What country was Tesla born in. The most mysterious inventions of the genius Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla is one of the greatest people who owns a large number of inventions that changed our world forever. The life and biography of Nikola Tesla is as unusual as he is.

Youth

Nikola Tesla was born in the village of Smiliany on July 10, 1856 in the family of the Serbian Orthodox priest Milutin Tesla. Today Smiliany is located on the territory of Croatia, and at that time this place was located in imperial Austria-Hungary.

In 1862, Nikola's father was promoted to dignity, and Tesla's family moved to the city of Gospich, located six kilometers from Smilyan. In the new place, Nikola graduated from elementary school and a three-year lower real gymnasium. In the fall of 1870, he entered the Higher Real School, located in the city of Karlovac.

An interesting episode belongs to the first period of Nikola Tesla's life in Gospic, which probably determined Nikola's craving for electricity. They say that at the age of ten, the future scientist stroked a fluffy black cat, sitting on the porch of the house. Nicola noticed that sparks slipped between his fingers and the cat's fur, clearly visible in the evening. The boy asked his father, who was nearby, about the nature of these sparks. Tesla Sr. replied that sparks are most likely "relatives" of lightning. Father's answer forever sunk into the soul of an impressionable boy, clearly showing him that electricity (which Nicola did not yet know anything about) can be both "tame" like a pet, and "wild" like thunderstorm.

In 1873, an event occurs that finally turned the whole life of Nikola Tesla. Having received a certificate of maturity in July 1873, Nikola decides to return to his parents. A cholera epidemic was raging in Gospic, and Nikola fell ill. By this time, the young man was quite ripe for making a responsible decision: to follow not in his father's footsteps, but to learn to be an engineer. In Karlovac, Nikola did a lot of mathematics and physics. He was especially impressed by Professor Martin Sekulich, who taught physics. This professor showed in action his own invention - a tin-foil-covered light bulb that rotated rapidly when connected to a static machine. "It is impossible to convey the feeling that I experienced while looking at the demonstration of this amazing phenomenon... Each show echoed in my mind, "the great Serb later recalled.

It was Nikola's reluctance to become a priest that caused a rather serious dispute between father and son. Some sources even associate Nikola's illness with Milutin's sharp rejection of the son's decision, allegedly Nikola was so impressed that he fell ill with great grief. In fact, everything was much more prosaic, which does not negate the seriousness of Nikola's situation.

Tesla's body, which had recently suffered a fever in the Karlovitsa swamps, was weakened, so Nikola spent a very long time in bed. The doctors even assumed the worst, but then something really strange happened. Waking up on one of the days of a long illness, Nikola turned to his father with an urgent request to allow him to enter the school. Milutin had no choice but to give an affirmative answer. And a miracle happened - Nikola recovered in just a few days.

However, the terrible disease did not pass without a trace. First, Tesla developed a manic fear of picking up some kind of infection. Subsequently, he began to wash his hands often, and if during dinner he noticed a fly on the table, he immediately made a new order to the waiter. Secondly, Nicholas began to have visions in the form of flashes of light. "Strong flashes of light obscured the pictures of real objects and simply replaced my thoughts," Tesla writes in his diary.

But these outbreaks often appeared for a reason, but accompanying the vision of future inventions. Tesla had an unusual gift - in his mind he could imagine any device or device, mentally test it, in order to then translate it into reality, already completely ready for use. In this regard, Nikola was strikingly different from another famous inventor - Thomas Edison, with whom Tesla would later be brought together by fate. Edison spent a lot of time on experiments, on finalizing inventions, while Tesla conducted tests in his head, the work of which anyone would "envy" modern computer.

Becoming and quest

In 1875 Nikola Tesla entered the Higher technical school in Graz (now - Graz Technical University). We can say that from that moment on, Tesla's life finally turned in a new direction.

It was at the school that Nikola set himself the goal of creating an AC electric motor. In the second year, Tesla was able (like all other students) to get acquainted with the then miracle of technology - the Gramme dynamo using direct current. The collector of the machine consisted of several wire brushes, transmitting current from the generator to the motor in one direction. The car sparked quite strongly, but the professor of the school Jacob Peschl, who demonstrated it, considered the Gram car the last word technology. But Nikola Tesla, capable of solving complex problems in his mind, very quickly realized that the car could be improved - to abandon the collector and apply alternating current.

Tesla expressed his idea to Peschlu, but it sounded blasphemous for the professor. Right at the lecture, Peschl sharply criticized Nikola, calling the idea of ​​the Serb utopian. However, such an obstruction only provoked Tesla, and the subsequent years of his studies, Nikola spent on thinking about the problem of the alternator.

Surprisingly, but Tesla was unable to prepare for the final exams. He was denied a reprieve, and Nikola did not graduate from the school. In Graz, Tesla's genius was never used to routine studies, being distracted by fantastic inventions and gambling.

In April 1879, Nikola Tesla's father dies, and the novice engineer, in order to financially help the family, got a job as a teacher in a real gymnasium in Gospic. However, in January of the following year, thanks to money from two uncles, Nikola was able to enter the philosophy department of the University of Prague. But Tesla did not sit in the new place either. He studied only one semester, although, apparently, he did not regret it too much. In Prague, Tesla wrote in his diary, "... I made a decisive leap forward: I separated the collector from the car ..."

At the beginning of 1881, Tesla found himself in another country, this time in Hungary. In Budapest, he receives the position of draftsman and designer in engineering department Central Telegraph.

Hot time

With the opening of the American telephone exchange in Budapest, Tesla got the opportunity to closely study many progressive inventions of that time. On duty, Nikola checks and repairs telephone lines, and also studies Edison's inventions: a multichannel telegraph and an induction carbon disc speaker (the latter can still be found in handsets). Experimenting with the shape of the speaker, Tesla created a cone-shaped speaker that repeats and amplifies signals. This loudspeaker was the prototype of the future loudspeaker. But Tesla directed all his main forces to create an electric motor powered by alternating current. Despite the matured decision in the scientist's head, practically it was not possible to implement it.

Trying to refute the generally accepted opinion of the learned world, Tesla worked hard. As a result, the Serb “earned” the most terrible nervous exhaustion: “I heard the ticking of a clock in three rooms from me. Nikola was again on the verge of death.

And here again mysticism comes to the fore. Tesla, to whom doctors predicted death, unexpectedly recovered, and then - found a solution to the problem that tormented him.

Walking through the park, Tesla recited an excerpt from Goethe's Faust, which was his usual and favorite pastime. However, this time, after reciting the passage aloud, Tesla began to draw diagrams in the sand, which then turned the course of events for the entire Earth.

In the circuits sketched in the sand, not one, but two electrical circuits were used to transfer energy, creating a double flow of electricity, diverging in phase by ninety degrees. The receiving armature of the motor rotated in space using induction, attracting a steady stream of electrons regardless of the charge (positive or negative).

During that period, Tesla's thought worked with such intensity that in less than two months the scientist created "practically all types of motors and all modifications of the system" associated with Tesla. These were both single-phase and multi-phase motors. The revolutionary invention of Tesla was that now electricity could be supplied for hundreds of kilometers, powering household appliances and factory machines, and not just using it to illuminate buildings.

Fight for survival

In April 1882, Tesla went to Paris, where he met Charles Bechlor, the manager of the Thomas Edison Continental Company. He was hired by this company.

In the spring of 1883 Tesla was sent to Strasbourg. There, he oversaw the construction of the power plant, simultaneously identifying defects in the construction. Nicola stayed in Strasbourg for a long time, so he managed to design an AC motor. The device was shown to the mayor of the city Bausen, but he never found sponsors for the young scientist.

A year later, Tesla, returning to Paris, tried to get the bonuses due to him in the amount of 25 thousand dollars, but soon realized that no one was going to pay him. Hurt, Nicola resigned. And in the spring of 1884, Tesla went to America.

The meeting with Edison had an indelible impression on Tesla - the American seemed to the Serb a "wizard" from electricity. By repairing the dynamos on the first electrically lit steamer (the Oregon ocean liner), Tesla gained respect and trust from Edison, who had a very difficult character. However, Nikola did not have a chance to interest Edison with alternating current - the "sorcerer" firmly believed in direct current, experiencing an extreme degree of dislike for other, more famous apologists for alternating current (among them the famous electrical engineer and inventor Elihu Thomson).

