Power Lineman Series: A/C Power and Tesla

Let me begin by quoting Mark Twain - a close friend of my electrical hero, Nikola Tesla.

Thunder is good, thunder is impressive; but it is lightning that does the work. August 28, 1908

Mr. Twain knew this from close and personal experience. He had the most fortunate opportunity to have befriended the lone genius known as Nikola Tesla. Twain was often found hanging about Tesla's laboratory, playing with whatever new discovery had been borne into existence.

Tesla's name may be most synonymous with the coil that carries his name. The Tesla Coil is a resonant electrical circuit in which the primary voltage and the secondary voltage resonate at the same frequency. Through the use of many electrical apparatus (which I do not yet understand) this ungrounded contraption essentially creates lightning. In the picture above, Tesla sits in his Colorado Springs laboratory while one of his coils creates bolts of electricity on the order of MILLIONS of volts. That's right. Millions. The noise created by the coil on his mountaintop lab could be heard 10 miles away. Check out this link to see a much smaller Tesla Coil in action.

Tesla is my hero for having developed, and promoted the use of Alternating Current. Good old A/C. For those of you who just thought, "A/C? Like AC/DC? Isn't that a band? I thought AC was air conditioning. I like air conditioning. Why does it cost so much to run it? Back in Black totally rocks as an album," all I can say is that you think too much, too fast. Alternating Current is what allows us to live hundreds of miles from where electricity is generated. You can thank Mr. Tesla and Mr. Westinghouse for their commitment to the technology. They faced the bulldog known as Thomas Alva Edison; the proprietor of Direct Current, or DC, technology. Had Edison gotten his way, there would be a powerhouse and substation on nearly every corner. What a noisy and ugly way to bring power to the people. Tesla's A/C has the advantage of mobility. Due to it's nature it can cross multiple miles without losing power. Edison's D/C just doesn't have the capability to produce the kind of power needed for most of the world.

Most of my inspiration from this post comes from the book I'm reading now, Tesla: Man Out Of Time, by Margaret Cheney. Tesla is most certainly a man beyond his time. Truthfully, much of his work is still beyond our own time. Scientists today are still unable to reproduce some of his more playful inventions. He created the electron microscope and the cyclotron before anyone even had a word for these things. In essence, Tesla was the quintessential mad scientist: playing with voltage pressures in the millions - creating lightning, plasma, and wild machines.

Today, you can see a fictional representation of the professor in the latest turn-of-the-century magician rivalry movie - The Prestige. David Bowie creates a believable Tesla character in the movie. This is what sparked a renewed interest in Tesla's constructs, for me. If you're looking for an entertaining, slightly suspenseful, and partly historical account of fictional and factual characters; The Prestige is your movie. Electrifying!

Plugs aside, I owe a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Tesla. He created the industry which keeps me employed. For those of you looking into the electrical trade, I would suggest that you read about those who have come before us. Understanding the past gives us the ability to appreciate our present fortune.

Some more links to meander through:

Magnifying Transmitter

Plasma Lamp

War of Currents