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History
of
Wireless
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What
Nikola
Tesla
Said? |
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Tesla
on War and
Peace
``War
cannot be
avoided
until the
physical
cause for
its
recurrence
is removed
and this,
in the
last
analysis,
is the
vast
extent of
the planet
on which
we live.
Only
through
annihilation
of
distance
in every
respect,
as the
conveyance
of
intelligence,
transport
of
passengers
and
supplies
and
transmission
of energy
will
conditions
be brought
about some
day,
insuring
permanency
of
friendly
relations.
What we
now want
is closer
contact
and better
understanding
between
individuals
and
communities
all over
the earth,
and the
elimination
of egoism
and pride
which is
always
prone to
plunge the
world into
primeval
barbarism
and
strife...
Peace can
only come
as a
natural
consequence
of
universal
enlightenment...''
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Tesla
on
Voltaire
``I had a
veritable
mania for
finishing
whatever I
began,
which
often got
me into
difficulties.
On one
occasion I
started to
read the
works of
Voltaire
when I
learned,
to my
dismay,
that there
were close
on one
hundred
large
volumes in
small
print
which that
monster
had
written
while
drinking
seventy-two
cups of
black
coffee per
diem. It
had to be
done, but
when I
laid aside
the last
book I was
very glad,
and said,
"Never
more!"''
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Tesla
on Thomas
A. Edison
``If
Edison had
a needle
to find in
a
haystack,
he would
proceed at
once with
the
diligence
of the bee
to examine
straw
after
straw
until he
found the
object of
his
search.''
``I was
a sorry
witness of
such
doings,
knowing
that a
little
theory and
calculation
would have
saved him
ninety per
cent of
his
labor.''
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Tesla
on The
Future
``We
are
confronted
with
portentous
problems
which can
not be
solved
just by
providing
for our
material
existence,
however
abundantly.
On the
contrary,
progress
in this
direction
is fraught
with
hazards
and perils
not less
menacing
than those
born from
want and
suffering.
If we were
to release
the energy
of the
atoms or
discover
some other
way of
developing
cheap and
unlimited
power at
any point
of the
globe this
accomplishment,
instead of
being a
blessing,
might
bring
disaster
to
mankind...
The
greatest
good will
come from
the
technical
improvements
tending to
unification
and
harmony,
and my
wireless
transmitter
is
preeminently
such. By
its means
the human
voice and
likeness
will be
reproduced
everywhere
and
factories
driven
thousands
of miles
from
waterfalls
furnishing
the power;
aerial
machines
will be
propelled
around the
earth
without a
stop and
the sun's
energy
controlled
to create
lakes and
rivers for
motive
purposes
and
transformation
of arid
deserts
into
fertile
land...''
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Tesla
on the d.c.
motor
In a
paper
presented
before the
American
Institute
of
Electrical
Engineers
in 1888,
Tesla
criticized
the
illogical
construction
of the d.c.
motor.
``In
our dynamo
machines,
it is well
known, we
generate
alternate
currents
which we
direct by
means of a
commutator,
a
complicated
device
and, it
may be
justly
said, the
source of
most of
the
troubles
experienced
in the
operation
of the
machines.
Now, the
currents,
so
directed
cannot be
utilized
in the
motor, but
must -
again by
means of a
similar
unreliable
device -
be
reconverted
into their
original
state of
alternate
currents.
The
function
of the
commutator
is
entirely
external,
and in no
way does
it affect
the
internal
workings
of the
machines.
In
reality,
therefore,
all
machines
are
alternate
current
machines,
the
currents
appearing
as
continuous
only in
the
external
circuit
during the
transfer
from
generator
to motor.
In view
simply of
this fact,
alternate
currents
would
commend
themselves
as a more
direct
application
of
electrical
energy,
and the
employment
of
continuous
currents
would only
be
justified
if we had
dynamos
which
would
primarily
generate,
and motors
which
would be
directly
actuated
by, such
currents.''
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Tesla
on George
Westinghouse
``George
Westinghouse
was, in my
opinion,
the only
man on
this globe
who could
take my
alternating-current
system
under the
circumstances
then
existing
and win
the battle
against
prejudice
and money
power. He
was a
pioneer of
imposing
stature,
one of the
world's
true
nobleman
of whom
America
may well
be proud
and to
whom
humanity
owes an
immense
debt of
gratitude.''
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Tesla
on Mark
Twain
``I had
hardly
completed
my course
at the
Real
Gymnasium
when I was
prostrated
with a
dangerous
illness or
rather, a
score of
them, and
my
condition
became so
desperate
that I was
given up
by
physicians.
During
this
period I
was
permitted
to read
constantly,
obtaining
books from
the Public
Library
which had
been
neglected
and
entrusted
to me for
classification
of the
works and
preparation
of the
catalogues.
One day I
was handed
a few
volumes of
new
literature
unlike
anything I
had ever
read
before and
so
captivating
as to make
me utterly
forget my
hopeless
state.
They were
the
earlier
works of
Mark Twain
and to
them might
have been
due the
miraculous
recovery
which
followed.
Twenty-five
years
later,
when I met
Mr.
Clemens
and we
formed a
friendship
between
us, I told
him of the
experience
and was
amazed to
see that
great man
of
laughter
burst into
tears.''
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Nikola
Tesla
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