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id=DzMR8x_rbPgC&pg=PA!&lpg=PA!&d"=tesl#$c#lc%l%s&so%rce=bl&ots=hC
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5@ )diso/ h#d # /eedle to @i/d i/ # h#'st#ckB he .o%ld proceed #t o/ce .ith the
dilige/ce o@ the bee to ex#mi/e str#. #@ter str#. %/til he @o%/d the obCect o@ his
se#rch.. 5 .#s # sorr' .it/ess o@ s%ch doi/gsB k/o.i/g th#t # little theor' #/d
c#lc%l#tio/ .o%ld h#<e s#<ed him /i/et' per ce/t o@ his l#bor.
First off, Nikola Tesla was brilliant. And not just like Ken Jennings brilliant, either - I
mean like, "hol !ra" m head just e#"loded $from all the awesome%" brilliant. The
&roatian-born engineer s"oke eight languages, almost single-handedl de'elo"ed
te!hnolog that harnessed the "ower of ele!tri!it for household use, and in'ented
things like ele!tri!al generators, F( radio, remote !ontrol, robots, s"ark "lugs,
fluores!ent lights, and giant-ass ma!hines that shoot enormous, brain-fring lightning
bolts all o'er the "la!e like !ra). *e had an unielding, steel-tra" "hotogra"hi!
memor and an insane abilit to 'isuali)e e'en the most !om"le# "ie!es of ma!hiner
+ the gu did ad'an!ed !al!ulus and "hsi!s e,uations in his damn head, memori)ed
entire books at a time, and su!!essfull "ulled off s!ientifi! e#"eriments that modern-
da te!hnolog -TI.. !an/t re"li!ate. For instan!e, in 0112 a grou" of lesser geniuses
at (IT got all "um"ed u" out of their minds be!ause the wirelessl transmitted
energ a distan!e se'en feet through the air. Nikola Tesla on!e lit 011 lightbulbs from
a "ower sour!e 03 miles awa, and he did it in 4566 with a ma!hine he built from
s"are "arts in the middle of the god-forsaken desert. To this da, nobod !an reall
figure out how the hell he "ulled that shit off, be!ause two-thirds of
the s!hemati!s onl e#isted in the darkest re!esses of Tesla/s all-"owerful brain.
7f !ourse, mu!h like man other e!!entri! giga-geniuses and diaboli!al masterminds,
Tesla was also !om"letel insane. *e was "rone to ner'ous breakdowns, !laimed to
re!ei'e weird 'isions in the middle of the night, s"oke to "igeons, and o!!asionall
thought he was re!ei'ing ele!tromagneti! signals from e#traterrestrials on (ars. *e
was also obsessi'e-!om"ulsi'e and hated round obje!ts, human hair, jewelr, and
anthing that wasn/t di'isible b three. *e was also ase#ual and !elibate for his entire
life. 8asi!all, Nikola Tesla was the ultimate mad s!ientist, whi!h is seriousl
awesome.
Another sweet thing about Tesla is that he !ondu!ted the sort of !ra) e#"eriments
that generall result in hordes of angr 'illagers breaking down the door to our lab
with tor!hes and "it!hforks. 7ne time, while he was working on magneti! resonan!e,
he dis!o'ered the resonant fre,uen! of the 9arth and !aused an earth,uake so
"owerful that it almost obliterated the :th A'enue New ;ork building that housed his
Frankenstein &astle of a laborator. -tuff was fling off the walls, the drwall was
breaking a"art, the !o"s were !oming after him, and Tesla had to smash his de'i!e
with a sledge hammer to kee" it from demolishing an entire !it blo!k. .ater, he
boasted that he !ould ha'e built a de'i!e "owerful enough to s"lit the 9arth in two.
Nobod dared him to "ro'e it.
