Nikola Tesla (Serbian; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was an inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. His work helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Tesla was born to Serbian parents in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire near the town of Gospić, in the territory of modern-day Croatia. Nikola was the fourth of five children, having one older brother and three sisters. His family moved to Gospić in 1862. Tesla attended school at Higher Real Gymnasium in Karlovac. He finished a four-year term in the span of three years.
Tesla then studied electrical engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz (1875). While there, he studied the uses of alternating current. Some sources say he received Baccalaureate degrees from the university at Graz. Tesla was later persuaded by his father to attend the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, which he attended for the summer term of 1880. Here, he was influenced by Ernst Mach. However, after his father died, he left the university, having completed only one term.
In 1882 he moved to Paris, to work as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company, designing improvements to electric equipment brought overseas from Edison"s ideas. According to his autobiography, in the same year he conceived the induction motor and began developing various devices that use rotating magnetic fields for which he received patents in 1888.
On 6 June 1884, Tesla first arrived in the United States, in New York City with little besides a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor, a former employer. In the letter of recommendation to Thomas Edison, Batchelor wrote, "I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young man." Edison hired Tesla to work for his Edison Machine Works. Tesla"s work for Edison began with simple electrical engineering and quickly progressed to solving some of the company"s most difficult problems. Tesla was even offered the task of completely redesigning the Edison company"s direct current generators.
In 1886, Tesla formed his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. The initial financial investors disagreed with Tesla on his plan for an alternating current motor and eventually relieved him of his duties at the company. Tesla worked in New York as a laborer from 1886 to 1887 to feed himself and raise capital for his next project. In 1887, he constructed the initial brushless alternating current induction motor, which he demonstrated to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE) in 1888. In the same year, he developed the principles of his Tesla coil, and began working with George Westinghouse at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company"s Pittsburgh labs. Westinghouse listened to his ideas for polyphase systems which would allow transmission of alternating current electricity over long distances.
In April 1887, Tesla began investigating what would later be called X-rays using his own single terminal vacuum tubes (similar to his patent #514,170). This device differed from other early X-ray tubes in that it had no target electrode. The modern term for the phenomenon produced by this device is bremsstrahlung (or braking radiation). We now know that this device operated by emitting electrons from the single electrode through a combination of field electron emission and thermionic emission. Once liberated, electrons are strongly repelled by the high electric field near the electrode during negative voltage peaks from the oscillating HV output of the Tesla Coil, generating X rays as they collide with the glass envelope. He also used Geissler tubes. By 1892, Tesla became aware of the skin damage that Wilhelm Röntgen later identified as an effect of X rays.
From 1893 to 1895
From 1893 to 1895, he investigated high frequency alternating currents. He generated AC of one million volts using a conical Tesla coil and investigated the skin effect in conductors, designed tuned circuits, invented a machine for inducing sleep, cordless gas discharge lamps, and transmitted electromagnetic energy without wires, building the first radio transmitter. In St. Louis, Missouri, Tesla made a demonstration related to radio communication in 1893. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the National Electric Light Association, he described and demonstrated in detail its principles.
Colorado Springs
In 1899, Tesla decided to move and began research in Colorado Springs, Colorado in a lab located near Foote Ave. and Kiowa St., where he would have room for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments. Upon his arrival he told reporters that he was conducting wireless telegraphy experiments transmitting signals from Pikes Peak to Paris. Tesla"s diary contains explanations of his experiments concerning the ionosphere and the ground"s telluric currents via transverse waves and longitudinal waves.At his lab, Tesla proved that the earth was a conductor, and he produced artificial lightning (with discharges consisting of millions of volts, and up to 135 feet long).
