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Wireless communication, Internet, Smart phones and Electricity are the most important inventions of modern society and are driving force for new innovations and inventions. These have made access to information and communication far easier. It connects people, lives, stories and businesses. It is almost impossible to think of a life without these. One of most important link between these are magnetism.
From generation of electricity to any electronics devices to any wireless communication and smart phones, magnetism has been an important factor. Creation, transfer and measurement of magnetic fields are important in developing any such devices. No doubt, one of derived unit of magnetic induction is named Tesla (T) in honor of Nikola Tesla, an Inventor, Electrical engineer, Mechanical engineer and Futurist, known for design of Alternating Current and works in wireless electricity.
Tesla thought of mobile phone technology and wireless communication way back in 1901. He had imagined transmission of messages wirelessly before anyone did. Tesla described to his funder and business partner, J.P. Morgan, a new means of instant communication that involved gathering stock quotes and telegram messages, funneling them to his laboratory, where he would encode them and assign them each a new frequency. That frequency would be broadcast to a device that would fit in your hand. In other words, Tesla had envisioned the smart phone and wireless internet.
He was the first to be thinking about the information revolution in the sense of delivering information for each individual user. Nikola Tesla is known as the father of alternating current (AC), the basis for much of our modern technology. Much of his work and life remains mystery till date.
Here are few interesting facts about Nikola Tesla:
Nikola Tesla was born during a lightning storm night on 10th July 1856. According to family legend, society considered lighting a bad omen and declared This child will be child of darkness to which his mother replied: “No. He will be a child of light”.
Nikola was known to memorize books and images and stockpile visions for inventions in his head. He also had a powerful imagination and the ability to visualize in three dimensions.
His method of working was pretty unorthodox compared to other inventors, as he rarely created sketches or drawings, relying instead on the power of his own imagination to work out details.
Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia and was one of five children, including siblings Dane, Angelina, Milka and Marica. His father Milutin tesla, was an orthodox priest and a writer and wanted his son to join priesthood. Tesla's interest in electrical invention was spurred by his mother, Djuka Mandic, who invented small household appliances in her spare time while her son was growing up.
Early in his career, Tesla worked for Thomas Edison, designing Direct Current generators, but later quit to pursue his own project: Alternating Current induction motor. They were on different sides of the so-called “War of Currents” with Edison pushing for Direct current and Tesla for Alternating current. They were the Steve Jobs and Bill Gates of their time: one the brilliant marketer and businessman and the other a visionary and tech guy.
In 1885, Tesla received funding for the Tesla Electric Light Company and was working to develop improved arc lighting. After successfully doing so, however, Tesla was forced out of the venture and for a brief time he had to work as a manual laborer in order to survive.
Tesla designed the alternating-current (AC) electrical system, which would quickly become the preeminent power system of the 20th century and has remained the worldwide standard ever since. Edison championed direct current, or DC, while Tesla and ally George Westinghouse fought for alternating current, or AC. AC, of course, eventually won out over DC.
In 1895, Tesla designed the first AC hydroelectric power plants in the United States, at Niagara Falls and later was used to power the city of Buffalo, New work - a feat that was highly publicized throughout the world and helped further AC electricity’s path to becoming the world’s power system.
In the late 19th century, Tesla patented the Tesla coil, which laid the foundation for wireless technologies and is still used in radio technology today. The heart of an electrical circuit, the Tesla coil is an inductor used in many early radio transmission antennas.
Tesla thought of mobile phone technology and wireless internet way back in 1901. He had imagined transmission of messages wirelessly before anyone did. Tesla described to his funder and business partner, J.P. Morgan, a new means of instant communication that involved gathering stock quotes and telegram messages, funneling them to his laboratory, where he would encode them and assign them each a new frequency. That frequency would be broadcast to a device that would fit in your hand, he explained. In other words, Tesla had envisioned the smart phone and wireless internet.
Tesla was "very concerned about the fact that we were using up the Earth's resources too quickly, and he wanted to make sure that we were using non-fossil, renewable fuels."
He wanted to harvest the natural energy from ground and sky which included his famous experiment of creating artificial lightning in his lab, and probed electrical potential differences in the Earth and across tall objects.
To this experiment his partner and investor J. P. Morgan arguably mentioned that he wasn't interested in funding a power source that he couldn't meter.
Tesla had ambitions to illuminate the whole earth. He theorized that the gases in the Earth’s upper atmosphere could carry high-frequency electrical currents and hence “terrestrial night light” could be created with the transmission of electrical currents through these gases. However, his dream of “illuminating the whole earth artificially” yet remains to be realized.
When Tesla died in 1943, during World War II, all of his possessions were sized by the Office of Alien Property and eventually released to his family, but a few select items are still behind lock and key. Some of his inventions and experiments are still classified by the U.S. government.
Tesla was not much concerned about making substantial money, which is also a reason why he died poor. His aim was to invent things to make human life better and not just make a lot of money out of his intelligence. "Tesla did what he did for the betterment of humanity, to help people have a better quality of life," said Alcorn. "He never seemed to be interested in monetary gain, although a possible downside of that was he never seemed to have enough money to do what he needed to do."
Tesla has to his name more than 275 patents in 26 different countries.
