Contents
“The Man Who Invented the XNUMXth Century” is the title of one of the greatest scientists in human history. We tell you who Nikola Tesla is, how he lived and how he became the most extravagant inventor of the last century
According to legend, on the day when Nikola Tesla was born, lightning struck the house, as if predicting his entire future fate. And indeed, although life was preparing him for a career as a priest, the circumstances were completely different. Tesla registered 112 patents in the USA alone, and there are 196 more around the world. Today, almost everyone knows the brilliant inventor: without him there would be no electricity in the socket, radio and power lines.
How Nikola Tesla Became an Inventor
Born into a family of a priest, Nicola was to continue his father’s career. This fate weighed heavily on him, since the love for science and engineering manifested itself in him from childhood. When Tesla graduated from the Real School in Croatia, at that time part of the Austrian Empire, and received a high school diploma, he was forced to return to his homeland to replace his father. However, the cholera epidemic that broke out in his hometown of Gospic saved the young scientist from the spiritual sciences. The disease struck Tesla almost immediately: the patient spent more than six months in bed, and the doctors were sure that he would not be able to recover. Cholera gave serious complications, and even Nikola’s relatives lost their last hope. In one of the attacks, the dying Tesla told his father that he would definitely recover if he would allow him to give up his career as a priest and continue to study engineering at the university. The father immediately agreed, and the inventor soon recovered and was ready to start his scientific career.
In 1875, Nikola Tesla entered the Technical University of Graz, where he studied electrical engineering. There he first expressed the idea of the efficiency of using alternating current in the operation of electrical machines, for which he was severely criticized. He earned himself a reputation as a quirky man – Tesla loved gambling, and such a hobby led to the bankruptcy of his family.
Tesla later entered the Charles University in Prague at the Faculty of Philosophy. After studying for only one semester, the inventor was forced to drop out due to financial distress, and began working as an electrical engineer in a telegraph company.
In Europe, Nikola’s career did not work out: the Continental Edison Company did not pay him a bonus for a large-scale project to build a power plant in Strasbourg, after which the engineer decided to move to America. In New York, Tesla worked for Thomas Edison himself at the Edison Machine Works. Despite the undeniable talent of the young inventor, Edison was skeptical about the idea of alternating current and did not believe that the direct current generator needed improvement. He even bet Nikola $50 that he would not be able to modify Edison’s device. Tesla enthusiastically began to develop and after a while was able to introduce new highly efficient variations of the Edison machine. Having approved all Tesla’s developments, Edison did not pay the inventor a cent.
After the break with Edison, Tesla found himself at the very bottom of his career. His situation was so disastrous that he did odd jobs to earn a minimum wage. The situation changed in 1887: Tesla met Alfred Brown, director of the Western Union Bank, and Charles Peck, a lawyer from New York. The men were impressed with the work of alternating current in the invention, which Tesla called the “Egg of Columbus”, and considered the project very attractive for investment. So Tesla was able to establish his laboratory and receive the first patent for the invention.
In July 1888, Tesla sold a patent for a multi-phase AC transmission system to the engineer and entrepreneur Westinghouse, who invited the scientist to continue developing the system in Pittsburgh. The period from 1888 to 1905 can be considered the most successful in Tesla’s career. He opens a new laboratory in downtown New York and continues to be active in science, pioneering the idea that electricity could be transmitted wirelessly. In 1891, Nikola develops his most famous invention, the Tesla coil, or Tesla transformer, which is a device capable of producing high voltage at high frequency. Nikola traveled the world giving lectures: he was a guest in London, Paris and Zagreb, in addition to regular tours of the United States.
In 1895, Tesla lost all his blueprints due to a massive fire in his laboratory. After that, the main project for him was the construction of a power plant at Niagara Falls, and in 1899 the inventor moved to Colorado Springs so as not to be distracted from his scientific developments. The transmission of electricity through the air became Tesla’s main idea, which occupied him until his death in 1943.
Life in hotels and expensive developments led to the bankruptcy of the inventor in 1916. Tesla’s bizarre lifestyle and increasingly mysterious inventions like beam weapons, electric aircraft, and wireless power transmission have given rise to rumors and theories. The most popular of them says that the scientist provoked the fall of the Tunguska meteorite.
Nikola Tesla died at the age of 87 in 1943. His body was found by the maid of the New Yorker Hotel, who went to the inventor’s room, not paying attention to the “do not disturb” sign.
According to the conspiracy theory, after the news of Tesla’s death, his apartment was cordoned off by the Office of Alien Property Custodian by order of the FBI. They allegedly seized all the developments that were in the scientist’s room and classified them, because they considered that they contained information that should not become known to the general public.
Tesla’s discoveries and inventions
Alternating current
Before Tesla discovered alternating current, the whole world used electricity, which went through the direct current networks created by Edison. In the course of his research, Tesla noticed that when using direct current, a large amount of energy is lost in the form of heat. Therefore, the inventor began to develop a more economical production of electricity and discovered alternating current. Unlike direct current, in which charged particles move in one direction, in alternating current, particles move along a sinusoid between poles with polar charges.
Tesla received a patent for his invention on February 25, 1896 and unleashed a real confrontation between Edison and Westinghouse, who acquired Tesla’s patent and began to use alternating current on an industrial scale. Despite Edison’s repeated attempts to misinform people about the extreme danger of alternating current, the Westinghouse company won the so-called “Current War”, and we continue to use Tesla’s invention to this day.
Tesla Coil
Tesla coil, or Tesla transformer, is a device that allows you to generate high-frequency current with high voltage. The inventor patented the device in 1897 and suggested using it as a means for producing a high-voltage charge and transmitting electricity through the air.
Unfortunately, in the modern world, the Tesla coil has no domestic use. For some time, it was used in military equipment to de-energize enemy electronic devices: a large discharge easily turned off electrical appliances in buildings and equipment.
Radio communication
The creators of radio communications are Marconi (in the West) and Popov (in our country). But in fact, Tesla was the first to talk about radio communication back in 1898. Tesla’s main idea was the transmission of electricity through the air. In search of a clue, he came to the conclusion that he created a radio-controlled boat, which he wanted to use in the military industry.
It is believed that Marconi was familiar with the developments of Tesla. That is why Tesla perceived the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics to him in 1909 as a flagrant injustice. Only a few months after the inventor’s death in 1943, the US Supreme Court recognized Tesla’s role in the creation of the radio.