(1856-1943)
Wer war Nikola Tesla?
Nikola Tesla was an engineer and scientist known for designing the alternating current (AC) electrical system, which is the predominant electrical system used around the world today. He also created the "Tesla coil", which is still used today in radio engineering.
Born in what is now Croatia, Tesla came to the United States in 1884 and worked brieflyThomas Edisonbefore the two parted ways. He sold several patent rights, including those on his alternators, to George Westinghouse.
Early life
Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia.
Tesla was one of five children, including siblings Dane, Angelina, Milka and Marica. Tesla's interest in electrical inventions was sparked by his mother, Djuka Mandic, who invented small household appliances in her spare time while her son was growing up.
Tesla's father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian Orthodox priest and writer, and he pushed for his son to join the priesthood. But Nikola's interests were clearly in the sciences.
Training
After studying at the Karlstadt Realschule (later renamed the Johann-Rudolph-Glauber-Realschule Karlstadt) in Germany; the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria; and the University of Prague in the 1870s, Tesla moved to Budapest, where he worked for a time at the Central Telephone Exchange.
While staying in Budapest, Tesla first got the idea for the induction motor, but after several years of trying to generate interest in his invention, Tesla decided at the age of 28 to leave Europe for America.
Nikola Tesla versus Thomas Edison
In 1884, Tesla arrived in the United States with little more than his clothes on his back and a letter of recommendation to famed inventor and business mogul Thomas Edison, whose DC-based electrical work quickly became the standard in the country.
Edison hired Tesla, and the two men soon worked tirelessly side by side to make improvements to Edison's inventions.
A few months later, the two parted ways over a conflicting economics relationship that historians have attributed to their incredibly different personalities: while Edison was a power figure focused on marketing and financial success, Tesla was commercial and aloof and vulnerable.
First solo company
In 1885 Tesla received funding for the Tesla Electric Light Company and was commissioned by its investors to develop improved arc lighting. However, after this was successful, Tesla was pushed out of the company and had to work as a manual laborer for a time to survive.
His luck would change two years later when he received funding for his new Tesla Electric Company.
Inventions
Over the course of his career, Tesla discovered, designed, and developed ideas for a number of important inventions—most of which were officially patented by other inventors—including dynamos (electric generators similar to batteries) and the induction motor.
He was also a pioneer in discovering radar technology, X-ray technology, remote control and the rotating magnetic field - the basis of most AC machines. Tesla is best known for his contributions to alternating current and for the Tesla coil.
AC electrical system
Tesla designed the alternating current (AC) electrical system, which would quickly become the pre-eminent power system of the 20th century and has remained the world standard ever since. In 1887 Tesla found funding for his new Tesla Electric Company, and by the end of the year he had successfully filed several patents for AC-based inventions.
Tesla's AC system soon caught the attention of American engineer and businessman George Westinghouse, who was looking for a solution to bring long-distance electricity to the nation. Convinced that Tesla's inventions would help him, he purchased his patents in 1888 for $60,000 in cash and Westinghouse Corporation stock.
As interest in an AC system grew, Tesla and Westinghouse were placed in direct competition with Thomas Edison, who intended to sell his direct current (DC) system to the nation. A negative press campaign was soon waged by Edison to undermine interest in AC.
Unfortunately for Edison, the Westinghouse Corporation was selected to supply the lighting for the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and Tesla conducted demonstrations of his AC system there.
hydroelectric power station
In 1895, Tesla designed one of the first AC hydroelectric power plants in the United States at Niagara Falls.
The following year it was used to power the city of Buffalo, New York - a feat that garnered much attention around the world and helped propel AC power's journey into the world's power system.
Tesla-Spule
In the late 19th century, Tesla patented the Tesla Coil, which laid the foundation for wireless technology and is still used in radio communications today. The Tesla coil is the heart of an electrical circuit and an inductor that was used in many early radio transmission antennas.
The coil works with a capacitor to resonate current and voltage from a power source across the circuit. Tesla himself used his coil to study fluorescence, X-rays, radio, wireless energy, and electromagnetism in the Earth and its atmosphere.
Free energy
Obsessed with wireless power transmission, in the 1900s Tesla began work on his boldest project yet: building a global, wireless communications system — to be transmitted across a large power pole — to share information and provide free power around the world.
With funding from a group of investors that included the financial giantJP MorganIn 1901, Tesla began work on the Free Energy Project in earnest, designing and building a laboratory with a power plant and a massive transmission tower on a site on Long Island, New York that came to be known as Wardenclyffe.
However, his investors had doubts about the plausibility of Tesla's system. As his rivalGuglielmo Marconi— with financial support fromAndrew Carnegieand Thomas Edison - continued to make great strides with their own radio technologies, Tesla had no choice but to abandon the project.
