WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: Tesla- The Man, The Myths, The Truth 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:07.360 Welcome to tex Stuff, a production of I Heart Radios. 0:00:07.360 --> 0:00:14.160 How Stuff Works. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.159 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm an executive producer with 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:20.279 I Heart Radio and I love all things tech and 0:00:20.480 --> 0:00:23.880 um looking at the calendar, it looks like it's a Friday. 0:00:24.239 --> 0:00:27.320 That means it's time for another classic episode of tech Stuff. 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:31.240 This episode we're about to listen to originally published back 0:00:31.280 --> 0:00:35.839 in February two thirteen, and it's all about Nicola Tesla. 0:00:36.200 --> 0:00:38.400 And I'm sure you guys are at least familiar with 0:00:38.440 --> 0:00:42.760 the name. Tesla has been the featured player in many 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.239 an Internet meme over the past several years, and there 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:47.839 are a lot of stories about him. Some of them 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:51.320 are true, and some of them are probably exaggerated, and 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:54.959 some of them might just be completely off basse. So 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:59.040 I wanted to develop a full episode about Tesla and 0:00:59.120 --> 0:01:01.800 talk about him his good points, is bad points, everything 0:01:01.800 --> 0:01:03.760 in between, and that's what we're going to listen to. 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:07.399 So let's sit back and hear this classic episode of 0:01:07.480 --> 0:01:11.479 tech Stuff. We are focusing finally, after many, many, many 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:15.360 people have asked us to do a full episode about 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:23.160 Nicola Tesla. The Internet legend the the man placed on 0:01:23.240 --> 0:01:26.560 a virtual pedestal on the Internet that is gleaming and 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:29.400 beauteous and will zap you if you ever dare say 0:01:29.400 --> 0:01:32.080 anything against him. He is, he's staring at us from 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:35.400 the walls of the podcast room right now. Yes, he is. Now. 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:36.880 The question of whether or not he'll be staring at 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:41.920 us in our news studio it remains to be answered. Uh, 0:01:42.120 --> 0:01:44.480 we'll probably end up propping him up on a mic 0:01:44.560 --> 0:01:48.240 stand or something, so he's still judging us constantly. But yeah, 0:01:48.240 --> 0:01:50.360 we want to talk about Tesla, kind of talk about 0:01:50.400 --> 0:01:55.440 his his contributions to technology and also maybe take a 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:59.480 critical look at some of the some of the claims 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:03.800 about slaw and some of the misconceptions people have about 0:02:03.960 --> 0:02:07.760 his contributions. Yeah, he's he's a mythological figure, really a 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:10.440 mythological nerd figure, which is which is fabulous. I mean, 0:02:10.440 --> 0:02:13.680 it's really terrific, and it's it's it's understandable why because 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:16.320 he he by the end of his life, was so downtrodden. 0:02:16.320 --> 0:02:19.399 And there's nothing that people and geeks especially love more 0:02:19.600 --> 0:02:23.000 than than an anti hero. Yeah. Here, here's a guy 0:02:23.639 --> 0:02:28.280 who has been beaten down. He's he's Uh, seen his 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.720 fortunes dwindle away. He's he's made some bad choices. Uh. 0:02:32.840 --> 0:02:36.760 He has all the earmarks of a classic geek. Geeks 0:02:36.840 --> 0:02:39.560 love this underdog kind of story. And when you get 0:02:39.560 --> 0:02:44.800 into things like sort of the the demonification of other people, 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.640 Edison in particular, Yeah, but even people like JP Morgan 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:52.400 and Lustinghouse, then it seems like the whole world had 0:02:52.400 --> 0:02:54.680 turned against him. And and depending on how you look 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.120 at his story, it can definitely come across that way. 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.040 But that's doing a little bit of a disservice to 0:03:00.120 --> 0:03:03.440 the entire tale. And Uh, the reason why I'm talking 0:03:03.440 --> 0:03:06.000 about in this way is because there is what we 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.440 thought some people referred to as the cult of Tesla, right, 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:14.200 this idea of elevating him beyond what his contributions were. Uh, 0:03:14.280 --> 0:03:17.280 there was a cartoon that I think a lot of 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:19.560 you guys out there saw because he posted about it 0:03:19.560 --> 0:03:22.960 on our Facebook page that the Oatmeal did all about 0:03:23.080 --> 0:03:27.760 Tesla and his contributions and his rivalry with Edison and 0:03:27.840 --> 0:03:31.360 kind of comparing him favorably against Edison in every single 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.520 category and saying that there should be a Tesla museum. 