Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) has been regarded as one of the greatest electrical engineers of all time. He was a Serbian American electrical engineer who is best known for his enormous contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) and electricity supply system.

 His patented AC induction motor and transformer were licensed by George Westinghouse, who also hired Tesla for a short time as a consultant. His work in the formative years of electric power development was involved in a corporate alternating current/direct current “War of Currents” as well as various patent battle. Tesla went on to pursue his ideas of wireless lighting and electricity distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs, and made early (1893) pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices.

It is worth to note that Tesla never finished his university studies and he gained much experience and insights through reading on his own and working for various companies including Budapest Telephone Exchange and the Continental Edison Company.

Tesla read many works, memorizing complete books, and supposedly possessed a photographic memory. He was a polyglot, speaking eight languages: Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin. Tesla related in his autobiography that he experienced detailed moments of inspiration. Tesla never married; he said his chastity was very helpful to his scientific abilities.[10]:33 However, toward the end of his life, he told a reporter, “Sometimes I feel that by not marrying, I made too great a sacrifice to my work

Tesla is an inspiration to many people .He was the inspiration behind by fifth year project, “Wireless Power Transmission Using Tesla Coils”.

Tesla developed and used fluorescent bulbs in his lab some 40 years before industry “invented” them. At the World’s Fair, Tesla took glass tubes and bent them into famous scientists’ names, in effect creating the first neon signs.

Tesla had lasting imprints on many of the technologies people take for granted today: Alternately current, Radio, Remote Control, X-Ray, Electric Lighting, Laser, Electric Motor, Robotics and wireless power transmission,

Quotes.

“There is something within me that might be illusion as it is often case with young delighted people, but if I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity. If those hopes would become fulfilled, the most exciting thought would be that it is a deed of a Serb.”

    ~Address at the Belgrade train station (1 June 1892)

“Money does not represent such a value as men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries enabling mankind to have a little easier life.”

    As quoted in “A Visit to Nikola Tesla” by Dragislav L. Petković in Politika (April 1927);

“Let 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.”

    On patent controversies regarding the invention of Radio and other things, as quoted in “A Visit to Nikola Tesla” by Dragislav L. Petković in Politika (April 1927)

“If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, he would proceed at once with the diligence of the bee to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search. … I was a sorry witness of such doings, knowing that a little theory and calculation would have saved him ninety per cent of his labor.”

    New York Times (19 October 1931)

“The scientists from Franklin to Morse were clear thinkers and did not produce erroneous theories. The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”

    “Radio Power Will Revolutionize the World” in Modern Mechanics and Inventions (July 1934)

“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success … Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.”

    Quoted in Marconi and Tesla: Pioneers of Radio Communication (2008) by Tim O’Hair

“He declared that it could not be done and did me the honor of delivering a lecture on the subject, at the conclusion he remarked, “Mr. Tesla may accomplish great things, but he certainly will never do this. It would be equivalent to converting a steadily pulling force, like that of gravity into a rotary effort. It is a perpetual motion scheme, an impossible idea.” But instinct is something which transcends knowledge. We have, undoubtedly, certain finer fibers that enable us to perceive truths when logical deduction, or any other willful effort of the brain, is futile”

“The gift of mental power comes from God, Divine Being, and if we concentrate our minds on that truth, we become in tune with this great power. My Mother had taught me to seek all truth in the Bible; therefore I devoted the next few months to the study of this work.”

“Nikola Tesla is the true unsung prophet of the electronic age; without whom our radio, auto ignition, telephone, alternating current power generation and transmission, radio and television would all have been impossible.”

    Ben Johnston in the “Introduction” to My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla (1983)

If you want to learn more about Tesla, I highly recommend reading Nikola Tesla – Man Out of Time (Cheney), Nikola Tesla Biography – Prodigal Genius, My Inventions Nikola Tesla’s Autobiography, Wizard – The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla  [Biography of a Genius] by Marc Seifer, Tesla Inventor of the Electrical Age by W. Bernard Carlson

There’s an old movie from the 80s on Amazon about Tesla: The Secret of Nikola Tesla. It’s corny , but it paints a fairly accurate depiction of his life.