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Nikola Tesla - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 10/28/11 10:15 AM

Nikola Tesla
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic:


Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 Nikola Tesla
January 1943) was a Serbian-
American inventor, mechanical
engineer, and electrical engineer.
He was an important contributor
to the birth of commercial
electricity, and is best known for
his many revolutionary
developments in the field of
electromagnetism in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. Tesla's
patents and theoretical work
formed the basis of modern
alternating current (AC) electric
power systems, including the
polyphase system of electrical
distribution and the AC motor. Tesla c. 1890
This work helped usher in the
Second Industrial Revolution. Born 10 July 1856
Smiljan, Austrian Empire a
Born an ethnic Serb in the village (Croatian Military Frontier)
of Smiljan (now part of Gospić), Died 7 January 1943 (aged 86)
in the Croatian Military New York City, New York, USA
Frontier [1] of the Austrian Empire Fields Mechanical and electrical engineering
(modern-day Croatia), Tesla was
Institutions Edison Machine Works
a subject of the Austrian Empire
Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing
by birth and later became an Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.
American citizen. [2] Because of
Known for
his 1894 demonstration of
wireless communication through Influences Ernst Mach
radio [citation needed] and as the Influenced Gano Dunn
eventual victor in the "War of Notable Edison Medal (1916)
Currents", he was widely awards Elliott Cresson Medal (1893)
respected as one of the greatest John Scott Medal (1934)
electrical engineers who worked
Signature
in America. [3] He pioneered
modern electrical engineering and
many of his discoveries were of Notes
a Austrian Empire (1804–1867) reorganized and renamed
groundbreaking importance. In
the United States during this time, into Austria-Hungary (1867–1918) in 1867.
Tesla's fame rivaled that of any
other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture.[4] Tesla demonstrated wireless
energy transfer to power electronic devices as early as 1893[citation needed] , and aspired to
intercontinental wireless transmission of industrial power in his unfinished Wardenclyffe
Tower project.

Because of his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre
claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately
ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist by many late in his life. [5] Tesla died with little
money at the age of 86 in a hotel suite in New York City.[6]

The SI unit measuring magnetic field B (also referred to as the magnetic flux density and
magnetic induction), the tesla, was named in his honor (at the CGPM, Paris, 1960).

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Contents
1 Early years
1.1 France and the United States
2 Middle years
2.1 American citizenship
2.2 Edison
2.3 Colorado Springs
3 Wardenclyffe years
4 Nobel prize and Tesla
5 Later years
5.1 Field theories
5.2 Directed-energy weapon
5.3 Theoretical inventions
6 Personal life
6.1 Death
7 Literary works
8 Legacy and honors
8.1 Monuments
8.2 Portrayals in popular culture
9 See also
10 References
10.1 Notes
10.2 Sources
10.3 Further reading
10.3.1 Publications
10.3.2 Books
10.3.3 Journals
10.3.4 Filmography
11 External links

Early years
Tesla was born to Serbian parents in the village of
Smiljan, Austrian Empire near the town of Gospić, in
the territory of modern-day Croatia. His baptismal
certificate reports that he was born on 28 June (N.S. 10
July), 1856, to Father Milutin Tesla, a priest in the
Serbian Orthodox Church.[7] His paternal origin is
thought to be either of one of the local Serb clans in
the Tara valley or from the Herzegovinian noble
Pavle Orlović.[8] His mother, Đuka, daughter of a
Serbian Orthodox Church priest, came from a family Nikola Tesla's birth house and statue
domiciled in Lika and Banija, but with deeper origins in the village of Smiljan, Croatia
to Kosovo. She was talented in making home craft
tools and memorized many Serbian epic
poems, but never learned to read.[9]

Nikola was the fourth of five children,


having one older brother (Dane, who
was killed in a horse-riding accident
when Nikola was five) and three sisters
(Milka, Angelina and Marica).[10] His
family moved to Gospić in 1862. Tesla
attended school at Higher Real

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Gymnasium in Karlovac.[11] He finished


a four-year term in the span of three
Nikola Tesla c.1879 at age 23, and his passport from
years.[12]
1883
Tesla went on to study electrical
engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz (1875). While there, he studied the uses of
alternating current. Some sources say he received Baccalaureate degrees from the university
at Graz.[13][14][15] However, the university says that he did not receive a degree and did not
continue beyond the first semester of his third year, during which he stopped attending
lectures.[16][17][18][19] In December 1878, Tesla left Graz and broke all relations with his
family. His friends thought that he had drowned in the Mur River. He went to Marburg,
(today's Maribor, in 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 University in Prague, which he attended for the
summer term of 1880. Here, he was influenced by Ernst Mach. However, after his father
died, he left the university, having completed only one term.[20]

Tesla engaged in reading many works, memorizing complete books, supposedly having a
photographic memory.[21] 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 visions. Much of the time the visions were linked to a
word or idea he might have come across, at other times they would provide the solution to a
particular problem he had been encountering; just by hearing the name of an item, he would
be able to envision it in realistic detail. Modern-day synesthetes report similar symptoms.
Tesla would visualize an invention in his mind with extreme precision, including all
dimensions, before moving to the construction stage; a technique sometimes known as
picture thinking. He typically did not make drawings by hand, instead just conceiving all
ideas with his mind. Tesla also often had flashbacks to events that had happened previously
in his life; these began during his childhood.[21]

In 1880, he moved to Budapest to work under Tivadar Puskás in a telegraph company, [22]
the National Telephone Company. There, he met Nebojša Petrović, a young, Serbian
inventor who lived in Austria. Although their encounter was brief, they did work on a project
together using twin turbines to create continual power. On the opening of the telephone
exchange in Budapest, 1881, Tesla became the chief electrician to the company, and was
later engineer for the country's first telephone system. He also developed a device that,
according to some, was a telephone repeater or amplifier, but according to others could have
been the first loudspeaker.[23]

France and the United States

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France and the United States

In 1882 he moved to Paris, to work as an engineer for


the Continental Edison Company, designing
improvements to electric equipment brought overseas
from Edison's ideas. According to his autobiography,
in the same year he conceived the induction motor
and began developing various devices that use
rotating magnetic fields for which he received patents
in 1888.

