"If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration"
- Nikola Tesla
Telsa was a man who changed the world for the better of mankind. Treated poorly, and stolen from frequently, he continously sought after improving his inventions for not only improving his future endeavors, but for the future of human life.
Tesla was born in the small town Smilijan, in the then existing Autrian Empire, now Croatia, on July 10th 1856. He was the 4th child out of 5, having 3 sisters and 1 brother. His brother died when Nikola was 5 in a horse accident. He began primary school in 1861 studying German, arithmetic, and religion. He began attending high school in 1870 at Higher Real Gymnasium, finishing a normal 4 year term in 3 years. It was during these years that Tesla became interested in electricity and physics.
After graduating highschool, Tesla nearly died after contracting cholera, becoming bedridden for 9 months. It was during this time his father promised to send him to school, instead of becoming a priest. After his sickness, Tesla evaded enlistment into the Austro-Hungarian Army by running away to Tomingaj. There he explored the surrounding mountains.
In 1875, he attended Imperial-Royal Technical College in Graz, using a Military Frontier scholarship. By 1878, he left Graz, never graduating, and dissapeared to the town Maribor in Slovenia. Upon being discovered by his father, he was convinced to return home, only for his father to die a month later in April, 1879.
In 1882, upon recommendation by Tivadar Puskas, Edison obtained a job with the Continental Edison Company in Paris, France. Due to exceptional knowledge with both physics and engineering, he was soon designing and building dynamos and motors.
Soon enough, Edison moved to New York with his manager Charles Batchelor, in 1884. He worked at the "Machine Works" in the lower east side of Manhatten. Tesla only met Edison a handful of times, one time being after he had stayed up all night repairing dynamos on the 'SS Oregon'. Upon learning of this, Edison told Batchelor "this is a damned good man."
After working at Machine Works for 6 months, Tesla quit. It is not fully understood why he quit, but speculation is directed towards multiple bonuses he was set to recieve and never did. One in particular being worth $50,000 (1.4 million today) after designing twenty-four different types of "standard machines." Tesla has one comment regarding the matter at the bottom of his diary, he wrote "Good by to the Edison Machine Works." Aside from this comment, nothing else is known related to the matter.
In 1901, Tesla had plans to build a tower that could provide wireless transmission. It was soon known as Wardenclyffe Tower. He was able obtain funding in sums of $150,000 (4.8 million today) from J.P. Morgan for a %51 return share. Later in the year, he requested more funding, but was denied and ultimately lost the race to trasmit messages over long disntaces by inventor Guglielmo Marconi.
Tesla was reportedly going to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 along with Thomas Edison. Rumors spread that both of them refused the prize due to refusal of sharing the reward with each other, after years of spite towards one another. These were over time declared to only be rumors, with the Nobel Foundation declaring as such themselves. Claims have continued to argue this, but have never been proven to be factual.
On January 7th, 1943, aged 86, Tesla died alone. He was found in his room, number 3327, of the Hotel New Yorker. He was found by maid the Alice Monaghan. He was soon cremated after his funeral and in 1952 after constant pressure from his nephew, his remains were placed into a golden sphere and taken to the Nikola Tesla Museum.
Invented: 1891
The most familiar of Tesla's inventions, and most likely his most famous, was the Tesla Coil. The electric resonant trasnformer was designed in 1891, and was used to produce "high voltage, low-current, high frequency alternating-current electricity."
Invented: 1898
Though widely disputed on whether or not he created the radio due a patent being created in Britian before him... Tesla created his radio and demonstrated it in 1898. His creation was correlated with a remote controlled boat that allowed a secure form of communication over 50 miles. The unfortunate inability to aquire a patent on time was due to an unforseen fire that detroyed his lab in 1895. He originally named the creation the "Telautomaton" and tried selling it to the US military.
Invented: 1902
The transmitter was a modified version of the Tesla Coil. It was designed to tune to the natural resonant circuit of the Earth itself and create standing waves of electrical energy, that could in turn harness the energy with a tuned recieving circuit.
Invented: 1887
In 1887, Tesla created the induction Motor. The motor ran on alternating-current "AC", which allowed the powerful creation of this invention to use high-voltage transmission over long distances. The invention was so great, Edison fought against it tirelessly because it opposed his own use of Direct-Current "DC". So much so, he went on campaigns to discredit AC, claiming it was dangerous and worse than DC. This longstanding fight became to be known as the "war of the currents".
"I don't care that they stole my idea... I care that they don't have any of their own."
- Nikola Tesla
"Of all things, I liked books best."
- Nikola Tesla
"The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence."
- Nikola Tesla
"The scientist of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane"
- Nikola Tesla
"Be alone, that is the secret of invention; be alone, that is when ideas are born."
- Nikola Tesla
"If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world."
- Nikola Tesla
"I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men."
- Nikola Tesla
"My brain is only a reciever, in the universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists."
- Nikola Tesla
"Our virtues and our failings are inseperable, like force and matter. When they seperate, man is no more."
- Nikola Tesla
"What one man calls God, another calls the laws of physics."
- Nikola Tesla