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Disclaimer: The works below are the opinion of the author and not the official viewpoint of the Edison Tech Center:
Debunking the Tesla Myth:
False facts about Tesla giving him more credit than he deserves.In today's world of Infotainment, web pages and documentaries have popped up proclaiming Nikola (Nicola) Tesla of being the inventor of practically everything. The more sites that pop up, the more reinforced false facts become. This is wrong because it denies respect for the true inventors of the technology, as well as oversimplifies history. Just as people incorrectly understood what Edison actually did and believed in a simplified idolization, Tesla seems to have taken his populist place in the 21st century. Tesla suffered from narcissism through much of his life, and this throws many of his claims of being "the first" into question. We can only believe patent information, and proven written records.
Didn't your mother tell you not to believe everything you read on the internet? So before you go back to the Tesla mania pages we suggest you go to a library and dig up some facts from books and patent applications, just as real historians have.Sorry to debunk your inner conspiracy theorist yearnings, but here are the facts:
Myth 1: Tesla invented polyphase AC power: FALSE. First there was a hand-cranked AC generator developed by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832. Single phase AC power was being used more in Europe by many inventors in the early 1880s. As early as the late 1870's Germany had developed a 2 phase AC generator. In New York City Tesla had approached investors in 1886 with his AC system and did not have success. So in the United States in New York there was little confidence in AC power systems. From a world wide perspective there was many working on AC systems. August Haselwander and C.S. Bradley(a former Edison employee) created the first 3 phase AC generators(1887). Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovsky built the first full 3 phase AC generation and distribution system in the 1888-1891 period. Tesla continued to be stuck in his two-phase system which proved to be less effective than three.
Myth 2: Tesla invented the transformer: FALSE. The Ganz company in Budapest was the first to create and use transformers in AC systems in the late 1870s. Tesla was still in school then and hadn't even began his first job in the field of telephony. His first job was in Budapest in 1880, this is where he possibly observed/stole ideas, and was convinced by the Hungarians that AC was viable and worth pursuing while the west was still 5 years behind. William Stanley invented the first modern transformer in 1885. His design was based Gaulard and Gibbs design. Gaulard had used his transformer in the 1884 Lanzo to Turin AC power demonstration. Also credit goes to the Z.B.D Transformer in Hungary The Z.B.D. Transformer was not practical in the system that Stanley set up in Great Barrington, MA so he designed his own. This is backed up by information at the Smithsonian and IEEE. It was in 1885 that Tesla actually joined the minority of inventors working with AC in trying to pitch his system. There is no proof that Tesla had any mature AC systems designed and ready before then. (Tesla claims to have envisioned his own full AC system in 1882 but there are no written documents of any kind to prove this)
Myth 3: Tesla invented the induction coil: FALSE. Absolutely false... Induction was discovered by Michael Faraday, and the induction coil was invented by Nicholas Callan in 1836, long before Tesla was born.
Myth 4: Tesla invented the loudspeaker: FALSE. The loudspeaker as we know it was invented by C.W. Rice and Edward Kellogg with a working prototype in 1921, and patent in 1925. Decades before this final success, Werner Von Siemens had toyed with the idea of a magnetically controlled speaker while Tesla was in grade school.
Myth 5: Tesla invented radar in 1917: FALSE. This one is a real can of worms, radar was made possible due to the work of Christian Hulsmeyer (German)1903, Lee De Forest 1918, Edwin Armstrong 1918, Ernst Alexanderson, Marconi, Albert Hull, Edward Victor Appleton, and Russians who developed a radar system to detect German planes in 1934. Sir Robert Watson-Watt demonstrated the first HF radar system in 1935 which operated at 6 MHz and had a range of 8 miles. There are many books on this subject.
Myth 6: Tesla invented the fluorescent lamp: FALSE. Alexandre E. Becquerel first examined the phenomena of fluorescence in 1857. Some say Edison invented the lamps. Others say George Inman developed the modern fluorescent lamp in 1934. It is tough to say who was first since there was a legal dispute. There is a possibility that the German Edmund Germer preceded both of them. Many people worked on the concept, Inman deserve the credit for building the first successful and practical design. Even if Telsa had played with the theories, he was not alone at any time, and didn't do squat compared to others who had actually worked out the difficulties into a real working product. Daniel McFarlan Moore developed the Moore Tube which was the first commercial ancestor of the fluorescent lamp.
Myth 7: Tesla invented microwave transmitters: FALSE. Albert W. Hull invented the magnetron which lead to many inventions, including today's microwave oven, the microwave communications link, and radar. You can dig deeper on this and find many early pioneers.
Myth 8: The 1895 Niagara Falls Hydropower Plant was the first commercial AC hydro power plant: FALSE. This is absolutely false. AC power sites were developed first in Europe from 1878-1885. After 1885 Westinghouse hired Stanley, Oliver Shallenberger, Benjamin Lamme, and others to build AC power systems in North America. Tesla didn't join Westinghouse until 1888. See our list of early AC power sites here.
The Redlands Power Plant build in 1893 was the first 3 phase AC power plant built for commercial purposes in North America. Elihu Thomson, Almirian Decker and Dr. ,Louis Bell worked together to design this site a few years before in Lynn, Massachusetts. Dobrovsky had build the first full hydroelectric three phase AC power system at Frankfurt in 1891. Also, at the time Charles P. Steinmetz was the only one to understand the concept of hysteresis and related physics concepts that helped run the AC generator. Steinmetz was a humble man, and like many technical men, loved teaching and connecting to other humans just as much as the technology. People with a teaching spirit have often let others take the fame and patents. Fame and business success are the focus of only a percentage of engineers. The love of the craft is common among all of them.
