Nikola Tesla

Electromechanical devices and principles developed by Nikola Tesla[26] :

* Various devices that use rotating magnetic fields (1882)
* The Induction motor, rotary transformers, and "high" frequency alternators
* The Tesla coil, his magnifying transmitter, and other means for increasing the intensity of electrical oscillations (including condenser discharge transformations and the Tesla oscillators)
* Alternating current long-distance electrical transmission system[27] (1888) and other methods and devices for power transmission
* Systems for wireless communication (prior art for the invention of radio) and radio frequency oscillators
* Robotics and the "AND" logic gate[28]
* Electrotherapy Tesla currents [29][30][31]
* Wireless transfer of electricity and the Tesla effect [32][33]
* Tesla impedance phenonomena
* Tesla electro-static field
* Tesla principle
* Bifilar coil
* Telegeodynamics
* Tesla insulation
* Tesla impulses [34]
* Forms of commutators and methods of regulating third brushes
* Tesla turbines (eg., bladeless turbines) for water, steam and gas and the Tesla pumps
* Tesla igniter
* Tesla compressor
* X-rays Tubes using the bremsstrahlung process
* Devices for ionized gases
* Devices for high field emission
* Devices for charged particle beams
* Arc light systems
* Methods for providing extremely low level of resistance to the passage of electrical current (predecessor to superconductivity)
* Voltage multiplication circuitry
* Devices for high voltage discharges
* Devices for lightning protection
* VTOL aircraft
* Dynamic theory of gravity
* Concepts for electric vehicles
* Polyphase systems


Nikola Tesla (Serbian: Никола Тесла) (10 July 1856 - 7 January 1943[2]) was a world-renowned inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. He was born an ethnic Serb citizen of the Austrian Empire and later became an American citizen. Tesla is best known for his revolutionary work in, and numerous contributions to, the discipline of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th century. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.

After his demonstration of wireless communication in 1893 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as America's greatest electrical engineer.[3] Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. In the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture,[4] but due to his eccentric personality and, at the time, unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist.[5][6] Never putting much focus on his finances, Tesla died impoverished and forgotten at the age of 86.

The SI unit measuring magnetic flux density or magnetic induction (commonly known as the magnetic field B\,), the tesla, was named in his honour (at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1960).

Aside from his work on electromagnetism and engineering, Tesla is said to have contributed in varying degrees to the establishment of robotics, remote control, radar and computer science and to the expansion of ballistics, nuclear physics and theoretical physics. In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited him as being the inventor of the radio. Many of his achievements have been used, with some controversy, to support various pseudosciences, UFO theories and new age occultism. Contemporary researchers of Tesla have deemed him "the man who invented the twentieth century"[7] and "the patron saint of modern electricity."[8]

Early years

According to legend, Tesla was born precisely at midnight during an electrical storm, to a Serbian family in the village of Smiljan near Gospić, in the Lika region of the Austrian Empire, located in present-day Croatia.[9] His baptism certificate reports that he was born on June 28 [N.S. July 10], 1856, and christened by the Serbian Orthodox priest Toma Oklobdžija. His father was Rev. Milutin Tesla, a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church Metropolitanate of Sremski Karlovci. His mother was Đuka Mandić, herself a daughter of a Serbian Orthodox Church priest. She was talented in making home craft tools. She memorized many Serbian epic poems, but never learned to read.[10] His godfather, Jovan Drenovac, was a captain in the army protecting the Military Frontier. Nikola was one of five children, having one brother (Dane, who was killed in a horse-riding accident when Nikola was five) and three sisters (Milka, Angelina and Marica).[11] His family moved to Gospić in 1862. Tesla went to school in Karlovac, then studied electrical engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz (1875). While there, he studied the uses of alternating current. At least two sources say he received Baccalaureate degrees from the university at Graz.[12][13] However the university says that he did not receive a degree and says that he did not continue beyond the first semester of his third year, during which he stopped attending lectures.[14] Others have stated that he was discharged without a degree for nonpayment of his tuition for the first semester of his junior year.[15][16] According to a college roommate, he did not graduate.[17] In December 1878 he left Graz and broke all relations with his family. His friends thought that he had drowned in Mura. He went to Maribor, Slovenia, where he was first employed as an assistant engineer for a year. He suffered a nervous breakdown during this time. Tesla was later persuaded by his father to attend the Charles-Ferdinand branch of the University of Prague, which he attended for the summer term of 1880. However after his father died he left the university, only completing one term.[18]
Nikola Tesla as a young man
Nikola Tesla as a young man

Tesla engaged in reading many works, memorizing complete books. He had a photographic memory.[19] Tesla related in his autobiography that he experienced detailed moments of inspiration. During his early life, Tesla was stricken with illness time and time again. He suffered a peculiar affliction in which blinding flashes of light would appear before his eyes, often accompanied by hallucinations. Much of the time the visions were linked to a word or idea he might have come across; just by hearing the name of an item, he would involuntarily envision it in realistic detail. Modern-day synesthetes report similar symptoms. Tesla would visualise an invention in his brain in precise form before moving to the construction stage; a technique sometimes known as picture thinking. Tesla also often had flashbacks to events that had happened previously in his life; this began to happen during childhood.[20]


Middle years

In 1886, Tesla formed his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. The initial financial investors disagreed with Tesla on his plan for an alternating current motor and eventually relieved him of his duties at the company. Tesla worked in New York as a common laborer from 1886 to 1887 to feed himself and raise capital for his next project. In 1887, he constructed the initial brushless alternating current induction motor, which he demonstrated to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE) in 1888. In the same year, he developed the principles of his Tesla coil and began working with George Westinghouse at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's Pittsburgh labs. Westinghouse listened to his ideas for polyphase systems which would allow transmission of alternating current electricity over large distances.

