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Is Nikola Tesla science's greatest unsung hero?

bluescreen

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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?

  • I agree with John, I do not know of any other individual who did more to bring electricity and electronics to the planet in such a short period of time.

     

    Plus he left us many hints about electricity that we are still trying to fathom and exploit.

     

    So in my book, Tesla ranks right up with Einstein as one of the greatest minds of the twentieth century.

     

    Maybe of all time.

     

    DAB

  • in reply to johnbeetem

    John, you are truly a wealth of knowledge!

     

    I now recall the Goethe part of the story, too! Supposedly, Tesla suddenly had his epiphany about an induction motor and stopped to scrawl it out in the dirt with a stick. I agree with you about Tesla being the patron saint of EE's. Somehow, the ridicule he suffered at the hands of other, less brilliant people is very much a part of his greatness.

  • Tesla is IMO the greatest electrical scientist of all time.  The story I heard about the induction motor was that one of Tesla's professors stated that a motor requires a commutator.  Tesla challenged the professor's assertion, who told Tesla that he would never amount to anything as a scientist.  The walk in the park came later that day (or week, I forget the details) and the rest is history.  I think Tesla and a friend were talking about Goethe when the inspiration hit.  Let's hear it for broad education image

     

    I think Edison hated Tesla because Edison was bad at math, according to what I've heard.  All that AC stuff with sines and cosines and vectors and 3-phase was too much for Edison.

     

    I'm really looking forward to getting another 6,000 element14 points so I can switch from Level 7 to Level 8.