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| : ''This article contains expanded biographical information about Nikola Tesla''. | |||
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| '''Nikola Tesla''' was of unusual ] brilliance. ] and theoretical work still form the basis for modern ] ] (AC) systems including the ] ] system. Tesla helped usher in the ]. His legacy can been seen across ]. | |||
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| ==Additional biographical information== | |||
| ===Early years=== | |||
| ]s in 2004. Photo courtesy of ] ()]] | |||
| Tesla was born "at the stroke of midnight" with lightning striking during a summer storm. He was born in ] near ], ], (the ] of the ], now in ]). The midwife commented, "He'll be a child of the storm," to which his mother replied, "No, of light." Tesla was ] in the Old Slavonic Church rite. His Baptism Certificate reports that he was born on June 28 (]; July 10 in the ]) ], and christened by the Serbian orthodox ], Toma Oklobdžija. | |||
| His father was ] ], a ] priest in the ] which gathered the Serbs of the "Greek-rite" as they were legally referred to in ] at the time. His father's church in ] was destroyed in the ]. His mother was ], a housewife talented in making home craft tools. Nikola was one of five children, having one brother and three sisters. His ], ], was a Captain in the Krajina army. His family moved to Gospić in ]. Tesla went to school in ] (then Austria-Hungary), then studied electrical engineering at the ] in ], ] (]). While there, he studied the uses of alternating current. He also developed a ] ] (or ]) and studied the uses of alternating current. . Tesla was fascinated by the ], believeing that it was a most wonderful invention. | |||
| In ] he moved to ] to work for the ] company, ]. On the opening of the ] exchange in Budapest, 1881, Tesla became the chief electrician to the company, later engineer to the ] government and the country's first telephone system. He also developed a ] ] (or ]). Tesla invented a precursor to modern ], known as a telephone repeater (or sometimes an amplifier). The device could act as an ] ] (not an audio ]). | |||
| The device had its ] tuned to a particular ] of other repeaters to communicate between each. In ], Tesla described the prior developed audio transducers. According to Tesla, it was the "... ''implest ways ] ...] the low frequency gave audible notes. placed a ], a wire or a coil, and then Tesla would get a note characteristics of the audible note''". The audible sounds were of the quality of the telephones diaphragms of that period of time. The invention was never patented nor released publicly (till years later by Tesla himself). The device also contained the characteristics of modern wireless telephones. | |||
| For a while he stayed in ]. He was employed at his first job as an assistant engineer. Tesla suffered a nervous breakdown during this time. In ] he moved to ] to work as an engineer for the ]. He worked designing improvements to electric equipment. In the same year, Tesla conceived of the induction motor and began developing various devices that use rotating ]s (for which he received patents in ]). Tesla visualized the rotating fields and thereby designed the induction motor. Tesla hastened from Paris to his mother's side as she lay dying, arriving hours before her death in ]. Her last words to him were, "You've arrived, Nidzo, my pride." After her death, Tesla fell ill. He spent two to three weeks recuperating in Gospić and the village of ] near Gračac, the birthplace of his mother. All his life, Tesla kept a home-spun embroidered travel bag from his mother. | |||
| In ], Tesla formed his own company, '']''. The initial financial ]s disagreed with Tesla on his plan for an alternating current motor and eventually relieved him of his duties at the company. | |||
| ====Colorado Springs==== | |||
| <div style="float: left; text-align: center; margin: 1em 1em 1em 1em;"> ]<br>''Colorado's geomagnetism''<br> | |||
| (])</div> | |||
| =====Moving in===== | |||
| In ], Tesla decided to move and began research in ], where he could have room for his high-voltage high-frequency experiments. He chose this location primarily because of the frequent thunderstorms, the high altitude (where the air, being at a lower pressure, had a lower dielectric breakdown strength, making it easier to ionize), and the dryness of the air (minimizing leakage of electric charge through insulators). Also, the property was free and electric power available from the ]. Today, magnetic intensity charts also show that the ground around his lab possesses a denser magnetic field than the surrounding area. Tesla reached Colorado Springs on ], 1899. Upon his arrival he told reporters that he was conducting experiments transmitting signals from ] to ]. | |||
| Tesla kept a ] of his experiments in the Colorado Springs lab where he spent nearly nine months. It consists of 500 pages of handwritten notes and nearly 200 drawings, recorded chronologically between ], 1899 and ], ], as the work occurred, containing explanations of his experiments. He was developing a system for ], telephony and the transmission of power, experimented with high-voltage electricity and the possibility of wireless transmitting and distributing large amounts of electrical energy over long distances. He also conceived a system for geophysical exploration--]--which he called '']'', based on his reciprocating mechanical oscillator patented in ], and explained that a long sequence of small explosions could be used to find ] and create ]s large enough to destroy the ]. He did not experiment with this as he felt there would not be "a desirable outcome". | |||
