My Inventions – Nikola Tesla (1919)
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* February 1919 (The My Inventions series begins with Part 1, My Early Life, on page 696): https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electrical-Experimente...
* March 1919 (Part 2, My First Efforts in Invention, begins on page 776): https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electrical-Experimente...
* April 1919 (Part 3, My Later Endeavors, begins on page 864): https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electrical-Experimente...
* May 1919 (Part 4, The Discovery of the Tesla Coil and Transformer, begins on page 16): https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electrical-Experimente...
* June 1919 (Part 5, The Magnifying Transmitter, begins on page 112): https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electrical-Experimente...
* October 1919 (Part 6, The Art of Telautomatics, begins on page 506): https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Electrical-Experimente...
"I am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labor, for I have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours."
"Our first endeavors are purely instinctive, promptings of an imagination vivid and undisciplined...but those early impulses, tho not immediately productive, are of the greatest moment and may shape our very destinies."
"When I get an idea I start at once building it up in my imagination".
"But instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical deduction, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile."
Similar to remarks on human intuition. And that's how Intuition Peak in Antarctica came to be named, by a scientist (I asked him about it).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_Place-names_Commissi...
The Commission approves Bulgarian place names in Antarctica, which are formally given by the President of the Republic according to the Bulgarian Constitution
If they some how run to fast or if someone comes to help them with a rope sudden stops and reversal should make the adventure more adventurous.
The goal is to convince the test subject it isn't worth damaging the machine. People like that have a hard time remembering what not to do.
I'm not a sadist, the machine will feed them however long they are stuck there.
When I first read Tesla's writing last night, I began by just simply allowing my imagination to do a test run of building something. I first began by imagining a cylinder. I rotated the cylinder and observed the sharp edges. I didn't like that so I smoothed it out. Then I imagined a hollowed out cylinder with its edges smoothed out. How about adding a horizontal beam through it. Or maybe two? And what if they intersect. All of this I would imagine in my head.
Overall, it felt like a more versatile approach then spending hours tinkering with Freecad. I spent a bit more time coming up with models for my specific project before realizing it was 1:30 AM. WARNING: THIS METHOD WILL KEEP YOU AWAKE AT NIGHT FOR HOURS.
:)
I would have agreed with this statement every day of my life until yesterday because Nikola Tesla has pulled apart many of my presumptions.
For example, sleep. Tesla slept 4 hours/night in his first year in college and would sleep 2-3 hours in adulthood. (wikipedia). There are some explanations of short amounts of sleep for sustained periods as demonstrated by those that practice polyphasic sleep [1]. Yet these polyphasic sleepers, obtain "bodily rest" because of hours of sitting at a desk. Yet even this seems to defy Tesla's life where he would walk 8-10 miles PER DAY (wkipedia).
Despite very little brain rest or bodily rest, he was one of the brightest minds AND lived to age 86.
So yeah, I really don't know.
Tesla is forever one of the most interesting people to me. He was truly not a man of his time in many ways and ultimately a tragic figure.
Sometimes when I am describing a machine and how it works my hands move as if I am positioning the machine...because in my vision..it is really there. It blocks out the "real world" if I let it.
I was always criticized in school for daydreaming...I suspect this is why.
Taking off parts and swapping out others.
It was really nice learning CAD design for this reason...being able to properly get the designs into the real world.
Do you remember a time before you visualized effectively? (Is it something practiced?)
I don't recall any time where I couldn't visualize. I can remember back to when I was 3-4 fairly well and I always remember this being part of how I am.
For the most part I remember everything I read also...which can be bad since at times misinformation that has also been memorized makes me second guess.
As far as designing in my sleep...I mainly just focus on the problem as I am falling asleep. I find that when I wake typically there will be progress on the design which I can go mechanically work on. This is mostly during the assembly phase that I use this though...when I am actually assembling the machine and debugging the last minute "gotchas".
This is also something Tesla would do! - "But instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical deduction, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile."
I do clearly remember daydreaming in AP Spanish about projects too lol.
AC motors were known before Tesla, but getting them up to speed with the power source was tough. It usually required a second motor with a commutator to get the AC motor started. Tesla figured out a simpler way, one that made AC motors simpler and cheaper than DC motors.
DC motors with commutators were easier to start and more controllable, but less reliable. Early motors had actual wire brushes, which arced, wore out, needed adjustment, and wore grooves in the commutator. Carbon brushes came later, and really good carbon/graphite brushes were not developed until well into the 20th century. It's one of those materials quality things that isn't thought about much any more, because it's a solved problem.
That's similar to coming up with all the code in your head and passing the compiler and tests on the first try without any errors.
Crazy.
In the beginning, he described, images in his mind would be blurred but after "practice", they became much sharper.
Know a few pkeple like that. They are genius tier but quirky af.
The Michelson Morley experiment was in the 1880s and Tesla held on to the "luminiferous aether" theory until he died in the 1940's I believe. I seem to remember that he thought all other theories were "flawed" like you said.
People will say "Tesla was smart but not a good businessman, etc" and obviously he was a smart guy but still a tragic figure for holding onto old theories some of which bankrupted him.
Belief in a luminiferous ether (that fills all of space) is consistent with the idea that EM waves can travel through space (after all, we can see light coming from the Sun, etc.) and that radio waves could be used.
But Tesla seems to have argued that working "radio" technology was really electrical currents traveling through the ground (or through the ocean in the case of radio on ships), which then somehow induced "reception" in the radio equipment located above the currents.