The Problem of Increasing Human Energy: With Special Reference to the Harnessing of the Sun's Energy

by Nikola Tesla

Overview

Part philosophical ponderings on humanity's relationship to the universe, part scientific extrapolation on what technological advancement might bring to that understanding, this long essay, first published in Century Illustrated Magazine in June 1900, is yet another example of the genius of Serbian inventor NIKOLA TESLA (1857-1943), the revolutionary scientist who forever changed the scientific fields of electricity and magnetism. From the possibilities presented by robotics to the "civilizing potency of aluminum," from a "self-acting engine" to one of the first proposals to use solar power to run industrial civilization, and much more, this is a wide-ranging but illuminating look into the thoughts of an unsung hero of scientific philosophy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781605200958
Publisher:	Cosimo Classics
Publication date:	01/01/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	76
Sales rank:	318,244
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.30(d)

About the Author

Serbian inventor NIKOLA TESLA (1857-1943) was the revolutionary scientist who forever changed the scientific fields of electricity and magnetism.

Table of Contents

The Onward Movement of Man - The Energy of The Movement - The Three Ways of Increasing Human Energy - The First Problem - How to Increase the Human Mass - The Burning of Atmospheric Nitrogen - The Second Problem - How to Reduce the Force Retarding the Human Mass - The Art of Telautomatics - The Third Problem - How to Increase the Force Accelerating the Human Mass - The Harnessing of The Sun's Energy - The Source of Human Energy - The Three Ways of Drawing Energy from The Sun - Great Possibilities Offered by Iron for Increasing Human Performance - Enormous Waste in Iron Manufacture - Economical Production of Iron by A New Process - The Coming of Age of Aluminum - Doom of The Copper Industry - The Great Civilizing Potency of The New Metal - Efforts Toward Obtaining More Energy from Coal - The Electric Transmission - The Gas-Engine - The Cold-Coal Battery - Energy from The Medium - The Windmill and The Solar Engine - Motive Power from Terrestrial Heat - Electricity from Natural Sources - A Departure from Known Methods - Possibility of A "Self-Acting" Engine or Machine, Inanimate, Yet Capable, Like A Living Being, Of Deriving Energy from The Medium - The Ideal Way of Obtaining Motive Power - First Efforts to Produce the Self-Acting Engine - The Mechanical Oscillator - Work of Dewar and Linde - Liquid Air - Discovery of Unexpected Properties of The Atmosphere - Strange Experiments - Transmission of Electrical Energy Through One Wire Without Return - Transmission Through the Earth Without Any Wire - "Wireless" Telegraphy - The Secret of Tuning - Errors in The Hertzian Investigations - A Receiver of Wonderful Sensitiveness - Development of A New Principle - The Electrical Oscillator - Production of Immense Electrical Movements - The Earth Responds to Man - Interplanetary Communication Now Probable - Transmission of Electrical Energy to Any Distance Without Wires - Now Practicable - The Best Means of Increasing the Force Accelerating The Human Mass.