In April of 1887, Tesla began investigating what would later be called X-rays using his own single node vacuum tubes (similar to his patent #514,170 ). This device differed from other early X-ray tubes in that they had no target electrode. The modern term for the phenomenon produced by this device is bremsstrahlung (or braking radiation). We now know that this device operated by emitting electrons from the single electrode through a combination of field emission and thermionic emission. Once liberated, electrons are strongly repelled by the high electric field near the electrode during negative voltage peaks from the oscillating HV output of the Tesla Coil, generating X-rays as they collide with the glass envelope. He also used Geissler tubes. By 1892, Tesla became aware of what Wilhelm Röntgen later identified as effects of X-rays.

In the early research, Tesla devised several experimental setups to produce X-rays. Tesla held that, with his circuits, the "instrument will [... enable one to] generate Roentgen rays of much greater power than obtainable with ordinary apparatus."[35]. He also commented on the hazards of working with his circuit and single node X-ray producing devices. Of his many note in the early investigation of this phenomenon, he attributing the skin damage to various causes. One of the options for the cause, which is not in conformity with current facts, was that the ozone generated rather than the radiation was responsible. He early on stated,
“ As to the hurtful actions on the skin [...] I note that they have been misinterpreted [...] They are not due to the Roentgen rays, but merely to the ozone generated in contact with the skin. Nitrous acid may also be responsible, but to a small extent. ”

—Electrical Review, 30 November 1895

Tesla later stated,
“ [...] I have not noted injuries which could be traced directly to this cause, though on several occasions burns were produced in all respects similar to those which were later observed and attributed to the Roentgen rays. This view is seemingly being abandoned, having not been substantiated by experimental facts, and so also is the notion that these rays are transverse vibrations.[36] ”

—High frequency oscillators for electro-therapeutic and other purposes, 1899 [37]

Tesla continued research in the field and, later, observed an assistant severely "burnt" by X-rays in his lab. He performed several experiments prior to Roentgen's discovery (including photographing the bones of his hand; later, he sent these images to Roentgen) but didn't make his findings widely known; much of his research was lost in the 5th Avenue lab fire of March 1895.

On July 30, 1891, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States at the age of 35. Tesla established his 35 South Fifth Avenue laboratory in New York during this same year. Later, Tesla would establish his Houston Street laboratory in New York at 46 E. Houston Street. There, at one point while experimenting with mechanical oscillators he generated a resonance of several surrounding buildings, but ironically due to the frequencies involved, not his own building, causing complaints to the police. As the speed grew he hit the resonant frequency of his own building and belatedly realizing the danger he was forced to apply a sledge hammer to terminate the experiment, just as the astonished police arrived.[38] He also lit vacuum tubes wirelessly at both of the New York locations, providing evidence for the potential of wireless power transmission.[39] Some of Tesla's closest friends were artists. He befriended Century Magazine editor Robert Underwood Johnson, who adapted several Serbian poems of Jovan Jovanović Zmaj (which Tesla translated). Also during this time, Tesla was influenced by the Vedic philosophy teachings of the Swami Vivekananda.[40]
Nikola Tesla's generation system using AC circuits to transport energy across great distances. It is contained in US390721 .
Nikola Tesla's generation system using AC circuits to transport energy across great distances. It is contained in US390721 .

When Tesla was 36 years old, the first patents concerning the polyphase power system were granted. He continued research of the system and rotating magnetic field principles. Tesla served, from 1892 to 1894, as the vice president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the forerunner (along with the Institute of Radio Engineers) of the modern-day IEEE. From 1893 to 1895, he investigated high frequency alternating currents. He generated AC of one million volts using a conical Tesla coil and investigated the skin effect in conductors, designed tuned circuits, invented a machine for inducing sleep, cordless gas discharge lamps, and transmitted electromagnetic energy without wires, building the first radio transmitter. In St. Louis, Missouri, Tesla made a demonstration related to radio communication in 1893. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the National Electric Light Association, he described and demonstrated in detail its principles. Tesla's demonstrations were written about widely through various media outlets. Tesla also investigated harvesting energy that is present throughout space. He believed that it was just merely a question of time when men will succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature, stating:
“ Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe. ”

—"Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High Frequency" (February 1892)

At the 1893 World's Fair, the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, an international exposition was held which for the first time devoted a building to electrical exhibits. It was an historic event as Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced visitors to AC power by using it to illuminate the Exposition. On display were Tesla's fluorescent lights and single node bulbs. Tesla also explained the principles of the rotating magnetic field and induction motor by demonstrating how to make an egg made of copper stand on end in his demonstration of the device he constructed known as the "Egg of Columbus".

Also in the late 1880s, Tesla and Edison became adversaries in part due to Edison's promotion of direct current (DC) for electric power distribution over the more efficient alternating current advocated by Tesla and Westinghouse. Until Tesla invented the induction motor, AC's advantages for long distance high voltage transmission were counterbalanced by the inability to operate motors on AC. As a result of the "War of Currents," Edison and Westinghouse went nearly bankrupt, so in 1897, Tesla released Westinghouse from contract, providing Westinghouse a break from Tesla's patent royalties. Also in 1897, Tesla researched radiation which led to setting up the basic formulation of cosmic rays.[41]

When Tesla was 41 years old, he filed the first basic radio patent (U.S. Patent 645,576 ). A year later, he demonstrated a radio controlled boat to the US military, believing that the military would want things such as radio controlled torpedoes. Tesla developed the "Art of Telautomatics", a form of robotics.[42] In 1898, a radio-controlled boat was demonstrated to the public during an electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden. These devices had an innovative coherer and a series of logic gates. Radio remote control remained a novelty until the 1960s. In the same year, Tesla devised an "electric igniter" or spark plug for Internal combustion gasoline engines. He gained U.S. Patent 609,250 , "Electrical Igniter for Gas Engines", on this mechanical ignition system. Tesla lived in the former Gerlach Hotel, renamed The Radio Wave building, at 49 W 27th St. (between Broadway and Sixth Avenue), Lower Manhattan, before the end of the century where he conducted the radio wave experiments. A commemorative plaque was placed on the building in 1977 to honor his work.

