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Tesla expert looks to keep inventor's legacy current: Q&A: Walter Zaczek(Buffalo News, The (NY) (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 11--NIAGARA FALLS -- A State Parks employee for 40 years, Walter Zaczek was born in Niagara Falls, graduated from Niagara Falls High School and got a bachelor's degree in biology at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. He put in two years with the Marine Corps in Okinawa, Japan. He has a 15-year-old son, Adam, and lives in Lewiston. Zaczek is an authority on Nikola Tesla, the genius inventor whose theory of alternating electrical current turned Niagara Falls from a limited power source in 1895 into the mighty powerhouse that exists today. Zaczek will talk about Tesla on a TV show, "Modern Marvels: Mad Electricity," which airs at 8 p. m. Wednesday on the History Channel. Niagara Weekend got two stories for one when it interviewed Zaczek in his State Parks office last week. In the summer of 2005, Zaczek and his son came up with a plan to ride their bicycles around each of the Great Lakes. "I was pushing 57 at the time, and it seemed quite a challenge," said Zaczek, "but every time someone said we couldn't do it, we became more determined." They've completed trips around Lake Ontario (614 miles in a week) and Lake Erie (735 miles, also in a week) and got partway around Lake Huron last year. They plan to set out again in August to complete the circumference of Lake Huron and then ride around Lake Michigan. Lake Superior is the last one on their agenda. That trip will take about two weeks. As fascinating as this story was, Niagara Weekend got back to Nikola Tesla. How did you get the gig for the History Channel show? For about 10 years, I was an environmental interpreter for the Schoellkopf Geological Museum, giving talks on hydropower in schools across Western New York. I was a kid in Gaskill Middle School when they built the Niagara Power Project, and it's always been an interest of mine. The producers made a few phone calls, and it all pointed in my direction. Where did they interview you for the show? At Prospect Point, with the falls all around us. It was a miserable day. We were standing out in the snow for about an hour and a half. How did Tesla end up in Niagara Falls? It's more like he started there. Tesla was a visionary. Ever since he was child in Croatia, he had the idea of harnessing the power of Niagara Falls. He lived with an uncle in the woods, where he developed an appreciation of nature and the environment. When he came to New York in 1884 and applied his alternating-current theory to hydropower, he gave his word to Frederick Law Olmsted that he would not ruin the integrity of Niagara Falls State Park. Where did he get the money to go ahead with the hydropower project? He teamed up with George Westinghouse at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. The Niagara Power Company had an exhibit at the World's Fair. There was electricity at that time, but it was direct current that could be transmitted only about two miles. The power company wanted to transport the electricity they produced in Niagara Falls to Buffalo. At the World's Fair, people's thinking swung from direct to alternating current. As a result, the Niagara Power Company built the first hydroelectric power plant in 1895. Tesla must have received a lot of recognition from that. He wasn't even there for the opening. He had written a speech for the occasion about the possibility of transporting electricity without wires and telephone poles. The master of ceremonies knew this in advance and cut Tesla and his speech from the program because there were people in the audience who put up the poles and the wires, and the last thing they wanted to hear was that poles and wires wouldn't be needed in the future. He wasn't popular with everyone then? His biggest enemy was Thomas Edison, who invented the light bulb. Edison stood behind direct current and saw alternating current as competition. Tesla said Edison's direct current, which flows continuously in one direction, was inefficient, while his alternating current could send electrical energy along distribution lines, first one way, then the other way. You know a lot more about Tesla than just his Niagara Falls connection. He's fascinating to me. I've read 10 books on this guy. My idea was to find out what he was really like. He was a pure scientist. There are reports of up to 900 patents on different inventions. In my research, I found 112 U. S. patents, including fluorescent lights, laser beams, radar, microwaves, remote- control devices and vertical takeoff aircraft. Not many people know that, I bet. If I asked you who invented the radio, what would your answer be? Marconi. That was the answer given on Jeopardy some years ago. I was at home watching the show, and I knew I had to challenge it. I wrote to Alex Trebek and told him Tesla invented the radio. Tesla had the patent, and Marconi used Tesla's idea to send the first signal. In 1943, a few months after Tesla died, the U. S. Supreme Court acknowledged Tesla's invention and upheld his radio patent. It's a shame Tesla never knew that. Many of his inventions didn't go anywhere because he couldn't get the financial backing. His genius was widely acknowledged, and he had friends like Mark Twain and other public figures. He was on the cover of Time magazine when he was 75. He never married and for many years lived in the Waldorf- Astoria in New York City. But he ran out of money and was kicked out of the Waldorf. What did they know. Exactly. He moved into the Hotel New Yorker for the next 10 years, lived in Room 3327 on the 33rd floor. Tesla had a thing about the number three. Everything he did or was associated with had a three or a combination of threes in it. In the end -- Jan. 7, 1943 -- he died in that room, penniless at the age of 86. But he lives on -- on the History Channel anyway. In more ways than that. Many of his inventions that never got off the ground are with us today, from satellites to X-rays. The current issue of Automobile magazine features a new electric sports car called -- you guessed it -- the Tesla. [email protected] To see more of The Buffalo News, N.Y., or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.buffalonews.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Buffalo News, N.Y. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. 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