History's Forgotten Genius Essay

Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla were two of the inventing world’s greatest minds in the 19th century. Their war over energy unleashed a new era upon the world, and changed the course of the 19th century. Tesla rivaled Edison with his new, but dangerous alternating current battle, but Edison’s refusal of change made the challenge difficult for Tesla. However, the two started their relationship as partners. Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla both revolutionized the world.

On a stormy night in 1856, Nikola Tesla was born. In his time most of his ideas were stolen and he was considered crazy. Tesla wasn’t searching for riches; rather he wanted to help the future of mankind. He was always looking for new ways to wield electricity to improve his inventions. Most of his inventions were under looked, at first they seemed impossible but he soon proved to the world that the impossible could be done. From his childhood to his adulthood, he always tried to invent new things. He spent most his time inventing so he wasn’t able to back up his previous inventions.

Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison worked on opposite sides of the electricity field. While Edison used his intellect, experience, and resources on the

Imagine a world with a power-plant every two miles, a massive amount of wiring and overall more expensive power. This was the world that Thomas Edison envisioned for the world when he wanted to introduce Direct Current into the United States, but many knew this was an inferior system in comparison to Alternating Current. Nikola Tesla was the man who made AC power possible in the United States, and efficient power possible. Nikola Tesla indeed changed the world with his influence as an inventor and discoveries in the field of electricity. Tesla indeed changed the world through his inventions and was also an extremely interesting human being.

Tesla explored many things, the one he is most famous for is finding a way to transmit electricity wirelessly to the entire world. This plan and design actually worked except the fact Thomas Edision despised his plans and put a stop to it. The pro would be Free energy for everyone on earth... The downfall of course would be energy and electric companies making no money, and

Tesla specialized in electricity and invented the type of electricity we all use today, alternating current (AC).. “Tesla designed the first AC motor in response to Edison’s offer of $50,000 if he could improve his DC motors. Tesla took the offer and came up with his brushless AC motor. Edison, not fond of AC, laughed at him for not understanding his offer was a joke and nothing could beat DC current. Tesla quit and started working in the railroad industry.” (youtube.com, ColdFusion). Tesla wasn’t making a lot of money, but one person had faith in him, Westinghouse. “Tesla has already filed patents for his AC current and Westinghouse purchased Tesla’s patents for $60,000 cash.” (biography.com). This put Tesla and Westinghouse in competition with Edison for the problem of long distance electricity (DC required numerous transformers and plants to keep the voltage up, AC didn’t have this issue). Edison knew AC was superior and was going to do whatever he could to get the publics opinion and interest against it. The war was

The paramount of his inventions was AC power distribution. Numerous times he had been told such an idea was impossible, yet he was persistent and changed the world once he made his dream come into fruition. At first, Direct Current power had been a revolutionary advanced idea that brought light to the world and started a golden age in technology. Tesla and Thomas Edison were major parties in this contemporary age of electricity. Edison exploited connections, questionable deals, and influence to undermine Tesla and maintain DC relevancy during their time period. However, for today’s modern world and industry AC holds highly superior advantages over DC. Early on, Tesla and Westinghouse realized that for electrical power to be practical, it was essential to be efficiently transmitted over extraordinarily long distances. AC allows the manipulation of higher voltages and therefore lower currents; making lighter conductors a cheaper and viable ameliorate option. Tesla took advantage of electromagnetic induction mechanical

Tesla's AC system eventually caught the attention of American engineer and business man George Westinghouse, who was seeking a solution to supplying the nation with long-distance power. Convinced that Tesla's inventions would help him achieve this, in 1888 he purchased his patents for $60,000 in stock and money the Westinghouse Corporation. As interest in an alternating-current system grew, Tesla and Westinghouse were in competition with Thomas Edison, who was intent on selling his direct-current system to the nation. A negative-press campaign was soon waged by Edison, in an attempt to undermine interest in AC power (Nikola tesla biography,

What would you say if I told you that one man was predominantly responsible for the installation of our modern world and conveniences? Who might you think it is? The ascertainable people who read this may search for this man, or the wise may already know. His name was Nikola Tesla. This man was a visionary, an inventive genius, and sadly a forgotten man. He, like most men had a dream. The majority of people among him would ridicule his ideas and slander at what they thought to be impossible, but through his resilience he tried to overcome all of the adversity that faced him. Now, the end of the story is nowhere near, for the story has not yet begun.