On 6 June 1884, Tesla first arrived in the United


States, in New York City[24] with little besides a
letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor, a
former employer. In the letter of recommendation to
Thomas Edison, it is claimed that Batchelor wrote, 'I
know two great men and you are one of them; the
other is this young man', but the exact contents of the
letter is disputed in McNichol's book. Edison hired
Tesla to work for his Edison Machine Works. Tesla's
work for Edison began with simple electrical
engineering and quickly progressed to solving some
of the company's most difficult problems. Tesla was
even offered the task of completely redesigning the
Edison company's direct current generators.[25]
Drawing from U.S. Patent 381968,
illustrating principle of alternating Tesla claimed he was offered US$50,000 (~
current motor invention US$1.1 million in 2007, adjusted for inflation)[26] if
he redesigned Edison's inefficient motor and
generators, making an improvement in both service and economy. [27] In 1885 when Tesla
inquired about the payment for his work, Edison replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our
American humor," thus breaking his word.[28][29] Earning US$18 per week, Tesla would
have had to work for 53 years to earn the amount he was promised. The offer was equal to
the initial capital of the company. Tesla immediately resigned when he was refused a raise to
US$25 per week.[30]

Tesla, in need of work, eventually found himself digging ditches for a short period of time
for the Edison company. He used this time to focus on his AC polyphase system.[31]

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 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
Wireless transmission of power and
American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now
energy demonstration during his high
IEEE) in 1888. In the same year, he developed the
frequency and potential lecture of
principles of his Tesla coil, and began working with
1891
George Westinghouse at Westinghouse Electric &
Manufacturing Company's Pittsburgh labs.
Electromechanical devices and
Westinghouse listened to his ideas for polyphase
principles developed by Nikola
systems which would allow transmission of Tesla:
alternating current electricity over long distances.

Various devices that use


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In April 1887, Tesla began investigating what would Various devices that use
later be called X-rays using his own single terminal rotating magnetic fields
vacuum tubes (similar to his patent #514,170 (1882)
(http://www.google.com/patents?vid=514170) ). This The Induction motor,
device differed from other early X-ray tubes in that it rotary transformers, and
had no target electrode. The modern term for the "high" frequency
alternators
phenomenon produced by this device is
bremsstrahlung (or braking radiation). We now know The Tesla coil,[32] his
that this device operated by emitting electrons from magnifying transmitter,
and other means for
the single electrode through a combination of field
increasing the intensity
electron emission and thermionic emission. Once
of electrical oscillations
liberated, electrons are strongly repelled by the high
(including condenser
electric field near the electrode during negative discharge
voltage peaks from the oscillating HV output of the transformations and the
Tesla Coil, generating X rays as they collide with the
Tesla oscillators [33][34] )
glass envelope. He also used Geissler tubes. By 1892, Alternating current long-
Tesla became aware of the skin damage that Wilhelm distance electrical
Röntgen later identified as an effect of X rays.
transmission system[35]
(1888) and other
In the early research, Tesla devised several
methods and devices for
experimental setups to produce X-rays. Tesla held
power transmission
that, with his circuits, the "instrument will [... enable
Systems for wireless
one to] generate Roentgen rays of much greater power communication (prior art
than obtainable with ordinary apparatus". [47] for the invention of
radio) and radio
He also commented on the hazards of working with
frequency oscillators [36]
his circuit and single-node X-ray-producing devices. Robotics and the
Of his many notes in the early investigation of this
electronic logic gate[37]
phenomenon, he attributed the skin damage to various
Electrotherapy Tesla
causes. He believed early on that damage to the skin
currents [38][39][40]
was not caused by the Roentgen rays, but the ozone
Wireless transfer of
generated in contact with the skin, and to a lesser
electricity and the Tesla
extent, nitrous acid. Tesla incorrectly held that x-rays
effect [41][42]
were longitudinal waves, such as those produced in
Tesla impedance
waves in plasma. There are known examples of this
phenonomena[43]
and these plasma waves can occur in the situation of
Tesla electro-static field
force-free magnetic fields.[48][49] His hypotheses and Tesla principle
experiments were confirmed by others. [50] Bifilar coil
Telegeodynamics
Tesla continued research in the field. He performed Tesla insulation
several experiments prior to Roentgen's discovery Tesla impulses[44]
(including photographing the bones of his hand; later,
Tesla frequencies[32]
he sent these images to Roentgen) but did not make
Tesla discharge[32]
his findings widely known; much of his research was
Forms of commutators
lost in the 5th Avenue laboratory fire of March 1895.
and methods of
regulating third brushes
Tesla demonstrated wireless energy transmission as
Tesla turbines (e.g.,
early as 1891. The Tesla effect is a term for an
bladeless turbines) for
application of this type of electrical conduction (that
water, steam and gas and
is, the movement of energy through space and matter, the Tesla pumps
not just the production of voltage across a Tesla igniter
conductor). [41][51] Corona discharge ozone
generator
American citizenship Tesla compressor
X-rays Tubes using the
On 30 July 1891, at the age of 35, he became a Bremsstrahlung process
naturalized citizen of the United States. Tesla Devices for ionized
established his South Fifth Avenue laboratory in New gases and "Hot Saint
York in the same year. Later, Tesla established his Elmo's Fire".[45]
Devices for high field

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Houston Street laboratory in New York at 46 E. Devices for high field


