Re: early rotary gap

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

Original poster: Ed Phillips <evp-at-pacbell-dot-net> 

"Ed, this Patent by Tesla was a killer:

"Method of and Apparatus for Controlling Mechanism of Moving Vessels Or
Vehicles" Nov.8. 1898 #613,809

http://www.chaoticuniverse-dot-com/webdoc2.htg/_tesla_Patents_us000613809.pd
f

Don't say Tesla never created workable designs; he just wasn't the
typical capitalist. For some odd reason he expected society to recognize
his genius and embrace his gifts for mankind... Yes he was eccentric!
And we live in an unkind world.

Regards,

David Trimmell"

David:

	I'm aware of that patent.  It's more interesting to me because some of
the details of how he made (not speculated about but actually built) his
coherers than for any spark of genius.  Controllers which worked on the
basis of a series of pulses (in this case the output of the receiver)
had been around for a long time and he uses the same principle.  I find
it also interesting that Tesla demonstrated his boat on a number of
occasions, showing that it was a practical if not necessarily useful
device.  It's not obvious that something like this would be useful
beyond the line of sight of the guy controlling it.  [When we first got
started building radio-controlled boats and planes we went to a lot of
work to extend the range of the radio gear only to discover that if you
couldn't see what the darned thing was doing you didn't have control any
more!]

	As for workable designs, nothing could be more workable than his
polyphase power system.  Other people had built some of the components
but never put them all together into a valuable system and presented
them to the public the way he did.  Through his relationship with
Westinghouse the scheme almost immediately began changine the industrial
world of the time.  At this period in his life (before Colorado Springs
and Wardenclyffe) he put great emphasis on building the stuff he
invented and photographs of his equipment show beautiful workmanship and
practicality.  After Colorado Springs and Wardenclyffe his output became
sparse and, in my opinion of course, almost trivial.  Just look at his
patents to see how much fewer they became.

	If Tesla had had the motivation of Edison (a far less profound thinker)
or Marconi more of his inventions would have become commonly known.
After his original spurt of very practical designs it would seem that he
became content to invent things, dream and write about them, but not try
to bring them into the practical world.

Ed