Buzz
One clear indicator of success: your face is featured on currency. In Tesla's case, he graces the 100 Serbian dinar note, valued at roughly $1 back in 2012.
iStockphoto/ThinkStockThey say history is written by the victors, but that offers little solace for those erased from the pages. For too long, science textbooks credited electricity and light to Thomas Edison, while the true mastermind behind the electrical technologies that power the modern age remained a footnote in history, overshadowed by figures like Edward Teller and Thales of Miletus.
Before the dawn of the 20th century, electricity was still seen as a curious scientific anomaly — one that many believed would never have any practical application. But Nikola Tesla, more than anyone else, turned that notion on its head, and his groundbreaking work in electricity is only a small part of the vast scientific and technological achievements that solidified his status as a scientific deity.
Tesla didn't just build upon and revolutionize the work of those who came before him; he surged ahead, pushing the boundaries of what was possible. However, just as it's not enough to produce iconic music to become a rock legend, we believe that to be regarded as a scientific legend, one must possess certain qualities — eccentricity, vision, and a willingness to endure hardship for the sake of discovery. Nikola Tesla embodied all of these traits.
10: Recognizing Potential
During a time when the dollar reigned supreme and entrepreneurs built vast fortunes with just a few key innovations, Tesla remained focused on his work. As a result, he was both extraordinarily productive and, at times, financially struggling.
While others in the War of the Currents — the fierce contest between Tesla's and Edison's teams to determine whose electrical system would dominate — fought relentlessly for financial control and monopolies, Tesla's drive to secure funding for his next big invention always took precedence over defending his patents and intellectual property [sources: Cheney; Jonnes].
Tesla's intense dedication and visionary thinking, which benefited society, often worked against him. Unlike Edison, he didn't seek to cultivate a public persona or manipulate the media for personal gain. His work explored realms far beyond the understanding of many of his peers, and he struggled to secure funding to continue his groundbreaking research [sources: Jonnes; PBS; Secor]. For instance, Tesla proposed the idea of using high-frequency electrical waves to detect ships and submarines made of nonferrous and nonconductive materials, but the Navy rejected the idea [sources: PBS; Secor].
Before the United States entered World War I, Tesla devised a method to detect enemy ships and submarines using electromagnetic induction. Induction is the process in which a fluctuating magnetic field induces an electric current in a metallic object within its range. In turn, the currents generated in the skin of a nearby submarine would create their own magnetic fields, which would interact with the original field, potentially making the submarine detectable.
The inventor also warned about the possibility of remote-controlled aircraft without wings that could deliver explosives [sources: PBS]. In his later years, he designed and patented a concept for a V/STOL (vertical or short takeoff and landing) aircraft [sources: Cheney; PBS].
9: He Dreamed Big
Tesla was a visionary, much like any world-changing inventor. His career thrived when he could share his grand ideas with fellow innovators. In 1893, his alternating current system triumphed over Edison's direct current plan to illuminate the grand World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago (also known as the Chicago World's Fair). This moment was not just pivotal in the War of the Currents, it allowed Tesla to chase his loftiest ambitions, such as the dream of harnessing the power of Niagara Falls [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes; PBS].
Despite securing the Niagara contract, many of Tesla's supporters remained skeptical about whether his hydroelectric machines would succeed. Tesla, however, had no doubts. At the stroke of midnight, on November 16, 1896, the lights in Buffalo, N.Y., 21 miles (34 kilometers) away, were illuminated. Soon after, the system expanded to New York City, nearly 400 miles (644 kilometers) away. Tesla's youthful vision had been realized [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes; PBS].
Tesla also dreamed of using electricity to control or even influence the weather. He envisioned a global system for transmitting both power and information, an early concept of a worldwide wireless communications network [sources: Cheney and Uth; PBS]. The inventor shared his bold vision with investor J.P. Morgan, stating, "When wireless is fully applied, the Earth will be transformed into a vast brain, responding to every part of itself" [source: PBS].
As Tesla delved deeper into high-frequency electricity, his fascination with wireless energy transmission led to the creation of the Tesla coil – a device capable of producing high-frequency alternating current and radio waves [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes; PBS]. Upon realizing that the Earth itself could transmit energy, he envisioned building stations that could provide power to the entire planet [source: Jonnes].
