A long time ago I did an interview about a big article I'd written on a film that was animated entirely in transparent fabric lit from below, and I lamented the fact that no one has ever done a film since using the same technique, saying "Boy, it would be a great skill for animators to learn!", which was an incredibly pretentious thing to say since I'm not in the animation industry and have no business telling animators what's best for them. So that's why—despite the fact that really I should be telling you to learn Morse code and then listen to this record (which is entirely in Morse code) and transcribe it yourself, saying "Imagine the satisfaction it'll bring you to master this new skill!"—I won't suggest that. You don't need to learn Morse code. And here is a complete transcription:
"THE PRODIGAL GENIUS," SO WRITES JOHN J. ONEILL IN HIS STORY OF NIKOLA TESLA. HIS WIDE RANGE OF EXPERIMENTS AND DISCOVERIES MADE HIM ONE OF THE WORLDS OUTSTANDING ELECTRICIANS. HIS INVENTION OF THE INDUCTION MOTOR AND THE TESLA COIL, AS WELL AS THE ROTARY MAGNETIC FIELD PRINCIPLE, WON HIM WORLD WIDE FAME. RADIO AND WIRELESS AS WE KNOW IT TODAY SPRINGS FROM HIS EARLY EXPERIMENTATION AND INVENTION.
TESLA WAS BORN IN SMILJAN, SERBIA, ON JULY 10, 1857. HIS FATHER WAS A GREEK CLERGYMAN AND HIS MOTHER, GEORGINA MANDIC, AN INVENTOR.
HIS EDUCATION BEGAN WITH ONE YEAR OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND FOUR YEARS OF THE LOWER REALSCHULE AT GOSPIC, LIKA. HE THEN ATTENDED A HIGHER SCHOOL AT CARLSTADT, CROATIA, FROM WHICH HE GRADUATED IN 1873. THE NEXT FOUR YEARS WERE SPENT IN SPECIALIZED STUDIES AT THE POLYTECHNIC SCHOOL AT GRATZ FOLLOWED BY TWO YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PRAGUE.
WITH HIS FORMAL SCHOOLING BEHIND HIM, TESLA HEADED FOR THE UNITED STATES. HE ARRIVED IN AMERICA WITH ONLY FOUR CENTS IN HIS POCKET. CONFIDENT IN AMERICA AS THE LAND OF OPPORTUNITY, TESLA WALKED UP BROADWAY AND MET A GROUP OF WORKMEN STRUGGLING WITH AN ELECTRIC MOTOR. THEY PAID HIM TWENTY DOLLARS FOR REPAIRING IT.
THE NEXT FEW YEARS WERE BUSY ONES FOR THE ASPIRING YOUNG INVENTOR. HE WAS EMPLOYED FOR A TIME BY EDISON AT THE LABORATORY IN ORANGE, N.J. IN 1887, THE SHORTLIVED TESLA ELECTRIC COMPANY WAS FORMED. IN 1888, TESLA PRODUCED ALTERNATING CURRENT MOTORS # AND THE FOLLOWING YEAR, HIS SYSTEM OF ELECTRICAL CONVERSION AND DISTRIBUTION WAS DEVELOPED. HIS STUDIES INTO TRANSFORMER ACTION LED TO THE INVENTION OF THE TESLA COIL.
IN 1893, HE WROTE OF A SYSTEM OF WIRELESS TRANSMISSION AND HE TALKED OF TRANSMITTING POWER THROUGH THE AIR. HE DEVELOPED THE PRINCIPLE OF THE ROTARY MAGNETIC FIELD USED IN THE EARLY TRANSMISSION OF POWER AT NIAGARA FALLS. THIS WAS FOLLOWED BY THE ARC LIGHTING SYSTEM, DYNAMOS, COILS, CONDENSERS AND OTHER ELECTRICAL APPARATUS.
IN 1895, AT NIAGARA, HIS METHOD OF GENERATING ALTERNATING CURRENT RESULTED IN PRODUCING 100,000 HORSEPOWER, EQUALLING THE ENTIRE PRODUCTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
TESLA WAS A FIRST CLASS MATHEMATICIAN AND PHYSICIST YEARS AHEAD OF HIS TIME. HERTZ HAD DEMONSTRATED THAT RADIO WAVES COULD BE REFLECTED. IT WAS TESLA WHO RECOGNIZED AND POINTED OUT THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION OF THIS RADIO ECHO, THAT RESULTED IN THE PERFECTING OF RADAR IN WORLD WAR TWO.
EDISON AND TESLA DISAGREED ON SYSTEMS OF POWER TRANSMISSION. EDISON FAVORED DIRECT CURRENT. THIS WAS SO OBVIOUSLY LIMITED IN RANGE THAT TESLA PUT ALL OF HIS EFFORT INTO THE PROMOTION OF ALTERNATING CURRENT.
GEORGE WESTINGHOUSE, AFTER CAREFULLY EXAMINING THE TESLA SYSTEM, PURCHASED THE PATENTS AT THE UNHEARD OF PRICE OF ONE MILLION DOLLARS PLUS ONE DOLLAR PER HORSEPOWER. THE FIRST MAJOR PROJECT WAS THE WORLDS FAIR IN CHICAGO IN 1893, WHERE AMAZING ELECTRICAL DISPLAYS AND LIGHTING WERE ACHIEVED BY THE TESLA SYSTEM.
ON THE 13TH OF MARCH, 1895, FIRE BROKE OUT IN THE TESLA LABORATORY AND TOTALLY DESTROYED THE EQUIPMENT AS WELL AS TOKENS OF THE WORLDS FAIR TOGETHER WITH ALL OF TESLAS PERSONAL PAPERS. THE LABORATORY WAS OWNED BY THE TESLA ELECTRIC COMPANY ORGANIZED BY TESLA AND PRIVATE INVESTORS.
FOLLOWING THIS LOSS, TESLA FOUND HIMSELF IN FINANCIAL DIFFICULTIES. WESTINGHOUSE HAD EXPANDED HIS COMPANY SO RAPIDLY THAT HE ALSO WAS IN TROUBLE. FINANCIAL INTERESTS THAT HAD STEPPED INTO THE SITUATION DEMANDED THAT THE WESTINGHOUSE COMPANY BE REORGANIZED. THE FINANCIAL ADVISORS ALSO DEMANDED THAT SOME OF THE PLANS AND PROJECTS BE ABANDONED. THIS INCLUDED THE AGREEMENT WITH TESLA FOR ONE DOLLAR PER HORSEPOWER.
WESTINGHOUSE WENT TO TESLA AND EXPLAINED THE SITUATION. TESLA PROMPTLY TORE UP THE AGREEMENT. THIS GESTURE COST TESLA ABOUT TWELVE MILLION DOLLARS WHICH HE COULD HAVE USED IN LATER LIFE. HE DIED PENNILESS IN NEW YORK ON JANUARY 7, 1943.
(Automatic decoding by databorder.com)
Hat tip to Rich Lindsay for the loan of the LP!
A short note about the art: the reverse side of the LP sleeve is blank, which is why you won't see it included in the PDF. Interestingly, though, the sleeve did contain a bit of found material, an ad flyer related to the February 1976 issue of Ham Radio Magazine, and here it is:
Album audio & artwork
DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge,
this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you
are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove
it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or
sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.
