A Famous Tesla Photo

It seems to be a consensus that the famous photo of Tesla at his lab in Colorado Springs was a double exposure:



It is stated that Tesla biographer Marc Seifer claimed this in Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla: Biography of a Genius. I checked that book and he did but he didn't back up the claim except to say Tesla would have been killed had he been sitting there.

I've also seen the claim that Tesla himself said it was a double exposure in his Colorado Springs notes. I've seen this quote:

"To give an idea of the magnitude of the discharge the experimenter is sitting slightly behind the 'extra coil.' I did not like this idea but some people find such photographs interesting. Of course, the discharge was not playing when the experimenter was photographed, as might be imagined."

I was very curious about this so I found a free .pdf file of Colorado Springs Notes 1899 - 1900 and searched for information about this photo.

The .pdf file is 431 pages long. Here are screenshots of pages 1 and 3:




I see in the .pdf that on page 333 of the Notes there is a paragraph about Plate XI, a picture with a Mr. Alley sitting in the chair. Here is a screenshot of the paragraph:



Plate XII is the famous photograph. There is also plate XIII with Mr. Alley again sitting in the chair and plate XIV with Tesla.

Here are 3 screenshots of page 339 of the Notes where the photographs are written about:






I don't see anything about a double exposure there.

Tesla does say, "The picture of a human figure was introduced to give an idea of the magnitude of the discharge." But nowhere do I see "the discharge was not playing when the experimenter was photographed, as might be imagined."

I'm thinking the story isn't true.

reply to post by Mary Rose


The time you spent investigating it deserves recognition regardless its results.

reply to post by Trueman


Thank you.

It has bothered me enough to make me want to take the time.

From the reading I've done of Tesla's own writings I think it would be out of character for him to double expose a photo of himself.

But I am curious about the safety factor.

My understanding is that he appeared on stage in front of captivated audiences and put on quite a spectacular show.

And I see this on Sterling Allan's website:

Safety Enhancements

Over the course of his investigations, Tesla realized that the duration and frequency of his pulses were of tremendous importance in terms of safety. Slower rates of these discharges would produce stinging and painful effects. Moderate rates of discharges eliminated the stinging, but could produce a thermal sensation. If properly controlled, this thermal sensation would not burn, but could actually be pleasant and therapeutic. At very high rates of discharges the stinging and thermal effect vanished. A physical "pressure" could still be felt from the area around the spark gap, but sensations of needles or heat were gone.

At these high rates of pulsing, the visual arcs and streamers of pure voltage from his device were actually safe to interact with (at least that is what he concluded). In many experiments and demonstrations, he allowed these pulses of purified aether to flow across his body. No detectable harm came to him when utilizing these high frequencies. This energy could flow through him and power light bulbs. If traditional current had been flowing he would have been killed, but this flow of energy was truly something unique. . . .

pesn.com...

I am interested in any information people have about that safety factor.

reply to post by Mary Rose


scipp.ucsc.edu...

reply to post by Mary Rose


I love that pic. My other favorite is Mark Twain holding an illumination of some kind with Tesla in the background seemingly peering from the darkness. Tesla was a genius, although I think there is no work that truely describes what he understood. There are many acheivements he made that we still don't understand today.

Tesla believed that everything was based on vibrations and everthing manifested and acted on this principle. He was continually in search of ever higher oscillations. Although, he was unable to build capasitors large enough to achieve them. In regards to the photo, he believed that the human body had its own freequency and any freequency well above or below that was inperceptable. Just as we cannot hear sounds above a certain decible or see light in the ultraviolet range. He believed that an electrical charge well above the human oscilation would also be inperceptible. This has been proven to be true, although other explanations have been givin such as the possibility of using high voltage yet, low amperage.

Either way, pretty freekin' cool. Thanks for the post.

reply to post by Mary Rose


Double exposure ... check out shadows from light source almost in front of the figure - and notice the lack of shadows from the ' brilliant ' electrical discharges.

But , who cares ? That is to say - beautiful no matter the exposure type... composition is everything , IMO. S/F , thanks.

