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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 1062 Views
I only know about as much as is in the comic. - 15/05/2012 09:51:00 AM 684 Views
I had no idea he discovered the resonant frequency of the Earth, cool - 15/05/2012 02:30:35 PM 543 Views
Tesla was amazing but he wasn't a geek - 15/05/2012 03:17:56 PM 620 Views
Semantics. - 15/05/2012 03:30:23 PM 575 Views
Semantics are important - 15/05/2012 04:42:32 PM 495 Views
Are you sure of that? - 15/05/2012 03:32:43 PM 528 Views
You know what they say. - 15/05/2012 03:45:05 PM 474 Views
What about the people who can remember claptrap like that? - 15/05/2012 03:56:02 PM 471 Views
Hah, I definitely fall into both categories too. *NM* - 15/05/2012 05:35:06 PM 280 Views
Have I ever been unsure?? - 15/05/2012 07:16:00 PM 569 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 616 Views
So who told you nerds care about grammar? - 15/05/2012 08:09:37 PM 465 Views
Nerds are by definition intellectual and good students. - 15/05/2012 10:05:43 PM 546 Views
Whose definition? - 15/05/2012 10:24:16 PM 468 Views
or a dweeb(ie). *NM* - 16/05/2012 12:07:57 AM 241 Views
You must not have met very many engineers or doctors *NM* - 16/05/2012 04:02:56 PM 248 Views
Quite a few. All are capable of effective communication. - 17/05/2012 01:39:06 AM 506 Views
I'd be worried to meet one who wasn't. *NM* - 17/05/2012 09:22:50 AM 251 Views
Smart and effective, sure. - 19/05/2012 07:14:06 PM 551 Views
Double. *NM* - 19/05/2012 07:27:07 PM 252 Views
Reply foul. *NM* - 19/05/2012 07:27:42 PM 259 Views
So... is "cynical" the word? - 15/05/2012 03:29:55 PM 524 Views
Tesla- The reason I'm studying what I'm studying. - 15/05/2012 03:31:31 PM 569 Views
Is this the same Tesla from The Prestige? I looooved that movie! *NM* - 15/05/2012 04:15:09 PM 373 Views
Yes. And that is a great show. *NM* - 15/05/2012 04:37:28 PM 242 Views
Wardenclyffe Tower - 15/05/2012 11:20:09 PM 707 Views
Aha! Thank you. - 16/05/2012 07:34:30 AM 454 Views
*Duplicate* *NM* - 15/05/2012 11:43:34 PM 266 Views
Isn't the "Earthquake machine" story urban myth? - 16/05/2012 06:38:40 AM 474 Views
I hope not - 16/05/2012 07:33:01 AM 567 Views
Think I knew most of that once. - 19/05/2012 08:02:17 PM 468 Views

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