Nikola Tesla was a famous scientist and engineer who made more than 700 patents (!). He developed many things in physics such as wireless communications, lasers, x-rays, radar, lighting, robotics, and his first discovery was alternating current. Nowadays, he is becoming more and more popular as people hear about him and his work. Many people are inspired by his hard work and brilliant ideas, and most of them agree on one thing – he was far ahead of his time. Here are six interesting facts about this great scientist.
“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” — Nikola Tesla
He was an amazing and inspiring inventor
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Nikola Tesla was born to Serbian parents and early immigrated to the USA, where he became a naturalized citizen. Tesla worked with Edison and George Westinghouse, with whom he demonstrated some patents in the Chicago World’s Fair. Later in 1895, they developed the world’s first hydroelectric power plant, at Niagara Falls. At the end of the century, he settled in Long Island, where he conducted most of his experiments. J. P. Morgan financed the building, while Stanford White, an acclaimed architect at that time, designed it.
His museum was built with the help of a cartoon
All funds for the Wardenclyffe, which was purchased by the Tesla Science Center, were raised on the crowd-funding platform Indiegogo. The campaign was created by Matthew Inman, who created the popular webcomic, The Oatmeal. Inman mentioned that the money was raised by people who are “geeks” and felt a kinship with Tesla. Furthermore, a similar campaign on Kickstarter earned $127,000, which was paid for a tall statue of Tesla in California. This statue is also hosting a free Wi-Fi and the time capsule, which represents the power of a creative spirit and aims to inspire people from all around the world.
Tesla was an ecologist
He was concerned about the fact that people are consuming the Earth’s resources quickly. As such, he wanted to ensure that we use renewable fuels, noticing how fast the sources were being spent every day. Tesla further researched on ways to harvest the natural energy sources on the ground and in the sky. He ended up creating artificial lightning in his laboratory and made different probes of electrical potential differences across tall objects and in the Earth.
Tesla died as a broke humanitarian
After contributing to humanity in the best possible way he could, he died with many financial struggles. His contemporaries stated that he was never interested in monetary gain. As a result, he never had enough money to experiment or to realize his own ideas. Edison and Westinghouse were far more successful with financials, which explains the strength of their legacies in that time. For instance ,Edison earned much more than Tesla from his work and remained the better-known inventor than Tesla for most of the 20
Edison and Westinghouse were far more successful with financials, which explains the strength of their legacies at that time. Edison, for instance, earned much more than Tesla from his work and remained the better-known inventor than Tesla for most of the 20th Century.
Tesla was rarely sleeping and was suffering from OCD
Tesla allegedly could not sleep for more than two hours at night. However, he napped sometimes during the day. He hated jewelry and round objects around him and also didn’t touch his own hair. He was also obsessed with the number 3. Also, Tesla polished every dining tool that he used to perfection using up to 18 napkins.
His many inventions were confidential
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After his death back in 1943, his belongings were taken by the Office of Alien Property. Later, they were returned to his family and afterward exposed in Tesla Museum in Belgrade. Still, some of his papers are made secret by the U.S. government. Through the years, many people speculated about his secret inventions.
Some people theorized that he developed a “death beam.” Others said that he worked on harvesting the energy of nature, which would harm powerful oil and gas companies. However, no one is actually sure what remained from his experiments and what is held behind.
The legacy of Tesla remains with us every day, constantly reminding us of him and his devoted work and care for others. He keeps inspiring people every day, and that will remain the same in the future. The strength of his ideas and mission remain, spreading all around the world and gaining the best results in many areas. It is amazing that today, when the money is absolute power, we see the example of strength like this, and that will surely have a huge impact on every one of us.
