Origin. Education
Nikola Tesla, a Serb by nationality, was born in Smiljan (formerly Austria-Hungary, now Croatia). In the family of a priest. Judging by his memories, he was a rather strange child. The sight of pearls gave him cramps, the taste of peach gave him fever, and paper sheets floating in the water caused an unpleasant taste in his mouth.
The father wanted his son to become a clergyman, but from an early age Nikola was interested in nothing more than electricity and, against his father’s will, he entered the Higher Technical School in Graz (Austria), which he successfully graduated from in 1878.
1880 - studied at the University of Prague. While studying in his second year, he was struck by the idea of an induction alternating current generator. Nikola shared the idea with the professor, who considered it crazy. But such a conclusion only spurred on the young inventor.
After graduating from university, he worked as an engineer for the telephone company in Budapest until 1882, and then at the Edison company in Paris. 1882 - already there, he built a working model of an induction alternating current generator.
Alternating current
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, there was a period in the history of electrical engineering that is often called the “War of Currents.” Its meaning was the struggle between supporters of DC and AC networks, or the struggle between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla. During the struggle, Tesla and his associates were subjected to both financial and moral pressure, such as black PR and slander.
Patent No. 447921 is an alternator, which dates back to March 10, 1891. Accordingly, Nikola Tesla promoted the idea of using alternating current for power supply - it was more economically profitable, since by converting voltage values using transformers it was possible to reduce the load on long lines, for example, between cities. This allowed the use of smaller gauge wires, which significantly reduced the cost of infrastructure development. In short, alternating voltage won the war, but in the United States the last constant voltage consumer was turned off in 2007. By the way, the first large power plant was built at Niagara Falls in 1894, where 10 three-phase generators with a total capacity of 75 MW were installed. It was the brainchild of the Tesla-Westinghouse tandem. There is also a monument to the great scientist erected there.
Working for Edison
1884 - emigrated to the USA. To Thomas Edison - with recommendations from a Parisian acquaintance: “I know two great people. One of them is you, the second is this young man.”
Edison accepted a promising electrical engineer into his company, and friction immediately arose between the inventors. The main reason for the disagreement is the difference in views on the origin of electricity. Edison was an adherent of the well-known theory of “movement of charged particles,” but Tesla had a different opinion.
In his theory of electricity, the fundamental concept was the ether - a certain invisible substance that fills the entire world and transmits vibrations at a speed many times greater than the speed of light. Every millimeter of space, Tesla believed, is saturated with boundless, infinite energy, which you just need to be able to extract.
Until now, physicists have not been able to interpret Tesla’s views on physical reality. And the theory of ether itself was recognized as unscientific.
Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison
In 1884, Tesla arrived in the United States with nothing more than his clothes and a letter of introduction to famed inventor and business magnate Thomas Edison, whose DC-based electrical installations were quickly becoming the national standard. Edison hired Tesla, and soon the two men worked tirelessly together, improving Edison's inventions. A few months later, they parted ways due to conflicting business and scientific relationships that historians attribute to their incredibly different personalities: while Edison was a powerful figure focused on marketing and financial success, Tesla was commercially inaccessible and vulnerable.
Myth or reality?
"Earthquake Machine"
Tesla’s mysterious invention, which was debated by his followers for a long time, was the “Earthquake Machine,” which operated on electromagnetic waves, as she assumed, could cause natural disasters anywhere on our planet. According to legend, it was this machine that caused the earthquake in New York in 1908, which destroyed the researcher’s laboratory. Nikola destroyed this machine himself because he saw the real danger it poses to humanity.
Superweapon
About the creation of a superweapon, the scientist said: “I am obliged to create a machine that is capable of destroying one or more armies with one action.”
It is believed that Tesla never managed to invent this weapon. Although, this is only the official version. Many researchers believe that the Tunguska meteorite that fell in Siberia more than 100 years ago is nothing more than a test of a new superweapon of a genius. In support of this hypothesis, it is known that many who visited Tesla’s laboratory saw a map of Siberia on his wall, including the area in which the explosion occurred. In addition, in one of the articles - published a few months before the explosion on Tunguska, the scientist himself wrote: “...Even now, my wireless energy installations are capable of turning any area of the world into an area unsuitable for habitation...”.
Earth-lamp
1914 - scientists were proposed a project according to which the entire globe, together with the atmosphere, was to become a huge lamp. To do this, you just need to pass a high-frequency current through the upper layers of the atmosphere, and they will glow. However, the researcher did not explain how to do this, although he repeatedly stated that he did not see any difficulty in this.
Conversations with spirits
A letter from Tesla to one of his friends has been preserved. Nikola claimed that while studying high-frequency currents, he came across something amazing: “I discovered a thought. And soon you will be able to personally read your poems to Homer, and I will be able to discuss my discoveries with Archimedes himself.”
By the way, Tesla’s sworn enemy, Edison, also made attempts to contact the other world.
