Nikola Tesla was an inventor and a mechanic and electrical engineer. He was one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity. In the field of electrical engineering, Tesla enriched the world with more than 700 registered inventions, many of which were so far in advance of their times that they could be put to practical purpose only long after his death. You might know the name of the Tesla from Tesla coil high voltage resonant transformer and Tesla unit for “magnetic flux density”.
Nikola Tesla – The Man Who Lit Up The World exhibition is at the moment located at Aalto University School of Science and Technology main building in Espoo Finland to the end of May 2010. The exhibition is arranged in co-ordination with the Ministry of Culture and the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia. You can see the history of inventions made by Tesla. There are two working demonstrations (reproductions of the device): Tesla’s Egg of Columbus and 150 kV Tesla coil. If you want to see a Tesla coil in operation, this is a good change to see that.
37 Comments
Johnnyhouse says:
I really want a Tesla, besides a cool name it looks like a sweet car!
belly agonny says:
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Save Tesla’s lab!
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/now-hear-this/4394230/Save-Tesla-s-lab-?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+Fun+Friday
The site of Nikola Tesla’s last lab, known as Wardenclyffe, is up for sale. Priced at $1.6 million, there are two interested parties in the land: the first is a not-for-profit group that would like to build a museum to honor Tesla and his work on the land; the second is a developer who wants to build a “retail establishment.”
The idea of a retail shop where Tesla worked is disgusting.
To be true, even if enough is raised by the not-for-profit group to buy the land, funds will be needed to build, furnish, and manage the museum. In its first days of fundraising, the not-for-profit group has already gathered $440,000, which the group credits to help from The Oatmeal. The group only has six weeks to meet its goal.
I think the site should be saved as a historical site.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Check out this IEEE Long Island website—It is from December 2011, but it’s pretty interesting
http://www.ieee.li/pdf/viewgraphs/nikola_tesla.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mission accomplished: The Oatmeal raises $875,000 to build a museum honoring Nikola Tesla
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/08/22/mission-accomplished-the-oatmeal-raises-875000-build-museum-honoring-nikola-tesla/
After successfully booting an IP troll in the financial groin a couple of months ago, Matthew Inman (better known to the Internet as The Oatmeal) has done it again. This time Inman was aiming to raise $850,000 in order to save a project that would build a museum to honor Nikola Tesla, the scientist whom Inman fancies quite heavily. As of today, it’s mission accomplished.
The state of New York promised to match Inman’s raise, putting the total for the project at $1.7 million as of the time of this writing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Oatmeal’s Fundraiser Tops $1M Toward Tesla Museum
http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/08/26/1336233/the-oatmeals-fundraiser-tops-1m-toward-tesla-museum
“The Oatmeal has raised over $1 million on IndieGoGo in an effort to secure Wardenclyffe, the site of Tesla’s final laboratory, to build a museum dedicated to Tesla. ..”
“Raising the capital to build a museum from the property will be another cost, but from the looks of it, with 36 days left and having already surpassed the $1 million mark, there should be funds to spare.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikola Tesla slideshow: Images and articles from Tesla’s writings
http://www.edn.com/design/power-management/4396202/Nikola-Tesla-slideshow–Images-and-articles-from-Tesla-s-writings?cid=EDNToday
John Ratzlaff compiled 25 years of research on Nikola Tesla in his book, “Tesla Said” (now out of print)
In this slideshow, we present a sampling of images and excerpts from this collection, which are all obtainable on the Internet. The image files included here were graciously provided by John Piliounis, a physicist/electronics engineer in Athens, Hellas (Greece).
Tomi Engdahl says:
War of currents: Tesla vs Edison
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4398453/War-of-currents–Tesla-vs-Edison?cid=Newsletter+-+EDN+Design+Ideas
In honor of the recent news that the not-for-profit Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe has signed a letter of intent to acquire Tesla’s lab and property on Long Island, NY, EDN celebrates one of Tesla’s few triumphs in a life and career that was filled with ridicule, rejection by his peers, and ultimately debt at the time of his death: his polyphase alternating current system electricity.
