Tesla Master of Lightening – Eric B

The documentary Tesla Master of Lightening was a very interesting and informative movie. It explained how Tesla grew up with the dream of going to a good school to study electricity and how he wanted to eventually harness the power of the Niagra Falls and use it to generate electricity. His dreams would eventually turn to reality as grew into one of the most famous inventors of all time.

Tesla came to America to work for the great Thomas Edison in hopes that they would be able to accomplish great things together. He eventually came up with the AC motor and knew that it would be much more efficient than DC. But, Edison was convinced that DC was much better; this dispute between the two great inventors led to Tesla’s departure from Edison Electric and he went on to open his own labs so he could perfect his AC motor. Once his AC motor was complete, the advantages of AC over DC became apparent to many people. One them was George Westinghouse who decided to buy all of Tesla’s patents and use them for his company.

Tesla went on to complete many more great inventions. One of them was the first radio/remote controlled device, which he tried to sell to the US Navy. This would not be the only device he tried to sell to the government. In his later years he continued experimenting with transferring electricity wirelessly and developed a device that would lead to the first the radio. He soon began developing more theories of the wireless tranfer of electricity, but he was unable to make any of them work. Then Tesla began developing a something that he thought would end wars by allowing all countries, weak and strong, to defend themselves; a “death ray”. This was another vision of Tesla’s that was never fufilled. He began to look like just another crazy old man in the eye of the public and eventually died in poverty.

Tesla Master of Lightning- Nicole O.

The documentary ,Tesla the Master of Lightning, was informative and detailed.  Tesla major contribution to society was the development of  alternating current. Tesla was not as well-known as Edison. Tesla was smart but his talent was in the art of imaging.  Tesla always developed fictional ideas. His was sure that his mowt of his dreams can turn into reality no matter how outrageous the dreams maybe. One of Tesla’s dream was to make the world wireless, which seemed crazy at the time but today we have a lot of operating devices that are wirless. However, Tesla also wanted to create a lazer beam device for attacks, which to this day has not been worked out. This idea of Tesla’s seemed to animated for society. Some of Tesla’ invention were said not to be the first so he did not get credited, for example the radio.

Edison and Tesla shared things in common. They both allowed there work become their first priority and passion. They were both interested in electricity.  The two inventors also had characteristics that set them apart form one another. Tesla liked to work alone and Edison worked with a group f scientist and craftsmen. Tesla did not have family and Edison did (although he neglected them).

Tesla Master of Lightning – Jonathan A

I enjoyed this documentary on Tesla very much. Before this, I did not know much about Tesla. Just this semester I started finding out who and what he has done for the world. Tesla should be given much more credit for what he has done and this movie shows how much of a genius the man really was. It was extremely interesting to see how strange he was and how he came up with his inventions. The way he “dreamt” of his inventions and got visions was extremely interesting. Tesla intrigued me very much and I think this movie was a good portrayal of who he was as a man. Tesla came to the United States broke, and could have been extremely wealthy had he have been a good business man. Compared to Edison, Tesla was a genius and had amazing work habits just like Edison, but lacked the friendly nature and business traits of Edison. Tesla was an inventor, but definately not a business man. He invented many things while other people profited from his inventions.

Tesla Master of Lightning – Jhonny E.

The film Tesla Master of Lightning, I thought was a good documentary on Tesla and all the he did for the world. It portrayed Tesla as a man who did offer much to the world, like alternating current, but a man who is barely remembered in history. Tesla was probably an equal to Edison in what he offered, not only did ne offered alternaing current, but a whole system that would work with his system, including  transformers, generators and much more. Tesla was born in eastern Europe and came to the USA at an age of 28, coming with 4 pennies in his pocket and a letter for him to work under Edison. He did work with Edison but he did not like working under him and left his company. He would create his own labs and start his own experiments with AC and would be successful. So successful that Westinghouse would buy his patents and use them. From there he would go on to Niagara falls and would use it’s power to light up New York. Tesla’s many qualities helped him succeed and some of them were also his downfall. His motivation to complete his projects and take electricity to the next level.

Tesla Master of Lightening – Mike B.

The documentery was overly long and almost seemed to cover his day to day life.  Aside from that it was very good, I never knew that Tesla had invented so many portions of things that we use in every day life, and did not get much credit for them.  I also found his invention process to be hilarious, he made up stuff at the drop of a hat.  His obsession with wirelessly transmiting electricity was also humourous.  He was convinced that it was possible no matter how many failures he had, that the wireless transmission of electricity was possible.  He went to his grave believeing that.

Tesla Master of Lightening – Heera J

The documentary was a bit dragged out. But it was interesting to learn about Tesla. To think a genius like Edison was ignored by the world makes it sad. Tesla deserves to be know like Edison. If it were not for him both Edison and Westinghouse would not reach their fame.

I realised a lot of similarities between Edison and Tesla in this documentary. Both of them worked on their invention like their life depended on it. The barely slept in order to finish the process of finish their invention. And another thing i realsied was both of htem didn’t really have a family. Their love was invention and only invention. They both lived and breathed invention.

I felt complete pity for Tesla. I have never seen a man that achieved so much and lost tem all as well. He was used by a lot of inventors. Edison used him to make the motors for him, Westinghouse used to make AC current possible for everyone, and the radio guy used his ideas and invetion to become famous. All these people beacme famous and some even got the Noble Peace Prize for their invetion which was actually Tesla’s. And in the ed when he finally gets an award, he gets the edison medal. Is there any wayt to humilate this man like thi. I really felt that world was unfair to Tesla. He hould be recognized just like Edison and Westinghouse. I mean he did get famous eventually but not like Edison.

