Last Saturday I visited the Museum of Technology in Thessaloniki (ΝΟΗΣΙΣ). It hosted a temporary exhibition on the life and work of a remarkably bright mind, Nikola Tesla. A man who dedicated himself to his science and pursued his ideas instead of recognition and wealth. The exhibits come from the Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

His life in short:

Nikola was born in 1856 in a place that is now in modern Croatia to Serbian parents. He was a very active and naughty child. His father was a priest, whereas his mother had an admirable creativity and is said to have made various inventions in order to make her everyday life and chores easier. Nikola was probably affected by his mother example.

His father, though, had different plans about his son; being a priest himself he saw young Nikola as a future priest too. But fortunate in his own bad luck, Nikola got down with cholera. His condition was so critical that his father promised him that if he was to make it alive, Nikola would be allowed to pursue whatever career he wished. It is said that Tesla recovered because "God wanted him to offer his intelligence in the service of humanity".

He studied in the Technical University in Austria and continued later in Prague. His first great achievement was to develop the telephone system in Budapest in 1881. In 1884 he went to America and worked for Edison (yes, the famous light bulb inventor Edison). Four years later, things don't work out for Tesla and Edison (the former being above money and profit and the latter being a cruel businessman). So, Nikola leaves to work with George Westinghouse.

Tesla and Westinghouse work on the spread of AC current, whereas their rival, Edison, has based his whole monopoly an DC current, declaring how dangerous alternating current is. Direct current had several drawbacks like being the cause of house fires and having very short maximum range; so in order to distribute it numerous substations and wiring would be required. Alternate current, on the other hand, could "travel" a lot further and light bulbs brighter.

After lighting up Chicago World's Fair, Tesla becomes a star overnight. He takes advantage of the publicity in order to make connections and earn funding for his work. Along with Westinghouse, in 1899 they work on a hydroelectric power station in the Niagara Falls where Tesla owns 9 out of the 13 patents the station is based on.

A great lab fire once destroyed lots of his work and experimenting equipment, but Nikola didn't give up. One of his greatest inventions was inarguably the Tesla Coil (see the photo below). People would gather to his demonstrations. Nikola's greatest conception was the idea of wireless transmission of electricity. In 1899 he went to Colorado to further experiment his crazy idea. He built a tall transmission tower that was said to power light bulbs in a range of 26 miles.

His idea of free energy did not appeal to his funders, who weren't very fond of supplying energy without getting paid in return. Tesla's funding was cut off, the 1929 Crash came to make things worse and Tesla started to get himself lost in his world. He never had a family and kids. He died alone, at the age of 86, in a hotel room, because he never wanted to own a house, he was beyond ownership, he was beyond profit, a man that was obssessed with his science and devoted himself to mankind. His legacy? More than 700 patents and ideas that make our lives easier even today.

Note: This man's life has lots of aspects that are not mentioned in this post. If I wanted to be more thorough this post should come out in at least three parts. Maybe in the future I'll come back to him and pay this man a real tribute.

Check the video below for some of his discoveries:

Tesla worked on the rotating magnetic field, the famous Tesla coil, he was the first to establish wireless control, he accidentally discovered X-rays around the same time with Redgen and many, many more...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2ZxvEoOvbY

A demonstration of a rotating magnetic field generator:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-07h6CPPZo

And see how a lightbulb lights up with no wires present:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCi6Dzy1tBk

Apologies for this video, but I was too close to the transmitter and my phone went mad and started zooming in at will. Tesla hacked my camera for good :P

If you want more details, watch Hank talk about Tesla on this episode of the SciShow:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPnGvjmIgZA

And let's close with an Epic Rap Battle between the two rivals, Edison and Tesla. Who won? :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ1Mz7kGVf0

References

wikipedia.org
livescience.com

*All images by @ruth-girl from the NOESIS museum of technology in Thessaloniki

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