Houston Street. He lit electric lamps wirelessly at emission
both of the New York locations, providing evidence Devices for charged
for the potential of wireless power transmission.[52] particle beams
Phantom streaming
Soon thereafter, in 1892,[53] Tesla was awakened devices[46]
Arc light systems
from a dream in which his mother had died.[54] He
Methods for providing
returned to Europe for her funeral. After her death,
extremely low level of
Tesla fell ill. He spent two to three weeks
resistance to the passage
recuperating in Gospić and the village of Tomingaj of electric current
near Gračac, his mother's birthplace. (predecessor to
superconductivity)
Some of Tesla's closest friends were artists. He
Voltage multiplication
befriended Century Magazine editor Robert circuitry
Underwood Johnson, who adapted several Serbian Devices for high voltage
poems of Jovan Jovanović Zmaj (which Tesla discharges
translated). Also during this time, Tesla was Devices for lightning
influenced by the Vedic philosophy (i.e., Hinduism) protection
teachings of the Swami Vivekananda; so much so VTOL aircraft
that, after his exposure to Hindu-Vedic thought, Tesla Dynamic theory of
started using Sanskrit words to name some of his gravity
fundamental concepts regarding matter and Concepts for electric
energy.[55] vehicles
Polyphase systems
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. Nikola Tesla's AC dynamo used to
Tesla also investigated harvesting energy that is generate AC which is used to
present throughout space. He believed that it was transport electricity across great
merely a question of time when men would succeed distances. It is contained in U.S.
in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of Patent 390,721
nature, stating: "Ere many generations pass, our (http://www.google.com/patents?
machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at vid=390721) .
any point of the universe."[56]

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
a historic event as Tesla and George Westinghouse introduced visitors to AC power by using
it to illuminate the Exposition. On display were fluorescent lamps developed by
Westinghouse[57] and single node bulbs. An observer noted:

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Within the room was suspended two hard-rubber plates covered with tin foil.
These were about fifteen feet apart, and served as terminals of the wires leading
from the transformers. When the current was turned on, the lamps or tubes,
which had no wires connected to them, but lay on a table between the suspended
plates, or which might be held in the hand in almost any part of the room, were
made luminous. These were the same experiments and the same apparatus
shown by Tesla in London about two years previous, "where they produced so
much wonder and astonishment".[58]

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".

The Tesla generator was developed by Tesla in 1895, in conjunction with his developments
concerning the liquefaction of air. Tesla knew, from Lord Kelvin's discoveries, that more
heat is absorbed by liquefied air when it is re-gasified and used to drive something, than is
required by theory; in other words, that the liquefaction process is somewhat anomalous or
'over unity'. [59] Just prior to Tesla's completion of his work and the filing of a patent
application, Tesla's laboratory burned down, destroying all his equipment, models and
inventions. Immediately after the fire, Carl von Linde, in Germany, filed a patent application
for the same process.[60]

A "world system" for "the transmission of electrical energy without wires" that depends upon
the electrical conductivity of the earth was proposed, in which transmission in various natural
media with current that passes between the two points are used to power devices. In a
practical wireless energy transmission system using this principle, a high-power ultraviolet
beam might be used to form a vertical ionized channel in the air directly above the
transmitter-receiver stations. The same concept is used in virtual lightning rods, the
electrolaser electroshock weapon,[61] and has been proposed for disabling vehicles.

Edison

Also in the late 1880s, Tesla and Thomas Edison became adversaries in part because of
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.[62]

In 1897, at age 41, Tesla filed the first radio patent (U.S. Patent 645,576
(http://www.google.com/patents?vid=645576) ). 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 claimed to have developed the "Art of Telautomatics", a
form of robotics, as well as the technology of remote control.[63] In 1898, he demonstrated a
radio-controlled boat to the public during an electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden.
Tesla called his boat a "teleautomaton".[64] In the same year, Tesla devised an "electric
igniter" or spark plug for Internal combustion gasoline engines. He gained U.S. Patent
609,250 (http://www.google.com/patents?vid=609250) , "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. Remote radio
control remained a novelty until WWI and afterward, when a number of countries used it in
military programs.

Colorado Springs

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See also: Magnifying transmitter

In 1899, Tesla decided to move and began research in


Colorado Springs, Colorado in a lab located near
Foote Ave. and Kiowa St., [65] 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
Publicity picture of a participant
waves.[66] At his lab, Tesla proved that the earth was sitting in his laboratory in Colorado
a conductor, and he produced artificial lightning (with Springs with his "Magnifying
discharges consisting of millions of volts, and up to transmitter" generating millions of
135 feet long).[67] Tesla also investigated atmospheric volts. The arcs are about 7 meters
electricity, observing lightning signals via his (23 ft) long. (Tesla's notes identify
receivers. Reproductions of Tesla's receivers and this as a multiple exposure
coherer circuits show an unpredicted level of photograph.)
complexity (e.g., distributed high-Q helical
resonators, radio frequency feedback, crude
heterodyne effects, and regeneration techniques). [68]
Tesla stated that he observed stationary waves during
this time.[69]

Tesla researched ways to transmit power and energy


wirelessly over long distances (via transverse waves,
to a lesser extent, and, more readily, longitudinal
waves). He transmitted extremely low frequencies
through the ground as well as between the Earth's An experiment in Colorado Springs.
surface and the Kennelly–Heaviside layer. He This bank of lights is receiving
received patents on wireless transceivers that power by means of electrodynamic
developed standing waves by this method. In his induction from a nearby transmitter
experiments, he made mathematical calculations and
computations based on his experiments and
discovered that the resonant frequency of the Earth was
approximately 8 hertz (Hz). In the 1950s, researchers
confirmed that the resonant frequency of the Earth's
ionospheric cavity was in this range (later named the
Schumann resonance).

In Colorado Springs Tesla carried out various long distance


wireless transmission-reception experiments. Tesla effect is
the application of a type of electrical conduction (that is, the
movement of energy through space and matter; not just the
production of voltage across a conductor). Through
longitudinal waves, Tesla transferred energy to receiving
devices. He sent electrostatic forces through natural media
across a conductor situated in the changing magnetic flux and
transferred electrical energy to a wireless receiver.

In the Colorado Springs lab, Tesla observed unusual signals


that he later thought may have been evidence of
extraterrestrial radio wave communications coming from A Colorado Springs
Venus or Mars.[70] He noticed repetitive signals from his experiment: here a grounded
receiver which were substantially different from the signals tuned coil in resonance with
he had noted from storms and earth noise. Specifically, he a distant transmitter
later recalled that the signals appeared in groups of one, two, illuminates a light near the
three, and four clicks together. Tesla had mentioned that he bottom of the picture.

