The Art of War, by Sun Tzu ©1963 Oxford University Press -- From this ancient Chinese classic written more than 2,000 years ago comes the oft quoted phrase "Know thy enemy; know thy self".
Samuel Griffith, in his Introduction, points out:
"The corrosive influence of this new class [circa 300 BC. -- of politicos and professional talkers of interminable discussions and confusing diversity]... was of the first importance. The wandering scholars were bound by no lasting loyalties, were attached by no sentiment of patriotism to the states they served and were not restricted by any feeling of treachery. Frequently they secretly served two princes at once, playing off the policy of the one against the other. Moving from kingdom to kingdom, always with some eloquent and intricate scheme to propose, they fought the particularism of the old feudal aristocracy, and envisaged plans to reduce the whole empire to the obedience of the sovereign they served. This was the bait they held out to their temporary masters; it was no longer hegemony, but empire, which had become the aim of state policy.
"The desires of these princes were identical with those of whom Plutarch wrote that they merely made use of the words peace and war 'like current coin to serve their occasions as expediency suggested.'" Griffith (p 25)
Little wonder The Art of War became required reading not only for militaries throughout the world but also corporate America and Japan during the 1980s as well as football coaches and other sports strategists.
Excerpts:
"Elements of the new armies, capable of co-ordinated movement in accordance with detailed plans, were responsive to systematic signals. The science (or art) of tactics was born. The enemy, engaged by the cheng (orthodox) force, was defeated by the ch'i (unorthodox, unique, rare, wonderful) force, or forces; the normal pattern was a holding or fixing effort by the cheng while ch'i groups attacked the deep flanks and rear. Distraction assumed great importance and the enemy's communications became the primary target." Griffith (pg 34)
"All warfare is based on deception. A skilled general must be master of the complementary arts of simulation and dissimulation; while creating shapes to confuse and delude the enemy he conceals his true dispositions and ultimate intent." Griffith (pg 41)
"The same factors determine the 'shape' of the opposing armies. The prudent commander bases his plans on his antagonist's 'shape'. 'Shape him!' Continuously concerned with observing and probing his opponent, the wise general at the same time takes every possible measure designed to prevent the enemy from 'shaping' him." Griffith (pg 42)
Sun Tzu writes regarding the character of a successful general (or leader) ... from Chapter XI:
"It is the business of a general to be serene and inscrutable, impartial and self-controlled."
"He should be capable of keeping his officers and men in ignorance of his plans."
"He prohibits superstitious practices and so rids the army of doubts."
"He changes his methods and alters his plans so that people have no knowledge of what he is doing."
"He alters his camp-sites and marches by devious routes, and thus makes it impossible for others to anticipate his purpose."
"To assemble the army and throw it into a desperate position is the business of the general." [personally, I hate when that happens!]
"He leads the army deep into hostile territory and there releases the trigger."
"He burns his boats and smashes his cooking pots; he urges the army on as if driving a flock of sheep, now in one direction, now in another, and none knows where he is going."
Griffith (pg 136-137)
Wu Chi says: "What is called discipline is that when encamped their conduct is proper; that when on the move the army is awe-inspiring, so that in advance it cannot be opposed, in retirement it cannot be pursued. In advance or retirement it is in good order, both right and left wings respond to the signals given by banners. Though cut off they can reform; though dispersed they retain their files. Whether the position is secure or perilous the troops can be assembled and cannot be isolated. They can be used and and not wearied. They can be thrown in any direction and none under Heaven can oppose them." Griffith (pg 159)
Wu Chi: "If [the army] remains long in one place without moving, the generals and officers become indolent and remiss and his army will not be prepared, and you can approach secretly and strike him."
In determining the qualities of a good general:
"Order bravos in command of some elite troops to try him out. Their sole purpose is to flee, not to gain anything but to observe how the enemy reacts. If his actions are in unison and his discipline good, and when he pursues and pretends to be unable to catch up, when he sees an advantage but pretends to be unaware of it, then the general is wise and you should not engage him."
