ColdFusion - The True Story of Nikola Tesla [Pt.2]

Starting point is 00:00:04 Okay, so we are back. Let's take a look at the many things that Tesla discovered or invented, but sometimes didn't fully get credit for. Number one, radio. Many people mistakenly think that Glemo Marconi was the inventor of radio to this day. However, his work was based on the work done by Nikola Tesla. Tesla theorized that radio waves could transmit information as far back as 1893 in lecture demonstrations. In 1898, Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat, which he dubbed teleautomation. That kind of sounds pretty standard today, but you have to understand that this was 1898.

Starting point is 00:00:48 The crowd that witnessed the demonstration was so shocked that they literally claimed Tesla was using magic, telepathy, or had a trained monkey hidden inside controlling the boat. When Marconi became world famous for sending the first transatlantic message, Tesla said the following, Marconi is a good fellow, let him continue, he is using 17 of my patents. Number two, X-ray. This one's a pretty interesting story. X-rays were discovered by Tesla before Wilhelm Runkjan was credited with the discovery. In fact, Tesla took the very first X-ray photos. For some reason, after Wilhelm claimed discovery, it was believed that X-rays could cure blindness

Starting point is 00:01:32 and other ailments. Despite Tesla warning that X-rays could be dangerous, Edison tested it on one of his employees, Clarence Daly, who, after having his arms amputated, eventually died from cancer. Edison also fired X-rays into his own eyes during experiments. When questioned about it in 1903, Edison said, don't talk to me about X-rays, I'm afraid of them. Number 3. Hydroelectricity.

Starting point is 00:02:00 Tesla designed the first hydroelectric plant that was powerful enough to light a city. At Niagara Falls, proving to the world that waterfalls could make a practical energy source on a large scale. A lot of people told him that it wouldn't work, but Tesla had already envisioned how a generator could harness energy from moving water when he was still a child. People were shocked but also delighted to see his vision power whole major US cities. Number 4. The Earthquake Machine. Tesla created a little pocket-sized machine that when placed on a building in Wall Street and set to the building's natural frequency, made the structure wobble so much that still workers came down to the ground in a panic, believing that there must have been an earthquake. When the police were called, Tesla put the device back in his pocket and walked away.

Starting point is 00:02:50 Tesla claimed that if he had 10 minutes more, he could have laid that building to the ground and using the same device could have dropped the brook of bridge in less than one hour. Tesla also figured out the resonant frequency of the earth 50 years before the technology allowed scientists to catch up with his discovery. And lastly, the Tesla Tower. So far, the previous inventions were all things that made it to reality, but one of Tesla's most ambitious projects was actually a failure, although now it's become a Tesla legend forever romanticized. I'm of course talking about the famous Wardencliff Tower, otherwise known as the Tesla Tower, set to deliver free energy to the world by using the Earth's ionosphere as part

Starting point is 00:03:32 of the transmission device. Or was it? The story goes that financial backer J.P. Morgan shut the project down when he discovered it wouldn't make any money. This isn't entirely true though. Tesla had actually sold the project to Morgan as a wireless communications tower, not as a means of producing or transmitting energy. The financial backing from J.P. Morgan was only pulled when Marconi sent the first radio waves across the Atlantic, making Morgan change his mind. The project dragged on without Morgan and ran way over time and ridiculously over budget until it finally collapsed. Aside from this, modern science today

Starting point is 00:04:12 says that the Tesla Tower wouldn't have worked. This is mainly due to technicalities such as energy loss during transmission and Tesla's misunderstanding of the physics of radio waves. This was was Tesla's first major failure, which brought him great shame, this would set him on a downward path that eventually led to the decline of the legend. More on this later in the video. Alright, so we're almost at the end of the video, but before we begin to conclude, let's take a look at four facts about Tesla. Number 1. Tesla loved humanity. As a humanist, Tesla believed in improving the quality

Starting point is 00:04:49 of human life, but not for financial gains. Here's a quote from Tesla himself. Money doesn't mean as much to me as it does to others. All my money has gone into inventions to make man's life a little easier. Number two, Tesla envisioned the wireless internet in 1901. While Tesla was developing the transatlantic radio, he envisioned a system of collecting information, encoding it, and broadcasting that information to a handheld device. This is basically what we have now as the mobile internet on our phones. Pretty impressive foresight for 1901.