Moreover, both Bechlor and Edison did not consider Tesla to be their equal. So, according to one story, Bechlor refused to raise a Serb's salary, saying, allegedly, that "the forest is full of people like Tesla. I can hire them as much as I want for eighteen dollars a week." Edison himself also did not fail to take advantage of Tesla's everyday inexperience, declaring that the promised $ 50,000 for the reconstruction of equipment was just an "American joke." However, soon Edison probably regretted that he angered the "Parisian" - Tesla's own company became a serious competitor to Edison's.

Own business

Having left Edison at the beginning of 1885, Nikola Tesla set off on an independent voyage through life. He could no longer count on the help of relatives, and therefore Nicholas had to rely solely on luck and his own strength. Now there were no authorities for Tesla, he understands that he is able to try on the "electric corona" on himself.

In March, Tesla met with Edison's former agent and now a prominent patent specialist, Lemuel Serrell. They jointly file for the first patent, 335786, describing an improved arc lamp design that produces uniform light. Then patents fell like a cornucopia.

Having received financial support from entrepreneurs from New Jersey (Weil and Lane), Tesla starts his own company. The entrepreneurs pretended to be delighted with the prospects of alternating current, but in the end they proposed to the scientist to create a project of an arc lamp for street lighting. Tesla created the project, but the joy was short-lived - Veil and Lane simply "threw" the scientist, leaving Tesla not only without a company, but also without a livelihood (instead of money, the Serb was offered a part of the company's shares). The great inventor, in order not to starve to death, began to dig ditches for two dollars a day. “My higher education in various fields of science, mechanics and literature seemed to me a mockery,” Tesla writes with bitterness in his diary.

And yet, in April 1887, Tesla, with the support of like-minded people, founded the Tesla Arc Light Company. Now he could plunge headlong into his favorite calculations. Thanks to the "computer" brain of the Serb, Tesla Arc Light Company rapidly gained momentum and became a "mortal" competitor to Thomas Edison's company. The latter spent a lot of time and money on experiments, and Tesla, as if playfully implemented device after device, each of which turned out to be much more economical than Edison's. In the "war of currents", as the American media wittily called the rivalry between Tesla and Edison, the clear preponderance was on the side of the "crazy Serb".

On May 16, 1888, Tesla presented his alternator to the audience of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. It was significant event, both for the scientist himself and for the public. Tesla took a huge step towards popularizing his inventions. The millionaire inventor George Westinghouse, who was on the report (he created the hydraulic locomotive brake), immediately offered Tesla a million dollars and royalties for future patents.

Glory

The discovered knowledge allowed Tesla to perform and demonstrate incredible experiments. Tesla is pleased to use the opportunity to show the full power of his inventions and knowledge. In 1892, while giving a lecture on the high-frequency electromagnetic field to scientists at the Royal Academy of Great Britain, Tesla lit electric bulbs in his hands. The electric motor was not connected to them with wires. Some lamps did not even have a spiral - a high-frequency current passed through the inventor's body. The admiration of scientists knew no bounds, and after the lecture physicist John Rayleigh solemnly sat Tesla in the chair of Faraday himself, accompanying this action with the words: "This is the chair of the great Faraday. After his death, no one sat in it."

In the same 1893, Nikola Tesla designed the world's first wave radio transmitter, thereby being seven years ahead of Marconi (Tesla's primacy in the invention of radio was proved and recognized in 1943 by the US Supreme Court). Using radio control, Tesla created "teleautomatics" - self-propelled mechanisms controlled from a distance. At Madison Square Garden, a scientist showed small remote-controlled boats. And in 1895, the Niagara hydroelectric power station (the largest in the world) was put into operation, and it worked with the help of Tesla generators. It was a triumph!

However, not everyone shared Tesla's creative and commercial successes. On March 13, 1895, Tesla's Fifth Avenue lab burned to the ground. The fire consumed not only the previous, but also the most recent developments of Tesla, including a new method of transmitting messages over long distances without wires, a mechanical oscillator and many others. It was rumored that the fire was the work of ill-wishers, thus hinting at Thomas Edison.

However, Tesla did not lose heart. With a phenomenal memory, he restored all of his inventions. The financiers also did not doubt the capabilities of the scientist - the Niagara Falls Company gave the Serb 100 thousand dollars to equip a new laboratory. And already at the end of 1896, Tesla transmitted a signal wirelessly over a distance of 48 kilometers!

Colorado Springs

In May 1899, Tesla found himself in the resort town of Colorado Springs, located on a plateau 2000 meters above sea level. Tesla was invited by the local electric company. Apparently the presence severe thunderstorms Tesla was so impressed at this resort that he created a laboratory here. Especially for the study of thunderstorms, Tesla developed a transformer in which one end of the primary winding was grounded, and the other end was connected to a metal ball with a rod extending upward. A sensitive self-adjusting device was connected to the secondary winding, which, in turn, was connected to a recording device.

This design gave Tesla the ability to study the changing potential of the Earth, including the effect of standing electromagnetic waves from lightning discharges in the atmosphere (now known as the "Schumann Resonance").

Then Tesla takes on an even more grandiose experiment. Having connected a 60-m mast with a copper ball at the end (one meter in diameter) to the secondary winding of the transformer, the scientist began to pass an alternating current of several thousand volts through the primary winding. As a result, a current with a voltage of several million volts and a frequency of up to 150 thousand hertz appeared in the secondary winding. The copper ball began to emit discharges similar to lightning, up to 4.5 meters in length. Thunderous rumbles were heard at a distance of up to 24 kilometers.

The result of the experiment was a burned-out generator at a power plant in Colorado Springs, which supplied current to the primary winding. Tesla repaired the generator and continued the experiment, during which the possibility of creating a standing electromagnetic wave was proved.

Wardencliff Tower

Having achieved desired results In the fall of 1899, Tesla returned to New York. A grandiose plan has ripened in the scientist's head - to build a station for wireless transmission of information and energy at a distance, and to any point on the Earth. To accomplish this task, Tesla bought a piece of land on Long Island with an area of ​​0.8 km2. The scientist ordered the project of a 47-meter-high wooden frame tower to the architect V. Grow with a copper ball at the top. In 1902, construction, accompanied by great difficulties, was completed, and the tower was named "Wardencliff".

However, then new problems began. The industrialist John Pierpont Morgan, who financed Tesla's venture, refused to give money to the scientist after the true goals of the Serb became clear. Morgan did not want to pay for research into the uncontrolled transfer of energy around the planet - he seriously feared that Tesla's invention would deprive him of his sources of profit. I did not find Tesla's understanding among other industrialists.

However, until 1905, the scientist set up experiments. The most famous was the one during which on the night of July 15-16, 1903, the New York sky was lit up with a light similar to northern Lights.

It is the Wardencliff Tower that some researchers consider the "culprit" of the 1908 explosion over Tunguska. Well, this event of a planetary scale perfectly "complements" the list of Tesla's incredible achievements. In addition, at the beginning of the last century, the scientist himself wrote in his diary that he is able to transfer any amount of energy to any point on the Earth, and not only for good purposes. However, the connection between Tesla and the Tunguska explosion is one of many other myths surrounding the name of the great Balkan.

The construction of the tower was not the most important thing. The scientist needed to complete the work of the transfer station entirely, and there was simply no money. In a letter dated January 14, 1904, the scientist writes to Morgan: "It has been 14 months since work at my station was suspended. In just three months, a team of workers could have completed construction, and the station would have brought in $ 10,000 daily." In the following years, Tesla struggled with varying success for his project, trying to find money and save equipment and land from creditors. In this "mothballed" state, the Wardencliffe tower stood until 1917, when it was blown up. The authorities were suddenly afraid that the tower could be used for their own purposes by German spies.

