Nikola Tesla

I've heard a lot of conflicting stories about the guy.

Kid I know worships the ground he walks on, talks about how Edison screwed Tesla over, how he had made free energy, and stuff like that.

Other people I've seen pretty much play him as a joke, or at least, a guy with a few ideas that looked cool, but mostly ones that made no scientific sense.

And unfortunately, wikipedia in all of its unbiased nature, really doesn't help draw any conclusion except that he lived, won a nobel prize, and died working on a death ray.

So, I thought I'd put it on OTC, and see what the opinion was here.

edited 3rd Jun '11 4:34:03 PM by MrAHR

Edison was...kind of a dick.

Not sure how accurate this is, but it's been generally agreed he was screwed over by Edison.

Of course, this is info from the internet, so take this like it's a grain of salt.

edited 3rd Jun '11 4:38:26 PM by Signed

Yeah, I definitely have heard that story before. I do kind of take it with a grain of salt, because I would like to read it from the perspective of someone pro-edison or less in love with Tesla (see above).

However, even if we do accept this as true, it doesn't really mean Edison screwed him over, or that Tesla was an unsung super hero.

I've wondered this as well, but was never interested enough to look it up. Tesla's got one cool ass name though.

...yeah. It is.

@OP: He didn't win a Nobel prize.

A genius scientist, but utterly incompetent when it came to business. Invented, among many other things, the alternating current, radio (Marconi stole the patent), remote control, tesla coils◊, and many other things I can't remember now.

edited 3rd Jun '11 4:47:07 PM by MilosStefanovic

Oh. Misread. Just saw "Nobel Prize and Tesla" so I kinda just blurred it.

Thanks for the correction!

How do you know Marconi stole the patent?

edited 3rd Jun '11 4:48:44 PM by MrAHR

Here's a quote:

Read more about it here.

The whole issue is still rather controversial, and it seems that the merit cannot be given to only one of the two.

edited 3rd Jun '11 4:55:19 PM by MilosStefanovic

Sounds like most other patent controversies. Where you have two people reaching separate conclusions, and due to minor problems in publishing speed and stuff you get...that.

I mean, the list of people trying to figure out the radio is more than just them. It's pretty long.

edited 3rd Jun '11 5:00:01 PM by MrAHR

Tesla was screwed over several times.

He was a specialized kinda guy, I guess. He was a great inventor, just a terrible businessman. It's not even that the people who took his ideas were dicks, they were just vaguely ambitious. I think Tesla just made it too easy.

Sounds like a reasonable take.

I guess that leaves as to whether he really is an awesome scientist, or just a guy with...I think it was phrased as "he had a certain way of thinking, sometimes it would coincide with the laws of science, but most of the time it wouldn't."

One one hand, you can say Tesla lives for science. He's a true scientist and does things For Science!, for the sake of science, etc...

....or since he's dead a long time ago, he might also be just as dickish and did his own shady things. How accurate are information regarding little known figures from the past when all those inventions weren't so widespread?

He died working on a death ray...why oh why wasn't he working on a life ray?

Because Tesla was either a vampire or an assassin. Why would he want a life ray?

In all seriousness, though... I'm mostly curious as to whether or not the majority of the countries he worked in actually had problems with Tesla. Because the rumors do seem to tend to the side that governments disliked Tesla for some reason (he didn't make money and couldn't pay taxes or something?), and he needed to move around a lot...

edited 3rd Jun '11 5:29:59 PM by Swish

Modern civilization couldn't happen without Tesla's ingenius innovations. Even now people are expanding on ideas he thought up, such as wireless power to devices. That's what Tesla Coils were made for.

Governments avoided him because he seemed like a literal mad scientist bent on building a death ray, and from his past creations they knew he was capable of doing that. So they were a little ill at ease when it comes to him.

Think of Tesla as Aperture Science and Edison as Black Mesa. He was a brilliant man, with revolutionary ideas but awful at marketing.

edited 3rd Jun '11 6:15:52 PM by Pentadragon

Well he wanted the death ray because he figured it would stop all wars by making them too horrible, much like the guy who invented the machinegun thought it would end all wars because they would become too horrible to fight.

In any case, I think his biggest contribution to society is likely alternating current, considering that's how the entire world's electric grids work.

Yes, he's the one to blame for the flickering bulbs! Curse him!

But actually, there's quite a few HVDC cables around nowadays.

Relevant The War of Currents

Also Edison is a shady snake of a business man and used scare tactics to discredit Tesla by electrocuting an elephant with an AC rig and claiming dc was safer. Relevant Article with Old Video of the Poor Elephant Frying

Electromechanical devices and principles developed by Nikola Tesla Courtesy of the Other Wiki

1. Various devices that use rotating magnetic fields (1882)
2. The Induction motor, rotary transformers, and "high" frequency alternators
3. The Tesla coil,[33] his magnifying transmitter, and other means for increasing the intensity of electrical oscillations (including condenser discharge transformations and the Tesla oscillators)
4. Alternating current long-distance electrical transmission system (1888) and other methods and devices for power transmission
5. Systems for wireless communication (prior art for the invention of radio) and radio frequency oscillators[37]
6. Robotics and the electronic logic gate
7. Electrotherapy Tesla currents
8. Wireless transfer of electricity and the Tesla effect
9. Tesla impedance phenonomena
10. Tesla electro-static field
11. Tesla principle
12. Bifilar coil
13. Telegeodynamics
14. Tesla insulation
15. Tesla impulses[45]
16. Tesla frequencies[33]
17. Tesla discharge[33]
18. Forms of commutators and methods of regulating third brushes
19. Tesla turbines (e.g., bladeless turbines) for water, steam and gas and the Tesla pumps
20. Tesla igniter
21. Corona discharge ozone generator
22. Tesla compressor
23. X-rays Tubes using the Bremsstrahlung process
24. Devices for ionized gases and "Hot Saint Elmo's Fire".
25. Devices for high field emission
26. Devices for charged particle beams
27. Phantom streaming devices
28. Arc light systems
29. Methods for providing extremely low level of resistance to the passage of electric current (predecessor to superconductivity)
30. Voltage multiplication circuitry
31. Devices for high voltage discharges
32. Devices for lightning protection
33. VTOL aircraft
34. Dynamic theory of gravity
35. Concepts for electric vehicles
36. Polyphase systems

edited 3rd Jun '11 7:23:12 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Tesla seems have severe psychological trouble : HF autism ? asperger ? at very least OCD. it is understandable no government trust or like him.

it is possible Edison did intend the reward is a joke (the money is too big) and Tesla did not understand it.

he also true mad scientist, his research is very varied, some might be true science breakthrough, some might be scientifically unlikely. Tesla is too advanced for his age, so he have no equal who could understand his way of thinking, and debate whether his science actually work or bunk.

He did develop OCD later in life.

List of his over 100 patents

Man is indeed a genius.

edited 3rd Jun '11 7:25:30 PM by TuefelHundenIV

He was indeed.

And Edison was a total and complete bell-end. I make it no secret my loathing of Edison and his underhanded ways.

Edison also had a number of animals electrocuted with various AC devices in his lab to prove a point. Including, horses, cats, and dogs. :/

Tesla really did get the shit end of the stick.

edited 3rd Jun '11 7:36:09 PM by TuefelHundenIV

He also pushed for the electric chair as a means of execution, and it was widely adopted despite being simultaneously less reliable and more cruel than hanging or the guillotine, both well-tested and functional methods.

Yeah forgot about that charming caveat. I swear the man was trying very hard to be vile and evil.