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thought his inventions could be used to talk with other


planets. There have even been claims that he invented a "Teslascope" for just such a purpose.
It is debatable what type of signals Tesla received or whether he picked up anything at all.
Research has suggested that Tesla may have had a misunderstanding of the new technology
he was working with,[71] or that the signals Tesla observed may have been non-terrestrial
natural radio source such as the Jovian plasma torus signals.[72]

Tesla left Colorado Springs on 7 January 1900. The lab was torn down ca. 1905 and its
contents sold to pay debts. The Colorado experiments prepared Tesla for the establishment of
the trans-Atlantic wireless telecommunications facility known as Wardenclyffe.

Wardenclyffe years
In 1900, with US$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 dismantled for scrap during World War
I.[73] 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.

Nobel prize and Tesla


Since the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Marconi for radio in 1909, Thomas Edison
and Tesla were mentioned in a press dispatch as potential laureates to share the Nobel Prize
of 1915, leading to one of several Nobel Prize controversies. Some sources have claimed that
because of their animosity toward each other neither was given the award, despite their
scientific contributions; that each sought to minimize the other'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. [9][74]

In the years after these 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). [75]
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.

Later years
In 1915, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Marconi attempting, unsuccessfully, to obtain a court
injunction against Marconi's claims. 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.

Before 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
patents in European countries. After the war ended,
Tesla made predictions regarding the relevant issues
of the post-World War I environment, in a printed
article (20 December 1914). Tesla believed that the
League of Nations was not a remedy for the times and
The Wardenclyffe Tower facility issues. Tesla started to exhibit pronounced symptoms
of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the years
following. He became obsessed with the number

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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 US$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.[76]

In 1934, Émile Girardeau, working with the first French radar systems, stated he was
building them "according to the principles stated by Tesla". By the 1920s, 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 75th birthday in 1931, Time magazine put him on its cover. 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. By
the end of 1931, Tesla released "On Future Motive Power" which covered an ocean thermal
energy conversion system. In 1934, Tesla wrote to consul Janković of his homeland. The
letter contained a message of gratitude to Mihajlo Pupin who had initiated a donation scheme
by which American companies could support Tesla. Tesla refused the assistance, choosing
instead to live on a modest pension received from Yugoslavia, and to continue his research.

In 1936, Tesla wrote in a telegram to Vladko Maček: "I'm equally proud of my Serbian
origin and my Croatian homeland. Long live all Yugoslavs."[citation needed]

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. [77] The
theory was never published.

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 use. Reminiscent of Mach's principle, Tesla stated in 1925 that:

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 Nikola Tesla, with Ruđer Bošković's
book Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis,

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scientists ... [78] book Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis,


sits in front of the spiral coil of his
Tesla also argued: high-frequency transformer at East
Houston Street, New York.
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.[79]

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, notwithstanding 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 ...'. [80]

Directed-energy weapon

Later in life, Tesla made remarkable claims concerning a "teleforce" weapon.[81] The press
called it a "peace ray" or death ray.[82][83] In total, the components and methods
included:[84][85]

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.
A mechanism for generating tremendous electrical force. This, according to Tesla,
was also accomplished.
A means of intensifying and amplifying the force developed by the second
mechanism.
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 from the early 1900s until his death. In
1937, Tesla wrote a treatise entitled "The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive
Energy through the Natural Media", which concerned charged particle beams.[86] 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 describing the particle beam is
currently in the Nikola Tesla Museum archive in Belgrade. It describes an open-ended
vacuum tube with a gas jet seal that allows 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).[86]

His records indicate that the device is 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 gives 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. [87]

The weapon could be used against ground based infantry or for antiaircraft purposes. [88]
Tesla tried to interest the US War Department in the device. [89] He also offered this
invention to European countries. [90] None of the governments purchased a contract to build

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the device. He was unable to act on his plans.[91]

Theoretical inventions

Another of Tesla's theorized inventions is commonly referred to as Tesla's Flying Machine,


which appears to resemble an ion-propelled aircraft.[92] 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. [93]

Personal life
Nikola Tesla was a polyglot, and along with his native tongue
he also spoke Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian,
Italian, and Latin.[94]

During his second year of study at Graumltz, Tesla developed


a passion for (and became very proficient at) billiards, chess
and card-playing, sometimes spending more than 48 hours in
a stretch at a gaming table. [95] [96] Tesla by nature required
little sleep, claiming to never sleep more than two hours.[97]
On one occasion at his laboratory Tesla worked for a period
of 84 hours without sleep or rest. [98]

Tesla may have suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder,


and had many unusual quirks and phobias. He did things in
Nikola Tesla's father threes, and was adamant about staying in a hotel room with a
Milutin, Serbian Orthodox number divisible by three. Tesla was physically revolted by
priest in the village of jewelry, notably pearl earrings.[99] He was fastidious about
Smiljan. cleanliness and hygiene, and was by all accounts mysophobic.

Tesla was obsessed with pigeons, ordering special seeds for


the pigeons he fed in Central Park and even bringing injured ones into his hotel room to
nurse them back to health. Tesla was an animal-lover, often reflecting contentedly about a
childhood cat, "The Magnificent Mačak." Tesla never married. He was celibate and claimed
that his chastity was very helpful to his scientific abilities.[21] 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 could be harsh at times; he openly expressed his disgust for overweight
people, once firing a secretary because of her weight.[100] He was quick to criticize others'
clothing as well, on several occasions directing a subordinate to go home and change her
dress.[21]

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

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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.

