Tesla Fact vs. Fiction: Why the Public Perception is Wrong

Almost everything commonly told about Tesla is wrong! He didn't invent AC, he didn't battle Edison over AC vs. DC, he didn't even have a rivalry with Edison, he didn't want to give everyone free electricity and he wasn't a Physics genius! Referencing primary sources I can show you why we have such a perverted view of Tesla's real accomplishments and life.
If you want to read this as an article (with lots of references) click here:
kathylovesphysics.wordpress.c...
I have a lot of videos about different elements in the history of electricity, including:
Faraday discovering induction • How Faraday Made Elect...
The invention of generators: • Where Electricity Come...
Edison creating the light bulb empire: • Thomas Edison Biograph...
The AC/DC war: • Physics of "The Curren...
Hertz discovering radio: • How Heinrich Hertz Dis...
The Discovery of the Tesla Coil & How it Works: • How Does a Tesla Coil ...
Marconi Creating a Wireless Empire: • Who Invented Wireless?...
The lovely modern tesla coil movie comes with permission from Greg at hotstreamer.deanostoybox.com/g... He has some great advice if you are crazy enough to try to make some of these machines yourself.
And, as always, thanks to Kim Nalley for the great music.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

If you want more details and are interested in WHY these myths became so popular: I made another video on the subject which you can see here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oYTceHl7n9SMha8 I also have a book on the history of electricity from 1580-today: "The Lightning Tamers" by Kathy Joseph

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

It's late now, but I will look at your link, because I'm also interested in how all that hype accumulates - like detritus in flowing water that collects around an obstacle. He is overhyped now, but he was a clever man. I just saw a KZbin heading about how Tesla understood the pyramids. I haven't watched it, but I don't imagine it will be 100% factual! More hype than fact - but who knows - maybe he designed them!

[@seanm8030]

Nice link. I would recommend Hans Camenzind's book "Much Ado about Nothing." It's a summation of the history of our use of the electron and electrical engineering. No mathematics were harmed in the writing of the book, it is quite readable, and it was written by the guy who invented the 555 timer, which was a fairly significant integrated circuit, and possibly? the most produced IC of the 20th century. Meaning he knows something of what he is talking about.

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

Thanks very much, Kathy, I followed the link and listened to yout talk. History is never absolute, and there are always differrent opinions, and indeed, different versions of what actually happened. Even people who were there at the time and knew the characters would have had different opinions - but your talk was clearly the result of a LOT of research. It was well put together, logically structured, flowed well and stayed on track. I'm retired, but at the beginning of my carreer, I did a NASA-sponsored course in electronic engineering, covering all aspects of space research at the time - radio, analogue and digital electronics, space physics, orbital mechanics, and, of course, maths - but also covered electrical engineering, and the college had a basement full of heavy motors and generators from the Johannesburg tram system, which had become defunct, and from the gold mines. I was studying how things worked, not who invented them - not the history of it all, as you have done, but I came across the names - Edison and Tesla among others, and was tangentially aware of them. As time went on, I heard more and more about Tesla that didn't seem true - and when I now see KZbin headings of how "Tesla understood how the pyramids worked" (in Egypt), it becomes more and more clear that he has been made the centre of some sort of cult - and cults are self-perpetuating. It was really good to hear your programme, which seemed to me as near factual as we're likely to get, undazzled by the characters, but not cynical or unkind to them either. It was a well-balanced summary, and though I don't know much about the historical aspects, your talk also corroborated what I already believed, especially about Tesla. The modern history of the adoption of the Tesla name by Tesla motors has put his name back into the spotlight, and goes some way to explaining the adoration of his modern-day followers. I wonder what history will say about Elon Musk! He's another who is strong on self-promotion, and may be grabbing more of the lime-light than hsi share - though there's no doubting that he has made his mark. I just have a feeling that there are aspects of his story that he would rather not make public.

Thank you for the history lesson. I, too, fell for the myths & legends surrounding Tesla's life and work... mostly because I wanted to believe them. But I am pleasantly surprised to find this video and your channel.

[@razroook]

Wow! Very revealing, especially since I'm from the Balkans, where he was born and where a "war" is led between nations on who does he "belong" to - don't remember any of this from school back then. I'd love it if you could share a link to that The Age of Electricity article, as I can't find it anywhere. Thanks! Oh, and the link to the article doesn't seem to work, as I'd love to see the references...

[@elbruces]

There's a broader thought problem involved here. Nearly every great inventor or philosopher or whatever is thought of as being completely right about all their idea, or completely wrong about them. In fact, every great figure you could name throughout history had a couple of good ideas (at most) and then a whole bunch of others that were flat-out wrong. They aren't noteworthy in history for being "great" people who are always right, but only for having come up with those one or two good ideas. That's a distinction that more people need to consciously remind themselves of whenever considering the history of ideas.

[@XxxXxx-br7eq]

I like the way you think.

[@TheShamansQuestion]

Great comment. I think about this when thinking about Einstein's discoveries and gaffes but missed it a bit this time for some reason. I guess this video is trying to say not that he wasn't right but that what is quoted of him is, technically, wrong. But the problem of words like "wrong" is that it's incendiary and divisive which is what attracts our attention, and thus makes it more likely we'll make the mistake you described (and definitely a lot of the time).

[@jmckey]

I'd recommend 'Lies my Teacher Told Me: And Everything Thing Else My American History textbook Got Wrong' by James Loewen. He highlights how so many historical figures are whitewashed and made boring and how it happens. It's actually MORE interesting and makes their accomplishments seem more attainable for us as present day people when we know their fallacies and what they got wrong. It might be my favorite book of all times in terms of how it influenced the way I think

[@contrafatual]

There is an even broader thinking problem in your comment. You include Tesla as a "great inventor or philosopher or whatever". Is he? The video is about what's wrong with the public's perception of him. It is not a judgment that he is completely right or completely wrong. There's no point in trying to "defend" him by saying he had some good ideas. Are the facts presented in the video false? If yes, then we have a problem. If not, then why the need to state the obvious? That nobody is perfect? Maybe because you want to salvage some of that feeling created by public perception? "Maybe he's not perfect, but he's STILL great, an imperfect hero." But the problem is that you would probably never think of Tesla the way you do if it weren't for him being singled out by some people as a kind of exotic genius and presented as a hero to propagate a certain ideology. If the facts hadn't been distorted, you might not have heard of him.

[@blitz8425]

I run into this same paradox with art. I hear people say things like "movies are garbage nowadays". But really, movies are probably about the same quality on the whole, it's just that we remember the good ones and not the bad ones, so of course it seems like all the old movies are good. Oh course retrospectively it would seem that movies were better in the past.

[@zsimon4267]

"Tesla's devices are a gateway drug for many electrical engineers, and that is not a small thing." I do love it

[@seanm8030]

I am an Electrical Engineer. Tesla's devices apart from the AC Induction Motor are a complete waste of time.

[@Lancia444]

@@seanm8030 Yeah, I remember most of our elec professors ripping into most of his devices...this lady is another non-applied physicist...it's all about the concept (even if it's not realistic, viable or possible).

[@seanm8030]

Mr. Danforth 374 If you want to talk about things Tesla had nothing to do with or had peripheral involvement in, such as radio, the fluorescent light, or high power transmission, go right ahead. That's rather what I am talking about. Seems like this would not be the place to do it, Id recommend starting another thread. If you want to talk about things that are truly useless like the Tesla coil or high frequency AC whatever that means, go right ahead.

[@seanm8030]

@@Lancia444 I don't have a problem with people liking Tesla or with the author of the video. What I can't stand is people saying he's some wonder genius that invented infinite power transfer or whatever. He didn't. Infinite power transfer is not possible.

[@CeroAshura]

"Tesla's lab notes are a gateway to many abilities some consider unnatural."

[@densealloy]

Westinghouse was not only a brilliant engineer but a visionary & savvy businessman who took care of his workers. He holds gobs of patents that changed industry, many still used today in the railroad industry and natural gas distribution. It is an absolute shame how his contributions have been somewhat erased for a narrative. I can't count the number of times I've corrected people about the "current wars" over the last 25 years. Thanks for making this. Have a wonderful day.

[@de0509]

People hate rich people and when comparing themselves to these rich people, it became very very convenient to lie to oneself that ones own paltry fortune is unrelated to ones own deficiencies, and then when they turn to certain people who do achieve more its very convenient to just say they didnt really deserve it and just boil it down to immoral corporate practices, or inheritance money, etc.

[@man.inblack]

Westinghouse was different to Edison as the latter demanded all the patents of his staff, while WH allowed his engineers to benefit and develop their own patents. While Edison ended up as the biggest individual holder of patents, WH’s legacy is said to have created more industry and innovation that spread the success amongst engineers who went on to create their own empires.

[@grahamstevenson1740]

@@man.inblack George Westinghouse was the classic engineer's engineer and his staff respected that.

