Nikola Tesla

“ It is characteristic of fundamental discoveries, of great achievements of intellect, that they retain an undiminished power upon the imagination of the thinker. The memorable experiment of Faraday with a disc rotating between the two poles of a magnet, which has borne such magnificent fruit, has long passed into every-day experience ”

“ In addition to its peculiarity of giving currents of one direction without the employment of commutating devices, such a machine differs from ordinary dynamos in that there is no reaction between armature and field. The armature current tends to set up a magnetization at right angles to that of the field current, but since the current is taken off uniformly from all points of the periphery, and since, to he exalt, the external circuit may also be arranged perfectly symmetrical to the field magnet, no reaction can occur. ”

“ For very low speeds of rotation of the field the motor would show a torque of 900 lbs. or more, measured on a, pulley 12 inches in diameter. When the speed of rotation of the poles was increased, the torque would diminish, would finally go down to zero, become negative, and then the armature would begin to rotate in opposite direction to the field-To return to the principal subject; assume the conditions to be such that the eddy currents generated by the rotation of the disc strengthen the field, and suppose the latter gradually removed while the disc is kept rotating at an increased rate. ”