"But if the enemy host is clamorous and bawling, its flags and banners confused and disorderly, the troops running and stopping without orders, their weapons held sometimes one way, sometimes another; when in pursuit of the fleeing they are unable to catch up, when they see an advantage but are unable to take it, then the general is stupid and you can capture him." Moran (pg 163)
"Therefore I say: 'Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never be in peril. When you are ignorant of the enemy but know yourself, your chances of winning or losing are equal. If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril."
-- Sun Tzu
In the Hands of Providence, Alice Rains Trulock ©1992 University of North Carolina Press -- What is the cost of freedom? Peace at any price? Each of us must decide.
It has been said that "Something not worth dying for, is probably not worth living for". And though we live at a different time, there is something breathless and attractive when you meet those who would for $13.00 a month willingly give their lives... that all men might be free. Now days, such men and women would be called foolish. A simple fact, I do not recall meeting anyone... save one person... who has consistently impressed me as willing to sacrifice his life no matter the cost. Perhaps courage and grace are unnecessary virtues now days. Certainly they are no longer popular. But if you care to discover tremendous character under severe pressure emerging in triumph... then meet one of the great American Civil War heroes, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain.
Of Brevet Major General Chamberlain, Trulock writes:
"Chamberlain, as a boy, grew up in the atmosphere of school lessons and farm chores. Clearing fields, plowing, mowing hay, chopping wood, howing, weeding -- the work on the hundred-acre farm seemed endless. When he was fourteen, Lawrence attended a nearby military school for a while where French was a compulsory subject; it began a study of languages that would have him master nine besides English in only a few years.
"His father... not demonstrative or playful with his children, when he told them to do something, he meant it, even if the task at hand seemed impossible to accomplish. When Lawrence and his brothers told their Father they could not move a particularly heavy rock from a field they were clearing, his only reply was "Move it!" They did just that...
"At one haying time... pitching hay and driving the wagon... one of the front wheels got wedged between two large stumps when the wagon crossed a brook, and the back wheels sank into the sand under the load. "Clear that wheel!" the older man ordered from across the stream. "How am I going to do it?" the boy called, thinking his father could not see the entire situation. "Do it, that's how!" was the stern rejoinder. And, to his amazement, he did!" Turlock (pg 32-33)
"Chamberlain considered attending West Point... but rejected the idea; a peace-time military career had no attraction for him. Enrolling in Bangor Theological Seminary, he began his usual heavy schedule of studies... made harder by his own decision to read his theology in german and Latin, two languages in which he thought he needed practice. Another requirement was the Hebrew language, which fascinated him, especially its structure; the language's "primeval conception of time," expressed in its tenses, opened new ways of thinking for him. "For the past resolved upon becomes the future, and the present but a flash, for while you speak it the future becomes the past," he explained it. With an eye toward possible missionary assignments in what was then considerered the Orient, he also mastered "Arabic and Syriac". He played organ at his own church in Brewer, Maine... and was appointed supervisor of schools where his teaching experience during vacations included teaching the generally difficult "grown up sailor boys and mill men" in the area.
An expert judge of timber, on journeys north into Canada.... an interpreter of French. Chamberlain snowshoed hundred of miles... fished with Indians, studied, preached, courted, married and fathered two children." Turlock (pg 48 - 51)
By his late 20's, Chamberlain, a professor of modern languages, secured a teaching position at Bowdoin College. But with the rapid change of events in the Country, he refused his two year expense paid study tour of Europe in exchange for enlisting in a menacing War intended to divide a People. The 34 year old, distinguished linguist was about to become one of the most respected and decorated American heroes. He wrote:
"We know not of the future, and cannot plan for it much. But ... we may cherish such thoughts and such ideals, and dream such dreams of lofty purpose, that we can determine and know what manner of men we will be whenever and wherever the hour strikes that calls to noble action.... No man becomes suddenly different from his habit and cherished thought."
It was the soldiers, many who were students of their revered Profession, soldiers of the Twentieth Maine, led by a man of immense intellect, vision, and character that would distinguish themselves in numerous confligrations of battle.