8: Two Words: Death Ray
Apologies, did we just say "death ray"? What we actually meant was a "peace beam" that could take airplanes down from hundreds of miles in the sky and deliver a seriously rough day for infantry troops.
With the storm clouds of World War II closing in, Tesla announced that he had devised a groundbreaking "peace beam" weapon capable of ending war forever. He envisioned it as a kind of "Chinese wall," a defense mechanism that would protect national borders and prevent conflicts. However, the media had a different take: on July 11, 1934, The New York Times boldly declared, "TESLA, AT 78, BARES NEW 'DEATH BEAM.'"
The fear that a world power might develop a particle beam weapon loomed large during the Cold War, especially after some of Tesla's papers mysteriously disappeared following his death [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes; PBS; PBS].
Charged particle beams (CPBs) became well-known through Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, or the Star Wars program, though the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had been exploring them since 1958 [source: Roberds].
A charged particle beam (CPB) is a directed-energy weapon that releases pulses of charged particles to heat up and potentially destroy a target. In theory, this weapon could strike a target almost instantaneously, over vast distances, delivering fatal amounts of energy in mere seconds or even less. However, the engineering hurdles involved in creating such a weapon, particularly one capable of operating in the atmosphere, remain incredibly challenging [source: Roberds].
7: He Had a Loose Fuse or Two
So what if he had a few loose fuses? After all, he invented the Tesla coil, for heaven's sake.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Getty ImagesWhether for better or worse, eccentricity is often linked to genius, and Tesla certainly lived up to that expectation.
Some argue that Tesla built some of his most brilliant inventions, including his induction motor, entirely in his mind. In contrast to Edison, who solved problems through prototyping, trial and error, and other hands-on approaches, Tesla often received his groundbreaking ideas as sudden flashes of insight [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes].
According to Tesla himself, he experienced both visual and auditory hallucinations, as well as heightened sensitivity to vibrations and intense light [sources: Chandrasekhar; Pickover]. He also had an irrational fear of round objects, like women's pearls, and was obsessed with the number three [sources: Jonnes; Pickover].
The inventor developed a growing aversion to germs and ultimately restricted his diet to only boiled foods. This phobia was said to have started after a colleague showed him unboiled water under a microscope. In his later years, the aging scientist kept pigeons in his hotel room, but continued to dress impeccably—behaviors that led some to doubt his mental health [sources: Jonnes; PBS].
Despite his oddities, Tesla was quite adept at socializing; journalists and friends alike found him to be a charming, humble, and articulate individual.
6: He Has a Scientific Unit Named After Him
Tesla's name lives on through his eponymous SI unit, which is used to measure powerful magnetic fields, such as those found in MRI machines.
Dana Neely/Getty ImagesYou can't just expect to receive those like they're party favors, you know.
Tesla, much like Carl Friedrich Gauss, is honored with a unit of magnetic flux density in the International System of Units (SI). A tesla can also be seen as a unit of magnetic induction [source: Encyclopaedia Britannica]. There was a time when high-frequency currents were referred to as Tesla currents [source: Houston and Kennelly].
One tesla is the same as one weber per square meter, or 10,000 gauss (which is why gauss is typically used to measure weaker magnetic fields, with tesla reserved for stronger ones, like those found in MRIs). A weber represents a unit of magnetic flux, which quantifies the amount of magnetic energy "flowing" across an area, such as the surface of a magnet.
Remember when we discussed induction earlier, and how shifting magnetic fields can induce currents in a conductor? One weber represents the quantity of magnetic energy "flow" necessary to induce one volt of current in a loop of wire. It's even more precise than that: The definition specifies that the flux should drop to zero at a steady rate, all within one second [source: Encyclopaedia Britannica].
The weber is named after Wilhelm Eduard Weber, a German physicist known for his contributions to terrestrial magnetism and his invention of the electromagnetic telegraph in 1833 [source: Encyclopaedia Britannica].
5: He Was a Highly Productive Polymath
Throughout his extensive career, Tesla secured more than 111 patents in the U.S. and around 300 patents worldwide [sources: Jonnes; Šarboh].