For one, one of his life goals was to make a hydra plant using the water flow from Niagara Falls to make electricity, and this goal was eventually achieved. Because of Tesla and Edison constant rivalry, one of his goals was to surpass him and always best him in his inventions. The world at the time always saw those two as competitors against each other. He wanted to share his inventions with the world so that electricity could do whatever humanity wanted it to do, and to make the world a better place. He always wanted to build a “Death Ray” machine that could shoot lasers at any threat, but he later learned that it was not practical.

During the Martin Eberhard, Tesla podcast, Mr. Eberhard discussed many items that our class has covered throughout the quarter in discussions, writings, and ‘warm-up’ exercises. The following notes are what I took from his discussion about the company and cars of Tesla, where he obtained his ideas, passions, and items that were covered in our class.

He’s usually fictionalized and displayed as an object, symbol or random character rather than himself. “Tesla’s genius is often shown in pop-culture such as the mad scientists, TV shows, movies [Ghost Rider] renditions of Sherlock Holmes, scientific comics and graphic novels” (Pistalo “Interview with Stephen Snyder”). He can be seen as a tall, slender man with an extensive vocabulary and an undying need to satisfy his own thoughts. Whenever people are given the image of this man they often think that either crazy or mad in the sense that he looks funny, but no one stopped to think about how or why that’s the image the “mad scientist” was given. Tesla’s ideas and innovations have been built upon ever since they were originally formed. Rocket scientist, inventors, writers, geologists, and even regular citizens of Croatia have looked at Tesla as a ‘god among men’ and have tried to copy or even his previous works before his death on January 7, 1943” (Pistalo “Tesla: A Portrait with Masks”). His mind never rested due to constant thinking which ultimately resulted in some of the most beneficial constructions known to man; today’s hydroelectric energy plants, radar detectors and global wireless technology. Tesla’s lifetime spent on his work has actually paid off, being able to help others all while fulfilling things no man or woman had done before such as creating a

Tesla’s purpose was to explore electricity and later to rival Thomas Edison. Wiki states, Tesla ended up coming to america and later abandon his mentor because he was turned down for money to make a new and better motor. In later years Tesla almost changed every city and town in the world because he created the alternating current. The alternating current is an electrical current system that we still use

Nikola created sources of energy that may have lasted for a lifetime but businesses have been abusing those ideas; for example the Tesla Coil can “arc up to 100,000,000 volts that can wirelessly light up fluorescent light up to 50 feet away” (Tesla Coil 1). The mindset of Nikola Tesla was unique, since he thought of the Earth itself to be a reliable source of energy; in which, he used the magnetic field the Earth creates for his work, but people were questioning his theory since it seemed implausible to do; it do not stop him from achieving his goal. His work was sadly destroyed by a fire that burned most of his experiments and paper work, which left him with nothing. In my opinion, if his work would not have been destroyed there would be so much technological advancement in the human race, not to be biased. First, Nikola Tesla had the plan to have “free” unlimited amount of energy supplied towards people in the world, so they would have electricity and power for their homes.

His dream was about to come true when George Westinghouse hired him. George let Tesla develop all his ideas and Tesla finally produced his invention alternating current (AC). He then became a U.S. citizen in 1889. In 1891 he made another invention called the Tesla coil. It helped create many other inventions that used the Tesla coil the television, a computer screen, the radio, and other electronics. Then Tesla was struck by depression because of his mother's death in 1892. By about 1895 Tesla became a poor man due to a number of failed inventions, so he tried to get a contract with the military. His first attempt to get a military contract was automated submarines and boats, but the government didn't accept his offer. He finally got a military contract from the German Marine High Command. He made turbines for the Germans, and it's thought to be used for their U-boats. Soon After World War 1 started and Tesla had to cancel his concert or he would have been arrested for treason. Tesla was broke again and was desperate for money so he attempted to build a death ray for the U.S. military. It's unknown what components Tesla used for this machine and if it even worked. He said that it would be used to defend of American soil; nevertheless the military rejected his offer. Tesla made one last effort to get a military contract. He would make a sending