It was at the horror of Fredericksburg,
"the Mainers waded through two feet of icy water in a ditch or millrace twenty feet wide that ran the width of the city; then a high board fence around which minie balls whistled confronted the right wing, separating it from the rest of the regiment. Ordered to take the fence down, the men hesitated, apprehensive in the midst of their first battle. Ignoring the bullets buzzing near him like angry bees, Chamberlain immediately sprange forward and began to pull the barrier apart, calling, "Do you want me to do it?" to his hesitant men. Following their lieutenant colonel's example, the men suddenly rushed the fence, and it disappeared quickly from the work of many willing hands." Turlock (pg 95)
At Gettysburg, the Twentieth Maine was ordered to Little Round Top and "hold that ground at all hazards". Little Round Top was the highest point, the vantage point of the Gettysburg battlefield.
"Chamberlain understood these orders well. The position must be held then, at all costs. The Confederates, too, had seen the importance of Little Round Top and rushed to gain the advantage. But they arrive a few minutes too late -- the timely actions... had caused the strategic hill to be seized by the Federals just in time....
"At the colors, which marked the new center, the line now curved to the rear, the left wing bent back at nearly a right angle to the original line.... Chamberlain marveled at this performance of his regiment in this crisis.... the long study, discipline, and training of the colonel and his troops, together with their indomitable resolution and character, were paying handsome rewards. "The edge of the fight rolled backward and forward like a wave," Chamberlain described the terrible action, as the furious battle went on for long over an hour, probably two.
Chamberlain: "The two lines met and broke and mingled in the shock. The crush of musketry gave way to cuts and thrusts, grapplings and wrestlings.... At times I saw around me more of the enemy than of my own men; gaps opening, swallowing, closing again with sharp convulsive energy; squads of stalwart men who had cut their way through us, disappearing as if translated. All around, strange mingled roar -- shouts of defiance, rally, and desperation; and underneath, murmured entreaty and stifled moans; gasping prayers, snatches of Sabbath song, whispers of loved names; everywhere men torn and broken, staggering, creeping, quivering on the earth, and dead faces with strangely fixed eyes staring stark into the sky. Things which cannot be told -- nor dreamed. How men held on, each one knows, -- not I. But manhood commands admiration."
"The twenty-five-year-old color sergeant, Andrew J. Tozier, had transferred into the regiment from the old Second Maine and was a seasoned veteran. His duty was to move the flag when ordered and protect the regimental colors with his life, but as he picked up a musket from one of his fallen comrades he showed his determination that neither the colors nor his life would be given up easily.
"Chamberlain peered through the battle smoke toward his center. Suddenly, he saw Tozier standing alone, the smoke curling around his tall frame, his guards unseen in the darkened air and drifting haze. The former farm boy had planted the colors beside him and had them resting inside the curve of his left arm as he rammed a cartridge into his borrowed musket.... the center was in deadly peril.
"Another Rebel assault.... "Hold that ground at all hazards."
"Then a crash of musketry from the rear. Chamberlain feared they were now surrounded. Only a "desperate chance was left" to hold Little Round Top. He quickly gave the necessary orders. "Bayonet!" Chamberlain shouted. "Forward...."
"The rest of his command was unheard as the cry "Bayonet!" went up and down the line, and the clash of bayonets being fixed to muskets sounded in the charged air. Then the word changed into a roar, and a wild yell rose in the regiment, wrung in desperation from two hundred throats. The colors started to move forward, Chamberlain abreast with their bearer, his sword clenched in his right hand. Slowly now... then brandishing swords... "Come on, ... come on, boys!" rushing out of the rocks like virtual dervishes upon the astonished Confederates.
"The sudden sight of the two hundred hoarsely screaming men surging down the slope with their sharply pointed bayonets of cold steel was enough to strike terror in the hearts of the most courageous of men, and the Confederates in the first line were no exception.... Reinvigorated and excited, the other Union lines swept up the battlefield and declared they were "on to Richmond." Turlock (pg 133-149)
"After sunset one day when the when Chamberlain was the general office of outposts, he set out along the Chickahominy inspecting his picket line.... Crossing a pool by a handy log, Chamberlain froze when he heard a noise on his right. Men of a Rebel picket reserve of twenty to thirty soldiers a short distance away had seen him and were making excited gestures in his direction.
