WEBVTT - Tesla: The Man, The Myths, The Truth 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.560 Get in touch with technologies with tex Stuff from how 0:00:05.640 --> 0:00:14.000 Stuff what Com. Hey there, everyone, and welcome to an 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:16.560 electrifying episode tech Stuff. You're sure to get a charge 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:19.439 out of that's right. I'm Jonathan Strickland, one of the 0:00:19.440 --> 0:00:21.560 two hosts, and I'm Lauren Vocal on the other house, 0:00:21.600 --> 0:00:23.280 and I and Jonathan I think that we should really 0:00:23.320 --> 0:00:26.080 ground ourselves here. Oh that's very good. I'm glad you're 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:28.920 staying up with current events. Do you really want to 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:32.120 go down this road line at all? Grab my decision. 0:00:32.159 --> 0:00:36.000 You don't like puns? No, I don't. Chris Palette instilled 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:39.120 in me a love of puns that runs deep. Anyway, 0:00:39.640 --> 0:00:41.280 you may have already guessed we're gonna be talking a 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:44.120 little bit about electricity in this episode, and that's because 0:00:44.440 --> 0:00:47.879 we are focusing finally, after many, many, many people have 0:00:48.000 --> 0:00:53.240 asked us to do a full episode about Nicola Tesla, 0:00:54.120 --> 0:01:00.120 the Internet legend, the man placed on a virtual had 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.200 us still on the Internet, that is gleaming and beauteous 0:01:03.240 --> 0:01:05.680 and will zap you if you ever dare say anything 0:01:05.720 --> 0:01:08.399 against him. He's he's staring at us from the walls 0:01:08.440 --> 0:01:10.720 of the podcast room right now. Yes he is. Yes, 0:01:10.760 --> 0:01:12.360 judging us. Now, the question of whether or not he'll 0:01:12.400 --> 0:01:16.120 be staring at us in our news studio remains to 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.720 be answered. Uh, we'll probably end up propping him up 0:01:19.760 --> 0:01:22.440 on a mic stand or something, so he's still judging 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.480 us constantly. But yeah, we want to talk about Tesla, 0:01:25.680 --> 0:01:28.959 kind of talk about his his contributions to technology and 0:01:29.080 --> 0:01:33.479 also maybe take a critical look at some of the 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:36.800 some of the claims about Tesla and some of the 0:01:37.800 --> 0:01:43.240 misconceptions people have about his contributions. He's he's a mythological figure, 0:01:43.319 --> 0:01:46.120 really a mythological nerd figure, which is which is fabulous. 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:48.960 I mean, it's really terrific, and it's it's it's understandable 0:01:48.960 --> 0:01:51.360 why because he he by the end of his life, 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.360 was so downtrodden. And there's nothing that people and geeks 0:01:54.440 --> 0:01:58.240 especially love more than than an anti hero. Yeah. Here, 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:02.880 here's a guy who has been beaten down. He's he's 0:02:03.400 --> 0:02:06.880 uh seen his fortunes dwindle away. He's he's made some 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:10.840 bad choices. Uh, he has all the earmarks of a 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.959 classic geek. Geeks love this underdog kind of story. And 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.040 and when you get into things like sort of the 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:23.000 the demonification of other people. Edison in particular. Yeah, but 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:27.240 even people like JP Morgan and Mustinghouse. Then it seems 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:29.520 like the whole world had turned against him. And and 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:31.520 depending on how you look at his story, it can 0:02:31.560 --> 0:02:35.000 definitely come across that way. But that's doing a little 0:02:35.000 --> 0:02:37.919 bit of a disservice to the entire tale. And Uh, 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.320 the reason why I'm talking about in this way is 0:02:40.360 --> 0:02:43.240 because there is what we thought some people referred to 0:02:43.280 --> 0:02:47.120 as the cult of Tesla, right, this idea of elevating 0:02:47.200 --> 0:02:51.440 him beyond what his contributions were. Uh, there was a 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:53.880 cartoon that I think a lot of you guys out 0:02:53.919 --> 0:02:56.240 there saw because he posted about it on our Facebook 0:02:56.240 --> 0:03:00.080 page that The Oatmeal did all about Tesla and his 0:03:00.080 --> 0:03:03.960 his um contributions and his rivalry with Edison and kind 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:08.480 of comparing him favorably against Edison in every single category 0:03:08.600 --> 0:03:11.720 and saying that there should be a Tesla museum. And 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.760 so we wanted to talk about what Tesla actually did 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:18.280 and what he did not do, and uh, and whether 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:21.960 or not he deserves all those acoms. Yeah. Yeah, And 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:25.200 and just just before anyone who is a rabid