Schumann resonance
Tesla researched ways to transmit power and energy wirelessly over long distances (via transverse waves, to a lesser extent, and, more readily, longitudinal waves). He transmitted extremely low frequencies through the ground as well as between the Earth"s surface and the Kennelly–Heaviside layer. He received patents on wireless transceivers that developed standing waves by this method. In his experiments, he made mathematical calculations and computations based on his experiments and discovered that the resonant frequency of the Earth was approximately 8 hertz (Hz). In the 1950s, researchers confirmed that the resonant frequency of the Earth"s ionospheric cavity was in this range (later named the Schumann resonance).
Colorado Springs
In the Colorado Springs lab, Tesla observed unusual signals that he later thought may have been evidence of extraterrestrial radio wave communications coming from Venus or Mars.He noticed repetitive signals from his receiver which were substantially different from the signals he had noted from storms and earth noise. Specifically, he later recalled that the signals appeared in groups of one, two, three, and four clicks together. Tesla had mentioned that he thought his inventions could be used to talk with other planets. There have even been claims that he invented a "Teslascope" for just such a purpose. It is debatable what type of signals Tesla received or whether he picked up anything at all. Research has suggested that Tesla may have had a misunderstanding of the new technology he was working with,or that the signals Tesla observed may have been non-terrestrial natural radio source such as the Jovian plasma torus signals.
Directed-energy weapon
Later in life, Tesla made remarkable claims concerning a “ teleforce " weapon . The press called it a "peace ray" or death ray . In total, the components and methods included.
An apparatus for producing manifestations of energy in free air instead of in a high vacuum as in the past. This, according to Tesla in 1934, was accomplished.
A mechanism for generating tremendous electrical force. This, according to Tesla, was also accomplished.
A means of intensifying and amplifying the force developed by the second mechanism.
A new method for producing a tremendous electrical repelling force. This would be the projector, or gun, of the invention.
Theoretical inventions
Another of Tesla"s theorized inventions is commonly referred to as Tesla"s Flying Machine, which appears to resemble an ion-propelled aircraft.Tesla claimed that one of his life goals was to create a flying machine that would run without the use of an airplane engine, wings, ailerons, propellers, or an onboard fuel source. Initially, Tesla pondered about the idea of a flying craft that would fly using an electric motor powered by grounded base stations. As time progressed, Tesla suggested that perhaps such an aircraft could be run entirely electro-mechanically. The theorized appearance would typically take the form of a cigar or saucer.
The urn with Tesla"s ashes in Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade
Tesla died of heart failure alone in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, on 7 January 1943.Despite having sold his AC electricity patents, Tesla died with significant debts. Later that year the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla"s patent number 645576 in a ruling that served as the basis for patented radio technology in the United States.
Tesla"s funeral took place on 12 January 1943, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan, New York City. His body was cremated and his ashes taken to Belgrade, Serbia, then-Yugoslavia in 1957. The urn was placed in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.
Никола Тесла родился 10 июля 1856 года, по новому стилю, в селе Смилян, Австрийской империи, близ города Госпич, что на территории современной Хорватии. Его родители были сербами, отец Милютин Тесла, священник Сербской Православной Церкви, мать – Дюка Тесла (Мандич), изобретательница с собственным делом по изготовлению домашнего оборудования. У него был старший брат, Данило, погибший результате несчастного случая, когда Николе было пять лет, и три сестры, Милка, Ангелина и Марица. В 1862 году семья Эдисон переехала в Госпич, где Никола начал своё обучение.
Участь в Высшей Гимназии Карловаца, он поражал учителей своей способностью производить интегральные вычисления в голове, чему им было очень сложно поверить. Вероятно, благодаря своей одарённости четырёх летнюю программу гимназии он прошёл за три года. После этого, в течение некоторого времени он учился в Австрийском Политехническом институте Граца, и до 1980 в Пражском Университете Шарля-Фердинанда. К сожалению, не сохранилось точных данных о присвоенных ему учёных степенях, не исключено, что он просто не завершал обучение ни в том, ни в другом высшем учебном заведении.
