Tesla Master of Lighting – Kolyo T.D.

The movie was great very informative and very full of useful information. Tesla was a very brilliant man that kind of reminded me of Edison. Unlike Edison Tesla had faith in AC and had some of the best schooling in the world. Tesla invented the AC motor that revolutionized society and gave power to many people far away from the source or power station. This method was more effective than Edison’s because Edison’s plan had to have a power station about every mile which proved very inefficient and would cost much money. After teals patented his design of the electric AC motor he began working on some of the other ideas that he had, like the concept of sending data over a great distance and sending power over a great distance with ought any wires. He devoted most of his life to that idea but in the end he was not able to achieve his dream of power with ought wires. Tesla was a very isolated man and he kept his own business to himself and did not have many friends. The only friends he seemed to have been the pigeons that he loved to feed and watch. Overall the movie was good and very informative!

Tesla: Master of Lighting – Kevin Smith

As I watched the video on Tesla I felt like he was a man that was considered a great mind but nobody really appreciated his intelligence. He grew up in Serbia and his father wanted him to go into his profession but Nikola wanted to do something with his passion of electricity. Tesla had a near death experience and his father decided he should go with his heart. Tesla always questioned is there a better way even if the current way sufficed the need already. He was in it for the people but the people didn’t get his genius like they recognized Edison’s. Tesla’s work ethic was very different from Edison’s by Tesla just got visions of the solution in his head without even having a working prototype in front of him. The advantage of this is that you explore so many ideas without the constraint of buying supplies but the downfall is that you cant judge it to make it better. Edison used each idea he had and implemented it so he could judge what he could do better because the actual results were in front of his face and not abstractly in his mind. Tesla was given the chance to work in France to work with Batchelor and was able to make his first prototype of the AC current motor. The reason his didn’t make a big impact with this is because he was questioning the newly created DC and he had no credibility. The failure was not reaching out to his superiors and grabbing their attention earlier but his successes were only recognized until after. He was ahead of his time and no one knew what to do with the devices that he invented. He invented the remote which was a success but a failure because there was no practical use for it. Tesla was a genius and I’m glad he got the credit he deserved by being considered the victor of the AC vs. DC war.

Tesla Master of Lightning – Joey M

Tesla’s inventing techniques and personality traits in the movie Tesla Master of Lightning are very interesting and unique. I liked the movie because it did a very good job of portraying a detailed view of Telsa’s incredible life. The movie covered Tesla’s life from his early years to his many later inventions.

Tesla’s success came from his unrivaled intelligence and his ability to envision his inventions before he even began inventing them. He understood the physics of the time so well that he was able to theorize about his invention far before the technology existed to actually invent them. For example, he realized alternating current was the way to go when at the time everyone was pushing direct current. He visioned an electric lighting system running off alternating current before he had even designed a practical usable alternating current motor. However, he was not at all a businessman. This is where he fell short when others succeeded. He wasn’t able to share his ideas very well which constricted his ability to invent as much as he could have.

His inventing style was very different than Edison’s. First of all, Edison worked in a research laboratory and worked with a team of other scientists and inventors, which he could overlook. Telsa always worked by himself. Edison’s method involved coming up with an idea, and then going through intense trial an error until he had a practical, marketable, final product. Tesla didn’t just use trial and error, he researched before hand to find the best solution and then went about finding the technology to make it.

Tesla Master of Lightening – Robert

Nikola Tesla first came to the US in 1884 with nothing but a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor, one of Edison’s assistants, and some pocket change. He soon found employment working for Edison, and was offered $50,000 if he could improve the design of Edison’s DC generator. However, after Tesla created the redesigned generator, Edison refused to pay him the amount that was promised, offering a pay raise instead. This prompted Tesla to leave Edison’s company and form Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. In his company, Tesla created many inventions, including the AC power generator, the Tesla Coil, and X-rays. He also did research into creating a death ray and a wireless power transmission system. Because of Telsa’s creation of the AC generator, he and Edison fought for many years over which system was superior, which Tesla won.

Although Telsa and Edison were both great inventors, the methods that they used to create their inventions were different. Edison invented by testing every possible solution to a problem, sometimes creating other inventions along the way. The advantages to this style of inventing are that he can find the best way to do something, he can make things that he never thought of before, and he can make a large number of inventions. The disadvantage to this is that it can take a long time to make one invention. However, Tesla created inventions by suddenly coming up with an idea of how to make something, and then making it. The advantage to this kind of inventing are that he can make inventions faster. The disadvantages to it are that some ideas may not work or they might not be possible to create, and only a few inventions can be created.