A reward that never came

Moving away from the squabbles around the Wardencliff Tower, Tesla turns his talent to new inventions. These included a frequency counter, an electric meter, advanced steam turbines, and electrotherapy devices. In one of the letters from that time, the scientist mentioned that he was working on a project "car, locomotive and lathe"Indeed, Tesla's genius strove to cover as many spheres of human life as possible. The scientist also worked on a revolutionary aircraft that could hover over water.

Tesla's financial affairs were going very well in 1909-1910, and all thanks to orders for his inventions. But secretly from everyone, the scientist hoped that the money he received would one day be able to use it to restore the project of a worldwide transmission station, the insane symbol of which was the Wardencliff Tower. Alas, these dreams of Tesla were not destined to come true ...

There is one more myth that deserves special attention. Allegedly, in 1915, Tesla and Edison received the Nobel Prize in Physics, but both refused it due to old and irreconcilable enmity. This is, in fact, a newspaper "duck", and it dates back to November 6, 1915 - it was then that it was published in the New York Times.

In fact, Nikola Tesla was not even nominated that year (this happened - for the first and only time - in 1937). Thomas Edison was indeed nominated, and twice: in the field of chemistry and physics. The Nobel Prize in Physics in 1915 was shared by father and son Bragg.

However, soon Tesla was not up to rumors about the prize - the scientist again rapidly plunged into the abyss of debts. He even owed money for his stay at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, and was forced to appear in the State Supreme Court, where he signed a paper on the transfer of the unprofitable Wardencliff Tower (and all equipment) to the hotel manager. The scientist was deeply hurt and depressed. After so many years of hard work, he, Nikola Tesla, was completely bankrupt!

Immortality

Relying on genes, Tesla intended to live for more than 100 years, like his individual, strong relatives. Most likely, he would be able to reach the target, despite even his strange diet (warm milk, bread, some vegetables), drunken work at night and other oddities (for example, Tesla liked to conduct electricity through himself). Unfortunately, being hit by a car and breaking his ribs, Tesla further undermined his health.

The death of the scientist was preceded by an unusual event. Tesla's love for pigeons is well known. These birds gave the scientist strength. But one night "... in open window my beloved dove flew in and sat down on the table. Looking at her, I realized what had happened: she was dying. And when I realized this, light poured out of her eyes - powerful rays of light. When the dove died, something also died in me. I knew that my life's work was over. ”This is what Tesla wrote in his diary shortly before his death.

After the death of the scientist on the night of January 7-8, 1943, all his papers were taken by FBI agents. Having carefully studied Tesla's legacy, the FBI stated that the great scientist left nothing that could be of practical use.

10 most important inventions and discoveries of Nikola Tesla

1. High-frequency electrical engineering (high-frequency transformer, HF electromechanical generator (including inductor type)).

2. Multiphase electric current. Tesla himself considered the two-phase current to be the most economical, therefore, it was the two-phase electric current that was used in the electrical installations of the Niagara HPP. However, three-phase current has become widespread.

3. Radio communication and mast antenna for radio communication. In 1891, Tesla, during a public lecture, described and showed the principles of radio communication, and in 1893 he created a mast antenna for wireless radio communication.

4. Tesla coils. To this day, they are used to obtain artificial lightning.

5. The use of electrical devices in medical purposes... Tesla discovered that high-frequency currents of high voltage (up to 2 million volts) can have beneficial effects on the skin, in particular, kill germs and unclog pores.

6. The phenomenon of a rotating magnetic field. Described by Tesla in 1888, earlier and independently of the Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris.

7. Asynchronous electric motor. Patented in 1888.

8. The first (or one of the first) to observe and describe the cathode, X-rays and ultraviolet radiation.

9. Fluorescent lamp (designed first).

10. Radio-controlled boat. Demonstrated in 1898.

: what is the meaning of the coming of Badhisattva from the south?), although this is a purely philosophical question))), but seriously, the documentary about Nikola Tesla, not based on the video material of Russian channels

I don’t remember much about video footage of Russian channels (I don’t watch REN-TV), so it’s difficult to weed out the well-known, but I will try. Again, I will briefly outline popular facts for those who are not familiar with the topic.

He is considered by many to be the greatest inventor in history, undeservedly rarely mentioned in physics textbooks. He discovered alternating current, fluorescent light, wireless transmission of energy, pioneered the principles of remote control, the basics of treatment with high-frequency currents, built the first electric clock, solar-powered motor and much more, having received 300 patents for his inventions in different countries. He invented the radio before Marconi and Popov, received a three-phase current before Dolivo-Dobrovolsky. All modern electric power industry would not have been possible without his discoveries.

The experiment was as daunting as it was dangerous. The tower, several tens of meters high, was crowned with a large copper hemisphere, and when the installation was turned on, spark discharges up to forty meters long appeared. The lightning was accompanied by thunderous crashes heard from 15 miles away. A huge ball of light blazed around the tower. People walking down the street scared away in fright, watching in horror as sparks jumped between their feet and the ground. Horses received electric shocks through iron horseshoes. Blue halos appeared on metal objects - "St. Elmo's fires" ...

The man who set up all this electrical phantasmagoria in 1899 from his laboratory in Colorado Springs had no intention of scaring people. His goal was different, and it was achieved: twenty-five miles from the tower, to the applause of the observers, 200 light bulbs lit up at once. The electrical charge was transferred without any wires.

The author of the experiment was named Nikola Tesla. Mark Twain, who was friends with him, called Nicola "the lord of lightning", and the great Rutherford called him "the inspired prophet of electricity." Harnessing the energy of directionally flowing electrons, Tesla himself possessed indomitable energy. His obsession knew no bounds. He set aside four hours for sleep, of which two were usually spent thinking about ideas. In addition to electrical engineering, Tesla was professionally engaged in linguistics, wrote poetry. He spoke eight languages ​​fluently, knew music and philosophy very well ...

There was something in his life from the very beginning that is difficult to find a name for.

Experimental Station in Calorado Springs, 1899.

It started in childhood. Nikola Tesla, born on July 10, 1856 in the village of Smiliany (Croatia), was the fourth child in the family of a Serbian Orthodox priest. From the age of five, Nikola began to suffer from unusual phobias and obsessions. In a state of excitement, he saw strong flashes of light. Fantastic visions filled his brain. He read at night, swallowing books with obsessive obstinacy. The heroes of the books, according to him, awakened in him the desire to become "a being of the highest order." Bringing up different exercises willpower, brought himself to exhaustion, often fell into a state of trance.

Polytechnic Institute in Graz, University of Prague ... In his second year of university, in 1880, he was struck by the idea of ​​an induction alternator. Professor Peschl, with whom Tesla shared the idea, found it delusional. But the professor's conclusion only spurred the inventor, and in 1882 a working model was built.

How to tell the world about your discovery, to get recognition? Most the right way- to discuss the invention with the great Edison, Nicola decides, and ... sells everything that he had in order to buy a ticket for a transatlantic steamer. In 1884 he arrived in New York and went straight from the pier to Edison.

Tesla at the New York Laboratory (8th East 40th Street, New york City)

Thomas Alva Edison - “the king of inventors” kindly listened to the guest. He was only nine years older than Nikola Tesla, but he was at the zenith of fame. A coal microphone, a light bulb, a phonograph, a dynamo made Edison a millionaire. But all the work of the eminent American in the field of electricity was based on direct current. And then some Serb with burning eyes is talking about alternating current. Nonsense, of course, but you look, he will break out into dangerous competitors one day ... Scenting danger, Edison nevertheless offered Tesla a job in his company. To bring to mind his, Edison, DC generators. The American looked probingly at the young emigrant, but he readily agreed. While working for Edison, Tesla did not stop improving his AC system and in October 1887 received a patent for it.

The Cold War broke out between the two great inventors. Edison, scolding himself about the "ungrateful trick", began to publicly and sharply criticize Tesla's generators. “If you are so sure that you are right,” retorted the opponent, “what is stopping you from letting me test my system at your enterprise?” Suddenly, Edison agreed and even promised his opponent $ 50,000 if he could electrify one of his factories in his own way. He was convinced that this was impossible. Tesla prepared twenty-four types of devices and in a short time carried out his plan. The economic effect exceeded all expectations. Edison was discouraged but refused to pay. "What about your promise?" “Well, it was a joke. Don't you have a sense of humor? "

After that, they finally fell out, and Tesla found himself on the street without work and without money. “Stop working for your uncle, it's time to get on your own feet!” - decided the emigrant, who firmly believed in himself. And this was not arrogance: in April 1887, Tesla, with the financial support of James Carmen, opened his own firm, Tesla Electric Light Company. And a year later, a day came in his life that became truly fateful. On May 16, 1888, Tesla gave a talk and demonstrated his invention at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Among those present in the hall was the millionaire George Westinghouse, the inventor of the hydraulic locomotive brake.

