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Original title: "What made Tesla"

Imagine a world without electric lights, motors, pumps, fans, refrigerators, or elevators. Without microwaves, there would be no radio or television. The next time you press a switch, you should think of Nikola Tesla. Tesla, more than any other inventor, can claim to have ushered in the age of electricity. But 70 years after his death, and a century after his major inventions, his name is not as well known as Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, or the Wright brothers.

Tesla's restless mind allowed him to go further than these electrical and mechanical innovations. He invented an "amplifier coil" that greatly increased the frequency and voltage of the current. Tesla discovered that such currents could radiate electromagnetic waves, and he was keenly aware of the potential of these electromagnetic waves. Today,"wireless" is a ubiquitous term in the computer networking world. Tesla discovered this principle more than 100 years ago.

Tesla is often compared to Thomas Edison, but he is in many ways the opposite of Edison. Edison claimed that invention was "1% inspiration, 99% sweat." Tesla, however, was a very thoughtful and visionary man. Edison was self-taught; Tesla had a full industrial education. Edison solved some practical problems; Tesla dreamed of inventing technology that would change the world. Edison commercialized his invention; Tesla had little business acumen. The only thing they have in common is that they both sleep very little: Tesla sometimes works from 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 a.m.

During Tesla's lifetime, many of his inventions received no reward or reward. Guglielmo Marconi, for example, invented radio, but his device was based on Tesla's idea. Only in recent years has Tesla gained wider recognition for his insights and their impact on modern life.

Tesla's father was an Orthodox priest who wanted his son, born in 1856, to be like him. The Tesla family were Ethnic Serbs living in Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Tesla felt like his mother, who invented kitchen appliances like egg beaters. When he fell ill as a teenager, he made his father promise to send him to technical school if he recovered. He studied mechanics and electricity at the Austrian Polytechnic School in Graz, Austria, with the goal of becoming an engineer.

Tesla saw pictures of Niagara Falls as a child. He immediately thought of a giant mill waterwheel that could harness the power of a waterfall. These scenes show Tesla's clear thinking from an early age. The young man could perform calculus calculations in his head and had an extraordinary memory. But what was most striking was his ability to visualize his ideas: he could reprocess them in his mind so that they seemed as real as they actually were.

But his talent also brought some negative effects. In his mid-20s, the tall, thin Tesla experienced a nervous breakdown that made his senses overly sensitive-the ticking of his watch made him uncomfortable, and he even found sunlight depressing. Throughout his life, he suffered from phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Tesla had an early interest in alternating current. At the time, experiments requiring motors and lighting used direct current (DC), just as batteries produced electricity. DC motors are inefficient, but no one can imagine how AC motors work. One day, while Tesla was discussing poetry in the park, he suddenly thought of how to make AC motors a reality.

His idea of using alternating current puzzled European experts. In 1884, at the age of 28, Tesla decided to go to New York and present his idea to Thomas Edison. He described his ideas about alternating current to the great inventor, but Edison was not interested. Instead, he hired Tesla to operate his DC equipment. But the two men didn't get along-Tesla quit without completing the job Edison gave him, and he didn't get paid.

With no money, Tesla began digging ditches for a living. But his fate was about to turn against him.

Alternating current is easier to use Direct current consists of electrons moving in one direction along a conductor. The direction of electron motion in alternating current changes many times per second. To make an electric motor, you need to change the polarity of a stationary electromagnet called the stator. The magnetic rotor will constantly try to align with the stator's changing poles, so that the stator will rotate to generate power. DC motors use clever mechanical commutators to change polarity; AC motors change the direction of current directly, electrically. Once Tesla figured out how to match alternating current to the polarity of electromagnets in an electric motor, he made one of his most important breakthroughs.

Edison had already found customers for his direct-current transmission system, laying wires on the streets of New York City to reach them in their homes. But George Westinghouse is already working on a competing AC transmission system. He thought Tesla's invention would give his scheme an advantage over Edison's.

Tesla understood that alternating current was a more efficient way to drive electric motors and lights. More importantly, coils can be used to boost "alternating current." By electromagnetic induction, a low voltage in one coil is converted to a high voltage in the other coil. High-voltage current can be transmitted more efficiently in wires and then reduced for household use. Tesla's circuit is a precursor to the transformer we often see on utility poles. Direct current cannot be boosted, and thicker wires are needed to transmit it miles away.

Alternating current was known before Tesla began his work. But Tesla designed an integrated system of generators, transmission lines, motors, lighting systems, and other circuits so that AC could be an alternative to DC. In 1887 Tesla applied for seven patents relating to his alternating current, which were granted unchallenged. Westinghouse bought the patents in 1888.

But direct current is still going strong. Westinghouse and Edison were caught up in what was called a "war of currents." Edison was the first to attack, claiming that alternating current was too dangerous for the public to use safely. Edison's point was reinforced in 1890 when an acquaintance named Harold Brown arranged for a Westinghouse alternator to execute a condemned man.

But Westinghouse, which owns Tesla's patents, can demonstrate that alternating current is a more effective alternative. The culmination of the conflict in the Electric War took place at the Chicago Colombia Exposition of 1893 - 94. Westinghouse's electricity costs are much lower than Edison's. He got the contract and powered the show based on Tesla systems. Thousands of bright lights came on at the opening of the Expo, which surprised the visitors. The demonstration dispelled public fears of alternating current, which became standard in electrical systems.

