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EXCERPT:
The Tesla Museum
Aleksandar S. Marincic, D.Sc.
Nikola Tesla Museum
51 Proleterskih brigada Street
Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Abstract
The Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade belongs to the Belgrade Museum
Union. It is both a memorial and a technical museum devoted to the
life and work of Nikola Tesla. In addition to the exhibition area,
the Museum has a library, archives, three office rooms and three
store rooms. All of Tesla's belongings, which were collected by his
nephew after Tesla's death, were transferred to Belgrade and from
1952 they have been kept in the Nikola Tesla Museum. A group of
professors and younger staff from the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering, University of Belgrade, produced the first Catalog of
Documents with some commentaries. At the moment there are two
electrical and one mechanical engineers working in the museum, but
there are also several external experts with part-time or occasional
engagement. External experts are involved in the preparation of
material for publication and in the development of a new catalog in
the form of a computer data base.
Introduction
Nikola Tesla is among the best known, if not the best known,
Yugoslav of Serbian origin all over the World. In his native land
Yugoslavia, he is a National Hero whose image and virtues never
faded or diminished as the time passed by. What is even more rare,
in this world of many ephemeral values and virtues, is his lasting
contribution to science and technology and the freshness of his
ideas even a century later.
Like old Greek philosophers that initiated studies of the nature of
fundamental structure and organization, Tesla was always keen on
large scale problems. Even as a small boy he dared to think in an
original way that puzzled his parents, teachers and friends.
Throughout his long life he never ceased to puzzle at the World. In
the first half of his life he gave a lot of practical proofs to his
discoveries; in his later life he produced many ideas without
proofs, but gave enough far-sighted material for his successors.
When this big man died, his nephew Sava Kosanovich was in New York.
Miss Charlotte Muzar, secretary of Mr. Kosanovich, who was at that
time a Minister of the Yugoslav Government in Exile, wrote in her
memo that on January 8, 1943 she was called to see Mr. Kosanovich in
Tesla's hotel room. She found there Mr. Kenneth Swezey, a locksmith
and an unknown person. Police and government officials had already
been there before she came. The famous Tesla's safe was opened,
briefly explored and locked again under a new code. Before leaving
for London on July 25, 1944, Mr. Kosanovich went to a Manhattan
warehouse to check Tesla's belongings. After two years he returned
to the United States as the Yugoslav Ambassador, and remained in New
York until April 1950. After completing all formalities, Mr.
Kosanovich sent Tesla's belongings by ship the "Srbija" to
Yugoslavia at the beginning of September 1951. In 1952 a nice
building was found in Belgrade to become the Nikola Tesla Museum. It
was officially established by the Government of Yugoslavia on
December 5, 1952, and opened for visitors from October 20, 1955.
Tesla's ashes were in the United States until 1957 when Miss Muzar
brought them to Yugoslavia. The transfer was done after Mr.
Kosanovich had died on November 14, 1956 in Belgrade.
Organization of the Nikola Tesla Museum
Exhibition Part
All of Tesla's belongings are situated in a building of about 500
square meters on two levels. On the ground level is the permanent
exhibition, divided into six rooms (Figure 1). The first room
introduces visitors to the content of the Museum Archives, to
letters of prominent scientists and some personal documents
including a photograph of his native house with the adjoining
church, in the village of Smiljan, where his father was a vicar.
Figure 1. The floor plan of the ground level permanent exhibition
area. -- Nikola Tesla Museum.
When a visitor enters this room he has in front of him a bust of
Tesla sculpted by Ivan Mestrovic and Tesla's words about the
exceptional profession of a researcher, his life motto.
The second room is devoted to Tesla's life in the United States.
There are again a number of personal things as an illustration of
his life style: an elegant crocodile leather bag, gloves, glasses,
shaving bits and an embroidered bag, "Licka torba," made by his
mother (Figure 2). Numerous papers, photographs, letters and notes
are displayed along with a number of instruments found among Tesla's
belongings. They might have had a special value to Tesla since he
kept them until the end of his life. Unfortunately there is no
evidence whether Tesla kept them in his room or somewhere else.
