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I say it is a fantasy!
I’ve read and reread the many documents purporting this device but I’m lead to believe the story is entirely made up. Let’s review the facts
First, the car;
The first thing that tipped me off that something was out of whack was the anecdote about the exhaust pipe where someone was supposed to have remarked that there “wasn’t any smoke coming from the exhaust.” It was an electric car folks! Electric cars don’t have exhaust pipes.
Which brings me to point two.
If someone DID make that remark then they might have known something about cars to say it. Newer cars of those days didn’t make that much smoke so it must have been an older car they were making fun of. All the documents say the event happened in 1931 and all the documents say it was a Pierce Arrow. Nowhere does it say that it was a 1931 Pierce Arrow.
Researching Pierce Arrow one finds that this company made radical changes in their designs from year to year. This can be researched by going to the Pierce Arrow car club and going over their files on the various cars.
So, if it WAS a current Pierce Arrow and the motor WAS removed by Pierce Arrow, then the gas lines, radiator, hoses and fittings, AND the exhaust pipe would have all been removed.
Then we come to the matter of the black box in the car. One document says it was mounted in the dash. Not possible! In those days all instrumentation was mounted in the middle of the dash; dials, gauges, and key switch. There wasn’t any room to mount a 24” box in the dash with the dash panel already there.
Second, the motor;
The motor was described as an AC electric motor. One document says there were two leads coming from the motor. One document says that the plate on the motor said “30 revolutions per second,” which is 1800 RPM. 1800 RPM is NOT fast enough to drive that car, or any other car, at 90 MPH! (90 MPH is reported in all the documents I read.)
(On the plus side, however, Pierce Arrow maintained four points for motor mounts for their regular engines to eliminate vibrations.)
Third, the black box;
There are several pieces of information concerning the black box itself and the electronics it contained. Several of the reports say that of the twelve tubes Tesla used three of them were 70L7-GT. Researching this particular tube reveals that this tube was not released until 1939 according to the “electron tube registration list.”
Check it out here; 70L7GT, Tube 70L7GT; Röhre 70L7GT (70L7GT)
So far as I can tell, no tubes prefixed with a seven were released before 1934. AND, double function tubes and tubes with more than three pins plus the heater pins were released AFTER 1932!
There is more, much more but I think there is enough here for now. If you are trying to replicate Tesla’s black box then I think you are going to have to design and build it on your own. He never had one, IMO.
FWIW
Warren
..
I’ve read and reread the many documents purporting this device but I’m lead to believe the story is entirely made up. Let’s review the facts
First, the car;
The first thing that tipped me off that something was out of whack was the anecdote about the exhaust pipe where someone was supposed to have remarked that there “wasn’t any smoke coming from the exhaust.” It was an electric car folks! Electric cars don’t have exhaust pipes.
Which brings me to point two.If someone DID make that remark then they might have known something about cars to say it. Newer cars of those days didn’t make that much smoke so it must have been an older car they were making fun of. All the documents say the event happened in 1931 and all the documents say it was a Pierce Arrow. Nowhere does it say that it was a 1931 Pierce Arrow.
Researching Pierce Arrow one finds that this company made radical changes in their designs from year to year. This can be researched by going to the Pierce Arrow car club and going over their files on the various cars.So, if it WAS a current Pierce Arrow and the motor WAS removed by Pierce Arrow, then the gas lines, radiator, hoses and fittings, AND the exhaust pipe would have all been removed.
Then we come to the matter of the black box in the car. One document says it was mounted in the dash. Not possible! In those days all instrumentation was mounted in the middle of the dash; dials, gauges, and key switch. There wasn’t any room to mount a 24” box in the dash with the dash panel already there.
Second, the motor;
The motor was described as an AC electric motor. One document says there were two leads coming from the motor. One document says that the plate on the motor said “30 revolutions per second,” which is 1800 RPM. 1800 RPM is NOT fast enough to drive that car, or any other car, at 90 MPH! (90 MPH is reported in all the documents I read.)
(On the plus side, however, Pierce Arrow maintained four points for motor mounts for their regular engines to eliminate vibrations.)
Third, the black box;
There are several pieces of information concerning the black box itself and the electronics it contained. Several of the reports say that of the twelve tubes Tesla used three of them were 70L7-GT. Researching this particular tube reveals that this tube was not released until 1939 according to the “electron tube registration list.”
Check it out here; 70L7GT, Tube 70L7GT; Röhre 70L7GT (70L7GT)
So far as I can tell, no tubes prefixed with a seven were released before 1934. AND, double function tubes and tubes with more than three pins plus the heater pins were released AFTER 1932!
There is more, much more but I think there is enough here for now. If you are trying to replicate Tesla’s black box then I think you are going to have to design and build it on your own. He never had one, IMO.
FWIW
Warren
..
but I think 90mph is pushing the limits there too. Im not sure the cars of that era were built for that sort of speed anyway, but Im no history buff.
), but they could certainly break all the speed limits. His electric motors could have been variable torque, and don't quote me on this, but they were probably more powerful than the average petrol engine of the time. With the correct gearing I think one could have reached a speed of 90mph. Maybe
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