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Re: AITKEN ON TESLA



Original poster: "Gav D" <gdingley@xxxxxxxxx>

Ed,
thanks for that interesting insight, it would certainly have been an
interesting twist in history if de Forest had been an assistant at CS,
especially with all the purported work Tesla is alleged to have done
in the way of vaccum tubes.

1985 was just around the time of the Tesla Renaissance, when there was
allot of activity in getting recognition of Tesla's achievements, in
celebration of the centenary of Tesla stepping foot onto United States
soil.

Gavin

On 1/24/07, Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp@xxxxxxxxxxx>

   I've mentioned Aitken's book on "The Continuous Wave" as being
particularly sympathetic to Tesla.  Here are a couple of quotes which
in think reveal the essense of the man as I see him.

 From "The Continuous Wave"

    A couple of quotes from the section

on Lee de Forest, the inventor of the thermionic triode:

"           When de Forest was ending his undergraduate years at
Yale, he completed a questionnaire for his class yearbook.  One of
the questions was "Why did you come to

college?" and to that de Forest responded, "To direct and temper my genius."

Another was, "Next to yourself who would you prefer to be?".  And de
Forest replied,

"Nikola Tesla".

           Wherever you look in the early history of radio
technology you run into the

name of Nikola Tesla.  Tuning circuits, high-frequency alternators,
and spark-gap

transmitters - name almost any device that became important in the
early history

of radio, and you will find an anticipation by Tesla.  Here was a man
always trying

great things and startling leaps of the creative imagination, and yet
somehow limited

in his ability to integrate his investments into commercially viable
systems.  We

remember Tesla today for the one case in which he unquestionably
surmounted that

limitation - his invention of the polyphase system of alternating
current - and for the

familiar device - The Tesla Coil - that replicates the spectacular
demonstration of

high-voltage discharges that Tesla loved to engineer.  His other
achievements are

little known except to experts."

[This was written in 1985 before the internet and www made knowledge
and discussion

of him much more available to the public.]

In giving Tesla references he indicates that he much prefers
O'Neill's "Prodigal Genius"

for technical accuracy but somewhat limited coverage and  but
"devoted Tesla fans,

of which there are many, will also wish to be familiar with ...
Cheney..."  He also

mentions Anderson's AWA monograph "Priority in the Invention of Radio", which

covers some of the same material as in his more complete works.

   Another quote:

"Tesla and de Forest were both inveterate romantics, always ready to
identify what

was with what should be.  Both, as soon as they could afford it,
revelled in the pleasure

of an affluent and elegant life-style.  And both loved publicity."

As I've said before, I agree with the "what was and what should be"
part and think that, along with his obvious desire for publicity,
explains some of the extravagent things Tesla wrote and said.  No one
can fail to recognize the romanticism or that they were both publicity hounds.

   According to Richard Hull's book on CSN  de Forest tried to get a
job with Tesla during his stay in Colorado Springs but that never
happened.  It is really interesting to wonder what would have
happened if de Forest had become an associate of his.  He was fresh
with a PhD in physics from Yale and undoubtedly a more solid
theoretical and mathematical background.  I don't know whether their
two egos could have existed in the same organization but if they
could have who knows what might have happened?  de Forest was much
more of an entrepeneur (sometimes to the point of close to dishonest
representation of what he was selling) and would probably have been
influential in bringing more of Tesla's inventions before the public
in the form of products and promotions

Ed.