Familiarity of This Man?

Well at least you are slightly aware of Nicola Tesla.

But I wouldn't say that I'm familiar with him. He was dead before I was born. So I never met him.

Bill,

Tesla was one of the most important inventors we've seen yet. Her are just a few of his accomplishments. A/C current, poly phase induction motor. Gas filled lamps (fluorescent etc.) He harnessed the power of Niagra Falls for electrical generation and transmission. He was the father of the radio and radio controlled devices. He died alone and broke.

Hope this helps you. If you have a Kindle you can get a few of his books on his life, inventions and experiments free at Amazon. The man was a true genius.

Never 'eared of 'im. <sniff>.

Don't you wipe your nose in your tail! Hurrumph!

Everyone on this website is familiar with Tesla and his greatness. He was a genuine genius.

But remember he was also a bit unstable and a great showman (like his contemporary Edison), so you have to take a lot of what he said with a grain of salt. He made many outlandish, unproven and ultimately debunked claims as he spruked his latest project or tried to raise funds.

Now with more knowledge of the basic science involved we can better assess his claims, so stay away from the illiterates who continue to claim his great ideas have been "lost" or suppressed.

Thank you for providing my new word of the day: Spruke = promote

There is a little bit on Wiki on him.

If you follow the 'technical' words [linked in blue], there is often a little bit more.

And a little bit more at the foot at "See also"

And usually a little bit more at the foot of those pages.

Good luck Bill & enjoy

Thank you.

PS: I am now building a Tesla COIL with 1/4 million volts (equivalent) output.

In resonse to wshll6 Do not fire it up in a garage or where it may be in close proximity to lighting or other electrical components. One of my coworkers knew I followed Tesla's works and invited me to see his coil operated. The flash from his light fixtures was brighter than the arcs from the coil, but not as pretty. He fried many an electronic instrument in it's failure. Didn't even have surge suppressors to protect anything.

I noticed when you reply to specific posts, it sticks you at the end of the list anyway.

Perhaps even more significant: Charles P. Steinmetz.

(But he wasn't a publicity hound or great wealth-seeker.)

This reminds me of three electrical company vans I've seen:
1. Some yellow lightning zaps on red, and a slogan, "Can't find your shorts? Call us!"
2. A hand-drawn cartoon of Benjamin Franklin and his kite, also with a lightning zap.
3. A sine wave on a graph-paper-like grid.

Which would you choose?

Steinmetz was certainly one of the pioneering titans of electric power (I have an autographed picture of him and Edison) but to parse the difference, there is no scientific unit of a Steinmetz. Lets not forget that Tesla admitted that he took a lot of his promotional showmanship from an earlier generation's legendary showman, Phineas T. Barnum.

Here is a picture for the nostalgic....

Einstein, Tesla and Steinmetz
visiting the RCA transoceanic
station at New Brunswick, N.J.
in 1921.
Reference #3, Cheney, 1981.

I've made a few tesla inspired ideas in the last few years...

Here is my own photoshopped nostalgia. (6 images in here blended together) this is a fullscreen wallpaper if anyone wants.. im me your email

my tesla jet engine idea.

a 'rotary wing'

changing the pressure profile in the tesla turbine...

winning!

What is the best way to convert uH to DC voltage?

Thanks,

Bill

It is hard for many Engineers (and I am one although not an EE) to admit that we don't know everything about our specific field. The fact of the matter is, we can't PROVE anything about what we "know" about electricity. For that reason it is called electrical THEORY. What we CAN do is observe and repeat what we believe will happen. When it becomes repeatable, we establish mathematical means to describe what we can repeat. Newton was a master of this. Your question implies you want to believe something you have read regarding Tesla. Something that does not currently exist in practice cannot be proven wrong. I will therefore take my turbulent flow calculations and go home.

Try <Alt+230> µ

Does this help http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck%E2%80%93boost_converter ?

Buck Converters are used primarily in cell phones. They do not "convert" mH into DC voltage. They are DC to DC converters that can either boost or reduce voltage and wattage IS conserved.

To my knowledge the acronym of uH is for micro henry, a unit of induction. Now one uses inductors all the time to make a DC voltage but one cannot make a DC voltage from a micro henry. They are incompatible units.