[@DH-ts6ho]

Should I take your word for it? Or should I do my own homework? ... But I dkn't have time for it. :(

[@lc9245]

​@@man.inblack He's a different person to Edison, but Westinghouse was the son of a machine shop owner, while Edison was struggling most of his early life to become an inventor. The reason why Edison was celebrated was because his story is much more of an "American story", but also because J.P. Morgan owns GE. Today, the anti-Edison narrative, a push back against American educational system and media putting Edison everywhere, is woefully misguided. The man had his flaws, but while he was a ruthless hustler, he's also a real eccentric inventor. After all, unlike the clean, intelligent Westinghouse and brilliant, popular Tesla, Edison was uneducated, ruthless, unkempt and a slob.

[@Nighthawkinlight]

Very good video. I came across several of these documents myself some years ago when researching Edison, but I didn't feel like kicking this particular beehive. I'm glad you did though. We're all a lot more easily deceived than we realize, by both internal and external pressures.

[@yasirrakhurrafat1142]

Hey bro . How u doin ! Nice to see you being active . Really like your videos , never thought I'd ever discover a KZbin channel that's informative , practical and fun . Loved your Starlite , and Calcium *somethin coating for cooling videos . Love the others as well . I just thought I'd bother you ,.. seeing you here .

[@aqua-bery]

@@yasirrakhurrafat1142 Space goes after punctuation. Like this. Never before. Only after. Including, commas. But (parenthesis) are different. Treat them as their own word, kind of. Even after... Three dots. Even after: a colon Even after; a semicolon And so on...

[@yasirrakhurrafat1142]

@@aqua-bery Sorry.. its kind of a force of habit. ( The putting space thing... ) My grammar or punctuation isn't up to par. I'll try to learn more, expand my vocabulary a bit, improve my punctuation. ( I'm quite dumb in general, an Illiterate Indian guy. ) I've not even graduated high school, dropped out.. I'm old.. . ( Not trying to guilt you. Just saying. ) Hopefully I'll try to be more involved.. someday. In some major ( breakthrough-esque ) things and make a difference someday.. hopefully. Thanks! Its a long tangent. I apologise for... Idk.. being so incompetent. ( Edited punctuation again .. *had to )

[@aqua-bery]

@@yasirrakhurrafat1142 hey it's ok. I'm sure it will all workout man!

[@yasirrakhurrafat1142]

@@aqua-bery appreciate you taking a moment to be wholesome. Thanks bro. I hope the best of the best for you too!

[@stevenskorich7878]

We have turned Tesla into a Merlin-like figure who fills a need for Secret Knowledge That The Man Is Concealing. He was a great electrical engineer, a not-so-great businessman, and a profound eccentric.

[@thegroove2000]

Almost everything commonly told about Tesla is wrong! He didn't invent AC, he didn't battle Edison over AC vs. DC, he didn't even have a rivalry with Edison, he didn't want to give everyone free electricity and he wasn't a Physics genius! WHAT THE FUCK MY MIND IS BLOWN. LIKE A FAULTY BATTERY.

[@Jonodrew1286]

I would like to say one thing though…….! Why did the CIA take all his material after his death? -and why was his tower taken down in a hurry? - Surely instead of demolishing it - you would have just disassembled it and sold the materials on to a respective buyer? - or maybe they were troubled about the possibility that this inventor maybe on to something??? I think we are all swayed by the so called facts and maybe a little disinformation was added just to enhance flavour of making him appear to be an eccentric. Human beings seem to be drawn to ridicule like a moths drawn to light!- because it gives them something to do and makes them feel just!!! The fact is he was not an in your face kind of guy nor a bully! just quirky with fanciful ideas, but ideas with purpose, had he been left to his own devices and given the financial backing he deserved, then maybe we would be honouring a different legacy…..??? Anyway JP Morgans legacy ain’t pretty!!!!!

[@awancah7309]

@@Jonodrew1286 he piss of JP morgan as inventor, so inventor take tower by money. (coper very expensive in that era)

[@Jonodrew1286]

Seems funny that in America, they are now using mini Tesla Towers, what gives, maybe they knew the implications and wanted to shut him down and brand him a madman failed inventor🤔

[@PadraigTomas]

@@Jonodrew1286 Where may I see one of these mini Tesla towers?

[@musicurio]

We may be a little disappointed in having some favourite myths "busted" but it is far more satisfying to see credit given to the ones that deserve it. Thank you Kathy.

[@jasonlawson8619]

She is cancel truth portion of cancel culture.

[@bluetoad2668]

@@jasonlawson8619 what?!

[@Mrbfgray]

@@bluetoad2668 He's saying his childish emotional religion was violated. The fragile Nikola Tesla cult has been an obvious farce for many yrs.

[@hexstar8576]

@@Mrbfgray Ya, your right. Tesla only had like just under two hundred patents to his name. What a hack! Just a question for you. Do you have any patents to your name Bo!? One could wonder, how the crazy "Nikola Tesla" could complete so many accomplishments. Hmmm......🤔

[@jzrgrmm]

@@hexstar8576 jesus, look at this tantrum, he starts with sarcasm, proceeds to ad hominem and finish with ad absurdum.

[@edshort1138]

It is so very time consuming to skip summaries and read all the relevant Original sources. But this video is an excellent example of how important it is for someone take on the research burden and share her findings, to improve our access to accurate history. Thanks Kathy.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Thank you

[@BlueBeeThemeMusic]

Ed. Lazy?

[@TheChzoronzon]

Thanks. I have been "battling" this nonsense for years now... Ole Nikola has somehow jumped from being unjustly unknown 15 years ago to become some kind of absurd pop-science comic superhero... it's fascinating. And exhausting.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

So…exhausting

[@YouFallenforit]

I have a sinking suspicion a lot of exhausting people just found out about him more recently. And are more likely to only know a finite amount and possibly only what others have told them. What I find exhausting is the new fanboys that know little of him or his experiments speaking as if they have been studying him for years.

[@sol-hunter2332]

I suspect it's due to the "making electricity free" so people view him as a martyr for the "anti-capitalists."

[@TheChzoronzon]

@@sol-hunter2332 Tha'ts part of the mystique, sure Nobody remembers the Death Ray :( :D

[@Helperbot-2000]

@@YouFallenforit i suspect we will get a more accurate consensus amongst the general public in a few decades, because to me it feels alot of fanboys are overcorrecting for him beeing ralatively underplayed in the us until recently

[@muzvid]

My Dad was an electrical engineer specializing in control systems for AC motors. He's long argued that Tesla's gotten more credit than he deserves, but he's never taken the time to explain his assertion. Thanks for doing so!

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

Since learning about Tesla during my time at college in the late 60's, I have seen the myth of Tesla grow unchecked on the internet. I don't know why this is. He was certainly a bright guy, and came up with some nifty gadgets (I really like the one-way fluid valve with no moving parts), but it never seemed to me that he was anywhere near as creditworthy as his myth would have us believe. It's really good to see somebdoy shine a light on him. He must have been supremely self-confident, if he went up against Einstein, calling Relativity "pseudo-science". It should be noted, however, if this was around 1900, then it was before the proofs of relativity had been shown - light being bent by the mass of the sun, and the calculation of the orbit of Mecury. Before those proofs, even the scientific community of the day were skeptical about it, and there were probably a lot of people who doubted it, because, let's face it, it's not exactly intuitive. We can all be misled by the improbability of something, and even Einstein was skeptical about Entanglement - also not intuitive!

[@75aces97]

I think it’s a matter of projection. As a layman in this field I didn’t have strong opinions about Tesla, but I remembered his name as one of many important figures from high school physics in the early 1990’s. I don’t remember him being some folk hero until the past 20 years. I posit that it’s projection in the sense that Tesla is the David who didn’t become a household name, while Edison is the convenient Goliath who represents the soulless corporation or government or whichever bogeyman who screws over the little guy. I do think it’s unfortunate that we pick and choose certain figures like Edison to mythologize as some visionary who “invented” all these essential devices out of thin air as opposed to the less romantic story of purchasing inventions with potential and developing them to the point that they can work more reliably and affordably, or just finding an optimal use for them. But I don’t think the answer is to counter it with more great man mythology.

[@krupert8355]

I recently watched a video about entanglement saying that there were two schools of thought, Einstein's general relativity VS quantum physics, and for a long time these were seen as competing. Yet today we are starting to think both are explaining the same phenomenons viewed from different ways of thinking. I don't really know what I'm talking about, but my point is, it wouldn't necessarily be wrong call general relativity a. pseudoscience when there are alternate valid ways of explaining the universe.

