cate3@cadtec.UUCP (Henry Cate III) (03/18/85)
Was Tesla super super intelligent? Or was he merely super
intelligent and had some unique methods of research and development?
Is there more data on HOW Tesla worked?
The next logical question is:
"Are there more people like Tesla around today?"
----------
Don't settle for small pleasures.
Henry III UUCP: {nsc,csi}!cadtec!cate3
Cadtec Corp, San Jose, CA 408 942 1535 x384keithd@cadovax.UUCP (Keith Doyle) (03/23/85)
[.............] > Was Tesla super super intelligent? Or was he merely super >intelligent and had some unique methods of research and development? >Is there more data on HOW Tesla worked? > The next logical question is: > "Are there more people like Tesla around today?" Tesla claimed that when he was a child, he had very vivid dreams where he visited people in other worlds. At times, some of these experiences would even affect him while awake. He apparently had very extrodinary visionary powers. He also said that he sometimes had trouble distinguishing his visions from reality. Apparently, he got these abilities from his mother, who also experienced similar visions. Also, when his mother died, he received a 'signal' from her, even though he was in the U.S., and she was in Europe. Some of his writings talk about these 'powers', yet he still felt that humans were merely 'meat machines' (his words I think), and didn't attribute any of it to any supernatural means. He also says he was sickly as a child, and at least once suffered a near death experience. He always wanted to be an engineer, but his father wanted him to enter the clergy if I remember right. (His father was a minister). A lot of his design work took place in his head. He claimed to be able to visualize a blackboard, where he could see and solve equations in his head. Most of his prototypes were first debugged in his head. Before he built his first A.C. generator, he tuned it up, improved on, etc. the simulation model in his head. (He could visualize accurately the moving parts and their inter-relationships etc.) Consequently many of his first physical models worked flawlessly when actually constructed. Tesla also said that he only slept an average of 4 hours a night. He would go like this for a long time, months, and then break down and sleep several days straight. After that, he'd get up and do it all over again. At one point in his life, he suffered a strange malady, that he attributes to his sleeping habits. He began to experience an extreme sensitivity to his surroundings. He could hear a watch ticking in another room, and it was deafening. He would go for long walks, and notice a difference in pressure when he walked under bridges and the like. A doctor advised him to get plenty of sleep, and apparently this did the trick. He also had an extreme aversion to germs. He hated shaking hands with anyone, and would immediatley run and wash them afterwards. When he lived at the Waldorf in N.Y.C., he would eat in the dining room all by himself usually, and had a large stack of clean napkins at hand each of which he would only use once. Despite the fact that he was a clean freak, he regularly attracted pigeons to his windowsill by leaving food, and his windowsill was then always covered with bird-shit. His only love (according to him) were these pigeons. He never married, or had children, so he never passed on any of the genetic gifts given him by his mother. Are there more like him? I hope so, we could use a few I suppose. To bad his marketing sense wasn't worth beans. Most of this information can be found in greater detail in any of several Tesla biographies. The best and most recent is "Tesla, Man out of Time", by Margaret Cheney. Also, "Prodigal Genius", by O'Neill, "Lightning in his hand", by two ladies who's names I forget, Margaret Storm may be one of them. (It's been posted before). Some of Tesla's own writings are available, reprints of his Electrical Experimenter articles, his Colorado Springs notes, and other items. A small publisher here in Hawthorne California, publishes several Tesla reprints, and generally distributes other Tesla materials. The publisher's is: Omni Publications 13801 Inglewood Ave Hawthorne CA. (213) 772-3920 I don't know the zip, I got the address out of the phone book. I've been over there, and apparently the owner has a big collection of hard to get Tesla materials. Supposedly, channel 9 once contacted him for reference material for a Tesla program they were going to produce. I never heard any more about that program, but I did catch a Tesla excerpt on another show, some kind of science magazine show like Omni, etc. but as usual with commercial television, it was short and superficial. Keith Doyle # {ucbvax,ihnp4,decvax}!trwrb!cadovax!keithd