Tesla had close friends who were writers and artists. Among them
were Mark Twain and Robert Underwood Johnson whose photographs Tesla
possessed. Tesla's contacts with his native land, papers about his
visit to Belgrade in 1892 and his letter written in 1942 supporting
actions of American President against fascism are selected as
illustrations of Tesla's patriotic and humanitarian activities.
Figure 2. Some of Tesla's personal possessions that are on exhibit
in room 2. -- Nikola Tesla Museum
In a special room, the urn with Tesla's ashes in a gold plated
sphere shape is placed on a stone stand. With this, the Nikola Tesla
Museum is not only a Museum but Tesla's Mausoleum as well.
The exhibition of Tesla's research activities begins with his "Fairy
Tale of Electricity," (See Appendices) a short history of
electricity written by Tesla himself and placed on exhibit in room 4
[1].
The group of Tesla's patents devoted to the generation, transmission
and utilization of polyphase alternating currents, from the period
1887 to 1890 are on display in room 5. These patents represent the
foundation of present day power engineering. Tesla's system
initiated the second electro-technical revolution which changed the
World, and even today we do not see any substitution for this
system.
The idea which the Museum designers had in mind in producing
exhibits in room five was to create a small laboratory where one can
easily explain Tesla's induction and synchronous motors, polyphase
generators, the idea and practice of rotating magnetic fields and
the system of generation, transmission and utilization of polyphase
currents. To make this part of the exhibition interesting, Tesla's
own original ideas were fully exploited. To explain the rotating
magnetic field and the induction motor are attractive copies of
Tesla's egg of Columbus or the spinning egg (Figure 3), and Tesla's
hydraulic analogy. Working models of Tesla's first induction motor
and a small hydroelectric three-phase system clearly outline the
basic ideas and practical value of the invention. The visitors are
reminded here of the famous 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in
Chicago where Tesla starred in his own exhibition.
Figure 3. A model of Tesla's "Egg of Columbus," used to explain the
rotating magnetic field and demonstrate the operating principal of
the induction motor. -- Nikola Tesla Museum
The original nameplate from one of the first ten generators
manufactured by the Westinghouse Electric and Mfg. Company for the
Niagara Falls Power Company is a monument to Tesla's achievement and
a great attraction for visitors.
In a corner of room five there is a model of Tesla's bladeless
turbine, bladeless fan and some bladeless revolution meters. These
are illustrations of his work in the mechanical engineering field
where Tesla tried to realize some ideas, presumably to get enough
money to complete his wireless power transmission system. Tesla
devoted twenty years of his life to these inventions, trying to
improve and apply them in practice.
Probably the most attractive room, with a high ceiling, is the one
devoted to high-frequency and high voltage generators. With the new
kind of transformer, patented by Tesla in 1891, well known as the
Tesla Coil, high voltages in excess of several hundred kilo-volts
are produced by two generators. One is built to resemble one of
Tesla's many original models. The other is capable of producing
about half a million volts. It had to be designed with safety in
mind due to restricted space and the danger of fire. The stray
radiation produced by this apparatus is enough to perform an
attractive wireless light experiment. Around the room there are
several original photographs from Tesla's New York and Colorado
Springs Laboratory and a model of the four tuned circuits. Wherever
suitable, original patents and notes are shown. A few pages from
cases adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States regarding
the case of the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company vs. the United
States, about Tesla, Stone and Lodge priorities in the field of
Radio are exhibited [2]. As is known, Marconi United States patent
No.763,772, filed November 10, 1900 and assigned to the Marconi
Company on March 6, 1905, was canceled. This was done after Tesla's
death in June 21, 1943.