Colorado Springs

Main article: Magnifying Transmitter

Publicity picture of a participant sitting in his laboratory in Colorado Springs with his "Magnifying Transmitter" generating millions of volts of electricity. The arcs are about 7 meters (22 ft) long. (Tesla's notes identify this as a double exposure.)
Publicity picture of a participant sitting in his laboratory in Colorado Springs with his "Magnifying Transmitter" generating millions of volts of electricity. The arcs are about 7 meters (22 ft) long. (Tesla's notes identify this as a double exposure.)

In 1899, Tesla decided to move and began research in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he would have room for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments. Upon his arrival he told reporters that he was conducting wireless telegraphy experiments transmitting signals from Pikes Peak to Paris. Tesla's diary contains explanations of his experiments concerning the ionosphere and the ground's telluric currents via transverse waves and longitudinal waves.[43] At his lab, Tesla proved that the earth was a conductor, and he produced artificial lightning (with discharges consisting of millions of volts, and up to 135 feet long).[44] Tesla also investigated atmospheric electricity, observing lightning signals via his receivers. Reproductions of Tesla's receivers and coherer circuits show an unpredicted level of complexity (e.g., distributed high-Q helical resonators, radio frequency feedback, crude heterodyne effects, and regeneration techniques).[45] Tesla stated that he observed stationary waves during this time.[46] In the Colorado Springs lab, he "recorded" signals of what he believed were extraterrestrial radio signals, though these announcements and his data were rejected by the scientific community. He noted measurements of repetitive signals from his receiver which are substantially different from the signals he had noted from storms and earth noise. Specifically, he later recalled that the signals appeared in groups of one, two, three, and four clicks together. Tesla spent the latter part of his life trying to signal Mars. In 1996 Corum and Corum published an analysis of Jovian plasma torus signals which indicate that there was a correspondence between the setting of Mars at Colorado Springs, and the cessation of signals from Jupiter in the summer of 1899 when Tesla was there.[47][48]

Tesla left Colorado Springs on January 7, 1900. The lab was torn down and its contents sold to pay debts. The Colorado experiments prepared Tesla for his next project, the establishment of a wireless power transmission facility that would be known as Wardenclyffe. Tesla was granted U.S. Patent 685,012 for the means of increasing the intensity of electrical oscillations. The United States Patent Office classification system currently assigns this patent to the primary Class 178/43 ("telegraphy/space induction"), although the other applicable classes include 505/825 ("low temperature superconductivity-related apparatus").

Later years
Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York
Tesla's Wardenclyffe Tower located in Shoreham, Long Island, New York

In 1900, with $150,000 (51% from J. Pierpont Morgan), Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower facility. In June 1902, Tesla's lab operations were moved to Wardenclyffe from Houston Street. The tower was finally dismantled for scrap during World War One. Newspapers of the time labeled Wardenclyffe "Tesla's million-dollar folly." In 1904, the US Patent Office reversed its decision and awarded Guglielmo Marconi the patent for radio, and Tesla began his fight to re-acquire the radio patent. On his 50th birthday in 1906, Tesla demonstrated his 200 hp (150 kW) 16,000 rpm bladeless turbine. During 1910–1911 at the Waterside Power Station in New York, several of his bladeless turbine engines were tested at 100–5000 hp.

Since the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Marconi for radio in 1909, Thomas Edison and Tesla were mentioned as potential laureates to share the Nobel Prize of 1915 in a press dispatch, leading to one of several Nobel Prize controversies. Some sources have claimed that due to their animosity toward each other neither was given the award, despite their enormous scientific contributions, and that each sought to minimize the other one's achievements and right to win the award, that both refused to ever accept the award if the other received it first, and that both rejected any possibility of sharing it.[49] In the following events after the rumors, neither Tesla nor Edison won the prize (although Edison did receive one of 38 possible bids in 1915, and Tesla did receive one bid out of 38 in 1937).[50] Earlier, Tesla alone was rumored to have been nominated for the Nobel Prize of 1912. The rumored nomination was primarily for his experiments with tuned circuits using high-voltage high-frequency resonant transformers.

In 1915, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Marconi attempting, unsuccessfully, to obtain a court injunction against the claims of Marconi. After Wardenclyffe, Tesla built the Telefunken Wireless Station in Sayville, Long Island. Some of what he wanted to achieve at Wardenclyffe was accomplished with the Telefunken Wireless. In 1917, the facility was seized and torn down by the Marines, because it was suspected that it could be used by German spies.
Tesla on the cover of Time magazine
Tesla on the cover of Time magazine

Prior to World War I, Tesla looked overseas for investors to fund his research. When the war started, Tesla lost the funding he was receiving from his European patents. After the war ended, Tesla made predictions regarding the relevant issues of the post-World War I environment, in a printed article (December 20, 1914). Tesla believed that the League of Nations was not a remedy for the times and issues. Tesla started to exhibit pronounced symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the years following. He became obsessed with the number three; he often felt compelled to walk around a block three times before entering a building, demanded a stack of three folded, cloth napkins beside his plate at every meal, etc. The nature of OCD was little understood at the time and no treatments were available, so his symptoms were considered by some to be evidence of partial insanity, and this undoubtedly hurt what was left of his reputation.

At this time, he was staying at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, renting in an arrangement for deferred payments. Eventually, the Wardenclyffe deed was turned over to George Boldt, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria to pay a $20,000 debt. In 1917, around the time that the Wardenclyffe Tower was demolished by Boldt to make the land a more viable real estate asset, Tesla received AIEE's highest honor, the Edison Medal.