| Most of what Tesla discovered while in this lab has been lost to history and Tesla's own secrecy. Tesla's time at this remote lab has been a wellspring for ] about him. | |||
| =====Laboratory construction===== | |||
| Tesla, a local contractor, and several assistants commenced the construction of the laboratory shortly after arriving in Colorado Springs. The lab was established on ], east of the ] and one mile (1.6 km) east of downtown. Its primary purposes were experiments with high frequency electricity and other phenomena, and secondary--research into wireless transmission of electrical power. | |||
| Tesla's design of the lab was a building fifty feet by sixty feet (15 by 18 m) with eighty-foot (24 m) ceilings. A one-hundred-forty-two foot (43 m) conducting aerial with a thirty-inch (76 cm) ]-] covered ]en ] was erected on the ]. The roof was rolled back to prevent fire from sparks and other dangerous effects of the experiments. The laboratory had sensitive instruments and equipment. | |||
| =====Magnifying transmitter===== | |||
| ''Main article'': ] | |||
| ].)]] | |||
| =====Tuned circuits===== | |||
| Tesla also constructed many smaller resonance transformers and discovered the concept of ]s. He also developed a number of ]s for separating and perceiving electromagnetic waves and designed rotating ]s which he used to detect the unique types of electromagnetic phenomenon he observed. They had a mechanism of geared wheels driven by a coiled spring-drive mechanism which rotated small glass cylinders. These experiments were the final stage of years of work on synchronized tuned electrical circuits. | |||
| These ]s were constructed to demonstrate how ]s could be "tuned in". Tesla logged in his diary on ], ] that a separate resonance transformer tuned to the same high frequency as a larger high-voltage resonance transformer would transceive energy from the larger coil, acting as a ''transmitter'' of wireless energy, which was used to confirm Tesla's patent for radio during later disputes in the courts. These air core high-frequency resonate coils were the predecessors of systems from radio to ] and ] ] devices. | |||
| =====Propagation and resonance===== | |||
| On ], 1899, Tesla discovered ] ]s within the earth. He demonstrated that the Earth behaves as a smooth polished conductor and possesses electrical vibrations. He experimented with waves characterized by a lack of vibration at points, between which areas of maximum vibration occur periodically. These standing waves were produced by confining waves within constructed conductive boundaries. Tesla demonstrated that the Earth could respond at predescribed frequencies of electrical vibrations. At this time, Tesla realized that it was possible to transceive power around the globe. A few years later, ] stopped funding Tesla's research when Tesla showed him that he could offer free electricity to the whole world by simply "ramming a stick in the earth in your backyard". Westinghouse said he would go bankrupt if that happened. | |||
| Tesla conducted experiments contributing to the understanding of electromagnetic propagation and the Earth's resonance. It is well documented (from various photos from the time) that he lit hundreds of lamps wirelessly at a distance of up to twenty-five miles (40 km). He transmitted signals several kilometres and lit neon tubes conducting through the ground. He researched ways to transmit energy wirelessly over long distances (utilizing the ] and the ] via ]s, to a lesser extent, and, more readily, ]s). He transmitted extremely low frequencies through the ground as well as between the earth's surface and the ]. He recieved patents on wireless that developed ]s by this method. In his experiments, he made mathematical calculations and computations based on his experiments and discovered that the resonant frequency of the Earth was approximately 8 Hz (]). In the ], researchers confirmed ] was in this range (interesting to note, ] ] also cycle in this range). | |||
| =====Cosmic waves===== | |||
| In the Colorado Springs lab, Tesla recorded what he concluded were ] radio signals and announced his findings in some of the scientific journals of the time. His announcements and data were rejected by the scientific community who did not believe him. He notes 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 clicks 1, 2, 3, and 4 clicks together. He stated in the article "A Giant Eye to See Round the World", of ] ], that: | |||
| :"''Twenty-two years ago, while experimenting in Colorado with a wireless power plant, I obtained extraordinary experimental evidence of the existence of life on Mars. I had perfected a wireless receiver of extraordinary sensitiveness, far beyond anything known, and I caught signals which I interpreted as meaning 1--2--3--4. I believe the Martians used numbers for communication because numbers are universal''." ''Albany Telegram — ] ]'' | |||
