Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist. He is known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating-current electricity supply system. This photograph, taken in Tesla's laboratory in Colorado Springs in December 1899, supposedly shows him reading in a chair next to his giant "magnifying transmitter" high-voltage generator while the machine produces huge bolts of electricity. The image was created through a double exposure as part of a promotional stunt by the photographer Dickenson V. Alley. The machine's huge sparks were first photographed in the darkened room, then the photographic plate was exposed again with the machine off and Tesla sitting in the chair. Tesla admitted that the photograph was false in his book Colorado Springs Notes, 1899–1900. Regardless of the above trickery, he's still a hero in my eyes.
Tesla is a romantic figure, similar to Edison, who lived in a simpler time, when 5% of the population had access to higher education. As far as I'm concerned, his greatest achievement, like that of Edison, was showing what you could do on your own outside of academia. Those days are gone. The greatest modern inventor in the US, has complained he has to spend half his time in court.
Tesla always puzzled me. Apart from AC, most of his work would have been more at home at a circus. He sort of invented 3 phase, but used 6 wires rather than a delta configuration, that would have saved 50% of the cable along with reversing any to wires to reverse the kinetic direction. This would have allowed his invention to run cranes and lifts. People often claim that he invented radio, but without modulating the amplitude (AM) or frequency (FM) all that he could have transmitted was a hum. His concept of running AC through the ground was nothing short of barmy. By definition voltage is potential difference, so if you run one side through the ground, what is it different to. Without a cable system, how do you synchronise alternators, or did he think that a single alternator would power the entire planet. He sort of invented the transformer, but no means of tapping the secondary windings to provide constant voltage against variable current. So in my conclusion, flamboyant showman 10 out of 10. Competent electrical engineer 2 out of 10.
Yes, but he was a gentleman... or some said. Sad ending...I gather the pigeons in the park enjoyed his company.
Now I am worried. While Jane and the girls are in the house screaming at each other about life in the fast lane, you could quite often find me down the garden feeding the birds.
He was a Serbian, but not from Serbia. He was from modern day Croatia, then a constituent of the Austro-Ungarian empire. There are whole wars here with both countries appropriating him. He himself famously claimed to be, quote "proud of his Serbian ancestry and Croatian homeland". As for him as an inventor and scientist - he was not a scientist at all, what little hi did there was bad and heavily outdated. As an inventor he was interesting, but I feel a bit over-mythologised, and a big element in his status was probably due to pushing him as some sort of propaganda tool for the new industry.