Tesla Master of Lightening – Wes Vullo

I enjoyed this documentary mostly because I learned some things about Tesla that I did not know before. I was interested in Tesla long before this film. Understanding Tesla the person was a difficult task, due to his unusual tendencies, but his scientific and experimental imagination led to major successes. From coming to America in search for the man named Edison, to dominating Edison with his alternating current, Tesla proved to be a foreigner everyone loved. Tesla’s dream-like imagination led him to create, and think in his mind. Although widley overlooked by many, Tesla created many technologies in use today. Tesla was a man that had no need for money, and he was determined to invent and create, at whatever cost to him. Even after losing patents and other scientist’s taking credit for his work, Tesla did not mind, because he knew what he created. Tesla was very similar to Edison, except he had no lust for money. Tesla wanted to invent for man, to better improve man, and he wanted to create the best invention. An invention that could protect against wars, ending all war between nations. Tesla’s genius even allowed him to for see the true potential of Einstein’s General Relativity, and he believe it was not in human’s best interest to discover the energy created when atoms are split. Tesla was inevitably correct, as nuclear weapons and technology have changed the world forever. Tesla’s major discovery of alternating current changed the world forever. Power distribution was easily taken care of. Once Tesla was able to prove alternating current was more efficient, he wanted to complete a dream. The power Niagra Falls was finally captured and transformed into electrical power due to Tesla’s alternating current. Tesla had always wanted to transform the magical wonder of Niagra into a power source. Tesla was a great inventor, a great scientist, a great thinker, and a great human being. Tesla is personally my favorite for being the one who was forever overlooked, although he did not give much care, because he got more than just money out of his work, he received pride.

Tesla- Aysha R

Nikola Tesla was one of the most influential inventors of our time. When he was a young boy his only options of work were becoming  priest or going to the army, but he had another dream. He went to one of the best engineering schools in Croatia, then came to America to pursue his goal of becoming a famous inventor. Tesla tried to team up with Edison with his AC ideas, but Edison ignored him and told him it wasn’t possible.  As many inventors do, Tesla failed a few times before he actually invented AC current. He then teamed up with Westinghouse and electric companies began wanting AC instead of DC because of how efficient it was. Edison noticed that many of his customers were switching to AC, so in an attempt to pursued them to stay he showed how dangerous AC could be by killing animals with it. Despite Edison’s attempt, AC became the main source of use in electric companies. 

Tesla, being the determined man that he was, knew that there was a way to transmit signals over seas. He played around with transmitters and such, which later resulted in the creation of the radio. He figured out that different radio waves could do different things at different frequencies. He later invented a “death ray” that he claimed would be able to prevent missiles from impacting the country by disintegrating them in space. Despite his previous success with inventions, nobody would purchase or even learn about the “death ray”, and after Tesla died nobody knew how the “death ray” worked. To this day the “death ray” is still trying to be figured out.

The difference between Edison and Tesla is simple really. Edison was able to sway many people to give him money time after time which greatly attributed to his success. Tesla, being an immigrant, struggled to get money from outside sources and trying to make money cut into his inventing time, and he didn’t have a laboratory with a team of inventors as Edison did. If Tesla had the same advantages as Edison did, surely he would’ve created as much or even more than Edison invented.

Tesla Master of Lightning – Dave

This was a very interesting film depicting Tesla’s life. Not to say I didn’t enjoy it,  but I found it very interesting that they chose the narrator’s voice over to be thought of as Tesla himself. This gave a very different point of view than from the Edison film, and this view only grew farther away from Edison as the film progressed.

While Edison and Telsa were both great inventors for their time periods, Tesla seemed to have a more mystic sense in the film. It goes on to tell that he was born at midnight in the middle of a great thunderstorm, giving him at connection to electricity from his birth. Then, when he was a young boy, he became very ill. In his bedridden state he asked his father, a very religious man, if he could attend a school for engineering. His father, wanting him to follow in his footsteps as a priest, reluctently said yes in hopes of his son getting better. Then by some miracle Tesla recoved from the illness and went on to becoming an engineer.

Tesla moved to America with nothing but a few cents and a letter of recomendation from one of Edison’s aquiantences, Charles Batchelor. Tesla was a huge fan of Edison, but when the time came that he met him and tried to explain his AC system, Edison merely turned his head the other way and laughed. This, coming after Edison’s failure to pay Tesla $50,000 for redesigning his motors and generators, fueled Tesla to step out of Edison’s shadow and become something of a great man himself.

It was here that Tesla created his own company, emerging with inventions such as the Tesla Coil, a magnetic generator that ran off AC, x-rays, and ideas for an electric ‘death ray’ and the wireless transmission of electricity. Tesla gained most of his publicity for his later inventions at the World Fair in Chicago, where he successfully lit the enire fair with his AC system. Through the rest of his career he conitinued to show how effecient the AC system was.

Tesla’s process of invention differed much from Edison’s. Tesla did not go through the metholodical process of testing one idea after another, his idea’s simply came to him. It’s said that many of his inventions came to him in visions, like the idea for a transformer came to him in the form of a vision in the sky while he was walking the streets.