Myth 9: Tesla was the underdog who did not promote himself: FALSE.
If you begin to read at all about history of technology at the time you will find that inventions and ideas spread like wildfire from as far east as Hungary and Moscow, to the U.S. For someone like Edison or Tesla it was important to keep up the show and wizardry to captivate the public. And they both did that very well. In the ruthlessly competitive environment of New York City the game was, (and still is) about fame/success at any cost. Tesla, when living on Fifth Avenue was at the epicenter of this pressure. Tesla was business natured, he understood he had to relentlessly promote himself to become like the more successful Edison. Most inventors at the time did not have the relentless need for attention that both of them had.Myth 10: Back in the late 1800's the conflict for AC vs. DC was Tesla vs. Edison, or Westinghouse vs. General Electric: FALSE.
General Electric was formed in 1892 and by that time Thomas Edison had a minimal role in the workings of the company. While Edison promoted DC power from his home down in New Jersey/New York City area, Elihu Thomson, William Stanley, and C.P. Steinmetz promoted AC as the future. The company was not "for DC". Tesla and Edison did not get along, that's true... but of course! Popular media likes to promote the AC vs. DC conflict in a simple easy-to-digest package simply because all the Mass Communication majors and journalists have been taught that the public loves to watch and read about conflict. One page reads: "Edison also hated Tesla because Tesla invented..." and so on, the quote highlights once again the conflict aspect. If conflict and drama is your focus of interest, than study the World Wrestling Federation, not engineering.More Controversy: Who invented the polyphase electric motor?: Tesla was first to patent the 3 phase AC motor in the USA 1888, but read on: Galileo Ferraris had come up with the same design months before in Italy. We know that Tesla was extremely intelligent and was able to memorize entire books after reading them. It is entirely possible that Tesla had obtained a copy of Ferraris's publication to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Turin and was able to understand Ferraris's design. He would be able to copy and clarify the design on paper and submit that to the patent office with the help of Tesla's well-paid team of lawyers. If this was the case than it is just another case of how businessmen with their well paid lawyers have crushed an academic person's claim on being the first. History was almost rewritten here but documents have proven Galileo's claim. Tesla had no evidence to support his self-made claim that he envisioned the motor in 1882. In addition to this Mr. Ferraris had a track record of being an innovator in the greatest events of European AC development in the early 1880's. Tesla had limited experience in AC and was not picked up by Westinghouse until 1888, after his claim of inventing a three phase motor. Read more on the trial here.
Tesla vs. Edison - An attractive human story, but this Isn't engineering.
Tesla left Thomas Edison's company frustrated and short changed. This is a popular story, but Tesla wasn't the only one who left Edison the same way.
Edison the Stubborn:
As the Tesla popular myth states: Tesla had approached Edison with the idea of trying AC development, and Tesla was the lone visionary, however Edison scoffed and said AC would never amount to anything. The truth is he wasn't alone. Others approached Edison and got the same results. C. S. Bradley had worked for Edison, he was convinced about AC's future, he left and invented the three-phase generator in 1887. Otto Blathy who invented the ZBD Transformer in Hungary came on a business trip to meet Edison in 1886. He tried to sell his patent to Edison, again, Edison scoffed at him. This was clearly a poor business decision because by this point Westinghouse had already built and demonstrated a working AC system at Great Barrington, Mass. Elihu Thomson of Thomson-Houston in Massachusetts was already trying to build his own transformer.Tesla was no "lone visionary" of AC power, he was simply smart enough to keep his eye on great developments of AC in Europe during the early-mid 1880s. He was one of a small group (the minority) of engineers working on AC in America in the mid 1880s. Tesla's first opportunity to work for a real company on AC power came after he "stole" or simultaneously invented the polyphase electric motor in 1888. At a public presentation Elihu Thomson and Westinghouse both thought that Tesla had potential. Thomson (later became GE) offered him a lower position to start. Tesla's ego lead him to decline the opportunity. Lucky for him later on Westinghouse offered him a position with his already established team of engineers working on AC.
Conclusion:I could go on listing all of the false attributions and conspiracy theories regarding Tesla, but this would be a waste of time. The important thing is painting a true picture of ALL the wonderful and amazing personalities of technology in our history. Nikola Tesla was an inventor, and did share a love of engineering and science. And for this he deserves to be honored, but don't fall for the populist rhetoric. I'd recommend visiting the Deutsches Museum in Munich where many of the original first motors and dynamos are on display with accurate listings of attributions.
Learn about other inventors of AC Power HERE.
-M.W.
Sources:
-Electrification in Western Society 1880-1930. by Thomas Parke Hughes.1993 (book)
-Deutsches Museum, Munich, Germany
-Historisches Museum, Frankfurt Germany
-The General Electric Story - A Hall of Electrical History Publication.1999 (book)
-Archives of the Schenectady Museum: William Stanley files, E.W. Rice Jr. Files
-Great Barrington Historical Society
-Hawkins Electrical Guides (book series)
-Men and Volts. by John Winthrop Hammond. 1941(book)
-Folsom Powerhouse Museum. Folsom, California
-Biography of Elihu Thomson, prepared by E.W. Rice Jr.
-Archives of the Edison Tech Center: Rice Family Archives
Internet Sources:
-MIT website: Inventor of the Week" William Stanley
-IEEE Global History Network: Milestones: Alternating Current Electrification 1886
-http://profiles.incredible-people.com/galileo-ferraris/
-wikipedia: Nikola Tesla
-wikipedia: Transformers
-wikipedia: Hippolyte Pixii
-wikipedia: Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovsky
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