Figure 4. An operating model of Tesla's 1898 radio controlled boat,
dubbed the "Telautomaton." -- Nikola Tesla Museum
In the last room of the Museum, room 7, are shown Tesla's
experiments and achievements in the field of remote control. A small
working model of a ship (Figure 4) is made according to the original
patent of 1898. Accompanying extracts from Tesla's famous paper
published originally in the Century Magazine, "The Problem of
Increasing Human Energy," is one of many records of his far-sighted
outline of the future regarding remote control systems [3]. It has
recently been stated in the introductory of a modern computer book,
that Tesla's description in the Century Magazine article is in fact
a rather precise definition of a modern process computer.
After completing some moderate scale radio experiments, in his New
York laboratory and more daring experiments in his Colorado Springs
laboratories at the beginning of 1900, Tesla constructed a large
object named the "World System" on Long Island. The enlarged
photograph of the station antenna has dominant position in room
seven. Tesla did not have sufficient resources to finish this plant
in spite of desperate efforts to persuade J.P. Morgan and others to
help him. That seems to be the direct cause for Tesla withdrawing
from people and leading an isolated life.
Although never fully rewarded for his work, Tesla received many
recognitions from all over the World. The greatest among all of
these is, undoubtedly, the one given to him posthumously in 1960 by
the International Commission for Electrical Engineering, at its
session in Philadelphia. That Commission decided that the unit of
magnetic induction is to be named the "tesla," T=Wb/m2.
A few years ago several more recent papers about Tesla, written in
various languages, were exhibited together with announcements about
the Nikola Tesla Award established in 1976 by the IEEE. Among other
documents are the IEEE anniversary stamps with Charles Steinmetz,
Nikola Tesla, Edwin Armstrong and Philo T. Farnsworth featured.
The exhibition ends with the posthumous mask of Tesla and words of
the American inventor Armstrong: "The World, I think, will wait a
long time for Nikola Tesla's equal in achievement and imagination."
Archives and Library
The whole inheritance of Nikola Tesla is situated on the first floor
of the building. It includes his manuscripts and drawings, his
correspondence with over 6,700 different persons, books and the
valuable clippings from periodicals and newspapers which published
articles about Tesla, or about scientific and technical problems he
was interested in. The first document catalog was produced under the
guidance of Professor Veljko Korac, Director of the Nikola Tesla
Museum from 1952 until 1980, with the help of professors and younger
staff from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of
Belgrade and the Museum staff. On the whole around 150,000 documents
were registered. The documents are grouped as follows:
NIKOLA TESLA'S LEGACY
I. MUSEUM ARCHIVES
A. Biographical data,
finances, company law papers - 13,000 documents
B. Tesla's private correspondence - 70,000 documents
C. Tesla's technical and scientific documentation and patents -
39,000 documents
D. Diplomas and other scientific recognitions - 39 diplomas
E. Original drawings, sketches and plans of Tesla's inventions
F. Photographs - 1,000 Pieces
G. Clippings - 57 books of clippings from different magazines
and newspapers
H. Library
1. Books - 600 books from Tesla's personal library
2. Journals
3. Finances
I. Tesla's personal
belongings
1. Exhibition
2. Archives
3. Depo
J. Instruments from Tesla's laboratory
K. Tesla's personal belongings which are not exhibited
L. Damaged and separate documentation
II. MODELS OF TESLA'S EXPERIMENTS AND INVENTIONS
III. CARD CATALOG OF TESLA'S DOCUMENTATION
IV. NIKOLA TESLA MUSEUM LIBRARY
A. Books
B. Journals
C. Clippings
V. INVENTORY OF THE NIKOLA TESLA MUSEUM