Read on for photos and commentary on the inventions behind the War of Currents, Tesla’s World’s Fair success, and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla—Connecting the dots
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/nikola-tesla/4371878/Tesla–Connecting-the-dots?cid=EDNToday
Dr. Simos’ presentation on Tesla was eye-opening as well as mathematically and theoretically rigorous in showing that some of Tesla’s ideas that were dismissed over a century ago are now seen in a different light. This due to looking back and showing that the ideas, far advanced for the time, are now shown to comply with Maxwell’s equations and do not violate any classical laws of mathematics or physics as once thought.
Dr. Simos also discussed the narrow areas of inconsistencies in Maxwell’s equations which manage to describe most governing principles but is not the “Holy Grail” of electromagnetics. There exist discontinuous or singular solutions which are not allowed in Maxwell’s mathematics—Absence of point-wise concentrated charges and avoidance of singular solutions do exist as we have found out in modern science.
We now accept wireless energy transmission as a capacitive effect. Tesla envisioned a capacitor on a grand scale. While in Colorado Springs he tested large discharges that returned un-diminished. He had created a singularity. In today’s electromagnetics we know that there are transversal waves (Hertzian) and Longitudinal waves (Vortex rings). He was exciting modes, not waves. Applying a high voltage discharge here and across the globe there was an instant effect from it. Tesla used to say “ride” the modes; that is, pick up the “ride” with energy already there.
He had found that a resonant frequency of 8 Hz was made by the earth and the ionosphere spherical capacitor effect. In 1952 Schumann said that 8 Hz was the self-oscillation of the earth and ionosphere—–50 years later!
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tesla gives 1st public demonstration of radio, March 1, 1893
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/edn-moments/4408090/Tesla-gives-1st-public-demonstration-of-radio–March-1–1893
Nikola Tesla gave the first public demonstration of radio in St Louis on March 1, 1893, although he had presented his work prior to this behind closed doors.
Tomi Engdahl says:
10 things you may not know about Tesla
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/serious-fun/4410028/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-Tesla
Nikola Tesla, the favorite genius of many the engineer, stood out not only for his brilliance but also for some of his personal traits and beliefs that were sometimes odd.
That’s not to be insulting; it’s simply a fact. In comparison to others of his time, Tesla was noted not only for his scientific and engineering accomplishments but also for his personal habits, rituals, and beliefs.
Will DC Power Distribution Make a Comeback? « Tomi Engdahl’s ePanorama blog says:
[...] using DC. Meanwhile, AC was pushed by George Westinghouse and several European companies that used Nikola Tesla’s inventions. Finally AC won the game because it made easier to transmit power over long distances using thinner [...]
Wireless power for charging mobile devices « Tomi Engdahl’s ePanorama blog says:
[...] some popularity. Wireless charging isn’t something new; the technology exists since 1981 and Nikola Tesla has made first wireless power experiments over 100 years ago. Wireless charging for Qi technology [...]
Tomi Engdahl says:
Why Do Tesla Coils Fire Electric Arcs?
A quick explanation on how Tesla Coils function
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Passive_Components/Oscillators_Crystals_Saw_Filters/Why_Do_Tesla_Coils_Fire_Electric_Arcs.aspx
Resembling a death machine with its massive voltage and lightning discharge, the Tesla Coil was actually intended for free wireless electricity transmissions. It is a high-frequency air-core transformer capable of magnifying voltage beyond 1,000,000 units. The coil was pioneered by the genius Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) , a man whose numerous contributions include the AC induction motor, radio transmission before Marconi, the discovery of Earth’s resonance 50 years before it was proven, and hundreds of patents. Though Tesla Coils are now used only for education and entertainment, the devices are fantastic enough to inspire a slew of hobbyists into building their own, but how exactly does it work?
John Wunder says:
Beneficial information and facts. Fortuitous my family I stumbled upon your site unintentionally, with this particular shocked the key reason why this specific accident wouldn’t came to exist earlier! We added them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Other Tesla
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=28&doc_id=1324118&
This Indiegogo fundraiser is for a Tesla museum in the inventor’s decaying lab in Shoreham, N.Y.
These crowdfunding platforms can also be used for charitable or artistic projects, and that’s a game-changer for non-profits and struggling artists. So I was particularly taken with this fundraiser for Tesla. No, we aren’t talking about the car company, we’re talking about the great man himself, Nikola.
