Notes: Episode 4, Tesla And Edison (Part 2)
As with every show, I’ll list any corrections or clarifications here. If there’s anything I’ve overlooked, please contact me by email or in the comments and I’ll edit the notes to reflect the new information.
21:28 – Tesla’s remote controlled boat was about four feet long – larger than I expected, though still not big enough to really ride effectively.
24:50 – Marconi’s famous radio message was sent across the Atlantic in 1901 from Signal Hill in what is now Newfoundland, Canada, not Beacon Hill as I stated. There are a lot of Beacon Hills around, but this definitely wasn’t one of them.
25:46 – The generator in Colorado Springs was owned by a patent lawyer named Leonard E. Curtis, who was a great believer in Tesla’s work.
26:00 – I don’t know where I got the idea that Tesla was only allowed to work after a certain time. I may have read it somewhere that I can’t currently track down, or it may have come from the film The Prestige (hardly historically accurate), or I may have made it up based on the fact that Tesla preferred to work odd hours. If I can find anything further, I’ll update this entry.
36:59 – Tesla’s oscillator was apparently quite small; only about 7 inches long and weighing a few pounds. Miller wasn’t far off by suggesting something “toaster-sized”. Fun fact: apparently it had extremely potent laxative effects.
47:34 – Tesla would have been paid $2.50 per AC Horsepower – a measurement that’s starting to come back with the rising popularity of the electric car. For reference, that’s 1.34 kilowatts. That would have been a huge amount of money in Tesla’s pocket if somehow the contract could have been sustained.