<uring his ad'entures blinding half of the world with s!ien!e, Nikola Tesla harnessed
the "ower of Niagara Falls into the first hdroele!tri! "ower "lant, !onstru!ted a bath
designed to !leanse the human bod of germs using nothing but ele!tri!it, and
!reated a 4=1-foot long bolt of lightning from one of his massi'e !oils $a feat whi!h to
this da remains the world re!ord for man-made lightning%, but "erha"s his most
badass in'ention was his fa!e-melting, tank-destroing, su"er-se!ret Atomi! <eath
>a. In the 4601s he !laimed to be working on a tower that !ould "otentiall ha'e
s"ewed forth a giganti! beam of ioni)ed "arti!les !a"able of disintegrating air!raft
from 011 miles awa and blinking most men out of e#isten!e like something out of a
Flash ?ordon or 8u!k >ogers !omi!. *is wea"on, known as the "Telefor!e 8eam",
allegedl shot ball lightning at 31 million 'olts, li,uefing its targets with enough
"ower to 'a"ori)e steel, and, while it !ould shoot further than 011 miles, its
effe!ti'eness beond that range was limited onl b the !ur'ature of the 9arth.
.u!kil for all humans, this !ra) insanit ne'er !ame to fruition + most of the
s!hemati!s and "lans e#isted onl in Tesla/s head, and when he died of heart failure in
46@=, little hard data on the "roje!t e#isted. -till, J. 9dgar *oo'er and the F8I
!onfis!ated all his "ersonal stuff and lo!ked it awa anwas, just to be safe.
Tesla probably was not aware of the fact that he was a synesthete.Synesthesia is
a condition in which stimulation of one sensory pathway leads to automatic,
involuntary experience in a second sensory pathway (in Teslas case it was
auditory to visual). He is in good company !ladimir "abo#ov, $ran% &is%t, 'u#e
(llington, )ichard $eynman, *assily +andins#y, and ,livier -essiaen, were all
synesthetes.
Tesla could also visuali%e the most complex machinery of his invention in his
mind, with extreme precision. .efore putting a s#etch on paper, he could wor#
out the whole idea mentally ma#e improvements, change the construction, and
even operate the device. /0t is immaterial to me he would say whether 0 run
my machine in my mind or test it in my shop.1 2nfortunately, because of Teslas
uncanny ability to visuali%e and memori%e everything he wor#ed on, there is a
lac# of written records and technical details of his experiments.
3t the age of fifteen, Tesla continued his studies at the Higher )eal 4ymnasium
in +arlovac, 5roatia. There he contracted malaria and was ill for 6uite sometime.
'espite this, he completed the four7year course in three years. He also fell sic#
with cholera. 3ccording to Tesla, it was during this illness that he read one of
-ar# Twains humorous boo#s and felt the life force return to him almost
immediately. 8ears later, when he became close friends with -ar# Twain, he told
him about this /miracle1 and moved Twain to tears.
0n 9::9Tesla moved to .udapest, Hungary, to wor# for the 3merican Telephone
5ompany. Soon he became the chief electrician and an engineer for their
telephone system. He developed a device for sound amplification, called the
/telephone repeater.1 This invention was never patented.
The same year, Tesla suffered a nervous brea#down. 'octors could not
understand all the strange manifestations of his illness. Tesla suffered from acute
sensitivity of all of the sense organs. His biographer and friend, ;ohn ;. ,"eill,
writes /To him, the tic#ing of a watch three rooms away sounded li#e the beat
of hammers on an anvil. ,rdinary speech sounded li#e thunderous
pandemonium. The slightest touch had the mental effect of a tremendous blow. 3
beam of sunlight shining on him produced the effect of an internal explosion.1
Tesla hated <ewelry, human hair, and round ob<ects.
He had a phobia of germs and avoided sha#ing hands at any cost. 0f someone
caught him off guard and shoo# his hand, he would excuse himself, go to the bathroom
and scrub his hands thoroughly.
He was called a /sun dodger1 for wor#ing at night and having the curtains in his
room drawn during the day.
