Re: Tesla Receiver Coil

["Tesla list" <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Original poster: "Malcolm Watts" <m.j.watts@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

On 26 Nov 2005, at 13:59, Tesla list wrote:

> Original poster: William Beaty <billb@xxxxxxxxxx>
>
> On Fri, 25 Nov 2005, Tesla list wrote:
>
>  > I thought since Tesla was "just" an electrical engineer, he had a
>  cheek > trying to play with the great physicists like Thompson and
>  Maxwell.
>
> And mere patent clerks should not be allowed to publish crazy
> speculations about the speed of light?  :)
>
> Don't forget that "great" physicists are only "great" in hindsight.
> Great men don't have new ideas, instead it's the ability to have new
> ideas which causes us to say that certain men are "great." Don't
> forget Clarke's First Law: if an elderly and distinguished scientist
> states that something is impossible, he's very probably wrong. Don't
> forget that science history is full of crazies who were shown to be
> "great" only later, crazies who dared to question.  And Science itself
> is based on Skepticism, on questioning everything (including
> especially questioning what one has been taught.)
>
> The parable of the Emperor's New Clothes is built into science, where
> prestige is not so important when compared to discovering new truths;
> to having new ideas.  The new ideas are far more important than the
> person presenting them, and scientists will listen to "little kids"
> such as patent clerks who dare to question "Emperors" in the form of
> their textbooks and all their elders who firmly believe that light
> waves travel through Aether.
>
>
>  > But the other day I thought: What if the boundaries
>  > between disciplines didn't exist back in 1899?
>  > Electrical engineering probably didn't exist, since
>  > Tesla, Edison and Charles Steinmetz were just in the
>  > process of inventing it. You certainly couldn't go and
>  > study it at university.
>
> Yes you could.  The young Tesla wanted to be an Electrical Engineer,
> and had to convince his father to let him go to college for that
> degree.

Actually I think it was one of his "professors" who, while
demonstrating a motor complete with sparking brushes on a benchtop,
told Tesla (and most likely an entire class) that there was no future
in using AC to run electric motors. I laugh when I think about it :)
I imagine Tesla would be most taken with the elegance of modern
electronically commutated motors.

Malcolm

> And on the contrary, inter-discipline studies are a more recent
> invention. Long ago minds were more rigid, and if you were, say, a
> physicist, you'd have to fight barriers if you wanted to combine
> physics with biology, etc.
>
>
> (((((((((((((((((( ( (  (   (    (O)    )   )  ) ) )))))))))))))))))))
> William J. Beaty                            SCIENCE HOBBYIST website
> billb at amasci com                         http://amasci.com
> EE/programmer/sci-exhibits   amateur science, hobby projects, sci fair
> Seattle, WA  206-789-0775    unusual phenomena, tesla coils, weird sci
>
>
>