Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) - engineer and inventor of Serbian origin. He was born on July 9 or 10, 1856 in the village of Smiljan in what is now Croatia. He studied physics and mathematics at the Technical University in Graz and philosophy at the University of Prague. In 1881 he started working at the telephone office in Budapest. The following year, he moved to Paris, where he was employed by the Continental Edison Company. Since his studies, he has been working on ways to use alternating current: he built his first induction motor in 1883. Discouraged by the lack of interest in his invention, he moved to the USA in 1884. In 1891, he obtained American citizenship.
After arriving in the New World, he worked in New York for Thomas Edison, but in 1887 he became independent and became self-employed. Competition between scientists intensified when Tesla raised funds to develop his inventions: in 1888, he sold patents for an alternating current-based generator, transformer, and motor system. They soon outperformed Edison's DC drives. After Westinghouse used a Tesla system to illuminate the Colombian World Exposition in Chicago in 1893, he was awarded a contract to build the first facilities at Niagara Falls.
In the following years, the inventor, who became known as an exceptional eccentric, developed a number of projects. In the meantime, he also popularized his inventions during lectures in America and Europe (1891-1893), including working on a boat controlled by a pilot. As early as 1893, he predicted the advent of wireless communication - he developed a number of devices that were designed to transmit electricity wirelessly. He also proposed building a "wireless factory", capable of transmitting not only news but also reports on current events and weather, remotely. He also experimented with sound transmission, but on this issue, he was beaten by Guglielmo Marconi, who patented the radio right before him.
Tesla's extraordinary creativity is evidenced by the fact that between 1886 and 1928 he was granted 112 patents in America. He received degrees from Yale and Columbia, and in 1917 the American Institute of Electrical Engineers awarded him the Edison Medal. Many of his ideas, due to lack of funds, remained only on paper. Some - such as a lethal beam capable of destroying 10,000 aircraft within a radius of 400 kilometers - were merely destructive visions. His contribution to the development of science was appreciated by naming him with a magnetic induction unit. He died on January 7, 1943, in New York.
He lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries when modernity was being born. He epitomized progress, and many of his brilliant ideas underpin the technologies indispensable today. He was - as it was said directly - "the ruler of thunder." But not only that!
FBI documents about Nikola Tesla:
https://vault.fbi.gov/nikola-tesla/Nikola%20Tesla%20Part%2003%20of%2003
https://vault.fbi.gov/nikola-tesla/Nikola%20Tesla%20Part%2003%20of%2003/view
1. Alternating current
One of Tesla's greatest achievements was finding a practical application for alternating current.
The inventor constructed a multi-phase electric motor that uses the properties of this current to create the effect of a rotating magnetic field, which causes the device to rotate. Such a drive was more effective than the DC motors used so far, it was also characterized by a much lower failure rate.
The alternating current itself made it possible to transmit energy over long distances, due to the ability to easily raise the voltage with transformers, which translated into lower losses resulting from the resistance of electrical cables.
The wide audience, however, did not immediately accept the system proposed by Tesla. One of his main opponents was Thomas Alva Edison - his former employer and rival, who bases his technology on direct current (read more about Edison and his scams in our other article). The most important argument drawn by the opponents was the greater threat to life associated with AC electrocution.
Both systems were used in parallel in the interwar period. Ultimately, however, this solution proposed by Tesla won. Today, alternating current is found in all electrical outlets in our homes.
2. Resonant transformer
Nikola Tesla is sometimes called "the lord of lightning" for a reason. The Serbian inventor owes this nickname to one of his greatest inventions - the resonance transformer presented in 1891, also commonly known as the Tesla coil.
It is a type of air transformer in which both windings operate at the same high resonant frequency. This allows for very high electrical voltages, measured even in millions of volts. As a result, the device can generate extremely spectacular electrical discharges.
Tesla used this invention in his public presentations and readings, arousing the admiration of the audience.
The spectacularity of the device made the creators of the popular culture quickly become interested in it. It was used in early science fiction and horror movies to create the lightning effect. Tesla coils were also used by stage artists, delighting the audience with the trick of touching the discharges generated by the device - high-frequency alternating current usually does not cause an electric shock effect, but it can cause painful burns. Their profession, however, was associated with a lethal risk, as the failure of the device during the show could lead to fatal shock.
Currently, Tesla coils are a frequent topic of projects by amateur electronics enthusiasts. With the advent of the semiconductor era, they also gained another "entertainment" function - alternating current in the coil circuit can be modulated with acoustic frequency, as a result of which the sounds generated by the discharges can create music.
3. Wireless electricity transfer
The resonance transformer generates not only impressive electromagnetic discharges but also a strong, alternating electromagnetic field. Nikola Tesla in the course of his experiments with great success used them to transmit electricity over short distances. He delighted the audience by lighting light bulbs not connected to the mains, and glass tubes filled with rare rare gases glowed near the transformer.
The inventor did not manage to fulfill his greatest dream of wireless energy transmission over long distances, but it should be noted that the described experiments are the cornerstone of many solutions that we use every day.
