There are few people who have not heard of a man like Nikola Tesla. Secret inventions, secrets, interesting experiments and discoveries ahead of their time - that's what immediately comes to mind. The identity of the scientist is also mysterious. Who was this man - a madman or a genius?
Birth and childhood
Most people know about Leonardo da Vinci, who is rightfully considered a genius. And, perhaps, Nikola Tesla became his worthy successor at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. The biography of this scientist always begins the same way: he was born on July 10, 1856 in the mountain village of Smilyan, which at that time was in the Austrian Empire, and now belongs to Croatia. Nikola was the fourth child in the family of a Serbian Orthodox priest, and after the death of his older brother in an accident in 1861, he was the only son. He finished the first grade here, in the village where he was born.
The family later moved to Gospic, a larger city, where the future great scientist Nikola Tesla completed three more grades of elementary school. In 1873, he received a matriculation certificate, having studied at the Higher Real School in the cityKarlovac. His family stayed in Gospić, where he returned after completing his basic education.
Education and further work
Having been ill with cholera and evading the obligation to do military service, having fled to the mountains, Nikola thought about further education. Despite the fact that the father wanted his son to follow in his footsteps, Nikola preferred the natural sciences, to which he had long gravitated. In 1875 he entered the Higher Technical School in Graz and
focused on the study of electrical engineering. After working for some time as a teacher in Gospic, where his family lived, he left for Prague to continue his education. But he studied at the Faculty of Philosophy for only a semester, after which he began looking for a job.
In 1879 he took a job with a telegraph company in Budapest, where he worked for the next three years. At the same time, he began his own research in the field of electrical engineering. In 1882, Tesla moved to France and moved to the Paris branch of the Edison Continental Company, and two years later he quit because he did not receive the expected bonus for introducing some extremely useful innovations.
Emigration to the USA
After some time he returned to the same company, but now he flew to New York. Officially, his position was called "engineer for the repair of electric motors and DC generators." In 1885, Edison offered Nicola to improve some devices for a premium of 50,000. The young scientist enthusiastically set to work and after a while proposedseveral options for solving the problem, but the money never received. Thomas Edison refused to pay them, saying that it was just a joke. Tesla immediately quit and founded his own company.
By that time he had already gained some fame and had enough
lots of patents. Having sold them, he received a sufficient amount to equip an excellent laboratory for further development. In 1899, Nikola Tesla, whose biography is still of interest to people all over the world, moved to the city of Colorado Springs, located in the central part of the United States. Subsequently, this settlement became famous, not least due to the fact that for a long time the laboratory of a famous scientist was located here. At the end of the same year, another laboratory was opened - this time in New York. But soon, due to lack of funds, it had to be closed.
Work areas
This scientist left behind numerous works and secrets. Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest minds of his time, and yet some people think that this man was a crazy charlatan, hungry for fame and money. This is not entirely true, because the lifestyle of a scientist does not confirm this.
Tesla was interested in many scientific fields, but he was primarily interested in electrical engineering and electronics. In addition, he was engaged in research in various fields of physics and engineering. In relation to this, he was also interested in the processes occurring in the atmosphere, in addition, he studied the phenomenon of resonance. ATAs a result, the works of Nikola Tesla gave a powerful impetus to the development of many disciplines, and his developments are relevant even today, especially this
refers to the least known and literally mythical inventions. In addition, not all of the scientist's manuscripts have survived to this day. Firstly, the Serb simply burned some records, considering his inventions too dangerous for mankind, and some works of Nikola Tesla are believed to have been confiscated by US government services after the death of a genius.
Developments and achievements
During the entire period of his scientific career, the scientist received several hundred patents around the world, about a hundred of them - in the United States. Since his main area of interest was electrical engineering, the works and inventions of Nikola Tesla mainly concerned the study of electric current and various devices.
Perhaps his most significant developments were the following:
- Study of alternating current. He studied the effect of electricity on the body, experimenting on himself, and thus laid the foundation for modern safety engineering, as well as new methods of treatment. In addition, he invented high-frequency current generators and a transformer, which is still called simply "Tesla coil" by many.
- He described the phenomenon of a rotating magnetic field, thereby supplementing field theory. Created multi-phase electrical machines, received patents for them.
- In an effort to improve on the light bulb invented by Edison, he created neon and fluorescent lights.
- Created the first waveradio transmitter, worked on the transmission of signals and energy without the help of wires.
- Invented the water pump, and based on it - the dynamo.
- Designed an asynchronous motor.