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

@@krupert8355 I'm afraid, Entanglement is a bridge too far for me. Even Einstein didn't accept it initially, and called it "Spooky action at a distance", but I think he had reached the point of believing that there was more to the atomic realm than he knew about, and grudgingly accepted it. It was mostly information being transferred faster than light that he couldn't come to terms with. He argued initially that an entangled pair was like a pair of gloves that had been put into two boxes - if you opened one and found it was a left glove, then nomatter how far the other box had been taken, you would know that it contained the right glove. But he was apparently wrong. I say "apparently" because it's in a realm where I can't honestly venture an opinion. An experiment was set up (I just looked it up - the Freedman-Clauser experiment) in which they proved that entanglement works in entangled pairs which are not known at the time of separation, and a high enough percentage of them demonstrate entanglement that it *_has_* to be true. Read it for yourself and see what you make of it, but I don't understand it. Clever people have repeated the experiment, and believe the results, so I guess I sort-of believe it - but it's down to blind faith in the abilities of others. In 50 years' time, there will probably be gadgets that work using its principles, and it will be taught in infant school, but I'm sometimes amazed at what my grandkids are learning. My grandson, aged 8, knows stuff I didn't know till I was 15 or more, and learning aids like KZbin have been hugely instrumental in this. As the Bard said ... "Oh brave new world, that hath such people in it!"

[@MacLuckyPTP]

I'm no expert, but I've seen a lecture how all the proofs of Relativity can be explained by so called "electromagnetic retardation" without the need bend space or time and melt our brains. There is a genius called Walter Russell who does a great job explaining non-orthodox electricity, using a wave model, not a particle model.

[@klocke5247]

@@DownhillAllTheWay There appears to be a mess of assumptions made that don't appear to have solid evidence behind them. My main skepticism involves measurement errors.

[@harino1066]

i was a young man lecturing people on how misunderstood and brilliant Tesla was. general knowledge overtime tempered my attitude. this video brings a mystic fantasy masquerading as conspiracy back into reality. thank you so much.

[@bobbwc7011]

Tesla was never that brilliant and never misunderstood. He was simply not that relevant. To any electrical engineer the dude is a foot note at best. No discipline within electrical engineering, except one type of high voltage source in high voltage engineering (ergo: a niche application), uses any of Tesla's "inventions" and Tesla was literally overrun by Europeans. All the innovations happened in Europe hammerblow after hammerblow while Tesla sat on an irrelevant North American patent. At the same time a much brighter guy, Michail Doliwo-Dobrowolski, chief engineer at AEG, invented three phase AC generation, transmission, and distribution, and AEG became the global market leader for electrification.

[@josephjankowski1153]

Thank you so much for combatting this nonsense. The worst thing about this whole Tesla vs. Edison pop culture meme is that people have come to despise Edison, who was a brilliant inventor and Entrepreneur who overcame a disability to make significant contributions to history.

[@vitorribeiro3476]

In the twitter, Tesla is a wizard and Edison a thief. The Elon Musk influence in this is horrible

[@cara-seyun]

They were both brilliant in their own rights, there’s no need to pit them against each other for some fairy-tale like battle

[@Civsuccess2]

The left rewrite history to discredit Edison. He was being portrayed as a greedy white capitalist who abused his minority workers.

[@paradiselost9946]

why did tesla emigrate to the US in the first place, and whose lab did he use twice, later on? edison built a business by himself, and had employees and businesses relying on him to provide a service. then theres the westinghouse deal with making lightbulbs and ignoring patents "until we recieve the court order to stop making them..." unbeknownst to his pet "lab rat"... the money he blew at colorado was invested to do something entirely different... make a better lightbulb. the whole nonsense about three, yet he didnt even develop 3 phase beyond one generator that i am aware of, and that wasnt for any practical application but merely yet another one of his little devices for the lab...

[@solidpython4964]

The thing that made me feel bad for Tesla when I remember researching him wasn’t really all that “warring” with Edison supposedly, but the fact that Tesla gave up on his royalties deals with Westinghouse which cost him a lot of money, and he ended up growing old sad and alone and without much comfort that he should’ve had given his accomplishments.

[@ananya2711]

Exactly! It was heartbreaking to read articles about his later years in life

[@gavindingley2268]

Actually Edison and Tesla got on fine. When Tesla's lab burnt down, Edison offered him lab space.

[@marksherrill9337]

Actually Westinghouse made Tesla an over night millionaire. Tesla spent all that money on research.

[@user-lb8do4ew6k]

@@marksherrill9337 a fair chunk funded Tesla's ridiculously extravagant lavish lifestyle.

[@cck4863]

"growing old sad and alone and without much comfort" Given that he is still doing research on "Edison" money in his old days, he don't seem very sad and alone to me.While he wasn't living a millionaire life, he certainly wasn't poor. Based on account, he had an upper middle class lifestyle paid for by various funds. While he did not get them for free, it is Still considered good comfort.

[@TheCrotchetyoldwoman]

Thank you so much for this. I am a strange old lady who has had electronics as a hobby for 30 years. I am so tired of youngish men lecturing me on how misunderstood poor brilliant Tesla was. I first heard of Tesla when I was a science oriented high school student in NY state and Con Ed would give lectures and tours of power plants for students. The battle of the currents, the Niagara Falls generating station, and Tesla's roaring eccentricities were highlights often used to make the topics more student friendly. I remember having two free booklets on those subjects that I reread many times. I also had read something on Tesla's thoughts on Einstein's theory of relativity. I had always viewed Tesla as spectacular electrical engineer and a showoff, but pathetically ignorant of theoretical physics. I am so bored with this Tesla mania. Now I am running into weird gizmos being sold that promise to cure AIDs and cancer and sell for thousands of dollars that claim to be based on Tesla's theories. Thank you for trying to get the truth out.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Helen willis I’m so glad you liked it. One strange old lady to another 😉

[@777Ryank]

Helen willis Sounds interesting I'd like to know more of your studies, do you have a contact? Best Regards

[@hyzercreek]

@@stephentuck2920 Yeah Tesla invented ball lightning. He reached up into the clouds and grabbed thunder. He was the Che Guevara of electricity and has tee shirts. Actually, he invented tee shirts and was the first champion of picture tee shirts. He died under strange circumstances in Cuba.

[@honved1]

@@stephentuck2920 leave it out mate, you are making yourself look silly.

[@TheCrotchetyoldwoman]

@@stephentuck2920The last lab Tesla worked at was working on microwave/radar waves transmission before he went completely off the deep end. This was in the 1930's when radar was a major area of research for military use. The US government decided to require security clearance for anyone to work in an American lab dealing with these topics. Tesla was refused security clearance because if I remember correctly he told the interviewer he greatly admired Gavrilo Princip, the Serb nationalist that assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and started World War one and also Adolf Hitler because Teslas supported eugenics, then he told the interviewer that he wanted to marry a pigeon or some such nonsense. It was not some evil conspiracy that the US government thought our radar research should be kept secret in the years before World War Ii. It was a very smart move. And Tesla probably was a security risk. The FBI did seize all his notes when he died and held on to them for a very long time but I think they were all turned over to the Tesla Museum in Serbia in the early 1990's. By the way you don't have to hunt very far to find the magazine article Tesla wrote in the 20's or 30's claiming Einstein's theory of relatively was false. Telsa tries to make some kind of an argument about how it wouldn't work in luminiferous aether. The existence of luminiferous aether had been disproved more than 50 years earlier. Try Googling Tesla Einstein and theory of relativity, you should be able to find it. Telsa know crap about physics but was a brilliant electrical engineer.

[@loganfisher3138]

Hey Kathy. I just want to say that as a physicist I really appreciate all the work you put into this channel. While my focus is on advancing out knowledge into the future, the history of science is grossly underappreciated and is incredibly important to developing a stronger understanding of why we do things certain ways.

[@michaelweiske702]

I don't think we can say that tesla was terrible at physics: he has some inventions involving fluid mechanics that are fascinating to look into, namely the tesla valve and the tesla turbine. The tesla valve acts like a valve but contains no moving parts, great for reducing failure, and the tesla turbine uses fluid viscosity to generate power and is used nowadays as a pump for viscous fluids like sewage.

[@cck4863]

It can be said the reason his fluid mechanics stuffs are so strange and great IS BECAUSE HE IS TERRIBLE AT Physics. Physics at that time can't explain how his invention works ... (funny as it sound) neither can he. Tesla was a man with ideas ,money to spend and most important of all: the motivation to spend them. He just make them, modify them to make it work and then leave the rest to scientists.

[@de0509]

Although I can think of one weakness of both these valves and turbines, which is the existence of very tiny spaces where even tiny amount of deposits or changes in the geometry of the cavities (e.g. calcium and dust) would greatly diminish their efficiencies. This means more frequent maintenance and thus downtime

[@grahamstevenson1740]

Tesla clearly didn't understand wireless energy !

[@WentzCraft]

"spooky action at a distance" well I guess Einstein was a terrible physicist.