NIKOLA TESLA'S WORK
I. TESLA PATENTS
A. U.S.A. patents
B. Patents in other countries
II. ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING - HEAVY CURRENT TECHNIQUE
A. Electrical generators
B. Electrical motors
C. Electrical propulsion of ships
D. Transmission of electrical power
E. Heavy current transformers
F. Patent disputes and problems of priority
G. Electrical railways
H. Electric - power station and sources of electric energy
I. Electrothermics
J. Biographical data
K. Alternating current theory and the rotating magnetic field
L. Rotational switch
M. Electrochemistry
N. Various
O. Electrical instruments
P. Thermoelectricity
III. HIGH FREQUENCY ENGINEERING - HIGH FREQUENCY TECHNIQUE
A. Receivers
B. Tikker
C. Long Island
D. Interplanetary communications
E. Publications (articles, remarks, literature)
F. Antennae
G. Resonance, selectivity and elimination of disturbances
H. Transmitters
I. Tesla's coil (transformer)
J. Wire transmission of pictures and television
K. Various patents from radio technology
1. Telegraphy
2. Telephony
L. Wireless transmissions of electric energy and extending of
electromagnetic waves
1. System of 4 circuits
2. Standing waves on the earth
M. Patent processes and questions of priority
N. Measurement instruments
O. Application of H.F. technique in medicine
1. Roentgen tubes
2. Electrotherapy
P. Radar
Q. Colorado Springs
R. Various
1. Pupinization
2. Teletypewriter
3. Reduction of resistance by cooling
4. Watch (Clock)
5. Electrical Piano
6. Production of artificial rain
7. Electrical communications among ships through
conduction of sea water
8. Wire telecommunications
9. Various
S. Ampere meters
IV.MECHANICAL ENGINEERING - MECHANICAL TECHNIQUES IN GENERAL
A. Springs
B. Gears
C. Phonograph
D. Crankshaft machines and tools (drills)
E. Ships: propulsion, patents, dates and ship building
F. Automobiles - general (except propulsion) and automobile
electrical devices
G. Practical mechanics
1. Balancing of rotating parts at critical speeds
2. Mechanism kinematics
H. Valves and valvular conduits
I. Piston heat engines and motors (mechanical oscillator)
1. Locomotive
J. Various
1. Machine elements (except springs and gears)
2. Drawings
3. Rockets
4. Technical economy
5. Materials and stresses
6. Yugoslav patents of machine technique
V. TURBO MACHINES AND THERMODYNAMICS
A. Turbine (mostly heat), technical theoretical part, except
group "Fluid Propulsion"
B. Active turbo machines
1. Vacuum pumps
2. Pumps (except vacuum)
3. Compressors and blowers
4. Ventilators
C. Turbo Machines Generally
1. Generally about turbines
2. Collective works on turbo machines, related devices and
hydraulic brake
3. Works on turbomachines which Tesla designated as "Fluid
Propulsion"
D. Court processes in connection with turbo machines
E. Turbine propelled ships, torpedoes - propulsion in general
F. Gas turbine - propulsion of automobiles and airplanes
G. Thermodynamics and thermics, also in connection with
turbines
VI. AVIATION AND AIRCRAFT OR AERIAL VESSELS
A. Safety - raising of airplanes
1. Aerial vessels and propellers
2. Helicopter
3. Hydroplane
4. Literature, correspondence, data, patents and articles
in aviation
5. Propulsion of airplanes
6. Aerial transportation
VII.TELEMECHANICS
A. Wireless telemechanics
B. Physical life as telemechanics
VIII.DISCHARGES AND OSCILLATORS
A. Discharge for H.F. technique
B. Discharge for ozone production
IX.VARIOUS MATERIALS: CHARACTERISTICS AND TREATMENT
A. Refining and processing of metals
B. Refining and processing of steel and iron
C. Refining, processing and transport of sulphur
D. Refining and processing of copper
E. Refining, processing and chemical treatment of aluminum
F. Various alloys and casting
G. On silicates, clays and caffeine
H. Technology of fuels (methane)
I. Various mixtures
X. ASTRONOMY
A. Cosmogony
B. Moon
C. Astrophysics
XI.ILLUMINATION
A. Bulb
B. H.F. bulb with one electrode
C. Cold light
D. Lightning appearance in H.F. field
E. Arc lamps
