Tesla Memorial Society of New York is celebrating its 25th anniversary. It was founded in Buffalo, New York in 1979. It is the oldest Tesla society in North America dedicated to keeping the memory of Nikola Tesla alive. We are committed to the pursuit of science, progress and brotherhood among all nations and religions around the world.
This web site is dedicated to Richard P. Feynman, scientist, teacher, raconteur, and musician. He assisted in the development of the atomic bomb, expanded the understanding of quantumelectrodynamics, translated Mayan hieroglyphics, and cut to the heart of the Challenger disaster. But beyond all of that, Richard Feynman was a unique and multi-faceted individual. Feel free to explore this site to find out about Feynman, what he was and why he remains one of the most celebrated and revered scientists of modern times.
According to legend, the inventor who revolutionized electrical technology came into this world precisely at midnight as the sky was illuminated by a powerful lightning storm. From these prophetic beginnings, Nikola Tesla has since plunged into relative obscurity. Modern society has benefited greatly from the contributions of Tesla. Amongst his 111 patents, Tesla designed the first practical methods for generating alternating current, which has enabled the long distance transmission of electricity. He created the “Tesla coil,” a popular device for demonstrating high frequency and high voltage phenomena. He designed new electric lighting systems and incandescent lamps. Tesla also revolutionized the field of radio communications with his four-circuit transmitter/receiver and novel designs for intensifying and transforming signals.
I began compiling Benjamin Franklin: A Documentary History as a source for a biography of Franklin. I gradually came to think that it had scholarly value of its own, though I still intend it to be the basic documentation for the biography. Since the Documentary History (DH) is arranged chronologically, the dates in the biography can be readily checked in the DH, where bibliographical references are given. The DH calendars but does not print Franklin's writings. It refers to The Papers of Benjamin Franklin far more frequently than to any other source, citing the Papers for the innumerable scholarly contributions made by that great edition. Since The Papers of Benjamin Franklin is also arranged chronologically, the date itself in the DH can serve as a reference to the Papers. For the user's convenience, however, the materials in the Papers are cited by volume and page in the DH. For example, the chronology begins with the birth of Josiah Franklin (BF's father) and cites the prefatory roman numeral pages 50-51 of volume one and the genealogial chart on roman numeral page 69. In those instances when a writing by Franklin is not in the Papers, the DH cites The Canon of Benjamin Franklin: New Attributions and Reconsiderations (Canon)and, if printed therein, Benjamin Franklin: Writings (W). Of course, a few new attributions occur in the DH; brief justifications for these are found in the DH and more detailed ones in the biography. The DH also lists Franklin's attendence and participation in the meetings of the Library Company of Philadelphia, the Union Fire Company, and other organizations, as well as references to Franklin in private letters and in the contemporary periodical press. Beginning with the appointment of Franklin and Meredith as Pennsylvania's official printers (30 Jan 1730), the DH records the meetings of the Pennsylvania Assembly because Franklin made sure to be in Philadelphia during the legislative sessions. Beginning with Franklin's election as clerk to the assembly (15 Oct 1736), the DH chronicles the most important assembly business because Franklin kept the minutes; and beginning with Franklin's election as a representative (9 May 1751), it includes brief discussions of most assembly sessions where Franklin played an active part.
Nikola Tesla was born a subject of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1856 in a mountainous area of the Balkan Peninsula known as Lika. His father Milutin, and his mother Djuka, were both Serbian by origin. Tesla's father was a stern but loving Orthodox priest, who was also a gifted writer and poet. At a young age, Tesla immersed himself in his father's library. Tesla's mother was a hard working woman of many talents who created appliances to help with home and farm responsibilities. One of these was a mechanical eggbeater. Tesla attributed all of his inventive instincts to his mother.
(Adapted from a Caltech commencement address given in 1974; HTML'ed from the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!")
During the Middle Ages there were all kinds of crazy ideas, such as that a piece of rhinoceros horn would increase potency. Then a method was discovered for separating the ideas -- which was to try one to see if it worked, and if it didn't work, to eliminate it. This method became organized, of course, into science. And it developed very well, so that we are now in the scientific age. It is such a scientific age, in fact, that we have difficulty in understanding how witch doctors could ever have existed, when nothing that they proposed ever really worked -- or very little of it did.
The Zeiss II Planetarium Projector was the one and only planetarium projection system in service at The Buhl Planetarium and Institute of Popular Science in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania U.S.A.
It was the last Zeiss Mark II to be constructed. The Carl Zeiss Company did not produce Zeiss Mark III (all are upgraded Mark II projectors) or Mark IV projectors until well into the 1950s.
Buhl Planetarium's Zeiss II was the fifth major planetarium projector in the Americas. Earlier Zeiss II projectors were installed at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago in 1930, Fels Planetarium of Franklin Institute in Philadelphia in 1933, Griffith Observatory and Planetarium in Los Angeles in 1935, and the original Hayden Planetarium of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City in 1935
