We explain who Nikola Tesla was, what his life was like and his main contributions. Also, what are his characteristics, his awards and more.
Tesla was a pioneering genius in numerous technological areas.
Who was Nikola Tesla?
Nikola Tesla was an engineer, scientist and inventor of Serbian originfamous for his numerous contributions to the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
It is considered one of the pioneering geniuses of numerous technological areas such as electromechanical engineering, robotics, radar, computer science, ballistics, theoretical physics and nuclear physics.
His patents and hard theoretical work laid the foundations for numerous modern technological systems such as polyphase alternating current transmission and the alternating current motor, key to the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the West.
In recent times, his eccentric character and the story of his famous demonstration of radio communication have given him the place in popular culture of being the protagonist of numerous conspiracy theorieswhich attribute to him totally fallacious discoveries and investigations.
See also: Leonardo Da Vinci.
Biography of Nikola Tesla
Tesla Born in the Serbian village of Smiljanthen the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Croatia. His parents were Milutin Tesla, a priest of the Orthodox Christian Church, and Duka Mandici, a housewife and self-taught scientist who developed household appliances in her spare time.
The family moved to the town of Gospic in 1862.where young Nikola was able to begin his studies, which he completed before the established time thanks to his great photographic memory.
During his childhood He suffered from a strange illness that caused visual flashes and hallucinations, often triggered by ideas or as a solution to problems that had been posed to him.
In 1880 He worked in Budapest in a telegraph company, of which he was chief electrician and where he met a young Serbian inventor named Nebojša Petrović with whom he undertook his first projects. He then traveled to Paris, where he joined one of Thomas Edison’s companies and later to New York, where he worked directly with the American genius.
Later years of Nikola Tesla
Tesla worked in his company with George Westinghouse.
In 1886 Tesla He founded his own company: Tesla Electric Light & ManufacturingHowever, some disagreements from investors regarding certain projects for the development of an alternating current motor led them to throw him out of his own company.
That did not stop him and during the following years he developed the greatest inventions of his life, working with George Westinghouse in your company.
In 1891 he became an American citizen and He set up his laboratory in New York. A year later the first patents were granted to him and later he was elected vice president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE). It was the first of many laboratories and projects that he would lead in the United States.
Nikola Tesla Personality
Tesla fought with Guillermo Marconi over the patents for the creation of the radio.
tesla He was educated in Orthodox Christianity, but throughout his life he felt inclination and true respect for other religions such as Buddhism and Catholicism. In some of his notes, his interest in finding common ground between science and religion is evident, as well as a certain fascination with understanding the unknown.
People say that He did not draw plans of any kind, but memorized everythingrelying only on his head. This played against him when it came to fighting over the patents for the invention of the radio, disputed with Guillermo Marconi, among many others that were taken away from him, since Tesla felt a profound contempt for legal and business matters.
Tesla probably suffered from OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) that motivated him to be totally dedicated to his projects, even going so far as to not sleep on the days when he felt most inspired. He was not known to have a partner.
Main contributions of Nikola Tesla
Electromagnetism was one of Tesla’s major discoveries.
Tesla’s greatest contributions have to do with the following fields:
- Electromagnetism. Tesla’s great work had to do with the conduction of electricity, the management of alternating electricity, and the wireless transmission of energy. His achievements in the construction of alternating current motors, high voltage experiments, and electric field measurements were pioneering.
- Radiation. He experimented with
- Physics of gases. The liquefaction of air was one of Tesla’s goals, since he knew from Lord Kelvin’s experiments that this process could be used to absorb energy for cooling purposes.
Inventions and discoveries of Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla invented the remote control.
Tesla is officially credited with the following inventions:
- The wireless transfer of electrical energy, using electromagnetic waves.
- Alternating current.
- Direct energy weapons (an electrically powered “death ray” that was ruled out by the US government because it was too expensive)
- Radio.
- Theoretical principles of radar.
- Spark plugs for ignition of combustion engines.
- Radio direction finder.
- The “Tesla Coil”, a resonant transformer.
- The remote control.
- The polyphase induction motor.
- The “Teslascope”, a receiver of extraplanetary waves.
Relationship with Thomas Edison
Edison refused to pay Tesla for his work.
His relationship with Thomas Edison was strained. They worked together when Tesla arrived in the United States in 1884. and he was tasked with redesigning the direct current generators of Edison’s company, in exchange for a payment of 50,000 US dollars at the time (about 1.1 million today).
However, once the work is finished, Edison refused to pay himtelling him that he “didn’t understand American humor.”
Tesla He resigned from his job at the company shortly after. And thus began a war between the two scientists, known as the “war of the currents” since Edison defended the direct current and Tesla advocated the superiority of the alternating current.
Nikola Tesla’s hidden inventions
Numerous secret or hidden inventions are attributed to Tesla. have been found in his laboratory after his death and confiscated by the US government.
Among them fantastic machines appear like a UFOdevices to extract electrical energy from nothing and the first hydroelectric power plant is erroneously attributed to him, among other inventions.
References to Nikola Tesla in culture
Miro Besic plays Tesla in one of his many biographical films.
Tesla and his peculiar life have been the subject of artistic representations such as films The secret of Nikola Tesla (1980), Tesla (1993, TV), The lightning master (2000), The visionary (2005), The Tesla Engine (2015) or tesla (2015). A documentary was also made about his life: Tesla in 2014.
Nikola Tesla Awards and Recognitions
The only award Tesla received during his lifetime was, ironically, The Edison Medal, the highest award of the IEEEafter Edison’s intrigues and the injustice of the radio patent case disputed with Marconi twice robbed him of his nomination for the Nobel Prize in physics.
However, The name Tesla was used by the International System to measure magnetic induction, a lunar crater, a minor planet (2244) and the most important scientific dissemination award in Spanish were named after him.
Death of Nikola Tesla
tesla died in the United Statesat the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel, on January 7, 1943.
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