Telluride


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Posted by David Sherman on Sunday, February 08, 2009 at 15:00:33 :

In Reply to: Re: Electrocuting horses posted by Doc Dave on Sunday, February 08, 2009 at 13:58:01 :

That's disgusting if the horse killing was in modern times. I believe electrocution is detectable by an autopsy, so once the authorities got wise to it and knew what to look for, they could probably figure it out.

I believe that Telluride was the first commercial installation of an AC generating system. It used a very steep mountain stream to run a generator that was used to power a mine. Mines tended to be the first users of electrical power because they were willing to pay a premium for a power source that would work conveniently underground. The usual factory power in those days was coal and line shafting, which didn't work in mines, and the only alternative was compressed air. That was good for drills and "motors" (underground locomotives), and for muckers and slushers, but no good for lighting or hoisting, and not much good for ventilation.

One of the other very early power systems was Washington Water Power which built generators at Spokane Falls and Post Falls on the Spokane river and ran a line up to the Silver Valley to the Coeur d'Alene mines, and when the Thompson Falls dam was built, a line was run straight into Burke rather than to the big cities.

Telluride probably got the benefit of Tesla's first system because it was near his lab. He moved from New Jersey to Colorado Springs to build his big lab partly because he simply loved the thunderstorms near the Rockies. In Colorado Springs he built a Tesla coil that would throw out sparks 130 feet long. He had an idea that he could use it to transmit power wirelessly around the world. Unfortunatly, he didn't seem to understand Maxwell's equations and the electromagnetic nature of radiation, and his power transmitting system wasn't practical.

He did use it to transmit power to wireless fluorescent tubes (his invention) that he mounted on the corners of his wagon that would glow as he drove through town. Unfortunately, the horses didn't like his wireless electricity because it made sparks between their feet and the ground whenever they lifted their feet. When he turned on his Tesla coil it tended to spook everybody's horses. If somebody built a machine like that nowadays, it would interfere with most radio over a wide area. There are people who still have fun building giant Tesla coils, but none like the man himself did back in Colorado Springs.



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