XII.LOCOMOTIVE HEADLIGHT
XIII.LIGHTNING ROD
XIV.WATER FOUNTAIN
XV.APPLIED PHYSICS - OPTICS AND OPTICAL INSTRUMENTS,
CINEMATOGRAPHY
A. Movie film, films and photo plates
B. Photo and motion picture apparatus
C. Stereoscopic and plastic film
D. Movie making and photography in natural colors
E. Optical instruments
XVI. MECHANICAL OSCILLATORS
XVII. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICS, APPLIED PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY
A. Telegeodynamics
B. Mathematics
C. Transmission of sound through water, signaling submarines
and their discovery
D. Works in connection with transmission of electro-magnetic
waves with the earth as a conducting body
E. Geophysics
1. Studying the atmosphere
F. Mechanics and hydromechanics
G. Atomic - physics, theory of relativity
H. Lightning protector
I. Death rays and electrostatic generators
J. Various
K. Electricity
L. Magnetism
M. Appearance in vacuum of rarefying gases, transformers
N. Chemistry and chemical processes
O. Vacuum technique (except turbo - vacuum pump)
XVIII. COILS, CONDENSERS ETC.
A. Ducts
B. Condensers
C. Coils
D. Conductor insulating
E. Various
F. Resistors
XIX.This number is not used.
XX.ARTICLES
A. Mechanization and technical progress
B. Problem of increasing human energy
C. Varied
D. Tesla's inventions
E. On inventions
F. Interplanetary communication
G. Psychical appearance
H. System of fluid propulsion
I. Varied
1. What about electricity?
2. Explosion appearance
3. Panama canal
4. Monolithic houses
5. History of mathematics
6. Famous scientific mistakes
7. Resistance of conductors and insulating
8. Varied
J. Sources of Energy
K. About war
XXI. VARIED
A. Method for removal of air from closed container
B. Mechanical therapy
C. Interplanetary traffic and communications except electrical
D. Explosives
E. Tornados
F. Other peoples works and patents
G. Patent processes
H. Testimony about opinion of famous scientists about Tesla's
work
I. Notes on literature and list of patents
J. Physiology and biology
1. Food for poultry
2. Physiological action of electrical currents
K. Varied
L. Electromedicine
M. Food and feeding
N. Varied
O. Varied notes
P. Optical telegraphy
PHOTOGRAPH LIBRARY
A. HEAVY CURRENT ENGINEERING
B. HIGH FREQUENCY AND HIGH VOLTAGE ENGINEERING
C. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
D. LABORATORIES
E. PERSONAL PHOTOGRAPHS
F. PHOTOGRAPHS OF FAMOUS PEOPLE
G. PHOTOGRAPHS OF FAMILY AND RELATIVES
H. PHOTOGRAPHS OF TESLA'S FRIENDS (with and without dedication)
I. VARIED
Through use, it was found that the Catalog needed updating,
translation into a foreign language and reorganization so that it
could be searched in various ways. Due to financial problems the
Museum never obtained proper equipment for microfilming and
photocopying and the services of these kinds had to be made
externally. With the help of the Tesla Memorial Society Inc,
Lackawanna, NY, USA, a few years ago an IBM-PC was obtained and the
Museum immediately initiated a program of making a new computer data
base catalog.
At the moment we can show some parts of the program. Pictorial
presentation of Museum Documentation is organized in such a way that
we start from the general menu and make appropriate selections from
the screen:
* insert screen here *
After a group such as Archives - DRAWINGS is selected the next
screen is:
* insert screen here *
The program maintains a data base consisting of more than 200 groups
of documents which form a hierarchical tree structure and contain
around 150,000 different documents. Groups not divided into further
subgroups consist of a number of records each representing a card
describing one document. A card is presented and stored in one of
four different forms (record types) depending on the group it
belongs to. For example, the most commonly used record type consists
of fields: Card Number, Box Number, Folder Number, Date,
Description, Title, Contents, Note, Key Words, Value and Condition.