[@XxxXxx-br7eq]

@@de0509 unless there's a simple solution that can be added to it the clean it out without it being that difficult

[@aprilrain5553]

I’m an autistic 14 year old with a special interest. Learning about scientists (not science in general) keeps my attention. This video intrigued me a lot! I love learning about scientists like Michael Faraday (I love him, I nearly gasped when you mentioned him), Isaac Newton, Gregor Mendel, etc. I have been meaning to learn more about Tesla so thank you ^^

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

April, I’m glad you liked my video. I have made a lot of videos about Michael Faraday - I am a big fan of his as well. Good luck in your studies

[@aprilrain5553]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics thank you, I’ll make sure to check it out!

[@aprilrain5553]

@@deathsee ???

[@DownhillAllTheWay]

@@deathsee "watching click bait, from a person with an agenda ..." What is her agenda?

[@aprilrain5553]

@@deathsee I mean…you could at least elaborate

[@ffggddss]

Being from a physics background, and having noticed over the last several years what has seemed to be a sort of "stealth PR campaign" to promote the idea that Tesla was an unsung genius who has been jilted by history, I found myself often wondering what was behind all of it. All I knew of Tesla up to that point, was that the mks unit of magnetic field strength was given his name, and that he invented that thing with the sparks flying everywhere, that appears in all the old monster flicks (but not to be confused with the van de Graff generator). I'm glad to see someone has gone to the trouble to ferret out the truth of the matter. Thank you, Kathy. Fred

[@greggstrasser5791]

They’ll probably tie Tesla into what physics is needed for FTL travel. They’ll blow up a ship & discredit Tesla. Science will stop looking for FTL.

[@theboombody]

Well, I don't blame Tesla for believing relativity is a pseudoscience. It took me a LONG time to accept time dilation as even remotely possible.

[@thegroove2000]

It appears he was still gifted.

[@ffggddss]

@@thegroove2000 Oh yes, no doubt! But he suffered from lack of knowing what it was that he didn't know. Fred

[@goodmaro]

It's not hard to see why. Everyone who has fringe ideas about technology and wishes to promote them or products or services based on them has an incentive to dig up other examples of outlier technologists whose ideas were unjustly shoved aside. If it can be established that Tesla, or Wilhelm Reich, or some other pioneer who got carried away with hirself and went beyond the bounds of their own competence actually had "it", then why listen to skeptics about other technologies? On this very channel I've brought up a radio pioneer who tends to be ignored and whose theory was wrong, but who actually did devise and demonstrate a somewhat workable (verified independently by experimenters many decades later) radio telegraphy (and later telephony) system in 1865. It was a technologic and financial dead end, but had it been taken more seriously at the time, it likely would have sped the development of the field. Sometimes people with the wrong ideas can honestly produce results "by accident", but that doesn't mean they had the magic touch or that we should be contrarian in all our thinking. It still usually pays to bet "the chalk" against overoptimistic suckers.

[@gufranansari9286]

This real story didn't sound like a Hollywood biopic packed with rivelry, action, jealousy, too much greed. So people kept throwing in bits and pieces from time to time to spice it up. And in the era of youtube it all went to another level and we got a new version of this story.

[@RiverBottom22]

I have that same feeling in the pit of my stomach as when I learned that the Santa Claus I loved so dearly was actually my grandfather dressed up in a homemade Santa suit.

[@edwardvermillion8807]

hello... spoilers! my christmases will never be the same knowing your grandfather is sneaking into my house and eating all my milk and cookies!

[@tolfan4438]

Your grandpop is Santa that is so cool

[@madero-jb5ri]

That your grandfather? That means your grandfather is my father. HFS!

[@growskull]

@@madero-jb5ri his grandfather is my father too... hi brother

[@rolandliana]

Are you related to Michael Jackson? Just wonder since his mother kissed Santa Clause.

[@shaun2072]

WOW, that was amazing Kathy. I always wondered why Telsa went down the wacky rabbit hole of wireless transmission, but understanding his rejection of some fundamental physics really puts it into perspective.

[@BartdeBoisblanc]

Indeed an analog of how Tesla understood the Physics of Electric could be compared to someone understanding technology just before the tube era and someone understanding the Semiconductor era. It's that different . He also still believed in the either.

[@Chris.Davies]

He went mad. Batshit crazy, in fact. Much like another famous man who uses the word Tesla!

[@clydekimsey7503]

@@Chris.Davies who else?

[@markkinsler4333]

@@BartdeBoisblanc You can believe in the existence of the luminiferous ether and reject Einstein's theories and still utilize physics quite nicely _if_ you stick to low velocities and short distances. Tesla went through university physics courses, and modern physics wasn't universally recognized as being all that vital. Most elementary college physics courses barely touch Einstein or the ether even today. Neither Edison nor Tesla understood or cared about radio waves because radio and electric power were widely-separated fields at that time. Edison made a primitive vacuum tube but couldn't think of a commercial application for it, and it's likely that Tesla was aware of Maxwell's equations and perhaps Hertz' work, but neither thought about wireless communications much. (It's surprising that Edison, who had a deep knowledge of telegraphy, wasn't interested in wireless.) It all had to wait for Marconi, Armstrong, and others to pursue radio.

[@thomasjamison2050]

@@markkinsler4333 As always, hindsight is flawless. I don't think Tesla was all that crazy when it came to his ideas about electrical transmission through the air, but his vision was not perfect, but if can get past the Einsteinian blinders look enough to take an open minded look at the Electric Universe and it's understanding of Birkeland currents and electrical transmission of power between planets and suns, Tesla looks a bit more attuned to reality. I predict the James Webb telescope is going to cause far more consternation to NASA than it will to Wal Thornhill.

[@ogbmt]

I don't remember being taught anything about Tesla when I learned science at school. We were taught about Edison and a lot about Faraday, and I've always been confused about all of the fascination that the public and media seems to have with Tesla

[@craigslinkman1348]

Finally someone told the truth! Thank you. I will send Quora questioners to this video. Of course, historical accuracy and respect for science isn't popular in today's world.

[@KulaGGin]

_"respect for science isn't popular in today's world"_ What? We live in a time with the most respect for science. 400 years ago you would be hanged as a heretic for showing people what we can do now or even just saying that Earth goes around the sun. Nowadays no matter what you show to people, you're not gonna be hanged as a servant of Satan.

[@artdehls9100]

Tesla groupies cannot name a single other electrical engineer. "Tesla was the smartest man who ever lived!" *Koff*John Von Neumann"*Koff*

[@arpadkovacs2116]

After reading a book about Tesla, I came to the same conclusions. I realized, however, that people don't seem to want to hear about it. It is unbelieveable how far can reality and perception be from each other. I am surprised you have not been stoned. 😁

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Honestly, me too. 🤣

[@Elite7555]

Yeah, the effects of idolization and personality cult. Misinformed at best; creepy at worst.

[@carlosgaspar8447]

not just one book, because i must have read 5 proclaiming much of the same thing.

[@SpotterVideo]

I had a friend who is an electrician get upset with me when I told him Tesla did not come up with a way to get free energy from the air.

[@davidfaraday7963]

@@SpotterVideo There is a type of person who believes that we could all have unlimited free electricity if only "they" hadn't supressed it. "They" is variously the government and/or big oil interests. According to these people Tesla discovered how this free energy could be harvested but government agents stole all his papers and stopped him going public with the information. Its all total BS, of course, but to true believers the more they are told its BS the more certain they are that its true.

[@bmabs35]

I wish Faraday got the kind of deification Tesla had received

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

In a way I do too because Faraday was so amazing but In another way I’m glad he’s not revered as a god because he would’ve hated that he was a very humble man who did not like adoration or undue attention.

[@86soulx]

Faraday's name is all over physics textbooks while Tesla's name is only mentioned in physics textbooks when talking about the SI unit of magnetic flux. That, in my opinion, is real deification, not some temporary internet hype.

[@kingduckford]

Nobody should ever be deified.

[@jwnagy]

Interesting. Faraday was experimenting with Chromite, and saw its potential for alloys decades before anyone else.

[@drmodestoesq]

Having an basic electrical unit named after you is pretty high praise. That's like having an element named after a famous chemist.

[@weezlewubs]

This was an informative watch! I have to admit I get irritated when a figure seems to get idolized and praised beyond reason (no human is ever that perfect). So my instinct was that there was more to the story. Thank you for sharing! Westinghouse, Edison and Tesla deserve measured recognition for all of their contributions!

[@Trico42]

In the late 90s, I had an assignment that wanted me to evaluate a page on the Internet if it was fact or fiction. It depicted these myths as fact. I easily saw that they couldn't be true then. I was quite surprised to see how much the myths spread since then.

[@bernzeppi]

It’s great to come across a YT channel that puts the myth of Tesla in its right place. This is the stuff all electrical engineers know from academic study but KZbin has its own armchair professors who through the empty clanging and reverberation of self assured dunces become more ignorant than the day they were born. Bravo!