He did things in threes (li#e wal#ing around a building three times before entering
it) and loved numbers divisible by three. This list could also go on=
2nemployed, penniless and without contacts, Tesla was forced to wor# as a day
laborer for over a year. /0 lived through a year of terrible heartaches and bitter
tears,1 he later recalled. He did some electrical repair wor# and some ditch
digging. $ortunately for him, a foreman, who was supervising a group of ditch
diggers, was impressed by his ideas and introduced him to 3.+..rown of the
*estern 2nion Telegraph 5ompany. -r. .rown and his friends organi%ed and
financed the Tesla (lectric 5ompany and established Teslas laboratories in two
different locations in "ew 8or#. This was a luc#y brea# for Tesla.
,ne of the most important things for Tesla was the future of the human race. He
wanted to give humanity free energy and a race of robots which would liberate
man#ind from mundane, brain numbing labor. He #new that harvesting energy in
space was the future of our civili%ation and it was <ust a matter of time before /our
machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe.1 (0n
9>?@, the Soviet astronomer "i#olai +ardashev developed the scale for
measuring a civili%ations level of technological advancement, based on its ability
to harvest the available energy from its home planet, its star, and its galaxy.
3ccording to the +ardashev scale, humans have not attained the lowest Type 0
status yet).
Teslas plans were always grandiose, but his finances were diminishing. This was
partly the result of Teslas incredible gesture when he tore up a contract for
twelve million dollars in unpaid royalties. He did this to save 4eorge
*estinghouses company from ban#ruptcy. He reportedly said to *estinghouseA
/The benefits that will come to civili%ation from my polyphase system mean more
to me than the money involved.1
*hen ;ohn ;acob 3stor, owner of the *aldorf73storia hotel and one of Teslas
long time admirers, heard that Tesla couldnt continue his research due to lac# of
funds, he immediately made BCD.DDD available to him. This allowed Tesla to
move to 5olorado Springs, 3ri%ona, where he set up his new laboratory with
enough space to continue with his high7voltage, high7fre6uency experiments.
0n his 3ri%ona laboratory Tesla made new discoveries the earth was a
conductor and its resonance fre6uency was approximately : hert% (H%). This was
later confirmed by scientists (in the 9>EDs) and today we call it the /Schumann
resonance.1
Tesla continued his wor# without much financial support but remained perpetually
optimistic, hoping his financial situation would improve somehow. He never
tolerated a business manager, and even his boo##eeper who tried to give him
some practical advice regarding his patents, couldnt get his attention. /This is all
small stuff / was his usual reply, / 0 cannot be bothered with it.1
Teslas (xperimental Station at 5olorado Springs where the first wireless
transmission experiments were preformed
Tesla never married, remaining celibate his whole life. He was never seen dining
with a woman or even romantically glancing at one. 3t the same time, Tesla
ideali%ed women, especially his mother. He always spo#e in support of the
womens struggle for e6uality. He believed that when women received e6ual
education, their intellect would awa#en and they would /startle civili%ation with
their progress,1 and would eventually become the leaders of the world.
"i#ola Tesla was born in Smil<an, 5roatia, in 9:E?, and it was clear from the start that he
had a brilliant mind.
0n high school, he was able to perform integral calculus in his head. His teachers
thought he was cheating, but he apparently had a photographic memory. He would
eventually learn to spea# six languages fluently.
He attended the Folytechnic 0nstitute at 4ra%, 3ustria, and immediately became
fascinated by electricity. Scientists such as -axwell had studied electricity and
discovered electromagnetic fields throughout the universe. 0nventors li#e (dison studied
the practical side of electricity and invented lightbulbs.
He had a tremendous new idea for (dison on how to conduct electricity more efficiently
and more cheaply. He came to 3merica with his new idea and started to wor# for
(dison.
*hen Tesla was a child, he saw a picture of "iagara $alls and told his family that he
would go there one day and capture its energy.
0n 9:>C, 4eorge *estinghouse won the contract to build a power plant at the falls, and
he put Tesla in charge.
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Tesla was born in the small town of Smiljan, in present-day Croatia, in 1856.
