My guess would be that the movie is referring to Nkola Tesla, as he actually built a power generating tower in Colorado. Tesla and Edison were rivals. When Tesla arrived from Transylvania with the concept of Alternating Current and took it to Edison, Edison responded by giving Tesla employment as a laborer, no doubt to protect his and his investors' investment in DC power generation and distribution. Eventually, Tesla was hired by Westinghouse, who put his ideas to practice, eclipsing Edison's DC system. Much of Tesla's experimentation was in high-frequency AC generation and reception. He was able to remote-control a miniature submarine in the early 1890's, invented the fluorescent light tube, and the aforementioned Tesla Coil (think the sparks in the laboratory in the film 'Frankenstein'). Tesla's high concept was that of the earth as a rotor and the atmospheric magnetic field surrounding it as a stator. The tower he built in Colorado was to act as a collector of the electrical field that is generated as the earth rotates (i.e. the North & South Poles). The tower would form a pole and the magnetic field encircling the earth from the tower would form an antipole directly opposite on the globe where the power could be collected most efficiently by another tower. This was a system of free power generation. The tower and attendant buildings were attacked and destroyed one night, allegedly by goons working for Edison's principal investor in metered power distribution, J.P. Morgan. Anyone else care to chime in? Read "Tesla: Man Out of Time" by Margaret Cheney Rice, and Tesla's own odd autobiography. He was a very interesting man. >From: "Douglas Houston" <cdh041 at earthlink.net> >Reply-To: Antique Phonograph List <phono-l at oldcrank.org> >To: "Antique Phonograph List" <phono-l at oldcrank.org> >Subject: RE: [Phono-L] Edison History Question >Date: Sat, 7 Apr 2007 17:06:55 -0400 > >I haven't the dates,but a pretty big spark discharge can be made from a >Vandegraaf Generator, or als a high tension coil tjhat nikola Tesla had >made. I'm inclined to believe that what you're thinking of is just science >fiction in action. I've never heard that Edison messe3d around with high >voltage devices, though it's not out of the queastion, rither. But, it's >possible that they did have either a Vandegraaf generator or a Tesla coil. > > > > [Original Message] > > From: <lubun at comcast.net (Steve Atkins)> > > To: <phono-l at oldcrank.org> > > Date: 4/7/2007 4:10:05 PM > > Subject: [Phono-L] Edison History Question > > > > Hi group, > > > > While this may be a bit off topic, I have been fascinated and enriched >while observing your conversations about Mr. Edison. I would like to learn >more about him. Please forgive me if this has already been addressed in >the past. > > > > I recently rented the 2006 movie "The Prestige", said to be based on a >true story, depicting a pair of comptitive magicians in London at the turn >of the century. One follows the other to the wild west of Colorado in >search of an inventor who has developed an electrical aperatis capable of >generating lightening bolts on stage as a climactic feature of a >disappearing act. I noticed, a couple of times, a reference to "Edison's >men" who were apparently stalking the inventor or the aperatis itself. My >question(s): were Edison's "men" protecting his patents, or doing recon on >something new, or just Hollywood spinning a good yarn? Just curious. >Perhaps you can refer me to an area of further research. > > > > Thanks very much, > > > > Steve > > _______________________________________________ > > Phono-L mailing list > > http://phono-l.oldcrank.org > > > >_______________________________________________ >Phono-L mailing list >http://phono-l.oldcrank.org