Tesla's performance shocked Westinghouse. He offered the inventor a million dollars for his patents, plus royalties. An agreement was signed, and Westinghouse Electric implemented Tesla's developments by building a hydroelectric power station at Niagara Falls.

Tesla at the age of 64

Having gained financial independence, Tesla continues his research. In 1888, he discovers the phenomenon of a rotating magnetic field and builds high and ultrahigh frequency electric generators. In 1891, he creates a resonant transformer, which makes it possible to obtain high-frequency voltage with an amplitude of up to several million volts.

Visitors to the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, eyes wide, looked at the incomprehensible and terrible performance that a thin, nervous gentleman with a funny last name performed every day. With monstrous equanimity, he passed through himself an electric current with a voltage of two million volts. In theory, there should not have been any coal left from the experimenter (Edison himself stated in the newspapers that the high voltage alternating current would kill anyone who touched the wires). And Tesla, as if nothing had happened, smiles, and at the same time Edison's bulbs are brightly burning in his hands ... Now we know that it is not voltage that kills, but the strength of the current and that the high-frequency current passes only through the surface integuments. In the infancy of electricity, such a trick seemed like a miracle.

The trick with energy out of thin air, which Tesla conducted in Colorado Springs, already impressed John Pierpont Morgan, one of the richest American "oligarchs" of that time. At his invitation, the engineer moves to New York to implement the ambitious project "Wardencliff" - the World Center for Wireless Transmission. Morgan has allocated 150 thousand dollars (at current purchasing power - several tens of millions of "bucks") and a plot of 200 acres on Long Island. A grandiose tower 57 meters high is being built with a steel shaft recessed into the ground by 36 meters. At the top of the tower is a 55-ton metal dome with a diameter of 20 meters. The test launch of the unprecedented structure took place in 1905 and produced a stunning effect. "Tesla set the sky over the ocean on fire for thousands of miles," the newspapers wrote. It was a triumph. But…

Back in 1900, Marconi carried out the transmission of a transatlantic signal across the ocean to Canada, and his communication system turned out to be very promising. Although Tesla built the first wave radio transmitter in 1893, years ahead of Marconi (in 1943 Supreme Court The United States confirmed Tesla's priority in the invention of radio), he admitted to Morgan that he was not interested in the communication system, but in the wireless transmission of energy to anywhere in the world. But it was the connection that Morgan needed, and he cut off the funding. The banker's cooling was also partly facilitated by Tesla's strange statements that he regularly communicates with alien civilizations.

Nikola Tesla holds a cordless gas lamp powered by electromagnetic field Tesla coils.

Tesla had enough oddities. He was terrified of germs, constantly washed his hands and demanded up to 18 towels a day in hotels. If a fly landed on the table during lunch, he forced the waiter to bring a new order. He checked into the hotel only if the number of his apartments was a multiple of three.

Tesla combined phobias and obsessions with amazing energy. Walking down the street, he could do a somersault in a sudden impulse. He often walked in the park and recited Goethe's Faust, and at these moments brilliant technical ideas dawned on him. On the other hand, he showed an inexplicable gift of foresight. Once, seeing off his friends after a party, he persuaded them not to get on an approaching train and this saved their lives - the train really derailed, and many passengers were killed or injured ...

Almost everything that Tesla did went beyond the understanding of his contemporaries. In 1898, he attached an electromechanical device to an iron beam in the attic of the building that housed his laboratory. After a while, the walls of houses several miles from the laboratory began to vibrate, and people rushed into the street in panic. By that time, everyone had already heard about the fantastic experiments of the "mad inventor". Of course, this is his trick! The police immediately rushed to Tesla's house and a crowd of reporters rushed. Tesla managed to turn off and destroy his vibrator, realizing that he could cause serious disaster. “I could bring down the Brooklyn Bridge in an hour,” he later admitted. He once stated that he could split the Earth, all he needed was a suitable vibrator and accurate timing.

Perhaps Tesla grasped the mysteries of resonance unknown to others. This power brought the scientist the notorious "egg-headed maniac", although in fact he was a gentle and peaceful person. All my life I fiddled with pigeons, loved them as close friends ... However, inveterate misanthropists were sentimental and loved animals very much ...

There are different opinions about the phenomenon of the Tunguska meteorite. According to some information (the fiction of newspapermen?) On this day (June 30, 1908) Nikola Tesla conducted an experiment on the transmission of energy "through the air." A few months before the explosion, Tesla claimed to be able to light the road to north pole expedition of the famous traveler R. Peary. In addition, there is information (in the form of unconfirmed rumors) that he asked the libraries for maps of "the least populated parts of Siberia." That is, you can see some connection between these two events.

The hypothesis about the connection of Nikola Tesla with the Tunguska meteorite is relatively new. Its appearance dates back to the late XX - early XXI century.

In the Brooklyn Eagle, Tesla announced on July 10, 1931 that "I harnessed the cosmic rays and made them control (move) a moving device." Further, in the same article, he writes: "More than 25 years ago I began my efforts to harness cosmic rays and now I can claim that I have achieved success." In 1933, he makes the same statement in an article for the New York American, November 1, entitled "Tesla Claims Device for Utilizing Space Power."

Tesla writes:

"This new energy to drive the machinery of the world will be drawn from the energy that drives the universe, cosmic energy, the central source of which for the Earth is the sun and which is present everywhere in unlimited quantities."

This "more than 25 years ago" count of 1933 would mean that the device Tesla is talking about should have been built before 1908. More accurate information is available through the Columbia University Library's collection.

On June 10, 1902, in a letter to his friend Robert U. Johnson, editor of Century Magazine, Tesla encloses a clipping from the recent New York Herald about Clemente Figueras "an engineer of trees and forests" in Las Palmas, the capital Canary Islands who invented a device that produces electricity without burning fuel. What happened next to Figueras and its fuel generator is unknown, but this newspaper ad prompted Tesla in his letter to Johnson to declare that he had already created such a device and to reveal the physical laws on which it is based.

The device that most closely matches the expected effect can be found in Tesla's patent "Device for the Utilization of Radiant Energy" No. 685,957, which was declared and approved on March 21, 1901. The concept looks simple in older technical language. The insulated metal plate is lifted into the air as high as possible. Another metal plate is placed in the ground. A wire runs from the metal plate to one side of the capacitor and a second wire runs from ground to the other end of the capacitor.

This seemingly very simple device seems to satisfy his claim to create a fuel-free generator powered by cosmic rays, but in 1900 Tesla wrote that he considered his most important article to be one describing a self-activating machine that could extract power. from the surrounding space; it is a fuelless generator that differs from its Radiant Energy Device. An article entitled "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy - Through the Use of the Sun" was published by his friend Robert Johnson in The Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine in June 1900 shortly after Tesla returned from Colorado Springs where he conducted an intense series of experiments from June 1899 to January 1900.

The exact title of the chapter where he discusses this device is worth replicating in its entirety.

"Departure from known methods- the possibility of a "self-propelled" engine or machine, motionless, but capable, like a living creature, of extracting energy from the environment - an ideal way to obtain a driving force. "

Tesla stated that he first started thinking about the idea when he read a statement from Lord Kelvin, who said that a self-cooling device is impossible to maintain its work due to the heat coming from outside. As a thought experiment, Tesla imagined a very long bundle of metal wires stretched from the earth to outer space. Since the earth is warmer than the surrounding space, along with the heat that will rise up, current will flow through the wires. Then, all you have to do is take a long power cord to connect the two ends of the metal bars to the motor. The motor will continue to run until the ground has cooled to ambient temperature. “It would be a stationary machine, which, obviously, must cool a part of the environment below the ambient temperature, and act with the received heat, this is what generates energy directly from the environment without“ consuming any material ”.