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.560 And so we wanted to talk about what Tesla actually 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.839 did and what he did not do, and uh, and 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.800 whether or not he deserves all those acohomis yeah. Yeah, 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.000 And and and just just before anyone who is a rabbit 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:51.400 fan of the oat mal gets honest, because I don't 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:53.920 I do not want to incite your anger. Uh, it's 0:03:53.960 --> 0:03:58.320 we realize that it's a comic and that that although uh, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:01.240 many of the statements are factual, the writer whose name 0:04:01.280 --> 0:04:04.200 I'm completely forgetting right now has come out and said that, hey, 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.080 this is a comic. I'm I'm a comic artist. And 0:04:07.240 --> 0:04:10.800 some of this was hyper Bowl so perfectly. No, I 0:04:10.840 --> 0:04:14.720 like its hyper Bowl. It's way better than that Super One. 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.360 I like the hyper Bowl a lot more. I am 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:20.160 never gonna let you live that down. And we are 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:23.680 not real recording it. Let's move on. So yeah. Tesla 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:28.560 born on July tenth, eighteen fifty six, in what is 0:04:28.640 --> 0:04:32.880 now Croatia, now eighteen fifty six by the Gregorian calendar. 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:35.640 If you have looked up at Tesla's birth and you 0:04:35.680 --> 0:04:39.159 saw that it was actually in June June, that's because 0:04:39.200 --> 0:04:42.440 at the time they were keeping time with the Julian calendar. 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:45.800 And it's only when you account for that when you 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:47.599 match those up that you realize that. Okay, well, if 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:51.360 you're using a real calendar like I do, the one 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:53.080 that's on my smartphone, and that's the only way I 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:55.919 know what day it is. It was July t So 0:04:56.080 --> 0:04:59.040 eighteen fifty six July t and born in in Uh 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:04.320 part of Austria, Hungary which is now Croatia UM And 0:05:04.480 --> 0:05:07.719 as a boy, he went to what we would think 0:05:07.720 --> 0:05:10.560 of in the United States is elementary school or primary 0:05:10.600 --> 0:05:16.320 school and studied German arithmetic and religion because his dad 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:18.720 was a pastor and his mom's father was a pastor, 0:05:19.320 --> 0:05:21.920 both both in the Orthodox Church. Actually, so yeah, so 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:25.640 he definitely had a religious upbringing and his father really 0:05:25.680 --> 0:05:27.360 wanted him to be a priest by the way, Yes, 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:29.680 he did a lot. In fact, he was not so 0:05:29.839 --> 0:05:34.040 thrilled about Tesla going into engineering. UM. When he was 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:39.200 a young boy, Tesla's Tesla's older brother named Dane, died 0:05:39.279 --> 0:05:41.559 in a tragic accident. He actually fell off a horse 0:05:41.760 --> 0:05:45.440 and died. There were some stories that Tesla or Nicola 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:51.920 Tesla was playing around and spooked the horse that caused Yes, 0:05:52.279 --> 0:05:53.680 so actually I've heard I'm sorry, I meant to I 0:05:53.760 --> 0:05:56.600 meant to insert this earlier. But the very first terrific 0:05:56.640 --> 0:05:58.240 tall tale that I heard about Tesla was that he 0:05:58.279 --> 0:06:00.240 was born on a dark and storm and I to 0:06:00.400 --> 0:06:02.680 lightning right right, He was born on the stroke of 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.560 midnight as lightning crashed in the sky, and that one 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:08.840 person said he would be a boy of storms, and 0:06:08.880 --> 0:06:10.640 his mother said, no, he shall be a man of 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:14.159 the light. I might be inserting some of my hyper 0:06:14.160 --> 0:06:18.160 bowl in there. Goodness, my gracious. So yeah, And as 0:06:18.200 --> 0:06:20.599 a child they moved around quite a bit as his 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.320 father was finding a church to be pastor in. And 0:06:24.400 --> 0:06:27.240 in eighteen seventy, so I remember he's born in eighteen 0:06:27.279 --> 0:06:29.920 fifty six. By eighteen seventy he moves in with his 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:34.240 aunt and starts to attend a school that we're a 0:06:34.240 --> 0:06:40.480 teacher named Martin skul Chick, sorry Skolich Sokolich. Uh So, 0:06:40.560 --> 0:06:44.280 Martin Sokolich is teaching there, and he's teaching math and physics, 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:49.400 and Tesla finds both the professor and the subject matter fascinating, 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:54.240 and he becomes really focused on math and physics, and 0:06:54.279 --> 0:06:57.640 in fact he's so focused he graduates a year early. 