the greatest hacker of all time.asc

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                                 January 14, 1991

                                    TESLA5.ASC
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                        THE GREATEST HACKER OF ALL TIME
                                 by Dave Small
                (c) 1987 Reprinted from Current Notes magazine.

            The  question  comes  up  from time  to  time.   "Who's  the
       greatest hacker ever?  "Well, there's a lot of different opinions
       on  this.  Some say Steve Wozniak of Apple II fame.   Maybe  Andy
       Hertzfeld  of  the Mac operating system.  Richard  Stallman,  say
       others, of MIT.  Yet at such times when I mention who I think the
       greatest hacker is, everyone agrees (provided they know of  him),
       and there's no further argument. So, let me introduce you to him,
       and  his greatest hack.  I'll warn you right up front  that  it's
       mind  numbing.  By the way, everything I'm going to tell  you  is
       true  and verifiable down at your local library.  Don't worry  --
       we're  not  heading off into a Shirley MacLaine  UFO-land  story.
       Just some classy electrical engineering...

                      THE SCENE: COLORADO SPRINGS, CO.

            Colorado  Springs  is in southern Colorado,  about  70  mile
       south  of Denver.  These days it is known as the home of  several
       optical  disk  research corporations and of  NORAD,  the  missile
       defense  command  under Cheyenne Mountain.  (I  have  a  personal
       interest  in  Colorado  Springs; my wife Sandy  grew  up  there.)
       These  events  took place some time ago in Colorado  Springs.   A
       scientist  had  moved into town and set up a laboratory  on  Hill
       Street,  on  the southern outskirts.  The lab had a  two  hundred
       foot copper antenna sticking up out of it, looking something like
       a  HAM radio enthusiast's antenna. He moved in and started  work.
       And  strange  electrical things happened near that  lab.   People
       would walk near the lab, and sparks would jump up from the ground
       to their feet, through the soles of their shoes.  One boy took  a
       screwdriver,  held it near a fire hydrant, and drew a  four  inch
       electrical  spark from the hydrant.  Sometimes the  grass  around
       his  lab would glow with an eerie blue corona, St.  Elmo's  Fire.
       What  they didn't know was this was small stuff.  The man in  the
       lab was merely tuning up his apparatus.  He was getting ready  to
       run  it  wide  open  in an experiment that  ranks  as  among  the
       greatest,  and most spectacular, of all time. One side effect  of
       his  experiment  was  the  setting of  the  record  for  man-made
       lightning: some 42 meters in length (130 feet).

                                      Page 1





                              THE MAN: NIKOLA TESLA.

       His name was Nikola Tesla.  He was an immigrant from what is  now
       Yugoslavia;  there's a museum of his works in Belgrade.   He's  a
       virtual    unknown   in   the   United   States,   despite    his
       accomplishments.  I'm not sure why.  Some people feel it's a dark
       plot,  the same people who are into conspiracy theories.  I  feel
       it's  more  that Tesla, while a brilliant inventor, was  also  an
       awful  businessman; he ended up going broke.  Businessmen who  go
       broke  fade  out of the public eye; we see this in  the  computer
       industry  all  the time.  Edison, who wasn't  near  the  inventor
       Tesla was, but who was  a better businessman, is well  remembered
       as is his General Electric.  Still, let me list a few of  Tesla's
       works  just so you'll understand how bright he was.  He  invented
       the  AC  motor and transformer.  (Think of every  motor  in  your
       house.)    He  invented  3-phase  electricity   and   popularized
       alternating current, the electrical distribution system used  all
       over the world.  He invented the Tesla Coil, which makes the high
       voltage that drives the picture tube in your computer's CRT.   He
       is now credited with inventing modern radio as well; the  Supreme
       Court overturned Marconi's patent in 1943 in favor of Tesla.

            Tesla,  in short, invented much of the equipment  that  gets
       power  to your home every day from miles away, and many that  use
       that  power  inside  your  home.   His  inventions  made   George
       Westinghouse  (Westinghouse Corp.) a wealthy man.   Finally,  the
       unit of magnetic flux in the metric system is the "tesla".  Other
       units include the "faraday" and the "henry", so you'll understand
       this  is  an honor given to few.  So we're not talking  about  an
       unknown  here,  but  rather a solid  electrical  engineer.  Tesla
       whipped  through  a number of inventions early in his  life.   He
       found  himself  increasingly  interested  in  resonance,  and  in
       particular,  electrical  resonance.  Tesla  found  out  something
       fascinating.  If you set an electrical circuit to resonating,  it
       does  strange things indeed.  Take for instance his  Tesla  Coil.
       This  high  frequency step-up transformer would kick  out  a  few
       hundred  thousand volts at radio frequencies.  The voltage  would
       come  off the top of his coil as a "corona", or brush  discharge.
       The  little  ones put out a six-inch spark; the  big  ones  throw
       sparks  many feet long.  Yet Tesla could draw the sparks  to  his
       fingers  without  being  hurt  --  the  high  frequency  of   the
       electricity keeps it on the surface of the skin, and prevents the
       current  from  doing  any  harm.  Tesla  got  to  thinking  about
       resonance   on  a  large  scale.   He'd  already  pioneered   the
       electrical distribution system we use today, and that's not small
       thinking; when you  think of Tesla, think big. He thought,  let's
       say I send an electrical charge into the ground.  What happens to
       it?   Well, the ground is an excellent conductor of  electricity.

            Let  me  spend  a   moment  on this  so you understand, because
       topsoil  doesn't  seem  very  conductive   to   most.    The  ground
       makes  a wonderful  sinkhole  for electricity.    This  is  why  you
       "ground" power tools;  the  third  (round) pin in every AC outlet in
       your house  is wired straight to, literally, the  ground.