It was Tesla's company that in 1893 received the right to cover a major fair in Chicago. Before that, not a single similar project of comparable scale had been implemented.
The Wardenclyffe project is also widely known. To implement it Tesla
turned to a banker for financing and received a huge amount for those times, as well as a plot of land on Long Island. It was assumed that the scientist will create a new type of communication that does not require wires and allows you to transmit various information over great distances. A tower was built and a series of experiments were carried out, after which the investor stopped financing due to the fact that the scientist misinformed him about the area of \u200b\u200bhis work - the transfer of electricity from one continent to another did not interest the banker at all. An expensive project was closed, and this was the beginning of the end of the scientist's career.
In addition to well-known inventions and works, there were others - unconfirmed, incomprehensible and mysterious. They were so incomprehensible to the contemporaries of the inventor that they said that the scientist had sold his soul to the devil. Documentary evidence has not been preserved, however, rumors about Tesla's involvement in the Tunguska explosion, the invention of an electric vehicle that takes energy literally from nowhere, and others are still in circulation.less mysterious instruments and experiments.
Personality
Even as a child, Tesla was distinguished by some oddities. Pearls, peaches, sheets of paper, which were dipped into the water, caused him an inadequate reaction. The child also loved to read and had an excellent memory. The boy loved outdoor games, and later - sports competitions. It is unlikely that then someone could have predicted that in the future his work would become world famous.
It was strange that even in his youth, Nikola was distinguished by seriousness. He devoted himself entirely to science and in life was a lonely man. He never married and generally abandoned his personal life. Already after gaining fame, Tesla was popular with women, they often fell hopelessly in love with the scientist. And this is not surprising - he had a fairly presentable appearance, and besides, it was none other than the famous inventor Nikola Tesla. The biography of the scientist has been repeatedly studied by historians, and most of them came to the conclusion that his rejection of his personal life was absolute. But there were platonic hobbies - so, he kept the scarf of the great Sarah Bernhardt, whom he met several times.
Despite the fact that the inventions of Nikola Tesla are of great interest, his very figure remains still quite mysterious. Unlike many other engineers, the scientist initially designed almost all of his inventions in his mind, only then he tested his thoughts and ideas in practice. This method is quite unusual and is not suitable for everyone. He worked on himself and constantly studied, not knowing he was tired and not giving himself a break. Researchertested everything, even the most seemingly absurd, of his ideas and relied on intuition. It is this perseverance, lively mind, curiosity and self-confidence that gave birth to some of the famous inventions of Nikola Tesla. At the same time, he paid
attention and physical he alth. Perhaps this is what allowed the scientist to live to a fairly old age.
Besides, Tesla was characterized by some, to put it mildly, eccentricity. So, he did not tolerate handshakes and general contact with people. The staff of the hotel where the scientist lived could not approach him at close range. But he loved pigeons, fed them and talked to them. Birds and science replaced women for him, he did not even think about marriage.
The scientist also had a tendency to be somewhat eccentric. He wore collars and gloves exactly once and then mercilessly threw them away. And from his performances at exhibitions, he sometimes made real shows. So, in 1893, to prove that the statement about the danger of alternating current for humans is false, Tesla passed through his body about two million volts. And at the same time, not only survived, contrary to fears, but also remained completely unharmed. As this story perfectly shows, Tesla, one might say, sought to demonstrate the results of his developments as clearly and effectively as possible. Some outrageousness was not alien to him.
End of life
Despite the fact that Nikola Tesla's developments were not safe, it was not this that killed the scientist. At a fairly advanced age, just before the start of World War IIwar, he was hit by a car, and he received a broken rib. The scientist was bedridden for a long time and was very worried about his homeland, which, of course, did not add to his he alth. In early January 1943, the scientist died in a hotel room in New York. The official cause of death was given as heart failure. Tesla was 86 years old.
The body was cremated, and the ashes are now in the Belgrade Museum named after him. Leaving no monetary inheritance behind, since he spent all his money on developments and experiments, the scientist gave his descendants something more valuable - knowledge that was ahead of his time by tens and hundreds of years.
Value in history, use of works
It is believed that the brilliant scientist Nikola Tesla, whose biography and inventions are still the subject of careful study, was far ahead of his time and
laid the foundation for the development of modern electrical technology.
Without his discoveries, the world, perhaps, would be somewhat different, because some things that have already become familiar would not exist, and technical progress could have taken a different path. Some of his developments, records of which have not been preserved, anticipated the inventions of recent years and decades. So, one of the last patents received by the scientist contained information about an aircraft that combined the features of an airplane and a helicopter. Who knows, maybe soon such a device will be constructed and firmly established in life. Tesla himself simply did not have enough finances to build a prototype.
