Engineering Forum: Articles and discussions by participants of the Edison Tech Center

Debunking the Tesla Myth:

I n today's world of infotainment, web pages and documentaries have popped up proclaiming Nikola (Nicola) Tesla of being the inventor of practically everything. The more sites that pop up, the more reinforced false facts become. This is wrong because it denies respect for the true inventors of the technology, as well as over-simplifies history. If you love Tesla, prepare to get seriously upset as you realize you've been led on by mainstream media. The truth hurts but I hope your inspired to get deeper into the real history of this amazing era of early electricity. Nikola Tesla: dreamer, showman, NYC socialite and vain douchebag. His metaphysical speeches and grand demonstrations captivated the newspapers and wealthy but his actual contributions to engineering are limited. His narcissistic behavior leads him to not credit his assistants or co-workers for helping. He even fails to thank people on his "side" like Ben Lamme and Shallenberger at Westinghouse who took his useless induction motor prototype and redesigned it into something worth talking about (and selling). Didn't your mother tell you not to believe everything you read on the internet? So before you go back to the Tesla mania pages we suggest you go to a library and dig up some facts from books and patent applications, just as real historians have.

Tesla's position as the god of pop science and fantasy is not just the product of the internet. As it turns out Tesla lived in Manhattan and was always ready to give newspapers his opinion on matters. Whereas other inventors and engineers were busy working in far away places like Pittsburgh and Schenectady (actually getting work done). Tesla loved to talk and dine with New York's elite. He used his position in the heart of mainstream media at NYC and worked, and still works well for him. The press were recently inspired by the the huge changes Thomas Edison had made for the world and everyone was looking to find the next inventor-god to give us hope, Tesla was one of the people they glorified. Oddly enough this eloquent speaking "blowhard" continues to dazzle audiences 130 years later despite modern science and math which shows he was wrong about much of what he said, and most engineers and scientists of the day were disappointed that he did not achieve the exciting ideas he spoke about. Lets look at the myths that media has created over the years below.



This three phase generator and system by Dobrovolsky conclusively ended the War of Currents 1891.

Myth 1:

First there was a hand-cranked AC generator developed by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832. Single phase AC power was being used more in Europe by many inventors in the early 1880s. As early as the late 1870's Germany had developed a crude 2 phase AC generator. Galileo Ferraris, a scientist in Italy started talking openly about polyphase AC in 1885, one year later Tesla approached investors with his version of an AC system but did not succeed in generating interest. Ferraris also inspired Thomson at Thomson-Houston and engineers at Westinghouse to investigate the system however there was little confidence among investors in AC power at the time.

From a world perspective there were many people working on AC systems over the next few years. August Haselwander and C.S. Bradley(a former Edison employee) created the first 3 phase AC generators(1887). Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky built the first full 3 phase AC generation and distribution system in the 1888-1891 period. Tesla to his credit was able to inspire Westinghouse to jump into AC, but very quickly Tesla's two-phase system was made obsolete by three phase systems which could more efficiently send power farther. The fact is that like today there are many people working on cutting edge technology and if Tesla had not gotten Westinghouse's attention in 1888, Westinghouse would have bought patents from others. Thomson was close to innovation on the AC system as well, and the world would be no different without Tesla, it may have just taken another year for polyphase to get adopted by Westinghouse or Elihu Thomson's company.





Myth 2:

The Ganz company in Budapest was the first to create and use transformers in AC systems in the late 1870s. Tesla was still in school then and hadn't even began his first job in the field of telephony. His first job was in Budapest in 1880, this is where he possibly observed/stole ideas, and was convinced by the Hungarians that AC was viable and worth pursuing while the West was still 5 years behind.

William Stanley invented the first modern transformer in 1885. His design was based on the Gaulard and Gibbs design. Gaulard had used his transformer in the 1884 Lanzo to Turin AC power demonstration. Also credit goes to the Z.B.D Transformer in Hungary The Z.B.D. Transformer proved to be extremely inefficient and problematic so Stanley designed his own. This is backed up by information at the Smithsonian and IEEE. The Edison Tech Center has published a lot of material on William Stanley sourcing from the Great Barrington Historical Society, the Berkshire Museum and historian Tom Blalock. It was in 1885 that Tesla actually joined the minority of inventors working with AC in trying to pitch his system. There is no proof that Tesla had any mature AC systems designed and ready before then. (Tesla claims to have envisioned his own full AC system in 1882 but there are no written documents of any kind to prove this)

Károly Zipernowsky, Miksa Déri and Ottó Bláthy invented the first transformer. William Stanley perfected the transformer in monocyclic and 3 phase AC systems. Tesla and his Westinghouse co-worker Oliver Shallenberger developed the transformer to work work with his 2 phase AC systems. Due to Tesla's egomania you will never hear him thank Shallenberger or cohorts. It was clear he was not a team player and it is no surprise Westinghouse didn't want him around for long. His technical contributions were appreciated and Tesla was generously paid by Westinghouse for his work. Shallenberger and others at Westinghouse benefited from Steinmetz's mathematics and were able to create a 3 phase system later on to replace Tesla's system.

Myth 3:

Absolutely false...

Induction was discovered by Michael Faraday, and the induction coil was invented by Nicholas Callan in 1836, long before Tesla was born.

Myth 4:

The loudspeaker as we know it was invented by C.W. Rice and Edward Kellogg with a working prototype in 1921, and patent in 1925. Decades before this final success, Werner Von Siemens had toyed with the idea of a magnetically controlled speaker while Tesla was in grade school.

Myth 5:

This one is a real can of worms, radar was made possible due to the work of Christian Hulsmeyer (German)1903, Lee De Forest 1918, Edwin Armstrong 1918, Ernst Alexanderson, Marconi, Albert Hull, Edward Victor Appleton, and Russians who developed a radar system to detect German planes in 1934. Sir Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated the first HF radar system in 1935 which operated at 6 MHz and had a range of 8 miles. There are many books on this subject.

Myth 6:

Alexandre E. Becquerel first examined the phenomena of fluorescence in 1857. Some say Edison invented the lamps. Others say George Inman developed the modern fluorescent lamp in 1934. It is tough to say who was first since there was a legal dispute. There is a possibility that the German Edmund Germer preceded both of them. Many people worked on the concept, Inman deserve the credit for building the first successful and practical design. Even if Tesla had played with the theories, he was not alone at any time, and didn't do squat compared to others who had actually worked out the difficulties into a real working product. Daniel McFarlan Moore developed the Moore Tube which was the first commercial ancestor of the fluorescent lamp.