Tesla, in August 1917, first established principles regarding frequency and power level for the first primitive RADAR units.[51] In 1934, Émile Girardeau, working with the first French RADAR systems, stated he was building RADAR systems "conceived according to the principles stated by Tesla". By the twenties, Tesla was reportedly negotiating with the United Kingdom government about a ray system. Tesla had also stated that efforts had been made to steal the so called "death ray". It is suggested that the removal of the Chamberlain government ended negotiations.

On Tesla's seventy-fifth birthday in 1931, Time magazine put him on its cover.[52] The cover caption noted his contribution to electrical power generation. Tesla received his last patent in 1928 for an apparatus for aerial transportation which was the first instance of VTOL aircraft. In 1934, Tesla wrote to consul Janković of his homeland. The letter contained the message of gratitude to Mihajlo Pupin who initiated a donation scheme by which American companies could support Tesla. Tesla refused the assistance, and chose to live by a modest pension received from Yugoslavia and to continue researching.

Field theories

When he was 81, Tesla stated he had completed a dynamic theory of gravity. He stated that it was "worked out in all details" and that he hoped to soon give it to the world.[53] The theory was never published. At the time of his announcement, it was considered by the scientific establishment to exceed the bounds of reason. Most believe that Tesla never fully developed the Unified Field Theory.

The bulk of the theory was developed between 1892 and 1894, during the period that he was conducting experiments with high frequency and high potential electromagnetism and patenting devices for their utilization. It was completed, according to Tesla, by the end of the 1930s. Tesla's theory explained gravity using electrodynamics consisting of transverse waves (to a lesser extent) and longitudinal waves (for the majority). Reminiscent of Mach's principle, Tesla stated in 1925 that:
Nikola Tesla, with Rudjer Boscovich's book Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis, sits in front of the spiral coil of his high-frequency transformer at East Houston Street, New York.
Nikola Tesla, with Rudjer Boscovich's book Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis, sits in front of the spiral coil of his high-frequency transformer at East Houston Street, New York.
“ There is no thing endowed with life - from man, who is enslaving the elements, to the nimblest creature - in all this world that does not sway in its turn. Whenever action is born from force, though it be infinitesimal, the cosmic balance is upset and the universal motion results. ”

Tesla was critical of Einstein's relativity work, calling it:
“ ...[a] magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king..., its exponents are brilliant men but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists...[54] ”

Tesla also argued:
“ I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view.[55] ”

Tesla, also believed that much of Albert Einstein's relativity theory had already been proposed by Ruđer Bošković, stating in an unpublished interview:
“ ...the relativity theory, by the way, is much older than its present proponents. It was advanced over 200 years ago by my illustrious countryman Ruđer Bošković, the great philosopher, who, not withstanding other and multifold obligations, wrote a thousand volumes of excellent literature on a vast variety of subjects. Bošković dealt with relativity, including the so-called time-space continuum...'.[56] ”

Directed-energy weapon
“ I have not thought it hazardous to predict, that wars in the future will be waged by electrical means. ”

—Nikola Tesla, 1915, [57]

Later in life, Tesla made some remarkable claims concerning a "teleforce" weapon[58] The press called it a "peace ray" or death ray.[59][60] In total, the components and methods included:[61][62]

1. An apparatus for producing manifestations of energy in free air instead of in a high vacuum as in the past. This, according to Tesla in 1934, was accomplished.
2. A mechanism for generating tremendous electrical force. This, according to Tesla, was also accomplished.
3. A means of intensifying and amplifying the force developed by the second mechanism.
4. A new method for producing a tremendous electrical repelling force. This would be the projector, or gun, of the invention.

Tesla worked on plans for a directed-energy weapon between the early 1900s till the time of his death. In 1937, Tesla composed a treatise entitled "The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media" concerning charged particle beams.[63] Tesla published the document in an attempt to expound on the technical description of a "superweapon that would put an end to all war". This treatise of the particle beam is currently in the Nikola Tesla Museum archive in Belgrade. It described an open ended vacuum tube with a gas jet seal that allowed particles to exit, a method of charging particles to millions of volts, and a method of creating and directing nondispersive particle streams (through electrostatic repulsion).[64]

Records of his indicate that it was based on a narrow stream of atomic clusters of liquid mercury or tungsten accelerated via high voltage (by means akin to his magnifying transformer). Tesla gave the following description concerning the particle gun's operation:
“ [The nozzle would] send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 200 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies to drop dead in their tracks.[65] ”

The weapon could be used against ground based infantry or for antiaircraft purposes.[66]

Tesla tried to interest the US War Department in the device.[67] He also offered this invention to European countries.[68] None of the governments purchased a contract to build the device. He was unable to act on his plans.[69]

Theoretical inventions

Tesla began to theorize about electricity and magnetism's power to warp, or rather change, space and time and the procedure by which man could forcibly control this power. Near the end of his life, Tesla was fascinated with the idea of light as both a particle and a wave, a fundamental proposition already incorporated into quantum physics. This field of inquiry led to the idea of creating a "wall of light" by manipulating electromagnetic waves in a certain pattern. This mysterious wall of light would enable time, space, gravity and matter to be altered at will, and engendered an array of Tesla proposals that seem to leap straight out of science fiction, including anti-gravity airships, teleportation, and time travel. The single strangest invention Tesla ever proposed was probably the "thought photography" machine. He reasoned that a thought formed in the mind created a corresponding image in the retina, and the electrical data of this neural transmission could be read and recorded in a machine. The stored information could then be processed through an artificial optic nerve and played back as visual patterns on a viewscreen.

Another of Tesla's theorized inventions is commonly referred to as Tesla's Flying Machine, which appears to resemble a ion-propelled aircraft. Tesla claimed that one of his life goals was to create a flying machine that would run without the use of an airplane engine, wings, ailerons, propellers, or an onboard fuel source. Initially, Tesla pondered about the idea of a flying craft that would fly using an electric motor powered by grounded base stations. As time progressed, Tesla suggested that perhaps such an aircraft could be run entirely electro-mechanically. The theorized appearance would typically take the form of a cigar or saucer.