[@johnnycash4034]

Same as with the Tesla brand and Musk who highjacked it to sell his snake oil.

[@anullhandle]

@@johnnycash4034 The Venn for Musk fan boy and Tesla fan boy is pretty much a circle...

[@tonyduncan9852]

@@johnnycash4034 _"highjacked it to sell his snake oil"_ - He backed and sacked, which isn't unusual. He then SUCCEEDED. That IS unusual. "Snake oil", I suppose, is the suggestion that an electrical economy will stop your descendants from dying in wars brought about by mass starvation, mass migration, caused by global warming. That's too hard for you to deal with. Well, your ideology is _my_ snake oil. I celebrate the distance between us.

[@tonyduncan9852]

@@anullhandle _"The Venn for Musk fan boy and Tesla fan boy is pretty much a circle."_ - The enclosing circle is ENGINEERING SCIENCE, which is truth, not opinion. Resenting reason and truth is a destructive trait of humanity. Grow up.

[@anullhandle]

@@tonyduncan9852 No problem with science or engineering it's fan boys that swallow the hype that's annoying. Still a chuckle when they get their panties in a bunch. Thanks.

[@ThePeaceableKingdom]

Tesla wasn't as crap a physicist as you say, though he wasn't a modern man of science either. He invented a very interesting practical turbine pump, no small feat, in a manner very similar to the way he envisioned the rotating fields that led to his practical AC motor. That's some impressive brain power. Tesla sold his patent(s) to Westinghouse, but when Westinghouse couldn't pay he tore up the contract. So he really *_gave_* them to Westinghouse. He wasn't a striving businessman, for sure! And broadcast power does work - it will illuminate a neon tube with no direct connection to the power source. I used to be a sign maker, we did it in the shop for fun and tube testing. But it suffers from the same inverse square law that the transmission of light or radio suffers - you have to be very close. In general, impractical and unfeasible on scales much smaller than Tesla was imagining. And the earth *can* be used as part of a circuit as anyone who has built a crystal set knows, but not in the way - much less the scale - that Tesla was envisioning.

[@ArseneGray]

it is not broadcasting tho, if the objects are very close they are literally interacting with the magnetic fields around the conduit. Look up veritasium's video of how current is actually transmitted.

[@ThePeaceableKingdom]

@@ArseneGray I've seen Veritasium's vid, but he is talking about the transmission of current through a conductor. That's different from broadcasting, but broadcasting is still interacting with electro-magnetic fields. When you pick up a radio station from a hundred miles away, you are receiving the variations in the magnetic field at a particular frequency (if it's AM) and it can be measured as a voltage, even though the conduit (using thousands of watts in a cable sent to an antenna) is a hundred miles away. That's broadcasting.

[@rogerphelps9939]

@@ThePeaceableKingdom Actually you can equally well can receive variations in the electric field.. The only thing that reacts to the magnetic field is a ferrite rod or a eire wound into a large coil. Using the electric field in all sorts of different antennae is far more prevalent.

[@ThePeaceableKingdom]

@@rogerphelps9939 It's the electro-magnetic field. Magnetism creates electric fields, as Faraday showed, and as it does in an old fashioned car generator. And electricity creates magnetic fields, as demonstrated a decade earlier by by Oersted. The coil has a resonance depending on the diameter, length, guage of the wire, number of turns and many other factors, that selects and excludes and intensifies the received signals. That's definitely broadcasting, when the source is hundreds or thousands of miles away. But broadcasting _usable amounts of power,_ as Tesla imagined, would require enourmous energy being pushed out and it would be very dependent on distance. Increasing the distance arithmetically decreases the power received geometrically.

[@vsm1456]

@ThePeaceableKingdom, inventing something and being a good physicist is not the same. It may overlap, but not always.

[@jerryfacts9749]

Very well presented. My education is in electrical engineering from during the late 1960s. I read a lot about N. Tesla. I was very fascinated with his theories and what he accomplished. There are many myths and misconceptions about N. Tesla.

[@user-jx5ju8pe7o]

But why is the government take his notes and whatnot?

[@paulg3336]

When I was an apprentice radio technician in the 1970s ,we used to refer to current as magic pixies. It seems we were correct all along

[@every1665]

Reminds me of the standard technicians joke about how electricity looks like smoke, and is sealed inside every component. That's why when you see smoke it stops working.

[@jlmassir]

I like very much in your videos how you can be a deep critic to someone, but also recognize one's great accomplishments and put all of this in historical and human perspective. This kind of balance is sweet and I don't think at all that the very much needed popularization of scicence needs to be sensationalist to attract people, in fact, people are attracted by twisted plots and complex narratives.

[@democracyforall]

Sure, she is not the decended or relative of Edison the theif.

[@peteralcivar6731]

Tesla has a mixed history, but he is not alone. William Shockley, the winner of the Nobel Prize in physics for the invention of the transistor, later became an ardent believer in eugenics and white supremacy. So you think you know a guy...

[@fernandobernardo6324]

​@@democracyforall Prove it

[@couchetard1984]

I am a new convert to Kathy's channel and I am so happy to have found her! Thank you, Kathy!

[@NondescriptMammal]

Your presentations are so excellent and thorough and cover the interesting facts so coherently. I have always admired Tesla for his electrical engineering prowess, and believed in some of the myths until reading further about him and discovering some of what you reveal here. I think he is still to be admired as having a genius years ahead of his time in some respects, but it is good to have a realistic view of his contributions rather than myth.

[@bailydenhouten1072]

This is the most thorough video on this subject I've ever seen. THANK YOU so much for mentioning Ferraris. It's incredible how much misinformation is plugged anymore.

[@41.ishankashyap19]

Tired of all the people preaching that Tesla invented alternating current , I came here looking for answers and and a way in which I could expand my knowledge on this topic. Then I came across this gem of a video , which put forth proofs and arguments with which I couldn't agree more.Iam a grade 11 physics student always on a lookout to learn something extra , and seeing this video today has made me feel that today was fruitful. Thank you mam for enlightening us with your knowledge and diving deep into the topic to bust out all the bogus rumors once and for all. Thank you mam for uploading such a marvelous video, I will always be on a lookout for new Physics related videos from your channel to broaden my own knowledge on the subject. Love from India🇮🇳🇮🇳

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

ISHAN KASHYAP so glad you liked it and good luck with your studies.

[@hugostiglitz6914]

Thank you for this upload. I've been saying yhis for years, but if you make any comments of this nature on the pro myth KZbin channels you get verbally assaulted by the Tesla fanboys who believe Tesla never made a mistake or wandered down the wrong technical rabbit hole!

[@jensschroder8214]

AC is better for arc lamps because the electrodes burn off on both sides. With DC, the positive electrode is consumed faster.

[@traditionaltools5080]

"Tesla was born that year." So AC actually invented Tesla? Another excellent video.

[@Smellslikenarcspirit]

Yeah like our ancesters ( invented ) fire . You cant invent something that already exists . Same whit tesla . He didn't ( invent ) AC . He only invented a practical use for it .

[@susilgunaratne4267]

Yes, despite all the obvious facts social media & other sensational documentaries made on distorting it to make him a fake hero in the gullible masses mind.

[@KNemo1999]

Correlation is not causation, but in this case I think it may be the case.

[@marin4311]

Yes Tesla was actually born in the USSR, were these kind of inversions happen. He was a time traveler, you know.

[@jdm3072]

I think the best assessment of Tesla was that he was very savvy as an electrical engineer. His refinements of a few handful of existing designs helped the developing field of electrical generation toward but didn't change it profoundly. The more far-reaching concepts he had that could have profoundly changed humanity all came to failure. His imagination surpassed the reality of his capacities in those instances. He deserves praise, but not unwarranted deification.

[@roccoyates9400]

So wrong lol

[@larsord9139]

Jdm: “His imagination surpassed the reality of his capacities”. I would say: surpassed the reality of physics.

[@atmospheres11]

Thats only an opinion. Fortunately historically the facts which the vast majority don't bother to look at are there for the finding. If an opinion is sourced solely from someone else's opinion then its still just that, opinion, and that by the way is perfectly OK as long as it is never put forth as fact.

[@zackerythomas3675]

I am glad that I came across your video in my feed. I appreciate the factul nuances of history. I did buy in to the popular notions between Edison and Tesla most likely due to pop culture. With channels like yours and others it is vitally important to keep factual reality accessible to the public. Thanks much for your contribution to reality.

[@Dr.Reason]

I always appreciate people who ACTUALLY study rather than THINK they study by just reading what others believe. And isn’t it just like our modern era to put fools and buffoons and thieves and liars upon pedestals, and vilify the real producers and genius. Great report.

[@ELECTRICMOTOCROSSMACHINE]

Thanks for taking the time to set it strait. Your contribution to history is absolute.

[@Tmanaz480]

What a great example of how history can become twisted over time.