In middle age, Tesla became 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 dispute


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:
Mark Twain in Tesla's lab, early 1894
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 percent 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.[101]

Shortly before he died, Edison said that his biggest mistake had been in trying to develop
direct current, rather than the superior alternating current system that Tesla had put within
his grasp.[102]

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. 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. [citation needed]

Tesla lived the last ten 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, Tesla showed signs of encroaching
senility, claiming 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. However, Tesla came to find exceptions in which he
thought certain situations and wars were justifiable.[103] Tesla sought to reduce distance,
such as in communication for better understanding, transportation, and transmission of
energy, as a means to ensure friendly international relations.[104]

Tesla was a life-long bachelor. Like many of his era, he 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. [105]

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. [106]

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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 numbers of people are starving;
he also believed that plant food was "superior to [meat] in regard to both mechanical and
mental performance". He also argued that animal slaughter was "wanton and cruel".[107]

In his final years he suffered from extreme sensitivity to light, sound and other
influences.[108]

Death

Tesla died on January 7th 1943 in the 86th year of his


life, from the consequences of a heart thrombus, alone
in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel.[109] A few
days after Tesla’s death, the information center of the
Yugoslav royal government-in-exile released a
statement giving a short review of Tesla’s
achievements and the schedule for his memorial
service and funeral. The speech, written by Louis
Adamic, was read in a live broadcast on Radio New
York by the mayor of New York City, Fiorello La Urn with Tesla's ashes, Nikola Tesla
Guardia, on January 10th 1943. The remains of Museum, Belgrade
Nikola Tesla were taken to Campbell cemetery. The
protocol anticipated the funeral service would be
conducted on January 12th in the cathedral of Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in
Manhattan.[110] Bishop William T. Manning delivered the introductory and the last prayer in
English. The funeral service was conducted in the name of the Serbian Orthodox Church by
priest Dusan Sukletovic, the superior of the Church of St. Sava of the New York parish. The
bereaved family members present at the funeral were Sava Kosanovic and Nikola Trbojevic.
A state funeral was attended by 2000 people. Tesla's casket was draped with U. S. and
Yugoslav flags. The pallbearers were Nobel prize winners. Telegrams of condolence were
received from many notables including the first lady, Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt and Vice-
President Henry A. Wallace. Tesla's body was cremated and his ashes taken to Belgrade,
Serbia, then-Yugoslavia in 1957. The urn containing his ashes was placed in the Nikola
Tesla Museum in Belgrade. Despite having sold his AC electricity patents, Tesla died with
significant debts. Later that year the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla's patent number
645576 in a ruling that served as the basis for patented radio technology in the United
States. [111]

Soon after his death Tesla's safe was opened by his nephew
Sava Kosanović. Shortly thereafter Tesla's papers and other
property were impounded by the United States' Alien
Property Custodian office in Tesla's compound at the
Manhattan Warehouse, even though he was a naturalized
citizen.

Dr. John G. Trump was the main government official who


went over Tesla's secret papers after his death in 1943. At the
time, Trump was a well-known electrical engineer serving as
a technical aide to the National Defense Research Committee
of the Office of Scientific Research & Development,
Technical Aids, Div. 14, NTRC (predecessor agency to the
CIA's Office of Scientific Intelligence). Trump was also a
Bust of Tesla by Ivan professor at M.I.T., and had his feelings hurt by Tesla's 1938
Meštrović, 1952, in Zagreb, review and critique of M.I.T.'s huge Van de Graaff generator
Croatia with its two thirty-foot towers and two 15-foot-diameter
(4.6 m) balls, mounted on railroad tracks—which Tesla
showed could be out-performed in both voltage and current

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by one of his tiny coils about two feet tall. [112] Trump was asked to participate in the
examination of Tesla's papers at the Manhattan Warehouse & Storage Co. Trump reported
afterwards that no examination had been made of the vast amount of Tesla's property, that
had been in the basement of the New Yorker Hotel, ten years prior to Tesla's death, or of any
of his papers, except those in his immediate possession at the time of his death. Trump
concluded in his report, that there was nothing that would constitute a hazard in unfriendly
hands.

At the time of his death, Tesla had been working on the Teleforce weapon, or 'death ray,' that
he had unsuccessfully marketed to the US War Department. It appears that Teleforce was
related to his research into ball lightning and plasma, and was conceived as 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 personal effects were sequestered on the advice of presidential advisers; J. Edgar
Hoover declared the case most secret, because of the nature of Tesla's inventions and
patents.[113] One document stated that "[he] is reported to have some 80 trunks in different
places containing transcripts and plans having to do with his experiments [...]". Altogether,
in Tesla's effects, there were the contents of his safe, two truckloads of papers and apparati
from his hotel, another 75 packing crates and trunks in a storage facility, and another 80
large storage trunks in another storage facility. The Navy and several "federal officials" spent
two days microfilming some of the material at the Office of Alien Properties storage facility
in 1943, and that was it, until Oct., 1945.[114]

Tesla's family and the Yugoslav embassy struggled with the American authorities to gain
these items after his death because of the potential significance of some of his research.
Eventually Mr. Kosanović won possession of the materials, which are now housed in the
Nikola Tesla Museum.[115]

Literary works
Apart from doing pure work on inventing things, Tesla also wrote a number of books and
articles for magazines and journals. [116] Among his books are My Inventions: The
Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla and The Tesla
Papers.

A number of Tesla's writings are freely available on the web, [117] [118] [119] including the
article The Problem of Increasing Human Energy which he wrote for The Century Magazine,
[120] [121] and the article Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High

Frequency published in his book Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla. [122]
[123]

Legacy and honors


See also: Nikola Tesla in popular culture

The tesla (symbol T) – compound derived


SI unit of magnetic flux density.[124]
Tesla – a crater on the far side of the moon
of 26 kilometers in diameter at −2,0° width,
−132.0° height. [125]
2244 Tesla – a minor planet. [125]
Nikola Tesla on contemporary 100
TPP Nikola Tesla – the largest power plant
in Serbia. Serbian dinar bill.
The rock band Tesla takes its name from
Nikola Tesla.[126]
An electric car company, Tesla Motors, named their company in tribute to
Tesla.[127]

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Tesla.
The Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport is named in his honor. [128]
Google honoured Tesla on his birthday on 10 July 2009 by displaying a doodle in
the Google search home page, that showed the G as a tesla coil.[129][130]
The Czechoslovakian electro-technical company Tesla

Monuments

The Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre located in his birthplace of Smiljan near the town of
Gospić in Croatia opened in 2006 features a statue of Tesla designed by sculptor Mile
Blažević. [131][132] On 7 July 2006 on the corner of Masarykova and Preradovićeva streets in
the Lower Town area in Zagreb the monument to Tesla was unveiled. This monument was
designed by Ivan Meštrović in 1952 and was transferred from the Zagreb-based Ruđer
Bošković Institute where it had spent previous decades.

