Nikola Tesla's Ideas - Autobiography Insight

[iVenky]

Summary:: Based on his Autobiography

I was reading Nikola Tesla's ideas. He thought of deriving power from the rotational energy of terrestrial bodies. Are you aware of that? He says, " I had discovered that objects on the Earth's surface, owing to the diurnal rotation of the globe, are carried by the same alternately in and against the direction of translatory movement. From this results a great change in momentum which could be utilized in the simplest imaginable manner to furnish motive effort in any habitable region of the word." I don't get what he means

source: google books

 

[sophiecentaur]

Summary:: Based on his Autobiography

I don't get what he means

And neither do I.
There is a lot of energy available due to the ocean tides - which is the only thing he can mean but he is just using terms (just like a typical soothsayer or fortune teller) that can be interpreted any way we like looking back from his future.
Why do people take him so seriously? He had a lot of whacky ideas and a few working systems.That' a;;

 

[berkeman]

Summary:: Based on his Autobiography

He thought of deriving power from the rotational energy of terrestrial bodies. Are you aware of that?

I had the same idea long ago -- basically a large windmill-like structure to transfer angular momentum from the rotation of the Earth to the "windmill". I tilted at that idea for a little while, and then, well, you know...

 

[hutchphd]

In defense of Tesla I will provide my favorite quote from Linus Pauling (also an occasional purveyor of some whacky notions):

Q... Dr Pauling how is it that you have so many good ideas?
A... "Well I have a lot of ideas and I throw away the bad ones"

Hindsight is a little unfair to Tesla because of rapid adoption of the technology some of his ideas now seem to us so obviously whacky. Less so when they were put forward.
That being said Nicola Tesla was apparently a pretty strange dude.
But Sir Isaac apparently fits that mold also.

 

[sophiecentaur]

In defense of Tesla I will provide my favorite quote from Linus Pauling (also an occasional purveyor of some whacky notions):

Q... Dr Pauling how is it that you have so many good ideas?
A... "Well I have a lot of ideas and I throw away the bad ones"

Hindsight is a little unfair to Tesla because of rapid adoption of the technology some of his ideas now seem to us so obviously whacky. Less so when they were put forward.
That being said Nicola Tesla was apparently a pretty strange dude.
But Sir Isaac apparently fits that mold also.

You are right about hindsight and about the rapid advances of technology at his time. He was prepared to have a go with most of his ideas, unlike more 'sensible' contemporaries. He was spread too thin for the necessary 99% perspiration that's usually needed for success.
However, to be honest, my main problem is with his present day fans, rather than with him. Too many people mix up fact and Hollywood fiction, which has given his post mortem career a fantastic boost.

Newton was a lot more workmanlike, I think but, as with Tesla, it is his version of ideas that stays with us today.

 

[gmax137]

I was under the impression that the poly phase AC concept, and the motors and generators that go along with that, were Tesla inventions. Maybe that's not true, I don't know. But those were very important ideas that still are used world wide, and whoever came up with that stuff should be remembered for it. Much more important than the "wacky" Wardenclyff stuff.

I think Tesla's present day fandom is due in large part to the circumstances of his later life. Dying a penniless and forgotten genius is sure to attract fans. If he had died peacefully as a rich old man his crazy ideas wouldn't be remembered.

 

[sophiecentaur]

I think Tesla's present day fandom is due in large part to the circumstances of his later life. Dying a penniless and forgotten genius is sure to attract fans. If he had died peacefully as a rich old man his crazy ideas wouldn't be remembered.

Absolutely. Now he is a legend (furthermore, played by David Bowie in a film!) he will never die.

 

[iVenky]

I had the same idea long ago -- basically a large windmill-like structure to transfer angular momentum from the rotation of the Earth to the "windmill". I tilted at that idea for a little while, and then, well, you know...

I don't get, isn't the windmill moving with the earth? how are you transferring the angular mometum?