In an article by Lindsey Williams*, a columnist for over 25 newspapers, he states that: "With respect to Thomas A. Edison, Nikola Tesla was an equal, if not greater, inventor." Nikola Tesla was an amazing inventor whose inventions were way ahead of his time. He could envision inventions in his mind and make the invention based on what he has envisioned. Nikola Tesla's genius mind and inventions helped America to become the technologically advanced country it is today.
Whiz Kid
Nikola Tesla was born on July 9, 1856, at midnight, in Croatia. At school, Tesla excelled at math and science and was at the top in his class. He could figure out hard and lengthy calculus problems instantly. He learned many different languages including French, German, and English. He also memorized the complete works of Goethe and Voltaire.
When he was fifteen he went to Austrian Polytechnic School at Graz. A while later he went to the University of Prague in Czechoslovakia. After his father died, he left the university, not obtaining a degree. During the next few years he started building prototypes of his new wireless Alternating current system (AC system).
Looking For A Job
According to the IEEE** (Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers), the company that took over the company that Tesla worked for, stated, "In 1884 he went to the United States to promote his new AC motor. He arrived in New York with the working knowledge of a dozen languages, a book of poetry, four cents, and an introduction to Thomas Edison." He worked for Edison for a year, improving his direct current (DC) system, but quit after Edison wouldn't pay him the promised amount of money. At this time he went through a period of hardship, having to do day labor and odd jobs just to get some money.
AC DC Wars
About three years later Tesla had gained enough money to form his own lab. He also gained patents to his whole AC system. George Westinghouse, an inventor in Pittsburgh, PA, noticed Nikola Tesla's unique invention and offered to buy it for a million dollars plus royalty payments of one dollar per horsepower of electricity produced. Stunned, Nikola Tesla accepted the contract without hesitation. While Tesla was working with Westinghouse he made many inventions.
The AC system Tesla invented started a war between Tesla and Edison. It was called, "The Current Wars." According to u-s-history.com***, Edison, "being more famous and better connected, fought to discredit Tesla's inventions. Tesla won the most important battles, but Edison won the propaganda war. That may explain why relatively little is written or taught about Tesla to this day." Still, Tesla's AC system is still used to this day instead of Edison's DC system.
Some of Tesla's other inventions include the Tesla coil, an air-core transformer, the speedometer on our cars we use today, and also the ignition for the car. He also converted a regular gas car into an electric powered car. The same article by Lindsey Williams* states that, "During World War One, Tesla proposed bouncing radio waves off of enemy planes to learn of their approach. But it wasn't until World War Two that radar was introduced." Tesla even built a 200-kilowatt transmitting tower that produced a powerful bolt of lightning, which knocked out the city's electrical generator.
In Memory Of A Great Inventor
Nikola Tesla died in 1943 in New York, with most of his ideas and knowledge dying with him. All of his papers and notebooks were confiscated by the United States government and classified as "top secret." He created thousands of inventions and patented over 750 of them, most of them being ahead of his time. Though little is said or taught about him, his inventions still live on today. Because of his outstanding inventions and creative ideas, Nikola Tesla was definitely a genius who rocked the technological world.