A monument to Tesla was established at Niagara Falls, New York. This monument, sculpted
by Frano Kršinić and portraying Tesla reading a set of notes, was presented to the United
States by Yugoslavia in 1976 and is an identical copy of the monument standing in front of
the University of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering. Another monument to Tesla,
featuring him standing on a portion of an alternator, was established at Queen Victoria Park
in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The monument was officially unveiled on 9 July 2006 on
the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birth. The monument was sponsored by St. George Serbian
Church, Niagara Falls, and designed by Les Drysdale of Hamilton, Ontario. Drysdale's
design was the winning design from an international competition.

In 1994, acting on the advice of the President's Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, a
formal nomination process was initiated by the Tesla Wardenclyffe Project seeking
placement of the Wardenclyffe laboratory-office building and the Tesla tower foundation on
both the New York State and National Registers of Historic Places. This would result in the
creation of a monument to Tesla out of the Wardenclyffe site itself.[133]

Portrayals in popular culture

Main article: Nikola Tesla in popular culture

Nikola Tesla has appeared in popular culture as a character in books, films, radio, TV,
music, live theatre, comics and video games. The lack of recognition received by Tesla
during his own lifetime has made him a tragic and inspirational character well suited to
dramatic fiction. The impact of the technologies invented by Tesla is a recurring theme in
several types of science fiction.

See also
List of Tesla patents
Electrical Experimenter
Timeline of low-temperature technology

References
Notes

1. ^ Bock-Luna 2007, p. 53
2. ^ "Electrical pioneer Tesla honoured" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5167054.stm) . BBC
News. 10 July 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5167054.stm. Retrieved 15 August 2009.
3. ^ "Nikola Tesla – electrical engineer and inventor"
(http://web.archive.org/web/20080219051318/http://www.serbianunity.net/people/tesla/index.html
) . Serbian Unity Congress. Archived from the original
(http://www.serbianunity.net/people/tesla/index.html) on 19 February 2008.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080219051318/http://www.serbianunity.net/people/tesla/index.html.
Retrieved 15 August 2009.
4. ^ Valone, Thomas (2002). Harnessing the Wheelwork of Nature: Tesla's Science of Energy

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(http://books.google.com/?
id=ZNqo1zaZRTYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Harnessing+the+Wheelwork+of+Nature:+Tesla%
27s+Science+of+Energy#v=onepage&q&f=false) . Adventures Unlimited Press. p. 102.
ISBN 1931882045. http://books.google.com/?
id=ZNqo1zaZRTYC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Harnessing+the+Wheelwork+of+Nature:+Tesla%
27s+Science+of+Energy#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
5. ^ Robert Lomas (21 August 1999). "Spark of genius"
(http://www.robertlomas.com/Tesla/Independent_Article.html) . Independent Magazine.
http://www.robertlomas.com/Tesla/Independent_Article.html. Retrieved 29 July 2008.
6. ^ Bennett, Scott (2007). Encyclopedia of Energy (http://books.google.com/?
id=DZXhE38wOKoC&pg=PT59&dq=tesla+death+hotel+room+alone#v=onepage&q=tesla%20d
eath%20hotel%20room%20alone&f=false) . ISBN 818994052X. http://books.google.com/?
id=DZXhE38wOKoC&pg=PT59&dq=tesla+death+hotel+room+alone#v=onepage&q=tesla%20d
eath%20hotel%20room%20alone&f=false. Retrieved 24 November 2010.
7. ^ "Tesla, Nikola" (http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/bio.htm) . Encyclopedia
Britannica. neuronet.pitt.edu. http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/bio.htm. Retrieved 1
January 2011.
8. ^ Obrad Mićov Samardžić, "Porijeklo Samardžića i ostalih bratstava roda Orlovića", Mostar
1992.ISBN 86-82271-53-2.
9. ^ a b Seifer 2001, p. 7
10. ^ Cheney, Uth & Glenn 1999, p. 3
11. ^ O'Neill 2007, p. 32
12. ^ O'Neill 2007, p. 33
13. ^ Wysock, W.C.; J.F. Corum, J.M. Hardesty and K.L. Corum (22 October 2001). "Who Was The
Real Dr. Nikola Tesla? (A Look At His Professional Credentials)"
(http://www.teresonic.com/pdf/Who%20was%20the%20real%20Tesla.pdf) (PDF). Antenna
Measurement Techniques Association, posterpape.
http://www.teresonic.com/pdf/Who%20was%20the%20real%20Tesla.pdf.
14. ^ "The Book of New York: Forty Years' Recollections of the American Metropolis
(http://books.google.com/books?
vid=LCCN12014701&id=q_rZX7Gs_iwC&q=+Gratz&dq=&pgis=1) " says he matriculated 4
degrees (physics, mathematics, mechanical engineering and electrical engineering)
15. ^ Lossing, Benson John (1906). Harper's Encyclopædia of United States History from 458 A.D.
to 1906 (http://books.google.com/?
id=0nwiAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Harper%27s+Encyclop%C3%A6dia+of+United
+States+History+from+458+A.D.+to+1906#v=onepage&q&f=false) . 8. University of Michigan
Library. p. 52. http://books.google.com/?
id=0nwiAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Harper%27s+Encyclop%C3%A6dia+of+United
+States+History+from+458+A.D.+to+1906#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 21 November
2010.
16. ^ Nikola Tesla: the European Years (http://www.serbnatlfed.org/Archives/Tesla/tesla-ey.pdf) , D.
Mrkich
17. ^ Wohinz, Josef W. (16 May 2006). "Nikola Tesla und Graz"
(http://www.presse.tugraz.at//pressemitteilungen/2006/16.05.2006_graz.htm) (in German).
Technischen Universität Graz.
http://www.presse.tugraz.at//pressemitteilungen/2006/16.05.2006_graz.htm. Retrieved 29 January
2006.
18. ^ Wohinz, Josef W. (Ed,) (2006). Nikola Tesla und die Technik in Graz. Graz, Austria: Verlag
der Technischen Universität Graz. pp. 16. ISBN 3902465395.
19. ^ Kulishich, Kosta (27 August 1931). "Tesla Nearly Missed His Career as Inventor: College
Roommate Tells". Newark News.. Cited in Seifer, Marc, The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla,
1996
20. ^ Seifer 2001, p. 18
21. ^ a b c d Cheney 2001, p. 33
22. ^ Wilson, James Grant; John Fiske (1901). Appleton's cyclopædia of American biography
(http://books.google.com/?
id=f6oLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA261&dq=Appleton%27s+Cyclop%C3%A6dia+of+American+Biogr
aphy+tesla#v=onepage&q&f=false) . p. 261. http://books.google.com/?
id=f6oLAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA261&dq=Appleton%27s+Cyclop%C3%A6dia+of+American+Biogr
aphy+tesla#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
23. ^ Klein, Maury (26 May 2009). The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who
Invented Modern America (http://books.google.com/books?
id=w0o5Ld53wAEC&lpg=PT180&dq=Did%20Tesla%20really%20invent%20the%20loudspeake
r%3F&pg=PT180#v=onepage&q&f=false) . Bloomsbury Press. ISBN 159691677X.
http://books.google.com/books?
id=w0o5Ld53wAEC&lpg=PT180&dq=Did%20Tesla%20really%20invent%20the%20loudspeake
r%3F&pg=PT180#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 14 November 2010.
24. ^ "Coming to America" (http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_america.html) . Public Broadcasting

