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lightning man (info)
capo 2nd chord formations:
This song is about the man I'd consider to be one of, if not the greatest inventor in modern history. Unfortunately, because this was the same era as Thomas Edison's rise to glory, Nikola Tesla gets sidelined by the history books.
'Well, what did he invent?' you ask. He invented an engine (a dynamo) that produced alternating current. Edison pioneered direct current. AC and DC. The big advantage of alternating current is that it allows electricity to travel over long distances without losing most of its juice. It's safer and easier to work with.
I refer you to the plugs in your wall, they're AC, and they're there because of Nikola Tesla.
He also invented remote control, so I refer you to your remote control. Another thing he invented was the Tesla coil, something used in televisions and many other electronic devices even today. But none of these things are what impressed me the most. What impressed me the most was that he was the first person to produce man-made lightning.
Yes, lightning. From a big metal sphere on top of his laboratory.
Hence the name of the song. Tesla tried to work for Edison, but found him intolerable. I think he hated that Edison had to make thousands of attempts to build his inventions when Tesla could design things in his head and they worked the first time. Also he was pretty pissed when Edison dismissed his whole idea of alternating current in favor of his own grossly inefficient system.
Tesla was even slated to receive a Nobel Prize together with Edison, but this never materialized and the prize was given only to Edison. Later, a consortium of engineers gave him the Thomas Edison Award, which he turned down, and rightly so!
Tesla also provided the lighting for the 1906 (I think that was the year) World's Fair, the contract for which was widely expected to go to Edison's Company. When Edison tried to sue for copyright violation on the light bulbs being used, Tesla was forced to invent his own light bulbs, too.
He was a reclusive man, a neat freak, and a close friend of Mark Twain. There are stories of him beating his fellow college students in cards and giving them their money back, only to go on to lose most of his money.
They didn't give it back.
In his later years he would claim to be able to receive energy to power any device directly from the Earth by tapping into its magnetic field. No energy companies were eager to fund his research. Another thing he claimed during WWII was the ability to develop a Death Ray that could destroy 10 000 planes or tanks. He did this for the same reason Einstein helped explain the concept behind an atom bomb, to help save the world from the Germans.
Tesla believed his inventions should be used to further the plight of mankind and took losses on many of his patents/inventions/ideas because of this belief. He was truly a great man, and deserves to be remembered more extensively than he is.
(c) 2005 jordan baugher |
