Hi everybody, have fun reading my post!
We all know Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison for their inventions and/or contributions to mankind. But does the name Nikola Tesla ring a bell to you? With his ideas and inventions you may count him at the level of Einstein and Edison. I even consider him the greatest mind of all times after Leonardo da Vinci. However, he never got the recognition which he deserved. One of his inventions had been fiercely depreciated by Edison because it was ‘unsafe’ and later on a big threat to him, the alternate current in electricity, but Edison lost that big battle. Today we can’t think of living our lives without electricity, albeit 110V AC or 220V AC. Alternate Current has been the biggest and most used invention of Tesla, but that was not his only invention.
Picture is courtesy of historyrat
Welcome to the world of Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). Let’s go…
@OriginalWorks
He was born in 1856 in a village called Smiljan (the country is now known as Croatia). After graduating at Realschule (Karlstadt), the Polytechnic Institute in Graz (Austria) and the University of Prague, he finished his studies for Mathematics, Engineering and Physics in 1873. He got a job in telephony where his interest in electricity began. Having done a few inventions, it did not bring him what he was aiming at. Because of lack of finding a satisfying job in Hungary for sometime, he went to Paris in 1881 and worked as an electrical engineer at one of the biggest lighting companies. After some time, the potential of the electrical progress in America attracted his attention and he decided to go for it.
Tesla came to North America in 1884 by an invitation of Edison to work together on Edison’s projects. Because of their personal conflicts and promises that Edison would reward him greatly for his work, which he never did, Tesla went his own way, looking for a way to realise his inventions/ideas. Tesla saved Edison an incredible amount of money and got nothing in return. After overcoming several difficulties Tesla finally succeeded. He founded his company Tesla Electric Company in New York in 1887 to develop his Alternate Current ideas. He realised AC electricity with which he provided the electricity needed for the 1893 World Exposition in Chicago and won the battle between him and Thomas Edison about AC and DC electricity. The following years Edison has tried everything to destroy Tesla in which he partly succeeded as the world saw Tesla as a wacky scientist with outrageous ideas. Edison and his powerfull friends somewhat erased Tesla from the history books, which is a big shame. Nikola Tesla was simply brilliant and way ahead of his time!
Picture is courtesy of historyrat
After having beaten Edison in the “War of the Currents”, Tesla wanted to realise his dream to provide the world free energy by power stations that electrify the world and can be tapped anywhere without wires. To prove that, he needed his project funded, which in 1900 was done by J.P. Morgan with $150,000 (this equals millions of dollars at that time). Tesla built his “Wardenclyffe Tower”, but because of delays in aquiring and developing the needed equipment, J.P. Morgan cut the funds and the project never finished, leaving Tesla with debts. He was never again able to find an investor, because his ideas were controversial and difficult to grasp. Even his student Guglielmo Marconi made fame and left his professor Tesla in the dark. Marconi used 17 of Tesla's patents and claiming that he invented the first radio.
He never got married, because he dedicated his live to mankind! All he wanted is giving his ideas to humanity. Unfortunately, he died a poor and lone man in New York at the age of 83, but his incredible and far-fetched ideas are still waiting for a useful porpose. He managed to file over 800 patents upto 1929, but the total of ideas he descibed untill his death reach a staggering 5000! I will be summing some up below as can be found in his papers and filed patents:
- 1886 - Electric arc lamp
- 1886 - Commutator for dynamo electric machines
- 1886 - Regulator for dynamo electric machines
- 1888 - Electro magnetic motor (Alternate Current)
- 1888 - Diverse electrical systems with coils
- 1888 - Regulator for Alternate Current electric motors
- 1888 - Numerous types of electric motors
- 1889 - Thermo magnetic motor
- 1889 - Method of converting AC to DC
- 1892 - Several devices for transmission of electrical energy
- 1893 - Electric spacecraft
- 1893 - Fluorescent tube
- 1893 - Neon lighting
- 1894 - Electro-dynamic induction lamp
- 1894 - Electro magnet
- 1894 - Several types of electricity generators
- 1894 - Reciprocating engine
- 1896 - Several high frequency current devices
- 1896 - Device for producing ozone ( Some doctors claim that ozone therapy can cure cancer and AIDS! )
- 1896 - Design and realisation of the Niagara Falls powerplant
- 1897 - The Tesla "battery treatment" to clean the skin
- 1898 - Electrical cicuit controller
- 1898 - The first remote controlled model “Telautomaton” boat
- 1900 - Controlling device for vehicles
- 1900 - Radio transmission
- 1901 - Electrical receiver-transmitter device
- 1901 - X-ray tube
- 1907 - The “Tesla-coil”
- 1913 - The “Tesla-turbine”
- 1913 - The “Hydro-motor”
- 1915 - Frequency meter
- 1916 - Speed-indicator
- 1916 - Lightning protection
- 1924 - Centrifugal spacecraft launcher
- 1927 - Helicopter-type vehicle
- 1928 - Vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft
- 1931 - Geothermal-electricity power plant
- 1931 - Hydrothermal-electricity power plant
- 1933 - Device for photographing thought
- 1934 - Death-ray device
Once you find out about this man, you will want to know more!
Here some links to get you warmed up :)
https://www.activistpost.com/2012/01/10-inventions-of-nikola-tesla-that.html
https://www.biography.com/people/nikola-tesla-9504443
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla
https://teslauniverse.com/