Even when he was yon! he srprised those who "new him. He was able to
resolve integral calculus mentally. Tho!h this ability arosed the
sspi#ions of his tea#hers, it is a !ood e$ample of the stdent%s potential.
Some say & as in the ama'in! TE($ tal" we show below & that )i"ola Tesla
was s*erin! from a rare synesthesia, whi#h #ased an alteration of his
per#eptions. This in part could have helped him to imagine inventions,
designs and prototypes in his head, before bildin! them in reality.
+ithot a dobt, his wor" mar"ed a milestone in the history of s#ien#e and
te#hnolo!y.
Alternating Current versus Direct Current
,erhaps Tesla%s most important #ontribtion was alternating current. -n
te#hni#al terms, this is re!arded as an ele#tri# #rrent in whi#h ma!nitde
and dire#tion vary #y#li#ally. .lternatin! #rrent, "nown in En!lish as .C for
short, is the type we se daily in or homes.
+hy was the introd#tion of alternatin! #rrent so important/ -s it to blame
for the eternal 0!ht between Edison and Tesla/ .s 1os2 3anel 45pe' )i#olas
ri!htly e$plained in his blog, the #ontroversy between the two #old 6ite
well be #alled the war of the currents.
7e#ase the fa#t is that Thomas .lva Edison was the one who 0rst
introd#ed direct current, thro!h the small power plants that lit the
streets of )ew 8or". The 1889s were a !olden period for the .meri#an, who
saw his #ompany !row with this system. :owever, his fortne #han!ed when
Tesla #ame into his life. .s we mentioned before, )i"ola Tesla be!an wor"in!
for him in 188;, and had the idea of sin! alternatin! #rrent.
To develop and implement it, Tesla needed Edison, who had be#ome more of
a s##essfl bsinessman than an inventor. 7t )i"ola ran into one of the
most sava!e defamation #ampai!ns< the s##essfl Edison did not want to
lose his fortne be#ase of a =new#omer%. .ltho!h Tesla !ave Edison his
patents, Thomas .lva Edison 0nally refsed to pay the > 59,999 he had
#ommitted to at 0rst, with a brles6e and !rotes6e #omment< ?+hen yo
be#ome a fll-@ed!ed .meri#an, yo will appre#iate an .meri#an jo"eA.
.fter his departre from Edison%s #ompany, Nikola esla !oined the "rm of
#eorge $estinghouse, %dison&s greatest rival' :owever, the inventor
didn%t 0t in at this sta!e, either. :is le!a#y, #onsistin! of do'ens of patents,
was not re#o!ni'ed as it deserved. The lon! list of esla&s inventions, in
addition to the dis#overy of alternatin! #rrent, in#lde other developments
s#h as the remote #ontrol or the ind#tion motor. 7t to end today%s post,
we will dis#ss what was perhaps one of his most important le!a#ies<
+arden#ly*e Tower.
Tesla arrived in "ew 8or# at age H:, nearly penniless, with a letter of recommendation addressed
to Thomas (dison, for whom he wor#ed a short time. (disons '5 power station in
&ower -anhattan had strung sagging wires throughout the district, which was hungry for electric
light.I Tesla 6uic#ly improved (disons systems, but (dison refused to pay him the promised
BED,DDD. Tesla 6uit.
3pproached by a group of investors while digging ditches to support himself, Tesla received
funding to perfect a low7cost arc lamp. *hile the invention was successful and the investors made
money, Tesla ended up with no pay and a stac# of worthless stoc# certificates.
3.+. .rown of the *estern 2nion 5ompany agreed to invest in TeslaJs idea for an 35 motor. 0n a
small room a short distance from (disonJs office, Tesla opened his first of several laboratories. He
successfully constructed and patented his 35 Folyphase (lectrical System. Teslas superior 35
system directly competed with (disons '5 system.
(dison, being more famous and better connected, fought to discredit Teslas inventions and
success. Tesla won the most important battles, but (dison won the propaganda war. That may
explain why relatively little is written or taught about Tesla to this day.
The 35 system comprises seven patents awarded to Tesla in "ovember and 'ecember of 9::K.