Radar, remote controlremote control, some types of light bulbs - this is just a small list of what we would have to do without if the Serbian genius had not made his great discoveries. And one can only imagine how many of them there would be if people took him a little more seriously. What is only the famous Tesla fuel-free engine. The scheme of this device is the subject of work of many scientists and just enthusiasts, because it should be quite simple, since it could be designed at that level of technology. In addition, the question of the source of energy that fed the generator of Nikola Tesla remains open. According to the scientist himself, it was ether. Was it a prank of the public by a genius or was it something that is not yet available to modern physicists and engineers? In any case, the followers are still trying to repeat some of the experiments and developments of the scientist, based on the description of the experiments. Unfortunately, few can boast of any success.
Nikola Tesla's experiments brought the world many wonderful devices, gave development to many branches of physics and advanced science. And the world is still wondering if this man was a genius or crazy - his interests, experiences and developments were so unusual. Perhaps that is why people still do not forget Nikola Tesla.
Classified Inventions
The name of the scientist was surrounded by numerous rumors. His figure has always been covered with a certain halo of mystery, which only added to his popularity. And not the last role in this was played by amazing inventions and experiments, which at the current level of development of science are still impossible to explain or repeat.
People's rumor makes the most incredible and wide lists, which include the secret and literally mythical inventions of Nikola Tesla. The most famous among them is the legendary death ray, about which amazing legends still circulate. There is a version according to which initially it was about some kind of concentrated energy that could put an end to the war. Later, the newspapers somewhat distorted the words of the scientist, and that is how the most famous legend about the death ray appeared, which can shoot down planes at a great distance and kill hundreds of thousands of soldiers. It is now impossible to say exactly what the device Tesla was talking about - after his death, all the documents relating to his developments disappeared. And during his lifetime, he did not provide any evidence of the existence of "death rays".
People's rumor also ascribes to the scientist an important role in the Tunguska phenomenon. As you know, the incident that occurred on June 30, 1908 was never fully investigated, it is believed that a meteorite was the cause of a powerful explosion, but its remains were not found. According to one version, everything that happened is the result of one of Tesla's experiments on the transfer of energy over a distance. If so, then, perhaps, it can be considered successful.
In addition, much is said about Tesla's participation in the famous Philadelphia experiment, during which the ship and about two hundred people on it moved several kilometers in space. The US Navy denies conducting such an experiment, so the rumors about it are more likelyurban legends. Be that as it may, the participation of the Serbian genius in the Philadelphia experiment is more than doubtful, because it is believed that it was carried out in October 1943, and the scientist died in early January.
It was also said a lot that Tesla achieved some success in creating structures from cold plasma. Allegedly, the scientist received luminous balls about the size of a soccer ball, he could easily carry them in his hands, put them in a box, and at the same time remain unharmed. The structures were stable for several minutes. There is reason to believe that these were ball lightning, although, of course, there is no exact information. Most likely, people are simply used to linking the most mysterious and unusual rumors with what Nikola Tesla did. It seems that everyone just wants to believe in miracles.
Cultural references, memorialization
The mystery of the figure of a physicist continues to excite the minds of the townsfolk even now. A great heritage, strange behavior, extreme secrecy - all this helps Tesla to remain in people's memory even many decades after his death.
So, the scientist appeared in the film "The Prestige", which tells about two rival magicians. And interest in his inventions that appear in the film is only warmed up - they are so mysterious, although it is obvious that this is fiction. In fact, in his life, the scientist never worked on the problem of teleportation of people. At least there was never any exact information about this.
Streets in several cities, an airport are named after him. It appears in Serbianbanknotes and commemorative coins, monuments were erected to him. In addition, an innovative American company that develops electric vehicles took its name from the man who created the prototype electric motor. It is not difficult to guess that the company is called Tesla Motors. And she is already known all over the world.
Besides, many devices still in everyday life simply bear the name of their inventor, who was Nikola Tesla. A coil, a generator, an engine and many other devices help to keep the name of the Serbian genius in people's memory.
And, perhaps, the main tribute to the memory of the great scientist - in the SI system, the unit of measurement of magnetic induction is called "tesla". So this mysterious genius will remain in people's minds for a long time. And who knows how his developments will be used in the future. Perhaps, even with the current development of science, it is not yet possible to fully appreciate the entire legacy.
