Talk:Magnifying transmitter
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I removed some of the timid statements. Tesla's Magnifier is described in his notes and patents, and many hobbyists (perhaps hundreds) have built successful units. --Wjbeaty 10:55, Jan 1, 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Intro & Article
From the intro: The magnifying transmitter is an advanced harmonic oscillator of the electrical Tesla coil, used for the wireless transmission of electrical energy.[1] Is it used for the wireless transmission of electrical energy, if so does this include anything significant to date, other than sparks? Also Nikola Tesla's apparatus is a high-voltage, air-core, self-regenerative resonant transformer that generates very high voltages at high frequency. Does its self-regenerative status mean that it is a perpetual motion machine? Tesla was a great man and had some incredible ideas. Everyone gets something wrong, even the very best, and he may have sold us a pup on this one. The magnifying transmitter does something, but was it the amazing machine that some believe, or is it a side-show way of obtaining a big electricity bill along with some huge sparks. The article would be more interesting and relevent if it included info: on copies have been built, what did they do. what was the electrical input, what happened to that energy. Thanks! --Dumbo1 01:59, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
"Self-regenerative" was the term Tesla's in one of his patents. However, this particular term is no longer in general use. Tesla'a Magnifier falls into a category of devices called "multi-resonant networks". These consist of two, or more, coupled resonant circuits, and the math that describes them can become quite cumbersome. Until relatively recently, Tesla's Magnifier had not been rigorously analyzed, and design information that did exist tended to be mostly empirical and anecdotal. See the newly added references by Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz and Paul Nicholson in the external links section for more information on multi-resonant networks and helical resonators. Bert 18:35, 22 March 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Disputed
I'M in a hurry, but for a start: Why is the greatest invention of Tesla not used today? O.K. I smell the usual answer: suppression by the establishment. But wouldn't Occams razor imply, that it just didn't work? Achieved nothing but some impressive sparks? --Pjacobi 15:36, 2005 Jun 15 (UTC)
- Read up on the magnifier. It is routinely called that. Why is the greatest invention of Tesla not used today? I don't know ... mabey it just because of people's ignorance of Tesla. It did work ... there have been models of it's operation that were tested [see history section]. I'm removing the dispute tag.
I've re-inserted the tag. This article is a bad example of Teslaism. The M.T. should better be portrayed as freak anecdote in the history of technology, not as biggest invention. I don't dispute that is working (for some value of "working"), but its usefullness. --Pjacobi 16:21, 2005 Jun 15 (UTC)
- I've removed the tag. Unless you can point out specific (so-called) Teslaism, it shouldn't be there. The M.T. is cited as his greatest invention. I'm glad that you don't dispute it worked ... and its usefullness has been proven in mechanical analogies.
The usefullness of inventions is generally easy to measure by looking at their distribution. In that discipline, the M.T. earns 0 out of 100 points. --Pjacobi 16:29, 2005 Jun 15 (UTC)
(small note: the history is missing an edit, when I look at it now it shows me rv'ing to Pj, with no intervening edit. This will probably fix itself in time, but [1] shows the intervening edit at 16:24 of 204 re-removing the tag William M. Connolley 19:53, 15 Jun 2005 (UTC)).
As an example, what my be regarded as Tesla's greatest invention:
- Dr. Tesla cited this as his greatest invention in his book "My Inventions'" ( ISBN 0-760700-85-0 ), to wit, the "magnifying transmitter will prove most important and valuable to future generations".
- It is kinda ironic, though, that you cite these pages here and on the Tesla page you ignore the facts in the cited pages. (eg., the greatest engineers of all time; mit.edu article). Seems as if you have a POV problem.
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- Regarding your first statement: Yes, but this isn't often cited as (i.e. by different authors). The current misleading statement can be replaced, with your above quote, to show Tesla's lack of judgement.
- Regarding your second statement, one of the greatest electrical engineers of all time is a rather carefull formulation, compared with the superlatives, I've reverted: [2].
- Pjacobi 14:56, 2005 Jun 17 (UTC)
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- the definitiong of greatest (greatest in importance or degree or significance) includes his statement "most important and valuable"
- these are not exaggerated statements. Lord Kelvin stated that "Tesla has contributed more to electrical science than any man up to his time." Edwin H. Armstrong stated that "The world, I think, will wait a long time for Nikola Tesla's equal in achievement and imagination." Arthur Compton stated that "Tesla is entitled to the enduring gratitude of mankind." There are plenty of others that would support this. I would take their opinion and POV over yours.
- I'll see if I can put in a thing about tesla statement (and cite other people as to thier reguards on the MT, later)
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[edit] Potential error
- Cripple Creek residents near the lab would observe sparks emitting from the ground to their feet and through their shoes. Electrical sparks could be observed from the local water main that was used, at times, as a ground connection.
Does anyone know the source for this line? It's hard to see how Cripple Creek residents could be near the lab in Colorado Springs unless they weren't in Cripple Creek. -Willmcw 23:35, Jun 20, 2005 (UTC)
- I don't know the source for the line. It should be that the "Cripple Creek residents could hear thunder coming from his lab. Colorado Springs residents near the lab would observe sparks emitting from the ground to their feet and through their shoes." I'll make the change. - Anon
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- Rhetorical question: How do we know what it should be if we don't have a source? -Willmcw 01:09, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)
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- IIRC, the PBS video has it. There are other sources (Man out of time (book)) might have it. I'll look for it (and ref it when I find a source).
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