A Tesla prophecy

klem

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wireless of the future
(Nikola Tesla in the New York Times)
In 1909, Nikola Tesla spoke to a New York Times reporter about mobile telephony. Popular Mechanics republished the NYT interview in its October 2009 issue and you can read it in full on Google Books. Here is what Tesla said, 100 years ago:"The practical applications of the revolutionary principles of the wireless art have only begun. What will be accomplished in the future baffles one's comprehension."
This startling prophecy is made by Mr. Nikola Tesla. In speaking of the utility of wireless transmission in the near future he said:. "The attention of the world has been caught and held by the wireless telegraph, and yet this is a very primitive use of the art. So far only electric waves have been used, which have been quickly damped out in their passage through the air. It is possible, however, to transmit electric currents of enormous power for thousands of miles without diminishing their energy. This is not a theory, but a truth established by many practical experiments. It will soon be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world so simply that any individual can carry and operate his own apparatus. The wireless transmission of power across the ocean, for instance, obviously opens up an entirely new era in mechanical developments.
"It will soon be possible, for instance, for a business man in New York to dictate instructions and have them appear instantly in type in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up from his desk and talk with any telephone subscriber in the world. It will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive instrument not bigger than a watch, which will enable its bearer to hear anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles. One may listen or transmit speech or song to the uttermost parts of the world. In the same way any kind of picture, drawing, or print can be transferred from one place to another. It will be possible to operate millions of such instruments from a single station. Thus it will be a simple matter to keep the uttermost parts of the world in instant touch with each other. The song of a great singer, the speech of a political leader, the sermon of a great divine, the lecture of a man of science may thus be delivered to an audience scattered all over the world.
"More important than this, however, er, will be the transmission of power without wires over great distances. I have been experimenting with a model of a boat operated by electric power transmitted without wires, and the results are astounding, It is possible, I find, to control the movements of the boat absolutely from a central station without electrical connections of any kind. What has been done with a little boat on a small body of water will eventually be done by the largest liners at any distance from land. In other words, an ocean liner may be propelled across the Atlantic ocean at high speed by power directed from a wireless station on shore. We may confidently expect that within a few years many wonders now not dreamed of will be mere commonplaces." (Popular Mechanics oct. 1909-p.476-477)https://boingboing.net/2010/05/10/tesla-talks-mobile-p.html
 

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As I understand it Tesla’s wireless transmission system wouldn’t work. From what I gather he didn’t actually know much about electromagnetic theory. He had really good intuition and some formal schooling. I found a copy of his Colorado Spring’s notes and I was surprised by the comparatively simple math, it looks mostly algebra based. It’s interesting what kind of skill set the inventors of the past had compared to what’s standard now.

 

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