Mary Rose
I am interested in any information people have about that safety factor.

I also have a .pdf file of Secrets of Cold War Technology by Gerry Vassilatos. In Chapter 1 "Nikola Tesla and Radiant Energy," under "Radiant Electricity," Vassilatos says this (one has to forgive him for his poor sentence structure in the first sentence):

Hello, it looks really gorgeous.Thanks a lot.

Mary Rose
I also have a .pdf file of Secrets of Cold War Technology by Gerry Vassilatos.

Vassilatos explains that at Colorado Springs Tesla referred to two kinds of waves: "stationary waves" and "standing waves."

Stationary waves mean ether, or aether, waves. Mainstream science today denies the existence of the ether/aether.

Standing waves mean electron waves - the electricity we have today.

The stationary waves were associated with Tesla's discovery of impulse technology, which was in contrast to the alternations associated with the electricity we have today. Tesla had shifted his focus from alternations to impulse technology and it is the impulse technology which he was unable to have accepted and which is not understood today.

Vassilatos also says that Tesla used the terms "frequency" and "resonance" in his own way. Again in Chapter 1 "Nikola Tesla and Radiant Energy," under the section "Avalanche," which I believe is referring to the magnification of the flow of ether/aether - which is what radiant energy is - that Tesla was bringing about, Vassilatos writes:

Teslian "frequency" refers to the repetition of pulses per second. Teslian "resonance" refers to conditions in which aether flows with little or no resistance through systems, whether proximal or widely separated.

The following is what Vassilatos says about the Colorado Springs photographs:

Photographs which Tesla sent to his "financiers" were analyzed and reexamined repeatedly from their encrypted meaning. None could decipher the cunning puzzle which Tesla had set before them. Tesla stated that photographs of the aetheric whitefire streamers required several minutes' exposure time before registering the faintest sort of impression. Most of the plates were therefore the result of more than 20 minutes' exposure time. There are a very few plates which, though stated to be the result of "one brief switch closure", are covered with dense, thick white streamers. One fraction of a second closure on the system switch resulted in a twenty minute or more aether avalanche. Magnifying Transformers continued discharging long after the initial impulse had been withdrawn.

I don't see that Vassilatos has addressed the popular belief that the famous photograph was faked.

It seems that the streamers were ether/aether, not our conventional electricity, however. I've heard the term "cold electricity" used in reference to that phenomenon.

originally posted by: Mary Rose
I don't see anything about a double exposure there.

Try actually reading it, as if you had you would have seen :-

The experiment being, of course, performed in the dark. Then a exposure - with the arc lamp

If they had the arc lamp on whilst the experiment was being performed it would not be in the dark.... so it was a multiple exposure!

a reply to: Joki42

Tesla was such a genius that he doesn't get a mention in the publication " The 100 Most Influential Scientists Of All Time"

The only thing Tesla was a genius off, was over egging his own persona.

www.arvindguptatoys.com...

Funny how everybody has not heard of him... Says it all really.

Assuming this photo was meant to be allegorical there are multiple possible interpretations.
I found a cute you-tube video of a machine that flies the "aether wind".

www.youtube.com...

originally posted by: Enlighten3d
Funny how everybody has not heard of him... Says it all really.

I am not having that. I have heard of Tesla

Only when i came onto ATS though, never before then.

originally posted by: Mary Rose
"To give an idea of the magnitude of the discharge the experimenter is sitting slightly behind the 'extra coil.' I did not like this idea but some people find such photographs interesting. Of course, the discharge was not playing when the experimenter was photographed, as might be imagined."

Tesla does say, "The picture of a human figure was introduced to give an idea of the magnitude of the discharge." But nowhere do I see "the discharge was not playing when the experimenter was photographed, as might be imagined."

"To give an idea of the magnitude of the discharge . . . " appears twice.

The full quote is, in fact, on page 367 of the Notes:

Here's the 431 page PDF: "Nikola Tesla Colorado Spring Notes 1899 - 1900."