fan 0:03:25.240 --> 0:03:27.440 of the oat Mail gets honest, because I don't I 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:30.000 do not want to incite your anger. Uh, it's we 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:34.240 realize that it's a comic and that that although uh 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.240 many of the statements are factual. The writer whose name 0:03:37.240 --> 0:03:40.160 I'm completely forgetting right now, has come out and said that, hey, 0:03:40.440 --> 0:03:43.040 this is a comic. I'm I'm a comic artist. And 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.920 some of this was hyper Bowl, sob no, I like 0:03:46.960 --> 0:03:50.440 it's hyper Bowl. It's way better than that Super One. 0:03:51.080 --> 0:03:54.320 I like the hyper Bowl a lot more. I am 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:56.160 never gonna let you live that down, and we are 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:59.680 not re recording it. Let's move on. So yeah, Tesla 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:04.520 born on July tenth, eighteen fifty six, in what is 0:04:04.600 --> 0:04:08.840 now Croatia now eighteen fifty six by the Gregorian calendar. 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.600 If you have looked up at Tesla's birth and you 0:04:11.640 --> 0:04:15.120 saw that it was actually in June June, that's because 0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.440 at the time they were keeping time with the Julian calendar. 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.760 And it's only when you account for that, when you 0:04:21.800 --> 0:04:23.560 match those up, that you realize that, Okay, well, if 0:04:23.560 --> 0:04:27.320 you're using a real calendar like I do, the one 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:29.039 that's on my smartphone, and that's the only way I 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:31.919 know what day it is, it was July t so 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:35.040 eighteen fifty six. July t and born in in Uh 0:04:35.320 --> 0:04:40.279 part of Austria, Hungary which is now Croatia UM And 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.680 as a boy, he went to what we would think 0:04:43.720 --> 0:04:46.560 of in the United States is elementary school or primary 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:52.279 school and studied German arithmetic and religion because his dad 0:04:52.360 --> 0:04:54.680 was a pastor and his mom's father was a pastor, 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:57.880 both both in the Orthodox Church. Actually, so yeah, so 0:04:57.920 --> 0:05:01.080 he he definitely had a religious upbring uh and his 0:05:01.160 --> 0:05:03.360 father really wanted him to be a priest, by the way, Yes, 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:05.680 he did a lot. In fact, he was not so 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:10.080 thrilled about Tesla going into engineering. UM. When he was 0:05:10.120 --> 0:05:15.200 a young boy, Tesla's Tesla's older brother named Dane, died 0:05:15.240 --> 0:05:17.560 in a tragic accident. He actually fell off a horse 0:05:17.760 --> 0:05:21.360 and died. There were some stories that Tesla or Nicola 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:27.880 Tesla was playing around and spooked the horse that caused Yes, 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:29.680 so actually I've heard I'm sorry, I meant to I 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:32.039 meant to insert this earlier. But but the very first 0:05:32.240 --> 0:05:34.080 terrific tall tale that I heard about Tesla was that 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:36.760 he was born on a dark and stormy night to lightning. 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:39.080 Right right, He was born on the stroke of midnight 0:05:39.120 --> 0:05:42.880 as lightning crashed in the sky and that one person 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:44.919 said he would be a boy of storms, and his 0:05:45.000 --> 0:05:47.080 mother said, no, he shall be a man of the light. 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.880 I might be inserting some of my hyper bowl in there, goodness, 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.960 my gracious. So yeah, and as a child they moved 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:57.720 around quite a bit as his father was finding a 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:02.080 church to be pastor in and in eighteen seventy, so 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.200 I remember he's born in eighteen fifty six. By eighteen 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.440 seventy he moves in with his aunt and starts to 0:06:07.520 --> 0:06:12.280 attend a school that we're a teacher named Martin skul Chick, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:17.920 sorry Skolich, Sokolich. Uh So, Martin so Coolich is teaching there, 0:06:17.960 --> 0:06:22.719 and he's teaching math and physics, and Tesla finds both 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:26.720 the professor and the subject matter fascinating, and he becomes 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.880 really focused on math and physics. And in fact, he's 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:35.520 so focused he graduates a year early. So he was 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:39.400 certainly a man of genius. He possessed a genius and 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:43.520 