"Fortunately he was wearing a faded old coat that appeared a nearly neutral color in the gathering dusk and had buttoned it high, which gave him an air of extra dignity. He could hear the voices of the Confederates speculating that he was one of their own officers making his rounds. Straightening up to his full height, he called, "Never mind the guard, its after sunset!" Placing his sword under his arm, he saluted smartly and then turned his back and rode away, expecting a bullet every second before reaching the safety of some trees." Turlock (pg 194-195)
The Battle of Petersburg, Virginia -- His charge needed to move and move quickly.
"The onrushing troops needed to oblique to the left, but commands were impossible to hear above the din of battle. Out in front of all his men now, Chamberlain half turned toward his line, motioning with his saber to the left.... but just then a ricocheting minie ball hit their brigade commander with a staggering blow. The soft lead bullet entered below Chamberlain's right hip and went through his body, expanding and tearing as it traveled diagonally to his other side at the left hip before stopping near the surface.... Instantly realizing that if his men saw him go down they might falter, he would not give up, because he knew that soldiers would follow an officer who displayed personal bravery.... The expressions on the men's faces as they leaned into the battle wind were impressed forever into his memory.
"Men had gone down like scythe-swept grain," he remembered later. As men reached Chamberlain's side, he told them to leave him be. He said they should take others who were less seriously hurt. "You are not in command, sir," one artilleryman replied..."
...with orders to carry Chamberlain safely from the battle field to bivouac. Turlock (pg 209)
The Passing of the Armies -- Several times distinguish in battle... When accolades were written later, few exceeded those given the Maine professor turned soldier. One from ordinary soldiers particularly recalled the momentous last twelve days of the Appomattox campaign, from the Quaker Road to the surrender: "The chances that came to General Chamberlain during this campaign... came to one of conceded high soldierly abilities, whose unswerving sense of honor and justice impelled him to the exercise of those abilities fully and fairly, no matter what the duty, what the danger, what the fatigue.... If any one in the Fifth Army Corps maintained a spotless name and won enduring fame during the operations of that corps... that one was Joshua L. Chamberlain."
To formulate and facilitate the details of the surrender agreements, Chamberlain was called to Union headquarters and told... that he had been chosen by General Grant to command the surrender ceremonies of the infantry of the Army of Northern Virginia. Grant wanted a simple ceremony, one that would not "humiliate the manhood" of the officers and men of the vanquished army.
Chamberlain: "What was surrendered? Whatever was surrendered and laid down, it was not manhood, and not honor.... when they gave their parole of honor never again to assail the authority of the United States, they did not take it to mean that they were to keep the peace till they could get another chance to fight.... There was indeed another thing surrendered, though not included in the terms of the surrender, nor yet plainly set forth in the issue that was joined, but something that was an ally and accessory of secession, and so went down with it by the force of the situation, as a military necessity, or rather by a certain divine ordering and ordinance -- slavery. Slavery and freedom cannot live together. Had slavery been kept out of the fight, the Union would have gone down. But the enemies of the country were so misguided as to rest their cause upon it, and that was the destruction of it and of them. We did not go into that fight to strike at slavery directly; we were not thinking to solve that problem, but God, in His providence, in His justice, in his mercy, in His great covenant with our fathers, set slavery in the forefront, and it was swept aside as with a whirlwind, when the mighty pageant of the people passed on to its triumph." Turlock (pg 299-303)
From the great battlefields of the Civil War, Chamberlain, having already accomplished more in his 38 years than most in a life twice his age... returned to govern the State of Maine, and later to preside over Bowdoin College.
Chamberlain, the educator led his generation. Even for those of his time who had misgivings about the effect of scientific advances on religious belief, Chamberlain's words rang with authority. And his voice still rings clear, today.
Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain: I do not fear these men of science, for after all they are following in God's ways, and whether they see him now or not, these lines will surely lead to him at the end. Sooner or later, if not now, they will see and confess that these laws along whose line they are following, are no force, are not principles. They are only methods. And those powers which they so triumphantly hold are not primal but transmitted powers; not creating but only reproducing.... I would say that Laws are God's ways seen by men, while Principles are God's thoughts to Himself.... Now the knowledge of these Laws I would call Science, and the apprehension of Principles I would call Philosophy, and our men of science may be quite right in their science and altogether wrong in their philosophy.... So I do not fear the advance of science... for I know that all true working and real discovery... can rest in no other theory than truth, and no other goal than God.