Not too long ago in the EE community, anything to do with Tesla referred to the last century and the wonders of AC current. Any story in EETimes about Tesla generated huge traffic, invariably including a few fringe comments from the Tesla conspiracy theorist crowd.
The Indiegogo fundraiser is for a Tesla museum in his decaying lab in Shoreham, NY. And before you ask, the new Mr. Tesla (Elon Musk) is pitching in $1M. The idea is that you purchase a 4″x8″ brick, which will be physically installed on the property of Nikola Tesla’s lab, where it will become a part of the museum forever.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Was Tesla for real, or not?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/rowe-s-and-columns/4440275/Was-Tesla-for-real–or-not-
The Truth About Tesla: The Myth of the Lone Genius in the History of Innovation by Christopher Cooper, J.D. Race Point Publishing.
In The Truth About Tesla, Christopher Cooper sets out to prove that the revered engineer and inventor wasn’t all that original. Yes, Cooper refers to Tesla as a genius, he makes a case that all Tesla really did was borrow ideas from others and simple beat most of them to the patent office.
“History is written by the (patent case) winners,” writes Cooper, “and so it is for Nikola Tesla. Unwittingly or not, Tesla’s biographers marry prestige to patents, often forgetting that patent law&mdhash;especially in the U.S.—assumes a process of invention out of touch with reality.” Cooper also cites Tesla’s sometimes outlandish claims and boasts in the popular press and in publications such as The Electrical Experimenter
Cooper takes the first chapter to discuss patent law and how those who obtain patents are often credited with being the true inventors of technology. He then spends a chapter covering Tesla’s life. Here’ he points to Tesla’s accounts of seeing “flashes of light” as ideas came into his mind. These and other events, according to Cooper, give Tesla an almost supernatural aura.
While the “War of current” was raging among utilities and high-powered financiers over electrical power distribution, Tesla (an AC power advocate) was busy working on his split-phase AC motor design. He needed a design that would run on a single generator to make it feasible and attractive to investors. Cooper acknowledges that Tesla solved the problem, but questions whether Tesla was truly the first to figure it out or was he simply the first to apply for and receive a patent. That patent was overturned when Galileo Farraris published a paper that essentially described the same thing just prior to Tesla’s patent application.
Cooper uses the results of his research to conclude that Tesla didn’t even invent the oscillating transformer for which we associate his name: Tesla coil. Cooper claims that the Tesla Coil is based on “simple applications of scientific principles and electrical configuration already discovered by a number of scientists with whom Tesla interacted over several years prior to finalizing his patent.” Those scientists included such “electrical heroes” Heinrich Hertz and Hermann Ludwig von Helmholtz.
I question Cooper’s claim that Tesla is unworthy of claiming the oscillating transformer as his own invention.
Why do I question Cooper here? Tesla did, by Cooper’s admission, apply the concepts of others, add a few modifications, and create a new device. For example, Tesla added a capacitor to get the transformer to oscillate, thus creating an ongoing series of sparks. So what if Tesla applied the work of others in a new way in creating a new device? That happens every day in every engineering lab. Why shouldn’t he get credit for it?
According to Cooper, Tesla’s fans and biographers claim that he invented wireless transmissions. Cooper again claims that others had succeeded in developing systems for wireless communication transmission long before Tesla applied for patents.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Research team developing Tesla coil designs
http://www.controleng.com/single-article/research-team-developing-tesla-coil-designs/96acc1cb35e2d5287d7be6c72840bb67.html?OCVALIDATE&[email protected]&ocid=101781
Researchers at The Geek Group National Science Institute have set out on an ambitious program of research and experimentation seeking to discover new uses for Tesla coils (TCs).
Mention a Tesla coil (TC) to many people, and they might guess it has something to do with the pioneering electric car named after Nikola Tesla, a contemporary and rival of Thomas Edison. They would be correct, in part. Tesla’s development of ac generation and transmission technology has become the global standard for electrical power transmission, without which there would likely be no electric cars. But the cars themselves do not use TCs, nor does much of anything else, other than some high school labs and science museums. The coils were Tesla’s short-lived effort to create an open, wireless technology that would transmit power around the globe without cables.