Popular wireless chargers used in modern cell phones use a variable electromagnetic field to transmit energy. In this way, the electronics installed inside the RFID proximity cards are used e.g. when authorizing electronic transactions.
4. Radio engineering and remote control
While it is not possible to identify a specific person who is the "inventor of the radio", there is no doubt that Nikola Tesla contributed a lot to the development of young radio technology through experiments on the technique of fast-changing currents.
In 1898, he obtained a patent for a remote-controlled boat model. In the same year, the inventor delighted the audience gathered in Madison Square Garden in New York, presenting the prototype of the device. The boat was swimming in a small pool, twisting, accelerating, and slowing down at the inventor's will, expressed by the movements of the levers on the transmitter panel. Some of the visitors reacted with disbelief, considering the presentation as a clever illusionist trick - the general public was not yet aware of the experiments with the new invention, which was the radio.
Tesla's presentation opened up new possibilities for the field of engineering known as tile mechanics and dealing with the remote control of devices. Until now, wired connections have been used for this purpose, which severely limited the usefulness of such solutions. Of course, the military quickly became interested in the invention, seeing it as having a considerable military potential - experiments on remotely controlled torpedoes and airplanes began.
One hundred years later this process resulted in the creation of remotely controlled drones, commonly used by all major armies of the world.
A working replica of the aforementioned boat model can now be seen at the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.
5. X rays
Few people are aware that Nikola Tesla was one of the pioneers of X-ray science. Experimenting with Crookes tubes (a type of glass bulb with two embedded electrodes and air pumped out of it) connected to a high-voltage source, he observed the emission of penetrating radiation, invisible to the human eye.
These experiments were performed independently of similar attempts by the German physicist Wilhelm Xentgen, widely regarded as the discoverer of X-rays, a type of high-energy electromagnetic radiation.
In the following years, after the publication of X-ray's work, Tesla continued to work in this field, becoming one of the pioneers of X-ray photography.
6. Disc turbine
In 1913, Tesla patented a bladeless disc turbine - it was the hundredth American patent obtained by a scientist. The device consisted of a set of metal targets placed at short distances from one another. These discs were set in motion by a pressurized liquid moving in the spaces between them.
Tesla's patent list also includes numerous improvements to existing devices. The inventor dealt mainly with the subject of electricity. He experimented with various methods of production and distribution and worked on improvements to existing electric motors and light sources. At the same time, he did not shy away from other challenges - later in his life, he became interested in, for example, aviation technology, even obtaining a patent for a type of aircraft, equipped with a set of movable propellers, which were to enable vertical take-off and landing.
It would be difficult to find a second inventor whose biography has so many myths and been so distorted as is the case of Nikola Tesla. What lies and exaggerations is it time to part with it?
The brilliant eccentric aroused controversy during his lifetime and attracted the attention of journalists. Guests of such a format as the famous writer Mark Twain used to come to the scientist's New York laboratory. Tesla's name was even mentioned among potential Nobel Prize candidates.
After the scientist's death, however, his star began to dim. Other inventors of that era, such as Edison, Marconi, and Bell, were much more marked in the collective consciousness. Only recently has it been possible to observe a great leap in interest in the figure of an eccentric scientist, responsible for many breakthrough inventions. This is at least partly due to pop culture. Unfortunately, literary fiction and myths are becoming more and more mixed up with reality.
In popular publications you can come across fantastic stories about the life and inventions of Tesla, then repeated uncritically in blogs and in online discussions. Which for example?
1. Nikola Tesla invented alternating current
Much misunderstanding has arisen over Nikola Tesla's greatest invention. One can often come across the opinion that it is to the Serbian inventor that we owe the alternating current (AC) that occurs in the electrical sockets in our homes. This statement is only partially true.
Tesla certainly did not discover alternating current, as this type of electricity was known before his birth, but was not used on a large scale for practical purposes.
The biggest advantage of alternating current is the possibility of relatively easy raising and lowering the voltage in the network using transformers, which translates into much lower losses, making it possible to transmit energy over long distances. The problem was that nineteenth-century electrical engineering did not know how to use alternating current efficiently. If you wanted to drive the motor with it, you had to straighten it first, i.e. convert it to direct current (DC). The disadvantage of DC motors was the high failure rate, caused by the so-called commutator, i.e. a set of rotating contacts, cyclically switching the power supply between several sets of windings included in the motor.
It is this problem that Tesla has successfully eliminated by using the specificity of alternating current in an elegant way. He developed a system in which individual windings were powered from several lines carrying alternating current, shifted in phase. This resulted in the spinning electromagnetic field effect setting the motor in motion without the need for a commutator. The Tesla system gave impetus to the development of an electrical infrastructure based on alternating current.
At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, there was a loud discussion between supporters of the use of direct and alternating current, which went down in the history of technology as a "war of currents". In popular discourse, one can sometimes come across a far-reaching simplification that reduces the discussion to a conflict between two conflicting inventors: Tesla and Edison. The matter, as usual, was not that simple.