Tesla Master of Lightening – Michael

The film on Tesla was very interesting and gave an eminence amount of information on Tesla. Tesla arrived in the US at a very young age, and already had many ideas about electricity. Tesla approached Edison about AC current, but Edison laughed and said that his DC system was far more superior. After a while despite their differences, Edison hired Tesla to help further the advancements of DC generators. Soon after this Tesla designed an AC generator, and started pushing AC systems forward. Later Tesla invented a new device which was later called the radio, unfortunately it took fifty years for him to get credit for the actual design. In his later years he tried to invent a world defense system which would be capable of shooting down missiles with laser beams. To this day no known invention of this sort has been created. Tesla dies at a very old age, leaving behind the unfinished plans for his missile defence system. The schematics for this device were confiscated due to the fact that Tesla didn’t leave a will, and no one could figure out who they belonged to. Several years after his death Tesla was finally awarded with a Nobel prize for the radio, making him one of the most famous men in history.

Tesla: Master of Lightening – Marlon

Tesla was an uprising scientist in the U.S. that came from Smiljan, Croatia with very little money. After his dad agreed to send him to a good engineering school if he got better from his illness. Once he finished, he went to the U.S. and pursued his dream of inventing new ideas. He became a great inventor just like Edison because he had the ability to be persistent in every invention he created and failures he had. After many failed atempts to gain money and business,he had to work manual labor to gain money. Later, he worked with Westinghouse and created a better AC generator. He dreamed big about the AC generator he created, which is still used today. This put the icing on the cake that AC was better than DC. He became a rich man, but lost it all when the stock market crashed. He was almost found guilty of fraud, but the jurers believed he was telling the truth and that he wanted to help the people. In his last years, Tesla would die before the meeting at the White House in the United States about his death ray.

Tesla: Master of Lightening-June Sri

Nicholas Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia in July 10, 1856. He was born a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire which later he became an American Citizen. Tesla’s father was an Othodox priest. Tesla’s mother was talented in handcrafting tools such as a mechanical egg beater. Tesla’s creative genius that enabled him to become a great inventor came from his mother.

When Tesla was young, he saw an appearance of images in the strong light and wondered if it was tangible or not. He also dreamed about a big wheel ran by Niagra Falls and knew he could make a use out of the Niagra Falls. He wanted to become an engineer. In 1875, he decided to study engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz. While there, he studied the use of alternating current. When he showed his professor his idea on how to apply alternating current to a motor, his professor said he would never became successful. Tesla then stopped attending lectures. The most significant changes in Tesla’s life was when he moved to New York City and met Thomas Edison. Tesla had a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor stating that “I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young man.” With that, Edison hired Tesla. He offered Tesla $50,000 if Tesla could redesigned Edison’s inefficient generator and motor, but when Tesla went to claim his money, Edison said that what he had said before was just a joke. Tesla decided to leave Edison’s company and opened his own laboratory. He successfully created an alternating current power generator and transmitter. His 22 alternating current power generation and transmission patents were rewarded when George Westinghouse visited Tesla’s laboratory and purchased his patents. When Tesla gained popularity in the press, Edison fought back. Edison claimed alternating current was dangerous and launched a media campaign on how alternating current could kill a horse faster than direct current. Edison also recommended alternating current could be used to execute condemmed prisoners. Tesla won in this war of currents, as alternating current proved to be very useful. It could fulfill people’s needs in a variety of ways. After Tesla won the war of currents, he became very interested in the electric vibration at high frequency. He moved to Colorado where he produced artificial lightning, a radio transceiver called “Teslascope”, and wireless transmission. Though credtited with numerous inventions, his work didn’t paid off much and he didn’t get credit he deserved while alive.

Tesla’s qualities that contributed to his successes were his talent in physics and his determination to complete the task he made for himself. Tesla worked alone yet he was able to successfully invent so many things that are crucial for our life today. He revolutionized this world through his inventions. Tesla’s quality that contributed to his failures was his lack of social skills. Tesla could have changed this minus to a plus if he used the media to support him and if he knew more about economics like Edison did.

Tesla’s methods were very different than Edison’s. Tesla worked alone while Edison worked with a small group of people. By working individually, Tesla gained more control over his experiments. He was able to know what went wrong in his work and figured it out easily because he did every step himself. The disadvantages of working alone was the lack of ideas from colleagues that could benefit the experiment . In working with a small group of people, Edison had more risk that a colleague might make a mistake during an experiment. It was hard to figure out which part was wrong when one thing was made by many people combining it. The advantage of working in a small group was that Edison would get more ideas and was able to learn from others. Edison actually turned a mistake made by a colleague into one of his greatest inventions – the phonograph.