In his exploration of high-frequency electricity and efforts to enhance Edison's light bulbs, which were only 5 percent efficient, Tesla pioneered some of the earliest neon lights. He introduced them at the same 1893 World's Fair we mentioned, shaping their tubes to form the names of notable scientists such as Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell [sources: Cheney and Uth; PBS]. He also created early fluorescent lights, which he powered wirelessly using electrostatic waves [sources: Cheney and Uth; Jonnes].
Tesla's creation and demonstration of radio-controlled vehicles earned him a spot among the pioneers of robotics. In fact, the scientist referred to his "teleautomaton" as the initial step in the creation of a race of robots, even though it lacked any programming or self-guidance, much like a modern RC car [sources: Cheney and Uth; PBS].
Tesla's innovative bladeless turbine spun at such high speeds that its component disks became distorted. Although he was never able to solve this issue, modern materials such as Kevlar, carbon-fiber, and titanium-impregnated plastics have motivated others to continue where he left off [sources: PBS].
Tesla also claimed to have captured X-ray photographs in 1896, shortly after Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of X-rays [sources: Electrical Review; PBS].
As the 20th century began, scientists were still learning about radiation and its effects. This led them to propose various strange theories and, at times, make questionable conclusions. For instance, many manufacturers started adding radium to products after radiation was found to reduce tumors [source: Blum].
Tesla was no exception; he shared in the journal Electrical Review that exposing someone's head to high levels of radiation produced warmth, a tendency to sleep, and a sense of time passing quickly. "Who knows, perhaps the X-rays will eventually rid the world of insomnia and ennui," the journal remarked [source: Electrical Review].
4: He Gave Us Radio
Radio emerged from a series of breakthroughs and discoveries, but Tesla's role in developing and perfecting its core technologies has earned him the well-deserved title of its father [sources: Jonnes; Vujovic].
The scientist's efforts in this domain stemmed from his exploration into the wireless transmission of energy — which, when you think about it, is essentially what radio represents.
Tesla not only filed the first radio patents, but he also delivered a lecture in 1893—two years ahead of Marconi's radio experiments—that explained the workings of radio broadcasting, even showcasing a demonstration of radio communication. By mid-1894, he had constructed and started testing a compact, portable radio transmission station [sources: Cheney; Jonnes].
As with his induction generator and transformer, Tesla advanced the ideas of earlier scientists but did so with unmatched foresight. While James Clerk Maxwell had predicted electromagnetic waves, and Heinrich Hertz demonstrated their transmission, it was the Tesla coil and his four tuned circuits for transmitting and receiving that truly made radio a reality. His patents describe the basic principles for radio transmission and reception that are still in use today [sources: Cheney and Uth; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Encyclopaedia Britannica; Vujovic].
Tesla also pioneered the concept of radio control, a notion he patented on November 8, 1898, and showcased at the 1898 Electrical Exhibition at Madison Square Garden [sources: Jonnes; PBS; Vujovic].
For many years, Guglielmo Marconi was hailed as the father of radio. An Italian nobleman with strong British connections and support from Edison, Marconi played a key role in the development of radio and successfully commercialized it. In 1904, he persuaded the U.S. Patent Office to award him the radio patent, despite previous rejections that acknowledged Tesla's earlier work [sources: Harkins; PBS].
It wasn’t until 1943 that the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tesla's radio patent, number 645,576, likely to avoid a lawsuit with the Marconi Company. This decision came six months after Tesla's death and 34 years after Marconi had received the Nobel Prize in physics for his contributions to radio [sources: Encyclopaedia Britannica; Harkins; PBS].
3: Two More Words: Secret Labs
Like any iconic scientist or Bond villain, a true master of science needs a hidden laboratory — preferably in a secluded location, packed with eccentric inventions. Tesla had two such places.
In 1899, Tesla set up a lab in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to explore the secrets of high-voltage and high-frequency electricity [sources: Jonnes; PBS; Vujovic]. In one of his experiments, a 42-foot (12.8-meter) metal mast sent massive electrical pulses into the ground. In another, a Tesla coil shot electricity in 100-foot (30.5-meter) arcs across the room. The surge from this experiment caused a power failure, knocking out the electric company's dynamo and plunging Colorado Springs into darkness [sources: Jonnes; PBS].