Death and legacy
Bust of Tesla by Ivan Meštrović, 1952, in Zagreb, Croatia
Bust of Tesla by Ivan Meštrović, 1952, in Zagreb, Croatia

Tesla died of heart failure alone in the New Yorker Hotel, some time between the evening of January 5 and the morning of January 8, 1943, at the age of 86. Despite selling his AC electricity patents, Tesla was essentially destitute and died with significant debts. Later that year the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla's patent number U.S. Patent 645,576 in effect recognizing him as the inventor of radio.

Immediately after Tesla's death became known, the Federal Bureau of Investigation instructed the government's Alien Property Custodian office to take possession of his papers and property, despite his US citizenship. His safe at the hotel was also opened. At the time of his death, Tesla had been continuing work on the teleforce weapon, or death ray, that he had unsuccessfully marketed to the US War Department. It appears that his proposed death ray was related to his research into ball lightning and plasma and was composed of a particle beam weapon. The US government did not find a prototype of the device in the safe. After the FBI was contacted by the War Department, his papers were declared to be top secret. The so-called "peace ray" constitutes a part of some conspiracy theories as a means of destruction. The personal effects were seized on the advice of presidential advisors, and J. Edgar Hoover declared the case "most secret", because of the nature of Tesla's inventions and patents.[70] One document states that "[he] is reported to have some 80 trunks in different places containing transcripts and plans having to do with his experiments [...]". Charlotte Muzar reported that there were several "missing" papers and property.[71]
Statue of Nikola Tesla in Niagara Falls State Park
Statue of Nikola Tesla in Niagara Falls State Park

Tesla's family and the Yugoslav embassy struggled with the American authorities to gain these items after his death due to the potential significance of some of his research. Eventually, his nephew, Sava Kosanoviċ, got possession of some of his personal effects which are now housed in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.[72] Tesla's funeral took place on January 12, 1943, at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan, New York City. After the funeral, his body was cremated. His ashes were taken to Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1957. The urn was placed in the Nikola Tesla Museum, where it resides to this day.

Tesla did not like to pose for portraits. He did it only once for princess Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy, but that portrait is lost. His wish was to have a sculpture made by his close friend Ivan Meštrović, who was at that time in United States, but he died before getting a chance to see it. Meštrović made a bronze bust (1952) that is held in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade and a statue (1955/56) placed at the Ruđer Bošković Institute in Zagreb. This statue was moved to Nikola Tesla Street in Zagreb's city centre on the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birth, with the Ruđer Bošković Institute to receive a duplicate. In 1976, a bronze statue of Tesla was placed at Niagara Falls, New York. A similar statue was also erected in his hometown of Gospić in 1986.

The SI unit tesla (T) for measuring magnetic flux density or magnetic induction (commonly known as the magnetic field B\,) was named in Tesla’s honour at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, Paris in 1960. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) of which Tesla had been vice president also created an award in recognition of Nikola Tesla. Called the IEEE Nikola Tesla Award, it is given to individuals or a team that has made outstanding contributions to the generation or utilization of electric power, and is considered the most prestigious award in the area of electric power.[73] The Tesla crater on the far side of the moon and the minor planet 2244 Tesla are also named after Tesla
100 Serbian dinar banknote obverse. Photo courtesy of National Bank of Serbia.
100 Serbian dinar banknote obverse. Photo courtesy of National Bank of Serbia.[74]
100 Serbian dinars banknote reverse. Note the drawing of the electric motor.
100 Serbian dinars banknote reverse. Note the drawing of the electric motor.

Tesla has received many recognitions within Serbia. He is featured on the current 100 Serbian dinar note (see left). The largest power plant complex in Serbia, the TPP Nikola Tesla is named in his honour. On July 10, 2006 the biggest airport in Serbia (Belgrade) was renamed Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport in honor of Tesla’s 150th birthday.

An electric car company, Tesla Motors, named their company in tribute to Nikola Tesla. Their website states: The namesake of our Tesla Roadster is the genius Nikola Tesla [...] We‘re confident that if he were alive today, Nikola Tesla would look over our car and nod his head with both understanding and approval.[75]

The Croatian subsidiary of Ericsson is also named 'Ericsson Nikola Tesla d.d'. ('Nikola Tesla' was a phone hardware company in Zagreb before Ericsson bought it in the 1990s) in honour of Nikola Tesla's pioneering work in wireless communication.

The year 2006 was celebrated by UNESCO as the 150th anniversary of the birth of Nikola Tesla, scientist (1856-1943), as well as being proclaimed by the governments of Croatia and Serbia to be the Year of Tesla. On this anniversary, July 10, 2006, the renovated village of Smiljan (which had been demolished during the wars of the 1990s) was opened to the public along with Tesla's house (as a memorial museum) and a new multimedia center dedicated to the life and work of Nikola Tesla. The parochial church of St. Peter and Paul, where Tesla's father had held services, was renovated as well. The museum and multimedia center are filled with replicas of Tesla's work. The museum has collected almost all of the papers ever published by, and about, Nikola Tesla; most of these provided by Ljubo Vujovic from the Tesla Memorial Society[76] in New York. Alongside Tesla's house, a monument created by sculptor Mile Blazevic has been erected. In the nearby city of Gospić, on the same date as the reopening of the renovated village and museums, a higher education school named Nikola Tesla was opened, and a replica of the statue of Tesla made by Frano Krsinic (the original is in Belgrade) was presented.

