NIKOLA TESLA: GENIUS OF THE GENIUSES

In history there are some names which we always pin to the term 'Genius'. Say for example, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Paul Dirac, Madam Curie, Srinivasa Ramanujan.......

But there is one man in history, whom I consider the 'greatest genius' of all time (NOTE: I didn't use the term 'one of the greatest', which I generally use while mentioning such eminent personalities). 

His ''extraordinary life is 'curtailed' from the young generation of extraordinary thinkers''. This man contributed a lot to the development of the world. The radio, induction motor, remote control, neon lamp, hydroelectric power, magnifying transmitter, wireless communication and many more were in fact either invented or proposed by him. But he is best known for his highly efficient, ground-breaking works associated with, 'Alternating Current motor and AC powered transmission technology'...

Even after becoming so popular, with more than 3000 patents globally tagged to his name, he was hard-headed, pragmatic, intuitive and above all was modest about his achievements. and all these good qualities assisted him in his search for newer technology which would make life effortless and comfortable...

The man I am talking about is Nikola Tesla...

I will try my level best to describe the life of this obscure, self taught genius, a man whose life is filled with humbling failures and momentous triumphs...

So here we go...

''If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world''

                                               

-Nikola Tesla

EARLY LIFE OF TESLA

Figure 1: Tesla in his early years

As already mentioned we do not have adequate sources available with us regarding the life of Tesla. However we do have a very important manuscript which throws light into the life of Tesla. Nikola Tesla's Autobiography- My Inventions.

This book covers a lot of insightful moments from the life of Tesla and also mentions the hurdles that he faced in the years of his open-fight with American inventor, Thomas Alva Edison. 

Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July 1856 in Smiljian, Croatia. When he was born it was raining heavily outside which prompted their helper to say the words, ''It's raining terribly outside, he is sure to bring ill-effect and bad luck to your family''...But Tesla's mother was not disappointed even after hearing her remark, she was confident that Tesla would be bright, prodigious child.

Tesla's mother was absolutely right, he showed extraordinary capabilities in learning things, it is even said that he could learn an entire book by heart. 

Tesla was frequently affected with illnesses, one of the most notable illness happened when he was a child. He suffered from a peculiar disorder in which he would see flashes of blinding light before his eyes followed by hallucinations. In his book, My Inventions, Tesla says that he consulted many psychologists and psychiatrists and none of them could explain this phenomena. 

Since Tesla was a very curious child he did his own research on this afflictions and finally came up with a reasonable solution which is as given below,

''The images were a result of a reflex from the brain on the retina under great excitations''

-Nikola Tesla, in My Inventions

TESLA  AND THOMAS EDISON: THE START OF ONE OF THE GREATEST TECHNOLOGICAL RIVALRY

After completing his math and physics courses (without earning a degree!) he went on to work under some industrialists and later migrated to the United States to work at Edison Machine Works, under the great American inventor Thomas Edison. 

You probably might know him, he is well known for his most fascinating discovery. 'the electric bulb'...But wait, you are about to see how boorish and impolite he was to Tesla, which ultimately led to Edison's business failures...

Tesla was a very hard working person, in his autobiography he mentions about one of his late night works at Edison Machine Works. The ocean liner, SS Oregon's dynamos were inflicted with some sort of a damage and Tesla stayed up all night working feverishly until it was done, he then reported the same to Edison, who appreciated Tesla for his workmanship and is said to have uttered the words,'' This man damn good'', to one of his other workers.

Tesla also mentioned that his first meeting with Edison changed his life forever and that he was inspired by the level of confidence that Edison possessed. But things are about change, these two men will soon be hurled up in an ultimate fight for technology which in turn brought about the development of the highly efficient 'Alternating Current' technology.

EDISON TESTS TESLA'S CAPABILITIES

''I don't care they stole my idea, I care that they don't have any of their own''

-Nikola Tesla (probably after his bitter experience with Edison)

Figure 2: The Nikola Tesla we know...

Thomas Edison was by now very confident that Tesla was an able worker and that he can be used as a tool to help him in his endeavor for a flourishing businesses. But things didn't go rather nicely for Edison, for he was about to witness the exemplary genius of Tesla which remained unnoticed amongst his contemporaries.

It all started when, Edison asked Tesla to enhance the design of the DC dynamos; DC is called the 'Direct Current', which by now was running successfully and was bringing with it vast amounts of fortune for Edison and his company. 

Tesla readily accepts the task and Edison promised that he would pay him $50,000 for his work. Tesla completes the work in no time and hands over the enhanced version of DC to Edison, at first site he was very impressed by Tesla's work and was about to leave when Tesla asked him about the remuneration that Edison decided to offer him in the first place. 

But to Tesla's horror, Edison replied,'' Tesla you don't understand our American joke''...

TESLA TAKES A SWEET REVENGE

Figure 3: Tesla's AC Dynamo

Though he was disappointed at first, he was determined that he would come up with something, something prodigiously new, something that would change the world forever.