[@Bob-of-Zoid]

Half that shit was twisted right off the bat! Still happens these days: People believe what they want to believe, truth be damned!

[@carlosgaspar8447]

perhaps, history as it is taught, cannot be trusted unless there are also counterpoints?

[@CharlieSolis]

@@user-io4sr7vg1v the math and physics claim is not accurate. I’ve seen pages on pages of his notes that aren’t widely available. He just didn’t publish research papers in a way that we would have a vast array of his theoretical works. Most of his writings left that are even being shown to the public by the museum are for his patents and/or articles he wrote for widely publicized magazines. Through the Tesla turbine R&D I do I have acquired a lot of documents of his that come directly from the museum. Not to mention I am proving that the Tesla turbine (what everyone said cannot work because it either has to be spun to fast to work or it “doesn’t get any torque” both are abysmal lies) actually does work if you know how to design and optimize the key parameters for them. already showing a peak of 2.75kW and 6.22ft-lbs torque at 4150rpm with just 150psi compressed air. As well 1200watt continuous electrical load outputs all the way down to even 65psi. All from a plastic and cheapo aluminum version. 😂 There’s just as many examples where the critical points in his work have been misunderstood, and also faked about what he has actually done, as there are examples of him actually producing legitimate work. Hell his DC generator alone, patent 406,968, was major improvement upon the faraday disc to eliminate any need for a sliding contact at the periphery and make it effective to put many faraday discs in series while having mind numbingly high max current capacities, as well as low ohmic loss within the unit, because of the massive increase in electrical contact area for current to flow. His lightning protector patent 1,226,175 (that does the exact opposite of what everyone thinks it does) was genius yet everyone sleeps on it. Not to mention how bastardized people have made what they think Tesla coils are supposed to do because people only ever show them arcing off the top despite the fact that they are NEVER supposed to arc of the top to work properly and the torus dome on the top is literally designed to reduce electron densities on its surface, not encourage arcs, so that it can be brought up to much MUCH higher voltages to eliminate discharges and leakage of electricity into the air, in the identical way that the lightning protector patent works. Tesla’s fountain patent 1,113,716 was an entirely novel and new way to get the most efficient way of bringing water up to a height to be splayed out into a shower requiring the least amount of energy to keep the water flow in full motion. With the properly designed basin to recoup any falling kinetic energy to continue the flow, and a height of 18 inches it only requires 30watts to keep 100gallons per minute in flow. This equates to the most efficient way to swirl water around to work as an air to water heat exchanger. Giving up the least amount of energy to keep cooling water in flow for steam turbine systems is PIVOTAL to efficient overall operations. Even his non-dispersive energy projector is another novel way to essentially put a van degraff generator on steroids, with his vacuum bulbs with single pole mini-lightning protector umbrellas inside them that are meant for going all around the top of the dome allowing it to be brought to upwards of +50million volts without arcing off, and fully pneumatic system that works to charge the top dome via the circulation of a non conductive gas using his pump at high speed, instead of a motor spinning a nonconductive band to work as the charge transporter. (Coincidentally the letter head that he had commissioned an artist to make for him for the wardenclyff tower enterprise actually had the bulbs depicted all over the top dome too) Furthermore there’s an entire book put out by the museum called “the unresolved patents of Nikola Tesla” that has a myriad of his patents that either got turned down or never completed. There are some amazing ones in there. He literally applied for a patent for a way to cause rain that he was denied. He actually and effectively designed a way and system to cause rain from induced lightning strikes but, and this is what’s written by the patent clerk who denied his patent, he was denied the patent because in the patent Tesla says this happens regularly in nature during lightning strikes but even though he could artificially induce them “you can’t patent a process that already happens in nature” Even the article he wrote “Our Future Motive Power” is a brilliant example of his vast thermodynamics understanding for high and vacuum pressure Rankine steam generator systems and a vast array of the viable power generating capabilities from low grade heat sources. There’s SOOO much more to what he did than just the handful of electronics stuff that everyone talks about, while they also still get flippantly wrong.

[@CharlieSolis]

@@user-io4sr7vg1v you’re very welcome! And I got my copy from Amazon, although now I’m wondering if I’m also missing 300 pages lol sadly it’s certainly not cheap though. They know they are re the only ones with those documents so they have blown their price up. And I’m not even getting commission 😭😂 it’s just such a good book that I think everyone should hear about it. Don’t expect their to be some super duper secret stuff in there though. It’s definitely got a lot of worthy goodies but there’s no like anti-gravity stuff or anything 😂 I would also suggest picking up the “complete us patents of Nikola Tesla” book of you get your hands on it cheaply. Not that you can’t find all the patents in there individually online but it’s a very well put together in order collection of his works. There’s some lesser known ones in the back of that too. But to be clear it’s only the US patents. There’s SOO many more that he applied for in other countries. Specifically everyone think he patented the turbine in 1911 and then just did nothing with it because it never went anywhere. But he did 10 years of R&D and then in 1921 patented 4 improvement patents and “hid” some more improvements in another one for the Tesla turbine that EVERYONE sleeps on. Patent GB 186,082 (improved construction of turbine disc stack), GB 186,083 improved design for a multifluid (steam + combustion) turbine with a thermal recoup boiler for the still hot exhaust not utilized for power out in the turbine is used to raise more steam and warm the boiler feed water before leaving to drastic any increase the overall thermodynamic efficiency of the system. GB 186,084 another multi fluid combustion steam superheater heat exchanger for superheating the steam just prior to going into the turbine and then a special coaxial design nozzle for admitting the two motive fluids into the the turbine at the same time such that the steam constantly pulls a low pressure on the combustion exhaust nozzle going into the turbine to maintain the flame front propagation forward and prevent flame out that is again meant to be able to utilize the vast majority of the thermal energy dumped into the already steam because none is given up to the latent heat of vaporization. And GB 174,544 Is a hybrid Tesla Turbine direct on shaft with a bladed parson turbine for max thermodynamic efficiency usage of superheated steam that the blades turbine couldn’t handle at the time and utilize, (even inefficiently first using the extremely hot steam with a Tesla disc stack prior to being admitted into a bladed turbine, that can’t be taken that high of temps, still gets a higher efficiency then not having one there.) Then lastly he has other improvements to the turbine nozzles and exhaust hole sizing tucked away in one of the two Aerial apparatus patent 1,655,114 that was his very last patent. As well if you’re interested in Tesla turbines there are recorded videos of the power outputs I was talking about before that are on the KZbin’s that you can see as proof too. Lots of them. The Non-dispersion concentrated energy projector device paper he wrote and his expose of the 4 part inventions he designed to improve the performance of the van degraff generator is also a really good read. He as well goes through all the math for the basic proofs of even just a modest sized unit and just how fast it can accelerate projected ionized matter. Because of how high of a voltage the dome can reach (because of the special vacuum lightning protector bulbs eliminating the possibility of arcing off), a 2.5meter radius dome of the bulbs charged up to 60million volts can be brought into electrical contact with a neutral conductive small bb in a nozzle at the high vacuum section (the dome and the bb equalize voltage potentials, become the same 50million volts from a minute current, dump of electrons from the dome onto the bb) and be accelerated away from the dome down the length of a 15cm barrel kept in high vacuum, at a rate where the charged metal bb goes from 0m/s to 16,300m/s within just the length of the 15cm, high vacuum, barrel….. 🤯 I would also highly suggest reading “The problem of increasing human energy” by him as well. It’s a great read. One of the most fascinating ones to read and really quite hard to wrap your head around is “Notes on a Unipolar Dynamo”. It’s kind of a side paper to his DC generator patent 406,968 about a special case faraday disc type generator thats just an utterly tantalizing dive into new potentials of the faraday disk type generator.

[@testurenergy]

@@CharlieSolis oh dang! Dropping fact bombs!

[@tedankhamenbonnah4848]

As a discourse and narrative analyst and media professor, I find this very illuminating. Well done.

[@rycolligan]

I greatly appreciate how succinct and focused this video is, and thank you for putting facts out in an accessible way about a topic that has been grossly mythologized

[@roberthigbee3260]

I just can’t understand how the name “Tesla” had more panache and historical staying power than “Zipernowsky-Blathy-Deri”.

[@susilgunaratne4267]

Power of the propaganda machines work on social media. Distorting the truth & magnifying the small truth out of proportion to make their chosen hero to a worshiping grade.

[@chrisnurczyk8239]

Just found this excellent presentation on You Tube - thanks for a cogent, sensible report based on primary sources - the best way to get to the truth. I graduated from Shimer College where we used primary sources and Socratic method discussion classes - very enlightening. As a retired middle school Earth Science teacher, I value folks promoting science in an honest. open manner - so I subscribed. I feel you gave Tesla his true place in history without diminishing him. Please keep up the good work.