In the years after, many of his innovations, theories and claims have been used, at times unsuitably and with some controversy, to support various fringe theories that are regarded as unscientific. Most of Tesla's own work conformed with the principles and methods accepted by science, but his extravagant personality and sometimes unrealistic claims, combined with his unquestionable genius, have made him a popular figure among fringe theorists and believers in conspiracies about 'hidden knowledge'. Some conspiracy theorists even in his time believed that he was actually an angelic being from Venus sent to Earth to reveal scientific knowledge to humanity.[77]

Personality

Tesla was fluent in many languages. Along with Serbian/Croatian (Serbocroatian), he also spoke seven other foreign languages: Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin.

Tesla may have suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder,[78] and had many unusual quirks and phobias. He did things in threes, and was adamant about staying in a hotel room with a number divisible by three. Tesla was also noted to be physically revolted by jewelry, notably pearl earrings. He was fastidious about cleanliness and hygiene, and was by all accounts germaphobic. He greatly disliked touching round objects and human hair other than his own.

Tesla was obsessed with pigeons, ordering special seeds for the pigeons he fed in the central park and even bringing some into his hotel room with him. Tesla was an animal-lover, often reflecting contently about a childhood cat, "The Magnificent Macak". Tesla never married. He was celibate and claimed that his chastity was very helpful to his scientific abilities.[79][80] Nonetheless there have been numerous accounts of women vying for Tesla's affection, even some madly in love with him. Tesla, though polite, behaved rather ambivalently to these women in the romantic sense.

Tesla was prone to alienating himself and was generally soft-spoken. However, when he did engage in a social life, many people spoke very positively and admiringly of him. Robert Underwood Johnson described him as attaining a "distinguished sweetness, sincerity, modesty, refinement, generosity, and force..." His loyal secretary, Dorothy Skerrit, wrote "his genial smile and nobility of bearing always denoted the gentlemanly characteristics that were so ingrained in his soul." Tesla's friend Hawthorne wrote that, "seldom did one meet a scientist or engineer who was also a poet, a philosopher, an appreciator of fine music, a linguist, and a connoisseur of food and drink."

Nevertheless, Tesla displayed the occasional cruel streak; he openly expressed his disgust for overweight people, once firing a secretary because of her weight.[81] He was quick to criticize other's clothing as well, demanding a subordinate to go home and change her dress on several occasions.[81] Tesla was also recorded to display sporadic anti-Semitism, once calling a secretary to him and telling her, "Miss! Never trust a Jew!"[82]

Tesla was widely known for his great showmanship, presenting his innovations and demonstrations to the public as an artform, almost like a magician. This seems to conflict with his observed reclusiveness; Tesla was a complicated figure. He refused to hold conventions without his Tesla coil blasting electricity throughout the room, despite the audience often being terrified, though he assured them everything was perfectly safe.
Mark Twain in Nikola Tesla's lab, spring 1894
Mark Twain in Nikola Tesla's lab, spring 1894

In middle age, Nikola Tesla became very close friends with Mark Twain. They spent a lot of time together in his lab and elsewhere. Tesla remained bitter in the aftermath of his incident with Edison. The day after Edison died the New York Times contained extensive coverage of Edison's life, with the only negative opinion coming from Tesla, who was quoted as saying, "He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene... His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90 per cent of the labor. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense." Shortly before Edison died, he said that his biggest mistake he had made was never respecting Tesla or his work.[citation needed]

Tesla was good friends with Robert Underwood Johnson. He had amicable relations with Francis Marion Crawford, Stanford White, Fritz Lowenstein, George Scherff, and Kenneth Swezey. Tesla made his first million at the age of 40, but gave away nearly all his royalties on future innovations. Tesla was rather financially inept, but he was almost entirely unconcerned with material wealth. He ripped up a Westinghouse contract that would have made him the world's first billionaire, in part because of the implications it would have on his future vision of free power, and in part because it would run Westinghouse out of business, and Tesla had no desire to deal with the creditors.

Tesla lived the last 10 years of his life in a two-room suite on the 33rd floor of the Hotel New Yorker, room 3327. There, near the end of his life, when Tesla was slipping into what many consider an altered state of mind, he would claim to be visited by a specific white pigeon daily. Several biographers note that Tesla viewed the death of the pigeon as a "final blow" to himself and his work.

Tesla believed that war could not be avoided until the cause for its recurrence was removed, but was opposed to wars in general.[83] He sought to reduce distance, such as in communication for better understanding, transportation, and transmission of energy, as a means to ensure friendly international relations.[84]

Like many of his era, Tesla, a life-long bachelor, became a proponent of a self-imposed selective breeding version of eugenics. In a 1937 interview, he stated,
“ [...] man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct [...]. The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.[85] ”

In 1926, Tesla commented on the ills of the social subservience of women and the struggle of women toward gender equality, indicated that humanity's future would be run by "Queen Bees". He believed that women would become the dominant sex in the future.[86]

In his later years Tesla became a vegetarian. In an article for Century Illustrated Magazine he wrote "It is certainly preferable to raise vegetables, and I think, therefore, that vegetarianism is a commendable departure from the established barbarous habit." Tesla argued that it is wrong to eat uneconomic meat when large amounts of people are starving; he also believed that plant food was "superior to it [meat] in regard to both mechanical and mental performance." He also argued that animal slaughter was "wanton and cruel".[87]

Nikola Tesla in popular culture
Cover of The Five Fists of Science, a graphic novel showing Tesla in the center.
Cover of The Five Fists of Science, a graphic novel showing Tesla in the center.

Main article: Nikola Tesla in popular culture

Nikola Tesla appears much throughout popular culture. The lack of recognition received by Tesla despite his genius has made him a tragic and inspirational character well suited to dramatic fiction. Tesla has particularly been seen in science fiction where his futuristic inventions are well suited. The impact of the amazing technologies invented by Nikola Tesla are a recurring theme in the steampunk genre of alternate technology science-fiction.

Tesla has appeared in comics such as the graphic novel The Five Fists of Science by Matt Fraction and Steven Sanders, in which Tesla teams up with Mark Twain to battle Thomas Edison.

