{"id":7430,"date":"2013-08-28T13:54:56","date_gmt":"2013-08-28T12:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/blog\/?p=743"},"modified":"2025-01-09T11:14:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T11:14:21","slug":"nikola-tesla-the-scientist-who-lit-up-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.inmesol.com\/en\/blog\/nikola-tesla-the-scientist-who-lit-up-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikola Tesla, the Scientist Who Lit up the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s electrical facilities are the result of Tesla\u2019s invention of the alternating current (AC) system.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Thanks to Tesla, our homes and any other building have electricity<\/strong> at the flick of a switch. He invented the AC induction motor<\/strong>, the Tesla coil<\/strong> for the alternating-current generator, spark plugs<\/strong>, the alternator<\/strong>, radio<\/strong>, remote control<\/strong>, fluorescent and neon light<\/strong> among the more than seven hundred inventions and one hundred patents that are attributed to him. In brief, he brought about a technological revolution. Moreover, he is deemed to be the originator of all kinds of wireless networks<\/strong>. He was a controversial committed visionary<\/strong>, an enigmatic figure<\/strong>, an inventor who was ahead of his own times and our own as well. Although he is regarded as the greatest inventor of the twentieth century, history has not yet done him justice. Even today, inventors are inspired by his legacy as they work on new devices.<\/p>\n

\"Nikola-Tesla\"<\/p>\n

\u201cScience is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.\u201d – Nikola Tesla<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Nikola Tesla was born in the town of Smilijan in present-day Croatia. Legend has it that he was born in the midst of a tremendous electrical storm<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Passionate about mathematics<\/strong> from a very early age, he had a prodigious memory<\/strong> and showed astounding skills<\/strong> in mental calculation and in \u201cvisualizing<\/strong>\u201d his inventions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

He studied Electrical and Mechanical Engineering<\/strong> and Physics<\/strong>. He worked for several electrical companies around Europe, the last of which transferred him to New York<\/strong>, where he arrived with four cents in his pocket and a letter of recommendation<\/strong> from his superior to his much-admired Thomas Edison<\/strong>, who was famous by then. The missive<\/strong> said, \u201cMy Dear Edison: I know two great men and you are one of them. The other is this young man!\u201d<\/p>\n

Tesla\u2019s Relationship with Edison<\/span><\/p>\n

Edison and Tesla were soon at loggerheads<\/strong>. Tesla was absorbed by his research, to the extent, it is said, that he slept barely two hours a day. He was driven by one single passion<\/strong>, the progress of science for the betterment of humanity<\/strong> while Edison sought fame and focused on his \u201cbusiness talents\u201d. Indeed, he broke his promise<\/strong> to pay Tesla<\/strong> fifty thousand dollars if he could improve his flawed motors and generators. Having achieved this, Tesla inquired about the payment, whereupon Edison burst out laughing and said, \u201cTesla, you don\u2019t understand our American humour\u201d. This eventually led to the so-called \u201cWar of Currents<\/strong>\u201d which Edison tried to win by playing dirty although it was finally demonstrated that Tesla\u2019s alternating current worked better than Edison\u2019s direct current.<\/p>\n

Tesla and Westinghouse<\/span><\/p>\n

After breaking with Edison, Tesla found a good partner in the person of the businessman George Westinghouse<\/strong>, who believed in his ideas and gave him the support he needed to bring them to fruition. They worked together to bring into being two great projects: their electrical exhibits in the Chicago World\u2019s Fair<\/a> (1893) and the hydroelectric power plant in Niagara Falls<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, although Westinghouse offered Tesla a large sum of money<\/strong> for his patents, plus a percentage of the profits deriving from his discovery of alternating current, a bizarre tangle of loan agreements which Westinghouse could not meet \u2013 in addition to a campaign by J.P Morgan<\/strong> to bring the company into disrepute in his attempt to wrest control of the energy sector \u2013 meant that Tesla did not receive payments that would have made him immensely rich. When Westinghouse confessed to him that his company was on the verge of collapse, Tesla released him from the licensing agreement over the AC patents<\/strong>. This was a tremendously generous gesture but, in the light of what occurred later, it may be been an error because he then lacked the funds to develop the ideas conceived by his privileged mind.<\/p>\n

J. P. Morgan finally decided to invest in Tesla\u2019s Wardenclyffe Tower<\/strong><\/a> but when the latter revealed that his ultimate aim<\/strong> was to make cheap electric power available to everyone, the magnate feared for the future of his energy empire and cut off all funding<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This episode was the beginning of Tesla\u2019s decline<\/strong>. Many people believed he had gone mad. He died alone in the New Yorker Hotel in New York in 1943. On his death, the FBI seized all his papers and possessions.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.\u201d – Nikola Tesla<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

More than 700 inventions<\/strong> have been attributed to Tesla<\/strong>. Many of them have not yet been put into practice.<\/p>\n

Perhaps his greatest discovery<\/strong> was the principle of the rotating magnetic field, the basis for the alternating current<\/strong> (AC) which today lights up the world. AC can be transmitted over thousands of kilometres with hardly any loss. It replaced Edison\u2019s direct current<\/strong>, which needed repeater stations every few kilometres. Moreover, alternating current can be converted into a magnetic field<\/strong> and vice-versa by means of a transformer, which is a very simple way of changing current voltage and intensity<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, his genius also left a legacy of many other inventions and discoveries of enormous value for humanity: wireless energy transmission<\/strong>, the loudspeaker<\/strong>, radar<\/strong>, fluorescent lamps<\/strong>, remote control<\/strong>, spark plugs<\/strong>, the alternator<\/strong>, the first hydroelectric power plant<\/strong> in Niagara Falls<\/strong> (which he is said to have dreamed of as a child), the basic concept of the microwave oven<\/strong>, the car ignition system<\/strong>, the electron microscope<\/strong>, X-rays<\/strong> and many others.<\/p>\n

In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States recognised Tesla as the inventor of radio<\/strong>, which had previously been unjustly attributed to Marconi<\/strong>. For some inexplicable reason, many books still keep reproducing this error concerning the real inventor.<\/p>\n

Although Not Yet Accomplished This Dream Now Seems Feasible<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite all his contributions Tesla did not live to see the fulfilment of many of the projects he longed to accomplish. Apart from the fact that his ideas were snatched from him<\/strong>, he was also treated with contempt and swindled. He died without receiving the recognition he deserved and without being able to see his greatest dream <\/strong>come true: renewable and almost cost free wireless energy transmission over great distances<\/strong>. Curiously enough, 157 years after his birth<\/strong>, a young Croatian researcher at MIT<\/strong> (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) has managed to achieve wireless energy transfer<\/strong>, although this only covers a short distance at present (see the Discovery Channel video below).<\/p>\n