Tesla's opinion of radio waves

[Circlotron]

From an interview with Nikola Tesla.
Science and Invention, April 1930 page 1125.

[hans]

Well, radio didn't have the best of 'sale pitches' by inventor Heinrich Hertz neither. He was asked about potential applications of transmitting and receiving these electromagnetic waves described by Maxwell, which Hertz experimentally proofed existed, and responded :

“I do not think that the wireless waves I have discovered will have any practical application.”

In hindsight people were so wrong, but this is also how research works. In 10 years time we can say which and how wrong many of our current state-of-the-art papers were.

[Buriedcode]

Yeah, good thing that the Michelson–Morley experiment put that to bed.  Also - surely soundwaves travel in a solid better than a gas? I know tesla was pretty eccentric and far too many people are fanboys, but even back then this was obviously wrong.  Then again, he never actually said waht he thought the "Aether" was.

[pcprogrammer]

I know tesla was pretty eccentric and far too many people are fanboys, but even back then this was obviously wrong.

That is due to all the free energy idiots. They all think that Tesla invented some free energy device and patented it, but that it is kept away from us by the big companies.

You can explain as much as you like that this is not the case and show why it is not possible, but the big conspiracy rules

[Vtile]

When read that "article" a few times, especially the explanation of terms. One could think that Teslas point of view is not totally wrong considering what eg. water wapor etc. can and will do for common radiowaves.
For my eyes it kind of sounds that Tesla is pointing out in a isoteric way that the radio "ether" is not ideal in a way the Hertz follower are thinking (as he already pointed out in 18xx) ..so they are totally wrong and should take a moment to think in a another way.
Edit.
...but for this kind of article one would need to know the definition(s) of "ether" back then, when trying to figure out what is tried to explain that is not fully understood.
My first thought of solid ether was what is now called "vacuum".

.... but who knows.

Ps. Teslas induction motor was not perfect neither, iirc. It was Siemens&Halske whos engineers actually refined a working induction motors we now are familiar with. Can not remember what was Steinmetz influence on it outside formal mathematical formulations (..and T-model).

[EPAIII]

Tesla was somewhere between scientific genius and crackpot. And it is difficult to determine just where.

Many things that he believed and said have subsequently been shown to be false. But that can be said of Newton and Einstein as well. And he did give us some very good ideas. Many credit him with the invention of three phase power, three phase motors, and induction motors. These are not trivial things. But he also thought he could transmit electrical power across large distances (the whole planet) so it could be received and used everywhere. We still haven't reached that dream.

Yes somewhere between genius and crackpot. Perhaps reaching both extremes at one point or another in his life.

[TimFox]

Other famous scientists:
Newton may have breathed too much mercury vapor in his career, and spent too much time on biblical prophecy.  https://publicdomainreview.org/collection/sir-isaac-newton-s-daniel-and-the-apocalypse-1733
Otherwise, he was a fine scientist.
Einstein was quite practical:  he and Szilard patented an excellent gas-fired refrigerator, back when mechanical refrigerators leaked too much toxic gas into the kitchen.  https://www.wired.com/story/einsteins-little-known-passion-project-a-refrigerator/
Actually, Einstein was a great expert in thermodynamics  https://einsteinpapers.press.princeton.edu/vol2-trans/44

[SiliconWizard]

Tesla was somewhere between scientific genius and crackpot. And it is difficult to determine just where.

Many things that he believed and said have subsequently been shown to be false. But that can be said of Newton and Einstein as well. And he did give us some very good ideas. Many credit him with the invention of three phase power, three phase motors, and induction motors. These are not trivial things. But he also thought he could transmit electrical power across large distances (the whole planet) so it could be received and used everywhere. We still haven't reached that dream.

While he was way too optimistic regarding a lot of his inventions (but that's the case for many inventors), he basically invented resonant inductive coupling, which is the basis of all wireless energy transmission methods we are currently using. Sure over much shorter distances that he had expected, but still.

Oh and these days, you have a crapton of engineers that are also being way too optimistic with anything related to "AI", "quantum computing", and so on. Or catapulting satellites into orbit. Not that different if you ask me. And even the motivations are probably not so different. People with some great ideas and promoting them a bit too much in order to get a lot of cash. Yeah, Tesla was after cash as well.

[T3sl4co1l]

It's interesting, I guess, that he apparently didn't understand losses.  Whether in terms of radiation loss (propagation theory, basically), or dynamical loss (that resonance somehow allows amplitude to "grow unlimited", despite the fact that TCs, or his "earthquake generator" thing, don't grow without bound, and in fact consume a tremendous amount of real power doing anything at all).

Or, say, how to design a coupling network; which, I don't know how complicated his designs ever got in terms of network complexity, or design theory?  "Magnifier" TC maybe the most?  But that's no accident; dynamic theory was still very new at the time and not well disseminated among engineers.  BSTJ for example published some of the first electronic filter theory in the 1920s.

I guess that leaves a question as to how his motor designs had the efficiency they did; but maybe that's less of an accident, as optimizing for torque does a reasonable job of that.  Being able to visualize the force/torque delivered by the rotating field was an unusual (and valuable!) talent (given the science at the time).

Tim

[floobydust]

Nikola Tesla discusses his observations and theories on the nature of Roentgen rays or streams, in the journal:
Electrical Review August 12, 1896 and Electrical Review April 8, 1896

It seems Roentgen rays were a big discovery, giving birth to radiography yet puzzling the scientific community. "Roentgen inclined to the conviction that the rays he discovered were longitudinal waves of ether."
There is another Electrical Review where Hertz and Tesla and not sure if Edison was hashing it out but I can't remember which issue. Tesla was highly respected.

(I stumbled onto the article while searching for antique wood pin screw thread specs...)

[RJSV]

Regarding Tesla maybe often extreme, as an inventor, reminded me of an older saying:
   'With genius, often comes a little madness.'
And, Tim, that's interesting point, about Filter Networks being novel, in those early days (1890's).  There was no field of electrical devices that were obvious doing filter alterations ...or even signal theory itself, didn't have much obvious application.

[mag_therm]

Regarding Tesla maybe often extreme, as an inventor, reminded me of an older saying:
   'With genius, often comes a little madness.'
And, Tim, that's interesting point, about Filter Networks being novel, in those early days (1890's).  There was no field of electrical devices that were obvious doing filter alterations ...or even signal theory itself, didn't have much obvious application.

Before Tesla was promoting the wireless electrical energy transmission around 1890, Oliver Heaviside ( also a bit eccentric) had published the telegraphers' equations in 1876.
This pair of partial DEs used the 4 primary distributed components and showed the distortion (spreading out) and attenuation of pulses in long telegraph cables.
So he knew then that the distortion could be reduced by increasing inductance,(series loading coils). After initial rejection of that by British Post Office, this  was later used to increase data rates in transatlantic cables.

Along with the losses in the early telegraph cables there are everyday experiences of the 3D diffusion functions, eg church bells, train whistles, fireplace heat, candle light etc.
So surely there must have been some skepticism of Tesla's promotions?