He was a supporting character in the 2006 film The Prestige, in which he was portrayed by David Bowie. In the film, he is called upon to build an electrical machine to simulate an illusion of teleportation. The film portrayed Tesla as studious but a bit of a charlatan, although also somewhat prophetic. When realizing the abilities of the invention, he tried unsuccessfully to persuade the commissioning magician to "send it to the bottom of the ocean" - fearing the ill effects such a device could have on humanity. The movie also shows his stay in Colorado Springs and some of his experiments there, but fictitiously shows the burning of his workshop (supposedly by henchmen of Edison).

He has also been the subject of many documentary films, including the PBS' Tesla: Master of Lightning (2000) and BBC's "The Mysterious Mr. Tesla" (1982). Tesla has also appeared in cartoons, including the first of Max Fleischer's Superman animated cartoons, where Superman fights a mad scientist called Tesla.

The rock band Tesla is also named after him. They referenced his life and works a number of times, such as in the song "Edison's Medicine" (and accompanying music video, from the album Psychotic Supper) and the album The Great Radio Controversy (a reference to the battle between Tesla and Marconi for the patent of the radio).

The rock band White Stripes referenced the Tesla/Edison dynamic in the final verse of their song "Astro," from 1999's self-titled album. ("Maybe Tesla does the Astro/Maybe Edison is AC-DC"). Jack and Meg White, of White Stripes, also perform a skit called "Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil" in Coffee and Cigarettes, a 2003 independent film directed by Jim Jarmusch.

In video games Tesla's proposal of teleforce weapon and the destructive possibilities of massive electric arcs created by Tesla coils have inspired many designers to create Tesla weapons and armors. For example, a Tesla gun is available in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and in the Command & Conquer Red Alert series of video games, a defensive structure is available called a Tesla coil that can electrocute enemies at a distance. Also, in the game Blood II: The Chosen, the Tesla Cannon is a weapon that simulates the Peace Ray, but creates a black hole, sucking everyone, including the player (if close) into it.

The Discovery Channel's popular Mythbusters show successfully debunked Tesla's claim that he had created an "Earthquake Machine" in their 60th episode.

parishilton

Paris Whitney Hilton (born February 17, 1981) is an American celebrity and socialite. She is an heiress to a share of the Hilton Hotel fortune, as well as to the real estate fortune of her father Richard Hilton.

Hilton is notable for her leading role on the reality series The Simple Life. In addition to her work as an actress, she has achieved some recognition as a model, celebrity spokesperson, singer, and writer. She is also known for her participation in a private home sex video made with former boyfriend Rick Salomon. The film, titled 1 Night in Paris, was leaked onto the Internet in late 2003, attracting national publicity in the United States.

Hilton is the oldest of four children of Richard Hilton and Kathy Richards. Her younger sister is Nicky Hilton (after paternal great-uncle, Conrad Nicholson Hilton II, 'Nicky'), and her younger brothers are Barron Hilton II (after paternal grandfather Barron Hilton), and Conrad Hilton III (after paternal great-grandfather Conrad Nicholson Hilton I).

On the maternal side of her family, Hilton is a niece of two popular child stars of the 1970s—Kim Richards and Kyle Richards, who appeared in the motion picture Escape to Witch Mountain and TV shows such as Nanny and the Professor, Little House on the Prairie, and later, ER. By marriage, she also is related to Zsa Zsa Gabor (the Hungarian-born actress married Paris Hilton's great-grandfather Conrad Hilton), as well as Elizabeth Taylor (the actress's first husband was Paris Hilton's great-uncle, Conrad Nicholson Hilton Jr.).

Her paternal grandparents are hotel chairman Barron Hilton, and his wife, the former Marilyn Hawley; and Hilton's paternal great-grandparents were Hilton Hotel founder Conrad Hilton and his first wife, Mary Barron. When Conrad Hilton died in 1979, he left nothing in his will to his children or other descendants. Barron Hilton contested this decision and prevailed in court in 1988. The value of Paris's inheritance has been variously estimated at between (US) $30 and $50 million.[1][2]

Hilton moved between several exclusive homes in her youth, including a suite in the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in Manhattan, Beverly Hills, and the Hamptons. Currently, her parents own a $30.5 million mansion in Bel Air, a $12.3 million estate in the Hamptons, and a $10 million house in the Hollywood Hills in which she and her sister stay to give them privacy. She attended her freshman year of high school in Rancho Mirage, California at the Marywood-Palm Valley School and her sophomore and junior years of high school at the Dwight School in New York, but dropped out[3] and eventually earned a GED.[4]

Media career

Fashion model

Hilton began modeling as a child, appearing first in charity events.[5] In 2000, the then nineteen year old signed with Donald Trump's modeling agency, T Management.[5] Hilton has since worked with the top modeling agencies Ford Models Management in New York, Models 1 Agency in London, Nous Model Management in Los Angeles, and Premier Model Management in London. She has appeared in numerous advertisements, including Iceberg, GUESS, Tommy Hilfiger, Christian Dior, and Marciano. In early 2001, Hilton began to develop a reputation as a 19-year-old socialite, being identified as "New York's leading It Girl" whose fame was beginning to "extend beyond [...] the New York tabloids".[5]

Actress

Hilton and Nicole Richie (adopted daughter of Lionel Richie) starred in the 2003 FOX hit reality series The Simple Life, in which they lived with a family on their farm in rural Altus, Arkansas. Capitalizing on the "fish out of water" theme, the show featured Hilton and Richie working at a variety of blue collar jobs, making out with the local boys, and performing menial tasks associated with farm life. The elite duo's resistence to appreciate and engage in the "simple life" was a central theme on the series. It was followed by two more seasons on FOX: The Simple Life 2: Road Trip and The Simple Life 3: Interns, and another on E!: The Simple Life 4: ' Til Death Do Us Part. A fifth season to be aired on E! is currently in development stages.[6]