| Clearly, Tesla felt the signal groups originated on the planet ]. In 1996 Corum and Corum published an analysis of ] ] 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. Further, analysis by the Corums indicate that Tesla's transceiver was sensitive in the 18 kHz gap in the ] which would have allowed that reception from Jupiter. Therefore, there is evidence the signals Tesla noticed came from ], among other possible sources. Tesla spent the latter part of his life trying to signal Mars. | |||
| It is important to recognize that when he says he "recorded" these signals, it is meant that he wrote down the data and his impressions of what he had heard. He did release reports at the time. Tesla’s initial announcement of the existence of extraterrestrial radio signals was in 1899. In March of 1907, Tesla wrote about signaling to Mars in Harvard Magazine and how it was a problem of electrical engineering. Additional descriptions come from remembrances twenty years later. All this was met with resistance and disbelief by his contemporaries. | |||
| =====Colorado departure===== | |||
| Tesla left Colorado Springs on ], ]. The lab was torn down, broken up, 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. On ], ], Tesla was granted US685012 ] for the means for increasing the intensity of electrical oscillations. The United States Patent Office classification system currently denotes that this patent pretains to superconductivity technology (Class 505/825). | |||
| ===Nobel rumors=== | |||
| Due to the fact that the ] was awarded to Marconi for radio in ], it was believed that Tesla and Edison were to share the ] (or 1915; some accounts differ). Tesla's rumored nomination for the Nobel Prize in Physics was primarily for his experiments with tuned circuits using high-voltage high-frequency resonant transformers. It was possible that Tesla was told of the plans of the physics award committee and let it be known that he would not share the award with Edison. | |||
| === 1930's === | |||
| In ], Tesla wrote to consul Janković of his homeland. The letter contained the message of gratitude to ] 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 ] and to continue researching. | |||
| ===Field theories=== | |||
| When he was eighty-one, Tesla stated he had completed a ]. He stated that it was "''worked out in all details''" and hoped to give to the world the theory soon. The bulk of the theory was developed between ] and ], during the period that he was conducting experiments for with ] and high ] electromagnetism and patenting devices for thier ultilization. It was completed, according to Tesla, by the end of the 1930s. Tesla's theory explained gravity using ] consisting of ]s (to a lesser extent) and ]s (for the majority). | |||
| Tesla was critical of Einstein's relativity work, '... 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...', (New York Times, ] ], p23, c.8). | |||
| ] | |||
| === Death and After === | |||
| In ], a ] statue of Tesla was placed at Niagara Falls. | |||
| A similar statue was also erected in the Tesla's hometown of Gospic in the 1981. | |||
| The statue in Gospic was dynamited by the Croatian forces in 1991. | |||
| Perhaps because of Tesla's personal eccentricity and the dramatic nature of his demonstrations, ] about applications of his work persist. The common Hollywood stereotype of the "]" mirrors Tesla's real-life persona, or at least a caricature of it—which may be no accident considering that many of the earliest such movies (including the first movie version of ]'s ]) were produced by Tesla's old rival, Thomas Edison. There are at least two films describing Tesla's life. In the first, arranged for TV, Tesla was portrayed by ]. In ], ] produced a ]n film named ''Tajna Nikole Tesle'' (The Secret of Nikola Tesla), in which Welles himself played the part of Tesla's patron, ]. | |||
| ===Records seized=== | |||
| According to ] acquired via ] request, the sum of Tesla's possessions ("consisting of about two truckloads of material... approximately thirty barrels and bundles") were seized, upon his death in ], by agents of the (now defunct) ]. One document states that " is reported to have some 80 trunks in different places containing transcripts and plans having to do with his experiments... " | |||
| ==Views on war== | |||
| Tesla believed that ] could not be avoided until the cause for its recurrence was removed, but was opposed to wars in general. He possessed a hatred of war, from his parents and homeland, and sought to end warfare scientifically by devising protective measures that would prevent wars. He found exceptions and some justifiable situations where conflict was necessary. He envisioned wars of machines, not of humans, and of more terrible weapons in the future. He sought to reduce distance, such as in communication (for better understanding), transportation, and transmission of energy, as a means to insure friendly international relations. | |||
| A system for "Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive Energy Through Natural Media" known as '']'' was reportedly developed later in his life. Teleforce was supposed to have been a type of defensive particle-beam weapon. | |||
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