mirror of
https://github.com/nhammer514/textfiles-politics.git
synced 2025-08-03 03:26:11 -04:00
Updating fulltext page with whole lotta conspiracies
This commit is contained in:
parent
884c7f1d74
commit
a787c49941
333 changed files with 223374 additions and 83 deletions
369
docs/collection/tesla0.html
Normal file
369
docs/collection/tesla0.html
Normal file
|
@ -0,0 +1,369 @@
|
|||
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
|
||||
<head>
|
||||
<title>tesla0</title>
|
||||
<link rel="stylesheet" href="../CSSstyle.css"/>
|
||||
<!--Fill in your link line for CSS and JS in the XSLT here! -->
|
||||
</head>
|
||||
<body>
|
||||
<h1 id="title-index">Politics-Conspiracies-Project</h1>
|
||||
<nav id="menu">
|
||||
<a href="../index.html">
|
||||
<div class="button">Home</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
<a href="../fulltext2.html">
|
||||
<div class="button">Fulltext</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
<a href="../analysis.html">
|
||||
<div class="button">Analysis</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
<a href="../gallery.html">
|
||||
<div class="button">Gallery</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
<a href="../methods.html">
|
||||
<div class="button">Methods</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
<a href="../about.html">
|
||||
<div class="button">About</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
<a href="../GitHub.html">
|
||||
<div class="button">GitHub <img alt="github icon"
|
||||
src="https://logos-download.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/GitHub_logo.png"
|
||||
width="15"/>
|
||||
</div>
|
||||
</a>
|
||||
</nav>
|
||||
<h2>tesla0</h2>
|
||||
<p> THE GREATEST HACKER OF ALL TIME</p>
|
||||
<p> by Dave Small
|
||||
(c) 1987 Reprinted from Current Notes magazine.</p>
|
||||
<p> The question comes up from time to time. "Who's the
|
||||
greatest hacker ever?"Well, there's a lot of different opinions
|
||||
on this. Some say Steve Wozniak of Apple II fame. Maybe Andy
|
||||
Hertzfeld of the Mac operating system. Richard Stallman, say
|
||||
others, of MIT. Yet at such times when I mention who I think the
|
||||
greatest hacker is, everyone agrees (provided they know of him),
|
||||
and there's no further argument. So, let me introduce you to him,
|
||||
and his greatest hack. I'll warn you right up front that it's
|
||||
mind numbing. By the way, everything I'm going to tell you is
|
||||
true and verifiable down at your local library. Don't worry --
|
||||
we're not heading off into a Shirley MacLaine <span class="EVENT">UFO</span>-land story.
|
||||
Just some classy electrical engineering...</p>
|
||||
<p> THE SCENE: COLORADO SPRINGS, CO.</p>
|
||||
<p> Colorado Springs is in southern Colorado, about 70 mile
|
||||
south of Denver. These days it is known as the home of several
|
||||
optical disk research corporations and of NORAD, the missile
|
||||
defense command under Cheyenne Mountain. (I have a personal
|
||||
interest in Colorado Springs; my wife Sandy grew up there.)
|
||||
These events took place some time ago in Colorado Springs. A
|
||||
scientist had moved into town and set up a laboratory on Hill
|
||||
Street, on the southern outskirts. The lab had a two hundred
|
||||
foot copper antenna sticking up out of it, looking something like
|
||||
a HAM radio enthusiast's antenna. He moved in an started work.
|
||||
And strange electrical things happened near that lab. People
|
||||
would walk near the lab, and sparks would jump up from the ground
|
||||
to their feet, through the soles of their shoes. One boy took a
|
||||
screwdriver, held it near a fire hydrant, and drew a four inch
|
||||
electrical spark from the hydrant. Sometimes the grass around
|
||||
his lab would glow with an eerie blue corona, St. Elmo's Fire.