The leak of her then three-year-old sex video in 2003 fueled an "Internet frenzy" a week prior to the premiere of The Simple Life, leading to speculation that it was a deliberate publicity stunt.[7] Hilton has strongly denied such claims and stated she was "embarrassed" and "humiliated" by the publicity brought by the tape.[8]

Hilton has appeared in minor and supporting roles in the feature films House of Wax (2005), The Hillz (2004), Raising Helen (2004), and Nine Lives (2002). Her role in House of Wax won the Teen Choice Award for "Best Scream", and earned a "Choice Breakout Performance – Female" nomination, and a "Best Frightened Performance" nomination at the MTV Movie Awards 2006. Hilton landed her first lead roles in 2006 with the straight-to-DVD releases National Lampoon's Pledge This! and Bottom's Up with Jason Mewes. She also appeared in cameo roles in Zoolander (2001), The Cat in the Hat (2003), Wonderland (2003), and Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004). She has also acted in the short subjects QIK2JDG (2002) and L.A. Knights (2003). Hilton has several upcoming theatrical releases in which she is the lead role, including The Hottie and the Nottie (2008), and an untitled superhero movie involving Stan Lee.

Hilton also starred in 1 Night in Paris (2004), an unauthorized sex video with her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon, for which she received directorial credit. The film earned three AVN Awards in 2005, including "Best Selling Title of the Year". Hilton originally sued Salomon over the release of the tape, but settled out of court in July 2005. According to reports, Hilton was awarded up to $400,000 and planned to donate a percentage to charity.[9] However, in a 2006 interview with GQ magazine, she stated: "I never received a dime from (the video). It's just dirty money and (Salomon) should give it all to some charity for the sexually abused or something."[10]

Plans for Hilton to lend her name, and also star in a cartoon series which follows the animated life of herself, her sister Nicky, and her dog Tinkerbell are in production.[11] Hilton has also guest starred in episodes of The O.C., The George Lopez Show, Las Vegas, American Dreams and Veronica Mars. Hilton's voice was used in See Paris Die! a viral animation promoting House of Wax and appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman, when she claimed to have trade marked the term "that's hot".

Hilton has also appeared in several music videos, including It Girl by John Oates (of Hall & Oates fame), Just Lose It by Eminem and Caught Up In The Rapture by Won-G featuring Gizelle.

Recording artist
Paris Hilton
Background information
Birth name Paris Whitney Hilton
Born February 17, 1981 (age 26)
Origin New York City, New York, US
Genre(s) Pop, Hip-hop
Occupation(s) Singer, actor, model, author
Instrument(s) Vocals
Label(s) Heiress Records

Hilton is the founder of Heiress Records, a sub-label of Warner Bros. Records, which she created in 2004. Though Heiress Records' only release as of yet has been Paris, Hilton has said that she plans to sign new artists in the future.

Hilton began work on an album in 2004. The album; Paris, was released on August 22, 2006. Before release, Hilton hinted that her album would feature a number of genres, such as pop, reggae, and hip-hop.[12]

Paris debuted at number 6 on the Billboard 200.

Producers for Paris include Greg Wells, Kara DioGuardi, Jane Wiedlin and Scott Storch. Hilton collaborated with Fat Joe and Jadakiss on the song "Fighting Over Me". The first single from Paris, "Stars Are Blind", produced by Fernando Garibay, was released for download on June 20, 2006 and peaked at #18 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Turn It Up" and "Nothing in This World" followed "Stars Are Blind" as worldwide singles. Hilton is already planning and recording tracks for her second album, including a new song called "Daddy's Little Girl".[13]

All Music Guide stated, "...it's more fun than anything released by Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson, and a lot fresher, too."[14]

In August/September 2006, it was revealed that underground artists Banksy and Danger Mouse replaced 500 copies of Hilton's debut album in various UK record stores with their own parody remixes and cover art. Along with completely reworked liner notes that included topless photos of Ms. Hilton slathered with slogans like "Every CD you buy puts me even further out of your league", Danger Mouse has replaced Hilton's original songs with his own remixes and given them titles such as "Why am I Famous?", "What Have I Done?" and "What Am I For?" Banksy has doctored pictures of her on the CD sleeve to show Hilton topless and with a dog's head.[15][16]

Paris Hilton has her own channel in YouTube which is currently the #34 most subscribed channel of all time on the service, with over 10,000 subscriptions and 2,000,000 views.[17]

Paris Hilton was recently named as one of the "Hottest Women of Pop/Rock" by Blender Magazine, citing: "She’s a paparazzi magnet, amateur-porn icon, pop singer and self-proclaimed all-around 'sexy blonde bitch.'"[18]

The Solar System

The Solar System or solar system[a] consists of the Sun and the other celestial objects gravitationally bound to it: the eight planets, their 162 known moons,[1] three currently identified dwarf planets and their four known moons, and billions of small bodies. This last category includes asteroids, meteoroids, comets, and interplanetary dust.

In broad terms, the charted regions of the Solar System consist of the Sun (astronomical symbol ☉), four terrestrial inner planets, an asteroid belt composed of small rocky bodies, four gas giant outer planets, and a second belt, called the Kuiper belt, composed of icy objects. Beyond the Kuiper belt lie scattered objects, the heliopause, and ultimately the Oort cloud.

In order of their distances from the Sun, the planets are Mercury (☿), Venus (♀), Earth (⊕), Mars (♂), Jupiter (♃), Saturn (♄), Uranus (♅), and Neptune (♆). Six of the eight planets are in turn orbited by natural satellites, usually termed "moons" after Earth's Moon, and each of the outer planets is encircled by planetary rings of dust and other particles. All the planets except Earth are named after gods and goddesses from Greco-Roman mythology. The three dwarf planets are Pluto (♇), the largest known Kuiper belt object, Ceres (), the largest object in the asteroid belt, and Eris, which lies in the scattered disc.