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Is Nikola Tesla science's greatest unsung hero?

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What is it about Nikola Tesla that inspires engineers around the world?

 

The slights he suffered at the hands of his close-minded, condescending boss, Thomas Edison, who refused to see the potential of alternating current? The breathtaking scope of his altruism, as evidenced by his decision to tear-up his patent agreement on AC current to save his employer, George Westinghouse, from financial ruin? (A decision which in all likelihood prevented him from becoming the world's first billionaire.) His pride, which led him to work as a ditch digger rather than suffer the continuing insults of his employer? His sheer brilliance, evidenced by his epiphany while walking in the park in Budapest that an induction motor could be designed based on rotating magnetic fields? Or the fact that schoolchildren continue to memorize facts about Thomas Edison while educators routinely ignore Tesla?

 

While I applaud Elon Musk's naming his company in honor of the great inventor, I think this further obscures Nikola Tesla in popular culture. He should occupy the same place in the scientific pantheon as Albert Einstein. His pride, altruism, the scope of his genius, and the fact that he spent so much of his early career trying to convince people less clever than himself what should be done all mark him as a real engineer's engineer. If Tesla were alive today, he would be reading Dilbert comics and smiling at the pointy-headed boss.

 

What do you think? Is Nikola Tesla science's greatest unsung hero?

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  • TESLA - PATRON SAINT OF CONSPIRACY THEORISTS

     

    As someone who has spend over 60-years studying electronics and it's associated history, I would sincerely like to know why, out of hundreds of other minor contributors to the science, Mr Tesla has been chosen to represent all of them. For example, basic historical research clearly shows that alternating current (AC) was known and used well before Tesla was aware it existed.

    He was not the first to construct an AC motor, rather he slavishly followed the plans described in a patented and fully working design devised by the true inventor of polyphase AC generators, Galileo Ferraris.

    Provide any student of radio/electronics a glance at the circuit diagrams drawn by Tesla and he or she will declare them naïve in the extreme.

    As for that 'free transmitted energy' idea; well I would certainly bow down and worship anyone who managed to operate a practical motor from the headphone terminals of a crystal set. Yet in an article in one of Hugo Gernsback's more ludicrous editorials for a 1920's edition of 'Electrical Experimenter' magazine Gernsback wrote that his friend Nikola claimed that he was about to do just that.

    Actually, Hugo Gernsback was at the time a very popular science fiction writer and it may well be that many of the outrageously false stories stories surrounding Tesla may have originated with him. The lay public have always been at a disadvantage when it came to separating technical fact and fiction so it is very possible that some of Gernsback's imaginative 'predictions' of future scientific achievements by Tesla and other players, both minor and major, of the time were mistaken for real. Add to that the fact Tesla himself, well known as being somewhat publicly hungry, would weave such anecdotes into his (apparently well presented) lectures it is probably not all that surprising that so many urban myths surround this eccentric figure. The indisputable fact is that real breakthroughs in science were taking place during Tesla's time and he felt like he wanted to join in the fun.

    Unfortunately for him, by 1919 the technology had left him well behind and his daydreams were all that remained newsworthy.

    Now I am certain that the forgoing comments are going to upset a great many Tesla fans however I would be grateful to anyone who can provide positive proof that they are false. But keep in mind I mean actual PROOF, wishful thinking is not counted. The fact that somebody SAID that Tesla invented the radio valve (tube) does not override the fact that he had no idea how such a device operated. It was in fact Thomas Edison who, while attempting to improve his light bulb, produced the first electric 'valve', in 1883. Admittedly, he did not realise the importance of this discovery and it was left to one of Edison's assistants, Ambrose Fleming, to put it to use. It was eventually taken over by Le De Forest in 1906 who created the triode valve, which was capable of amplifying weak signals as well as oscillating to produce AC over a wide range of frequencies. At no time was Mr Tesla involved or even aware of such developments. Just to SAY that Tesla was the inventor of the radio valve is no more proof then if someone claimed that Donald Trump was the brains behind the development of quantum computing. (Incidentally, nobody has - not yet anyway   ).

Comment

  • TESLA - PATRON SAINT OF CONSPIRACY THEORISTS

     

    As someone who has spend over 60-years studying electronics and it's associated history, I would sincerely like to know why, out of hundreds of other minor contributors to the science, Mr Tesla has been chosen to represent all of them. For example, basic historical research clearly shows that alternating current (AC) was known and used well before Tesla was aware it existed.

    He was not the first to construct an AC motor, rather he slavishly followed the plans described in a patented and fully working design devised by the true inventor of polyphase AC generators, Galileo Ferraris.

    Provide any student of radio/electronics a glance at the circuit diagrams drawn by Tesla and he or she will declare them naïve in the extreme.

    As for that 'free transmitted energy' idea; well I would certainly bow down and worship anyone who managed to operate a practical motor from the headphone terminals of a crystal set. Yet in an article in one of Hugo Gernsback's more ludicrous editorials for a 1920's edition of 'Electrical Experimenter' magazine Gernsback wrote that his friend Nikola claimed that he was about to do just that.

    Actually, Hugo Gernsback was at the time a very popular science fiction writer and it may well be that many of the outrageously false stories stories surrounding Tesla may have originated with him. The lay public have always been at a disadvantage when it came to separating technical fact and fiction so it is very possible that some of Gernsback's imaginative 'predictions' of future scientific achievements by Tesla and other players, both minor and major, of the time were mistaken for real. Add to that the fact Tesla himself, well known as being somewhat publicly hungry, would weave such anecdotes into his (apparently well presented) lectures it is probably not all that surprising that so many urban myths surround this eccentric figure. The indisputable fact is that real breakthroughs in science were taking place during Tesla's time and he felt like he wanted to join in the fun.

    Unfortunately for him, by 1919 the technology had left him well behind and his daydreams were all that remained newsworthy.

    Now I am certain that the forgoing comments are going to upset a great many Tesla fans however I would be grateful to anyone who can provide positive proof that they are false. But keep in mind I mean actual PROOF, wishful thinking is not counted. The fact that somebody SAID that Tesla invented the radio valve (tube) does not override the fact that he had no idea how such a device operated. It was in fact Thomas Edison who, while attempting to improve his light bulb, produced the first electric 'valve', in 1883. Admittedly, he did not realise the importance of this discovery and it was left to one of Edison's assistants, Ambrose Fleming, to put it to use. It was eventually taken over by Le De Forest in 1906 who created the triode valve, which was capable of amplifying weak signals as well as oscillating to produce AC over a wide range of frequencies. At no time was Mr Tesla involved or even aware of such developments. Just to SAY that Tesla was the inventor of the radio valve is no more proof then if someone claimed that Donald Trump was the brains behind the development of quantum computing. (Incidentally, nobody has - not yet anyway   ).

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