13964 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS June 29, 1989 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS MARKING THE BIRTHDAY OF At the turn of the century, when col­ Tesla took a room at the Alta Vista Hotel INVENTOR NIKOLA TESLA leagues were directing their attention to with a view of the majestic Peak, affording moderate distance code communications, him an opportunity for enjoying his favor­ Tesla was feverishly anticipating a method ite pastime, watching nature's lofty thun­ HON. JOEL HEFLEY of broadcasting music, speech, pictures, and derbolts. Furthermore, he liked Room 207 OF COLORADO newspapers to all parts of the globe. Accord­ because its number was divisible by three. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ing to the inventor, his "World System" of Tesla's habit of carrying out experiments communications would not only intercon­ and repeated acts in numbers divisible by Thursday, June 29, 1989 nect telegraph, telephone, and stock ticker three was but one of the many phobias that Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, July 10 marks services, but would also provide the benefits haunted the inventor throughout his life. the 133d anniversary of the birth of Nikola of safe and accurate navigation without the Armed with a loan of $30,000 from John Tesla, a native of Yugoslavia who traveled to aid of compasses. Clocks throughout the Jacob Astor, $10,000 from M. Crawford, a world would require little attention as their drygoods merchant, and the unending influ­ this country in 1884 and discovered the rotat­ operation could be radio-controlled from a ing magnetic field, considered the basis of ence of his lawyer friend, Leonard E. Curtis. master station. In addition, he claimed that Tesla became fervently committed to a regi­ most alternating-current machinery. it would provide personal telephone commu­ mented schedule. He contracted for the con­ Tesla's vision and achievements earn him a nications between parties, regardless of dis­ struction of an experimental laboratory of stature the world has eagerly bestowed on tance, with an incredible device small his own design. In mid-July, a structure of Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, enough to be carried in one's pocket. awe and mystery stood isolated on the prai­ two of his contemporaries. Yet he remains rel­ As though this were not enough, Tesla's rie pasture east of the Colorado School for atively unknown despite the fact his research World System was to incorporate the trans­ the Deaf and Blind. It was a huge barn-like mission of electric power without the aid of construction approximately 100 feet square did much to create the world we live in today. wires. Swaggering in his own inimitable Tesla was no stranger to my hometown of and braced on three sides. Above its sloping manner of grandeur, the inventor predicted roof was an 80-foot tower through which Colorado Springs. Along one side of Prospect the feasibility of running the street cars of there extended a 200-foot mast topped by a Park there's a plaque marking the place London and lighting the lamps of Paris by one-meter copper sphere. The forbidding where, in 1899 and 1900, Tesla conducted the power generated from Niagara. The im­ omen hovering over the area was augment­ some of his most spectacular experiments. plications of such a reality fermented a pas­ ed by a fence with notices written in large Those experiments were recounted by author sion which bordered on the threshold of black letters warning, "Keep Out-Great Harry L. Goldman in the March 1971 edition physical pain. "Humanity will be like an ant Danger!'' heap stirred up with a stick," cried the im­ of the American West: The Magazine of West­ The major part of the interior was taken petuous Tesla. "See the excitement up with a variety of Tesla innovations. The ern History. I commend that article to my col­ coming!" leagues for their attention. electrical wizard was pioneering virgin fields Tesla's New York experiments had and his apparatus, yet untried and exhibit­ [From the American West: The Magazine of become restricted by the physical limita­ ing all the characteristics peculiar to an Western History, March 1971] tions of his Houston Street laboratory. The H.G. Wells's fantasy, had to be constructed NIKOLA TESLA'S BOLD ADvENTURE four-million volt lightning-like discharges by highly trained technicians and shipped <By Harry L. Goldman) produced by his electrical transformers from the east. High-voltage transformers, struck ceilings and walls. It was impossible On the afternoon of May 17, 1899, inven­ dynamos, resonant-tuning devices, capaci­ for him to apply practical tests to his wire­ tor-discharge apparatus, oil-insulated ca­ tor Nikola Tesla stepped from the train at less transmission theory without accommo­ Colorado