have millions of volts just hanging around in the air, wasn't all that silly of an accusation.

 Jihadin wrote:
He was way way way wwwwaayyyyyyyy ahead with his idea and the last test he did in Conn. I think was freaking huge. I believe politics got him. Reaching in my foggy mind that Bell(?) influence Senators to consider Tesla experiments dangerous

Thomas Edison, one of the greatest con men in American history, did a lot to utterly screw Tesla.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Jihadin wrote:
He was way way way wwwwaayyyyyyyy ahead with his idea and the last test he did in Conn. I think was freaking huge. I believe politics got him. Reaching in my foggy mind that Bell(?) influence Senators to consider Tesla experiments dangerous

Thomas Edison, one of the greatest con men in American history, did a lot to utterly screw Tesla.

As in, to such a ridiculously underhanded and vindictive level to the point that upon further inspection, it's hard to see Edison as something as anything other than a totally disgusting excuse for a human being.

We should be fair to Edison.

What he did wasn't particularly unusual for the time period. It was business as usual.

Tesla may have been a great inventor(a dubious claim) but he made some poor business decisions at a time when that was not a very good idea.

 Grey Templar wrote:
What he did wasn't particularly unusual for the time period. It was business as usual.

Edison went above and beyond what most dirty business men at the time were doing. In a dark time, Edison was especially dark. The most fair we can be to him is to recognize that while he stole a lot of inventions, a fair many were of his own design. Lets put it this way. Not many men would go out and find their potential rival all the way in Poland and arrange for him to 'disappear' during a train ride on his way to deliver a patent. No one ever saw the supposed inventor ever again.

Tesla may have been a great inventor(a dubious claim) but he made some poor business decisions at a time when that was not a very good idea.

I think Tesla was a brilliant man, but he had his head a little too into the clouds for his own good. Many of his ideas, while espousing really cool ideas, weren't practical then or now. As a scientist and theorist, he was a great man. As a practical inventor less so.

Do recall that most of the ideas Tesla had near the end of his life were suspect at best. We're talking about the man who had a love affair with a pidgeon, after all.

Poe was a saint?

 daedalus wrote:
I have a lot of concerns about using the planet as a giant inductor. My grasp on this stuff is far above the average person, I'm no expert though, but Tesla's work is extraordinary even by a lot of today's comparisons. If you could make it workable though, I'm not so certain it wouldn't have unintended consequences.

Some theories out there believe that he (Tesla) did test this technology, and it resulted in the Tugunska (sp?) blast of the early 1900s (the one that some believe is meteoric in origin... the ginormous concentric ring of airbursted trees flattened for a good size radius)... .Of course some theories also believe that he tested his Death Ray, and this was the result... and still other (crazier) theories contend that his Planetary Energy Transmitter and Death Ray were one and the same

So he was close to giving the world Tesla weapons...

 LordofHats wrote:

I think Tesla was a brilliant man, but he had his head a little too into the clouds for his own good. Many of his ideas, while espousing really cool ideas, weren't practical then or now. As a scientist and theorist, he was a great man. As a practical inventor less so.

Snipped the rest, because I agree with you there... However, I don't think that Tesla suffered from a lack of practicality in his inventions/designs, it was more that he was so idealistic in his ideas for "free energy" that his work wasn't really a commercial success until after his death.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Jihadin wrote:
So he was close to giving the world Tesla weapons...

He probably had them built, but then realized just who the Red Skull was, and realized that Hydra wasn't all he thought it was, and destroyed the weapons, and plans and any other knowledge associated with it before they got their hands on it

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
I have a lot of concerns about using the planet as a giant inductor. My grasp on this stuff is far above the average person, I'm no expert though, but Tesla's work is extraordinary even by a lot of today's comparisons. If you could make it workable though, I'm not so certain it wouldn't have unintended consequences.

Some theories out there believe that he (Tesla) did test this technology, and it resulted in the Tugunska (sp?) blast of the early 1900s (the one that some believe is meteoric in origin... the ginormous concentric ring of airbursted trees flattened for a good size radius)... .Of course some theories also believe that he tested his Death Ray, and this was the result... and still other (crazier) theories contend that his Planetary Energy Transmitter and Death Ray were one and the same

I'll... have to spend some time looking into this.

Free energy. Can you imagine the the coal/oil states and countries scream and cry when if becomes feasible

 Jihadin wrote:
Free energy. Can you imagine the the coal/oil states and countries scream and cry when if becomes feasible

They'll bitch and moan for sure, but then realize that a ton of american's still drive V36 super-dually Diesel powered things that can go about a mile before needing more fuel for the tank


And it'll probably very well end up never being free... Westinghouse had the Electric meter invented afterall, so they can still track how much electricity is being used... this merely expands their profit margins exponentially

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 daedalus wrote:
I have a lot of concerns about using the planet as a giant inductor. My grasp on this stuff is far above the average person, I'm no expert though, but Tesla's work is extraordinary even by a lot of today's comparisons. If you could make it workable though, I'm not so certain it wouldn't have unintended consequences.

Some theories out there believe that he (Tesla) did test this technology, and it resulted in the Tugunska (sp?) blast of the early 1900s (the one that some believe is meteoric in origin... the ginormous concentric ring of airbursted trees flattened for a good size radius)... .Of course some theories also believe that he tested his Death Ray, and this was the result... and still other (crazier) theories contend that his Planetary Energy Transmitter and Death Ray were one and the same

Some people also believe that Jesus rode a dinosaur, and that vaccines are a plan by the Illuminati to sterilize white folk.

 Laughing Man wrote:

Some people also believe that Jesus rode a dinosaur, and that vaccines are a plan by the Illuminati to sterilize white folk.

Good thing Velociraptors aren't dinosaurs then

 Ensis Ferrae wrote:

 Laughing Man wrote:

Some people also believe that Jesus rode a dinosaur, and that vaccines are a plan by the Illuminati to sterilize white folk.

Good thing Velociraptors aren't dinosaurs then

About that...