On Thursday, April 11, 2002, at 12:48 PM, A. Melon wrote: > Tim May <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> On Thursday, April 11, 2002, at 06:59 AM, Mike Rosing wrote: >>> But the reason we have AC today is because Tesla requested no >>> royalties on his motor/generator. Something for Brands to think >>> about. >> >> No, we have AC because AC works better than DC in home wiring >> situations. > > Hmmm. I always thought the reason we went with AC was because at the > time, DC power couldn't cut it. They couldn't find any way to reliably > transfer DC power more than a half mile or so from the power plant, and > when trying to demonstrate it in NYC couldn't even get DC power all the > way up a multi-story building. > > Tesla's AC power solved this problem, after which Edison and his backers > started some kind of smear campaign saying that DC was safer and such. >
Then why, 100 or more years after any patent or similar issues were important, and long after "safer" issues have had many decades to be clarified, is AC power distribution the norm all around the world? If "They Laughed at Nikolai" Tesla offers the better solution, expain the situation around the world today. (No credit for "They beamed mind rays into everyone's head, even those in Ulan Bator and Timbuktu!") Tesla was a creative scientist, no doubt. But some things creative people invent turn out not be useful. The whole Tesla Cult took root when, it is alleged, some of his research was classified by the U.S. Government. Mix in the usual paranoid Area 51 nutcase shit about unlimited power, saucer science, and the Bilderbergers and we get the current pseudoscience about Tesla having solved the world's energy problems. Those of you who believe this, and who mutter about it at Cypherpunks meetings, should think more critically. --Tim May "If I'm going to reach out to the the Democrats then I need a third hand.There's no way I'm letting go of my wallet or my gun while they're around." --attribution uncertain, possibly Gunner, on Usenet