Springs obsessed with electrifying pacitors <a Tesla invention), and a large me­ dations more in proportion to the enormity tered control panel were among the items the earth. The elite of Little London turned of his imagination. out to welcome the stranger from New York Evidently, Tesla's fame and stories of his neatly spaced about the hall. City and they were not disappointed-Tesla scientific achievements had preceded him in At one end of the laboratory was the sec­ was a striking figure. His tall slenderness, his journey to the West. His arrival created ondary coil of a giant Tesla transformer, wavy black hair, piercing gray eyes, and Eu­ quite a stir in that bustling community which the inventor termed a "magnifying ropean mannerisms never failed to capture known "for its cosmopolite and high bred transmitter." Its primary coil <buried under­ the emotions of those about him. people" as well as "its reputation of always neath the floor) was fifty-one feet in diame­ Of the several dignitaries who made it doing the right thing at the right time." ter and wound with heavy copper bars. their business to be on hand, few were able Noting Tesla's arrival, the Colorado Springs In the center of the secondary was an­ to comprehend the significance of Tesla's Gazette <May 28) declared. "This week has other coil with a diameter of ten feet. It car­ visit. It was not long before the electrical been noticeable for the presence of distin­ ried 100 turns of wire and served to function wizard was able to give his audience a trau­ guished personages in Colorado Springs. as an extension of the secondary. The 200- matic demonstration of his purpose. Tesla, the electrician, second only to Edison, foot mast extended up through the center Of the thousands who reached these if indeed to anyone, is establishing his scien­ and supported a large copper cable, which shores in 1884, destiny marked Nikola Tesla, tific headquarters here and will settle the connected to the one-meter copper sphere. an immigrant from Yugoslavia, as one who question of wireless telegraphy in the weeks Using these devices, Tesla intended to deter­ would soon stand out from the crowd. to come." News reporters badgered the in­ mine if the earth possessed an electrical Within a span of fifteen years, the ambi­ ventor with questions about his scientific charge <it does) and to institute experiments tious inventor bestowed upon his adopted achievements and for information pertinent that would alter its magnitude <he did). country a prodigious number of scientific to his presence in Colorado Springs. Who but Tesla would be so bold as to under­ achievements and accomplishments. Tesla satisfied their curiosity by inform­ take a scientific investigation of such pro­ He not only gave us our present system of ing them that he proposed "to send a mes­ portions? alternating-current power transmission, but sage from Pike's Peak to Paris." <This was The mystified citizens of Colorado Springs also the invaluable a.c. motor, ideas and ap­ more than two years prior to Marconi's kept a safe distance from the odd-looking paratus for industrial induction heating and famed transatlantic transmission.) The na­ structure. Passersby, such as those using welding, diathermy, with its medical appli­ tives were well aware of a United States the trolley line on Nob Hill, were amazed by cations, synchronous time mechanisms, gas­ Signal Service <Weather Bureau) telegraph its precocious appearance and would stare in eous tube lighting as in neon and fluores­ station at the summit of their famous unison with similar sorts of ungainly expres­ cent bulbs, as well as X-ray apparatus and mountain but Tesla's utterances were some­ sons. Herdsmen moving their animals out to techniques for their employment. Further­ thing else. The inventor further explained, pasture went about their work unable to more, Tesla established a considerable "I will investigate electrical disturbances in conceal their contemplations. amount of the groundwork for radio com­ the earth. There are great laws, which I Those whose curiosity led them to tres­ munications and related fields including the want to discover, and principles to com­ pass the bounds of the property reported science of radio-guided missiles. mand." seeing strange blue flickering lights emanat- e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. June 29, 1989 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 13965 ing from the enigmatic gadgets within the ished and much damage done in the interi­ pungent ozone portrayed an impression of laboratory. Said one eyewitness, "Through or. Taking into account the energy of the impending doom. Waving his arms wildly, this mass of intricate and dangerous mecha­ electric discharge and its duration, as well Tesla screamed an abrupt order to assist­ nism, Mr.