Results tagged “tesla”

The office products giant that owns a 16-acre Long Island site used by visionary inventor Nikola Tesla is trying to sell the property for $1.6 million, and promises to demolish the remaining buildings for potential buyers. But historians and scientists want the property and the century-old laboratory turned into a science museum, and they've launched a campaign to save the site, called Wardenclyffe. In addition to his laboratory, there was once a 187 feet tall tower, which Tesla used in early 1900s experiments to try to wirelessly transmit information and electricity. The Agfa Corporation has spent some $5 million cleaning up poisonous cadmium that had contaminated the site, and insists it can't afford not to sell the property. Marc Seifer, author of Wizard, a Tesla biography, tells the Times, "It’s hugely important to protect this site. He’s an icon. He stands for what humans are supposed to do — honor nature while using high technology to harness its powers." The online version of the Times article comes with a neat slideshow about Tesla and the site, and there's a lot more on The Tesla Wardenclyffe Project website.

On this very day 105 years ago Thomas Edison electrocuted an elephant meant to give rides and carry heavy items on Coney Island...all in the name of science! His science. He came to Coney to prove George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla's alternating current (AC) was dangerous, whereas his competing direct current was completely safe. In fact, Edison was the one who convinced New York to use the dangerous and deadly AC for their electric chair.

Edison had established direct current at the standard for electricity distribution and was living large off the patent royalties, royalties he was in no mood to lose when George Westinghouse and Nicola Tesla showed up with alternating current.

Continue reading "Edison vs. Elephant on Coney Island"