MetaFilter posts tagged with electricity and Tesla

Does what it says on the tin.

You Should See the Other Guy — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 22:47:28 -0800

They called him mad! Mad! Zzzzt!

Deathalicious — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 12:10:04 -0800

Wireless electricity has been mentioned previously. A recent TED Talk actually shows it in action. The presenter, Eric Giler of WiTricity Corp (a startup founded by MIT researcher Marin Soljačić), mentions the first attempt at wireless electricity, the Wardenclyffe Tower, designed and built over a hundred years ago by Nikola Tesla. The Wardenclyffe Tower was designed to provide wireless communication as well as the wireless transfer of energy. It was destroyed during WWI because the U.S. government worried that German spies could use it as a landmark. Parts of the structure remain near the corner of Tesla Street and NY 25A. There has always been an aura of conspiracy around Tesla and his creations, so of course the tower has been "credited" with a number of "unexplained" events, including the Tunguska explosion of 1908.

Hydrogen. It's the fuel of the future, and it always will be.

molecicco — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 05:27:48 -0800

Pics of the new Tesla S-Model have been leaked. With an anticipated price tag of 50K and a potential 45-minute recharge time, will this finally kick-start a true replacement to the internal combustion engine? And if so, where will the electricity come from? What future is there for the fuel-cell vehicle, or will fuel cells remain stationary? Is that really it for hydrogen? Do we even have enough lithium for everyone to drive cars like this?? Or will we have to switch to something more common, like zinc? Incidentally, we can recycle the used-up zinc (ie ZnO) using solar energy. OK OK - so the VRB system is technically a flow cell or flow battery, and not simply a fuel-cell, but really it's just an augmentation of the same technology (PEM) utilized in the hydrogen fuel cells that we thought, for a while, would be in our cars of the future. Previously, previously, previously, previously.

This Should be Played at High Voltage

nthdegx — Sun, 15 Jul 2007 04:25:07 -0800

Steve Ward's Singing Tesla Coil video. Previously.

Danger, Danger High Voltage

psmealey — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 11:50:46 -0800

Creepy High Voltage Installations The Russian countryside yields sometimes most improbable sights - abandoned artifacts and installations from bizarre military/scientific research, strangely futuristic forms left to rust and decay - to be found by a curious photographer. "Master" stumbled upon this installation close to Russian city of Istra (50 km from Moscow) quite by chance, and these mysterious shots were percolating for a while around the web, until the answer was found. According to this little, cryptic, and quite secretive website [in Russian], the weird alien-like towers are the Experimental Grounds for High-Voltage Generation, the only open-air kind in the world. Amazingly, it's still in use... as the powerful lightnings rip through the night and the darkened forest - much like in "The Prestige" movie.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZAP!

warbaby — Sat, 30 Apr 2005 21:32:35 -0800

Lightning On Demand is a volunteer organization of engineers, artists, scientists and machinists. Our key objective is to produce a controllable discharge of lightning at the greatest physical scale imaginable using modern technology. They've built the worlds biggest Tesla coil, Electrum, a Taser Cannon and some other projects

nick.a — Sat, 12 Oct 2002 14:00:35 -0800

While scientists like Einstein and Heisenberg are familiar names, others like Nikolai Tesla have been largely forgotten by history, despite the fact that some of his work with electricity still cannot be replicated to this day. Despite this, claims of governmental conspiracies are probably fairly far from the truth.

tranquileye — Tue, 14 May 2002 11:40:29 -0800

Bert Hickman has a ten inch diameter Tesla coil powered from two neon sign transformers in his screened-in (but unheated) porch, along with a device that produces magnetic fields strong enough to shrink coins. One of the byproducts of the coin-shrinking: an eight inch ball of plasma.