an affinity for physics, for math, for engineering that far 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:47.720 outstripped most of his contemporaries. Yeah, definitely, But then again, 0:06:47.720 --> 0:06:51.320 this is also the era where we start seeing these 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.839 technologies form and uh and so it was an exciting 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:57.359 time if you were interested in physics, because this is 0:06:57.400 --> 0:07:01.320 when we're making lots of big discovered reas, things that 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:05.800 some people say are um low hanging fruit, you know, 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:09.200 in retrospect, the idea that there were all these discoveries 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.200 to make. But it's hard to see how we're going 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:15.119 to advance from this point forward because all the quote 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:18.160 unquote easy things have been discovered. Not that any of 0:07:18.160 --> 0:07:21.120 these things were easy, it's just that now you are 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.960 have to become increasingly specialized in whatever scientific field you're 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:28.640 in to clearly understand it. But while doing this, researcher 0:07:28.720 --> 0:07:29.960 kind of blew my mind. I actually don't have a 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:34.400 strong history in in electronic background, and and it blew 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:36.920 my mind that it wasn't until eighteen seventy three that 0:07:37.360 --> 0:07:42.600 that James Clerk Maxwell proved that light is electromagnetic energy. Yeah, yes, 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.520 this is He's he's growing up at a time when uh, 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:49.800 these discoveries are being made and that would impact his 0:07:49.920 --> 0:07:54.960 own work and in fact drive him to achieve great things. Also, 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:59.280 eighteen seventy three, that was the year he contracted cholera. Yeah, 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:01.200 and it was due to the cholera that he kind 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:03.280 of shaped the rest of his life. Yeah, well, yeah, 0:08:03.960 --> 0:08:05.560 quite a few things. Yeah, because if you if you've 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:08.680 heard about Tesla, you know that he uh, he reportedly 0:08:08.920 --> 0:08:13.160 had a bit of obsessive compulsive disorder, that he was 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:17.400 a germophobe, that he was a clean he was obsessed 0:08:17.440 --> 0:08:20.200 with being clean and having cleaned things around him. He 0:08:20.240 --> 0:08:22.880 reported in his own biography that he had a severe 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:25.960 aversion to touching other people's hair, that he had to 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:29.680 do things if if they require repetition, in the repetition 0:08:29.680 --> 0:08:31.760 of threes, and if he did not, then he had 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.040 to stop and restart. Yeah, so he he may have 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:38.280 developed some of these peculiarities. At this time. He was 0:08:38.440 --> 0:08:41.960 in bed for about nine months, nearly died a few times. 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:44.600 So I would imagine that was definitely something that would 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.480 shape you whether or not that. I'm sure there were 0:08:47.520 --> 0:08:51.560 other issues that are beyond just getting sick. There were 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.880 probably some things that were psychologically part of his being 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.600 from the point where he was born, but we don't 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:01.920 know to what extent obviously, and um, and you know 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:03.959 what's odd to me, I might as well talk about 0:09:03.960 --> 0:09:08.040 this for right now. So neat freak, if you want 0:09:08.080 --> 0:09:11.439 to put it that way, germophobe, doesn't like touching people. 0:09:12.720 --> 0:09:19.160 Loved pigeons, loved them rats with wings, that's what they are. Well, 0:09:19.160 --> 0:09:20.880 that that was, that was also towards the end of 0:09:20.920 --> 0:09:24.920 his life that he became obsessed with him became incredibly 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:26.640 obsessed with pigeons. Yeah, it just makes me think of 0:09:26.679 --> 0:09:31.760 that great scene in the documentary The Producers, Boydes filthy 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:37.840 rotten Boydes. I appreciate that that your your Yiddish accent 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.000 there is is better than mine. That's excellent. I should 0:09:40.000 --> 0:09:42.800 also point out that that that's the nineteen sixty eight 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.320 version of the documentary The Producer is not the musical 0:09:46.520 --> 0:09:50.120 version starring Nathan Lane. Matthew Broderick actually has zero mostell 0:09:50.640 --> 0:09:54.200 Gene Wilder. I'm getting off track anyway. Um so yeah, 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:58.960 so he's he's definitely got some interesting personality quirks eighteen 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:02.240 seventy four. He starts to move around a little bit, 0:10:02.679 --> 0:10:07.079 mostly hiding out from the army because in that part 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:11.040 of the world, in Austro Austrio, Austro Hungary. Look, I 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:15.960 can't say that. Uh yes we do, thank thank goodness. 