So now I say this is a good age, and we need not quarrel with it. We must understand it, if we can. At least we must do our work in it. We must have the spirit of reverence and faith, we must balance the mind and heart with God's higher revelations, but we must also take hold of this we call science, and which makes knowledge power. Turlock (pg 343-344)
Joshua Chamberlain Bibliography III
Unofficial Joshua L. Chamberlain Homepage
Officer Profile: J.L. Chamberlain, USA
The Demonologist, Gerald Brittle ©1991 St. Martin's Paperbacks, Brittle's true story of Ed and Lorraine Warren, the world-famous exorcism team... will be difficult to locate but worth the effort.
The Warrens are perhaps best known for being the couple who dealt with the now infamous 28-day incident back in the mid-1970s to be known as: the Amityville horror. By the way, the George Lutz family (previous owners of the home in Amityville) left all their belongings, all their worldly goods, and all the money invested in their "dream home" and in March, 1976 moved to San Diego, California.
Excerpt from The Demonologist:
"It was October, 1972. The executive officer at the United States Military Academy telephoned the Warrens a day before they were scheduled to present a general lecture to the cadets there. Though the officer's comments were deliberately vague, he nonetheless told the Warrens that a curious security problem had arisen, and he wanted to know if they'd be willing to help -- in a professional capacity -- before they lectured the next day at the Point. Without probing, the Warrens agreed to lend assistance. 'Good,' the relieved officer said, "I'll send a car for you tomorrow at three P.M.'
"The following afternoon a shiny black limousine bearing the government plates pulled up outside the Warrens' front door. Ed and Lorraine, dressed in evening clothes for the lecture, slid into the roomy back seat. The chauffeur, an Army staff sergeant, told them the drive would take about one hour, but volunteered no other information.
"Moving north along the Taconic Parkway through occasional snow showers, the limousine nevertheless kept up a steady pace of sixty miles per hour. Travelers along the highway peered into the car while the Warrens wondered what kind of 'security matter' had led the government to call them in.
"A little past four P.M., they entered the gates of the United States Military Academy. The sergeant pulled the car up to the entrance of the headquarters offices, swung open the rear door, and escorted the Warrens to the Executive Officer of West Point.
"Major Donald Dolling, an orderly, good-natured man, offered Ed and Lorraine a seat in his office. He then briefed them on an already prepared schedule: dinner with the officers of the faculty at six, followed by a general lecture to all classes at eight.
" 'One more thing...' For the next few minutes, Major Bolling went on to explain how an unaccountable breach of security was occurring in the home of West Point's Superintendent -- the commanding general. Naturally, the military police had already been over the problem, but to no avail, he conceded. Matters had only gotten worse. Therefore, it had been decided to get an outside opinion on a problem that appeared to have no natural explanation. 'So if there's no objection, the Superintendent would like to speak with you before dinner.'
" 'We'll be glad to help,' Ed replied. 'Do you know the nature of the problem?'
" 'Between us...' the major almost broke into a grin, 'there's a..." Brittle (pg 23 - 25)
This book and several others chronicling the experiences of Ed and Lorraine Warren serve as a good foundation to begin intelligently probing and addressing this unusual subject.
The Devil in Connecticut, also by G. Brittle details the Warren's involvement in a case leading to a murder in Brookfield, Connecticut and resulting in a late November, 1981 jury trial which made headlines across America. Until that date... it was the only case in which somebody (in this case, Arne Johnson) accused of knifing a friend to death ended in his defense of NOT GUILTY by reason of demonic possession. Arne Johnson will complete his sentence in 2001.
For more information about these New Englanders -- Ed and Lorraine Warren -- please visit their web-site.
The Omega Project , Kenneth Ring, Ph.D., ©1992 William Morrow and Company -- a research project funded by the University of Connecticut Research Foundation (another New England organization). Dr. Ring is a professor of Psychiatry at U of C. Subtitle: Near-Death Experiences, UFO Encounters, and Mind at Large.
In the Foreword, Whitley Strieber writes:
"Such things as near-death experiences and alien abductions exist now because this is a desperate time. The culture has failed, and we know it, and we are desperate to somehow survive the consequences of the failure. Rome of the third century was a wide and prosperous empire, believed by its rulers to be eternal and unassailable. But portents were everywhere, the common people lived in constant expectation of the end of the world, and a story was passing from slave to slave that the son of a carpenter had usurped the emperor's claim to divinity.
