MY INVENTIONS: And Other Writings - Tesla

By Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856, in what is now Croatia. His father was a priest, an intellectual who prodded his son to develop unusual mental discipline. His mother was an inventor of many time-saving devices used for domestic tasks. Nikola Tesla became one of the greatest scientists and inventors that have ever lived. His experiments were far beyond his time, which left much of his work underappreciated until after he passed away. While in the United States, his showmanship and inventions earned him the reputation of 'mad scientist,' and he was the creator of many things essential to modern life. Some of Tesla's greatest achievements are: Alternating current; First hydro-electric power plant, X-rays, Tesla's induction motor, Measurement of flux density, Wireless transmission, and many other. In this honest autobiography the reader can learn about the life and work of this brilliant scientist called Nikola Tesla, in his own words.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lebooks Editora
• Release date: Jul 20, 2021
• ISBN: 9786558940951

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, writer, physicist, and engineer, best known for his work on the alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

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Nikola Tesla

MY INVENTIONS

and

Other Writings

1a edição

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Isbn: 9786558940951

LeBooks.com.br

Foreword

Dear Reader

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856, in what is now Croatia. His father was a priest, an intellectual who prodded his son to develop unusual mental discipline. His mother was an inventor of many time-saving devices used for domestic tasks.

Nikola Tesla became one of the greatest scientists and inventors that have ever lived. His experiments were far beyond his time, which left much of his work underappreciated until after he passed away.

While in the United States, his showmanship and crazy inventions earned him the reputation of 'mad scientist,' and he was the creator of many things essential to modern life. Some of Tesla’s greatest achievements are: Alternating current; First hydro-electric power plant, X-rays, Tesla's induction motor, Measurement of flux density, Wireless transmission, and many other. Tesla's genius will go down in history.

In this ebook the reader can learn about the life and work of this brilliant scientist.

LeBooks

If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.

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― Nikola Tesla

INTRODUCTION

About the author

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Nikola Tesla was born in 1856, in what is now Croatia to Serbian parents Milutin and Djuka Tesla. His father was a priest, an intellectual who prodded his son to develop unusual mental discipline. His mother was an inventor of many time-saving devices used for domestic tasks. Despite his early success at school and obvious interest in experimenting with mechanical devices, Tesla’s father was determined that young Nikola become a minister. Only after Tesla sank into an acute physical decline did his father relent and allow him to continue his scientific education at Graz Polytechnic Institute in Austria.

While still a student, Tesla began to think about the possibilities of alternating current (AC) electricity. AC electricity could generate high voltages for long distances without growing weaker. Tesla became convinced that AC was far more effective and less costly than direct current (DC) electricity, which was more common at the time.

After three years at the Graz Polytechnic Institute, Tesla stopped attending lectures. He left Graz in 1878 and began working as a draughtsman in Maribor. In 1880, Tesla moved to Prague to continue his studies at the Karl-Ferdinand University. Leaving Prague in 1881, Tesla moved to Budapest where Ferenc Puskás hired him to help install an Edison telephone exchange there. The Continental Edison Company sent Tesla to work in Paris and Strasbourg, where his work caught the eye of Charles Batchelor, head of Edison's operations in France, who invited Tesla to work for Edison in the United States. In 1884, he went to New York and immediately took a job with Edison, who recognized Tesla’s abilities but did not want to support his work on arc lighting. In 1886 Tesla founded the Tesla Electric Company, which funded his arc light experiments. More importantly, Tesla returned to his AC experiments and within two years had applied for more than thirty patents on his system.

After agreeing to a contract that turned over AC development and patents to the Westinghouse Corporation, Tesla became a wealthy man. When Westinghouse got into financial difficulties later, Tesla supposedly tore up his contract and refused further royalties for his patents. This decision affected his future work because he had fewer financial resources for laboratory space and equipment. He worked on a number of other inventions, including a transformer that changed low voltage to high voltage with a safe electrical current. This transformer is known as the Tesla coil.

Westinghouse supplied all the lighting for the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 using the Tesla system, including the engine, dynamo, and AC generator. Thereafter, AC became the preferred method of generating electricity.

As a result of this and other successes, Tesla became a famous man. He enjoyed high society in New York, lectured internationally, and gave demonstrations of electricity that seemed like displays of magic to the public. His interests ranged beyond pure research on electricity. At an address to the National Electric Light Association, he proposed the principles of wireless broadcasting. Tesla also experimented with vibration, the rapid motion of an object that creates air waves, and with resonance, the effect of air waves on an object. As he grew older, he began to rely more on empirical experiments instead of his original method of visual invention, which involved perfecting devices in his head and not building models until he was sure they would actually work. This shift in methodology made an 1895 fire in his research laboratory a major disaster, as he lost his books and notes as well as his equipment. However, he found financial backing for a new lab and began pioneering research on robotics, remote control, and solar energy. At sites in Colorado and Long Island, he tried to develop worldwide communications and power transmission systems, but problems with money and physics led to failure.