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Service. http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_america.html. Retrieved 14 November 2010.


25. ^ Carey, Charles W. (2002). American inventors, entrepreneurs & business visionaries
(http://books.google.com/?id=XKiGgl36bkgC) . Infobase Publishing. p. 337. ISBN 0816045593.
http://books.google.com/?id=XKiGgl36bkgC. Retrieved 27 November 2010.
26. ^ "Adjusting the reported given amount of money for inflation, the US$50,000 in 1885 would
equal US$1,140,112.60 in 2007" (http://www.westegg.com/inflation/) . Westegg.com.
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
27. ^ Cheney 2001, pp. 54 – 57
28. ^ Pickover, Clifford A. (1999). Strange brains and genius: the secret lives of eccentric scientists
and madmen (http://books.google.com/?
id=P0CSxB2aHMcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Strange+Brains+and+Genius:+The+Secret+Lives
+of+Eccentric+Scientists+and+Madmen#v=onepage&q&f=false) . Harper Perennial. p. 14.
ISBN 0688168949. http://books.google.com/?
id=P0CSxB2aHMcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Strange+Brains+and+Genius:+The+Secret+Lives
+of+Eccentric+Scientists+and+Madmen#v=onepage&q&f=false. Retrieved 17 November 2010.
29. ^ O'Neill 2007, p. 64
30. ^ Jonnes 2004, p. 110
31. ^ Tesla 2000, p. 17
32. ^ a b c Houston, E. J. (1889). A dictionary of electrical words, terms and phrases
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65. ^ According to the Tesla memorial marker in Memorial park on Pikes Peak Ave.
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May 1962, (special 50th Anniversary Issue).


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78. ^ New York Times, 11 July 1935, p 23, c.8
79. ^ New York Herald Tribune, 11 September 1932
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84. ^ "Death-Ray Machine Described". New York Sun. 11 July 1934.
85. ^ "A Machine to End War". Feb. 1935.
86. ^ a b Seifer 2001, p. 454
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88. ^ "'Death Ray' for Planes". New York Times. 22 September 1940.
89. ^ "Aerial Defense 'Death-Beam' Offered to U.S. By Tesla" 12 July 1940
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109. ^ "Nikola Tesla Dies. Prolific Inventor. Alternating Power Current's Developer Found Dead in
Hotel Suite Here. Claimed a 'Death Beam'. He Insisted the Invention Could Annihilate an Army
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111. ^ U.S. Patent 645,576 (http://www.google.com/patents?vid=645576)
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113. ^ Hoover, John Edgar, et al.
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Association monograph, March 1980.
Marincic, A., and D. Budimir, Tesla's contribution to radiowave propagation. Dept. of
Electron. Eng., Belgrade Univ. (5th International Conference on Telecommunications in
Modern Satellite, Cable and Broadcasting Service, 2001. TELSIKS 2001. pp. 327–331 vol.1)
ISBN-X
Page, R.M., The Early History of Radar, Proceedings of the IRE, Volume 50, Number 5,
May, 1962, (special 50th Anniversary Issue).
C Mackechnie Jarvis Nikola Tesla and the induction motor. 1970 Phys. Educ. 5 280–287.
Giant Eye to See Round the World (http://www.tesla.hu/tesla/articles/19230225.doc) (DOC)
Toby Grotz, The Influence of Vedic Philosophy on Nikola Tesla's Understanding of Free
Energy
(http://arizonaenergy.org/CommunityEnergy/INFLUENCE%20OF%20VEDIC%20ON%20TESLA'S%20UNDERSTANDING%20OF%20FREE%20ENERGY.htm)
.
Bock-Luna, Birgit (2007). The past in exile: Serbian long-distance nationalism and identity
in the wake of the Third Balkan War. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 3825897524,
9783825897529.