Now, a century after the implementation of ac, researchers at The Geek Group National Science Institute, a science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) collective in Grand Rapids, Mich., are revisiting Tesla’s vision and seeking to discover new uses. With the help of linear motion technology, they have set out on an ambitious program of research and experimentation that would have been impossible in Tesla’s day. Thomson Industries is donating a high-precision ball screw assembly that will help The Geek Group’s high-energy engineering team wind the thousands of coils they will need for their experiments.
The premise of a TC is basic physics.
In a TC, a power supply charges a capacitor bank to a modest voltage until a switch connects it to a low turn count primary coil at the base. This causes a large ac “ringing” or oscillation to flow through this coil, which causes a large magnetic field to envelop a much larger, high turn count secondary coil.
This causes current to start flowing in the secondary coil, charging a capacitor formed between the terminal on top, called a “top load,” and earth ground. This resonant circuit continues oscillating and transferring power between the coils until either the switch is opened or the ringing completely decays. For a sufficient time after the pulse, a properly-timed additional pulse can cause the oscillation to increase in amplitude until major energy losses start occurring in the form of sparks, arc, and corona discharges.
By greatly reducing the ability of these two coils to interact, a TC can cause the oscillation to overshoot the voltage levels that a traditional transformer calculation would indicate.
n a TC, the ratio may be in the order of 1:20 to 1:100, and traditional calculations would suggest output voltages in the order of hundreds of kilovolts to a million volts. But because of the loose coupling, the voltages are allowed to overshoot, realizing outputs from tens to hundreds of megavolts.
The secret is in the windings
Most TCs in use today are created by manually wrapping copper wire around a PVC pipe that provides the air gap. Manual winding is possible and encouraged for the smallest classroom applications, which can involve a secondary coil that is 1 or 2 ft. by 4 in. But in winding thousands of secondary coils, some at lengths of up to 8 ft., manual winding not only would be prohibitively painstaking, it also would fail to provide the precision that would be necessary for perfect resonance.
Part of the winding process involves coating the wire with epoxy or polyurethane, which seals and insulates the wrapping. Even a tiny amount of moisture can interfere with the experiment. Coating is most effective when done during the winding. Because it must dry and cure in real time, the pipe must keep turning constantly for up to a week. During that time, the windings must be positioned straight, with no gaps, except as defined by the experiment’s protocol.
Automating the winding process
The Geek Group’s winding machine can provide the slow and steady motion needed to keep the coil turning steadily for days at a time.
Stay tuned
Coil production began in May 2017, and The Geek Group has plans for larger coils and experiments in the future
Will they end up realizing Tesla’s vision? Will they discover new capabilities of the TC? If nothing else, we can be sure that The Geek Group’s high-energy team, the 75,000 Geek Group online subscribers, the more than 15 million viewers of its online videos, and possibly the entire scientific engineering community will wind up knowing a lot more about a powerful, yet all but abandoned, technology.
http://thegeekgroup.org/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The 300 Documents Confiscated After Tesla’s Death Are Declassified and Free Downloadable
http://alien-star.org/earth/the-300-documents-confiscated-after-teslas-death-are-declassified-and-free-downloadable/amp/
More than 300 documents have been confiscated after Nikola Tesla’s death. These documents have been kept as a very valuable secret for the American government.
Tesla came up with the idea of Alternating Current and CA motor that we still use nowadays. Now, more than 90% of Tesla’s inventions are being used in our contemporary society.
https://vault.fbi.gov/nikola-tesla
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://listverse.com/2014/09/26/10-uncomfortable-truths-about-nikola-tesla/amp/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.livescience.com/amp/46720-nikola-tesla-158th-anniversary.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikola Tesla Wasn’t God And Thomas Edison Wasn’t The Devil
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/05/18/nikola-tesla-wasnt-god-and-thomas-edison-wasnt-the-devil/
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_currents
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/05/18/nikola-tesla-wasnt-god-and-thomas-edison-wasnt-the-devil/amp/
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://theoatmeal.com/comics/tesla
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikola Tesla animatronic bust
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=juhavA3wL68&feature=emb_title
https://blog.springwald.de/post/feature/Nikola-Tesla-Bust
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/articles/tesla-invented-radio-not-marconi
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikola Tesla: 5G network could realise his dream of wireless electricity, a century after experiments failed
https://theconversation.com/amp/nikola-tesla-5g-network-could-realise-his-dream-of-wireless-electricity-a-century-after-experiments-failed-158665
Tomi Engdahl says:
Pawn Stars: INSANE CASH for Tesla Prototype Motor (Season 5) | History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3c508SCsfs
Rick calls in an expert to authenticate an original Tesla Prototype Motor, but what he reveals doesn’t go over well with the seller, in this clip from Season 5, “High Tops.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Many Things That Nikola Tesla Got Very, Very Wrong
Despite his work on electrical currents, he didn’t believe in electrons.
