2/23/18

Marconi was worried enough about being first to send messages across the ocean that he hurried--finally using a kite in a storm to lift an antenna
Marconi was beginning to figure out how to tune his apparatus
though Tesla kept describing it as crude

Telsa argued his system would be able to do much more: broadcasting to the world
broadcasting to ordinary people was an important idea--Marconi was only thinking of point to point
he was early in envisioning the new consumer culture
he also wanted to build a new bigger plant for wireless power

Telsa was unsuccessful in selling shares for a company to build a new plant
he was increasingly in debt and J.P. Morgan refused to invest more money
Carlson argues this is because the wireless industry was full of speculation
Tesla spent years trying to raise the money to complete his station

His theory of how he would be able to transmit power across the earth with little loss turned out to be wrong
Tesla had a nervous breakdown in 1905

Afterwards Tesla turned to inventing flying machines
the first step was a new kind of turbine
he wasn't able to sell it and ended up in bankruptcy
he made some minor inventions that provided him with some income and got a pension from Westinghouse

Technology in WWI

Tesla designed a high energy beam weapon that made some sense but not with enough detail for anyone to build it
in the context of WWII the FBI was worried about who would end up with the plans
but nothing turned out to be significant