Along with Edison, Tesla was popularized by the press as an electrical wizard. Images of the inventor sitting calmly beneath dazzling displays of electricity became common sights. Tesla remained active and continued to work on new ideas. In 1916, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE) recognized Tesla's contributions and awarded him the Edison Medal for meritorious achievement in his early original work in polyphase and high-frequency electrical currents.

Financial difficulties continued to plague him, however, especially once his early patents expired. Increasingly reclusive and eccentric, Tesla lived alone in a room in the New Yorker Hotel until he died in 1943. The unit of magnetic flux density was named in his honor in 1960.

Some of the Nikola Tesla's Greatest Achievements

Nikola Tesla is perhaps one of the greatest scientists and American inventors that have ever lived. His experiments were far beyond his time, which left much of his work underappreciated until after he passed away. Born on July 10, 1856, in Austria, where he would then make his way to New York City to further his work.

While in the United States, his showmanship and crazy inventions earned him the reputation of 'mad scientist,' and he was the creator of many things essential to modern life. Here are some of the man's greatest achievements.

Alternating current

It all began in 1893 at the World’s Expo in Chicago where the feud between Edison's direct current and Tesla's alternating current culminated. The direct current, which was invented by Thomas Edison, was very dangerous and costly over long distances.

Tesla sought to implement alternating current for the power grid because it was cheaper and safer. To prove the safety of AC, he reportedly used a Tesla coil to send electricity through himself to produce light. Despite Edison's and General Electric's efforts to implement direct current, Tesla won the battle of the currents.

First hydro-electric power plant

Nikola Tesla along with George Westinghouse constructed the world's first hydro-electric power plant at the base of Niagara Falls. The power plant remains to this day as a museum, but it was one of the first energy generation locations that started the process of electrifying the world.

X-rays

At the time of Tesla's life, ionizing radiation and electromagnetism were heavily studied subjects. His early experiments with x-ray imaging eventually led to its implementation in the medical field. The discovery of x-rays was one that Tesla found through his quest to understand the unseen forces in the world around him. This drive ultimately is what made Tesla such a profoundly amazing inventor.

Tesla's induction motor

Proclaimed as one of the 10 greatest inventions of all time, Tesla's induction motor revolutionized was what possible in the appliance industry. It was the first instance where electrical energy could be sustainably converted to mechanical energy. This gave way to compact mixing machines to washing machines among many other things. Essentially all modern electronics that utilize electric motors can thank Tesla for their existence.

Measurement of flux density

One of the lesser knowns of Tesla's achievements is the foundation of a reliable unit in the measurement of magnetic flux density. Tesla discovered rotating magnetic fields in 1882, which served as a core discovery around alternating current. Rotating magnetic fields are used in a wide array of fields, with an MRI machine, the forefront of the technology. Tesla was honored with the international unit of flux density used to describe the strength of magnetic fields in 1956.

Wireless transmission

One of Tesla's greatest inventions and predictions of the future was that of wireless data and energy transmission. J.P. Morgan company invested $150,000 into Tesla's idea of wireless transmission with the goal of finding frequencies which data could transmit across. The tower that Tesla built was the world's first wireless transmission system, and his ideas in this field laid the groundwork for the possibility of modern wireless data.

Tesla's genius will go down in history. He was the author of numerous books, developed and designed many devices, but still died in poverty, in January 1943, at the age of 86.

MY INVENTIONS

Chapter l. My Early Life

The Progressive development of man is vitally dependent on invention. It is the most important product of his Creative brain. Its ultimate purpose is the complete mastery of mind over the material world, the harnessing of the forces of nature to human needs. This is the difficult task of the inventor who is often misunderstood and unrewarded. But he finds ample compensation in the pleasing exercises of his powers and in the knowledge of being one of that exceptionally privileged class without whom the race would have long ago perished in the bitter struggle against pitiless elements. Speaking for myself, l have already had more than my full measure of this exquisite enjoyment; so much, that for many years my life was little short of continuous rapture. l am credited with being one of the hardest workers and perhaps I am, if thought is the equivalent of labor, for l have devoted to it almost all of my waking hours. But if work is interpreted to be a definite performance in a specified time according to a rigid me, then I may be the worst of idlers.