https://www.iflscience.com/the-many-things-that-nikola-tesla-got-very-very-wrong-65751
Nikola Tesla, famed for his work on alternating current, was one hell of an inventor, mechanical engineer and physicist. His inventions have been found to work better than expected even 100 years after he noted them down. However, nobody can be right 100 percent of the time, and Nikola Tesla had his fair share of being wrong – often massively so.
Tesla disagreed with Einstein
Tesla was not a fan of relativity, describing it as “a beggar wrapped in purple whom ignorant people take for a king”.
Tesla thought he had measured faster than light travel
He was in love with a pigeon
Ok, this isn’t exactly him being “wrong” in the “correct or not” sense, but it seems worth a mention. Tesla had a fairly strange final few years, including falling for a pigeon that used to visit him regularly. “I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman,” he reportedly said of the bird, “and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life.”
He didn’t believe in electrons
This is a weird one given his work on electricity (which is the flow of electrons through a conductor), but Tesla did not believe in electrons, thinking atoms were the smallest building blocks of the universe, arguing that if they existed they would only do so in a perfect vacuum. He believed in the 19th century view that the “ether” or “aether” transmitted electrical currents.
He thought the atom could not be split
Of course, not believing in electrons led him to the belief that atoms could not be split.
“The idea of atomic energy is illusionary, but it has taken so powerful a hold on the minds that, although I have preached against it for 25 years, there still are some who believe it to be realizable,” he said of the topic.
The atom was first split in 1932.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://www.iflscience.com/the-many-things-that-nikola-tesla-got-very-very-wrong-65751
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikola Tesla Had A Bunch Of Interesting Thoughts On Vegetarianism
Like other great minds, Nikola Tesla became a vegetarian in later life.
https://www.iflscience.com/nikola-tesla-had-a-bunch-of-interesting-thoughts-on-vegetarianism-66028
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Story of Tesla’s Tower, His Coil, and EMI
Dec. 8, 2022
This article presents the amazing development of the Tesla coil, its issues with electromagnetic interference, and how the coil is still being used today.
https://www.electronicdesign.com/power-management/whitepaper/21256056/electronic-design-the-story-of-teslas-tower-his-coil-and-emi?utm_source=EG+ED+Analog+%26+Power+Source&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=CPS221201042&o_eid=7211D2691390C9R&rdx.identpull=omeda|7211D2691390C9R&oly_enc_id=7211D2691390C9R
Summary
Nikola Tesla was a brilliant, but troubled, genius. His creation of the Tesla coil was a moment of brilliance, leading to a device that’s used even today in many designs, mostly in a modified, improved architecture.
Tesla coils, however, create massive EMI disturbances in neighboring electronics. Designers must use these devices cautiously so that they will perform as desired in an electronic design and not intrude on any electronic devices within range.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://historianet.fi/tekniikka/edison-vastaan-tesla-sahkonerot-vihasivat-toisiaan
Edison vastaan Tesla: Sähkönerot vihasivat toisiaan
Menestystä niittänyt Thomas Edison ja nuori Nikola Tesla tutkivat sähkön mahdollisuuksia yhdessä, mutta taistelu rahasta ja kunniasta teki heistä lopulta katkeria vihamiehiä.
Tomi Engdahl says:
https://texashillcountry.com/mysterious-tesla-tower-texas/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Many Things That Nikola Tesla Got Very, Very Wrong
Despite his work on electrical currents, he didn’t believe in electrons.
https://www.iflscience.com/the-many-things-that-nikola-tesla-got-very-very-wrong-65751
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nikola Tesla Predicted Cellphones in 1926. Here is his prediction in full:
“When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.”
– Nikola Tesla
https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NSUzJxdwhv4JK7F/