Nikola Tesla, Great Inventor of the Ages

Nikola Tesla, A Serbian Cynillic, was born on July 10,1856 and died on january 7, 1943. He not only was a great inventor, but also a mechanical and electrical engineer.He aided in the develpopment of commercial electricity, as well as pioneered in the development of electro magnestism. He developed and further contributed to the development of AC power.(electric power systems) and the AC motor.

Tesla was born in the Serbian village of Smiljan and modern day Croatia. He was later an immigrant when his family moved to the United States. He completed three years of study at the University in Graz, a polytechnic institute. He was a reader of many works and everything that he read he memorized. He was said to have a photographic memory. He often suffered from blinding flashes of light and had visions, that influenced his topics of work later on in his life. In creating his inventions, he would first visualize what it was he was to create, and he then had remembered each one in perfect detail.

After moving to Budapest and working in a telegraph company, he worked with an Austrian inventor there and helped develop what is now considered the loud speaker device that amplified sound. Later in 1882, he moved to Paris, to work as an engineer in another company there. In 1884 he moved to the United States to New York and worked with Edison in "The Edison Machine Works".He helped develop direct current generators there. In 1886, he started his own electric light and manufacturing company Although this business did not do well in being able to remain open, he did make many innovative discoveries during this time..He later worked with Westinghouse and helped develop more electrical systems.

Tesla worked with the development of X-rays in 1887. He devised some experimental ways to produce x-rays. He later realized the hazards in working with x-rays and the damage that it could cause to the human body and used much caution in further development. A little later he developed wireless energy transfusion and it became known as "The Tesla Effect". It was the electrical conduction or movement of energy through space and matter. Tesla also claimed that he was able to send electronic messages through space to other star systems which would provide a form of communication between other possible existing races of entities on other planets.

Tesla became an American citizen in 1891 through "Naturalization". He is responsible for establishing "The Fifth Avenue" laboratory in New York. He had many patents in the electrical field, including the Polyphase power system. Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced the Ac power system at the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. His generator was developed in 1895. Later Tesla did research in radiation that led to the formulation of cosmic rays. He patented the first Radio in 1897 and was responsible for the concept of the radio controlled torpedo for the military. He devised the first spark plug which ignited engines by providing the electrical spark needed in powering the engines. He carried out wireless transmission experiments later and got patents on these later. Marconi was later awarded the patent for the first radio and Tesla's patent was over turned. He attempted a law suit that was unsuccessful.

Although he was mentioned as to be a co-recipient with Edison for a Nobel Prize in 1915, because of a falling out or each with the other, both inventors refused to share the prize, Tesla was given several significant awards including the Edison Medal in 1916, Eliot Cresson Medal in 1893. and the John Scott Medal in 1934.

Tesla's "Directed Energy Weapon" or so-called "Death Ray" was invented by Tesla, according to him, to put an end to all wars in the future, and it was said to use high voltage particle beams that were launched toward a target and reportedly was to destroy it. It was shot through a vacuum tube.The military denied that it was ever utilized or put into practice and all records are kept in a museum in Belgrade. Tesla had a great many theories and a flying machine that was propelled by ions was one of his more unusual ones. It was to be run electromagnetically.Tesla was famous for his presentations, demonstrations and showmanship, and he often gave talks about his many inventions and theoretical proposals.

Tesla was, indeed a gifted and brilliant scientist and inventor. He was never given the attention and recognition that he most assuredly deserved in many of the world's marvelous inventions, that he was responsible in developing. Often accused as being eccentric, Tesla was at times reclusive over the years. Leonardo da Vinci, Sir Issac Newton, Edison, Ford, and dozens of brilliant innovators of the centuries were just as exceptional and might well have been considered eccentric themselves.It is said that Tesla was also fluent in six or more foreign languages.Tesla was one of the greatest and most brilliant minded people of our civilization. One day, perhaps, he will be given the recognition that he so well deserves. The world has been made a much more marvelous place in which we all can share, due to the wonderful minds, such as that of Nikola Tesla.