Tesla goes on to describe in an article how he worked to create such an energy device and here he is doing some defining work to focus on one of his inventions. He wrote that he first began thinking about extracting energy from the surrounding space when he was in Paris during 1883, but there he could not devote much time to this idea, since he had to deal with commercial issues related to his alternating current for several years and motors. This continued until 1889, when he again returned to the idea of ​​a self-propelled car.

The same shape appears in another patent this time called "Dynamo Electric Machine". This patent was filed and approved in the same year that Tesla said he returned to work on a "self-acting" machine, in 1889. A dynamo consisting of metal discs rotated between magnets to produce an electric current.

Compared to his alternator, this "dynamo" presents some curious analogy to the days of Faraday's early experiments with a copper disk and a magnet. Tesla makes some kind of improvement to the Faraday setup using magnets that completely cover the rotating metal discs and he also adds an edge to the outside of the discs so that the current can be drawn more easily - all this makes his generator more perfect than Faraday's. At first glance, it is difficult to understand why Tesla patented such an anachronistic machine during this period of his work.

Tesla coils

It would be strange if the military were not interested in the outrageous technologies of the Serb-American. In the 30s, Tesla was engaged in secret projects in the RCA corporation under the code name N. Terbo (the name of his mother before marriage). These projects included the wireless transmission of energy to defeat the enemy, and the creation of resonant weapons, and attempts to control time. There are many versions regarding these works, and now it is almost impossible to separate the truth from fiction.
The genius died in 1943, in his laboratory. And in complete poverty. Millions, which he had during his work with Westinghouse, without a trace went into the failed project "Wardencliff". It looks like the world was not ready for his discoveries. In the thirties, Tesla refused to accept the Nobel Prize, awarded to him jointly with Edison. Until the end of his life, he could not forgive the "king of inventors" for his cowardly deception and "black PR" against alternating current.

Tesla desperately needed the prestige that would allow him to find money for research, and by refusing the prize, he dealt the fatal blow to himself. Many of his outstanding works are lost to posterity, and most of the diaries and manuscripts disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Some believe that Nikola burned them himself at the beginning of World War II, after making sure that the knowledge contained in them is too dangerous for unreasonable humanity ...

Tesla's inventions seriously interested the US government only after the death of the scientist. A total search was carried out at the New Yorker Hotel, where he died. The FBI seized all papers related to scientific activities physics. Dr. John Trump, who led the National Defense Committee, reviewed them and made an expert opinion that "these records are speculative and speculative, they are purely philosophical and do not imply any principles or methods of their implementation."

However, 15 years later, the Defense High-Tech Research Agency (DARPA) implemented the top-secret Swing Project at the Lawrence Livermoor Laboratory. It took 10 years and 27 million dollars, and, despite the fact that the apparently failed results of these experiments are still classified, all scientists agree on one thing - in 1958, the Americans tried to create the legendary "death rays" of Tesla.

It is known that shortly before his death, Tesla announced that he had invented the "death rays", which are capable of destroying 10,000 aircraft from a distance of 400 km. Not a sound about the secret of the rays. In the 1960s, both the United States and Russia took full advantage of the fruits of Tesla's research. One of the technologies developed by the brilliant scientist attracted the most attention of military specialists and became the subject of secret developments. Tesla called this invention a radio frequency oscillator, it was used, in particular, in his death ray. The main idea of ​​the invention is the transmission of energy in the atmosphere and its focusing for various purposes. Later, these technologies, largely based on Tesla's inventions, were used in the Star Wars program.

It is known that a desperate inventor sent around the world proposals to design "super-weapons", suggesting to establish a balance of power between different countries and thus prevent the onset of the Second World War. The mailing list included the governments of the United States, Canada, England, France, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia.

Soviet Union interested in this proposal. In 1937, the inventor held negotiations with the Amtorg company, which represented the interests of the USSR in the United States, and gave her some plans for a vacuum chamber for his “death rays”. Two years later, Tesla received a check from the USSR for $ 25,000. This, of course, did not stop the war - the Soviet Union created laser technologies much later.

In 1940, in an interview with The New York Times, 84-year-old Nikola Tesla announced his readiness to reveal the secret of telepower to the American government. It is built, he said, on a completely new physical principle that no one dreamed of, different from the principles embodied in his inventions in the field of transmission of electricity over long distances.

According to Tesla, this new type energy will operate through a beam with a diameter of one hundred millionth of a square centimeter and can be generated by special stations, the cost of which will not exceed $ 2 million, and the construction time - three months.

Yes, it is possible that the aging inventor has really plunged into a world of illusions. However, given the fact that he never threw words to the wind and always implemented the announced projects, it can be assumed that Tesla could adapt the technology of wireless power transmission to the needs of the military.

The main idea of ​​Nikola Tesla in his search for an eternal and endless source of energy is to draw energy from the "ether", i.e. use the energy of the Earth and space. If Nikola Tesla knew how this was possible, then modern pseudo-inventors (or simply swindlers) use naivete to sell "Tesla's eternal generators." About "free" energy, however, oil continues to be used as the basis for economic superiority and stability.

It is quite obvious that Tesla was familiar with what, for lack of a better expression, could be called parapsychology. The way he came to his discoveries or worked in his laboratory is certainly unparalleled in the history of science. And despite the fact that today more than 150,000 documents are stored in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, he did not leave behind a system of his scientific method, which can only be compared with the states in which yogis can be, or with what the saints are aware of. ...

Today, few people regard Tesla as a philosopher or a man of spirit, or someone who spiritualized physics, who spiritualized technology, spiritualized science. Finally, with all his life and work, he laid the foundations of a new civilization of the third millennium and, although so far his influence on modern tendencies in science is minimal, its role needs to be reassessed. Only the future will give a real explanation for Tesla's phenomenon, for he has gone too far ahead and is higher than the scientific methods accepted today.

Tesla's 78th birthday. Hotel in New York

The famous Indian philosopher Vivekananda, one of the members of the Ramakrishna mission, sent to the West to find out the possibility of uniting all existing religions, visited Tesla in his laboratory in New York in 1906 and immediately sent a letter to his Indian colleague Alasing, in which he met with Tesla described with delight: “This man is different from all Western people. He demonstrated his experiments with electricity, which he treats as a living being, with whom he speaks and to whom he gives orders. This is about the highest degree spiritual personality. There is no doubt that he possesses a spirituality of the highest level and is able to recognize all our gods. All our Gods appeared in its electric multicolored lights: Vishnu, Shiva, and I felt the presence of Brahma himself. "

Of all Tesla's accomplishments, physics textbooks usually mention only one - "Tesla's transformer". Perhaps this is the only Tesla invention that bears his name today. It is a device that produces a high voltage at a high frequency. It was used by Tesla in several sizes and variations for his experiments. The Tesla transformer, also known as the Tesla coil, is used today in a variety of radio and television applications.

Moreover, a unit for measuring magnetic induction is named after him ...

If it is true that the heavens send geniuses to Earth, then with the birth of Nikola Tesla in the heavenly office, they were clearly in a hurry. Or is there a special lesson in premature?

Tesla Coil Show:

sources
http://gendocs.ru
http://www.peoples.ru/science/physics/tesla/
http://www.werewolfexposures.com/
http://ntesla.at.ua/

Who missed me, associated with Tesla, I remind you, you can familiarize yourself with it here -, as well as its continuation, as The original article is on the site InfoGlaz.rf The link to the article this copy was made from is

Nikola Tesla – genius inventor, physicist and engineer of Serbian origin. He owns more than 100 patents in the field of electricity and wave physics. His most famous inventions are in the field of electrical and radio mechanics.

Short biography of Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was born July 10, 1856 in the village of Smilyan on the territory of modern Croatia. His father - Milutin Tesla, Serbian Orthodox priest Sremsk diocese. His mother - Georgina Tesla (Mandic), the daughter of a priest.

Childhood and study

Tesla the younger had three sisters and one (older) brother who died after falling from a horse when Nikola was 5 years old. Nikola graduated from the first grade of school in his native village, and the remaining 3 - in the city Gospic where his parents moved after his father's raise.

