Gieve Kazerouni's List: Nikola Tesla

• During his lifetime, Tesla invented fluorescent lighting, the Tesla induction motor, the Tesla coil, and developed the alternating current (AC) electrical supply system that included a motor and transformer, and 3-phase electricity.
• Tesla is now credited with inventing modern radio as well; since the Supreme Court overturned Guglielmo Marconi's patent in 1943 in favor of Nikola Tesla's earlier patents. When an engineer (Otis Pond) once said to Tesla, "Looks as if Marconi got the jump on you" regarding Marconi's radio system, Tesla replied, "Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using seventeen of my patents."
• The Tesla coil, invented in 1891, is still used in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment.
• Nikola Tesla claimed the invention of an electrical generator that would not consume any fuel. This invention has been lost to the public. Tesla stated about his invention that he had harnessed the cosmic rays and caused them to operate a motive device.
• In total, Nikola Telsa was granted more than one hundred patents and invented countless unpatented inventions.
• In 1885, George Westinghouse, head of the Westinghouse Electric Company, bought the patent rights to Tesla's system of dynamos, transformers and motors. Westinghouse used Tesla's alternating current system to light the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893 in Chicago.
• Nikola Tesla was Thomas Edison's rival at the end of the 19th century. In fact, he was more famous than Edison throughout the 1890's. His invention of polyphase electric power earned him worldwide fame and fortune.

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• Nikola Tesla is not as famous as his contemporary, Thomas Edison, but his inventions brought the world into our modern age.
• Tesla popularized alternating current and invented the Tesla Coil, which makes the high voltage that drives the picture tube (CRT) in your computer, and ultimately received proper credit for inventing the radio, instead of Guglielmo Marconi, whose radio used essential components patented by Tesla.
• He discovered X-rays a year before W K. Roentgen did and took the first X-ray photographs. He built a vacuum tube amplifier several years before Lee de Forest did and demonstrated the principles used in microwave ovens and radar decades before they became an integral part of our society. During the manufacturing of his inventions, he used only his brain to judge the dimension of an object to a hundredth of an inch and performed difficult computations without the benefit of a slide rule or mathematical tables, even after only one to two hours of sleep a day.
• Plagued by illness as a, boy, Tesla spent much of his youth reading and imagining inventions.
• Now fascinated with the Vedic cosmology, Tesla began using the Sanskrit words "akasha" (all-pervading material of the universe) and "prana" (energy) to describe mass and energy in his work. The swami, seeking a unified primal energy beyond "akasha" and "prana," went to see the scientist at his laboratory in February of 1896, hoping that he would be able to demonstrate that matter is simply potential energy. "In that case," Vivekananda wrote "the Vedantic cosmology will be placed on the surest of foundations. I am working a good deal now upon the cosmology and eschatology of Vedanta. I clearly see their perfect unison with modern science." Both men must have been disappointed, however, since the results of Tesla's demonstrations are unknown. In fact, more than a year later Swami Vivekananda said, "There is the unity of force, "prana;" there is the unity of matter, called "akasha." Is there any unity to be found among them again? Can they be melded into one? Our modern science is mute here; it has not yet found its way out."
• Mainstream scientists stand in awe of Tesla for his inventions. But there is another following out there. A quick search of "Tesla cult" on the Internet will bring you a large collection of fantastic stories about Tesla.
•  Labeled "The Man Out of Time," Tesla developed the polyphase AC system of power transmission, which drives every home and industry in the world. He invented the Tesla coil to create high-frequency electricity, used in TV tubes, neon and fluorescent lighting, radio transmission, remote control and hundreds of other devices which are an essential part of our everyday lives. He harnessed the power of Niagara Falls and took the first X-ray photos. He anticipated the development of radio and television broadcasting, robotics, computers, faxes and even the Strategic Defense Initiative. Even today scientists glean through Tesla's research notes looking for insights.

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• He studied engineering at two institutions in Austria-Hungary. Those educational institutions were Graz Technical University (now in Austria) and the University of Prague (now in the Czech Republic). Tesla left the University of Prague in 1880, without a degree, after his father died. He then worked for a short time for Austria-Hungary's telephone system in Budapest (now in Hungary). In 1882, Tesla moved to Paris. There he worked for the Continental Edison Company.
• The alternating-current system. While at Graz Technical University, Tesla had seen a demonstration of a generator run as a direct current (DC) motor. Direct current is electric current that flows in only one direction. During the demonstration, the brushes and the commutator of the motor sparked violently. The brushes are devices that conduct the current in a DC motor. The commutator continually reverses the current so that the motor continues to rotate in one direction. Tesla believed a motor without a commutator could be devised. In 1881, while walking in a park, Tesla got an idea for a simple way to produce such a device. In 1883, while on assignment for Continental Edison in Strasbourg, France, Tesla used his spare time to build his first polyphase (out-of-step) AC motor. In such a motor, coils are arranged so that when out-of-step alternating currents energize them, the resulting magnetic field rotates at a predetermined speed
• In 1891, Tesla invented the Tesla coil. The coil is a type of high-frequency transformer that is still used in radio and television transmission. He experimented with wireless control. In 1898, he demonstrated a radio-controlled boat he had invented. In 1899, Tesla created artificial lightning in one of his laboratories. Tesla's other achievements include early experiments with X rays and radar, and with aircraft design. He also invented neon and fluorescent lighting

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