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.760 So he was certainly a man of genius. He possessed 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:06.240 a genius and an affinity for physics, for math, for 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.440 engineering that far outstripped most of his contemporaries. Oh yeah, definitely. 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.600 But then again, this is also the era where we 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:18.200 start seeing these technologies form and uh, and so it 0:07:18.240 --> 0:07:20.840 was an exciting time if you were interested in physics, 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.360 because this is when we're making lots of big discoveries, 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:29.840 things that some people say are low hanging fruit, you know, 0:07:30.240 --> 0:07:33.200 in retrospect, the idea that there were all these discoveries 0:07:33.240 --> 0:07:35.200 to make. But it's hard to see how we're going 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:39.119 to advance from this point forward because all the quote 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:42.200 unquote easy things have been discovered. Not that any of 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:45.120 these things were easy, it's just that now you are 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.960 have to become increasingly specialized in whatever scientific fields you're 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:52.280 in to clearly understand it. Sure, but while doing this, 0:07:52.320 --> 0:07:53.920 researcher kind of blew my mind. I actually don't have 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:58.160 a strong history in in electronic background, and and it 0:07:58.160 --> 0:08:00.400 blew my mind that it wasn't until eighteen seventy three 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:04.240 that that James Clerk Maxwell proved that light is is 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:08.440 electromagnetic energy. Yeah, yes, this is He's he's growing up 0:08:08.480 --> 0:08:12.000 at a time when uh, these discoveries are being made, 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:15.720 and that would impact his own work and in fact 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:19.880 drive him to achieve great things. Also, eighteen seventy three, 0:08:19.920 --> 0:08:23.560 that was the year he contracted cholera. Yeah, and it 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:25.600 was due to the cholera that he kind of shaped 0:08:25.640 --> 0:08:28.280 the rest of his life. Yeah. Well, yeah, quite a 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:30.360 few things. Because if you if you've heard about Tesla, 0:08:30.480 --> 0:08:33.680 you know that he uh, he reportedly had a bit 0:08:33.760 --> 0:08:38.920 of obsessive compulsive disorder, that he was a germophobe, that 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:42.280 he was a clean He was obsessed with being clean 0:08:42.440 --> 0:08:44.880 and having cleaned things around him. He reported in his 0:08:44.880 --> 0:08:47.839 own biography that he had a severe aversion to touching 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.120 other people's hair. That he had to do things if 0:08:51.280 --> 0:08:54.760 if they require repetition, in the repetition of threes, and 0:08:54.800 --> 0:08:57.760 if he did not, then he had to stop and restart. Yeah, 0:08:57.840 --> 0:09:01.319 so he may have developed some of the peculiarities. At 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.000 this time. He was in bed for about nine months, 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.480 nearly died a few times. So I would imagine that 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.080 was definitely something that would shape you, whether or not that. 0:09:10.720 --> 0:09:14.040 I'm sure there were other issues that are beyond just 0:09:14.440 --> 0:09:17.400 getting sick. There were probably some things that were psychologically 0:09:18.240 --> 0:09:21.600 part of his being from the point where he was born. 0:09:22.080 --> 0:09:25.320 But we don't know to what extent obviously, and um 0:09:25.559 --> 0:09:27.360 and you know what's odd to me, I might as 0:09:27.360 --> 0:09:31.200 well talk about this for right now. So neat freak, 0:09:31.640 --> 0:09:34.679 if you want to put it that way. Germophobe doesn't 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:40.160 like touching people. Loved pigeons, loved them rats with wings, 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:43.839 that's what they are. Well, that that was, that was 0:09:43.880 --> 0:09:47.280 also towards the end of his life that he became 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.000 obsessed with him became incredibly obsessed with pigeons. Yeah, it 0:09:50.000 --> 0:09:51.760 just makes me think of that great scene in the 0:09:51.800 --> 0:10:00.280 documentary The Producers, Boydes Filthy Rotten Boydes. I appreciate that 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.160 that your your Yiddish accent there is is better than mine. 