Карьера Николы Тесла
Тесла не держался на одном месте слишком долго, за четыре года, начиная с 1880, он успел поработать в Будапештской телефонной компании, затем в Париже, в компании Континеталь Эдисон. И вот, уже в июне 1884 года, после утомительного путешествия через Атлантику, во время которого у него были украдены деньги и часть багажа, Тесла прибыл в Нью-Йорк, имея в кармане лишь четыре цента и рекомендательное письмо от Чарльза Батчелора, адресованное Томасу Эдисону: «Я знаю двух великих людей, один из них – вы, а другой – этот молодой человек». Насколько точно передано содержание письма неизвестно, да и не суть важно,
Эдисон нанял Теслу для работы в «Edison Machine Works». Однако и в этой компании он оставался недолго, жалование, которое предложил Эдисон, было слишком скудным, поэтому в 1885 году он подал в отставку.
Создав собственную компанию Tesla Electric Lights & Manufacturing, в 1886 году, но не получив финансовой поддержки, он был вынужден зарабатывать жалкие 2 доллара в день на рытье канав. Так, зима 1886 – 1887, оказавшаяся временем «страшных головных болей и горьких слёз», заставила его усомниться в ценности полученного образования. Но Тесла не переставал быть верным науке. В 1888 году начал работать с Джорджем Вестингауз, в лабораториях Питтсбургской компании Westinghouse Electric & Manufacture. А после получения статуса натурализованный житель Соединённых Штатов, в 1891, его исследования только начинали набирать обороты. Так в 1897 он получил патент на радио, спустя год продемонстрировал американским военным, а затем и публике радиоуправляемую лодку, и в том же году разработал первые свечи зажигания для двигателей внутреннего сгорания.
Не сбывшиеся надежды
Переехав в Колорадо-Спрингс, с 1899 по январь 1900 Тесла проводит грандиозные эксперименты с высоковольтным напряжением. Затем, получив первоначальные инвестиции от Джона Моргана, начинает возведение башни Варденклифф на Лонг Ислэнд, с помощью которой он планировал продемонстрировать передачу электрической энергии через Атлантичекий океан без использования проводов. Но, этим планам не суждено было сбыться, поскольку они шли вразрез с планами Моргана, а потому инвестирование было прекращено. Тесла в течение около пятнадцати лет тщетно пытался получить деньги на свой проект от Моргана. С началом Первой Мировой Войны 1914-1918 он перестал получать финансы и от своих патентов в европейских странах, а в 1917 его силовая станция на Лонг Ислэнд была разрушена из опасения использования её в своих целях немецкими шпионами.
Возможно, излишне напряжённая мыслительная деятельность, навязчивая идея и невозможность осуществления своих планов способствовали развитию обсессивно-компульсивного расстройства, которым он страдал в последующие годы. Болезнь сопровождалась крайне странным поведением, одержимостью и неприязнью некоторых вещей. Его научная работа немного замедлилась, последний патент он зарегистрировал в 1928 году, однако этот проект не имел большой практической ценности. Годы шли. Он больше не стремился к получению инвестиций на свои проекты и предпочитал довольствоваться пенсией, получаемой от Югославии. Денег вполне хватало на теоретические исследования, которые, впрочем, больше не были столь плодотворными как раньше.
Никола Тесла, жизнь вне науки
Тесла обладал эйдетической памятью, говорил на словацком, чешском, английском, французском, немецком, итальянском и латинском языках. Упоминая о своих дарованиях, рассказывал о странной болезни, ярких вспышках перед глазами, сопровождавшихся видениями в виде слов и идей, которые помогали ему в решении научных проблем. Не менее удивительной была его способность в мельчайших деталях представлять свои изобретения, прежде чем начинать их реализацию. По всей видимости, Тесла был всецело поглощён научной деятельностью, в какой компании бы он ни работал, он привносил в её работу множество новшеств, и, судя по его словам, никогда не спал более двух часов в день, порою работая над своими изобретениями без сна и отдыха.