In 1870 Nikola graduated from the Gospić lower grammar school for three years and immediately entered higher school in the town Karlovac... In 1873 he graduated from college and received a certificate of maturity.

In 1875 after a 9-month illness (cholera, dropsy) Nikola Tesla enters a technical school in Graz... There he began to study electrical engineering.

First job

In 1879 Nikola got a job as a teacher in a gymnasium in Gospic, in which he himself studied. Work in Gospic did not suit him. The family had little money, and only thanks to financial aid from my two uncles, Petara and Pavel Mandic, young Tesla was able to leave in January 1880 to Prague, where he entered the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prague. He studied for only one semester and was forced to look for a job.

Tesla's first inventions

From 1880 to 1882, Tesla worked as an electrical engineer for the government telegraph company in Budapest, which at the time was involved in laying telephone lines and building a central telephone exchange.

In February 1882, Tesla figured out how to use a phenomenon in an electric motor, which later received the name rotating magnetic field.

Working at Edison's company

At the end of 1882, Nikola got a job in Continental Edison Company in Paris. One of the most major works of the company was the construction of a power plant for the railway station in Strasbourg.

In early 1883, the company dispatched Nicola to Strasbourg to deal with a number of work problems. In his spare time, Tesla worked on making asynchronous motor models, and later demonstrated his work at the Strasbourg City Hall.

Work at Edison's own

Summer 1884 year Tesla went to America, to New York. He got a job at the company ( Edison machine works) as a repair engineer for DC motors and generators. But he quit after Edison did not pay him the promised $ 50,000 for "innovation."

Work in the project

After working for only a year at Edison's company, Tesla gained fame in the business community. Upon learning of his dismissal, a group of electrical engineers suggested that Nicola organize her own company related to electric lighting.

Tesla's projects on the use of alternating current did not inspire them, and then they changed the original proposal, limiting only to the proposal to develop a project arc lamp for street lighting.

A year later, the project was ready. Instead of money, the entrepreneurs offered the inventor a part of the shares of the company created to operate the new lamp. This option did not suit the inventor, but the company, in response, tried to get rid of him, trying to slander and defame.

Own company

In the spring 1887 year Nikola Tesla with the support of an engineer Brown and his acquaintances creates his own company for the arrangement of street lighting with new lamps. The company was called Tesla Arc Light Company.

For the office of his company in New York, Nikola Tesla rented a house on Fifth Avenue near the building occupied by the Edison company.

A fierce competition began between the two companies, known in the United States as the "War of currents".

Research activities

In July 1888, the famous American industrialist George Westinghouse bought more than 40 patents from Tesla, paying an average of $ 25,000 each.

In the years 1888-1895 Tesla was engaged in research of high frequency magnetic fields in his laboratory. These years were the most fruitful: he received many patents for inventions.

On March 13, 1895, a fire broke out in the Fifth Avenue laboratory. The building burned down to the ground, destroying the most recent achievements inventor.

New laboratory and new achievements

Thanks to Edward Adams Tesla received $ 100,000 from Niagara Falls to equip a new laboratory. In the fall, research resumed at a new address: 46 Houston Street.

At the end of 1896, Tesla achieved the transmission of a radio signal over a distance of about 48 km.

Research in Colorado Springs

In 1899 Nikola Tesla moved to the small town of Colorado Springs, where he began to research the nature of lightning and thunderstorms. These studies led the inventor to the idea of ​​the possibility of transmitting electricity wirelessly over long distances.

Tesla directed his next experiment to study the possibility of independently creating a standing electromagnetic wave.

Based on the experiment, Tesla concluded that a specially created device allowed him to generate standing waves that propagated spherically from the transmitter, and then converged with increasing intensity at a diametrically opposite point the globe, somewhere near the islands of Amsterdam and Saint-Paul in the Indian Ocean.

Return to New York

In 1899, Nicola returned from Colorado to New York. After 1900, Tesla received many other patents for inventions. in various fields of technology:

• electric meter,
• frequency counter,
• a number of improvements in radio equipment,
• innovations in steam turbines.

On May 18, 1917, Tesla was awarded the Edison Medal,
although he himself resolutely refused to receive it.

Reinforced work

In 1917, Tesla proposed the principle of operation of the device for radio detection of submarines.

In 1917-1926 Nikola Tesla worked in different cities of America. In 1934, Tesla's article was published in Scientific American, which caused a wide resonance in scientific circles.

Accident

Once Tesla had an accident - he was hit by a car. After this incident, the already elderly Nikola Tesla was forever bedridden.

Moreover, he fell ill with pneumonia and received a chronic form of this disease. On the night of January 7-8, 1943 Nikola Tesla died in his hotel room at the New Yorker.

On January 12, his body was cremated, and an urn with ashes was installed in Fairncliff Cemetery in New York. In 1957 it was moved to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

Nikola Tesla is an engineer, physicist, the greatest inventor and scientist of the 20th century. His discoveries changed the world forever, and his life and biography are filled with amazing events. Tesla gained worldwide fame as the creator of the electric motor, generator, polyphase systems and devices operating on alternating current, which became the main milestones of the second stage of the industrial revolution and the amazing facts of his biography.

Nikola Tesla is also known as one of those who believed in the existence of free energy of the ether. Conducted a large number of experiments and experiments confirming its existence and the possibility of using ethereal technologies. They call him a psychic who predicted the modern world, others call him a charlatan and schizophrenic, and still others call him a great inventor and scientist.

Childhood

The father of the famous scientist Milutin Tesla was a clergyman, the mother of Georgina Tesla raised children and helped her husband in church. Nikola had three sisters and a brother who died as a child, falling from a horse. The family lived 6 km from the town of Gospic in the Serbian village of Smiliany. Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856.

Today, the homeland of the scientist is in Croatia, at that time it was the territory of Austria-Hungary. The boy finishes the first grade of school in the village. Despite the cramped conditions and the lack of teachers, he really liked it there.

Therefore, the news of the move to Gospic upset him. The reason for this change was the father's promotion to the rank. Nikola finished junior school in Gospic.

After graduation, he attends a three-year gymnasium. From childhood she learns to be independent. Parents work a lot, are rarely at home, relatives look after the boy. Helps to run a household, later gets a job at a factory to earn pocket money. In autumn 1870 he went to Karlovac and entered the Higher Real School.

Disease

In 1873, Nikola Tesla receives a certificate of maturity, reflects on his mission. The parents wanted their son to continue their work, to become a priest. The young man had other interests not related to the church. Finding himself at a crossroads, he longs for the future. Not wanting to disobey his parents, Nikola decides to study spiritual sciences.

Fate decreed otherwise. In Gospic, a cholera epidemic broke out, killing one-tenth of the townspeople. Tesla's whole family was sick, so Nikola was strictly forbidden to return home. He goes to his parents and soon falls ill. Nine months of illness, complicated by other illnesses, became an ordeal for him.

The situation was hopeless, the doctors could do nothing. In one of the difficult days of the crisis, a conversation took place with my father. The father, trying to cheer up the young man, said that everything would be fine and he would get well. Nikola replied that he would get through if his father allowed him to devote his life to engineering. The father promised his dying son that he would study at the most prestigious university in Europe.

Perhaps this was the reason for Nikola's recovery. He himself recalls with gratitude the healer who found herself in the priest's house when no one had hoped for anything. Elderly woman she gave the patient a decoction of beans, which turned out to be a miraculous drug that put the young man on his feet. After his recovery, Nikola spent three years hiding in the mountains from military service, as he had not yet fully recovered from his illness.

After a painful illness, Tesla developed a manic fear of the possibility of picking up the infection again. He washed his hands often. Noticing a fly crawling on the table, he demanded a change of dishes. The second oddity that he acquired after his illness is the powerful flashes of light that appear to him, hiding real objects and replacing thoughts.

Subsequently, this feature manifested itself in the fact that, along with the outbreaks, visions of his future inventions arose. An unusual gift was expressed in the fact that the scientist imagined a device or device, mentally tested and embodied in reality, receiving a product ready for use. His abilities would be the envy of a modern computer.