"A hundred years later the empire was dying, and the whole spirit of the world had forever changed. The civilization we are living in now will be similarly transformed in a hundred years.
"There is a sense of hurry now, as if the leaves are racing before the wind. The old world is so impossibly huge, so tremendously poisonous, so bankrupt of ideas, and so strained by its own rigidities that there is virtually no chance that it will continue as it is now. The market economy will fail, deeply, profoundly, and utterly, and do so in the dual context of environmental disruptions brought on by its own excesses and a sweeping failure of interest in its products, the life it offers, and its outcomes.
"...I am full of anxiety. But I am also privy to great and enduring wonders. Instead of darkness, I see mystery without and within. My world is far more richly alive than the world of my friends who have been so unfortunate as to miss my experience.... Where are we going? Kafka, appropriately, said it most clearly: "Away from here."
"We are leaving, all of us, on a journey into the ..." Ring (pg 20-21)
Dr. Ring suggests:
"When such persons undergo the trauma or shock of either a near-death incident or one involving a UFO, they are more likely than others, because of their history of familiarity with these nonordinary realities, spontaneously to "flip" into that state of consciousness, which, like a special lens, affords a glimpse of these remarkable occurrences. As a result, they are likely to "see" and register what other persons may remain oblivious to.
"What I am suggesting, then, is that these individuals are what we might call 'psychological sensitives' with low stress thresholds, and that it is their traumatic childhoods that have helped to make them so. From my own personal point of view, however, these UFOErs and NDErs are actually the unwitting beneficiaries of a kind of compensatory gift in return for the wounds they have incurred in growing up. That is, through the exigencies of their difficult and in some cases even tormented childhoods, they also come to develop an extended range of human perception beyond normally recognized limits. Thus, they may experience directly what the rest of us with unexceptional childhoods may only wonder at. Ring (pg 146)
One of many interesting sections of Dr. Ring's book (p. 156-163) details responses to a 'Psychophysical Changes Inventory'(PSI) given to NDErs and UFOErs in which a significant number of respondents describe an increased electrical sensitivity. Dr. Ring states that in his own previous research on NDEs, he had...
"...heard quite a few experiencers, complain about such things as causing electric lights inexplicably to blow, having persisting problems with their computers, wristwatches failing to work properly, and so on. And he is aware that other prominent University researchers are aware of the same condition... as if some folk just scramble the electrical signals [making] life very difficult, with visual display screens going haywire, telephones crackling with static and electrical appliances burning out far too often." Ring (pg 157)
One final point, Dr. Ring emphatically states that
"...First of all, in dealing with the things of the imaginal realm, I must emphasize that we are not talking about the stuff of fantasy or even of "imagination," as these terms are generally use today. Specifically, we are not concerned here with fictive matters or with what is "made up" through creative invention. Instead, the imaginal realm refers to a 'third kingdom', access to which is dependent neither on sensory perception nor on normal waking cognition (including fantasy). Because it lies hidden from common view, it can usually be apprehended only in what we now call certain altered states of consciousness that have the effect of undermining ordinary perception and conceptual thinking. When these are sufficiently disturbed, the imaginal realm, like the starry night sky that can be discerned only when sunlight is absent, stands revealed." Ring (pg 220)
Prodigal Genius, The life of Nikola Tesla, by John J. O'Neill, ©1978 ANGRIFF Publications
Nikola Tesla, a preacher's kid, and a contemporary and rival of Thomas Edison, was an electrical inventor extraordinary. Among his many amazing discoveries, Tesla, in spite of Edison's DC (direct current) position (the chief position of Edison's own "General Electric Company"), developed the AC (alternating current) distribution of electricity (for "Westinghouse Electric Company") which is the distribution system used in the World today. Hundreds of millions of dollars were at stake.