Starting point is 00:05:27 Number 3. Tesla actually lost everything at one stage. As Tesla was working tirelessly and discovering many things about wireless energy transfer, his lab burnt down in a fire, forcing him to start his entire life's work all over again. Number 4. Tesla may have had obsessive-compulsive behavior and insomnia. Tesla claimed that he only needed two hours of sleep a night. a night. It's unclear whether that was because he wanted to or because he couldn't actually sleep any more than that. Tesla was also obsessed with the number three and used 18 napkins to clean his dining room before eating his evening meals. He also detested round objects,

Starting point is 00:06:09 jewelry, shaking hands and touching hair. As you could tell by that last fact, being such a genius and having a mind that was activated to such a high degree came with some consequences. His great mind became his downfall. Tesla's life story of rise to international prestige and fame was followed by an equally dramatic retreat into public shame, depression and loneliness. Denial of his failures, starting with the Tesla Tower, led to further failure and further denial, a downward spiral which eventually led Tesla to a mental breakdown.

Starting point is 00:06:50 By the latter part of his life, he was clinically insane. Tesla hallucinated to such an extent that, the boundaries between reality and his imagination became blurred. This caused him to work alone in his lab tirelessly. He often stated that his lab was the only place where he was truly happy. As an example of his mental condition, here's a quote from one of Nikola Tesla's final interviews. I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them for years, but there was one pigeon, a beautiful bird, pure white, with light gray tips on the wings. That one was different, no matter, where I was, that pigeon would find me. When I wanted her, I had only to wish and call her

Starting point is 00:07:32 and she would come flying to me. I loved that pigeon. I loved her as much as a man loves a woman and she loves me. Then one night, as I was lying in my bed, in the dark, solving problems as usual, she flew through the open window and stood at my desk. I knew she wanted to tell me something important, so I got up and went to her. As I looked at her, I I knew she wanted to tell me she was dying. And then, as I got her message, there came a light from her eyes, powerful beams of light. I don't think there's anything else to say there. Over his lifetime, Tesla had obtained more than 100 patents and 700 inventions, but despite

Starting point is 00:08:14 all of this, he was dirt poor. For many years, he worked alone in his room at the Hotel New Yorker, where he died in in 1943, living on a diet of milk and Nabisco crackers. So a lot of you would be asking, how did this happen? How did Tesla end up so poor? It is true, Tesla could have been the world's first billionaire by a long shot, but he just really didn't care about money. Here's an example.

Starting point is 00:08:43 After the war of the currents, Westinghouse was in trouble, they were almost bankrupt and about to go under. So Westinghouse pleaded with Tesla to temporarily cut back his royalties just so the Westinghouse company could get through this tough time and survive. Shockingly, Tesla ripped up the contract right there and then on the spot. This would have amounted to $300 billion for Tesla. Tesla simply stated that he was just happy that Westinghouse believed in him when no one else would.

Starting point is 00:09:16 I guess having a huge part in changing the world was enough of a reward. in itself for him. The rest of the remaining money that Tesla had accumulated over his life all got spent on numerous failed projects such as the Tesla Tower. Tesla's ideas helped America grow into an industrial nation and a powerhouse of the 20th century. Yet his marginalization was prevalent then and continues today. He is almost non-existent if you look through many of today's textbooks. This is mainly because Tesla did not care about profit, fame or fortune, he only wanted to make the world a better place. This was the polar opposite of most of the businessmen of that day, who unfortunately took

Starting point is 00:10:01 advantage of Tesla's nature, profiting from his work and leaving him with nothing. It could be a lesson to us all. Have the purest intentions, but stand up for yourself and know your worth. To finish off, here's one last quote from Tesla. The present is theirs. The future for which I have really worked is mine. And that is the story of Nikola Tesla. Thanks for watching guys.

Starting point is 00:10:33 Hope you enjoyed that video on Nikola Tesla. Please give this video a thumbs up. Share it to someone who would like to know the story or who would be interested in that. And definitely subscribe if you knew. Also you might want to check out my last video on General Electric. That was pretty interesting. I'd also like to give a shout out and a special thank you to Omkar and his team from the Curious Engineer who did some of the illustration.

Starting point is 00:10:53 for this video. I'll leave the link to the Curious Engineers channel down below, so please feel free to check that out and subscribe to that channel. Thanks for helping out, man. Also, if you want to help this channel make better videos and more frequent videos, please consider supporting Cold Fusion on Patreon. Okay, so that's all from me. Thanks for watching guys.

Starting point is 00:11:12 This has been DeGogo. You've been watching Cold Fusion, and I'll see you again soon for the next video. Cheers, guys. Have a good one. Gold Fusion. It's new thinking.

ColdFusion - The True Story of Nikola Tesla [Pt.2]

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