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I only know about as much as is in the comic. Joel Send a noteboard - 15/05/2012 09:51:00 AM
I loved this. But does anyone know what the magic electric tower is all about?

At least, that is verifiable; Tesla pushed the scientific envelope (to say the least,) but no avant-garde scientist is perfect (hence those of Teslas day conceived "æther" to explain lights wave-particle duality.) So, depending whom you ask, Teslas Tower was either one of his invalid theories, or suppressed by a still extant conspiracy to dominate humanity by depriving it of free limitless power. It dovetails nicely with the awful way Edison treated Tesla in the AC/DC controversy, and the awful way he treated REAL inventors generally. The main reason Tesla and many left GE was Edison claiming patent rights on everything employees developed, whether in his lab or their garage: The ONLY way a GE employee could personally obtain a patent was to leave the company; otherwise all their discoveries were Edisons intellectual property. So we could say he pioneered exploiting scientists (at the expense of innovation; scientists and engineers have been known to sit on new discoveries for DECADES until ready to leave their employers to get their own patents,) if very little actual science.

The premise of Teslas Tower, as I understand it, was that the towers would convert EM waves into electric current (which is where the ionosphere comes into play,) then pass it through everything connected to the tower. Not only that, but, because the tower formed a circuit with connected devices, when it completed the circuit by arriving back at the tower, it would be converted back into a radio wave and transmitted to the next tower. Each person on the power grid would, in succession, use each and every amp of electricity, all coming from the ionosophere as radio waves rather than from a fuel consuming ground based generator. You can probably see why perpetual motion conspiracy buffs eat this stuff up; that would not TECHNICALLY defeat the Second Law of Thermodynamics, but practically would.

Meanwhile, of course, homes and businesses are already connected as a single circuit, just not by towers. That is what the power grid is, after all, and much of the crux of the AC/DC debate (an irony of Tesla Tower conspiracy theories is accusing energy producers of suppressing DC current.) Circumventing thermodynamics is not so simple. The basic idea of sourcing the power from the ionosphere rather than private power generators, however, might or might not be tenable; perhaps Tor could tell you. It might be interesting to calculate whether humanity uses more electricity than solar flares and the like inject into the ionosphere. It is certainly poetic to imagine the aurora borealis finally overcoming the challenge the Second Law has presented since life first emerged on Earth.

Still, much as I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, in this case I must believe that if it could be done, people would be doing it. Until Big Electricity threw their corpses over Niagara Falls, anyway. :P
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Tesla and Edison - 15/05/2012 07:14:10 AM 1154 Views
I only know about as much as is in the comic. - 15/05/2012 09:51:00 AM 785 Views
I had no idea he discovered the resonant frequency of the Earth, cool - 15/05/2012 02:30:35 PM 629 Views
Tesla was amazing but he wasn't a geek - 15/05/2012 03:17:56 PM 712 Views
Semantics. - 15/05/2012 03:30:23 PM 662 Views
Semantics are important - 15/05/2012 04:42:32 PM 580 Views
Are you sure of that? - 15/05/2012 03:32:43 PM 614 Views
You know what they say. - 15/05/2012 03:45:05 PM 563 Views
What about the people who can remember claptrap like that? - 15/05/2012 03:56:02 PM 559 Views
Hah, I definitely fall into both categories too. *NM* - 15/05/2012 05:35:06 PM 320 Views
Have I ever been unsure?? - 15/05/2012 07:16:00 PM 654 Views
I'm not sure if it's possible to be a nerd when you write like that. - 15/05/2012 07:31:47 PM 702 Views
So who told you nerds care about grammar? - 15/05/2012 08:09:37 PM 555 Views
Nerds are by definition intellectual and good students. - 15/05/2012 10:05:43 PM 636 Views
Whose definition? - 15/05/2012 10:24:16 PM 539 Views
or a dweeb(ie). *NM* - 16/05/2012 12:07:57 AM 277 Views
You must not have met very many engineers or doctors *NM* - 16/05/2012 04:02:56 PM 289 Views
Quite a few. All are capable of effective communication. - 17/05/2012 01:39:06 AM 587 Views
I'd be worried to meet one who wasn't. *NM* - 17/05/2012 09:22:50 AM 281 Views
Smart and effective, sure. - 19/05/2012 07:14:06 PM 647 Views
Double. *NM* - 19/05/2012 07:27:07 PM 284 Views
Reply foul. *NM* - 19/05/2012 07:27:42 PM 296 Views
So... is "cynical" the word? - 15/05/2012 03:29:55 PM 618 Views
Tesla- The reason I'm studying what I'm studying. - 15/05/2012 03:31:31 PM 663 Views
Is this the same Tesla from The Prestige? I looooved that movie! *NM* - 15/05/2012 04:15:09 PM 476 Views
Yes. And that is a great show. *NM* - 15/05/2012 04:37:28 PM 282 Views
Wardenclyffe Tower - 15/05/2012 11:20:09 PM 796 Views
Aha! Thank you. - 16/05/2012 07:34:30 AM 547 Views
*Duplicate* *NM* - 15/05/2012 11:43:34 PM 302 Views
Isn't the "Earthquake machine" story urban myth? - 16/05/2012 06:38:40 AM 561 Views
I hope not - 16/05/2012 07:33:01 AM 650 Views
Think I knew most of that once. - 19/05/2012 08:02:17 PM 545 Views

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