My Tesla Report
Nikola Tesla was perhaps one of the most brilliant men ever to walk this Earth. If he did not come to invent his many inventions we probably would not have some great things we have today. Most of his widely known inventions such as the radio, are not credited to him. When he first came to America he started work with Thomas Edison for a while but soon Tesla left because he did not think Edison was a real inventor.
Today he is not known very widely yet there are some books about him with many Internet sites. The people that know Tesla would probably think of him as the modern Leonardo da Vinci for his outrageous inventions and claims made in his time.
On July 9, 1856, in Smiljan, Croatia a wise man that changed the world was born. His name, Nikola Tesla. His father was a clergyman in the Greek Church. After realizing what he wanted to do for life he attended the Polytechnic School of Gratz. After leaving the school he went to a telephone company in Prague and Paris, and worked as a telephone engineer.
In 1884, Tesla left Europe and immigrated to the United States. When he got to America he quickly became employed by Edison, but quit unhappily because they shared different views on how to run projects and established his own lab. While in his lab, he developed the Alternating Current electrical path (AC), used in homes today. However, this resulted in a problem. How was a motor supposed to run on a current that changed direction 60 times a second? Tesla quickly solved this problem by obtaining patents on his polyphase motors, dynamos, and transformers which he invented while back in Europe. Also, in his lab he used Fluorescent bulbs about 40 years before industries started producing this type of bulb. The first neon lights were seen at the World’s Fairs and other exhibitions in the shape of famous scientists’ names.
At this time in Tesla life he developed a hydro-power plant, which he designed, built in Niagara Falls. He also received his patent for the car speedometer. News quickly spread about Nikola, and it reached the ears of George Westinghouse. George Westinghouse quickly wrote up a contract that gave Tesla $2.50 for each kilowatt sold from AC power. Tesla now had the money but Edison had a lot of money invested in Direct Current system (DC), so he tried to start rumors that AC was unsafe and costly. Tesla then did what he had to, he explained to the people that DC would need huge wires and a power plant for every square mile just to power homes and businesses. All that AC needed was reasonable size wires, sub-stations, and transformers. Then, to show that AC was safe he allowed AC electricity to pass through his body, at high frequencies, and power light bulbs he was holding. To make an even better event he shoots bolts of electricity, using his Tesla Coil, into the crowd without harming them.
Just after the U.S. started excepting the AC system, Tesla received about one million dollars from Westinghouse for the energy that was sold, but Westinghouse was running into financial trouble. Tesla rushed to Westinghouse and tore up his contract. The real reason for Tesla inventing AC was so electricity could be produced cheaply. So instead of becoming the world’s first billionaire, he was paid $216,600 outright for his patents.
In 1898 at Madison Square Garden, Tesla demonstrated the world’s first remote controlled model boat, which lead to the invention of remote controlled planes, cars, boats, and eventually televisions. In 1900, Tesla’s dream of free energy to the world almost became true. Given $150,000 by J.P. Morgan, Tesla began construction on the Wardencliff Tower at Shoreham in Long Island, New York. The original intent for the tower was to link the worlds telephone/telegraph services, transmitting pictures, stock reports, and weather information worldwide. Unfortunately, Morgan stopped funding when he found out that Tesla really did mean FREE energy.
There have been many stories about the demolition of the tower in March 1915. One claim that the U.S. government destroyed it because they feared the Germans were using the tower to send information back to Germany, and the U-boat spies used it as a Landmark to navigate by. The real reason was Tesla ran out of money and sold it for scrap metal. The U.S. population felt that Tesla was nuts for wanting to send things with the tower. The tower supplied the principle of the radio, yet ten years later Marconi supposedly invented the radio.
In Tesla’s Manhattan lab he experimented with the power of resonance. Tesla attached a powerful little vibrator driven by air compression. Tesla left it there and went about his business. Moments later the buildings down the street shook, plaster fell, and machinery broke off its anchorage. The neighborhood called the police and as the department burst into the lab Tesla was seen smashing a device with a sledge hammer. Which only helped Tesla’s theory that the Earth could be split in half be using the certain frequency.
Tesla attempted another Earth experiment in his Colorado Springs lab. He sent waves of energy all the way though the Earth. The waves bounced back to the source, adding electricity, and BANG. The largest man-made lightning bolt ever recorded was created, a whopping 130 feet that remains unbroken. Heard 22 miles away, it left a blue glow surrounding the meadow. This was just a test, unfortunately he blew out the local power plant’s equipment when he tried again.
At the beginning of World War I, the government needed a way to detect German submarines. The government thought that Edison could produce a machine that could help. Tesla suggested Edison use energy waves to detect the ships. Once again he rejected the idea and the world would not receive radar for another 25 years.
For Tesla’s life long inventions and experiments he was given the prized Edison Medal. A real knife in the back After all the abuse he took from Edison. Eventually on January 7, 1943, Tesla died alone in his bed from Coronary thrombus at about 10:30 P.M. At the age of 86 Tesla died alone feeding the pigeons nearby his lab. Dying penniless the way he came to the U.S. However that same year the Supreme Court ruled Marconi’s patent for the radio invalid, and Tesla gained full credit to the radio. All together Tesla received over 800 patents, and he may have exceeded Edison’s record if he was not always broke.
Tesla still has some lost inventions that are fascinating and strange. Tesla’s phenomenal disk-turbine rotary engine had no blades. The turbine can run on steam, compressed air, gasoline, oil, and water pressure. It could also be use a pump, and ran with low vibration. Tesla built many different kinds of spark-gap oscillators which enhanced AC. Lighting was a concern to Tesla and he worked on lights where the electricity jumps from one spot to another creating pure light. When he came to the U.S. he brought many things including a transportation device that could fly and only contained electric engines.
Nikola Tesla was a man of great mind, yet he did not have the power to create all his imageries like Edison could. If only he had we might be calling him the man who invented the modern age. Perhaps he was the really father of the modern age, and all Tesla was provide the world with free energy.
"Electric power is everywhere present in unlimited quantities
and can drive the world’s machinery without the need of coal,
oil, gas, or and other fuels." Nikola Tesla