|
||||
What they didn't know was this was small stuff. The man in the
|
||||
lab was merely tuning up his apparatus. He was getting ready to
|
||||
run it wide open in an experiment that ranks as among the
|
||||
greatest, and most spectacular, of all time. One side effect of
|
||||
his experiment was the setting of the record for man-made
|
||||
lightning: some 42 meters in length (130 feet).</p>
|
||||
<p> THE MAN: NIKOLA TESLA.</p>
|
||||
<p>His name was Nikola <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>. He was an immigrant from what is now
|
||||
Yugoslavia; there's a museum of his works in Belgrade. He's a
|
||||
virtual unknown in the United States, despite his
|
||||
accomplishments. I'm not sure why. Some people feel it's a dark
|
||||
plot, the same people who are into conspiracy theories. I feel
|
||||
it's more that <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>, while a brilliant inventor, was also an
|
||||
awful businessman; he ended up going broke. Businessmen who go
|
||||
broke fade out of the public eye; we see this in the computer
|
||||
industry all the time. Edison, who wasn't near the inventor
|
||||
<span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> was, but who was a better businessman, is well remembered
|
||||
as is his General Electric. Still, let me list a few of Tesla's
|
||||
works just so you'll understand how bright he was. He invented
|
||||
the AC motor and transformer. (Think of every motor in your
|
||||
house.) He invented 3-phase electricity and popularized
|
||||
alternating current, the electrical distribution system used all
|
||||
over the world. He invented the <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> Coil, which makes the high
|
||||
voltage that drives the picture tube in your computer's CRT. He
|
||||
is now credited with inventing modern radio as well; the Supreme
|
||||
Court overturned Marconi's patent in 1943 in favor of <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>.</p>
|
||||
<p>
|
||||
<span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>, in short, invented much of the equipment that gets
|
||||
power to your home every day from miles away, and many that use
|
||||
that power inside your home. His inventions made George
|
||||
Westinghouse (Westinghouse Corp.) a wealthy man. Finally, the
|
||||
unit of magnetic flux in the metric system is the "tesla". Other
|
||||
units include the "faraday" and the "henry", so you'll understand
|
||||
this is an honor given to few. So we're not talking about an
|
||||
unknown here, but rather a solid electrical engineer. <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>
|
||||
whipped through a number of inventions early in his life. He
|
||||
found himself increasingly interested in resonance, and in
|
||||
particular, electrical resonance. <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> found out something
|
||||
fascinating. If you set an electrical circuit to resonating, it
|
||||
does strange things indeed. Take for instance his <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> Coil.
|
||||
This high frequency step-up transformer would kick out a few
|
||||
hundred thousand volts at radio frequencies. The voltage would
|
||||
come off the top of his coil as a "corona", or brush discharge.
|
||||
The little ones put out a six-inch spark; the big ones throw
|
||||
sparks many feet long. Yet <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> could draw the sparks to his
|
||||
fingers without being hurt -- the high frequency of the
|
||||
electricity keeps it on the surface of the skin, and prevents the
|
||||
current from doing any harm. <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> got to thinking about
|
||||
resonance on a large scale. He'd already pioneered the
|
||||
electrical distribution system we use today, and that's not small
|
||||
thinking; when you think of <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>, think big. He thought, let's
|
||||
say I send an electrical charge into the ground. What happens to
|
||||
it? Well, the ground is an excellent conductor of electricity.
|
||||
Let me spend a moment on this so you understand, because topsoil
|
||||
doesn't seem very conductive to most. The ground makes a
|
||||
wonderful sinkhole for electricity. This is why you "ground"
|
||||
power tools; the third (round) pin in every AC outlet in your
|
||||
house is wired straight to, literally, the ground. Typically,
|
||||
the handle of your power tool is hooked to ground; this way, if
|
||||
something shorts out in the tool and the handle gets electrified,
|
||||
the current ruches to the ground instead of into you. The ground
|
||||
has long been used in this manner, as a conductor. <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>
|
||||
generates a powerful pulse of electricity, and drains it into the
|
||||
ground. Because the ground is conductive, it doesn't stop.
