

Nikola Tesla predicted mobile phones in 1909 - hoag
http://recombu.com/news/nikola-tesla-predicted-mobile-phones-in-1909_M11683.html

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christoph
His "World System" pretty much describes a large part of the tech world today
to me...

1\. The inter-connection of the existing telegraph exchanges or offices all
over the world

2\. The establishment of a secret and non-interferable government telegraph
services

3\. The inter-connection of all the present telephone exchanges or offices on
the Globe

4\. The universal distribution of general news, by telegraph or telephone, in
connection with the Press

5\. The establishment of such a "World System" of intelligence transmission
for exclusive private use

6\. The inter-connecting and operation of all stock tickers of the world

7\. The establishment of the World-System of musical distribution, etc.

8\. The universal registration of time by inexpensive clocks indicating the
hour with astronomical precision and requiring no attention whatever

9\. The world transmission of typed or hand-written characters, letters,
checks, etc.

10\. The establishment of a universal marine service enabling the navigators
of all ships to steer perfectly without compass, to determine the exact
location, hour and speed, to prevent collisions and disasters

11\. The inauguration of a system of world-printing on land and sea

12\. The world reproduction of photographic pictures and all kinds of record

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julian37
Not to diminish Tesla's genius, but doesn't this read more like he predicted
the hand-held radio instead of the mobile phone?

"The song of a great singer [...] may thus be delivered to an audience all
over the world" sounds like radio to me. And the part about the businessman
dictating in New York is followed by the qualifier "from his desk"--I'm not
sold.

While technically radio transmission was invented earlier, according to
Wikipedia the first radio station only went online in 1920 so there was still
plenty of room for this kind of prediction in 1909.

~~~
eftpotrm
_"It will soon be possible, for instance, for a business man in New York to
dictate instructions and have the appear instantly in type in London or
elsewhere. He will be able to cal up from his desk and talk with any telephone
subscriber in the world. It will only be necessary to carry an inexpensive
instrument not bigger than a watch, which will enable its bearer to hear
anywhere on sea or land for distances of thousands of miles."_

The passage you quoted predicted broadcast radio, but the passage before that
sounds more like a telephone to me. As with many others it underestimated the
difficulty of transcribing voice into print, but otherwise....

~~~
BerislavLopac
And all of those together comprises Internet, basically... ;)

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noonespecial
Usually when inventors take off on flights of fancy regarding the implications
of their inventions, they embarrass themselves. Witness Dean Kamen and his
goofy little scooter.

Tesla is a whole different thing. Its not only fascinating to read how many
things he foresaw, but also some of the things he predicted that still haven't
happened and might. He was good at predicting both how devices would work and
how they would effect society almost to the point where you start to wonder if
he didn't invent that time machine after all and managed to keep it a secret.

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ericmsimons
It's a pity that schools teach more about Edison than Tesla. Tesla was a
genius, just as much if not more so than Edison.

~~~
fiesycal
Isn't that because Edison was a much better business man than Tesla. In modern
terms Edison was the 'entrepreneur' while Tesla was the 'hacker'.

~~~
ErrantX
Absolutely; it is something of a shame that Edison is often treated as that
era's only example of a great inventor - he was a smart guy for certain, but
had many flaws. Not least a ruthless business side that often crossed into the
nasty and vindictive, and a single mindedness that meant he wouldn't accept
his beliefs could be incorrect (hence sticking to promotion of DC for so
long).

Tesla had numerous flaws as well; but he was much more a pure inventor and
ultimately uninterested in money. Probably the smarter of the two, and
certainly his work was fundamental to modern life (i.e. AC power
transmission).

There is probably a lot to take away from learning about both men equally :)

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nitrogen
I have often wondered whether modern computers would have been possible with
Tesla's envisioned wireless power permeating the air. Large-scale wireless
power transmission is the only thing in that article that hasn't yet been
integrated into society.

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Its probably not possible.

Tesla was a genius, but had little formal EE theory - he somehow intuited much
of what he did. His high-frequency coils were not mathematically understood
until well after his death.

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bane
Tesla was an undisputed genius. Crazy, yes (I particularly liked his portrayal
in "the Prestige"). But one of those rare super geniuses that history looks
back on reveres as something just a step up the evolutionary ladder.

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yeahsure
Great related read: <http://www.badassoftheweek.com/tesla.html>

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vannevar
Not bad considering the first mobile phone call (from a car) wasn't placed
until 37 years later, in 1946.

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hoag
I never realized the extent of Tesla's clairvoyance. This is a pretty cool
read.

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extension
He seems to be confused between wireless transmission of information and
transmission of power. He says he can power a boat from shore, which is
ridiculous, but I assume he's only controlling it from shore. Did people
understand the difference back then?

~~~
fhars
No, he was not. For Marconi, wireless transmission of information was just a
byproduct of the far more important wireless transmission of power. In the
linked text he is explicitly distinguishing his idea from the mere wireless
transmission of information with electric waves which are quickly damped out.

Yes, he was completely wrong about that.

And ubiquitous wireless communication was a widespread idea at the time, here
is an example from 1897:
[http://www.citizenarcane.com/index.php/archives/2005/03/28/e...](http://www.citizenarcane.com/index.php/archives/2005/03/28/et-
phone-home)

~~~
extension
Huh.. so from Tesla's claim that he could efficiently transmit power thousands
of miles and that he already had a remotely powered boat, we can assume that
he was not so prophetic after all and maybe even fibbing a bit?

~~~
JoeAltmaier
Yes. This was his ambition, and he was always looking for funding. He never
achieved this goal.

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drstrangevibes
why dont we have wireless power then?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
>why dont we have wireless power then?

It's hugely inefficient to transmit power wirelessly.

About 8 years ago I conceived a plan to harvest power from electromagnetic
waves permeating a particular space (my house I guess). It looks like free
power (but of course isn't). If you can have a wireless radio then you can use
that same power to trickle charge a battery, multiply by the various
frequencies with powerful signals, etc., etc.. [I'm sure many others here have
had a similar idea].

On a very short range this has come out as a gadget in the form of wireless
charging pads (eg <http://www.powermat.com/>) and reports are out of using the
trick above to charge lower power devices over long distances
(<http://www.technologyreview.com/communications/22764/?a=f>).

Haven't seen anything of this sort in the shops yet though. I suspect it might
not be legal in my jurisdiction.

~~~
rickdangerous1
"It's hugely inefficient to transmit power wirelessly."

Just because it hasn't been done yet, doesn't mean it can't be done. There may
well be physical properties of our reality which haven't been discovered yet
that will allow the efficient transmission of power through the atmosphere.

If you look at it from a needs basis...the world needs much more power (every
Indian and Chinese family is eventually going to buy a fridge and a TV, and
ricecooker etc etc). We can't go on indefinitely building billion dollar power
stations to support that need.

There are two alternatives. An efficient way of transporting power long
distances (continent to continent)...or...eventually localised power
harvesting will be so cheap and ubitiquious that transporting power long
distances won't be necessary. (Solar panels so cheap, like newspaper, they can
be put on the roof and walls of every mud brick house).

Never say never is all I'm saying.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
>Just because it hasn't been done yet, doesn't mean it can't be done.

Indubitably, implicit in my statement is "It's [currently¹] hugely inefficient
to transmit power wirelessly.".

I can imagine harvesting extra-dimensional power sources or vacuum-energy or
as you say ultra cheap solar power conversion.

¹ No pun intended.

