Re: Some interesting photos regarding Tesla from the Edison archive... (fwd)

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Original poster: Gerry Reynolds <greynolds@xxxxxxxxxx>



---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 20 Dec 2006 15:30:41 -0500
From: Daniel Kline <daniel_kline@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Tesla list <tesla@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: Some interesting photos regarding Tesla from the Edison archive...
    (fwd)



Tesla list wrote:

> Could it really be true that the first commercial Tesla Coil in the US 
> was made by no other than Elihu Thomson and sold by General Electric?  
> Say it isn't so!
> 
> Jeff Behary, c/o
> The Turn Of The Century Electrotherapy Museum
> http://www.electrotherapymuseum.com

I have always said that I didn't think that the first air-core resonant 
transformer was invented by Tesla, but rather by Elihu Thomson. I know 
it's heresy to say so, but I have a paper detailing Thomson's lecture 
about high-frequency capacitor-discharge coils, a description of his 
demo coil, and how "the miles of wire such as used in the Spotteswood 
coil will never be necessary again." The Spotteswood coil was a giant 
induction coil.

The only problem is that I can't remember what publication it was from 
which I copied the paper. So, I can't set a date on it. I have looked 
and looked, but I can't find it again. I can scan it in and post it 
somewhere if anyone is interested.

According to the Thomson biography "Beloved Scientist", Thomson's 
biographer says that Thomson was rather permanently miffed at Tesla, 
since Thomson had supposedly "given Tesla his start." I've never read 
anything like that anywhere else, so, who knows. But in the old 
literature/advertisements, the coil is often called the Tesla/Thomson 
coil...

A point I think a lot of researchers miss is that Tesla's AC experiments 
before his wireless transmission tests were done with iron-cored 
transformers. My belief is that he saw an air-cored cap-discharge coil 
and ran with the idea. The idea that capacitive discharge was 
oscillatory was well known before Tesla's time (Leyden jars).

Dan K.