|
||||
Rather, it spreads out like a radio wave, traveling at the speed
|
||||
of light, 186000 miles per second. And it keeps going, because
|
||||
it's a powerful wave; it doesn't peter out after a few miles. It
|
||||
passes through the iron core of the earth with little trouble.
|
||||
After all, molten iron is very conductive. When the wave reaches
|
||||
the far side of the planet, it bounces back, like a wave in water
|
||||
bounces when it reaches an obstruction. Since it bounces, it
|
||||
makes a return trip; eventually, it returns to the point of
|
||||
origin. Now, this idea might seem wild. But it isn't science
|
||||
fiction. We bounced radar beams off the moon in the 1950's, and
|
||||
we mapped Venus by radar in the 1970's. Those planets are
|
||||
millions of miles away. The earth is a mere 3000 miles in
|
||||
diameter; sending an electromagnetic wave through it is a piece
|
||||
of cake. We can sense earthquakes all the way across the planet
|
||||
by the vibrations they set up that travel all that distance. So,
|
||||
while at first thought it seems amazing, it's really pretty
|
||||
straight forward. But, as I said, it's a typical example of how
|
||||
<span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> thought. And then he had one of his typically <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> ideas.
|
||||
He thought, when the wave returns to me (about 1/30th of a second
|
||||
after he sends it in), it's going to be considerably weakened by
|
||||
the trip. Why doesn't he send in another charge at this point,
|
||||
to strengthen the wave? The two will combine, go out, and bounce
|
||||
again. And then he'll reinforce it again, and again. The wave
|
||||
will build up in power. It's like pushing a swingset. You give
|
||||
a series of small pushes each time the swing goes out. And you
|
||||
build up a lot of power with a series of small pushes; ever tried
|
||||
to stop a swing when it's going full tilt? He wanted to find out
|
||||
the upper limit of resonance. And he was in for a surprise.</p>
|
||||
<p> THE HACK: THE TESLA COIL</p>
|
||||
<p>So <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> moved into Colorado Springs, where one of his generators
|
||||
and electrical systems had been installed, and set up his lab.
|
||||
Why Colorado Springs? Well, his lab in New York had burned down,
|
||||
and he was depressed about that. And as fate would have it, a
|
||||
friend in Colorado Springs who directed the power company,
|
||||
Leonard Curtis, offered him free electricity. Who could resist
|
||||
that? After setting up his lab, he tuned his gigantic <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> coil
|
||||
through that year, trying to get it to resonate perfectly with
|
||||
the earth below. And the townspeople noticed those weird
|
||||
effects; <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> was electrifying the ground beneath their feet on
|
||||
the return bounce of the wave. Eventually, he got it tuned,
|
||||
keeping things at low power. But in the spirit of a true hacker,
|
||||
just once he decided to run it wide open, just to see what would
|
||||
happen. Just what was the upper limit of the wave he would build
|
||||
up, bouncing back and forth in the planet below? He had his Coil
|
||||
hooked to the ground below it, the 200 foot antenna above it, and
|
||||
getting as much electricity as he wanted right off the city power
|
||||
supply mains. <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> went outside to watch (wearing three inch
|
||||
rubber soles for insulation) and had his assistant, Kolman Czito,
|
||||
turn the Coil on. There was a buzz from rows of oil capacitors,
|
||||
and a roar from the spark gap as wrist-thick arcs jumped across
|
||||
it. Inside the lab the noise was deafening. But <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> was
|
||||
outside, watching the antenna. Any surge that returned to the
|
||||
area would run up the antenna and jump off as lightning. Off the
|
||||
top of the antenna shot a six foot lightning bolt. The bolt kept
|
||||
going in a steady arc, though, unlike a single lightning flash.
