textfiles-politics/txt_files/teslaon

                                TESLA ON SCIENCE

     ``Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate
     goal the betterment of humanity.''

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                              TESLA ON THE FUTURE

     ``We are confronted with portentous problems which can not be solved
     just by providing for our material existence, however abundantly. On
     the contrary, progress in this direction is fraught with hazards and
     perils not less menacing than those born from want and suffering. If
     we were to release the energy of the atoms or discover some other way
     of developing cheap and unlimited power at any point of the globe this
     accomplishment, instead of being a blessing, might bring disaster to
     mankind... The greatest good will come from the technical improvements
     tending to unification and harmony, and my wireless transmitter is
     preeminently such. By its means the human voice and likeness will be
     reproduced everywhere and factories driven thousands of miles from
     waterfalls furnishing the power; aerial machines will be propelled
     around the earth without a stop and the sun's energy controlled to
     create lakes and rivers for motive purposes and transformation of arid
     deserts into fertile land...''

     Nikola Tesla, "My Inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla", Hart
     Bros., 1982. Originally appeared in the Electrical experimenter
     magazine in 1919.

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                             TESLA ON WAR AND PEACE

     ``War cannot be avoided until the physical cause for its recurrence is
     removed and this, in the last analysis, is the vast extent of the
     planet on which we live. Only through annihilation of distance in
     every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport of
     passengers and supplies and transmission of energy will conditions be
     brought about some day, insuring permanency of friendly relations.
     What we now want is closer contact and better understanding between
     individuals and communities all over the earth, and the elimination of
     egoism and pride which is always prone to plunge the world into
     primeval barbarism and strife... Peace can only come as a natural
     consequence of universal enlightenment...''

     Nikola Tesla, "My Inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla", Hart
     Bros., 1982. Originally appeared in the Electrical experimenter
     magazine in 1919.

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                            TESLA ON THE D.C. MOTOR

     In a paper presented before the American Institute of Electrical
     Engineers in 1988, Tesla criticized the illogical construction of the
     d.c. motor.

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     ``In our dynamo machines, it is well known, we generate alternate
     currents which we direct by means of a commutator, a complicated
     device and, it may be justly said, the source of most of the troubles
     experienced in the operation of the machines. Now, the currents, so
     directed cannot be utilized in the motor, but must - again by means of
     a similar unreliable device - be reconverted into their original state
     of alternate currents. The function of the commutator is entirely
     external, and in no way does it affect the internal workings of the
     machines. In reality, therefore, all machines are alternate current
     machines, the currents appearing as continuous only in the external
     circuit during the transfer from generator to motor. In view simply of
     this fact, alternate currents would commend themselves as a more
     direct application of electrical energy, and the employment of
     continuous currents would only be justified if we had dynamos which
     would primarily generate, and motors which would be directly actuated
     by, such currents.''

     Adopted from T.C. Martin, "The Inventions, Researches and Writings of
     Nikola Tesla," New Work: Electrical Engineer, 1894, pp. 9-11

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                          TESLA ON GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE

     ``George Westinghouse was, in my opinion, the only man on this globe
     who could take my alternating-current system under the circumstances
     then existing and win the battle against prejudice and money power. He
     was a pioneer of imposing stature, one of the world's true nobleman of
     whom America may well be proud and to whom humanity owes an immense
     debt of gratitude.''

     Speech, Institute of Immigrant Welfare, Hotel Baltimore, New York, May
     12, 1938, read in absentia

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                           TESLA ON THOMAS A. EDISON

     ``If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at
     once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until
     he found the object of his search.''

     ``I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory
     and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.''

     New York Times, October 19, 1931

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                               TESLA ON VOLTAIRE

     ``I had a veritable mania for finishing whatever I began, which often
     got me into difficulties. On one occasion I started to read the works
     of Voltaire when I learned, to my dismay, that there were close on one
     hundred large volumes in small print which that monster had written
     while drinking seventy-two cups of black coffee per diem. It had to be
     done, but when I laid aside the last book I was very glad, and said,
     "Never more!"''

     Nikola Tesla, "My Inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla", Hart
     Bros., 1982. Originally appeared in the Electrical experimenter
     magazine in 1919.

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                              TESLA ON MARK TWAIN

     ``I had hardly completed my course at the Real Gymnasium when I was
     prostrated with a dangerous illness or rather, a score of them, and my
     condition became so desperate that I was given up by physicians.
     During this period I was permitted to read constantly, obtaining books
     from the Public Library which had been neglected and entrusted to me
     for classification of the works and preparation of the catalogues. One
     day I was handed a few volumes of new literature unlike anything I had
     ever read before and so captivating as to make me utterly forget my
     hopeless state. They were the earlier works of Mark Twain and to them
     might have been due the miraculous recovery which followed.
     Twenty-five years later, when I met Mr. Clements and we formed a
     friendship between us, I told him of the experience and was amazed to
     see that great man of laughter burst into tears.''

     Nikola Tesla, "My Inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla", Hart
     Bros., 1982. Originally appeared in the Electrical experimenter
     magazine in 1919.

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     bogdan@neuronet.pitt.edu