Nikola Tesla at age 40
Happy 154th Birthday Nikola Tesla!
Well who would have thought it – Europe’s rival to Edison is 154 today. Well he would have been if he were still alive.
But why do we still celebrate his birthday almost 70 years after his death?
The Tesla Coil
Thinking of the name Tesla one immediately thinks of Tesla’s most famous though not most important invention The Tesla Coil.
Nikola Tesla sitting in his laboratory in Colorado Springs circa 1900
Alternating Current vs Direct Current / Tesla vs Edison
So now in the story Tesla has moved from Serbia to the United States and began work for Edison, working making improvements to the design of Edison DC generators.
After Edison failed to pay Tesla for the work Tesla left Edison.
‘the war of the currents’
And so begins the war of the currents. The war of the currents was between AC, or alternating current, and DC, direct current. With DC being promoted by Edison, Tesla arch nemesis. Tesla himself, standing firmly in the AC corner.
AC had one major advantage over DC, and that was the distance it would travel along power lines, 100s of miles, where as DC could only travel a few miles. At the time DC was the only current that would power the current electric motors, this however would change upon Tesla’s work with rotary magnetic fields. Edison publicly campaigned against AC and Tesla, stating that AC was dangerous, and demonstrated killing various animals using the current.
By the 1900 Edison had lost the ‘war of the currents’ to AC and Tesla.
Other Works
The Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade, Serbia
I am a proud owner of a ticket stub to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia, where I visited last year. It was there I was lead to believe that had some of his theory’s such as the ‘peace ray’, or flying machine Tesla would be a house hold hero to rival the likes of Edison and superman.
“superweapon that would put an end to all war”
Tesla’s Teleforce, or ‘peace ray’ worked on the premise that if both sides had a weapon of huge destructive force, neither side would attack fearing the consequences. So in a sense it was peaceful, but really it was a death ray. The museum lead me to believe that this was a reality, and had almost entirely been realised by Tesla, however this was not the case.
The ‘peace ray’ was only one of Tesla’s theories, here are some more below.
Tesla's Theories and Inventions
Tesla was indeed a busy man, and because of his exceptional life, inventing many wondrous, and sometime fantastical things he deserves a louder mention in the history of electricity. After all without his input into the development of alternating current where would we be today?
So let us remember Nikola Tesla – Happy Birthday!
