After four billion years of darkness, the Earth now shines at night; we can thank Nicola Tesla for that. But Tesla, one of the most prolific inventors there has ever been, died in poverty. Tesla can be legitimately credited for many of the wonders of modern life. His Tesla coil is still used in radios, televisions and a host of other electrical devices, and the modern electric motor was invented by him, as was radio. Perhaps the most significant of all his creations was alternating current. Direct current, which Thomas Edison pioneered, cannot be transmitted long distance. Alternating current can and Tesla convinced the world that it should be. The fact we have power coming out of our sockets at all can be attributed to him, but he sold the patents for power transmission, transformation and electric motors for $60,000. Tesla spent most of the money on a new lab and, by the time he died in 1943, did not have a penny to his name.
Posted on: Sat, 15 Jun 2013 21:05:34 +0000