Любил играть в бильярд, шахматы и карты, чем заразился ещё при обучении в Граце, иногда затрачивал на игру до 48 часов подряд, был знатоком еды и питья, ценителем хорошей музыки и поэзии. Водил дружбу с писателями Марком Твеном, Робертом Андервудом Джонсоном, и с другими творческими людьми. Большую часть времени Тесла предпочитал проводить в одиночестве, но когда появлялся на публике, многие люди встречали его позитивно и с восхищением, особенно, когда он устраивал зрелищные представления своих изобретений. Знакомые описывали его как разностороннего человека, с добродушным характером, изредка резкого и критичного к людям. Никола Тесла никогда не женился, придерживаясь обета безбрачия, был убеждён, что отношения с женщинами навредят его научным способностям, хотя женщины любили его и совершали попытки завоевать его сердце.
В поздние годы своей жизни Тесла стал вегетарианцем, из пищи предпочитал только молоко, хлеб, мёд и овощные соки. В поедании мяса просматривал варварские отблески, утверждая, что убийство животных «бессмысленно и жестоко», кроме того, считал, что употребление в пищу мясных продуктов негативно сказывается на умственной деятельности и здоровье в целом. Испытывал тёплые чувства к животным, ближе к старости подкармливал голубей, и даже выхаживал подраненных птиц, чтобы вновь отпустить их на волю, а когда не мог кормить голубей самостоятельно, платил мальчишкам, чтобы они сделали это за него. Последние десять лет жизни в отеле, в целом, были спокойным временем, в ней больше не было напряжённых моментов постоянной борьбы за свои идеи, не было и бесконечных проб и ошибок в реализации своих планов, однако он ни в коем случае не оставлял научной деятельности. Но время нещадно, седьмого января 1943 года, в возрасте 86 лет, Тесла скончался, от коронарного тромбоза, в своём номере 3327 отеля New Yorker.
Наследие Николы Тесла
Благодаря Николе Тесла наука того времени шагнула далеко вперёд, он был одним из основателей современной системы передачи электричества на расстояние, дал жизнь множеству изобретений в области электротехники. Его разработки в области электромагнетизма помогли в исследовательской деятельности Майкла Фарадея, а его патенты и теоретические работы стали основой для современной системы связи и радио. Многие из его разработок до сих пор остаются объектом изучения современных учёных и исследователей, ну а среди мистификаторов бытует мнение, что перечисленные достижения Николы Тесла – лишь верхушка айсберга, и что о большей части его изобретений просто умалчивается. Кто-то же до сих пор, на основе работ Тесла, пытается найти способ беспроводной передачи энергии на расстояние и получения бесплатной электроэнергии. В любом случае, звание Великий Изобретатель было дано ему не без оснований.
Вконтакте
When did Nikola Tesla die?
Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943, in New York City.
Where did Nikola Tesla attend school?
How did Nikola Tesla change the world?
What was Nikola Tesla’s childhood like?
As a boy, Tesla was often sick, but he was a bright student with a photographic memory. In addition to his interest in engineering, he possessed a wild imagination as well as a love of poetry.
Tesla was from a family of Serbian origin. His father was an Orthodox priest; his mother was unschooled but highly intelligent. As he matured, he displayed remarkable imagination and creativity as well as a poetic touch.
In , Colorado, where he stayed from May 1899 until early 1900, Tesla made what he regarded as his most important discovery-terrestrial stationary waves. By this discovery he proved that Earth could be used as a conductor and made to resonate at a certain electrical frequency. He also lit 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 40 km (25 miles) and created man-made lightning, producing flashes measuring 41 metres (135 feet). At one time he was certain he had received signals from another planet in his Colorado laboratory, a claim that was met with derision in some scientific journals.