Philadelphia experiment
One of the most famous rumors associated with the name of Tesla is the disappearance of the destroyer Eldridge. Allegedly, before the Second World War, the researcher began to collaborate with the US Navy, creating an “invisibility screen” for ships for enemy radars. The scientist himself did not have a chance to conduct the experiment - he died on January 7, 1943, but 10 months later, on the destroyer Eldridge, the military, using Tesla generators, “inflated an electromagnetic bubble.” But an unexpected effect emerged. The ship became invisible not only to radar, but also to human vision. He disappeared, and then was allegedly discovered two hundred kilometers from the place where the experiment was carried out. All members of the destroyer's crew suffered severe mental disorders.
Unprecedented ways of transmitting energy
He began to develop new, unprecedented ways of transmitting energy. How do we connect electrical appliances to the network? A plug - i.e. two conductors (wires). If you connect only one, there will be no current - the circuit is not closed. And the inventor demonstrated power transmission through one conductor. Or no wires at all.
During his lecture on the high-frequency electromagnetic field to scientists at the Royal Academy, he turned on and off the electric motor remotely, and the light bulbs in his hands lit up by themselves. Some didn’t even have a spiral—just an empty flask. It was 1892!
At the end of the lecture, physicist John Rayleigh invited Tesla into his office and solemnly said, pointing to a chair: “Please sit down. This is the great Faraday's chair. After his death, no one sat in it.”
1895 - Westinghausen commissioned the world's largest hydroelectric power station, Niagara. Powerful generators of the brilliant inventor worked on it. At the same time, Nikola Tesla designed a number of radio-controlled self-propelled mechanisms - “teleautomata”. At Madison Square Garden he demonstrated remote control of small boats.
Radio and remote control
Historically, the discovery of radio belongs to the Italian Guglielmo Marconi (patent for the invention - 1905, and the first connection between the continents - 1901) and the Russian engineer Popov. However, in 1897, Nikola Tesla patented the first radio receiver and transmitter. The Italian engineer took his development as a basis and in 1904 Tesla was deprived of the right to the invention.
Biographers associate this with the inventor’s confrontation with Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie, who did not recognize his discoveries and ideas, trying in every possible way to discredit the inventions. It is interesting that the first criminal executed by electricity was executed by alternating current, thus the rival popularizers of direct current Edison and Carnegie “threw a stone in the garden” to supporters of alternating current Tesla, Westinghouse and others. By 1943, the US Supreme Court recognized the genius's contribution to the development of radio.
However, at the electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden in 1898, Nikola Tesla presented a submarine controlled by remote control.
Colorado Springs
At the end of the 19th century, a tower with a large copper sphere on top was built for Tesla's experiments in Colorado Springs. There, the inventor generated potentials that were discharged by lightning arrows up to 40 meters long. The experiments were accompanied by thunderclaps. A huge ball of light glowed around the tower. Passers-by on the streets shied away in fear, watching in fear as sparks jumped between their feet and the ground. Horses received electric shocks from iron horseshoes. Butterflies, too, “were helplessly spinning in circles on their wings, beating with streams of blue halos.” Metal objects shone with “St. Elmo’s fire.”
This whole electrical phantasmagoria was not staged to scare people. The purpose of the experiments was different: 200 light bulbs lit up at once 25 miles from the tower. The electric charge was transmitted wirelessly through the ground.
Project Wardenclyffe
Finally, high-profile experiments in Colorado Springs destroyed the generator at the local power plant, and he had a chance to return to New York, where in 1900, on behalf of the banker John Pierpont Morgan, the scientist took on the construction of the World Wireless Energy Transmission Station. The project was based on the idea of resonant buildup of the ionosphere, the participation of 2 thousand people was envisaged and was called “Wardenclyffe”. Construction of a huge scientific town began on Long Island.
The main structure was a frame tower 57 m high with a huge copper “plate” on top - a giant amplifying transmitter. And with a steel shaft that went 36 m deep into the ground. 1905 - a test launch of an unprecedented structure took place, it produced a stunning effect. “Tesla lit up the sky over the ocean for thousands of miles,” the newspapers wrote.
The scientist intended to build a second tower - to transmit powerful energy flows without wires - at Niagara Falls.
However, the project required huge costs. All the money of the inventor himself fell into this pit. And Morgan realized that the superstation was unlikely to provide commercial benefits. Moreover, on December 12, 1900, Marconi sent the first transatlantic signal from English Cornwall to Canada. His communication system turned out to be more promising.
Although Nikola built the first wave radio transmitter in 1893 , years ahead of Marconi (in 1943 the US Supreme Court confirmed Tesla's priority), he admitted to Morgan that he was not interested in communications, but in the wireless transmission of energy to any point on the Earth.