While DC was flourishing, Tesla was working hard, patenting the same work that he had developed under Edison and finally he came up with a new means through which electric power could be transmitted, he invents 'Alternating Current Motor'

Figure 4: George Westinghouse

After Tesla demonstrated his AC Motor in 1888, an American entrepreneur, George Westinghouse brought up Tesla's AC patents and hired him so that he could commercialise his motor. Thus starting the historical, ''War of Currents''.

Tesla also started patenting his inventions after his bitter experience of working under Edison...

Figure 5: Tesla giving a lecture on the functioning of his AC motor

AC MOTOR OR DC MOTOR, WHICH IS MORE EFFICIENT?

Figure 6: Tesla sitting beside his magnifying transmitter

The answer to this question is simple, Alternating Current Motor. Let us consider the advantages of using Alternating Current Motor,

1) AC motors can run on both single-phase and three-phase supplies.

2) AC motors require less maintenance as brushes and commutators are absent.

3) It runs under AC current which can be transmitted to over large distances.

4) Repairing of AC motors is not costly has a longer life span.

5) AC motors are used where power performance is sought for extended periods of time.

RADIO: TESLA vs MARCONI

Figure 7: Tesla's Radio Boat

We often associate Italian inventor, Guglielmo Marconi as the inventor of radio. But has Tesla got a hand on the invention of the radio? The answer is, YES.

''Tesla filed the first US radio patent in 1897. Marconi's first patent application in the US, in 1900, was turned down. His revised applications were repeatedly rejected because of the priority of Tesla. Nonetheless, his Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd. began thriving. Then, on Dec. 12th, 1901, Marconi for the first time transmitted signals across the Atlantic.''

- Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona

For his historical capabilities in developing wireless telegraph, Guglielmo Marconi was awarded with the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1909.

When Nikola Tesla heard about the invention of the radio by Marconi, he commented,

''Marconi is a good fellow. Let him continue. He is using 17 of my patents''

TESLA  AND HIS ECCENTRICITY

Figure 8: Tesla's X-Ray image of his own hand, taken during his experiments with X-Ray

Many say that Tesla was a very strange personality and tagged him as a 'blockhead'. 

Why?

Tesla possessed some strange behaviors which are discussed in detail here,

1) Tesla and the number 'three':

Tesla had great admiration for the number 3. Keeping this in mind it is not strange that he used to walk three times around a building before entering into it. Moreover if he were to stay in a hotel he would choose only those rooms whose room numbers were divisible by 3. 

To make you even more surprised, in his entire lifetime he checked all his calculations by dividing it with the number 3!

2) Tesla and the number 369

'' If you only knew the magnificence of 3,6 and 9, then you would have the key to the universe.

-Nikola Tesla

So for explaining this lets do some math, 

Consider all the natural numbers. Now take the first number, i.e. 1, double it you will get 2. Now take the number 2, double it you will get 4 and so on...You will probably get the following sequence,

Sequence 1: 1,2,4,8,16,32,64,128,256,512,1024...

Now write the single term digits as it is i.e. write 1,2,4 and 8 as it is since they are single term digits.

Now for two digit numbers, add up the individual numbers in it to get a single digit number, for example, the next in the series after 8 is 16; you write 16 as 1+6=7,now 32 as 3+2=5, 64 as 6+4=10 and 10 can be written as 1+0=1, now take 128, 1+2+8=11, 11 can be written as 1+1=2, and so on...on write all the elements in the Sequence 1 as sum of its digits thereby yielding us a perfect single digit number.

So the new sequence would be,

Sequence 2: 1,2,4,8,7,5,1,2,4,8,7,5....

You can clearly observe that the only numbers which are not in this series are 3, 6 and 9.

According to Tesla the numbers 3,6 and 9 control the entire universe. 3 controls 1,2 and 4, while 6 controls 5,6 and 7, and 9 controls 3 and 6.

Tesla believed that the number 9 acted as the centre of the entire universe, I want you to add the numbers in Sequence 2-

Sum= 1+2+4+8+7+5=27, 27 can be written as 2+7 to yield us a perfect single digit number, we see that 2+7=9

Moreover consider the following results,

1) Sum of angles of a triangle=180⁰

⇒ 1+8+0=9

2) Sum of angles of a square=360⁰

⇒ 3+6+0=9

3) A circle=360⁰

⇒ 3+6+0=9

4) A semi circle=180⁰

⇒ 1+8+0=9

5) A quarter of a circle=90⁰

⇒ 9+0=9

6) 12 months= 1+2=3

7) 1 day=24 hours= 2+4=6

8) 1 hour= 60 minutes=6+0=6

9) 1 minute= 60 seconds= 6+0=6

Look at this irony. is it quite interesting, all the fundamental ideas of nature revolve around 3, 6 and 9... 

In a similar way, almost 80% of the technology that we use today revolve around this man, a classic example of a genius in every sense of the word...

References:

-All the images published in this blog were taken from Wikimedia Commons.

- Referred 'My Invention-autobiography of Nikola Tesla', to know about his early life.

- Referred Wikipedia for some clarifications regarding Tesla's life at Edison's company.

- Referred https://oxscience.com/  for information related to AC and DC motors.