|
||||
And here <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> watched carefully, for he wanted to see if the
|
||||
power would build up, if his wave theory would work. Soon the
|
||||
lightning was twenty feet long, then fifty. The surges were
|
||||
growing more powerful. Eighty feet -- now thunder was following
|
||||
each lightning bolt. A hundred feet, a hundred twenty feet; the
|
||||
lightning shot upwards off the antenna. Thunder was heard
|
||||
booming around <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> now (it was heard 22 miles away, in the town
|
||||
of Cripple Creek). The meadow <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> was standing in was lit up
|
||||
with an electrical discharge very much like St. Elmo's Fire,
|
||||
casting a blue glow. His theory had worked! There didn't seem
|
||||
to be an upper limit to the surges; he was creating the most
|
||||
powerful electrical surges ever created by man. That moment he
|
||||
set the record, which he still holds, for manmade lightning. Then
|
||||
everything halted. The lightning discharges stopped, the thunder
|
||||
quit. He ran in, found the power company had turned off his
|
||||
power feed. He called them, shouted at them -- they were
|
||||
interrupting his experiment! The foreman replied that <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> had
|
||||
just overloaded the generator and set it on fire, his lads were
|
||||
busy putting out the fire in the windings, and it would be a cold
|
||||
day in hell before <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> got any more free power from the
|
||||
Colorado Springs power company!</p>
|
||||
<p> All the lights in Colorado Springs had gone out. And that,
|
||||
readers, is to me the greatest hack in history. I've seen some
|
||||
amazing hacks. The 8-bit Atari OS. The Mac OS. The phone
|
||||
company computers -- well, lots of computers. But I've never
|
||||
seen anyone set the world's lightning record and shut off the
|
||||
power to an entire town, "just to see what would happen". For a
|
||||
few moments, there in Colorado Springs, he achieved something
|
||||
never before done. He had used the entire planet as a conductor,
|
||||
and sent a pulse through it. In that one moment in the summer of
|
||||
1899, he made electrical history. That's right, in 1899 -- darn
|
||||
near a hundred years ago. Well, you may say to yourself, that's
|
||||
a nice story, and I'm sure George Lucas could make a hell of a
|
||||
move about it, special effects and all. But it's not relevant
|
||||
today. Or isn't it? Hang on to your hat.</p>
|
||||
<p> THE SDI AND THE TESLA COIL</p>
|
||||
<p> Last month we talked about an amazing hack that Nikola <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>
|
||||
did -- bouncing an electrical wave through the planet, in 1899,
|
||||
and setting the world's record for manmade lightning. This
|
||||
month,let me lay a little political groundwork. Last October I
|
||||
attended Hackercon 2.0, another gathering of computer hackers
|
||||
from all over. It was an informal weekend at a camp in the hills
|
||||
west of Santa Clara. One of the more interesting memories of
|
||||
Hackers 2.0 were the numerous diatribes against the Strategic
|
||||
Defense Initiative. Most speakers claimed it was impossible,
|
||||
citing technical problems. So many people felt obligated to
|
||||
complain about SDI that the conference was jokingly called
|
||||
"SDIcon 2.0". Probably the high(?) point of the conference was
|
||||
Jerry Pournelle and Timothy Leary up on stage debating SDI. I'll
|
||||
leave the description to your imagination -- it was everything
|
||||
you can think of and more. Personally, I was disturbed to see
|
||||
how many gifted hackers adopting the attitude of "let's not even
|
||||
try". That's not how micros got started. I mentioned to one
|
||||
Time magazine journalist that if anyone could make SDI go, it was
|
||||
the hackers gathered there. I also believe that the greatest
|
||||
hacker of them all, Nikola <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>, solved and SDI technical
|
||||
problem back in 1899. The event was so long ago, and so amazing,
|
||||
that it's pretty much been forgotten; I described it last issue.
