If Nikola Tesla prevailed

Ok lets consider this

If Tesla had been more successful

- would we see Tesla coils as a form of weapon?
- if we uncovered his lost or covered up patents what kind of stuff would be there?
- if the Wardenclyffe Tower had been built, would mankind have free electricity?


what if Tesla never exhisted

- would we be now using DC
- plain light bulbs?
- what kind of advancements would we have in Radio, TV, Mobile Phone
- what would be the advantages and disadvantages of such a world
 
Ok lets consider this

If Tesla had been more successful

- would we see Tesla coils as a form of weapon?
- if we uncovered his lost or covered up patents what kind of stuff would be there?
- if the Wardenclyffe Tower had been built, would mankind have free electricity?

1. Tesla coils can be used as a form of weapon, it just doesn't make much practically sense to throw them around at people. Mythbusters pretty much demonstrated that the TC was impractical as a weapon and would be a danger to both friend and foe. This is not to say that some one may have taken the principles behind the TC to make a weapon.

2. Since we don't know about his lost or covered up patents we don't know what impact they would be to begin with. That should have been pretty obvious to you.

3. The Wardenclyffe Tower was built, just never completed. Tesla's aim was at broadcast power, not free electricity.
 
Ok lets consider this

what if Tesla never exhisted

- would we be now using DC
- plain light bulbs?
- what kind of advancements would we have in Radio, TV, Mobile Phone
- what would be the advantages and disadvantages of such a world

1. I would consider it likely that another current system would have been developed for transmission over distances.

2. Tesla has nothing to do with the development of light bulbs, so its a mute point here.

3. Radio and TV would still happen since there were other people working in the field, or at least aware of the phenomenon. Of course mobile phones would remain a fiction.
 
As others have said, to a certain degree Tesla "did" prevail. Everything that he produced that was useful IS being used, AC being his biggest achievement.

Also, despite what rumor loves to say, the man was not some "super genus" centuries beyond his science. There were no missing plans for Free energy, there were no lost documents showing hot make anti gravity, there especially was not prototypes for a 'functioning' death ray in his lab when it bunt down.

In terms of changing history, the most you could do is make the man less crazy toward the end and more financially successful. Had Tesla realized his "transmitting energy" experiments really was a primitive form of Radio, he could have easily beat out Marconi and become the inventor of modern Radio.

The most you could hope for is for him to die a wealthy happy man who would be remembered along side bel land Edison as electrical pioneers, instead of languishing in historical obscurity for decades before being rediscovered in the past 15 years or so.
 
As others have said, to a certain degree Tesla "did" prevail. Everything that he produced that was useful IS being used, AC being his biggest achievement.

Also, despite what rumor loves to say, the man was not some "super genus" centuries beyond his science. There were no missing plans for Free energy, there were no lost documents showing hot make anti gravity, there especially was not prototypes for a 'functioning' death ray in his lab when it bunt down.

In terms of changing history, the most you could do is make the man less crazy toward the end and more financially successful. Had Tesla realized his "transmitting energy" experiments really was a primitive form of Radio, he could have easily beat out Marconi and become the inventor of modern Radio.

The most you could hope for is for him to die a wealthy happy man who would be remembered along side bel land Edison as electrical pioneers, instead of languishing in historical obscurity for decades before being rediscovered in the past 15 years or so.

Thank you.
 
Do you have a link to this?
It basically starts with the same POD as Zacoftheaxes with Morgan's daughter cooling him out and putting him in a position to pursue his ideas and ends with a world governed by the League of Nations and the World Scientific Council where cars fly through the air (as does electricity), art deco is the style, your ray gun runs on Morgan-Tesla AA atomic powerpacks, the good guys are good the bad guys are bad and the two can be differentiated by the color of the feather in their fedora. Pretty much a mix of the classic 30's-50's era pulps. Think Sky Captain but where everyone has cool future tech. The one thing they lack is computers which is a bit odd as Tesla I do believe had a patent (or at least a schematic) for an early transistor.
In terms of changing history, the most you could do is make the man less crazy toward the end and more financially successful. Had Tesla realized his "transmitting energy" experiments really was a primitive form of Radio, he could have easily beat out Marconi and become the inventor of modern Radio.
According to the SCOTUS he already did.

