Nikola Tesla Turns 161

Little Nikkie Tesla was born July 10, 1856 in Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He grew up there and attended college in Austria. In 1884 he moved to the United States where his fame really started to grow. After working for Thomas Edison’s Edison Machine Works company for a few tumultuous months, Tesla ventured out on his own to pursue several ideas that were shelved by his previous employer. After his separation from Edison, Tesla found different partners, including the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company, to continue funding his work.

Nikola Tesla circa 1896 (Image source: Wikimedia Commons)

On his birthday, it’s only appropriate to recognize his accomplishments, many of which were innovative and groundbreaking. Some of his inventions include the Alternating Current (AC) induction motor, a wireless lighting system (lights energized with power transmitted through the air), the Tesla coil, the steam-powered oscillating generator (AC generator), X-Ray imaging, radio remote control, wireless power, and the bladeless turbine.

Tesla spent his later years working more on theory than on practical devices. He even started having his own annual birthday press conferences in 1931 to present some the things he was working on. For instance, he theorized that the application of electricity to the brain could enhance intelligence. There was a preliminary plan to wire the walls of a school classroom in New York to saturate the room with infinitesimal amounts of “electric waves vibrating at high frequency;” it was tested in Stockholm classrooms with nothing but good results. Other ideas postulated by Tesla include radar, a biplane that could take off vertically and then fly conventionally once airborne (VTOL), and a “death ray” which was basically a particle accelerator that shot slugs of tungsten through a tube designed to use millions of volts to charge and direct these slugs.

Nikola Tesla’s main driving force throughout his life was his pursuit to perfect wireless power transmission. He envisioned wireless power transmission over great distances. Today we can only transmit power over very short distances. This technology is used mostly to charge portable devices through wireless transmitters and receivers.

Technology has advanced tremendously in the years since Tesla’s death. It makes me wonder what he could have invented today with access to all the high-tech resources currently available. Maybe he could’ve revolutionized the world as we know it, again.

References:

1 – Wikipedia’s “Nikola Tesla” entry accessed 7/6/2017

2 – Tesla Memorial Society of New York website access 7/6/2017