Quote:
Originally Posted by Emerald Cat
Answer to Question 74
This setting's Edison and Tesla are "steam engineers" rather than electrical engineers. Everything is designed to work with steam rather than electricity due to steam's ubiquity. Electric motors are known to exist, but lack of electrical infrastructure makes these unattractive to investors. Without electric motors and appliances, electric lights can be powered with localized DC turbines. Research on AC power has been glacial.
Question 75
What are Edison and Tesla working on?
Question 76
Edison and Tesla were bitter rivals in OTL. Their format war over AC vs DC power turned quite acrimonious. Edison went so far as to make AC current look dangerous by introducing it as a method of execution! What format war(s) are they fighting in this setting? How far has it escalated?
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Answer 75/76
No one has heard of 'Edison' beyond anecdotes of how a rich man who thought he could buy his way into being an inventor, and failed miserably wasting his family fortune.
Tesla by comparison is hugely famous for his development of the Tesla turbine/pump (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla_turbine), which is a revolutionary way to extract motion from steam, or motion to achieve work (moving fuel, gas, or water). Turbines form his design are vital to modern tar coral extraction.
Tesla's work in turbines and harmonics have significantly advanced what can be done with steam power, make it safer, as well as make failures more graceful and less prone to serious injury.
His work in magnetic theory is responsible for TEWS (Tesla Electromagnetic Warning System), a system of embedding magnetic collars around boilers and steam transmission pipes that are connected to a meter for easy display next to the steam controls. The meter reads the current deflection/vibration in the pipes, the meter will slide into the 'red' before any catastrophic failure, or venting of steam, takes place.
Further his work in domestic compression refrigeration has put a Tesla in basically every home, revolutionizing personal food storage and giving everyone all the more reason to run personal boilers.
Tesla has a variety of patents and work projects related to the system of tar coral and its interactions with other matter. Tesla's most recent project is that he has discovered a way to catalyze tar coral with atmospheric condensation- building a 'self-feeding' low output steam engine. He further proposes that his catalyzing system could be used to "instantly extra all potential energy from the coral in a water system", and has drawn up plans for a steam cannon he says is capable of launching a projectile into orbit.
Tesla's work, as it did in our world, often walks a fine line between 'revolutionary' and 'crackpot neo-mystiscisim', sometimes on the wrong side of that line- he has made, and continues to make a lot of research into, the capability of Tesla-Turbine powered message devices to do everything form cure mundane ailments to raise the recently deceased (basically steam-Tesla's version of the violet ray
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violet_ray ), as well as extensive experimentation into Tar Coral interactions.
Question 77
With so many 'new age' mystics and therapy moving around, peddling cures like soaking ones feet in baths containing electric eels, diets of strict corn flakes, and steam powered message devices to handle hysteria, sore muscles, boost intelligence, relieve stress, and myriad other claims- are any of them getting close to tapping into the magic that actually does exist (potentially from atypical and unseen avenues)? Are there any measure to prevent/encourage this from existing practitioners?