Publicity photo of Nikola Tesla in his laboratory in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in December 1899. Tesla posed with his “magnifying transmitter,” which was capable of producing millions of volts of electricity. The discharge shown is 6.7 metres (22 feet) in length. Wellcome Library, LondonReturning to New York in 1900, Tesla began construction on of a world broadcasting tower, with $150,000 capital from the American financier . Tesla claimed he secured the loan by assigning 51 percent of his patent rights of telephony and to Morgan. He expected to provide worldwide communication and to furnish facilities for sending pictures, messages, weather warnings, and stock reports. The project was abandoned because of a financial panic, labour troubles, and Morgan’s withdrawal of support. It was Tesla’s greatest defeat.
Tesla’s work then shifted to and other projects. Because of a lack of funds, his ideas remained in his notebooks, which are still examined by enthusiasts for unexploited clues. In 1915 he was severely disappointed when a report that he and Edison were to share the proved erroneous . Tesla was the recipient of the Edison Medal in 1917, the highest honour that the American Institute of Electrical Engineers could bestow.
Tesla allowed himself only a few close friends. Among them were the writers Robert Underwood Johnson, and . He was quite impractical in financial matters and an eccentric , driven by compulsions and a progressive germ phobia. But he had a way of intuitively sensing hidden scientific secrets and employing his inventive talent to prove his hypotheses . Tesla was a godsend to reporters who sought sensational copy but a problem to editors who were uncertain how seriously his futuristic prophecies should be regarded. Caustic criticism greeted his speculations concerning communication with other planets, his assertions that he could split the Earth like an apple, and his claim of having invented a death ray capable of destroying 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 400 km (250 miles).
After Tesla’s death the custodian of alien property impounded his trunks, which held his papers, his diplomas and other honours, his letters, and his laboratory notes. These were eventually inherited by Tesla’s nephew, Sava Kosanovich, and later housed in the Nikola Tesla Museum in . Hundreds filed into New York City’s Cathedral of St. John the Divine for his funeral services, and a flood of messages acknowledged the loss of a great genius. Three Nobel Prize recipients addressed their tribute to “one of the outstanding intellects of the world who paved the way for many of the of modern times.”
Nikola Tesla (10.07.1856 - 07.01.1943) - Serbian scientist
Nikola Tesla was a remarkable scientist. He was a Serbian inventor of Austro-Hungarian origin who developed the field of electrical engineering. At the same time he was a great physicist and supporter of modern electricity. Contemporaries called him “the man who invented the 20th century”, as his experiments somehow led to the next level of industrial revolution.
Tesla was born in a small village Smilijan, which is now in Croatia, on July 10, 1856, in the family of an Orthodox priest. Regardless his father’s wish to see Nikola as a priest, the future scientist was always convinced he wanted to become an engineer. In 1882 he graduated from a prestigious university in Graz. By that time he was already invited to work in Paris for one large corporation.
Soon he presented his first electric motor and got acquainted with Th. Edison. The later invited him to New York to work as an engineer, which was more than pleasant for the young inventor. Unfortunately the two talented inventors couldn’t work together and Tesla decided to quit. In 1888 he settled his own company and sold over 40 patents for large sums of money. Finally, he was financially free at the extent that he could devote more time to his beloved experiments.
Almost 7 years he dedicated to experimenting with the magnetic field and high frequencies. Starting from 1899 he led a series of experiments, proving that electrical current can be easily passed through the ground. A year later he returned to New York City to build the tower for transatlantic link establishment. The money for the project was donated by one rich banker whose surname was Morgan.
Tesla later confessed that his main aim was to create a machine capable of transmitting electricity to any corner of the planet. The great scientist died in 1943 at the age of eighty-six. The range of his discoveries was incredibly wide. He was the founder of the system of high voltages, the first samples of electromechanical generators, the rotating magnetic field, etc. In 1891 during the public lecture he demonstrated the principles of radio communication.
His discoveries formed the foundation of modern electrical engineering. His projects were willingly financed by many outstanding people of that time, including Vanderbilt, Rothschild, Astor, Morgan and others. And finally, the unit of magnetic induction is named after Tesla. Apart from that, the eccentric scientist was the owner of numerous honorable awards.
