Electrical Consulting Engineer

In fact one of my Serbian Friends even goes as far to say that he is the father of AC ,most tie him to I.Motors only.He should be given the credit due him.

People like us can create a foundation for him to be recognised by actually visiting his birth place and putting together his efforts and achievements.

Please keep pressing.

I have read two biographies. One was MAN OUT OF TIME BY MARGARET CHENEY and one was TESLA by Tad Wise. The latter one calls him the world's greatest inventor. Most people assoiate him with the Tesla Coil but it is only a fraction of what he accomplished. I am still unsure of how he decided on 60 hertz as the standard for a.c. circuits.

In some ways Tesla was controversial but he always seemed to have backup for almost everything he ideated. There may be a better solution than a.c. but no one has yet come up with a better idea.

Perhaps we should pursue the idea of honoring Tesla in a way that no other individual has been honored in the electrical engineering field.

We live in a world dominated by profit and gain as motivational ideals, however unfortunate you may think that is. Mr. Tesla, although technically brilliant, was woefully lacking in "business sense" when it came to those ideals. He was assuming that his accomplishments would, by shear force of value to society, bring him recognition and fame. But unfortunately, that is not how we as a society function. Westinghouse, his financial backer for the most part, gets far more credit than he is due from a technical standpoint, but he was far better at promoting himself than Tesla was. People went into their kitchens and laundry areas every day and saw the name Westinghouse; they had no idea that the AC motor in their fridge and washer AND the fact that electricity was cheaply available in their house were the results of Tesla's work. Tesla, the poster boy for sharing the wealth, would have just as well seen everything gven away for free. His Wardencliff experiment was to be his crowning glory in that regard, one that bothered his new financial backers (namely the banker J. P. Morgan) greatly

The main thing Tesla was remembered as by the people of his generation, was being a "mad scientist". I once asked my Grandmother if she knew of him, that is what she remembered from magazine articles she had read. In fact, if you watch old serial movies from his time, where there are crazy scientists inventing wildly good or evil machines, they often are depicted as tall, thin dark haired men with east European accents (think about Dr. Zarkov from the Buck Rogers movies). Most of them were patterned after Tesla. The fact that Tesla suffered from OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) did nothing to counter those stereotypes.

I happen to agree that Tesla was "cheated" out of his fame and fortune, but I also think that was mostly of his own doing.

W.E. Herring P.E. Tesla did not pick 60 C.P.S. his first generators powered by water were 25 C.P.S. or Hertz. this low frequency could run the D.C. traction motors used in early electric trains & could be transformed to send power greater distance then D.C. transmission. i think that the 25 HZ was available to the 1950's, if you look at an old universal motor the name plate said 110 VOLTS d.c. OR 25 50-60 CPS perry

A paragraph from Margaret Cheney's book, Tesla -Man Out of Time on page 65 states "As might have been anticipated with a completely new system, difficulties lay ahead. The 133-cycle system then used by Westinghouse was wrong for Tesla's induction motor, which was built to 60 cycles. When he so informed the engineers, he succeeded in rubbing them the wrong way and only after months of futile and costly experiments doing it their way did they finally accept his word. Once they had done so the motor worked exactly as it had been designed to do. Sixty cycles has ever since been the standard for alternating current." This occured circa 1890 so I feel confident Tesla established the 60 hertz as the standard for a large part of the U.S., although 50 hertz is in operation in some areas. W.E. Herring, P.E.

am i to understand that the 25 c.p.s system could be used to power the mai engine on the lionel type model rail road engines?

if that is the case i really must say thank you for that information. you see 50 years ago i was blamed for burning out a neighbours electric train sets motors. the neighbour had several large and small ones which he paraded through the district to show the kids like me who had nothing just how much he and his brother were always getting given to them by thier family.

after the hose we lived in was reconverted to run on 60 c.p.s donny brought one of the biggfer sets over to show off, immediately after it was plugged in the transformer started to smoke and one of the mainegines caught fire, the new hardwood flooring was scorched.

after the set was removed my father took a stripp of the hardwood flooring to me and left my back and butt in welts for causing the fire.

i had no idea what was done was not my fault. thank you for letting me get rid of another nightmare.

'da ber

It is a very good idea to know electrical systems and equipment to be used on each system. There are sound reasons for using various systems. The 400 hertz systems used on aircraft reduces the weight of the equipment on the plane. Makes sense doesn't it?

I have a book thatfurther elucidates Tesla- The Man Who Invented The 20th Century, by Robert Lomas- there are no doubts that tesla was a genius, 50 years ahead of his time, invented radio, invented polyphase ac motors, & had 100,s of patents- he was taken advantage of by unscrupulous businessmen- whereas he wanted free wireless transmission of power(and was on the way to deliver)- his backer didn't!.

Thanks for informing me of the book by Robert Lomas. Yes, you are right about so many people taking advantage of his knowledge for free. If George Westinghouse had paid him for his patents at the agreed price it would have bankrupt Westinghouse as I have discovered from several sources. Sources do not agree on how much per horsepower of electricity sold Mr. Tesla was to receive, anywhere from $1 to $2.50. Either of the two amounts would have been more than Westinghouse could pay and remain solvent. Mr. Tesla's main concern was how to have enough income to keep his experiments going full blast. Genius - yes, business man - no. W.E.H, P.E.