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:18.800 We don't speak into a microphone for a living right. Uh. 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:21.800 But back in that time. In that part of the world, 0:10:22.840 --> 0:10:25.199 army service was required of all young men. There was 0:10:25.320 --> 0:10:29.560 three years mandatory service, and Tesla was not too keen 0:10:29.920 --> 0:10:33.280 on doing that, so he kind of, um, he was 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:36.160 a little bit he was dodging, that's the best way 0:10:36.160 --> 0:10:40.160 of putting it. The next year he starts to attend 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:45.320 the Austrian Polytechnic School and he starts off really strong. 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:49.440 He's doing really well in his classes. He understands the concepts, 0:10:49.559 --> 0:10:52.280 and unlike some other some other visionaries like say Stephen Hawking, 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.000 he was very good in school. Yep, yep. Also, you know, 0:10:55.120 --> 0:10:58.320 not not like Einstein or some of the other famous 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:02.480 folks who seemed to have trouble in class. Now that 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.200 that was true for about a year, and then about 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:07.640 that second year things began to take a little bit 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:12.079 of a dip because he began to point out shortcomings 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:15.000 or what he thought of as shortcomings in his professor's 0:11:15.120 --> 0:11:18.920 understanding of things like electrical engineering and saying things like, 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:22.160 you know, you could build a device that does the 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:25.520 same thing without this one component that you are claiming 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:28.680 is absolutely necessary for it to work. It furthermore, puts 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:32.280 off gigantic electrical shocks that are actually pretty dangerous, like 0:11:32.360 --> 0:11:35.000 you could do it this way and then uh, if 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:38.400 you mouth off to your professors often enough, you might 0:11:38.440 --> 0:11:42.120 find yourself in some academic trouble. And that's kind of 0:11:42.160 --> 0:11:46.720 what Tesla did. He he began to get disillusioned about 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.640 pursuing studies in an academic setting, and after about a 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:54.040 little over three years, he actually dropped out of the 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:59.960 polytechnic school. So he moved to Slovenia in to work 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.520 as a draftsman for an engineering firm. But by eighteen 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:08.560 seventy nine, the next year, some some police officials show 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.400 up and asked to see his residents papers, which he 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.280 did not have, so then he was escorted back to 0:12:15.320 --> 0:12:18.840 his family's home because he didn't have a residence permit 0:12:18.960 --> 0:12:23.719 for Slovenia. And that same year his father passes away 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:29.240 ah and Tesla starts to a new career as a 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.640 teacher in the same school that he attended as a boy, 0:12:32.679 --> 0:12:36.719 but realizes very quickly that's not for him. Yeah, he 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.880 doesn't want to do that. Um. So then the next year, 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:43.240 eighteen eight, he moved to Prague. He tries to attend 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:48.040 Carl Ferdinand University, but he's unable to understand Greek or check, 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.480 both of which were prerequisites to attend as a student, 0:12:52.040 --> 0:12:55.680 so instead he audits classes uh, and he begins to 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.560 work for the Budapest Telephone Exchange and also the Central 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.000 Telegram Office. Eighteen eighty by the way, it was the 0:13:02.080 --> 0:13:05.880 year that that Thomas Edison unveiled his electric incandescent lamp 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:08.120 to the public for the first time. Yep, so that's 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:10.199 a good thing to to keep in mind. There are 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:12.840 some big things happening at the same time that Tesla's 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:15.120 kind of uh, you know, he hasn't really made a 0:13:15.200 --> 0:13:19.400 name for himself yet. He's been a very uh enthusiastic 0:13:19.480 --> 0:13:21.680 student at times of his life, and he is certainly 0:13:21.760 --> 0:13:26.080 interested in electronics or really we should say electricity from 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:33.160 electronics electronics too early, but electricity and its applications. Um. 