Nikola Tesla's letterhead circa 1900 | Hacker News Reader

Nikola Tesla's letterhead circa 1900

letterheady.com

79 pointsMikeCapone20 comments

My grandfather, whose background was in economics, became very interested in science later in life and built a fully functional Tesla Coil [1] in his basement in his 60's (this was before wide-spread availability of information on the internet; he did research in libraries and universities and built it out of hardware store parts). I was about 7 at the time.

We would do experiments with it such as lighting up free-standing fluorescent bulbs up to 15 feet away, or affixing an ion motor attachment which would reach incredible speeds.

I am now 25, and like my grandfather, I never want to stop learning.

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_coil

Please breed.

A lot.

An good friend of mine toys around with tesla coils quite a bit. Here's his tesla coil page: http://dzl.dk/projects/tesla/tesla.html

A few years ago he got involved in a pretty crazy project: Another friend (artist type) had heard that as long as you didn't touch the ground you could actually sit on top of a tesla coil and have huge sparks coming out of your fingers. He promptly went out and got some funding to make a 3 meter tall coil, and toured around Copenhagen sitting on top of it with lighting coming out of his outstretched hands. I'm somewhat surprised he survived, but it looked damn cool.

There's a man that went around music festivals here in new zealand for a couple of years - he'd put himself in a custom-made suit (faraday cage) and would then stand on a platform and hook himself up to a coupla thousand volts... Bloody impressive, except for the day he didn't do his suit up properly. He survived that one, but I haven't seen him perform in a while...

Normally male teens learn about physics/engineering/mechanics by working on cars. Complicated stuff, and also a practical skill that girls like.

I hope these odd ventures haven't turned you into a horrendous nerd, because if they did then you should be very angry at your grandfather.

Eh? Don't you know that nerds are cool? Teslas are also VERY cool. Any member of the opposite gender that does not share these views is _not_ cool.

Quite off-topic, I'm sure, but I can't help but wonder if the central image in that letterhead inspired the look of Dr Who's Daleks. I love finding hidden references like that.

I'm just gonna say it. Tesla was a pimp.

And celibate.

http://beatonna.livejournal.com/23574.html

For the uninitiated (or nonnative speakers) out there: the parent comment uses pimp as a strong compliment, in the sense 6(1) at http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pimp:

  1)something badass or new and fresh.

And yes, in this context badass is good:

  1. badass

  The epitome of the American male. He radiates confidence 
  in everything he does, whether it's ordering a drink,
  buying a set of wheels, or dealing with women. He's slow
  to anger, brutally efficient when fighting back.

(http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=badass)

Indeed, Tesla was a badass pimp.

Indeed Tesla seems to have been part scientist, part engineer and part showman.

Looks like Adobe now resides in part of the building. http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/cbc/cbc_ny.html

There is no plaque on that building but there is one in a nearby building called "Engineers club" mentioning Tesla. http://www.teslasociety.com/bryantpark.htm

8 West 40th street now http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&tab=wl

Presumably you meant: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...

This seems to be the view for number 8: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&...

Me: "That's amazing..that's where his office was."

Colleague: "What's amazing is that you're looking at it like that."

Your link doesn't work. This should do it:

http://goo.gl/HGVl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVzEfR6wL70 (worth it)

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