|
||||
Let me present my case for the <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> Coil and SDI.</p>
|
||||
<p> SOVIET USE OF THE TESLA COIL</p>
|
||||
<p> You will recall I said that <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> was born in Yugoslavia
|
||||
(although back then, it was "Serbo-Croatia"). He is not unknown
|
||||
there; he is regarded as a national hero. Witness the Nikola
|
||||
<span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> museum in Belgrade, for instance. There's been
|
||||
interferences picked up, on this side of the planet, which is
|
||||
causing problems in the ham radio bands. Direction finding
|
||||
equipment has traced the interference in the SW band to two
|
||||
sources in the Soviet Union, which are apparently two high
|
||||
powered <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> Coils. Why on earth are the Soviets playing with
|
||||
<span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> Coils? There's one odd theory that they're subjecting
|
||||
<span class="GPE">Canada</span> to low level electrical interference to cause attitude
|
||||
change. Sigh. Moving right along, there's another theory, more
|
||||
credible, that they are conducting research in "over the horizon"
|
||||
radar using Tesla's ideas. (The Soviets are certainly not saying
|
||||
what they're doing.) When I read about this testing, it worried
|
||||
me. I don't think they're playing with attitude control or
|
||||
radar. I think they're doing exactly what <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> did in Colorado
|
||||
Springs.</p>
|
||||
<p> COMPUTERS AND GROUNDING</p>
|
||||
<p> Time for another discussion of grounding. Consider your
|
||||
computer equipment. You've doubtlessly been warned about static
|
||||
electricity, always been told to ground yourself (thus
|
||||
discharging the static into the ground, an electrical sinkhole)
|
||||
before touching your computer. Companies make anti-static spray
|
||||
for your rugs. Static is in the 20000 to 50000 volt range.
|
||||
Computer chips run on five to twelve volts. The internal
|
||||
insulation is built for that much voltage. When they get a shot
|
||||
of static in the multiple thousand volt range, the insulation is
|
||||
punctured, and the chip ruined. Countless computers have been
|
||||
damaged this way. Read any manual on inserting memory chips to a
|
||||
PC, and you'll see warnings about static; it's a big problem.
|
||||
Now <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> was working in the millions of volts range. And his
|
||||
special idea -- that the ground itself could be the conductor --
|
||||
now comes into relevance, nearly a hundred years after his
|
||||
dramatic demonstration in Colorado Springs. For, you see, in our
|
||||
wisdom we've grounded our many computers, to protect them from
|
||||
static. We've always assumed the ground is an electrical
|
||||
sinkhole. So, with our three-pin plugs we ground everything --
|
||||
the two flat pins in your wall go to electricity (hot and
|
||||
neutral); the third, round pin, goes straight to ground. That
|
||||
third pin is usually hooked with a thick wire to a cold water
|
||||
pipe, which grounds it effectively. <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> proved that you can
|
||||
give that ground a terrific charge, millions of volts of high
|
||||
frequency electricity. (<span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> ran his large coil at 33 Khz).