            Typically, the handle of your  power  tool  is hooked to ground
       this way, if something shorts out in the tool and  the  handle  gets
       electrified,the current ruches  to  the  ground instead of into you.
       The ground has  long  been  used  in this manner, as a conductor.

                                      Page 2





            Tesla generates a powerful pulse of electricity, and  drains
       it into the  ground.   Because  the ground is conductive, it doesn't
       stop.  Rather, it spreads out like  a  radio  wave, traveling at the
       speed  of  light, 186,000  miles per second.  And  it  keeps  going,
       because it's  a  powerful  wave;   it doesn't  peter out after a few
       miles.  It passes through the iron  core  of  the earth with  little
       trouble. After all, molten iron is very conductive.  When  the  wave
       reaches the far side of the planet, it bounces back,  like a wave
       in  water  bounces  when  it  reaches  an  obstruction.  Since it
       bounces, it makes  a   return   trip; eventually, it returns to  the
       point of origin.  Now,  this idea  might  seem  wild.  But it  isn't
       science fiction.   We bounced  radar  beams  off  the moon in the
       1950's, and we  mapped Venus by radar in the 1970's.  Those  planets
       are millions  of  miles  away.  The earth is a  mere  3000  miles
       in diameter;  sending  an  electromagnetic  wave  through it is a
       piece of cake.   We   can   sense earthquakes all the way across the
       planet  by  the  vibrations  they  set  up  that  travel all that
       distance.  So, while  at  first   thought  it  seems  amazing,  it's
       really  pretty  straight  forward. But, as I said,  it's  a  typical
       example  of  how  Tesla  thought.   And  then  he  had one of his
       typically Tesla ideas.

            He thought,   when   the  wave returns to me (about 1/30th of a
       second  after  he  sends it in),  it's  going to be  considerably
       weakened by the  trip.  Why  doesn't  he  send  in another charge at
       this point, to strengthen the wave? The two will  combine,  go  out,
       and bounce again.   And   then  he'll reinforce it again, and again.
       The  wave will build up  in power.   It's  like  pushing a swingset.
       You  give a  series of small pushes each time the  swing  goes  out.
       And  you  build up a lot of  power with a series of small pushes;
       ever tried to stop a swing when it's going full tilt?  He  wanted
       to find out  the  upper  limit of resonance.  And  he  was  in for a
       surprise.

                             THE HACK: THE TESLA COIL

       So Tesla moved into Colorado Springs, where one of his generators
       and  electrical systems had been installed, and set up  his  lab.
       Why Colorado Springs?  Well, his lab in New York had burned down,
       and  he was depressed about that.  And as fate would have  it,  a
       friend  in  Colorado  Springs who  directed  the  power  company,
       Leonard  Curtis, offered him free electricity.  Who could  resist
       that? After setting up his lab, he tuned his gigantic Tesla  coil
       through  that year, trying to get it to resonate  perfectly  with
       the  earth  below.   And  the  townspeople  noticed  those  weird
       effects; Tesla was electrifying the ground beneath their feet  on
       the  return  bounce  of the wave. Eventually, he  got  it  tuned,
       keeping things at low power.  But in the spirit of a true hacker,
       just once he decided to run it wide open, just to see what  would
       happen.  Just what was the upper limit of the wave he would build
       up, bouncing back and forth in the planet below? He had his  Coil
       hooked to the ground below it, the 200 foot antenna above it, and
       getting as much electricity as he wanted right off the city power
       supply  mains.  Tesla went outside to watch (wearing  three  inch
       rubber soles for insulation) and had his assistant, Kolman Czito,
       turn  the Coil on. There was a buzz from rows of oil  capacitors,
       and  a roar from the spark gap as wrist-thick arcs jumped  across
       it.   Inside  the  lab the noise was deafening.   But  Tesla  was
       outside,  watching the antenna.  Any surge that returned  to  the

                                      Page 3





       area would run up the antenna and jump off as lightning. Off  the
       top of the antenna shot a six foot lightning bolt.  The bolt kept
       going  in a steady arc, though, unlike a single lightning  flash.
       And  here  Tesla watched carefully, for he wanted to see  if  the
       power  would build up, if his wave theory would work.   Soon  the
       lightning  was  twenty feet long, then fifty.   The  surges  were
       growing more powerful.  Eighty feet -- now thunder was  following
       each lightning bolt.  A hundred feet, a hundred twenty feet;  the
       lightning  shot  upwards  off the  antenna.   Thunder  was  heard
       booming around Tesla now (it was heard 22 miles away, in the town
       of  Cripple Creek).  The meadow Tesla was standing in was lit  up
       with  an  electrical discharge very much like  St.  Elmo's  Fire,
       casting  a blue glow.  His theory had worked!  There didn't  seem
       to  be  an upper limit to the surges; he was  creating  the  most
       powerful  electrical surges ever created by man.  That moment  he
       set the record, which he still holds, for manmade lightning. Then
       everything halted.  The lightning discharges stopped, the thunder
       quit.   He  ran in, found the power company had  turned  off  his
       power  feed.   He  called  them, shouted at  them  --  they  were
       interrupting  his experiment! The foreman replied that Tesla  had
       just  overloaded the generator and set it on fire, his lads  were
       busy putting out the fire in the windings, and it would be a cold
       day  in  hell  before  Tesla got any more  free  power  from  the
       Colorado Springs power company!

         All  the  lights in Colorado Springs had gone  out.  And  that,
       readers,  is to me the greatest hack in history.  I've seen  some
       amazing  hacks.   The  8-bit Atari OS.  The Mac  OS.   The  phone
       company  computers  -- well, lots of computers.  But  I've  never
       seen  anyone  set the world's lightning record and shut  off  the
       power  to an entire town, "just to see what would happen". For  a