The Car of Nikola Tesla

 Tesla's car

Now, if you ask me, Nikola Tesla was not only a genius in the truest definition of the word but also a master of showmanship. With talks about death rays and other fanciful things a car that can run off the power of the ‘aether’ sounds right on the mark. I would not be all that amazed if the ‘black box’ turned out to be a way to attract venture capitol.

In the summer of 1931, Nikola Tesla, the inventor of alternating current and the holder of some 1200 other U.S. patents, along with his nephew Peter Savo, installed a box on the front seat of a brand new Pierce-Arrow touring car at the company factory in Buffalo, New York. The box is said to have been 24 inches long, 12 inches wide and 6 inches high. Out of it protruded a 1.8 meter long antenna and two ¼ inch metal rods. Inside the box was reputed to be some dozen vacuum tubes — 70-L-7 type — and other electrical parts. Two wire leads ran from the box to a newly-installed 40 inch long, 30 inch diameter AC motor that replaced the gasoline engine. As the story goes, Tesla inserted the two metal rods and announced confidently, "We now have power" and then proceeded to drive the car for a week, "often at speeds of up to 90 mph." One account says the motor developed 1,800 rpm and got fairly hot when operating, requiring a cooling fan. The "converter" box is said to have generated enough electrical energy to also power the lights in a home.

[via neat-o-rama

Nikola Tesla’s ‘Black Magic’ Touring Car: Tesla’s Free Energy Pierce-Arrow

DIY Film Emulsion

DIY Film EmulsionIt’s practical chemistry time folks. With a few moderately easy to obtain chemicals (Gelatin, potassium bromide, potassium iodide, and silver nitrate) you can create your very own glass plate films. These would be used in a medium format camera or even a pinhole camera (if you can stand long exposure times).
You can find more information on alternative photographic processing from these books:

Silver Gelatin: A User’s Guide to Liquid Photographic Emulsion

Historic Photographic Processes

Or from these links:

Alternative and Historical Process Links

[via MAKE

Film Emulsion

BiblioRoll – A New Way To Read

BiblioRoll

A new concept in eText/eBook reading has been unleashed upon the world. You have to see the video o fully understand how it works but the idea is simple. Take the normal operations of reading a book or many books (remember researching reports in school?), marking pages, and making notes and stick them into a cylinder that has movable segments and LCD screens. Could this, or something much like it be the next wave of the future? Maybe… I can see this interface being used in an existing eBook reading like a Sony Librie.

[via shiny-shiny

BiblioRoll Website

Atari video game keychains

Atari game keychains 

 

When I first saw these I thought they were inert key chain toys and it wasn’t until I saw that they took batteries that I realized that these babies make the sweet 8 bit gamez. [[Atari]] still rocks!

Plug ‘n play keychains are here! Pick
Pong, Asteroids, or Centipede! Pong
also comes w/ Breakout & Warlords!
Asteroids has Millipede & Centipede
includes Yar’s Revenge! Comes with
6’ cord w/ RCA jacks to plug in TV!!
Uses 3 AAA batteries, not included.
Each measure approx. 1.5”x2”x1.5”

 

[via ohgizmo

Atari video game keychains