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:05.200 That's excellent. I should also point out that that that's 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.920 the nineteen sixty eight version of the documentary The Producers, 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:13.320 not the musical version starring Nathan Lane. Matthew Broderick actually 0:10:13.320 --> 0:10:16.760 has zero mostel Gene Wilder. I'm getting off track anyway. 0:10:17.080 --> 0:10:21.439 Um so yeah, so he's he's definitely got some interesting personality. 0:10:21.520 --> 0:10:25.800 Quirks eighteen seventy four. He starts to move around a 0:10:25.840 --> 0:10:30.560 little bit, mostly hiding out from the army because in 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.920 that part of the world, in Austro Austrio, Austro Hungary. Look, 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:40.040 I can't say that. Uh yes we do, thank thank goodness. 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:42.840 We don't speak into a microphone for a living right. Uh. 0:10:43.960 --> 0:10:45.760 But back in that time, in that part of the world, 0:10:46.880 --> 0:10:49.240 army service was required of all young men. There was 0:10:49.320 --> 0:10:53.600 three years mandatory service. And Tesla was not too keen 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:58.880 on doing that. So he kind of, um, he was dodging, 0:10:59.480 --> 0:11:01.840 that's the best way of putting it. Uh. The next year, 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:06.280 eight five, he starts to attend the Austrian Polytechnic School 0:11:06.920 --> 0:11:10.840 and he starts off really strong. He's doing really well 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:14.200 in his classes. He understands the concepts, and unlike some 0:11:14.280 --> 0:11:16.520 other some other visionaries like say Stephen Hawking, he was 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.480 very good in school. Yep, yep. Also, you know, not 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:22.640 not like Einstein or some of the other famous folks 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:26.560 who seemed to have trouble in class. Now that that 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:29.280 was true for about a year, and then about that 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:31.760 second year, things began to take a little bit of 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:36.280 a dip because he began to point out shortcomings or 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.880 what he thought of as shortcomings in his professor's understanding 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:43.559 of things like electrical engineering and saying things like, you know, 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:46.920 you could build a device that does the same thing 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.600 without this one component that you are claiming is absolutely 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.480 necessary for it to work. That furthermore puts off gigantic 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:56.640 electrical shocks that are actually pretty dangerous, like you could 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:59.520 do it this way. And then, uh, if you mouth 0:11:59.600 --> 0:12:03.280 off your professors often enough, you might find yourself in 0:12:03.400 --> 0:12:06.960 some academic trouble. And that's kind of what Tesla did. 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:12.720 He he began to get disillusioned about pursuing studies in 0:12:12.720 --> 0:12:15.840 an academic setting, and after about a little over three years, 0:12:16.160 --> 0:12:20.360 he actually dropped out of the polytechnic school. So he 0:12:20.440 --> 0:12:24.680 moved to Slovenia in eight to work as a draftsman 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:28.360 for an engineering firm, but by eighteen seventy nine, the 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:33.440 next year, some some police officials show up and asked 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.200 to see his residents papers, which he did not have, 0:12:37.960 --> 0:12:40.320 so then he was escorted back to his family's home 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.520 because he didn't have a residence permit for Slovenia, And 0:12:44.840 --> 0:12:50.960 that same year his father passes away, uh and Tesla 0:12:51.520 --> 0:12:54.120 starts to a new career as a teacher in the 0:12:54.160 --> 0:12:58.280 same school that he attended as a boy, but realizes 0:12:58.440 --> 0:13:01.000 very quickly, that's not not for him. Yeah, he doesn't 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:03.920 want to do that. Um So Then the next year, 0:13:03.960 --> 0:13:07.280 eighteen eighty, he moved to Prague. He tries to attend 0:13:07.360 --> 0:13:12.079 Carl Ferdinand University, but he's unable to understand Greek or check, 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:15.520 both of which were prerequisites to attend as a student, 0:13:16.040 --> 0:13:19.720 so instead he audits classes. Uh. And he begins to 0:13:19.720 --> 0:13:23.600 work for the Budapest Telephone Exchange and also the Central 0:13:23.679 --> 0:13:26.040 Telegraph Office. Eighteen eighty by the way, it was the 0:13:26.120 --> 0:13:29.960 year that that Thomas Edison