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Tesla Coil

 JM> On 04-29-95, Dave Halliday wrote to James Meyer and said:
 
 DH> What did Faraday run the coils off of - AC or DC

 JM> For producing steady magnetic fields, he used batteries.
 
 DH> <Faraday's> work was confined to steady-state DC and he did  
 DH> essentially zero work with alternating current or resonating 
 DH> circuits.

 JM> His classic experiment with magnetic induction used an iron
 JM> core transformer with a primary and secondary winding.  He
 JM> proved that a *changing* magnetic field produced by a
 JM> *changing* electric current in one winding would induce a
 JM> similar *changing* electric current in a winding coupled to
 JM> the same magnetic field.

The classic DC induction coil does exactly the same thing, with
no alternating current. I believe that the experiment used pulsed
DC, just like a car ignition, to prove these theories.

 JM> If that isn't the definition of "AC", then perhaps you can
 JM> provide another one.

I always liked Tesla's idea of an isochronous sine wave. This is
of course what the modern Tesla power grid, brushless Tesla
induction motors, and your synchronous 60 cycle Tesla clocks, 
are set to run on.

 JM> BTW, it was a portrait of Farady that hung on the wall of
 JM> Einstien's study, not a picture of Tesla.

Tesla gave one of his famous lectures before the Institution of
Electrical Engineers in London on the third of February, 1893.
The lecture was such a success that Tesla was delayed somewhat
visiting his family in Gospic by the many invitations he received
from London society. One of those invitations was made by the
Royal Institution, where the immortal Michael Faraday had carried
on his fundamental researches in magnetism and electricity. Once
there Sir James Dewar, and a committee of equally famous
scientists, sought to prevail upon Tesla to repeat his lecture
before the Royal Insitituion. Tesla could be plain stubborn about
his plans, and was firm on his desire to continue his travels.
The famous Scottish scientist matched Tesla's stubborness with an
equal persuasive persistence. He escorted Tesla to Faraday's
chair, an almost sacred relic to English science, seated him in
this throne, and then brought out an almost equally precious
heirloom, a portion of a bottle of wiskey, the remainder of
Faraday's personal supply, untouched for nearly a quarter of a
century. Out of this bottle he poured a generous half glass for
Tesla. Tesla relented and gave the lecture the following evening.

My point being that the Royal Institution knew well Tesla's
rightfull place. I still am not clear on your point.

Richard Quick

The story above has been paraphrased from page 98 of John J.
O'Neill's book: PRODIGAL GENIUS, The Life of Nikola Tesla;
1978 Angriff Publications. This story has been verified by
Margaret Cheney and was reprinted in 1981, along with Tesla's
comments recorded during an interview several years later, in her
book: Tesla, Man Out of Time, 1981, Dorset Press, ISBN 0-88029-
419-1, pp63.


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