Thomas Edison and Electric Lighting

Today on Far Future Horizons we celebrate the birthday of the Wizard of Menlo Park  - Thomas Alva Edison. 

This episode of Modern Marvels looks at Edison’s work on the development of electric lightning.

Tesla - Master of Lightning

Today on Far Future Horizons we commemorate Nikola Tesla's 159^th birthday by presenting the PBS documentary Tesla: Master of Lightning.

Nikola Tesla invented many of the electrical technologies which form the basis of our technological civilization, including: alternating-current (AC) power transmission and electric motors; high-frequency (HF) communications, the basis for radio and television; neon lighting; remote radio-control; radio astronomy and X-rays. He was the man that developed the technology that electrified America and the world.

Yet despite his great body of work he is largely forgotten today by the general public.

His visionary genius and technical skill was countered by his lack of business acumen and eccentric personality. After dying penniless in 1943, his "missing papers" regarding the construction of a 'death ray' became the focus of international intrigue.

Nikola Tesla – The Man Who Created the Future

Today on Far Future Horizons we pay homage to Nikola Tesla.

Nikola Tesla invented many of the electrical technologies which underlie our technological civilization, including: alternating-current (AC) power transmission and electric motors; high-frequency (HF) communications, the basis for radio and television; neon lighting; remote radio-control; radio astronomy and X-rays. He was the man that developed the technology that electrified America and the world. He is credited by many maverick inventors as the man who almost single handedly created the future. Yet despite his great body of work he is largely forgotten by the general public at large.

Nikola Tesla’s influence could also be seen in such diverse fields as the development of RADAR, hybrid-fuel automobiles, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) and particle beam weaponry. Tesla even foresaw the need for alternative energies sources such as geothermal and solar power and also envisioned an age where electric power would one day be transmitted wirelessly.