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.520 So he does that for a couple of years. In 0:13:35.559 --> 0:13:40.400 eighteen eighty two, he joins the Continental Edison Company and 0:13:40.440 --> 0:13:45.440 begins to work on things like dynamos, which are well, 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:49.000 you've heard us talk about dynamos and our episodes about 0:13:49.120 --> 0:13:53.360 electromagnets and motors and uh, induction in the reverse of that, 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:55.600 so we I won't go into it. But anyway, he 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.560 starts to work on that. Now this means that he 0:13:57.679 --> 0:14:03.160 becomes an employee, although you know, indirectly and way down 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:08.320 the line of Edison. So yeah, he's sitting there working 0:14:08.400 --> 0:14:12.000 for the company of the man who would one day 0:14:12.040 --> 0:14:17.520 become his greatest rival. According to my nemesis, they have 0:14:17.640 --> 0:14:21.080 dragon Ball style fights in the sky. Yeah, they also 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:24.960 would occasionally catch Pokemon, but it was only the one 0:14:25.000 --> 0:14:29.040 that shoots the electricity. I don't I don't know which one. Oh, 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.480 come on, it's Pikachu. I was just I was trying 0:14:31.480 --> 0:14:33.120 to bait Lauren to see if I could get it. 0:14:34.440 --> 0:14:39.680 I actually know that. Dang, you win this time, vogel Baum. 0:14:40.080 --> 0:14:43.360 So at this time, he also gets the idea for 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:49.040 the a C induction motor, although Asterisk not necessarily the 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:53.440 first person to think about that. Supposedly in a vision, well, 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:56.400 supposedly he had these visions. Supposedly he was was very 0:14:56.560 --> 0:14:59.880 light and audio sensitive, and occasionally, upon looking at one 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.400 object or having a certain idea, would would get an 0:15:02.400 --> 0:15:07.040 extremely strong visual perception of of something that he had 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:12.280 already seen, or or of nothing nothing imaginary unless it 0:15:12.320 --> 0:15:14.800 was a new invention. But yeah, occasionally he would get 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.200 these flashes that that kind of disturbed him a lot, 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:20.280 according to his autobiography. Yeah, so essentially what would happen 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:23.880 is he would be walking through a park and look 0:15:23.920 --> 0:15:27.600 at a beautiful scene, and then suddenly an idea would form, 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:30.040 fully formed in his head, like not not something he 0:15:30.080 --> 0:15:33.880 had been puzzling about necessarily. It might just be hey, boom, 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:35.920 here are all the pieces and the puzzle is completely 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.000 put together. You know, we opened up the box and 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.200 the puzzles there, as opposed to you've been trying to 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.160 fix this problem for years, and oh, here's the inspiration. 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:46.480 And so Yeah. Supposedly he was walking through the city 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:48.840 park in Budapest with a friend and saw a beautiful 0:15:48.880 --> 0:15:51.800 sunset and quoted some poetry and then had an idea 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.160 for for the induction motor. Yeah, and just drew it 0:15:55.160 --> 0:15:57.760 in the sand and then kept walking. Yeah. Whether or 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:00.760 not that's true, it's hard to say, because Tesla, as 0:16:00.800 --> 0:16:02.880 it turns out, was something of a showman, a little 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.280 bit of an unreliable narrator. I would say unreliable narrator 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:08.000 is a very kind way of putting it. The same 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.000 sort of thing is true of all the big names 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:14.120 at this time, because they were the rock stars of 0:16:14.200 --> 0:16:16.640 that of that era. So Edison, same sort of thing. 