David Hatcher: Nikola Tesla On Free Energy And Wireless Transmission Of Power - Book Report/Review Example

The Tesla Papers: Nikola Tesla on free energy & wireless transmission of power by David H. Childress: A Review Nicola Tesla developed some of the most wondrous inventions of the 20th century, helping to revolutionize the world through light and spark. It was Edison that created the light bulb, but it was Tesla who created the safe but powerful energy with which to keep it lit. Tesla found a way to create electricity that could flow through everything that is currently plugged in, dialed up, or now revved up in hybrid engines by harnessing the power of AC current. Yet, he died penniless and living alone in a hotel room, half mad with the plague that was his genius as his inventions had been taken from him and made profitable for others even as some of his works were used to promote the very thing he had wanted to end, which was war. Nicolai Tesla had determined that science was the answer to creating a world without war, but in the end it was the corruption of his era that was the most destructive force to him and to his work. David Hatcher Childress (2000) compiled papers and writings by Nicola Tesla that show that the man was ahead of his time, predicting many of the uses of his inventions that would eventually be part of the mainstream. Edison fought against his AC current to the point of creating a circus of horrors that he used to try to propagandize away the idea, yet the common form of current used is Tesla’s alternate current. Tesla invented the radio before Marconi and won in court the right to the patent and claim, yet history still remembers Marconi over Tesla as its inventor. Tesla discovered how to transmit energy wirelessly, transmitting sound and images long before it was used commercially. He discovered the basis of microwave energy as well as the electric igniter for gasoline engines. Yet the name of Tesla is not on the lips of most school age children when discussing the inventors of the past. Tesla was actively erased from history, his work taken from him and his genius largely ignored. J. P. Morgan and Thomas Edison created a campaign to discredit the ideas of Tesla. Childress (2000) that Edison “was a thief, employing all kinds of people for their brains, he stole their inventions, their ideas, so much so, that it is unclear today what Edison actually invented, and what was stolen for others” (p. 16). The proof that Childress (2000) presents to support his condemnation of Edison is that in order to fight Tesla after he left him to pursue the AC form of electricity delivery, Edison went out on the road to give demonstrations of its danger by electrocuting everything from puppies to elephants. In addition, he helped to develop the electric chair form of execution with the intention of discrediting the power of AC as too strong in comparison to Edison’s preferred delivery through direct current, or DC. The electric chair, however, was assigned to Edison by the public and its use horrified them without associating it to the name of Tesla. Tesla, on the other hand, used his AC current to power the World’s Fair in 1899 which proved to the world that not only was his current safe, it was powerful and dependable (Tesla & Childress, 2000). His first foray into showing the world the safety of his current was at the World’s Fair in Chicago in 1883 where he held a light bulb in one hand and a live electrical current in the other, lighting the bulb as the current was transferred through his body (Landrum, 2005). The marvels that Tesla had to show the world were more important to him than any other aspect of inventing, which included monetary payment for what he had to give the world. On the other hand, he clearly needed to prove that the engineering feats he could accomplish were not only stable but worthy of public use. Childress (2000) writes a compelling argument for the genius of Tesla, showing the abuses of power by others to have stripped him of not only financial reward, but of historical credit. In his association with George Westinghouse without whom most of his work would have died in obscurity, Tesla was able to sell 19 patents to him so that Westinghouse could further explore his work. O’Neill (2007) expands upon the relationship that Tesla had with Westinghouse. Westinghouse worked diligently to exploit the patents that Tesla had sold to him, but the depression of the 1930s took its toll on Westinghouse’s business, In the end, Westinghouse was forced into going back on the deal he had made with Tesla which cost Tesla the 1.00 per horsepower per item manufactured that had been a part of the agreement. While Childress demonizes both Edison and J. P. Morgan for their tactics, he neglects to mention that Westinghouse too, even though he was a high supporter of Tesla, betrayed him financially in the end. Part of the problem with writing about Tesla is that he is a bit of an enigma in the history of industrialization. O’Neil (2007) writes explicitly about the way in which Tesla’s mind works, his photographic memory working with the power to imagine an invention to its finest detail all in what is repeatedly described in literature about Tesla as a blinding flash through which he would see the entire idea completed (O’Neil, 2006: Landrum, 2005: Tesla & Childress, 2000). An engine search about Tesla brings up a series of mystical and mythical based literature in which he is associated with everything from alien landings to the lost continent of Atlantis. Serious inquiry into Tesla is difficult with searches in scholarly databases very limited for information. The claim by Childress (2000) about his being eradicated from the science books does not seem to be as far reaching as it might be thought. Although it sounds like conspiracy theory, the evidence appears to support the idea. To further complicate the problem of Tesla in history is the loss of his laboratory the day after he died. Childress (2000) writes that Tesla’s laboratory burned to the ground and was bulldozed over, all of his papers and inventions that were stored and yet not revealed to the public lost and