Every effort under compulsion demands a sacrifice of life-energy. I never paid such a price. On the contrary, I have thrived on my thoughts. In attempting to give a connected and faithful account of my activities in this story of my life, I must dwell, however reluctantly, on the impressions of my youth and the circumstances and events which have been instrumental in determining my career. Our first endeavors are purely instinctive promptings of an imagination vivid and undisciplined.

As we grow older reason asserts itself and we become more and more systematic and designing. But those early impulses, though not immediately productive, are of the greatest moment and may shape our very destinies. Indeed, I feel now that had I understood and cultivated instead of suppressing them, I would have added substantial value to my bequest to the world. But not until I had attained manhood did I realize that I was an inventor.

This was due to a number of causes. In the first place I had a brother who was gifted to an extraordinary degree; one of those rare phenomena of mentality which biological investigation has failed to explain. His premature death left my earth parents disconsolate. (l will explain my remark about my earth parents later.) We owned a horse which had been presented to us by a dear friend. It was a magnificent animal of Arabian breed, possessed of almost human intelligence, and was cared for and petted by the whole family, having on one occasion saved my dear father’s life under remarkable circumstances.

My father had been called one winter night to perform an urgent duty and while Crossing the mountains, infested by wolves, the horse became frightened and ran away, throwing him violently to the ground. It arrived home bleeding and exhausted, but after the alarm was sounded, immediately dashed off again, returning to the spot, and before the searching party were far on the way they were met by my father, who had recovered consciousness and remounted, not realizing that he had been lying in the snow for several hours. This horse was responsible for my brother’s injuries from which he died. I witnessed the tragic scene and although so many years have elapsed since, my visual impression of it has lost none of its force. The recollection of his attainments made every effort of mine seem dull in comparison. Anything I did that was creditable merely caused my parents to feel their loss more keenly. So I grew up with little confidence in myself.

But I was far from being considered a stupid boy, if I am to judge from an incident of which I have still a strong remembrance. One day the Aldermen were passing through a Street where I was playing with other boys. The oldest of these venerable gentlemen, a wealthy Citizen, paused to give a silver piece to each of us. Corning to me, he suddenly stopped and commanded, Look in my eyes. I met his gaze, my hand outstretched to receive the much-valued coin, when to my dismay, he said, No, not much; you can get nothing from me. You are too smart.

They used to tell a funny story about me. I had two old aunts with wrinkled faces, one of them having two teeth protruding like the tusks of an elephant, which she buried in my cheek every time she kissed me. Nothing would scare me more than the prospects of being by these affectionate, unattractive relatives. It happened that while being carried in my mother’s arms, they asked who was the prettier of the two. After examining their faces intently, l answered thoughtfully, pointing to one of them, This here is not as ugly as the other.

Then again, l was intended from my very birth, for the clerical profession and this thought constantly oppressed me. l longed to be an engineer, but my father was inflexible. He was the son of an officer who served in the army of the Great Napoleon and in common with his brother, professor of mathematics in a prominent institution, had received a military education; but singularly enough, later embraced the clergy in which vocation he achieved eminence. He was a very erudite man, a veritable natural philosopher, poet and writer and his sermons were said to be as eloquent as those of Abraham a-Sancta-Clara. He had a prodigious memory and frequently recited at length from works in several languages. He often remarked playfully that if some of the classics were lost, he could restore them. His style of writing was much admired. He penned sentences short and terse and full of wit and satire. The humorous remarks he made were always peculiar and characteristic. Just to illustrate, I may mention one or two instances.

Among the help, there was a cross-eyed man called Mane, employed to do work around the farm. He was chopping wood one day. As he swung the axe, my father, who stood nearby and felt very uncomfortable, cautioned him, For God’s sake, Mane, do not strike at what you are looking but at what you intend to hit.

On another occasion he was taking out for a drive, a friend who carelessly permitted his costly fur coat to rub on the carriage wheel. My father reminded him of it saying, Pull in your coat; you are raining my tire.

He had the odd habit of talking to himself and would often cany on an animated conversation and indulge in heated argument, changing the tone of his voice. A casual listener might have sworn that several people were in the room.

Although I must trace to my mother’s influence whatever inventiveness I possess, the training he gave me must have been helpful. It comprised all sorts of exercises - as, guessing one another’s thoughts, discovering the defects of some form of expression, repeating long sentences or performing mental calculations. These daily lessons were intended to strengthen memory and reason, and especially to develop the critical sense, and were undoubtedly very beneficial.

My mother descended from one of the oldest families in the country and a line of inventors. Both her father and grandfather originated numerous implements for household, agricultural and other uses. She was a truly great woman, of rare skill, courage and fortitude, who had braved the storms of Life and passed through many a trying experience. When she was sixteen, a virulent pestilence swept the country. Her father was called away to administer