Work in America
In 1884 he returned to Paris, where he was refused payment of the promised bonus. Insulted, Tesla quits his job and decides to go to America. Arrives in New York on July 6. Gets a job at Edison Machine Works as a repair engineer for electric motors and DC generators.
Tesla hopes to devote himself to his favorite work - creating new machines, but the inventor's creative ideas irritate Edison. An argument took place between them. If the opponent lost, the emigrant was supposed to receive almost a million American dollars. Tesla won the argument by presenting 24 variations of Edison's invention. Citing that the dispute was a joke, Thomas Edison did not give any money.
The inventor quits and becomes unemployed. In order to somehow survive, he digs ditches and accepts donations. During this period, he met engineer Brown, through whose light hand interested people learned about the scientist’s ideas. A laboratory is rented for Nikola on Fifth Avenue, which later becomes the Tesla Arc Light Company, which produces arc lamps for street lighting.
In the summer of 1888, Tesla began cooperation with the American George Westinghouse. The industrialist buys several patents and a batch of arc lamps from the inventor. Realizing that he has a genius in front of him, he buys out almost all the patents and invites him to work in the laboratory of his own company. Tesla refuses, realizing that this will limit freedom.
Nikola Tesla in his laboratory
In the most fruitful years 1888-1895, the scientist explored high-frequency magnetic fields. The American Institute of Electrical Engineers invites him to give a lecture. The performance in front of electrical engineers was an unprecedented success.
In 1895, on March 13, the laboratory on Fifth Avenue burned to the ground. His latest inventions were also destroyed in the fire. The scientist said that he was ready to restore everything from memory. The Niagara Falls Company provided financial support of $100,000. Tesla was able to start working in the new laboratory in the fall.
After the project
However, this was not part of Morgan's plans, and his funding was stopped. And with the outbreak of World War I, the US government, concerned about the possible use of the tower by enemy spies, decided to blow it up.
Scientists predicted the possibility of treating patients with high-frequency current, the appearance of an electric furnace, a fluorescent lamp, and an electron microscope.
The squares and streets of New York were illuminated by arc lamps designed by Tesla. Enterprises worked on its electric motors, rectifiers, electric generators, transformers, and high-frequency equipment. Although Marconi received the first patent in the field of radio, many of his applications were rejected because Nikola Tesla managed to obtain a lot of patents for improvements in radio equipment.
Free energy
Fascinated by wireless power transmission, around 1900 Tesla began work on his most daring project: building a global wireless communications system, transmitted through a large electrical tower, to exchange information and provide free energy throughout the world.
With financial backing from a group of investors that included financial giant JP Morgan, Tesla began work on the free energy project in earnest in 1901, designing and building a laboratory with a power plant and a massive transmission tower on Long Island, New York. , which became known as Wardenclyffe.
However, his investors had doubts about the plausibility of Tesla's system. As his rival Guglielmo Marconi—with financial backing from Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison—continued to make great strides with his own radio technology, Tesla had no choice but to abandon the project. Wardenclyffe staff were dismissed in 1906 and the site was repossessed by 1915. Two years later, Tesla declared bankruptcy and the tower was dismantled and sold for scrap to pay off accumulated debts.
Amazing experiences
1917 - Tesla proposed the principle of operation of a device for radio detection of submarines.
1931 - a scientist demonstrated a strange car to the public. The gasoline engine was removed from the luxury limousine and an electric motor was installed. After which the inventor, in front of the public, placed a nondescript box under the hood, with two rods sticking out of it, and connected it to the engine. Saying, “Now we have energy,” he got behind the wheel and drove off.
The car was tested for a week. It reached speeds of up to 150 km/h and, apparently, did not need recharging at all. Everyone asked the scientist: “Where does energy come from?” He answered: “From the ether.” We would probably be driving cars with perpetual motion now if those early viewers had not started talking about evil spirits. The angry inventor took the mysterious box out of the car and took it to the laboratory. Its mystery has not been solved to this day.
Death
Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943 at the age of 86, from heart failure. Shortly before his death, the scientist fell under the wheels of a car and suffered broken ribs. Due to complications, pneumonia began and he went to bed. Even when he was very sick, Nikola did not let anyone in and was alone in his hotel room. So he died alone. The body was discovered only two days after death.
Many newspapers in those days wrote that the death of the scientist could have been rigged by those whom he might have crossed the path of with his inventions, or by those who might have been offended by Tesla’s refusal to cooperate.
The urn containing the ashes was placed in Fairncliffe Cemetery in New York. Later it will be moved to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.
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He was assigned clairvoyant abilities, claiming that Tesla saved the lives of his friends by persuading them not to board the train, which derailed that same day. He lived in relative poverty, although he could have become the richest man on the planet.
And it is quite obvious that if his contemporaries took his inventions seriously, then it is quite likely that you and I would now live in a different world - and the phrase “another world” could be interpreted literally. After all, Nikola Tesla really was ahead of his time and was a real “man not from here.”
