Nikola Tesla
Ed. Plan B
pp. 128
Nikola Tesla, inventions, war and peace.
Why is Nikola Tesla so interesting?
This question has been bothering me for years and pushes me to study the man and his inventions.
What is the relationship between the great inventor and the military world?
This question also deserves attention.
Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia, during the night between 10 and 11 July of 1856, during a violent storm ...
As a premonition the lightning of that night followed him throughout his life.
Those who studied electronics or physics probably remember his name, associated with a unit of electricity, but everyone should remember it. It's not like that!
To Nikola Tesla we owe the alternating current electricity and, more or less, all the equipment that we usually use today without knowing absolutely anything about their operation.
Many people took advantage of his good faith during his long life (he died in '43), among them a man still remembered today, Edison. Many of Edison's successes as of the big companies of those days, are largely attributable to the young engineer Nikola Tesla.
Starting from Simon Ohm's law, he created the AC motor, discovered and studied the resonance phenomenon, succeeded in transmitting electromagnetic waves and receiving them. He realized his dream of transferring electricity without wires and created lightning in the laboratory ... these are just a few, the best known, among the results he achieved, yet few know him.
How few people know that he was the first to use electricity for the treatment of headaches and that during his lectures he described much of what we use today ... and perhaps it is not over yet!
Nikola Tesla died in America the 7 January 1943, at the age of 86 years, due to a heart attack.
Two days after his death, the FBI ordered that all of Tesla's assets still in his hotel room be seized.
Why?
For the alleged military secrets? For the new weapons you were studying? The American government always denied everything. Among Tesla's personal effects there was nothing dangerous, nothing that if he ended up in the hands of foreign powers could have been a danger.
But was it really so?
I certainly cannot say the opposite with certainty, but I must admit that the reading of the autobiography from this point of view is illuminating.
Nikola Tesla wrote his autobiography entitled "My inventions" in the 1919 at the age of 63 years and yet, some of his inventions, even if only in the form of an idea, now exist, others perhaps will be realized in the future.
But what about "military" inventions?
In his book we read:
The first power plant of this "worldwide wireless energy transmission system" can be operational within nine months [..] and is designed to allow various low-cost technical achievements. Among the latter we can highlight:
- the interconnection between the pre-existing telegraph stations, or telegraph offices, around the world;
- the establishment of a totally secret governmental telegraph service without interference;
- the interconnection of all the telephone stations or offices on earth;
- universal distribution of news, by telegraph or telephone, in continuous connection with press agencies;
[..]
- the transmission throughout the world of characters, letters or other documents written by hand or by machine;
- the establishment of a universal maritime system that allows the perfect navigation of all boats without using the compass to determine the exact location, time and speed, in order to prevent accidents, disasters or other calamities;
[..]
I don't think we need to explain how these "inventions" are connected with the military environment.
In the first place, having a wireless energy transmission system means being able to power any device anywhere.
Secondly, since the dawn of time, every nation has always sought systems for transmitting messages that guarantee secrecy.
Finally, the best known universal navigation system is GPS (Global Positioning System), a system created by the US Department of Defense starting in 1973, based on a previous system called Transit, consisting of a certain number of satellites placed in orbit for the purpose of tracking the position of military ships and submarines. Only a few years later the system was also made available to civilians.
Among the other things mentioned by Tesla in his autobiography we talk about:
- the establishment of a "worldwide system" of music distribution, etc .;
- worldwide reproduction of photographic images and any type of design or document,
even in these cases it seems clear to me that the American government has done its part. I would like to remind you that the Internet was born from a military project (ARPANET).
It seems that Tesla's ideas were taken up and developed by environments close to the military world.
But Tesla, in his book, is even more explicit in affirming his military contribution:
Tesla says he built a power transmission station on Long Island, a tower that was destroyed, which emitted a complex wave with particular characteristics: either to preserve it "it was in the government's interest to preserve it, in particular because it would have made it possible, just to cite a possible result, the location of any enemy submarine in any part of the world. My facility, its services and all its improvements have always been available to the officers, and since the conflict broke out in Europe I have always dedicated myself body and soul to several of my inventions that may be of extreme importance for the country, linked as they are to air navigation, marine propulsion and wireless data transmission. Those who are well informed know how my ideas have revolutionized the industries of the United States and I do not believe that there has ever been an inventor who from this point of view was as fortunate as myself, especially in the use of his inventions in the war industry ."
Well, we must remember that Tesla wrote in the 1919, at the dawn of the First World War and not in our days!
Tesla believed that one of his inventions, the "magnifying transmitter", could be considered a machine suitable for attack and defense, in particular because it was connected to the remote control, or to the remote control of automata.
"In the 1898 and in the 1900 it was offered to the Government and would have been adopted if I had behaved in a condescending manner. At that time I was seriously convinced that my car, due to its destructive potential and due to the complete elimination of the personal combat element, would have helped to discourage any kind of war. However, while I did not lose faith in its potential, my point of view changed."
In this passage Tesla, as a great inventor, becomes a great man, thinker, statesman, and faces the ethical problem of the scientist faced with a choice between his creation and the survival of the human race.
Shortly afterwards he will express his ideas about the origin of conflicts and how to control them:
"The war cannot be avoided until the physical cause of its continuous repetition is removed, ultimately represented by the boundless extension of the planet in which we live. Only through the elimination of distances in all their aspects, that is, in the transmission of information, in the transport of passengers, in the power supply and in the free transmission of energy, will the conditions for a better cohabitation be made within a short time, thus ensuring stable relationships friendship. What we want more than anything else are closer relationships and a better understanding between people and communities in every place on Earth, in addition to the elimination of that fanatical devotion that exalts ideals of supremacy and national honor always ready to precipitate the world in primordial barbarism and conflict."
Perhaps a little too idealistic, one might think, but it must be remembered that Tesla was a very peculiar man.
In any case it is good not to be deceived by his words that could make him look like a dreamer, Tesla was well aware of the real problems and of human nature and he knew well that: "peace can only be established as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment and the fusion of races, and we are still too far from this important goal".
Alessandro Rugolo