2. Nikola Tesla invented the radio
Among the pioneers of radio communication, the name of Tesla is usually mentioned next to the Italian Guglielmo Marconi and the Russian Alexander Popov. Lovers of the Serbian inventor emphasize that he is the one who deserves the palm of priority, sometimes even accusing competitors of plagiarism. In fact, the question about the inventor of the radio is wrongly posed.
There is no single "inventor of the radio" as the creation of this device was a long process in which many people were involved.
In the 1870s, James Clerk Maxwell predicted the possibility of electromagnetic waves. In 1886, the theory was confirmed by Heinrich Rudolf Hertz, who demonstrated for the first time in laboratory conditions the method of generating and detecting these waves. The apparatus used in the experiment, however, was not suitable for transmitting information over longer distances, among others due to the low sensitivity of the receiver. Hertz's success, however, was the impetus that prompted other scientists and inventors to conduct their own experiments.
In 1890, the Italian physicist Edouard Branly developed the coherer - a sensitive detector of radio waves. The device was then used in the experiments of Oliver Lodge, who is 1894, during a lecture at the British Association, presented a method of wireless transmission of telegraph messages. Kohler was also used by Alexander Popov, who conducted research on electromagnetic waves generated by lightning. It was then that Guglielmo Marconi began his experiments, gaining a range that would allow the invention to be commercialized. In 1896, he obtained a patent for a device for wireless telegraphy, which quickly attracted the attention of the British navy.
Tesla, at the same time, was experimenting with high-frequency alternating currents - a field that is critical to radio engineering. In 1898, he caused a sensation with the presentation of a remote-controlled boat in New York. However, the conspiracy theory, accusing Marconi of stealing Tesla's project, should be definitely rejected - the apparatus used by the young Italian was based on the equipment used in the experiments of Hertz and Branly.
Nikola Tesla's fans in Internet discussions often cite the argument that the American Supreme Court was to invalidate Marconi's patents in 1943, already posthumously awarding the Serbian scientist the title of the inventor of the radio. Such an approach to the matter, however, is a far-reaching overinterpretation. The hearing did not concern the priority issue, but only the infringement by Marconi's company of somewhat later patents describing specific improvements to radio equipment.
3. Tesla has invented wireless energy transmission over long distances
Tesla's great, unrealized dream was to transmit electricity wirelessly. The scientist experimented with the coils that are today called after him. The devices generated not only high voltage, which manifested itself in the form of spectacular discharges but also a strong electromagnetic field that could be used to transmit energy. Since the field strength decreases very quickly the farther away from its source, energy can only be transferred in this way over very short distances - a similar phenomenon is used by modern wireless chargers.
Tesla, however, dreamed of something much more spectacular - a system that would allow electricity to be sent to distant places on Earth without using any transmission lines. Why did it not work? Why are we still using power lines after a century? Conspiracy theorists speak of a conspiracy in which large industrialists were to be involved, fearing competition from the new invention.
The explanation, however, is much simpler. Even the greatest geniuses make mistakes and base their ideas on false assumptions. This was the case here. Tesla for some time rejected Maxwell's theory, believing that the operation of the radio is not caused by electromagnetic waves, but the flow of alternating current through the ground and the Earth's atmosphere. These views were rooted in earlier, erroneous nineteenth-century hypotheses. The idea of global wireless energy transfer was built on the foundation of these hypotheses and had to fail with them.
4. Tesla invented the rays of death
The most colorful and sensational conspiracy theories attribute to Tesla a whole range of amazing inventions, reminiscent of interwar science fiction. Some of these stories have their source in authentic late-life notes or statements by a scholar. They are purely speculative in nature and are not backed by any extant prototypes or descriptions of experiments.
This is exactly the situation with the famous "death rays" - a type of energy weapon known from several statements and notes from Tesla in the 1930s.
It would be a mistake to discredit the inventor and claim that ideas of this kind were a sign of madness. The statements should be viewed through the prism of the era - in the interwar period, speculations about the military use of the latest scientific achievements regularly appeared in the press. Only later did the reality show that putting some ideas into practice was not as easy as it initially seemed ...
The memory of Nikola Tesla gradually revives in the collective consciousness, and he regains his rightful place in the pantheon of the greatest inventors of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is important to remember him for actual, not imagined, accomplishments. This is because mythologization leads to a situation in which we lose sight of the real man and forget about his real merits.
Bibliography:
- Cheney Margaret, Uth Robert, Tesla: Master of Lightning, New York 1999.
- US Patent 433702 A, Electrical transformer or induction device, Google Patents.
- US Patent 1,061,206 A, Turbine, Google Patents.
- US Patent 1655113 A, Method of aerial transportation, Google Patents.
- US Patent 1655114, Apparatus for aerial transportation, Google Patents.
- J. J. Fahie, A history of wireless telegraphy, Edinburgh 1901.
- Wróblewski Andrzej Kajetan, History of Physics. From the earliest times to the present day, PWN, Warsaw 2009.
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