While at Colorado Springs, Tesla confirmed the existence of terrestrial stationary waves — a method by which the Earth could transmit energy at specific electrical frequencies — by lighting up 200 lamps from 25 miles (40 kilometers) away [sources: PBS; Vujovic]. Contrary to the movie 'The Prestige,' he never worked on teleportation of humans.
Tesla later built his second secret laboratory, Wardenclyffe, near his home in Manhattan. Located in Shoreham, Long Island, this facility housed a 50-ton, 187-foot-high (45,000-kilogram, 57-meter-high) transmission tower over a 120-foot-deep (36.6-meter-deep) well, along with 16 iron pipes sunk 300 feet (91.4 meters) deeper. Tesla's goal was to send power through the Earth itself, using the rods to 'grip the Earth... so that the whole of this globe can quiver' [sources: Greenfieldboyce; Jonnes; PBS].
Tesla's work at Wardenclyffe was short-lived. While the tower was still being constructed, Marconi made his famous trans-Atlantic radio broadcast, stealing Tesla's moment in the spotlight. At the same time, the stock market crashed. J. Pierpont Morgan, who had been funding Wardenclyffe, was already skeptical of free electricity and withdrew his support. In 1917, the U.S. government demolished the tower as a wartime security measure [sources: Jonnes; PBS; Vujovic].
In August 2012, Matthew Inman, the creator of The Oatmeal, raised enough money through crowdfunding to allow The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe to purchase the land, with plans to transform it into a museum [source: Greenfieldboyce].
2: He Was Tragic
The withdrawal of J.P. Morgan's financial backing for Wardenclyffe must have been a crushing setback for Tesla.
Museum of the City of New York/Getty ImagesWe hold geniuses in high regard, not only for their achievements but also for their struggles. Perhaps it's comforting to recognize that even the brightest minds endure hardship, or maybe we find that their suffering brings them down to our level, making their extraordinary abilities more relatable.
Tesla, the outsider, found himself in an uneven contest with wealthier and more influential businessmen: Edison tarnished his reputation and claimed credit for his electrical achievements; Marconi surpassed him in the radio race — and even took home a Nobel Prize — using Tesla's own technology; and industrial magnate George Westinghouse built a fortune by exploiting Tesla’s dismantled patent deals [sources: Cheney; Harkins; Jonnes; PBS].
Tesla's unyielding devotion to his true passions — science and progress — ultimately cost him his fame, wealth, and, some argue, his sanity. It is believed that the loss of J.P. Morgan's funding, along with his shattered hopes for Wardenclyffe, pushed Tesla to the brink of a nervous breakdown. 'It is not a dream,' he said. 'It is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering, only expensive ... blind, faint-hearted, doubting world' [sources: Jonnes; PBS].
1: He Electrified the World
Tesla's alternating current (AC) system, composed of generators, motors, and transformers, drives the global industry, powers our homes, and supports most of today's electronic devices. In contrast, Edison, though more widely known, supported a direct current (DC) system, which is now primarily used in batteries.
Edison was frustrated by DC because he couldn’t find a method to transmit it over long distances [sources: Jonnes; Vujovic]. He also faced challenges converting alternating current from his dynamos into direct current. His solution, 'commutators,' used brushes that allowed current to flow one way but caused friction and inefficiency, needing constant replacement [source: Jonnes].
Tesla’s generators, on the other hand, did not need such a clunky solution. His system could 'step up' voltages for long-distance transmission and 'step down' voltages at the destination, making them suitable for household and industrial use.
Consider the electric motor developed by Belgian engineer Zénobe-Théophile Gramme. While Edison and others tried to connect it inefficiently to DC, Tesla transformed the device by introducing a second circuit that alternated a current out of phase with the first, laying the groundwork for his successful polyphase system.
The transformer, just like the generator, was first conceived by Michael Faraday, but it was only after Tesla came along that its full potential was realized, allowing electricity to power the modern world [source: Jonnes].
Tesla's true gift was his ability to recognize untapped potential in the work of others. This talent was most evident in his early electrical innovations.