unveiled his electric incandescent lamp 0:13:30.000 --> 0:13:32.120 to the public for the first time. Yep, so that's 0:13:32.160 --> 0:13:34.240 a good thing to to keep in mind. There are 0:13:34.320 --> 0:13:36.880 some big things happening at the same time that Tesla's 0:13:37.280 --> 0:13:39.360 kind of you know, he hasn't really made a name 0:13:39.400 --> 0:13:44.079 for himself yet. He's been a very enthusiastic student at 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:46.960 times of his life, and he is certainly interested in 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:53.040 electronics or really we should say electricity electronics too early, 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:58.720 but electricity and its applications. Um So, he does that 0:13:58.800 --> 0:14:00.440 for a couple of years. In eighteen eighty too, he 0:14:00.559 --> 0:14:05.600 joins the Continental Edison Company and begins to work on 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:11.120 things like dynamos, which are well, you've heard us talk 0:14:11.160 --> 0:14:14.920 about dynamos and our episodes about electromagnets and motors and 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.000 uh induction in the reverse of that, so we I 0:14:18.040 --> 0:14:20.320 won't go into it. But anyway, he starts to work 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.880 on that. Now this means that he becomes an employee, 0:14:24.520 --> 0:14:28.240 although you know, indirectly and way down the line of Edison. 0:14:29.480 --> 0:14:34.320 So yeah, he's sitting there working for the company of 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.720 the man who would one day become his greatest rival. 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:43.000 According to me, they have dragon ball style fights in 0:14:43.040 --> 0:14:47.400 the sky. Yeah, they also would occasionally catch Pokemon, but 0:14:47.520 --> 0:14:51.440 it was only the one that shoots the electricity. I 0:14:51.480 --> 0:14:54.360 don't I don't know which one. Oh, come on, it's Pikachu. 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:56.320 I was just I was trying to bait Lauren to 0:14:56.360 --> 0:14:59.600 see if I could get it. I actually know that 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:06.160 you win this time vocal bomb. So at this time 0:15:06.200 --> 0:15:08.840 he also gets the idea for the A C induction motor, 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:14.200 although Asterisk not necessarily the first person to think about that. 0:15:15.200 --> 0:15:18.720 Supposedly in a vision, well supposedly he had these visions. 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:22.359 Supposedly he was was very light and audio sensitive, and occasionally, 0:15:22.440 --> 0:15:25.640 upon looking at one object or having a certain idea, 0:15:25.680 --> 0:15:30.720 would would get an extremely strong visual perception of something 0:15:30.720 --> 0:15:34.480 that he had already seen, or or of nothing, nothing 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:38.280 imaginary unless it was a new invention. But yeah, occasionally 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.720 he would get these flashes that that kind of disturbed 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.600 him a lot, according to his autobiography. Yeah, so essentially 0:15:43.680 --> 0:15:46.960 what would happen is he would be walking through a 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:49.760 park and look at a beautiful scene, and then suddenly 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:53.160 an idea would form, fully formed in his head, like 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:56.000 not not something he had been puzzling about necessarily, It 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.960 might just be hey, boom, here are all the pieces 0:15:58.960 --> 0:16:00.960 and the puzzle is completely it together. You know, we 0:16:01.240 --> 0:16:04.200 opened up the box and the puzzles there, as opposed 0:16:04.200 --> 0:16:06.880 to you've been trying to fix this problem for years, 0:16:06.880 --> 0:16:09.640 and oh here's the inspiration. And so yeah. Supposedly he 0:16:09.680 --> 0:16:11.480 was walking through the city park in Budapest with a 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:14.840 friend and saw a beautiful sunset and quoted some poetry 0:16:14.880 --> 0:16:18.440 and then had an idea for for the induction motor. Yeah, 0:16:18.640 --> 0:16:21.320 and just drew it in the sand and then kept walking. Yeah. 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.600 Whether or not that's true, it's hard to say. Because Tesla, 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:26.680 as it turns out, was something of a showman, a 0:16:26.680 --> 0:16:29.920 little bit of an unreliable narrator. I would say unreliable 0:16:30.000 --> 0:16:31.760 narrator is a very kind way of putting it. The 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:34.680 same sort of thing is true of all the big 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.640 names at this time, because they were the rock stars 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:40.680 of that of that era. So Edison, same sort of thing. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:46.040 Edison was a master at at pr you know, beyond 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:49.120 beyond being the head of a very successful research and 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:53.480 development firm. He was very good at presenting his ideas 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:56.720 to a public and explaining why they were the best ideas, 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.360 even if they weren't the best ideas. Tesla was. He 0:17:00.440 --> 0:17:02.200 was no slouch in that department either. There are a 0:17:02.240 --> 0:17:04.399 lot of people who will paint Tesla as being the 0:17:05.600 --> 0:17:08.520 the dedicated genius who is working for the betterment of 0:17:08.560 --> 0:17:13.000 all mankind but doesn't ever look to get gain glory 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.480 in the process. That's not entirely accurate. Now, that's that's 0:17:16.480 --> 0:17:18.280 not If you've ever seen any of the photographs that 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:20.520 that he took around his equipment, I would say that 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.119 those are not the mark of someone who is not 0:17:22.119 --> 0:17:24.159 a showman. I saw this one photograph. He looked just 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:27.600 like David Bowie. Um might be mixing that up with 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:32.560 a documentary though, So then the the in in uh 0:17:32.600 --> 0:17:34.760 in A ten two. This whole time where he's making 0:17:35.000 --> 0:17:36.960 he's working for Edison. He's got this idea for the 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:41.440 A C induction motor. He also is reportedly not paid 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.840 some money for the work he's doing for Edison Company, 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:46.880 at least not not all of it. Like there's money 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:50.280 due to him that's not being paid. And this this 0:17:50.359 --> 0:17:54.280 is partly what lays the groundwork for this whole idea 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:57.960 of the heated rivalry between Edison and Tesla. A lot 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:01.199 of it is money that's withheld from Tesla that was 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:03.359 promised to him. I mean, and yeah, and this this 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:04.960 is when he was very he was what twenty six 0:18:04.960 --> 0:18:07.320 at the time, and in Paris, and so he was 0:18:07.359 --> 0:18:10.080 he was really distantly connected from to Edison at the time. 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.679 But apparently grudge started, right you use this, If you 0:18:14.800 --> 0:18:17.040 use this and just say like this is indicative of 0:18:17.080 --> 0:18:20.880 how Edison treats people, it would apparently become company policy 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:23.520 not to pay people for their work. That's what that's 0:18:23.520 --> 0:18:26.600 what suggested of this. It also becomes you know, a 0:18:26.680 --> 0:18:31.320 common thread in Tesla's life of getting getting cheated out 0:18:31.320 --> 0:18:33.560 of things that were owed him, which makes you wonder 0:18:33.600 --> 0:18:37.600 if it happens so frequently. Why is that? Is it 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.359 all due to Was it just that he only worked 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:44.160 with corrupt individuals and companies, or was it that there 0:18:44.200 --> 0:18:47.359 was something else going on here? Besides that part of 0:18:47.359 --> 0:18:50.159 the story, I have no doubt that Tesla was really 0:18:50.240 --> 0:18:53.800 cheated out of many of the things he deserved. I'm 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.240 not sure that he was cheated out of everything that 0:18:56.440 --> 0:19:01.360 is attributed as beingthing he deserved. Um, but then we'll 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:05.560 get into that again. Yeo, he makes the big move 0:19:05.800 --> 0:19:10.240 from Europe to America. He he had basically no money 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:12.080 at the time. From what I understand, well, he definitely 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:14.800 had no money by the time he got there. Um. Yeah, 0:19:14.840 --> 0:19:16.439 it took a little longer for him to get there 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.720 than he had anticipated. According to one timeline I read 0:19:20.200 --> 0:19:22.760 the ship he was on. This is just Tesla's luck, right, 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:26.760 The ship he was on had a mutiny aboard the ship. 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:28.840 Oh my goodness. I did not read about this, and 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:34.560 supposedly Tesla himself was nearly thrown overboard, probably for being 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:37.600 a witch. That that last part is just me guessing. 0:19:38.320 --> 0:19:40.080 I didn't have any reason. I didn't have. There was 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.800 no reason given as to why Tesla would have been 0:19:42.800 --> 0:19:46.560 thrown overboard, so I'm just inventing one. But no, apparently 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:49.040 the ship he was on had a mutiny aboard it. 