Studies

In 1875, Nikola Tesla became a student at the Higher Technical School in Graz (now the Graz Technical University), studying electrical engineering. In the first year, observing Gram's machine, he concludes that the constant current of the motor interferes with its full-fledged work. The teacher sharply criticized him, saying that the machine would not work on alternating current at all.

In the third year he became addicted to gambling, lost a lot of money. Recalling this period of his life, he writes that card games were not fun for him, but a desire to escape from failures.

He handed out the winnings to the losers - for this he was called an eccentric. Enthusiasm gambling ended in a major loss, after which the mother had to borrow money from a friend in order to pay off the card debt.

A student who solves the most difficult problems in his head, oddly enough, did not pass the final exams, so he did not finish school. In 1879, his father dies. To help the family, Nikola gets a job as a teacher in a gymnasium in Gospic. The following year, funded by his uncles, he becomes a student at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prague. After the first semester, he drops out and leaves for Hungary.

Work in Europe

In 1881 he moved to Budapest, worked in the engineering department of the Central Telegraph as a designer and draftsman. Here he has access to the study of progressive inventions, the opportunity to experiment and implement his own ideas. The main task of this period was the invention of the AC electric motor.

In two incomplete months of intensive work, he creates all single-phase and polyphase motors, all system modifications associated with his name. The innovation of Tesla's works was that thanks to them, it became possible to transmit energy over long distances, powering lighting fixtures, factory machines and household appliances.

In 1882 he moved to Paris, got a job with Edison's Continental Company. The company worked on the construction of a power plant for the railway station in Strasbourg. Tesla was sent there to solve working problems. In his free time, the scientist works on an asynchronous electric motor, in 1883 he demonstrates his work at the Strasbourg City Hall.

Work in America

In 1884 he returned to Paris, where he was denied payment of the promised bonus. Insulted, Tesla resigns and decides to go to America. Arrives in New York on 6 July. Jobs at Edison Machine Works as a repair engineer for DC motors and generators.

Tesla hopes to devote himself to his favorite work - the creation of new machines, but the creative ideas of the inventor annoy Edison. An argument took place between them. The emigrant, if the opponent lost, was to receive almost a million American dollars. Tesla won the argument by presenting 24 varieties of Edison's invention. Referring to the fact that the dispute was a joke, he did not give money.

The inventor quits and becomes unemployed. To live somehow, he digs ditches and accepts donations. During this period, he met the engineer Brown, with the light hand of which interested people would learn about the scientist's ideas. On Fifth Avenue, a laboratory is rented for Nikola, which later becomes the Tesla Arc Light Company, which produces arc lamps for street lighting.

In the summer of 1888, Tesla began cooperation with the American George Westinghouse. The industrialist buys several patents and a batch of arc lamps from the inventor. Realizing that he is a genius, he buys out almost all patents and invites him to work in the laboratory of his own company. Tesla refuses, realizing that this will limit freedom.

In 1888-1895, the most fruitful years, the scientist explores high-frequency magnetic fields... The American Institute of Electrical Engineers invites him to give a lecture. The performance before electrical engineers was an unprecedented success.

On March 13, 1895, the Fifth Avenue laboratory burned to the ground. His last inventions were also destroyed in the fire. The scientist said that he was ready to restore everything from memory. The Niagara Falls Company provided $ 100,000 in financial support. Tesla was able to start work in the new laboratory in the fall.

Discoveries and inventions

What did he invent? Nikola Tesla had many inventions, but the most important discoveries for science were:

• An amplifying transformer for exciting the Earth, acting in the transmission of electricity similar to a telescope in astronomical observations.
• A way of storing and transmitting light;
• Field theory (rotating magnetic field);
• Alternating current;
• AC motor;
• Tesla coil;

• Radio;
• X-rays;
• Amplifying transmitter;
• Nikola Tesla turbine;
• Shadow photography;
• Neon lamps;
• Adams hydroelectric power station transformer;
• Teleautomat;
• Asynchronous motor;
• Electrodynamic induction lamp.
• Remote control;
• Electric submarine;

• Robotics;
• Tesla's ozone generator;
• Cold Fire.
• Wireless communications and unlimited free energy;
• Laser.
• Plasma ball.
• Installation for the production of ball lightning.

The mystery surrounding Tesla's personality gave rise to myths and legends. Modern researchers have doubts about his attitude to the Philadelphia experiment with a ship, to the Tunguska meteorite, the creation of an electric car, death rays and some other unconfirmed sensational discoveries. Tesla believed in the universal mind, the Akashic Chronicle, the energy of the Earth and that she is a living being.

Personal life

Tesla was distinguished by his extravagant character and strange habits. Many women fell in love with him, but he did not reciprocate and was not married. Adhered to the belief that family life, having children is incompatible with scientific work. Shortly before his death, the scientist admits that giving up his personal life was an unjustified sacrifice.

Tesla, after he left his parents' house, did not have own home... Lived in a laboratory or hotel rooms. I slept two hours a day, and once spent 84 hours at work, not feeling tired. At one time he drank whiskey every day, believing that it would prolong his life. At the same time, he suffered from neuroses and obsessions.

He was a supporter of Eugenics - human breeding and birth control.

The monument to the great inventor and scientist for his achievements and discoveries was erected in Silicon Valley in 2013 with voluntary donations from fans.

The funds were collected using the Kickstarter service. At the base of the statue is a capsule, which will be opened in 2043. The monument is a free point wireless access in Internet.

Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856 - January 7, 1943) - was an inventor in the field of electrical and radio engineering, engineer, physicist. Received world renown thanks to his contribution to the creation of AC devices, polyphase systems and the electric motor, made it possible to make the so-called second stage of the industrial revolution. He is also known as a supporter of the existence of ether: it is known about his numerous experiments and experiments aimed at showing the presence of ether as a special form of matter that can be used in technology. The unit for measuring the density of magnetic flux (magnetic induction) was named after Tesla. Contemporaries - biographers believed that Tesla was "the man who invented the 20th century" and the "patron saint" of modern electricity.

Tesla was born and raised in Austria-Hungary, his family lived in the village of Smilyan, six kilometers from the city of Gospic, the main city of the historical province of Lika. Father - Milutin Tesla - was a priest of the Serbian Diocese of Srems Orthodox Church, mother - Georgina Mandich, was the daughter of a priest.

Nikola graduated from the 1st grade of elementary school in Smiliany. 1862 - his father received a promotion, and the Tesla family moved to Gospic, where he finished the remaining three classes of elementary school, and then the 3-year lower secondary school, which he graduated from in 1870. In the same year, in the fall, Nikola entered to the Higher real school in the city of Karlovac. He lived in the house of his aunt, father's cousin, Stanka Baranovich.

1873 July - Tesla receives a certificate of maturity. Having disobeyed his father's order, Nikola returned to his family in Gospic, where an epidemic of cholera was raging, and immediately fell ill (although it is not known for certain whether it was actually cholera). Here is what Nicola himself said about it:

“Since childhood, the path of a priest was destined for me. A perspective like a black cloud hung over me. After receiving my matriculation certificate, I made the decision to pursue spiritual studies. It was at that time that a terrible cholera epidemic broke out, decimating a tenth of the population. The disease knocked me down too. Cholera later led to dropsy, lung problems, and other illnesses. 9 months in bed, almost motionless, seemed to drain all my vitality, and the doctors abandoned me.

It was a painful experience not so much because of physical suffering, but because of my great desire to live. During one of the attacks, when everyone thought that I was going to die, my father rushed into the room to support me with these words: "You will get well." As I now see his deathly pale face when he tried to cheer me up in a tone that contradicted his assurances. “Perhaps,” I replied, “I will be able to recover if you let me become not a priest, but an engineer and allow me to go to study engineering.”

"You will do the best educational institution in Europe, ”he said solemnly, and I realized that he would do it. A heavy burden fell from my soul. But consolation could have come very late, if I had not been incredibly cured by one old woman using a decoction of beans. There was no power of suggestion or mysterious influence in this. The remedy for the disease was in the full sense curative, heroic, if not desperate, but it had an effect. "

Having recovered, Tesla entered the Higher Technical School in Graz (now the Graz Technical University), where he began to study electrical engineering. Observing the operation of the Gramm machine in lectures on electrical engineering, Nikola comes to the idea of ​​the imperfection of direct current machines, but Professor Jacob Peschl sharply criticized his ideas, giving a lecture on the impossibility of using alternating current in electric motors before the whole course.