The five most prominent groups and subgroups are: The museum
archives documentation, Tesla's library, Tesla's personal
belongings, The exhibition objects and The museum library. First of
these groups, the archives, is the largest group divided into many
subgroups, containing around 125,000 documents concerning all
Tesla's technical and scientific work, biography, etc.
The program uses a simple, self explanatory menu driven system,
which enables the user to maintain the whole data base. After
choosing the current working group the user can perform elementary
operations such as adding new records (cards), deleting or changing
existing records, viewing and printing contents in different forms.
A password is obliged if the user wants to alter the data base in
any way, so that unauthorized users cannot destroy the data. Complex
queries enable the user to search the data base in aid to finding
and viewing desired documents. Prompts are displayed in English and
Serbocroatian languages. The program warns the user if a backup of
entered data is not performed. As the data base is to grow quite
large (up to 150,000 records, each around 2 KBytes long, making 300
MBytes), more convenient backup storage medium from floppy disks can
be supported (eg. optical disks).
When the data base is made and a more powerful computer used, the
Museum will be able to transfer files through the telephone lines to
interested users outside the Museum.
References
[1] Nikola Tesla, "The Fairy Tale of Electricity", Nikola Tesla,
Lectures, Patents and Articles, Nikola Tesla Museum, 1956, p. A-177.
The article first appeared in the introductory part of "The Wonder
Worlds to be Created by Electricity" that was originally published
in Manufacturers Record, Sept. 9, 1915.
[2] United States Reports (Vol. 320), Cases Adjudged in the Supreme
Court at October, 1942 & October Term 1943, United States Government
Printing Office, 1944.
[3] Nikola Tesla, "The
Problem of Increasing Human Energy," The Century Illustrated
Monthly Magazine, June 1900.
About the Author
Aleksandar Marincic, received his Dipl.Ing. degree in 1956, and his
Post. Grad. Diploma in 1957, both from Belgrade University,
Yugoslavia, and his Ph.D. degree in 1963 from Sheffield University,
England, all in Electrical Engineering. From 1958 to 1967 he was
assistant and then Docent at the department of Electrical
Engineering, University of Belgrade. He has worked in the fields of
electronic measurement and microwave component design. From 1967 to
1971 he was Visiting Associate Professor, UNESCO expert and Acting
Chief Technical Advisor at the Middle East Technical University,
Ankara, Turkey. He established Antenna and Microwave Laboratories
and carried out research in these fields. From 1971 to 1974 he was
Associate Professor at the Electronics Faculty of Nis. In 1974 he
again Joined the Department of Electrical Engineering in Belgrade.
Since 1980 he has been Professor of the Faculty of Electrical
Engineering at the University of Belgrade. He has been teaching and
performing research on optical and microwave devices and
communication systems. He worked four months in 1966 as Senior
Research Assistant, six months as Visiting Professor, both at the
University of Sheffield, and three months as the Professorial Fellow
in 1989 at the University of Cardiff. He participated for four years
in the international project COST 25/2 on satellite antenna design,
guided and participated in over 15 projects for various
institutions. He published 120 papers in periodicals and conference
proceedings, 3 books on Optoelectronics, parts in 3 other books, and
one Lecture Notes on Microwave Circuits. In 1977 he authored the
Introduction and Commentaries that accompanied the publication of
Nikola Tesla's diary manuscript, The Colorado Springs Notes,
1899þ1900 and in 1982 became Director of the Nikola Tesla Museum in
Belgrade. He was invited speaker at 12 national and international
meetings. He was for five years Editor-in-Chief of Yugoslav
periodical Electrotechnics. He is a member of the Yugoslav Union of
EE, of ETAN and of the IEEE. In 1991 he was elected corresponding
member of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is also a
member of the Science Committee of the Tesla Memorial Society. |
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