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Where did Tesla Design, Build & Run his AC Motor - all in his Mind !




The Genius of Tesla 

Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943) was an all time great Inventor and Futurist. He was an important contributor to the use of commercial electricity, and is best known for developing the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system (Wikipedia).

Marco Tempest gave an excellent TED Talk recently on Nikola Tesla
http://www.ted.com/talks/marco_tempest_the_electric_rise_and_fall_of_nikola_tesla.html

If you wish to know more about Tesla - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcZKPk-ZvdM -  video on Tesla (Vitaly Pravdivcev's russian documentary with english subtitles)

Also look at "Why Nilkola Tesla is the greatest Geek who ever lived" at http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla

What I would like to focus on is his extraordinary capability for visual thinking


Tesla's Visual Thinking

Much has been made over Tesla's amazing ability to visualize images from his mind. Tesla's visions were so vivid that he was sometimes unsure of what was real and what imaginary. It is well known that Tesla's conception of his AC (alternating current) motor came to him during one of his visions.

"One afternoon ... I was enjoying a walk with my friend in the city park and reciting poetry. At that age I knew entire books by heart, word for word. One of these was Goethes Faust. The sun was just setting and reminded me of a glorious passage: The glow retreats, done is the day of toil; It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring; Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil Upon its tract to follow, follow soaring!



"As I uttered these inspiring words the idea came like a flash of lightning and in an instant the truth was revealed. I drew with a stick on the sand the diagram shown six years later in my address before the American institute of Electrical Engineers.



"The images were wonderfully sharp and clear and had the solidity of metal. 'See my motor here; watch me reverse it.'"
Tesla used his incredible power throughout his amazing career. He disliked drawing his conceptions down onto paper because they lacked the reality that Tesla's internal drawing board could provide. He did not have to make plans and jot down dimensions, because of this power of instant recall. He could store any designs in his mind to be retrieved intact years later.


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