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