Further reading

Publications

A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers, American Institute of


Electrical Engineers, May 1888.
Selected Tesla Writings (http://www.tfcbooks.com/tesla/contents.htm) , Scientific papers and
articles written by Tesla and others, spanning the years 1888–1940.
Light Without Heat (http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?
frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fmanu%2Fmanu0024%2F&tif=00119.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-
bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABS1821-0024-287) , The Manufacturer and
Builder, January 1892, Vol. 24
Biography: Nikola Tesla (http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?
frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0047%2F&tif=00592.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-
bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABP2287-0047-151) , The Century Magazine,
November 1893, Vol. 47
Tesla's Oscillator and Other Inventions (http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-
bin/moa/pageviewer?
frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0049%2F&tif=00924.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-
bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABP2287-0049-178) , The Century Magazine,
November 1894, Vol. 49
The New Telegraphy. Recent Experiments in Telegraphy with Sparks
(http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?
frames=1&coll=moa&view=50&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%2Fcent0055%2F&tif=00879.TIF&cite=http%3A%2F%2Fcdl.library.cornell.edu%2Fcgi-
bin%2Fmoa%2Fmoa-cgi%3Fnotisid%3DABP2287-0055-194) , The Century Magazine,
November 1897, Vol. 55

Books

Tesla, Nikola, "My Inventions" Parts I through V published in the Electrical Experimenter
monthly magazine from February through June, 1919. Part VI published October, 1919.
Reprint edition with introductory notes by Ben Johnson, New York: Barnes and Noble,1982,
ISBN; also online at Lucid Cafe (http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/96jul/teslaauto01.html) ,
et cetera (http://www.tfcbooks.com/special/mi_link.htm) as My Inventions: The
Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, 1919. ISBN
Martin, Thomas C., The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla, 1894 . ISBN-
X
Auster, Paul, Moon Palace, 1989. Tells Tesla's story within the history of the United States.
Lomas, Robert, The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, forgotten
genius of electricity, 1999. ISBN
Childress, David H., The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla, 1993. ISBN
Glenn, Jim, The Complete Patents of Nikola Tesla, 1994. ISBN
Trinkaus, George TESLA: The Lost Inventions, High Voltage Press, 2002. ISBN 09-7096-
182-0
Valone, Thomas, Harnessing the Wheelwork of Nature: Tesla's Science of Energy, 2002.
ISBN
McNichol, Tom, AC/DC The Savage Tale of the First Standards War, Jossey-Bass 2006
ISBN 078798267-9

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Nikola Tesla - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 10/28/11 10:15 AM

Journals

Carlson, W. Bernard, "Inventor of dreams". Scientific American, March 2005 Vol. 292 Issue
3 p. 78(7).
Jatras, Stella L., "The genius of Nikola Tesla
(http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+genius+of+Nikola+Tesla-a0107043721) ". The New
American, 28 July 2003 Vol. 19 Issue 15 p. 9(1)
Rybak, James P., "Nikola Tesla: Scientific Savant". Popular Electronics, 1042170X,
November 1999, Vol. 16, Issue 11.
Lawren, B., "Rediscovering Tesla". Omni, March 1988, Vol. 10 Issue 6.

Filmography

See also: Nikola Tesla in popular culture

There are at least two films describing Tesla's life. In the first, filmed in 1977, arranged for
TV, Tesla was portrayed by Rade Šerbedžija. In 1980, Orson Welles produced a Yugoslav
film named Tajna Nikole Tesle (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079985/) (The Secret of Nikola
Tesla), in which Welles himself played the part of Tesla's patron, J.P. Morgan. The film was
directed by Krsto Papić, and Nikola Tesla was portrayed by Petar Božović.
"Tesla: Master of Lightning (http://www.pbs.org/tesla/boutiq/index.html) ". 1999. ISBN
(Book) ISBN (PBS Video)
Lost Lightning: The Missing Secrets of Nikola Tesla (http://video.google.com/videoplay?
docid=2188562935002257117) (at Google Video.) Tesla's designs for free energy and
defensive weapons systems.
David Bowie portrayed Tesla in the 2006 film The Prestige. Tesla's time in Colorado Springs
was the focus of several scenes in the film, which featured speculations on the explosive
power of Tesla's electrical experiments.
Tesla: Master of Lightning (http://www.pbs.org/tesla/) , produced by Robert Uth for New
Voyage Communications in 2003, tapped Stacy Keach to supply the voice of Tesla.

External links
The Nikola Tesla Museum (http://www.tesla-museum.org/meni_en.htm)
Original Tesla's patents presented in documentary movie by Museum Nikola Tesla.
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fB8JETwB6NM)
Nikola Tesla Niagara Falls Power (http://www.onlineniagara.com/info/niagara-
falls-power.htm)
Tesla Resource Surrounding the PBS "Master of Lightning" documentary
(http://www.pbs.org/tesla/)
World of Scientific Biography: Nikola Tesla
(http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Tesla.html) , by Wolfram Research
Nikola Tesla Page (http://amasci.com/tesla/tesla.html)
Tesla's grand-nephew William H. Terbo's site
(http://www.teslamemorialsociety.org/)
Nikola Tesla, Forgotten American Scientist (http://www.ntesla.org/)
Tesla Wardenclyffe Project, Long Island New York (http://www.teslascience.org/)
. Mission is the adaptive reuse of the Wardenclyffe laboratory building.
Nikola Tesla's Father: Milutin Tesla
(http://www.serbnatlfed.org/Archives/Tesla/tesla-father.htm)
Tesla: The European Years
(http://www.serbnatlfed.org/Archives/Tesla/TeslaBook.htm)
Jim Bieberich's The Complete Nikola Tesla U.S. Patent Collection
(http://web.mit.edu/most/Public/Tesla1/alpha_tesla.html)
Online archive of many of Tesla's writings, articles and published papers
(http://www.teslaresearch.com/)
Seifer, Marc J., and Michael Behar, Electric Mind
(http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.10/tesla.html) , Wired Magazine, October
1998.
Works by Nikola Tesla (http://www.gutenberg.org/author/Nikola+Tesla) at Project
Gutenberg
Nikola Tesla's FBI file (http://www.lostartsmedia.com/images/teslafbifile.pdf) in
pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla Page 24 of 25
Nikola Tesla - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia 10/28/11 10:15 AM

Nikola Tesla Complete Patents


(http://issuu.com/ericm814/docs/complete_patents_nikola_tesla) in pdf
Kenneth M. Swezey Papers (http://americanhistory.si.edu/archives/d8047.htm) ,
1891–1982, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, archival
resources.
The Case Files of Nikola Tesla (http://www.fi.edu/learn/case-files/tesla/) , Franklin
Institute

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