Anyway I agree with what others here have said. While toning him down to a more productive level of crazy would have been a boon to mankind (while it has limited applications in large scale power transmission charging your phone or laptop from accross the room isn't out of the question and if my memory of Tesla's transistor isn't false it could lead to the rise of modern computers decades early) he isn't from the year 5000 with the secrets of FTL travels and infinite energy in his pocket.
 
According to the SCOTUS he already did.

Anyway I agree with what others here have said. While toning him down to a more productive level of crazy would have been a boon to mankind (while it has limited applications in large scale power transmission charging your phone or laptop from accross the room isn't out of the question and if my memory of Tesla's transistor isn't false it could lead to the rise of modern computers decades early) he isn't from the year 5000 with the secrets of FTL travels and infinite energy in his pocket.

Since Teslas time, studies into Energy transmission have basically found it to be a dead end. You CAN transmit energy over short distances, but in terms of practical applications it is rather limited. As batteries become more and more powerful and in smaller and smaller sizes, things that might have benefited from energy transmission, don't really need them.

It is interesting that you mention the somewhat infamous "Tesla Transistor". According to most who have looked at his work, his basic idea was flawed and would not have produced a transistor as we think of them. However it DID point in the correct direction, if you knew what you were looking for, it wouldn't take much to discovery a true transistor using Teslas as a guide.

The problem however is that no one at the time would have any idea what to look for. Electronics as a whole were in their infancy and you would need a unique set of circumstances for someone, or a group of somone's to look at Teslas work and realize what it could lead to.
 
1. Tesla coils can be used as a form of weapon, it just doesn't make much practically sense to throw them around at people. Mythbusters pretty much demonstrated that the TC was impractical as a weapon and would be a danger to both friend and foe. This is not to say that some one may have taken the principles behind the TC to make a weapon.

2. Since we don't know about his lost or covered up patents we don't know what impact they would be to begin with. That should have been pretty obvious to you.

3. The Wardenclyffe Tower was built, just never completed. Tesla's aim was at broadcast power, not free electricity.


1. still given the impracticalities would there or could there be tesla coils like in Red Alert.

2. I am not a massive Nicola Tesla archiver, I don't know WHAT could be in his lost or unveiled patents, wondered if YOU guys had heard something. That is not so obvious.

3. Yes so what if it was completed, what if power was broadcasted etc... would we still be on the grid paying for electricity?
 
1. I would consider it likely that another current system would have been developed for transmission over distances.

2. Tesla has nothing to do with the development of light bulbs, so its a mute point here.

3. Radio and TV would still happen since there were other people working in the field, or at least aware of the phenomenon. Of course mobile phones would remain a fiction.


1. so DC current would have been adapted for longer transmission

2. No he did not have anything to do with the development of light bulbs, so given he never worked on neon etc... how would light bulb tech have changed/ be used now.

3. ok so we would have radio and tv, but still what would it be like without Tesla's work, would we have mobile phones or an alternative?
 
1. Tesla coils can be used as a form of weapon, it just doesn't make much practically sense to throw them around at people. Mythbusters pretty much demonstrated that the TC was impractical as a weapon and would be a danger to both friend and foe. This is not to say that some one may have taken the principles behind the TC to make a weapon.

What if the user developed sufficient armour of some kind to insulate themselves? Plastic skin armour... or possible cloaking tech derived from one his patents?
 
1. I would consider it likely that another current system would have been developed for transmission over distances.

2. Tesla has nothing to do with the development of light bulbs, so its a mute point here.

3. Radio and TV would still happen since there were other people working in the field, or at least aware of the phenomenon. Of course mobile phones would remain a fiction.

Tesla did indeed experiment with lighting devices of many types, and invented, among many others, the fluorescent light. His most distinctive speciality was in the field of high voltage. Nobody made a light show quite like Tesla. His greatest failing was the inability to turn genius into money.

July 10 is Tesla Day in New York State. I celebrated early this year by cutting the extension cord with my hedge trimmer. It's the least I could do. Make some sparks.
 
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