So original were the ideas that the patents were issued without a successful challenge, and would
turn out to be among the most valuable patents of all time.
0n 9::E, 4eorge *estinghouse, head of the *estinghouse (lectric 5ompany, ((dison and 4eneral
(lectrics chief competitor), bought the patent rights to TeslaJs system of dynamos, transformers
and motors. *estinghouse used TeslaJs alternating current system to light the *orldJs 5olumbian
(xposition of 9:>C in 5hicago.
The Tesla 5oil, invented in 9:>9, is still in use today, stepping up household electrical current to
very high fre6uencies and voltages. High fre6uencies allowed Tesla to develop the first neon and
fluorescent illumination, and the first L7)ay photographs. The 5oil is also used in radio and
television sets, and such other electronic e6uipment as computer monitors. ,ther Tesla inventions
include the automobile speedometer and ignition system.
The sole similarities between Tesla and (dison were that both men were driven and focused upon
their wor# and both re6uired little sleep.
.oth Tesla and (instein described their thought processes as more visual than word based. $or his
part, (dison said of his own mental processes, M4enius is one percent inspiration and >> percent
perspiration.M
Some historians of science believe Tesla ran#s in the same class as 3lbert (instein and &eonardo
da!inci. &i#e da!inci, Tesla is credited with both practical and theoretical accomplishments. 3mong
Teslas CHE world patents, plus physics theories, are some of the fundamental technologies and
ideas of the HDth century, and seeds for the future achievements of the human race.
*ireless transmission of energy became Teslas lifelong obsession when, in 9:>D, he discovered
he could light a vacuum tube through the air at a distance. He wrote in Century Magazine in 9>DDA
"...communication without wires to any point of the globe is practicable. My experiments
showed that the air at the ordinary pressure became distinctly conducting, and this
opened up the wonderful prospect of transmitting large amounts of electrical energy for
industrial purposes to great distances without wires . . . its practical consummation
would mean that energy would be available for the uses of man at any point of the
globe.
0 can conceive of no technical advance which would tend to unite the various elements of humanity
more effectively than this one, or of one which would more add to and more economi%e human
energy.M
Fractical applications of Teslas 35 electrical and radio broadcast patents brought modern science
and engineering to the technological age. They form the worlds /power grid,M and lie at the root of
all the following technologiesA robotics, radio and television broadcasting, remote control, radar and
hybrid7fuel automobiles. TeslaJs bladeless dis# turbine engine, when coupled with modern
materials, proved to be among the most efficient motors ever designed.
Teslas inventions and discoveries led to the latest in laser and particle7beam weaponry, and may
resolve the looming world oil crisis. 3nswers to Teslas theoretical 6uestions are as elusive as
(insteins /Theory of (verything,M yet promise real technological advances when technology
catches up.
(xamples of advanced applications and ongoing research, based on Teslas patents and theories,
include remote control of pilotless spy drones, and "3S3s planetary missions using such robots
as the little /)over1 on -ars.
Secret or /blac#1 pro<ects based upon Teslas wor# include )onald )eagans /Star *ars1 defense
shield, which became the /Shiva1 pro<ect, and (lectromagnetic &ow $re6uency ((&$) weather
modification, in which the ionosphere is charged by radio wave transmissions in the low fre6uency
range of 9D to :D hert%.
Tesla also discovered that he could cause both positive and negative ioni%ation of the atmosphere
by manipulating radio fre6uencies. (vidence indicates that this technology also has the capability
to manipulate human behavior and mood patterns.
First, Nikola Tesla was not a native-born American. He was born in Croatia (or Serbia; the
sources difer) in 1856. He came to the United States in 1884 (at the age of 28). Second, the
schools of that time, both in Europe and in America, were MUCH more rigorous and thorough than
they are now. For example, not only did high school (and younger) students take calculus, but they
were expected to take Greek and/or Latin, as well. Not only are American schools worse than
those of a century or more ago, American schools have been "dumbed down" just since I graduated
from high school in 1965.
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