The story of Nikola Tesla

Let's take a look at the many things that Tesla discovered or invented but sometimes didn't fully get credit for. Number one-radio: many people mistakenly think that Glimmer Marconi was the inventor of radio to this day. However, his work was based on the work done by Nikola Tesla. Tesla theorized that radio waves can transmit information as far back as 1893. In lecture demonstrations in 1898, Tesla demonstrated a radio controlled boat by which he dubbed: tele-automation. That kind of sounds pretty standard today but you have to understand that this was 1898; the crowd that witnessed the demonstration was so shocked that they literally claimed Tesla was using magic, telepathy, or had a trained monkey hidden inside controlling the boat. When Mark Heine became world famous sending the first transatlantic message Tesla said the following: (Marconi is a good fellow, let him continue, he is using 17 of my patents).

Number two-x-ray: this was a pretty interesting story: x-rays were discovered by Tesla before Willham Rungjan was credited with the discovery. In fact, Tesla took the very first X-ray photos. For some reason after Willham

claimed the discovery, it was believed that X-rays could cure blindness and other elements. Despite testimony that X-rays could be dangerous, Edison tested it on one of his employees: Clarence Kelly, who after having his arms amputated, eventually died from cancer. Edison also fired X-rays into his own eyes during experiments. When questioned about it in 1993 Edison said: Don't talk to me about X-rays, I'm afraid of them.

Number three-hydroelectricity: Tesla designed the first hydroelectric plan that was powerful enough to light a city. At Niagara falls, proving to the world that waterfalls could make a practical energy source on a large scale. Other people told him that it wouldn’t work, but Tesla had already envisioned how a generator could harness energy from moving water when he was still a child. People were shocked but also delighted to see his vision power whole U.S. cities.

Number four-The Earthquake Machine: Tesla created a little pocket sized machine that when placed in a building and set to the building's natural frequency, made the structure wobble so much that still workers came down to the ground in a panic believing that there must’ve been an

earthquake. When the police were called, Tesla put the device back in his pocket and walked away. Tesla claimed that if he had 10 minutes more, he could’ve laid that building to the ground, and using the same device could have dropped the Brooklyn Bridge in less than one hour. Tesla also figured out the resonant frequency of the earth fifty years before the technology allowed scientists to catch up with his discovery

Lastly-The Tesla tower: So far the previous inventions were all things that made it to reality, but one of Texas’ most ambitious projects was actually a failure over now, it had become a Tesla legend forever romanticized. I'm of course talking about the famous watering cliff tower. Otherwise known as the Tesla tower set to deliver free energy to the world by using the earth ionosphere as part of the transmission device… or was it? The story goes that financial backer: JP. Morgan shut the project down when he discovered it wouldn't make any money. This isn't entirely true though; Tesla actually sold the project as a wireless communications tower not as a means of producing or transmitting energy. The financial backing from J.P. Morgan was only pulled when Marconi sent the first radio waves across the Atlantic making Morgan

change his mind. The project dragged on without Morgan and ran way over time and ridiculously over budget until it finally collapsed aside from this but science today says that the Tesla Tower wouldn't have worked; this is mainly due to technicalities such as energy lost during transmission and Tesla's misunderstanding of the physics of radio waves. This was Tesla's first major failure which brought him great shame. This would set him on a downward path that eventually led to the decline of the legend; more on this later. Alright so almost at the end of the story, but before we begin to conclude, let's take a look at four facts about Tesla. Number one: Tesla loved humanity. As a humanist, Chester believed in improving the quality of human life but not for financial gains. Here is a quote from Tesla himself:(Money doesn't mean as much to me as it does to others, all my money has gone into inventions to make men's life a little easier).

Number two: Tesla envisioned a wireless internet in 1901 while developing the transatlantic radio. He envisions a system of collecting information, encoding it, and broadcasting that information to a handheld device. This is basically what we have now as the mobile internet on our phones; Pretty impressive for sight for 1901.

Number 3: Tesla actually lost everything at one stage as Tesla was working tirelessly and discovering many things about wireless energy transfer. His lab burnt down in a fire forcing him to start his entire life's work again.

Number 4: Tesla may have had obsessive-compulsive behavior and insomnia, Tesla claimed that he only needed two hours of sleep a night. It's unclear whether that was because he wanted to, or because he couldn't actually sleep any more than that. Tesla was also obsessed with the number three and used 18 napkins to clean his dining room before ending his evening meals he also hated round objects, jewelry, shaking hands, and touching hair.

The Bitter End: As you can tell by that last fact, being such a genius and having a mind that was activated to such a high degree came with some consequences. His great mind became his downfall. Tesla's life story of rise to international prestige and fame was followed by an equally dramatic retreat into public shame, depression, and loneliness. Denial this failures and starting with the Tesla tower, led to further failure and further the denial; A downward spiral which eventually led Tesla lot to a mental breakdown. By the latter part of his life he was clinically

insane; Tesla hallucinated to such an extent that the boundaries between reality and his imagination became blurred. This caused him to work in his lab tirelessly. He often stated that his lab was the only place where he was truly happy. As an example of his mental condition, here is a quote from one of Nikola Tesla's final interviews: (I have been feeding pigeons; thousands of them, for years but there was one pigeon, a beautiful bird, pure white, with light grey tips on the wings, that one was different; no matter where I was, that pigeon would find me. When I wanted her, I only had to wish and call her, and she would come flying to me. I love that pigeon, I loved her as much as a man loves a woman; and she loves me. Then one night, as I was lying in my bed in the dark, solving problems as usual, she flew through the open window and stood at my desk. I knew she wanted to tell me something important, so I got up and went to her as I looked at her, I knew she wanted to tell me she was dying. And then as I got her message, there came a light from her eyes; powerful beams of light I don't think there's anything else to say there). Over his lifetime, Tesla had obtained more than 100 patents and over seven hundred inventions. But despite all of this, he was dirt-poor. For many years, he

worked alone in his room at the Hotel New Yorker where he died in 1943 living on a diet of milk and crackers. So a lot of you would be asking, how did this happen? How did Tesla end up so poor? It is true; Tesla could have been the world's first billionaire by a long shot. But he just really didn't care about money. Here is an example: In the war of the currents, Westinghouse was in trouble. Though almost bankrupt, and about to go under, so Westinghouse pleaded for Tesla long to temporarily cut back his royalties just so the Westinghouse companies could get through this tough time and survive. Shockingly, Tesla ripped up the contract right there and then, on the spot. This would have amounted to three hundred billion dollars for Tesla. Tesla simply stated that he was just happy that Westinghouse believed in him when no one else would. I guess having a huge spot and changing the world, was enough of a reward in itself for him. The rest of the remaining money that Tesla had accumulated over his life all got spent over numerous failed projects such as the Tesla Tower. Tesla's ideas helped America grow into an industrial nation and a powerhouse of the 20th century, yet he's marginalization was prevalent then and continues today. He is almost non-existent if you look through many of today's text books.

This is mainly because Tesla did not care about profit, fame, or fortune. He only wanted to make the world a better place. This was the polar opposite of most of the businessmen of that day, which unfortunately took advantage of Tesla's nature profiting from his work and leaving him with nothing. It could be a lesson to us all: have the purest intentions. But stand up for yourself, and know your worth. To finish off, here is one quote from Tesla: (The present is theirs, the future, for which I have really worked his mind.) And that is the story of Nikola Tesla.