After graduating from college, Nikola Tesla gets a job as a teacher in a real gymnasium in Gospic - the one in which he studied. Work in Gospic did not suit him. The family did not have enough money, and only thanks to the financial support of his two uncles, Petar and Pavel Mandic, Nikola was able to go to Prague in January 1880, where he entered the philosophy department of the Prague University. In order to somehow survive, young Tesla tripled for a part-time job - until 1882 he worked as an electrical engineer in the Budapest government telegraph company. However, this work did not give Tesla the opportunity to carry out his plans to create an alternating current electric motor. As soon as the opportunity arose, he got a job at the Parisian Continental Company of Edison, but there he was deceived without paying the promised fee, as a result of which he, insulted, resigned.

One of the first biographers of Tesla, Boris Rzhonsnitsky, said: “At that time, Tesla had amazing inventions important for the development of electrical engineering. He wanted to sell them at his place of service, but after cheating with money, he decided to sell them to someone else. " His first thought was to go to St. Petersburg, since many important discoveries were made in Russia at that time, the names of Pavel Yablochkov, Dmitry Lachinov, Vladimir Chikolev and others were well known to electricians all over the world. However, at the last moment one of his friends persuaded him to go to America instead of Russia.

1884 Tesla arrives in New York and takes a job as a repair engineer for electric motors and DC generators. He once offered his boss a bet: he would be paid $ 50,000 (about the equivalent of $ 1 million at the time) if he could constructively improve Edison's DC electric machines. The bet was concluded, Tesla actively set to work and soon introduced 24 varieties of Edison's machine, a new switch and regulator, significantly improving performance characteristics... Approving all the improvements, in response to a question about money, Edison refused Tesla, noting that the emigrant did not yet understand American humor well.

For several years, Nikola was forced to interrupt in ancillary work. He dug ditches, "slept where he had to, and ate what he found." During this period, he became friends with a similarly positioned engineer Brown, who managed to persuade several of his acquaintances to provide a small financial support to the inventor. 1887, April - The Tesla Arch company, created with this money, began to arrange street lighting with new arc lamps. Soon the prospects of the company were confirmed by large orders from many American cities, and the first million appeared on its bank account.

For the office of the company in New York, the inventor rented a house on Fifth Avenue near the building occupied by the Edison company. A fierce competition began between their companies, known in the United States as the "War of currents".

1888, July - the famous American industrialist George Westinghouse bought more than 40 patents from Nikola Tesla, paying an average of $ 25,000 for each. He also invited Nicola to be a consultant at factories in Pittsburgh, where industrial designs of AC machines were being developed. The work did not bring satisfaction to Tesla, slowing down the emergence of new ideas. Despite the persuasion of the industrialist, a year later the inventor returned to his laboratory in New York.

In subsequent years, Nikola Tesla was engaged in the study of magnetic fields and high frequencies in his laboratory. This period was the most fruitful: he received many patents - their number exceeded one hundred thousand (various electrical appliances, frequency meters, devices for equipping submarines, various radio equipment, a number of improvements in steam turbines, etc.). All the money that he earned he spent on his experiments, which glorified him over the centuries. In his speeches, the inventor said that he gets the ideas of inventions from a single information field of the Earth, to which he learned to "connect".

Nikola Tesla's inventions

Summer 1914 - Serbia found itself at the center of the events that led to the outbreak of the First World War. While staying in the United States, Nikola Tesla thought about creating a superweapon for the first time: “I am obliged to create a machine that is capable of destroying one or several armies in one action”.

Such a weapon, as is commonly believed, was never invented by Tesla. Although, this is only the official version. Many of the researchers believe that the one that fell in Siberia more than a hundred years ago is nothing more than a test of Nikola Tesla's new unique weapon. In support of this hypothesis, it is known that many of the researchers who visited the laboratory saw a map of Siberia on his wall, including the area in which the explosion occurred. In addition, in one of the articles - which was published a few months before the explosion on Tunguska, Tesla himself wrote: "... Even now my wireless power plants are capable of turning any area of ​​the world into an area uninhabitable ...".

There is more evidence. So, a few months before the explosion, the scientist publicly announced that he intends to illuminate the road to the north pole of the expedition of the famous traveler Robert Peary with electricity. It should be noted that on the night of June 30, many observers in Canada and Northern Europe noted in the sky clouds of an unusual silvery color, which seemed to be pulsing. This is consistent with eyewitness reports who previously observed Tesla's experiments in his laboratory. In addition, during that period of time in dozens settlements Western Europe and Russia observed an intense glow of the sky, night glowing clouds and unusually colorful twilight. According to spectral observations, which were carried out in Germany and England, the glow had nothing to do with the aurora.

A little later, in 1914, a scientist proposed a project according to which the entire globe, together with the atmosphere, was to become a giant lamp. To do this, you only need to skip along upper layers high-frequency current, and they will glow. But the inventor did not explain how to do this, although he has repeatedly assured that he does not see any difficulties in this.

This was his main invention - "Worldwide wireless system for the transmission of information and energy." The transmitting station would be able to direct electricity anywhere in the world, taking into account the reflection from the ionosphere - the upper layers of the atmosphere and from the Earth itself. Everyone could use it - ships, planes, factories through a special receiving installation. The same system could, according to the inventor's assurances, broadcast accurate time signals, music, drawings, facsimile texts to the whole world.

All these facts, no doubt, strengthen the position of supporters of the hypothesis, which claims that on June 30, 1908, no meteorite or comet fell in the area of ​​the Podkamennaya Tunguska River in Siberia, and the explosion was a consequence of Nikola Tesla's experiment with the transfer of energy over long distances.

Another mysterious invention of Tesla, about which his followers have been controversial for a long time - the "Earthquake Machine", which worked on electromagnetic waves, is supposed to be able to cause anywhere in the world. According to legend, it was this machine that caused the 1908 earthquake in New York, which destroyed the scientist's laboratory. Tesla destroyed this car himself, because he saw the real danger it poses to people.

In general, the inventor did not patent many of his discoveries and did not even leave drawings. Most of his diaries and manuscripts have not survived, and only fragmentary information about many inventions has survived to this day. For example, according to some reports, Nikola Tesla invented a super-frequency radio receiver that helps to receive signals from other planets.

He managed to establish a connection with living entities on some distant planet (he suggested that it is possible Mars, but was not sure about it).

1931 Nicola showed the public a strange car. They pulled out a gasoline engine from a luxury limousine and installed an electric motor. Then Tesla, in front of the public, placed a nondescript box under the hood, from which two rods were sticking out, and connected it to the engine. Saying, "Now we have energy," the inventor got behind the wheel and drove off. The car was tested for a week. She developed a speed of up to 150 km / h and, as it was seen, did not need to be recharged at all. To the questions: "Where does the energy come from?" He replied: "From the air." After a successful test, the car and all its blueprints were destroyed - articles appeared in the newspapers of those times, where they put forward two versions of this act: either the inventor went crazy, or he was threatened by large automotive businessmen, who realized that the electric car would completely destroy their business.

The scientist also announced to the world that he had invented "death rays" capable of destroying any flying aircraft at a distance of up to 400 km at the touch of a button on the control panel.

He invented a camera that could photograph a person's biofield (aura).

The death of the inventor is also associated with mysticism. In old age, Tesla was hit by a car, he received a fractured ribs. The disease caused acute pneumonia, which turned into a chronic form. The scientist was bedridden, and soon died - from heart failure. Nevertheless, many newspapers then wrote that Tesla's death could have been faked by those to whom he crossed the path with his inventions, or by those who could be offended by the scientist's refusal to cooperate.

Tesla's body was not found immediately, only two days after his death, a maid looked into the room from which he did not leave. On January 12, the body was cremated, and an urn with ashes was installed at Fairncliff Cemetery in New York. Later it was transferred to the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.