Practical Tesla

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "David Thomson by way of Terry Fritz <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dave-at-volantis-dot-org>

Hi Ed,

>	Any photos of his spiral coils?  Have never seen any.

A good book for you to read is a Tesla biography by Marc Seifer.  You'll see
a picture of Tesla posing in front of a flat spiral there.  I have that
picture on my computer somewhere.  If you are interested, I can email it to
you.

>> He did this in his thirties and forties.  After Wardencliffe,
>> Tesla branched out into resonance with fluids.  I hear the uninformed on
>> this list talk about Tesla as though he had lost his senses after
>> Wardencliffe.  In fact, that is when he invented the frequency meter,
fluid
>> meter, auto ignition system, fluid turbine, and VTOL aircraft among
others.
>> After Wardencliffe, Tesla also worked more with electrostatics on a small
>> scale as well as longitudinal waves.

> Compared to his earlier work those were all trivial things and never found
their way into practical use. Do you know anything different?

Oh my!  There isn't a gasoline powered internal combustion engine on the
planet that I know of that doesn't use Tesla's auto ignition system.  That
seems to be practical use for an invention.  Many large ships use the Tesla
turbine as the primary propulsion system.  That sounds practical.  The US
Marines use VTOL aircraft today, that sounds practical.  Industrial
processes in all markets that have fluids running through pipes use Tesla's
fluid meters, that sounds practical.  Every car in the world has a
speedometer and it is the exact same principle Tesla invented 100 years ago,
that's practical.

According to Arthur Matthews, Tesla's last full time assistant, Tesla
invented something very similar to MRI back in the 1930s.  MRI uses
longitudinal magnetic waves to see through just about anything.  I have an
audio tape of Mr. Matthews describing several of Tesla's unpattented
inventions from later in his life.  To go into this would be off topic on
this list, but suffice it to say, Tesla did lots of serious research with
incredible practical application well after Wardencliffe.

But just the patents at the patent office are worth the read.  When you
carefully read each of Tesla's patents, you will gain insight into his train
of thought.  Most of Tesla's patents involve resonance and the exploitation
of perpendicular forces.  Even if you choose to believe Tesla was wrong, the
ingenuity is entertaining.

One thing I learned about the original Tesla coils.  They were almost always
represented as bipolar in his patents.  In an incredible stroke of luck, I
bought a double coned bipolar coil that I can date to the time of Tesla by
the materials and construction.  To further my luck, the guy bidding against
me knew the history of the coil I had won.  His father had worked for Tesla
and Tesla gave him the pattern for making the double cone layout for this
exact coil.  The guy I bought it from obtained it from the estate of a life
long FBI agent!  I can't help but wonder if the FBI agent was involved with
inspecting or moving Tesla's effects when he died.

I've had to replace the copper tube primary due to damage.  I have powered
it up and it works great.  I can tell you there is nothing that excites the
imagination like having a piece of equipment designed by and made for the
master himself.