Some Interesting Facts about Nikola Tesla
Did You Know?...
Tesla was considered an eccentric man who talked of death rays that could destroy 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 250 miles. However, Tesla devised the AC (alternating current) system that we use in our homes today. AC offered great advantages over the rival DC system.
To view a photographic flowchart of Tesla's life CLICK HERE.
By using Tesla's transformers, AC voltages could be stepped up (or down) and transmitted over long distances through thin wires. DC could not (it required a large power plant every square mile and had to be transmitted through very thick cables). Tesla also invented electric motors that today are used in every appliance in your house. He invented fluorescent bulbs and neon signs. He designed the world's first hydroelectric plant, in Niagara Falls and patented the first speedometer for cars. Thomas Edison, who's money was invested in DC power systems, did his best to discredit Tesla. Edison even went so far as to claimed that AC electricity was far more dangerous than his DC power.
At the 1893 World Exposition in Chicago, Tesla demonstrated the safety AC electricity was by passing high frequency AC power through his body to power light bulbs. He then was able to shoot large lightning bolts from his Tesla coils to the crowd without harm.
By 1898, he was demonstrating to the world the first remote controlled model boat at Madison Square Garden. Tesla wanted to provide free energy to the world and in 1900 began construction of a "Wireless Broadcasting System" tower on Long Island, New York. This tower was intended to link the world's telephone and telegraph services, and transmit pictures, stock reports, and weather information worldwide.
Tesla ran into financial trouble with the world thinking he was insane. The transmission of voice, picture, and electricity was unheard of at this time.
Tesla demonstrated the principles behind radio nearly ten years before Marconi. In 1943 the US Supreme Court ruled that Marconi's patents were invalid due to Tesla's descriptions of his work. Still, most references do not credit Tesla with the invention of radio.
Tesla made the earth into an electric tuning fork by getting a steam-driven oscillator to vibrate at the same frequency as the ground. The result was an earthquake in the surrounding city. He had accurately determined the resonant frequencies of the Earth almost 60 years before science could confirm his results.
In 1899, he sent waves of energy through the Earth, thus providing the theory for earthquake seismic stations. By adding electricity to the returning energy he created the largest man-made lightning bolt ever recorded (130 feet). The accompanying thunder was heard 22 miles away and created a blue glow around the meadow outside his Colorado laboratory.
At the beginning of World War I, Tesla proposed the use of energy waves to detect German submarines (known today as RADAR). Thomas Edison rejected his idea as ludicrous.
Eventually, Tesla was awarded the Edison Medal, which was an insult to Tesla, given the verbal abuse that he had taken from Edison.
Tesla died penniless at age 86 on January 7, 1943. In his lifetime, he received over 800 different patents. Scientists continue to scour through his notes.
The "Tesla bladeless disk turbine engine" that he designed, when made with modern materials, is proving to be among the most efficient motors ever made. Experiments he performed with cryogenic liquids and electricity provide the foundation for modern superconductors. He also talked about experiments that suggested particles with fractional charges of an electron. In 1977 they were "discovered" as quarks!
Nikola Tesla has been referred to as "the man who invented the 20th century." His use of alternating electrical currents and invention of the AC engine brought revolutionary changes in electrical power generation and transmission that remain the global standard today. Tesla recited entire books from memory, and designed his machines in his head, rather than on paper. He was also frequently ridiculed for proposing "impossible" inventions … which he then went and invented anyway.
Some Interesting Facts about Nikola Tesla:
Nikola was born the son of an Orthodox Priest, Tesla claimed to sleep just 2 to 3 hours a day. Whereas Sir Isaac Newton needed 3-4 hours of sleep daily.
When Tesla arrived in New York from Serbia, he had 4 cents to his name.
Tesla brought a letter of recommendation to Thomas Edison that read: "My Dear Edison: I know two great men and you are one of them. The other is this young man!"
He was offered $50,000 to improve some of Edison's ideas, but when he delivered, Edison claimed that he had only been "joking," and refused to pay him.
Tesla achieved the "impossible" by demonstrating a working brushless polyphase AC induction motor to a group of wealthy investors – none of whom would invest a penny.
In 1886, Tesla persuaded investors to fund the Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing Company. Tesla invented a revolutionary arc lamp and the company made money. The investors then promptly reaped the profits and fired Tesla, who was forced into manual labor to survive.
Tesla discovered X-ray radiation 3 years before Wilhelm Roentgen was credited for the same discovery.
As a boy, Tesla saw a likeness of Niagra Falls, and dreamed of harnessing the power of the water to create electricity. In 1893, he succeeded in doing just that. Investors included W. K. Vanderbilt, son of Cornelius Vanderbilt.
Although Tesla demonstrated his invention of the radio in 1893 and received a patent for it, the patent office stripped the award in 1904 and gave it instead to Guglielmo Marconi. Since both Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie had invested in Marconi and not in Tesla. Tesla fought for 29 years to reacquire his patent, finally getting a hearing in the US Supreme Court. With finding that 15 of Marconi's 16 patents were actually invented by Tesla himself, the court rules in Tesla's favor in 1944 – a year after his death.
When inventor George Washington Carver’s paintings were displayed at the 1893 World's Fair Exposition, they were lit using Tesla's AC power – although Edison refused to allow use of his light bulbs.
In 1898, the United States military showed no interest when Tesla demonstrated a remote-controlled boat. Even though Tesla's wireless device was the beginning of the technology that enabled robotics that were initially conceived by Leonardo da Vinci.
Tesla worked for many years attempting his wireless transmission of electricity and believed that electricity could be projected into the upper atmosphere for storage and access at will.
J Pierpont Morgan invested $150,000 in Tesla's idea to build a gigantic radio transmitter – but then refused to invest any further after it was revealed that Tesla was instead trying to transmit electrical power wirelessly.
In order to keep electricity inexpensive to the public, Tesla sold George Westinghouse his own royalties, which were worth $12 million, for just $216,000. If Tesla had kept his royalties, he may have been the first billionaire, sharing financial history with the likes of John D. Rockefeller the worlds first in 1916, Howard Hughes, and Bill Gates who became the first man to reach $100 billion in 1999.
In 1917, he received the Edison Medal from the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. A previous president of the AIEE was Alexander Graham Bell.
Tesla and the great storyteller, Mark Twain, were very close friends.
Orson Wells played Tesla in the 1980 Yugoslavian film Tajna Nikole Tesle (English translation: "The Secret of Nikola Tesla").
In his latter years, Tesla asserted that he had indeed discovered a limitless power supply from a source that no one else had even suspected, but he never revealed the source.
He claimed to have designed a death ray – or "peace ray," as he preferred – that could electrocute an approaching army completely at a distance of 200 miles.
Tesla adorned the cover of Time Magazine in 1931, and was praised by Albert Einstein as "an eminent pioneer in the realm of high frequency currents..."
In 1928 he received his last patent, which was a forerunner to the modern day helicopter, which was initially conceived of by Leonardo da Vinci. In his lifetime some have stated that he had applied for 840 patents and received 700. What can be found is that he has 112 US Patents and 34 International Patents. Regardless, he was known as the Father of Radio, Television, Power Transmission, and the Induction Motor.
Nikola Tesla's Death:
On January 7, 1943: Tesla died penniless and alone in room #3327 of the Hotel New Yorker. Soon after his death, the United States Government (with the help of the FBI) seized all of his research materials and writings, most of which never again reappeared.
Thousands paid their respects to Tesla, the greatest inventor of all times, at his Manhattan funeral.
Text source:http://home.earthlink.net/~drestinblack/didyouknow.htm