forgotten. This kind of erasure of someone’s work speaks to the threat that was felt by the great industrialists of the early 20th century, indicating that Tesla’s idea about mankind and energy was not in line with the push for high profit that was at the center of building at that time, and since that time. This is the fodder of conspiracy theory accept that it may not be just theory. Tesla is barely acknowledged in history, yet he may have been the single finest mind of the 20th century, excelling in electrical engineering and physics on a scale that is hard to imagine and describe because of all of the losses that followed his work. The single problem with Nicola Tesla is that he had an idea about providing energy for people for free. As radically different as it sounds against the capitalist system under which the American economy works, Tesla had ideas about how to improve society and he though it should be done for free, providing the world with the benefit of his invention. Tesla writes in his paper titled The Problem of Increasing Human Energy: with Special Reference to the Harnessing of the Sun that there are three ways in which to increase human based energy: food, peace, and work. His philosophical discussion about the increase human mass in order to create greater human energy preludes his discussion of the need for iron as one of the most important elements in the progress of science and towards the benefit of human kind. His intension was that electricity could be transmitted wirelessly, an invention that would freely distribute electrical power to the people (Childress, 2000). Adachi (2001) contradicts the timing of the loss of Tesla’s laboratory. According to his information the lab was burnt down after a meeting with J. P. Morgan in which Morgan had sought to make Tesla financially dependent upon him and Tesla had turned him down. Tesla had developed radiant energy which was how he was going to provide the world with free energy. The myth is that Morgan refused to fund a project with no profit and felt that it was a threat to his energy empire. After trying to get Tesla under his control, the fire cost Tesla enough that he had to accept Morgan’s ‘philanthropy’ to rebuild his laboratory while Morgan undermined him by blacklisting him with all other investors. Morgan eventually pulled his funding, leaving Tesla with a tower that he had to turn over to pay his debt and watch it dismantled for parts. This discrepancy in the history of Tesla is a part of the mysticism with which history is sometimes built. The power that Morgan had over the culture at the time was enough to not only dampen the potential that Tesla had for helping human kind, but to take him out of the history to the point that most of what Tesla created is still remembered as being discovered by other people. In examining the way in which Morgan handled his part in Tesla’s history there is no doubt that he was nothing more than a bully who wanted Tesla out of his playground. Had Tesla succeeded in refining his theories on radiant energy, a resource for not only free, but clean energy would have been possible. Childress (2000) discusses the ideas with reserved enthusiasm. No one has been able to accomplish what was theorized by Tesla, but at the same time, there is very little encouragement for energy that is free and beyond the control of what Childress (2000) discusses to be those who control both commerce and war. The basis for radiant energy is through capturing the power of both the sun and “other sources of radiant energy, like cosmic rays” as was written on his patent of 1901. The patent discusses how it works through describing a device which builds electrical energy between the source and a plate, with the ground being minus and the plate being plus. The accumulation of energy is then dispersed for functional purposes. The overall intention of the device was to use energy rays that are produced in nature, whether they be from the sun or from the earth, in order to created captured energy that can then be radiated to users. The clean, self-producing energy from natural resources would have created no costs once the towers were built, the benefit to human kind of the sort that Tesla would approve (Valone, 2002). The patent, on the other hand, did not have enough information on how Tesla intended to accomplish this goal and whether or not he came close is lost with the burned down, suppressed papers that held his work (Childress, 2000). The story of Tesla is one in which the power of the industrialists and the banking system plays a dire and important role. Tesla was a genius with ideas that supported the elevation of human kind without the interference of the dynamics of economics. Tesla was a dreamer, but he was a doer and Childress (2000) successfully captures this part of the Tesla story. While delving a bit too much into the conspiracy side of the events, he does reveal meaning about the historical context of how the events occurred. Childress (2000) is clearly saddened by the loss of all that Tesla may have produced. Through examining Tesla’s own writings and looking at the history of the period, Childress (2000) presents an argument for the meaning that Tesla holds in the history of scientific discovery and that the power of the industrialists, primarily J. P. Morgan, can be credited with effectively erasing him to a great extent because of his desire to benefit humanity over collecting profit off of his work. Resources Adachi, K. (2001). Radiant energy: Unraveling Tesla’s greatest secret. Educate Yourself. Retrieved from http://educate-yourself.org/fe/radiantenergystory.shtml Childress, D. H. (2000). The Tesla Papers: Nikola Tesla on free energy & wireless transmission of power. Kempton, Ill: Adventures Unlimited Press. Landrum, G. N. (2005). The Superman syndrome-- the magic of myth in the pursuit of power: The positive mental moxie of myth for personal growth. New York: IUniverse, Inc. O'Neill, J. J. (2007). Prodigal genius: The life of Nikola Tesla. San Diego, Calif: Book Tree. Valone, T. (2002). Harnessing the wheelwork of nature: Tesla's science of energy. Kempton, Ill: Adventure Unlimited Press. Read More