The Unrecognized Genius

Who has heard of Nikola Tesla, the inventor of the Alternating Current motor, the Tesla coil, the radio (it was not Marconi), neon and fluorescent illumination, x-rays, as well as a pioneer in the wireless transmission of energy? Was the name mentioned in our high school science classes, or in our general science college classes? Perhaps, we are familiar the SI unit of magnetic field, the tesla, the measurement of magnetic flux density, but do we know the scientist in whose honor the unit was termed? I have conversed with engineering majors who are not acquainted with the discoverer of the fundamental principles of physics. When we hear the name Thomas Edison pronounced, conversely, we associate it with one of America’s greatest scientists, the inventor of the lightbulb, phonograph and motion picture camera. Edison, an investor and businessman, was a proponent of the Direct Current motor. He saw a profit in store for his company with the growth of electrical power-utilizing industry, and seeing a rival in AC current he began the War of the Currents. Alternating Current won the race. It was found to be more efficient in energy usage and less costly. So why is Edison more famous than Tesla? Why is Marconi more famous? Tesla’s life may explain this riddle…

Nikola Tesla was born in Croatia in 1856. He was provided with a formal elementary education and enrolled in a polytechnic school for engineering and mathematics. As a student he devised the basic outline of Alternating Current through magnetic reversal. Afterwards, Tesla moved to America in search of an investor to realize his invention and was hired by Thomas Edison, the most renowned electrical engineer. Edison hired Tesla to work in his various laboratories and promised Tesla fifty thousand dollars for improvements in his Direct Current plants but when Tesla completed the undertaking Edison claimed that his offer was made in jest. Tesla left Edison’s plant embittered. Eventually, several investors enabled him to construct his major inventions, most importantly the AC motor. The motor provided a far more efficient electrical current than the established Direct Current motor.

Thomas Edison saw the future of Direct Current threatened and launched a public attack on alternating current using every possible means of damaging its reputation, to the extent of arranging the spectacle of public execution by electrocution.

The AC motor provides constant electrical generation and is used to power every household switch and electrical device in the United States. The basic design of this devise consists of two rings, placed one within the other. The outer ring is static, the stator and the inner ring rotates. Each ring has a set of magnets placed in a specific arrangement, which allows the north and south polarity to alternate. The anatomy of the AC motor consists of twelve sets of poles placed on twelve sets of stators. The reversal of the magnet polarity generates a current that does not need a physical power to generate rotation, in contrast to Direct Current motors.

During his years of production, Tesla was well-known and celebrated in America. He had the reputation of an eccentric and visionary. His popularity fell after important industrial investors turned to other routes for profit. Marconi used influential connections in Britain and America to override Tesla’s patents to be regarded as the sole inventor of the radio, and as a result, won the Nobel Prize. Tesla died at the age of 86, obscured and forgotten to the public’s ears, after living in an impoverished condition for many years. Still today, Tesla is by and large unknown. His inventions place him in the rank of the greatest American scientists. When we hear his name at least one of his inventions should pop up in our minds.

Source: http://www.pbs.org/tesla/

Posted by: Alberta Colakovic
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