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Tesla's Black Magic Car.

By Alex in Car & Vehicle on Sep 6, 2006 at 1:52 am


In 1931, Nikola Tesla, the inventor of the alternating current and the holder of some 1,200 patents installed a mysterious box in the front seat of the Pierce-Arrow touring car:

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."

Link – via Fortean Times

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COMMENT
  1. blindsangamon
    Sep 6th, 2006 at 6:16 am

    While Tesla was indeed a fantastic character, I'd like to BUST this MYTH. This story, which originated from a supposed nephew of Tesla, is undone by the detail with which the author attempts to give his story credibility. Specifically, his mention of use of a 70L7 vacuum tube - which was not invented until 1939 - would have been pretty difficult to do in 1931. Unless Tesla used his time machine to procure them....

  2. Miss Cellania
    Sep 6th, 2006 at 7:34 am

    I can just imagine what a speed of 90 miles an hour would do to this 1931-or-older vehicle.

  3. Jason
    Sep 6th, 2006 at 4:40 pm

    Since this *is* Tesla we're talking about, his possession of a time machine would not surprise me.

  4. ted
    Sep 7th, 2006 at 9:39 pm

    Fools. The car WAS the time machine. He attached the tubes to his flux capacitor and away he went...

  5. Mark
    Sep 8th, 2006 at 1:29 pm

    So he only went 88mph then?

  6. Kelly
    Sep 12th, 2006 at 12:22 am

    Nikola really never ran out of interesting inventions. The car would be much more appealing if it can travel at a higher pace.

  7. raymond
    Oct 9th, 2006 at 4:58 pm

    has anyone since tesla, ever tinkered around with vacuume tubes to try and get some greater power with them ???????????????????? huh

  8. PIxel
    Dec 18th, 2006 at 4:21 pm

    http://www.tfcbooks.com/teslafaq/questions.htm#A-016

    Five minutes of googling produces this. The nephew who supposedly took the ride and relayed the story later doesn't exist. Tesla never had a nephew named Peter Savo. The story is a fabrication.

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