Wardenclyffe's staff were dismissed in 1906, and by 1915 the site had entered foreclosure. Two years later, Tesla filed for bankruptcy and the tower was dismantled and scrapped to pay off its accumulated debt.
death ray
After suffering a nervous breakdown after completing his free energy project, Tesla eventually returned to work, primarily as a consultant.
But over time, his ideas became more and more outlandish and impractical. He became increasingly eccentric and devoted much of his time caring for wild pigeons in the parks ofNew York City.
Tesla has even attracted attentionFBIwith his talk of building a powerful "death ray" that had received some interest from the sidesSoviet UnionwhileSecond World War.
How did Nikola Tesla die?
Poor and withdrawn, Tesla died of coronary thrombosis on January 7, 1943 at the age of 86 in New York City, where he had lived for almost 60 years.
However, the legacy of the work Tesla left behind lives on to this day. In 1994, a street sign reading "Nikola Tesla Corner" was installed near the site of his former New York laboratory at the intersection of 40th Street and 6th Avenue.
Movies about Tesla
Several films have highlighted Tesla's life and famous works, notably:
- The Mystery of Nikola Tesla, a 1980 biographical film starringOrson Wellesas J.P. Morgan.
- Nikola Tesla, the genius who lit the world, a 1994 documentary film produced by theTesla Memorial Societyand theNikola-Tesla-Museumin Belgrade, Serbia.
- The prestige, a 2006 feature film about two wizards directed byChristopher nolan, with rock starDavid Bowierepresent Tesla.
Tesla Motors and the electric car
2003 Formation of a group of engineersTesla Motors, a car company named after Tesla dedicated to building the first all-electric car. entrepreneur and engineerElon Muskcontributed over $30 million to Tesla in 2004 and serves as the company's co-founder and CEO.
In 2008, Tesla introduced its first electric car, the Roadster. As a high-performance sports car, the roadster helped change perceptions of what electric cars could be. In 2014, Tesla released the Model S, a more affordable model that set the 2017 Motor Trend world record for a 0-60 mph acceleration of 2.28 seconds.
Tesla's designs showed that an electric car could have the same performance as gasoline-powered sports car brands like Porsche and Lamborghini.
Tesla Science Center und Wardenclyffe
Ownership of the Wardenclyffe property has passed through numerous hands since Tesla originally abandoned its free energy project. Several attempts were made to preserve it, but efforts to have it declared a National Historic Site failed in 1967, 1976, and 1994.
Then, in 2008, a group called TheTesla Science Center(TSC) was formed with the intention of purchasing the property and converting it into a museum dedicated to the inventor's work.
In 2009, the Wardenclyffe site came on the market for nearly $1.6 million, and over the next several years, TSC worked diligently to raise funds for the purchase. Public interest in the project peaked in 2012 when Matthew Inman ofTheOatmeal.comworked with the TSC on an internet fundraiser and eventually raised enough donations to purchase the site in May 2013.
Work on its restoration is still ongoing, and the site is closed to the public "for the foreseeable future" for safety and conservation reasons, according to the Tesla Science Center.
- Name: Nikola Tesla
- Year of birth: 1856
- Date of Birth: July 10, 1856
- Place of birth: Smiljan
- Country of birth: Croatia
- Gender Male
- Best Known For: Nikola Tesla was a scientist whose inventions include the Tesla coil, alternating current (AC), and the discovery of the rotating magnetic field.
- The industry
- technology and engineering
- Star sign Cancer
- schools
- The Polytechnic Institute (Graz, Austria)
- Realschule, Karlstadt (renamed Johann-Rudolph-Glauber Realschule Karlstadt)
- University of Prague
- nationalities
- Serbian
- Croatian or Croatian (Croatia)
- Interesting facts
- Tesla developed the alternating current (AC) electrical system, which remains the dominant electrical system used worldwide today.
- Tesla also created the "Tesla coil," which is still used in radio engineering today.
- Tesla and Thomas Edison became fierce competitors, but in the end Edison prevailed during her lifetime.
- Year of death: 1943
- Date of Death: January 7, 1943
- State of Death: New York
- City of Death: New York
- Country of Death: United States
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- Article title: Biography of Nikola Tesla
- Author: Publisher of Biography.com
- Website Name: The Biography.com Website
- URL: https://www.biography.com/inventors/nikola-tesla
- access date:
- Publisher: A&E; TV channel
- Last updated: January 7, 2022
- Original release date: April 2, 2014
- Our virtues and our weaknesses are inseparable, like strength and matter. When they separate, the human is no more.
- I don't think you can name many great inventions made by married men.
- Today's scientists think deeply instead of clearly. You have to be sane to think clearly, but you can think deep and be pretty crazy.