Nikola Tesla, Russia, 1919
Nikola Tesla (July
10, 1856 – c. January 7, 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, physicist,
mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. Tesla is recognized among the most
accomplished scientists of the late 19th and early 20th century. His patents
and theoretical work form the basis of modern alternating current electric
power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution system and AC
motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution. Nikola
Tesla was of Serbian descent, born in the small town of Smiljan in the Lika
region (near Gospić, (Croatia, earlier in Yugoslavia). He was a citizen of
the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, after 1918, Kingdom of Yugoslavia. While
conducting his work in the United States of America, he became a naturalized
U.S. citizen in 1891. The surname "Tesla" is a Serbo-Croatian word
that means adze. In the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other
inventor or scientist in history or in popular culture. After his demonstration
of wireless communication in 1893 and after being the victor in the "War
of Currents", he was widely respected as America's greatest electrical
engineer. Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many
of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. Never skilled at handling
his finances, Tesla died impoverished and forgotten at the age of 86. In his
later years, Tesla was regarded as a mad scientist and became noted for making
bizarre claims about possible scientific developments[2][3]. Tesla's legacy can
be seen across modern civilization wherever electricity is used. Tesla
considered his exploration of various questions raised by science as ultimately
a means to improve the human condition with the principles of science and
industrial progress, and one that was compatible with nature.[4] However, many
of his achievements have been used, sometimes inappropriately and with some
controversy, to support various pseudosciences, UFO theories, and New Age occultism.
1
1. Taken from the
Wikipedia online encylopeadia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesla
“Ere
many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by power obtainable at any
point in the universe...it is a mere question of time when men will succeed in
attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature. Throughout space
there is energy.” 1
"We
are confronted with portentous problems which can not be solved just by
providing for our material existence, however abundantly. On the contrary,
progress in this direction is fraught with hazards and perils not less menacing
than those born from want and suffering. If we were to release the energy of
the atoms or discover some other way of developing cheap and unlimited power at
any point of the globe this accomplishment, instead of being a blessing, might
bring disaster to mankind... The greatest good will come from the technical
improvements tending to unification and harmony, and my wireless transmitter is
preeminently such. By its means the human voice and likeness will be reproduced
everywhere and factories driven thousands of miles from waterfalls furnishing
the power; aerial machines will be propelled around the earth without a stop
and the sun's energy controlled to create lakes and rivers for motive purposes
and transformation of arid deserts into fertile land" 2
1. Tesla given in a talk to
electrical engineers in 1891
2. Taken from My
Inventions: the autobiography of Nikola Tesla, Hart Bros., 1982. Originally
appeared in the Electrical experimenter magazine in 1919.