Could this be the latest in high end audio?

[Dave C]

My Physics minded son sent me this tonight. Could this be the next thing in high end audio? Electrostatic what???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3D_uG2ET2s:scratch2::scratch2:

 

[onwardjames]

That's a sad end for what could have been free power for everyone.
Read up on the Tesla coil, and how JP Morgan put the kaibosh on it.
Thanks for the post, tho.

 

[Tom Brennan]

Read up on the Tesla coil, and how JP Morgan put the kaibosh on it.

And what would stop people from using it today if it's a good idea?

 

[Ths364]

Lotsa ozone being generated there. I've read up on plasma tweeters and thought about making some, but the ozone is not good for you in high concentrations, and it will also de-grade any rubber surrounds nearby. The Tesla stuff is truly fascinating, funny that Edison thought he was competing with Tesla; Tesla was decades ahead of him.

 

[Ths364]

And what would stop people from using it today if it's a good idea?

We could start with greed...

 

[JoeESP9]

Ozone is extremely toxic. Most plasma tweeters generally produce large amounts of Ozone. The Hill Plasmatronic speaker got around this by using Helium as the gas for the Plasma.

 

[onwardjames]

And what would stop people from using it today if it's a good idea?

Nothing, I suppose....

Lotsa ozone being generated there. I've read up on plasma tweeters and thought about making some, but the ozone is not good for you in high concentrations, and it will also de-grade any rubber surrounds nearby. The Tesla stuff is truly fascinating, funny that Edison thought he was competing with Tesla; Tesla was decades ahead of him.

Lord, wasn't he tho??

 

[fpitas]

It may seem like a shocking new technology, but Tesla coil "speakers" have been around as long as I can remember.

BTW, Tesla coils are indeed used in electronics. Amongst other uses, the spark coil in a car is a form of Tesla Coil.

 

[Tom Brennan]

We could start with greed...

All the more reason it would be used if it's a practical system. Better ideas and systems often put powerful and established systems down.

 

[OldSch00l]

I am currently not at a place that I can watch videos, but I presume it is one of the Tesla coil plays music ones? I built a Tesla coil some time back, unfortunately it wasn't designed to be able to change frequency on the fly, it was quite a toy though!

However, I wanted to address the persistent "conspiracy theories" about Nikola Tesla, as they seem to be borne of ignorance or misunderstanding of the technologies at play. While it is well established that major players in the business world had stakes in the battle between Edison and Tesla, there seems to be a lot of misinformation about the potential of Tesla's works - to the point of divinity.

Yes, ultimately AC won out as the standard for the propagation of power, but as with most things this is due to the elemental technical superiority of AC over DC for efficiently delivering power over wires. "Over wires" being the key point. Wireless transmission of power never caught on not because of some nefarious conspiracy, but due to the fact that it is: dangerous, inefficient - particularly over long distances compared to wires, and much more complicated and expensive to implement.

 

[fpitas]

I am currently not at a place that I can watch videos, but I presume it is one of the Tesla coil plays music ones? I built a Tesla coil some time back, unfortunately it wasn't designed to be able to change frequency on the fly, it was quite a toy though!

However, I wanted to address the persistent "conspiracy theories" about Nikola Tesla, as they seem to be borne of ignorance or misunderstanding of the technologies at play. While it is well established that major players in the business world had stakes in the battle between Edison and Tesla, there seems to be a lot of misinformation about the potential of Tesla's works - to the point of divinity.

Yes, ultimately AC won out as the standard for the propagation of power, but as with most things this is due to the elemental technical superiority of AC over DC for efficiently delivering power over wires. "Over wires" being the key point. Wireless transmission of power never caught on not because of some nefarious conspiracy, but due to the fact that it is: dangerous, inefficient - particularly over long distances compared to wires, and much more complicated and expensive to implement.

Everything you said is spot on. Tesla was a brilliant man at times, and 3-phase AC was a winning idea, but many of his ideas suffered from a lack of basic understanding of electronics. His wireless power idea is just one example. His own experiments showed that wireless power took a tremendous power input to achieve a very modest amount of received power, even over short distances. Where the "free power" idea came from that's so popular on the internet, I'm not sure.

 

[rnorton]

That's a sad end for what could have been free power for everyone.
Read up on the Tesla coil, and how JP Morgan put the kaibosh on it.
Thanks for the post, tho.

The 'free power for everyone' scheme, if it had worked (and it wouldn't have) would have destroyed all RF communications and made the sky glow so brightly at night that it would have severely effected the life cycles of plants and animals that we depend on. We'd also never see the stars again.

 

[rnorton]

Lotsa ozone being generated there. I've read up on plasma tweeters and thought about making some, but the ozone is not good for you in high concentrations, and it will also de-grade any rubber surrounds nearby. The Tesla stuff is truly fascinating, funny that Edison thought he was competing with Tesla; Tesla was decades ahead of him.

Ozone will destroy your lungs rather quickly in high concentrations and leave you drowning in your own fluids. It also severely messes up pigments and dyes and is a primary cause of inkjet print fading.

 

[onwardjames]

Apparently, I have hit a nerve.

Seems you guys know a dead horse when you beat it.

I wholeheartedly retract my post.

 

[toxcrusadr]

I don't think they needed to jump on you quite that hard. I did have thoughts along those same lines though.

Sticking just to the 'free power' concept, and assuming Tesla's idea *had* worked, it was primarily delivery mechanism for power. You would still have to generate the power the same way we do today, and someone would have to pay for that.

Now, I grew up in the 60s, and what I wanna know is, where the &#)% is my jet-pack?

 

[onwardjames]

I don't think they needed to jump on you quite that hard. I did have thoughts along those same lines though.

Sticking just to the 'free power' concept, and assuming Tesla's idea *had* worked, it was primarily delivery mechanism for power. You would still have to generate the power the same way we do today, and someone would have to pay for that.

Now, I grew up in the 60s, and what I wanna know is, where the &#)% is my jet-pack?

I grew up in the 1970's....where did all the pubes go?

No such thing as a free lunch. Also, remember the 3 main laws of thermodynamics - can't really get over those.....

See, I disagree. Those were created by man (Sir Isaac Newton, I think) and therefore, MAY be fallible. Probably not, and cold fusion hasn't panned out either, but remember, we once thought the world was flat.

My statements on this board are this....just lighthearted statements made quickly, and should never be construed as fact, or as expert testimony.

Too many here are so darn serious all the time. Make a flip remark, and you get pounced on.

What angers me is that JP Morgan pulled the plug, and DISCREDITED Tesla to his dying days. Within hours of his death, his modest apartment was raided, and his research became the property of the US government.

That pisses me off. Ignore the man, discredit his work, then steal it.

So, there...I'm finished. Didn't mean to stir up anything, and certainly didn't intend to convey that I know physics, or anything remotely as complex as the work of either Tesla OR Edison.