0:16:16.760 --> 0:16:22.000 Edison was a master at at PR, you know, beyond 0:16:22.160 --> 0:16:25.080 beyond being the head of a very successful research and 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:29.440 development firm, he was very good at presenting his ideas 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.680 to a public and explaining why they were the best ideas, 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:36.320 even if they weren't the best ideas. Tesla was. He 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:38.200 was no slouch in that department either. There are a 0:16:38.200 --> 0:16:40.360 lot of people who will paint Tesla as being the 0:16:40.440 --> 0:16:44.520 the dedicated genius who is working for the betterment of 0:16:44.520 --> 0:16:48.960 all mankind but doesn't ever look to get gain glory 0:16:49.000 --> 0:16:52.400 in the process. That's not entirely accurate. Now, that's that's 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.240 not If you've ever seen any of the photographs that 0:16:54.240 --> 0:16:56.480 that he took around his equipment, I would say that 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:58.080 those are not the mark of someone who is not 0:16:58.120 --> 0:17:00.080 a showman. I saw this one photograph. He looked just 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:03.520 like David Bowie. Um. I might be mixing that up 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:08.080 with a documentary though, So then the the in in 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:10.440 uh in a T two. This whole time where he's 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:12.840 making he's working for Edison. He's got this idea for 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:16.919 the a C induction motor. He also is reportedly not 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.840 paid some money for the work he's doing for Edison Company, 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:22.840 at least not not all of it. Like there's money 0:17:22.960 --> 0:17:26.240 due to him that's not being paid. And this this 0:17:26.320 --> 0:17:30.240 is partly what lays the groundwork for this whole idea 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.919 of the heated rivalry between Edison and Tesla. A lot 0:17:33.960 --> 0:17:37.159 of it is money that's withheld from Tesla that was 0:17:37.200 --> 0:17:39.439 promised to him. I mean, and and this this is 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:41.080 when he was very he was what twenty six at 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:43.280 the time, and and in Paris, and so he was 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:46.080 he was really distantly connected from to Edison at the time, 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.920 but apparently started right you use this, If you use 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:53.240 this and just say like this is indicative of how 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:56.840 Edison treats people. Uh, it would apparently become company policy 0:17:56.920 --> 0:17:59.480 not to pay people for their work. That's what That's 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:02.560 what's jested of this. It also becomes you know, a 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:07.280 common thread in Tesla's life of getting getting cheated out 0:18:07.280 --> 0:18:09.520 of things that were owed him, which makes you wonder, 0:18:09.560 --> 0:18:13.600 if it happened so frequently, why is that Is it 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.320 all due to Was it just that he only worked 0:18:17.320 --> 0:18:20.120 with corrupt individuals and companies, or was it that there 0:18:20.160 --> 0:18:23.320 was something else going on here besides that part of 0:18:23.320 --> 0:18:26.119 the story. I have no doubt that Tesla was really 0:18:26.240 --> 0:18:29.800 cheated out of many of the things he deserved. I'm 0:18:29.840 --> 0:18:32.280 not sure that he was cheated out of everything that 0:18:32.400 --> 0:18:37.080 is attributed as being something he deserved. Um, but then 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.240 we'll get into that again. Four, he makes the big 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:45.879 move from Europe to America. He he had basically no 0:18:45.960 --> 0:18:47.760 money at the time. From what I understand, well, he 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:50.800 definitely had no money by the time he got there. Um. Yeah, 0:18:50.800 --> 0:18:52.440 it took a little longer for him to get there 0:18:52.440 --> 0:18:55.680 than he had anticipated. According to one timeline I read 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:58.760 the ship he was on. This is just Tesla's luck, right. 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:02.440 The ship he was on had a mutiny aboard the 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:10.040 ships and supposedly Tesla himself was nearly thrown overboard, probably 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:12.879 for being a witch. That that last part is just 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:15.719 me guessing. I didn't have any reason. I didn't have. 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:18.440 There was no reason given as to why Tesla would 0:19:18.440 --> 0:19:21.920 have been thrown overboard, so I'm just inventing one. But no, 0:19:22.040 --> 0:19:24.960 Apparently the shippy was on had a mutiny aboard it. 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:28.239 He ended up getting to New York way later than 0:19:28.240 --> 0:19:31.880 when he expected, and according to some reports, had four 0:19:32.040 --> 0:19:36.359 cents in his pocket. Now Also, depending upon whom you ask, 0:19:36.640 --> 0:19:39.440 he either immediately went to work for Edison, as in 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:43.679 got off the boat, filed and went into the office, 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.959 or he started the next day. That seems to be 0:19:47.000 --> 0:19:49.760 the two stories. Either way, I think that's pretty remarkable. 