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.280 I ended up getting to New York way later than 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:55.920 when he expected, and, according to some reports, had four 0:19:56.040 --> 0:20:00.479 cents in his pocket. Now, also, depending upon whom you asked, 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.480 he either immediately went to work for Edison, as in 0:20:03.680 --> 0:20:07.719 got off the boat, filed and went into the office, 0:20:07.840 --> 0:20:10.960 or he started the next day. That seems to be 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.800 the two stories. Either way, I think that's pretty remarkable. 0:20:14.320 --> 0:20:18.000 Um and uh. And he works for Edison and he's 0:20:18.040 --> 0:20:21.840 helping them with their systems. Uh. Supposedly again, he started 0:20:21.880 --> 0:20:25.399 to suggest to Edison that they switched to an alternating 0:20:25.440 --> 0:20:27.840 current model as opposed to direct current, and Ederson was 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.920 very much against that idea. So then in eighteen five, 0:20:32.080 --> 0:20:36.320 Tesla forms the Tesla Electric Light Company. An investor group 0:20:36.359 --> 0:20:39.680 actually asks him if he will work on an ARC 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.399 lighting system, and he agrees to do it, and then 0:20:42.520 --> 0:20:44.680 is later forced out of his own company when nothing 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:46.920 to show for it. Was Was that all? I mean? 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.399 Because he started the company because he had been he 0:20:49.440 --> 0:20:51.919 had quit Edison's correct. Yeah, Essentially, that same year, he 0:20:51.960 --> 0:20:56.320 resigns from the Edison Company, and some say the reason 0:20:56.359 --> 0:20:58.760 he did that was because, again, here's another story of 0:20:58.760 --> 0:21:03.920 Tesla getting cheated. That Edison had promised Tesla a princely 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.920 some fifty thou dollars for a particular project, and when 0:21:08.000 --> 0:21:12.439 Tesla completed the project again supposedly with flying colors and 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:16.040 beyond all expectations, Edison then said, ha, ha, you don't 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:19.199 understand American humor. I'm not giving you any money, and 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:22.200 then Tesla resigns, even though Edison supposedly at that point 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:26.399 offered an enormous raise to keep Tesla there. This makes 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:29.439 Edison look like the biggest jerk on the face of 0:21:29.440 --> 0:21:31.280 the planet. I mean, I can't imagine my boss coming 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:32.919 up to me and saying, hey, you know when I 0:21:32.920 --> 0:21:34.919 told you were going to make fifty dollars if you 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:36.439 did this thing, and then you did that thing, you 0:21:36.480 --> 0:21:38.320 did it really well. Well, you're not gonna get any money. 0:21:38.320 --> 0:21:40.879 Oh you want to leave, I'll raise your salary. That 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:44.639 just like what kind of crazy person does that? Yeah, 0:21:44.680 --> 0:21:46.560 it doesn't it doesn't sound I mean, you know it 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:48.960 could I start. I never met Edison, didn't did you 0:21:48.960 --> 0:21:53.080 mean him? You're very old? Uh? Tesla then claimed that 0:21:53.119 --> 0:21:55.960 he spent the next year making money by digging ditches. 0:21:56.280 --> 0:21:59.840 So again, a great, great story if you're looking at 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:03.439 his life in the terms of like a tragic tale. 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:06.440 You know, here you have this genius of super genius, 0:22:06.480 --> 0:22:09.679 the man who will one day light up the United 0:22:09.720 --> 0:22:14.240 States with his alternating current power grid, making money scraping 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:18.760 by by digging ditches. Yeah. Again, a lot of this 0:22:18.840 --> 0:22:21.560 comes from Tesla himself, and whether or not all of 0:22:21.600 --> 0:22:26.359 it is true, it remains part of myth. You know, 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.280 I don't doubt that. I don't doubt there were some 0:22:29.320 --> 0:22:32.119 bad business dealings. I'm sure that was the case, and 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:34.040 I don't doubt he had some hard times and maybe 0:22:34.080 --> 0:22:36.720 he did make his living for a full year being 0:22:37.280 --> 0:22:38.920 you know, digging ditches and that was the only thing 0:22:38.920 --> 0:22:43.400 he could do. But it sounds more, it sounds like melodrama. 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:47.040 But sometimes like works like that, sometimes that's the Sometimes 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:52.080 that's the truth. Stranger things. But anyway, h then by 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:55.760 by e eight seven, so you know A six digging ditches, 0:22:55.840 --> 0:22:58.680 we don't need to go into as that's it. Well, 0:22:58.680 --> 0:23:01.639 I mean, meanwhile, in eighteen eighties, actually it's interesting Westinghouse 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:04.960