Thread: Nikola Tesla
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Old 10th Oct 2017, 11:38 am   #14
G8HQP Dave
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Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Solihull, West Midlands, UK.
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Default Re: Nikola Tesla

Quote:
A good example of suppression in the UK was the fate of the once lauded Professor of Electrical Engineering Eric [magnetic levitation] Laithwaite [also Manchester Uni] who dared to oppose anti-gravity convention-shamefull.
Laithwaite was right on magnetic levitation but completely wrong on anti-gravity. Far from being suppressed, he enthusiastically shared his confusion about gyroscopes with any audience he could find. It was very embarrassing for his colleagues at Imperial College; they knew he was wrong but at first were reluctant to criticise him in public. Eventually one of the physicists decided that enough was enough and gave a public lecture showing the errors in Laithwaite's thinking; I was there. Unfortunately, to fully understand where he was wrong required the use of Langrangian (or Hamiltonian?) mechanics which was not taught to engineering students so Laithwaite might not have understood the rebuttal of his ideas.
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