An EE told me that my Tesla coil's output(electromagnetic)

was shown in mH.

Correct? or was he JERKING me around?

Correct? or was he JERKING me around?

Correct answer is?

Thanks

Bill

Volts for the voltage and amperes (amps) for the current.

Tesla for magnetic field strength.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SI_derived_unit.

Bill,

I think that you are joking but I will give you a simple answer as this question could come from someones who doesn't understand the basic concepts.

The voltage obtained when subjecting an inductance to a current variation depends on the inductance value and the rate of change of the current(v = L di/dt). The same principle applies to AC and DC current. Now, if you want to go down to the magnetic field theory in all of its details, there are good books about the effects. Deeper you will find quantum mechanics and then things become very blurry...

I assume that you are referring to a Tesla coil. Unfortunately, many of the experimenters presenting on You tube think that there is a magic relation between the number of turns and the voltage you get on the HV side. The relation is not magic but is complex. Most don't realize the dangers they face when they play with these coils.

I design and build power electronics switchers going into the MW as my profession. For me, a Tesla coil is an interesting high voltage generator that uses the same principles as modern switchers. There is no magic in there. It is all about insulation, coupling, ionization, L di/dt and the switches to produce them.

I am amazed by Mr. Tesla advanced ideas and results he got in his time. He basically invented electrical power conversion. He has done marvels with the material and knowledges of the time. You must realize that what he did that has practical application is routinely exceeded in performances in todays products.

It only took us about 50-70 years to catch up...

MARCOT

Thank you for replying, Not a joke. Tesla COIL

Most EE I am dealing with do NOT know mH/uH and my question about

converting my INPUT of 489.6 mH to DC and it's Voltage.

Would you advise or direct me?

Thank,

Bill

If you mean that your input coil (or primary in a loosely coupled transformer configuration) has ~490uH (the fractional part doesn't matter as the exact value will depend on what material is nearby and how rigid is the assembly).

You can calculate the stored energy that can be released in each pulse knowing the current with Energy (J) = I*I*L/2. The larger the coil, the higher the energy. That is why Tesla was building bigger and bigger units.

You could calculate the generated voltage if you knew the di/dt but this is very difficult if you are using a mechanical contactor. An IGBT or MOSFET switch is easier control but usually operate at lower breakdown voltage. In most case you will want to maximizes the dv/dt. This means that the voltage generated by the coil will most likely depends on the switch breakdown voltage, insulation breakdown value, and the distributed parasitic capacitance.

In a perfect design without breakdown constraints, the peak voltage will be limited by the parasitic capacitance when all the coil's energy has been transfered. Energy = V*V*C/2. Minimize the parasitic capacitance to maximizes the peak voltage and the resonance frequency. But as these go up, the breakdown will start to show up with either partial discharges from ionization near the conductors or total breakdown in arcing.

The fabrication of this type of equipment is usually a series on improvement to a sections that then lead to the failing on another etc... Eventually, you reach an efficiency high enough to produce nice sparks and impress the friends (hopefully without hurting anybody) or you burn a major component and stop spending time and money on it.

Please note that generating high frequencies and high voltage is extremely dangerous and can induce destructive voltage in neighboring conductors. Your computer, radio, TV, cell phone, girl friend... might not be very happy near your coil. The production of UV, X-rays, RF, and ozone is also an insidious danger that might not be perceived but is likely to have conducted to Tesla's demise.

There is a lot more science and techniques to it. People who have actually built these coils will have practical tricks to optimize the above parameters. Good luck. Play safe!

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About 55 years ago I heard about a man (I can't remember if his name was mentioned) and the wonderful idea of transmitting electricity (to power a bus or a train) in a set of books labeled - Standard University published in 1935 in GB

As I had a crystal set there were no reason why I would not believe it.

We had relatives staying about next to the radio transmitter station. On the next visit to them I took along a 4' florescent tube to show them how to sole their lack of grid electricity problem.

The tube did barely glow. A candle gave much much much more light.

The next day I paid a visit to the transmitter room and the man showed me that a tube did shine if held next to the output of the transmitter.

My conclusion was - The world is mad.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=CR4+globalspec+%22Nikola+Tesla%22

...is this a trick question?!? How could any engineer NOT be aware of Tesla?