[@rsmith02]

Not many on KZbin go back to primary sources and go beyond the retelling of well-told stories. Thanks for the depth and insight into who Tesla was and was not.

[@clivebaxter6354]

Mostly lies- Tesla rejected a Nobel prize (never awarded) Tesla was cheated- when he charged Westinghouse $170k for his patent which did not even work well, then the old somebody once asked Einstein what it was like to be a genius- ask Tesla nonsense. Plus his time machine, death ray and being responsible for just about everything today including mobile phones and the internet. The Tesla fan boys just want somebody to identify with as a 'cheated' genius.

[@cindyo6298]

Oh my gosh, I've been looking for this video, but I could not find it by searching for Tesla videos youtube, but found you by searching about Galvani's frog experiment. I'm so happy!

[@yummyklown9226]

I could listen to you all day! That's a very hard task, cause my brain runs at a million miles an hour and my attention span is that of a fruit fly. Keep up the great work!!!!

[@fubarmodelyard1392]

I always found it disturbing that Edison electrocuted dogs, horses, and even an elephant just to discredit a rival

[@Chris.Davies]

This was in the day when people believed that god placed animals on the Earth for us to use as we see fit. It was before we appreciated animal rights, or indeed developed much respect for other creatures.

[@stephenshoihet2590]

Westinghouse was a brilliant engineer, Edison was a pompous ass who took advantage of people whenever possible so it's not really surprising.

[@oiytd5wugho]

@@Chris.Davies Contemporary beliefs have no bearing on morality. That just means his excuse might have been that others were fine with it, in no way absolving him of any guilt. If consciously torturing animals is immoral today, it was immoral yesterday and will be tomorrow.

[@alexkaapa]

@@Chris.Davies which we still hardly do, just see factory farming

[@ceryan83]

@@oiytd5wugho Morality is relative.

[@clonecypher8888]

Thanks for your research. This was very interesting and well made. I just wanted to say that I hope these hundreds of aggressive comments attacking and mocking you don't affect you. You should ignore those, since the writers don't even put 1min of effort into them, and are aimed to just ridicule. Be proud of what you have done here!

[@GrzegorzSobkowicz]

Not sure why KZbin decided to recommend this to me after almost 5 years since it got uploaded, but I'm glad it did.

[@animalntelligence3170]

I recall a quote from Tesla that was somewhat critical of Edison's trial-and-error approach to development of technology which he attributed to Edison's lack of formal training.

Edison was more of a thief than anything else.

[@david203]

This should be required viewing in public schools, to reverse the misconceptions so rampant in the world today about Tesla. And once having rejected such misguided thinking, perhaps young people would reverse the current popularity of believing every claim they read and every advertisement they see. We need more critical thinking and less ignorance, to make best use of our lives and especially of government by representative democracy.

[@steveclemons8191]

This is the second video of yours that I’ve watched. The 1st one was very good. But there are lots of people could make 1 good video. Now this one is also very good. I am hearing things I didn’t know before. I love that!! I also LOVE your enthusiasm for what you are doing. Love, I send to you! Keep up the great work. You just got a new subscriber.

[@jemborg]

Really good work. I had heard something about the motors being more important but this clears up so much more. Thank you enormously.

[@overunityinventor]

Tesla didn't invent AC but he popularised it so much that people believe he invented it, just like people believe james watt invented steam engine when he didn't actually. If you go through the technical know-how of wireless electrical transmission through earth and air, you will find that it was actually free energy distribution, because even if 100 receivers receieved 100 watts each (100x100 in total) the one transmitter would still be consuming 100 watts, he was not sending electricity wirelessly, he was creating a situation (rapid (very high frequency) ionisation and de-ionisation of air at nano scale under miles of radius from tower) so receivers would induce (not receive) the same amount of electricity. He could light bulbs with one wire because air was ionising and deionising rapidly and bulbs small capacitance was enough to hold opposite (to wire) polarity of charge momentarily until the cycle is reversed. He has patents showing harnessing cosmic rays, he created a motor that ran on cosmic rays. Even though he didn't create AC, but he was a genius and an electrical wizard. I am wondering who is funding you to spread lies and defame tesla? Must be big oil corps.

[@bobmusil1458]

"created a motor that ran on cosmic rays" Yeah, right 🤦‍♂

[@tobystewart4403]

This is one of the best science channels on youtube. It's so well done. As for "free" electricity, this seems a very odd idea to me. I should think that all electricity is manifestly free. It's moving it to where you want it that costs money.

[@CharlieSolis]

Tesla did not believe in free energy and explicitly states it in many of his writings. When he’s talking about “free energy” he means “monetarily free” energy and vast sources of energy all around us that we can tap into, like Niagara Falls for example. This is yet another bastardization of what Tesla actually said and believed.

[@YouKilledFritz]

Kathy, you have the wonderful gift of a great teacher who just oozes enthusiasm for a subject and leaves their listener inspired and eager to learn! 🙏🏽💕✨🌈🌌

[@kellecetraro4807]

Mad props for having the guts to make this video 🙏🏼

[@davidharmer9398]

I love the energy that you put into these videos, it is a fascinating mix of the technical and personal set in the context of the time.... wonderful, thank you Kathy

[@rexmyers991]

Thank you for separating fact from fiction. I’ve often wondered WHY a car company would go so far as to name their company after him when, in my observations, few if any components of the car sprung from his mind.

[@karenryder6317]

I think it's because Tesla is a cooler name than Farraday.

[@hm5142]

As a physicist, I have always seen the comparison of Tesla to Einstein a sign of a total misunderstanding of the contributions of both. Tesla was a player in the "wild west" of early electrical engineering He was a very clever engineer and made some interesting and lasting contributions to the field. Einstein, using the discoveries of Maxwell and Planck, made some of the greatest contributions to our understanding of the universe in all of human history. There really have been only a handful of people in history whose contributions are comparable to Einstein.

[@FrankEmmons]

Wow! Thanks for sharing this with us. I love history - especially the history behind the technology we use (and take for granted) every day. You have enriched this geeks life.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@mimArmand]

Very interesting, I'd love to learn more about his arguments on the atomic model and the elctrons and why he didn't believe in them! will check the article will references, hoping I'll find something there, Thanks again for your great work Kathy,

[@Majorfatal1]

He claim that he use to split atom without gaining any new energy, few models of his light bulbs use to work that way

[@theanimerican]

Years ago, Tesla wasn't really in the public concious and not heard too much by the general public, it seemed. When the myths started coming up, I was young ate it up and assumed he was decades ahead of his time. However, at some point, I got the impression that Tesla's accomplishments was probably a collaborative effort since the stories of him only started coming out relativiely recently. Thank you for this video. I now feel more informed and see who credit should be given to for certain discoveries. Although, I find it funny that of all the myths that got busted, it was the pigeon one that was the only one that apparently was not a myth.

[@davidogundipe808]

You are truly an enlightened person, and non biased, thank you for exposing these myths.

[@MariaMartinez-researcher]

Not surprisingly, the very same BBC in its channel BBC Reels just uploaded a video in the praise of Tesla which echoes the "facts" debunked here. I linked this video to that one in case someone is interested in well researched history of science. Thanks, Kathy.

[@kev3d]

It should be noted that the animals killed in the War of Currents demonstrations were largely, if not entirely, performed on condemned animals. The common way of disposing of dogs at the time was by strangulation or drowning. Thus a quick zap was seen as being much more humane. In fact it was the SCPA which provided at least some of the animals, and it was the SPCA that suggested (though not to Edison) that "Topsy" the Elephant (who had killed at least one, possibly other people) should be killed quickly. Edison had nothing to do with Topsy's electrocution, which occurred more than a decade after the War of Currents concluded.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

Very interesting. However, I am pretty sure that Brown's electric deaths were pretty gruesome as he specifically did them to demonstrate how horrible AC was (there were reports of how viewers were appalled). But as you said (and I think I included in the video) the elephant was not killed by Edison and had nothing to do with the war of the currents. Also, the electric chair was pushed because a doctor thought it would be more humane.

[@jamespfitz]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics What we consider a quick humane execution would certainly be considered shocking to someone who had never seen death administered so instantaneously and certainly.

[@clownplayer7265]

@@jamespfitz Besides, the times were different. Our understanding of how painful a zap can be was still somewhat limited and humans are always in constant learning.

[@johngellard1187]

@@Kathy_Loves_Physics Kathy,I believe topsy was killed by Edison,Edison even filmed it.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

@@johngellard1187 Nope, but that is easy to be confused about. Topsy was killed by his owner as the elephant had killed a person. Edison's film company then decided to film it as they knew people would like to watch an elephant die (gross). Edison didn't kill Topsy nor did he get involved in the decision to make that film and it didn't have anything to do with the war of the currents. However, Edison put his name on the film so it certainly seemed that way to many people.