|
||||
Remember, the lightning surging off his Coil was coming from the
|
||||
wave bouncing back and forth in the planet below. In short, he
|
||||
was modifying the ground's electrical potential, changing it from
|
||||
an electrical sinkhole to an electrical source. <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> did his
|
||||
experiment in 1899. There weren't any home computers with
|
||||
delicate chips hooked up to grounds then. If there had been,
|
||||
he'd have fried everything in Colorado Springs. There was,
|
||||
however, one piece of electrical equipment grounded at the time
|
||||
of the experiment, the city power generator. It caught fire and
|
||||
ended Tesla's experiment. The cause of its failure is
|
||||
interesting as well. It died from "high frequency kickback",
|
||||
something most electrical engineers know about. <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> forgot
|
||||
that as the generator fed him power, he was feeding it high
|
||||
frequency from his Coil. High frequency quickly heats
|
||||
insulation; a microwave oven works on the same principle. In a
|
||||
few minutes, the insulation inside that generator grew so hot
|
||||
that the generator caught fire. When the lights went out all over
|
||||
Colorado Springs, there was the first proof that Tesla's idea has
|
||||
strategic possibilities. It gets scarier. Imagine Tesla's Coil,
|
||||
busily pumping an electrical wave in the Earth. On his side of
|
||||
the planet, he was getting 130 foot sparks, which is a hell of a
|
||||
lot of voltage and current. And simple wave theory will show you
|
||||
that those sort of potentials exist on the far side of the planet
|
||||
as well. Remember, the wave was bouncing back and forth, being
|
||||
reinforced on every trip. The big question is how focused the
|
||||
opposite electrical pole will be. No one knows. But it seems
|
||||
probable that the far side of the planet's ground target area
|
||||
could be subjected to considerable electrical interference. And
|
||||
if computer equipment is plugged inot that ground, faithfully
|
||||
assuming the ground will never be a source of electricity, it's
|
||||
just too bad for that equipment. This sort of electrical
|
||||
interference makes static look tiny by comparison. It doesn't
|
||||
take much difference in ground potential to kill a computer
|
||||
connected across it. Lightning strikes cause a temporary flare
|
||||
in ground voltage; I remember replacing driver chips on a network
|
||||
on all computers that had been caught by one lightning strike,
|
||||
when I lived in Austin. Imagine the effect on relatively delicate
|
||||
electronics if someone fires up a <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> Coil on the far side of
|
||||
the planet, and subjects the grounds to steep electrical swings.
|
||||
The military applications are pretty obvious -- those ICBM's in
|
||||
<span class="PERSON">North</span> Dakota, for instance. It's possible they could be damaged
|
||||
in their silos, and from thousands of miles away. Running two or
|
||||
more Coils, you don't have to bee exactly on the far side of the
|
||||
planet, either. Interference effects can give you high points
|
||||
where you need with varied tunings. Maybe, just maybe, the
|
||||
Soviets aren't doing "over the horizon" radar. Maybe they just
|
||||
bothered to read Tesla's notes. And maybe they are tuning up a
|
||||
real big surprise with their twin Coils.</p>
|
||||
<p> "STAR WARS" AND THE TESLA COIL</p>
|
||||
<p> You've heard of the Strategic Defense Initiative, or "Star
|
||||
Wars". We're searching for a way to stop a nuclear attack.
|
||||
Right now, we've got all sorts of high powered research projects,
|
||||
with the emphasis on "new technology". Excimer laser, kinetic
|
||||
kill techniques, and even more exotic ideas. As any of you know
|
||||
that have written computer programs, it's darned hard to get
|
||||
something "new" to work. Maybe it's an error to focus on "new"
|
||||
exclusively. Wouldn't it be something if the solution to SDI
|
||||
lies a hundred years ago, in the forgotten brilliance of Nikola
|
||||
<span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>? For right now we can immobilize the electronics of
|
||||
installations half a planet away. The technology to do it was
|
||||
achieved in 1899, and promptly forgotten. Remember, we're not
|
||||
talking vague, unproven theories here. We're talking the world's
|
||||
record for lightning, and the inventor whose power system lights
|
||||
up your house at night.</p>
|
||||
<p> THE TESLA COIL WORKS.
|
||||
|
||||
All we'd have to do is build it. You might not believe the
|
||||
story about <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> in Colorado Springs, and what he did. It's
|
||||
pretty amazing. It has a way of being forgotten because of that.
|
||||
And I'm not sure you want to hear about the SDI connection.
|
||||
Still, as you work on a computer, remember <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span>. His <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> Coil
|
||||
supplies the high voltage for the picture tube you use. The
|
||||
electricity for your computer comes from a <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> design AC
|
||||
generator, is sent through a <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> transformer, and gets to your
|
||||
house through 3-phase <span class="PERSON">Tesla</span> power. Tesla's inventions... they
|
||||
have a way of working..
|
||||
</p>
|
||||
</body>
|
||||
</html>
|
Loading…
Add table
Add a link
Reference in a new issue