[sdiy] Seriously OT: Tesla Motors

[Tim Parkhurst]

On 7/19/06, Michael Bacich <weareas1 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Awesome.
>
> I love the name, too.  Tesla was so much more bad-ass than Edison!
>

Thanks! Yeah, Tesla was an amazing dude. I'm SO glad Tesla and AC won
the "how should we distribute electric power to the masses" debate.

Funny story: When New York and parts thereabout were first
"electrified," DC current was used. The power lines ran very hot
(partially because they were trying to distribute DC rather than AC)
and were notoriously unreliable. A lot of times, connections would
break and the overhead wires would fall down onto the streets where
they would conduct current into the metal trolley tracks! It was a
common site to see people walk sedately across a street, then suddenly
jump to dodge the metal rails at the last moment. In Brooklyn, this
behavior actually gave birth to the name of the baseball team: The
Brooklyn Dodgers! (Seriously, this is from a Tesla biography)


Tim (could have been worse: they could have been The Brooklyn Leapers) Servo
-- 
"Imagination is more important than knowledge." - Albert Einstein