[@leedobson30]

Super interesting and informative. Unvarnished truth is always better than myth. Well done

[@michaelransom5841]

Yes, I knew most of that, but you still managed to dig up some points I wasn't aware of, like his definition of mass in mass in the kinetic energy equation.. crazy!

[@JesterAzazel]

Glad to see someone dispelling these myths. I really do get tired of hearing them. The more views this video gets, the better.

[@ppol4264]

Thank you for this very accurate video. I have myself read a lot about this subject and I aggree with all that you said.During the 70s and the 80s, Tesla was completely forgotten in the history books. (Well at least he had a the unit of magnetic fields named after him) and all the glory was for Edison. I was always saying, "Don't forget Tesla he invented the AC motor and built a strange" tower. But today is the opposite : everybody speaks about Tesla and seems to ignore the genius of Edison.

[@SlavicCelery]

Because Edison has become the "colonizer", in much of public perception. People forget that someone who aggregates data can be just as important as the people who have the initial breakthrough. How often is a chemical or idea formulated, and then sits unused for years before the genius is realized?

[@TeenageWasteland2112]

What video games did you hear about Tesla in lol?

[@Dripikdrippydipsdropkicks]

Probably played red alert and built Tesla coils

[@hex1795]

Red dead two 😔

[@smartboi5354]

Hearts of Iron 4.

[@jasonm3317]

The game was called Tunguska. 🤪😳

[@beyondaveragemotion]

Call of duty

[@jesperkthomsen]

This is in line with what I learned in school in the 70ies and 80ies when I studied for Wireless Officer in the Merchant Navy. It wasn't until the emergence of KZbin that I started to see this deification of Tesla where I have always thought that something was rotten...

[@MartinHomeVideo]

Thanks a lot for your research and putting the record straight ❤ Unfortunately this kind of effort isn’t as common in the world of science, let alone in popular culture. You’re a bright star in the darkness ⭐️😉👍

[@CocoaBeachLiving]

Very cool. I knew some of this, especially the Edison vs. Westinghouse fued. Particularly since we use DC in our electronic devices and AC for transporting power to our homes and businesses for equipment etc... I'm still utterly disappointed with Edison killing animals using AC. I know, it was in context of the times. I am surprised about Tesla having such an ambivalent view of wireless communications being electromagnetic. Wow, nevertheless I respect his contributions to electrical technology. Thank you for presenting a much clearer, unemotional representation of what really happened. 👍👍

[@georgepelton5645]

Tesla’s invention of the first practical electric motor, still in use today, did enable our modern AC power system. If AC could only be used for lighting and other resistive loads it would be very limited. Although acknowledged in the beginning, this important contribution also belongs in the conclusion. In my opinion, it is Tesla’s biggest contribution to the human condition.

[@vrgpy]

His 6 wires 3-phase motor was not used much. Only when 3-phase 3 wires systems was practical It became what its today.

[@gbennett58]

@@vrgpy And the 3 phase 3 wire system was invented by Mikhail Dolivo-Dobrovolsky, not Tesla.

[@susilgunaratne4267]

The motor we use in industry is the one by Dolivo Dobrovolsky & it was mentioned in electrical engineering text books I have been read in 1967. It is the Double squirrel - cage Induction motor. No brushes.

[@beatrixxxkiddo]

Tesla's most important creation was AC-DC, I saw them live a couple of years ago and my ears are still ringing

[@pw5207]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I was taught in 9th grade science class just exactly what you have proven. Especially that he did not understand the flow of electrons, his tower was useless for power transmission and he did not invent ac current!!!! Job well done.

[@bigmack2141]

Bravo , I am so tired of so many myths being constantly put forward as “ truth” even Wikipedia does it. So great to see you telling the truth, I just can’t say how wonderful it is to see FACTS put forward. Keep up the great work.

[@TheEpicpwnr100]

I remember in high school hearing and believing the narrative of Tesla, up until a history teacher of mine told the class that everything surrounding Tesla Vs. Edison was either overblown or untrue. I still believed in the narrative a little because, as I recall, my teacher didn't go into detail as to how and why it was unfounded. In bad faith I assumed that he was espousing a narrative of his own that falsely painted Edison in a good light. Even though I still wanted to believe the story, I didn't believe it with all my heart as I did before because I respected that teacher too much to think he would make a claim like that without doing his homework. I put it out of my mind until watching this video, and I'm glad to see he was right, and I know a bit more about what really happened with the development of electricity at that point in time.

[@atilathesonofdanubius4277]

Thanks for putting this very clear and concise video about Electricity inventions and Tesla. I always wondered myself why all those attributions to Tesla when his real obsession was transmitting power over the air. The verdict about his thoughts and Scalar Waves, although amazing, are still yet to be realized.

[@tompflug5726]

Great video Kathy. I've been desperate for some real sources to all these Tesla claims. I look forward to delving into your catalogue.

[@katg-gk5ox]

Finally - Thank you! I've read some of Tesla's writings and I got the impression of a fairly bright engineer who got things done because he obsessed about AC and resonance but I never got the feeling of a physics genius.

[@BartdeBoisblanc]

Nice work I always thought after reading many books on Tesla both Esoteric and Pedestrian that people were conflating Tesla's inventions with Mysticism. Thanks for confirming he was not a fake but an eccentric who held on to ideas that had be proven wrong. His actual contribution to the modern world is something to admire.

[@backslash68]

esoteric and pedestrian people turned Tesla's biography into a cult of personality

[@susilgunaratne4267]

@@backslash68 Exactly, well said. This gullible people ultimately doesn't know genuine inventions that have been contributed much our society today since all are being eclipsed by the fake image promoted by the social media propaganda.

[@ajdembroski7529]

Thank you for this. I can't believe it took me 4 years to find it. I was aware of most of the things in this video, but I have never done the primary source research to be able to argue it well. Edison is one of the most wrongly-villainized people in American history, and it saddens me.

[@conradb7200]

Thank You Edmond V. For enlightening me by sending me to this site … run by this super knowledgeable and intelligent lady Kathy …

[@tapanisydanmetsa6714]

That Alleluya praise of Tesla has got also me suspicious so I thank you very much for showing that the reasons for lifting him up as a mistreated genius are very obscure. The blaming of Edison did hurt me personally because my first school lecture (nearly sixty years ago) was about just the great inventor Thomas Alva Edison.

[@morganlee2806]

Thank you for this video. I thought I was taking crazy pills reading through some of the other videos and the comments section. Tesla has went from being underappreciated during and after his time to being flat out mythologized today.

[@klausziegler60]

In an age of disinformation, this web site is gold

[@RobertJohnson-zs4om]

Great video again it is your first on what someone didn’t do ! I get a smile when i hear people say we had a design for free powe

[@tookitogo]

This video mirrors what I have told people for years. What’s weird about Tesla is that it’s just this century that the history about him went all wacky. As someone who was aware of Tesla and his accomplishments long before that, it was really weird to see him go from “guy who invented a practical AC motor” known by nerds only, to “techno wizard visionary” revered by quacks and laypersons.

[@Chris.Davies]

It is the inherent desire of humanity to see a down-trodden genius (good powerless man) triumph against evil corporation (bad powerful men) with nothing but intelligence. The classic David vs. Goliath match up. NO ONE ROOTS FOR GOLIATH! The trouble is that David usually loses. And why we find these stories easy to believe.

[@tookitogo]

@@Chris.Davies Yes, I think you’re right. What’s a pity about it is that the quackery may end up overshadowing (and thus calling into question) his actual achievements, which were still significant. (I mean, we don’t name SI units after people for nothing.)

[@MarcosElMalo2]

I first heard these myths in the 80s and 90s-Tesla was conspiracy theory fodder because these myths supported the idea of “The Government” or “Big Corporations” suppressing scientific knowledge that would benefit mankind. They were plausible because there have been examples of scientists facing obstacles thrown up by business interests threatened by scientific, medical, and engineering research.

[@robertv4076]

I don't think you appreciate the importance of the practical AC motor. It changed the world almost more than anything.

[@tookitogo]

@@robertv4076 Nonsense. Nothing in my comment claims disagrees with that.

[@peteroconnor5537]

Kathy, another great video. You have done what most of us have not - you read Tesla’s writings and have done your proper research. I am guilty of just parroting the fables of Edison Vs Tesla wars when it really was between Edison and Westinghouse (George who btw seemed a really decent human being - a father figure in his day). Thanks for the info.

[@Kathy_Loves_Physics]

You know, I too was guilty of spreading misinformation about Tesla before I read his original work. We can't research everything! Glad you liked the video BTW.

[@ludost5178]

he had a great moustache and beard,ngl.

[@vivekyadav]

Thank you! That was very interesting. I was certain that historical facts must have have been twisted and misinterpreted based on the way things about Tesla and Edison were beingv publicised in popular media. Also this explains why I never hear Tesla's name come up when great discoveries and arguments of physicists are discussed which lived during his time and there were quite a few of them.