Tesla Master of Lightning – Rafael R.

Tesla, “the master of lightning”, was one of the most revolutionary inventors that ever existed. He was not a practical man though. Usually it was others that made fortunes off of his inventions. He was a described as a “visionary genius” by others, because through his extraordinary imagination, he could come up with an invention through a “vision” and would work out the whole invention in his head.  He was fascinated by electricity during his university life, but was embarrassed by a professor when he proposed that motors and generators could be improved by using alternating current. One day while walking in the park, he had a vision of an AC motor and quickly got on his knees to draw it on the ground. He later traveled to the U.S. with a letter of recommendation for Thomas Edison from one of his associates. Edison did not care for the motor but hired him to improve Edison’s generators. When he had finished, he tried to claim the $50,000 that Edison had promised him and Edison just laughed and told him that he just doesn’t understand American humor. He then quit and with the help of some investors, opened his own laboratory and got to work on his AC motor. He continued to succeed from then on and eventually won the war of currents when he successfully lit up the world fair using alternating currents. Other successes that he had were the Tesla coil, neon illumination, the first x-rays, and remote control.

Tesla and Thomas Edison both had characteristics that helped them succeed and fail in the inventing. Edison was a hard worker which enabled him to try every possibility available to him. He would perfect his inventions by changing the components of his inventions with many other things until he got whatever he was looking for. Although he is accredited with being one of the most successful inventors, many believe that he depended on his invention factory and the help of his men to become successful. Tesla, on the other hand, depended upon visions to make his successful inventions. He would have hallucinations of working devices that would strike him out of nowhere. He failed to make fortunes from his inventions, which would cause financial problems for him.

Tesla Master of Lightning, Andrew G.

The Documentary “Tesla Master of Lightning” was about the life that Tesla lived and the things he accomplished.  It was very interesting learning about Tesla because he is not heard of as much as I would expect him to be.  With all the different things he invented he never became that successful.  In a way I think he was like Faraday, he would create something then just leave it up to other people for how they should use it.  Tesla’s way of inventing was also very different from most everyone else I have ever read about.  He would receive visions of what it was he wanted to create.  He knew that he wanted to build a generator out of Niagra Falls, and got the idea for creating the ac motor from looking at the sunset.  He did have problems during life.  He seems to be one of the unluckiest people ever.  He consistently gets cheated out of money from inventions that were his.  Even worse, some of his inventions went on to give other people Nobel Peace Prizes.  He did have some of the same bad traits as Edison, some of his ideas he would be very stubborn with to the point of working on nothing else.  I do think that tesla is a much more interesting person then Edison. Tesla deserves to get much more recognition for what he build and invented.

Tesla Master of Lightening David G

I did not really like this movie at all. I do not find documentaries to ever be very entertaining, and I’m stuck thinking that movies are solely for entertainment. I know that there is movies out there that are meant to educate i just don’t understand why that would be done. The movie went into great deal about Tesla’s life. I managed to learn a lot more from this movie than i have done from any of the other movies we have watched so far.  I learned that he came to America as a poor immigrant, up until now, I thought that he never lived in America. He invented things such as the AC motor, and made the Niagara falls project a reality. Although he did all this, he became obsessed with transferring power wirelessly. I think that if he had of been able to do this the world would be a very different place. For instance it would be easily possible to create electric cars. I think that it would be possible, but Tesla was just once again way ahead of his time. Someday I think all of Tesla’s work will make sense to us as humans, but for now I think it will remain a mystery. A final point I have is that I strongly dislike how with both Edison and Tesla people say they are crazy people, and making false claims. I think that people should just understand that nothing is impossible, we are able to do things that are amazing, and they need to learn that.

Tesla Master of Lightening – Ivan B.

In the film “Tesla Master of LIghtening” I learned a lot about Nikola Tesla, the ingenious inventor and his inventions. In his twenties, Tesla came over from Europe to work on his inventions and sell them to corporations, and get also to get help from Thomas Edison on his Alternative Current projects. Tesla worked on creating system of Alternating Current in which he could have power supplied by AC generators, sent over long distances and then be used by AC motors. The part that Tesla had trouble with was the AC motors, he could not get it quite right and he needed Edison’s help, the man who knew the most about electricity and perhaps the only guy that could help him out. Edison said that he would help Tesla out and pay $50,000 if Tesla helped make the dynamos work in Pearl Street Station. After one year of working and making the dynamos work Tesla wanted his reward, but Edison did not pay him. This came as a big shock to Tesla and he was left with nothing to do but go out and try to find his own way in the electrical business.

Tesla teamed up with Westinghouse, who supported the new and radical ideas that Tesla had. He supported him financially for a long time while Tesla created and improved his business. After Tesla had been working on his experiments for too long with no real usable results, Westinghouse gave up on Tesla and stopped supporting him financially. Tesla was forced to find other ways of funding him self. He worked on a side job to support him self and a small lab that he had created. There were many experimental technologies that Tesla wanted to create and perfect, many of which were not appreciated, and some of which were not practical. Tesla created the remote control, but at the time he created it, it was not useful to the general public. He had an artificial lightning generator, which he called the Tesla Coil. This device was successful in creating artificial lightning, thunder of which could be heard over 20 miles away. Tesla thought that this device could be used for war, to destroy planes in the sky, but it was never applied by any of the governments he had offered it to. He also tried to create a “global power station” which could transmit electricity through electro-magnetic waves. This device was supposed to be able to reach all around the world, but it turned out to be a failure. Tesla was an ingenious man with many great and some times, out of the world ideas. Many things that he had created were not appreciated until long after his death.