"When our spinning earth was so transformed into a terrestrial Leyden jar, it could be alternately charged and discharged, so that a current would flow both in the upper air and in the ground, producing the electrical flow which would cause the upper air to become self-luminous. Tesla... never became quite so specific in applying the condenser plan to this problem as the preceding sentence indicates. His plan may still exist in his papers, which, at the present writing, are sealed against inspection except by Government officials." O'Neill (pg 146)
"Tesla.... in one lecture reporting his investigations covering a period of two years, offered to the world -- in addition to his new electric vacuum lamps, his highly efficient incandescent lamp, and his high-frequency and high-potential currents and apparatus -- at least five outstanding scientific discoveries:1. Cosmic rays; 2. Artificial radioactivity; 3. Disintegrating beam of electrified particles, or atom smasher; 4. Electron microscope; and, 5. "Very special radiation" (X-rays).
"At least four of these innovations, when "rediscovered" up to forty years later, won Nobel Prizes for others; and Tesla's name is never mentioned in connection with them." O'Neill (pg 154)
"In 1896 while his fame was still on the ascendant he planned a nice quiet little vibration experiment in his Houston Street laboratory [ New York City]. Since he had moved into these quarters in 1895, the place had established a reputation for itself because of the peculiar noises and lights that emanated from it at all hours of the day and night, and because it was constantly being visited by the most famous people in the country.
"The quiet little vibration experiment produced an earthquake, a real earthquake in which people and buildings and everything in them got a more tremendous shaking than they did in any of the natural earthquakes that have visited the metropolis. In an area of a dozen square city blocks, occupied by hundreds of buildings housing tens of thousands of persons, there was a sudden roaring and shaking, shattering of panes of glass, breaking of steam, gas and water pipes. Pandemonium reigned as small objects danced around rooms, plaster descended from walls and ceilings, and pieces of machinery weighing tons were moved from their bolted anchorages and shifted to awkward spots in factory lofts.
"It was all cause, quite unexpectedly, by a little piece of apparatus you could slip in your pocket, "said Tesla. O'Neill (pg 155-156)
"Samuel Clemens, better known to the public as "Mark Twain", and Tesla were close friends. Clemens was a frequent visitor to the Tesla laboratory. Tesla had been playing with his vibratory mechanism for some time, and had learned a good deal about the results that followed from varying doses of vibration, when one evening Clemens dropped in.
"Clemens, on learning abou the new mechanism, wanted to experience its vitalizing vibrations. He stood on the platform while the oscillator set it into operation. He was thrilled by the new experience. He was full of adjectives. "This gives you vigor and vitality, " he exclaimed. After he had been on the platform for a while Tesla advised him: "You have had enough, Mr. Clemems. You had better come down now."
"Not by a jugful," replied Clemens. "I am enjoying myself."
"But you had better come down, Mr. Clemens. It is best that you do so, " insisted Tesla.
"You couldn't get me off this with a derrick," laughed Clemens.
"Remember, I am advising you, Mr. Clemens."
"I'm having the time of my life. I'm going to stay right up here and enjoy myself. Look here, Tesla, you don't appreciate what a wonderful device you have here to give a lift to tired humanity...." Clemens continued along this line for several minutes. Suddenly, he stopped talking, bit his lower lip, straightened his body and stalked stiffly but suddenly from the platform.
"Quick, Tesla! Where is it?" snapped Clemens, half begging, half demanding.
"Right over there, through that little door in the corner, " said Tesla. "And remember, Clemens, I advised you to come down some time ago," he called after the rapidly moving figure.
"The laxative effect of the mechanical vibrator was an old story to the members of the laboratory staff." O'Neill (pg 157-158)
"The resentments and antagonisms engendered by the unvarying series of successful [United States Circuit Court] decisions caused individuals who were adversely affected to vent their antagonisms on Tesla although he had not in ten years held any personal interest n the patents.
"The situation that develope is well described by B. A. Behrend, later vice-president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers:
* 'It is a perculiar trait of ignorant men to go always from one extreme to another, and those who were once the blind admirers of Mr. Tesla, exalting him to an extent which can be likened only to the infatuated praise bestowed on victims of popular admiration, are now eagerly engaged in his derision. there is something deeply melancholy in the prospect, and I can never think of Nikola Tesla without warming up to my subject and condemning the injustice and ingratitude which he has received alike at the hands of the public and of the engineering profession.'
* Western Electrician, Sept., 1907
O'Neill (pg 116-117)
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