0:19:50.280 --> 0:19:53.960 Um and uh. And he works for Edison and he's 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:57.800 helping them with their systems. Uh. Supposedly again, he started 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:01.720 to suggest Edison that they which to an alternating current 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:04.239 model as opposed to direct current, and Ederson was very 0:20:04.320 --> 0:20:07.919 much against that idea. So then in eighteen eighty five, 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:12.240 Tesla forms the Tesla Electric Light Company. An investor group 0:20:12.320 --> 0:20:15.639 actually asks him if he will work on an arc 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.400 lighting system, and he agrees to do it and then 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:20.640 is later forced out of his own company when nothing 0:20:20.680 --> 0:20:22.880 to show for it. Was it was that all I mean, 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.359 because he started the company because he had been he 0:20:25.400 --> 0:20:27.879 had quit Edison's correct. Yeah. Essentially, that same year he 0:20:27.920 --> 0:20:32.280 resigns from the Edison company, And some say the reason 0:20:32.359 --> 0:20:34.719 he did that was because again here's another story of 0:20:34.760 --> 0:20:39.880 Tesla getting cheated. That Edison had promised Tesla a princely 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.679 sum of fifty thousand dollars for a particular project, and 0:20:43.720 --> 0:20:48.360 when Tesla completed the project against supposedly with flying colors 0:20:48.359 --> 0:20:51.760 and beyond all expectations. Edison then said, ha, ha, you 0:20:51.800 --> 0:20:55.000 don't understand American humor. I'm not giving you any money, 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:57.840 and then Tesla resigns, even though Edison supposedly at that 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:01.920 point offered an enormous raise to keep Tesla there. This 0:21:02.080 --> 0:21:05.320 makes Edison look like the biggest jerk on the face 0:21:05.359 --> 0:21:07.040 of the planet. I mean, I can't imagine my boss 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:08.800 coming up to me and saying, hey, you know when 0:21:08.800 --> 0:21:10.680 I told you you were going to make fifty dollars 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:12.280 if you did this thing, and then you did that thing, 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:13.840 you did it really well, Well you're not gonna get 0:21:13.840 --> 0:21:16.160 any money. Oh you want to leave, I'll raise your salary. 0:21:16.800 --> 0:21:20.600 That just like what kind of crazy person does that? Yeah, 0:21:20.680 --> 0:21:22.960 it doesn't it doesn't sound I mean, you know it could. 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:25.359 I never met Edison, didn't Did you meet him? You're 0:21:25.440 --> 0:21:29.639 very old, yuh. Tesla then claimed that he spent the 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:33.840 next year making money by digging ditches. So again, a great, 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:36.919 great story. If you're looking at his life in the 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.040 terms of like a tragic tale, you know, here you 0:21:40.080 --> 0:21:43.360 have this genius, incredible, super genius, the man who will 0:21:43.800 --> 0:21:47.080 one day light up the United States with his alternating 0:21:47.119 --> 0:21:54.200 current power grid, making money scraping by by digging ditches. Yeah. Um, again, 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:56.560 a lot of this comes from Tesla himself, and whether 0:21:56.640 --> 0:22:00.600 or not all of it is true, it remains part 0:22:00.760 --> 0:22:04.520 of myth. You know, I don't doubt that. I don't 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:07.199 doubt there were some bad business dealings. I'm sure that 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:09.080 was the case, and I don't doubt he had some 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:11.879 hard times and maybe he did make his living for 0:22:11.920 --> 0:22:14.320 a full year being you know, digging ditches and that 0:22:14.359 --> 0:22:18.040 was the only thing he could do. But it sounds more, 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:22.159 it sounds like melodrama. But sometimes works like that. Sometimes 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:27.000 that's sometimes that's the truth stranger things. But anyway, then 0:22:27.359 --> 0:22:30.840 by by e eighties seven, so you know, eighteen eighty six, 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:34.640 digging ditches, we don't need to go into that's it. Well, 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:36.879 I mean, meanwhile, in eighteen eighties six, actually it's interesting, 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:40.760 Westinghouse Electric had developed a transformer for commercial use. Yeah. 0:22:40.800 --> 0:22:44.000 So that's another thing we should mention is that, Uh, 0:22:44.119 --> 0:22:46.199 one of the reasons Tesla was really pushing for this 0:22:46.240 --> 0:22:49.440 alternating current thing with Edison is that back in Europe 0:22:49.800 --> 0:22:52.920 that's what they were using. A C was that's that's 0:22:52.920 --> 0:22:55.240