Tesla fulfilled his childhood dream of building a power plant in Niagara Falls, which marked Tesla's victory. In 1890, investors placed a heavy bet on alternating current and hydroelectric power, neither of which had yet been tested. In 1896, Tesla's generator began supplying power to the electrical system, ending a long and stressful wait. Eventually, they delivered electricity to New York City, lighting up Broadway. As hydropower plants began to be built around the world, the age of electricity quietly arrived.

The War of Electricity is over, but Nikola Tesla has turned to more visionary inventions.

Many of Tesla's inventions were based on the principle of electromagnetic induction. In the 1830s, the British scientist Michael Faraday demonstrated that moving magnets produce currents in conductors (modified here). It was this ability of electrical energy to have an impact at a distance that fascinated Tesla and inspired his ideas for everything from AC motors to Tesla coils.

Tesla goes unknown Even a simple electric current generates a magnetic field. Alternating current oscillating under high voltage generates electromagnetic waves. Heinrich Hertz discovered electromagnetic waves in 1888, and many inventors joined the race to harness them for wireless communications and other uses.

Tesla was mesmerized by high frequency electromagnetic waves. Using them, he can make:

·Neon-filled lamps. This new type of illumination does not require luminous filaments; the gas itself can emit light.

·Make the vacuum tube emit light at a distance without direct contact with the wave source.

·Heat a metal rod to a very high temperature.

·Electromagnetic waves generated by his laboratory in New York can still be detected 50 miles (80 kilometers) away at West Point, New York.

Many inventors contributed to the development of radio, but Guglielmo Marconi won the Nobel Prize for his invention in 1909. Tesla resented the lack of recognition for his foundational and original contributions, and had filed for a patent long before Marconi invented the first prototype. In 1943, months after Tesla's death, the U.S. Supreme Court finally recognized Tesla's patented invention as the basis for Marconi's original achievements.

Tesla saw another use for electromagnetic waves. He thinks they make it possible to transmit power wirelessly on a massive scale. In 1898, he moved to Colorado Springs and built large coils, now known as Tesla coils, with which Tesla generated enormous voltages. With them, he was able to create artificial lightning. He lit 200 light bulbs 25 miles (40 kilometers) away and experimented with ways to transmit energy through the air or the earth itself.

Back in New York a year later, he persuaded the banker J. P. Morgan to back him up on a worldwide wireless communication system that could transmit news, mail, and even pictures wirelessly. Tesla was dreaming of transmitting electricity. He set up a laboratory on Long Island called Wardenclyffe. There, he built a 187-foot (57-meter) tall wooden tower and drove steel pipes hundreds of feet into the ground. As costs mounted, Morgan pulled out of the project. Due to his debt, Tesla was forced to destroy the tower and abandon the laboratory in 1905. But for the rest of his life, he remained convinced that wireless power transmission was possible.

Tesla, meanwhile, used electromagnetic waves to build a radio-controlled ship. He discovered that at very high voltages his homemade vacuum tube emitted rays that could penetrate solids, creating what he called "shadow diagrams" and thus becoming one of the first to attempt to study X-rays. Over time, Tesla's work on high-frequency electromagnetic waves formed the basis of innovations ranging from microwave ovens to cathode-ray television picture tubes.

Tesla took his inventive genius in a different direction than his contemporaries like Edison. His exploration of the uncharted territory of high-frequency electricity and radio waves opened the way for many inventors who followed him.

Another important principle upon which Tesla tuning depends is the concept of electrical resonance. Conductors (we call them antennas) can even pick up electromagnetic waves from hundreds of miles away. But to select one of several waves at different frequencies, the receiver needs to be "tuned," that is, it needs to resonate with the same electromagnetic wave at this frequency. It's the same idea as making violin strings resonate with tuning forks. Tesla invented a way to tune circuits, and to this day we still receive radio or television via "tuning."

Tesla's legacy The ever-eccentric Tesla is now thought to suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder. As he grew older, his eccentricities became more apparent. He has a phobia of germs and washes his hands desperately. He eats only cooked food. He's obsessed with the number three. He claims to have received messages from outer space. As an old man, he had a soft spot for pigeons, which he smuggled into his hotel room.

As early as 1891, George Westhouse's company was on the verge of bankruptcy. To help the man who trusted him, Tesla agreed to waive royalties Westinghouse owed on the AC patents. The inventor could have made millions of dollars on this project, but now he's broke. Westinghouse, who died in 1914, never fully compensated Tesla for his contributions.

Tesla, however, continued his invention. He received at least 275 patents during his lifetime. He left behind a long list, many of which were ultimately unfulfilled:

In 1904, he invented an efficient bladeless turbine, but the device had no commercial application.

·He proposed using geothermal, solar and wind energy to generate electricity.

·He speculated on the existence of the ionosphere, the electrically charged layer of the Earth's atmosphere, years before its discovery.

·He patented a spark plug for gasoline engines.

He invented the first electronic clock based on mechanical vibrations.

His last patent was for a vertical takeoff aircraft, which would become a reality much later.

Not all of Tesla's ideas worked. His dream of wireless power transmission never proved feasible. He refuted Einstein's work, and what he refuted would form the basis of modern physics. During and after World War I, Tesla worked on a "death beam," but outside of sci-fi movies, it was never realized.

Tesla died alone in a New York hotel in 1943 at the age of 86.

"One day," Tesla predicted in 1915,"the world will have, for example, six giant radio stations where all the inhabitants of the earth will be able to communicate with each other not only by sound but also by pictures." "

Does that sound familiar? Could this be the phone we used?

Original link:

https://science.howstuffworks.com/innovation/famous-inventors/nikola-tesla.htm

This article comes from Weixin Official Accounts: Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ID: cas-iop), author: John Kelly, translation: Nothing, revision: Tibetan idiot

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