The Ununderstood Genius Nikola Tesla

It is unfortunate that most people have not heard of Nikola Tesla, the inspiration for many of the technologies we use today. While his inventions and ideas should be taught as a textbook, he remained unknown compared to his colleagues. Games, movies and many modern occupations of today's people can be considered as an opportunity for people to be aware of Tesla. I hope these opportunities will lead people to more detailed research and will be instrumental in sharing his life with the masses ages later. We can find some evidence that Tesla has not seen the value it deserves in the answers to the following questions;

Who invented the radio?

Who discovered X-rays?

-Who was the first to implement the remote control system?

Yes, the answers are exactly as you guessed; These inventions that you think belong to others belong to Tesla, but of course, his inventions are not limited to these. Nikola Tesla went down in history as the person with the most patents with 700 inventions he patented. The inventions that were undermined at the time of the patent holder are now being researched and developed under the title of 'top secret', using them for individual and national interests. I think that if his ideas had been supported in his time instead of being shaped in line with interests, we could have implemented many things that seem utopian to us now. If we take a closer look at his life, I think you'll agree with me.

The Serbian-born scientist, who had various obsessions, had strange habits and various obsessions that were difficult to accept. For example, his obsession with numbers as multiples of three was why he insisted on dividing the room number by three in the hotels he stayed in. The reason he could not touch round objects and human hair except his own was that he was also obsessed with cleanliness and hygiene. Besides the strange obsessions of the extraordinary scientist, his linguistic aptitude stood out, Tesla knew 6 languages. His education life was also impressive, with the support of his mother, he had studied physics and mathematics. Later, he also studied philosophy, but for many years he benefited from Electrical Engineering education in European Countries in order to make a living.

During the period of his considerable education, which coincided with his postgraduate studies in Budapest, he discussed the characteristics of alternating current with his professor. According to Nikola Tesla, who had an extraordinary intelligence that was far from accepting the existing truths without discussion, the system in which direct current was applied was not correct. It seemed more reasonable to eliminate the commutator in both the generator and the motor and to use the alternating current in the whole system. However, no one had created a motor that could run on alternating current, so he started working on this issue intensively in order to avoid objections to the viability of the system. Finally, on February 1, in a Budapest park, a classmate named Szigetti discovered the "rotating magnetic field" that would revolutionize the entire electrical industry. There would be no need for connection to the rotating element. The commutator no longer existed.

Just at the time of these developments, Edison was experiencing serious problems with the DC electrical system he had invented. The direct current resistor losses were so great that a power plant was needed for every square mile. The first incandescent bulbs burned brightly close to the power plant, while those more than a mile away were dimmer due to the power lost. Finally, the offer Tesla was waiting for was made by Edison in 1884, and he was promised large sums of money to join them and fix the errors in the system. This long-awaited offer seemed like an incredible opportunity for Tesla. However, it would not be difficult to predict what would happen by looking at the personalities of the two scientists. Edison had strong business foresight, but neither the patience for theories nor the ability to understand. For Tesla, the way to find new discoveries was through a deep study of the laws of physics. Let's see if these two different perspectives can come together.

He would not be able to come, and this dispute would have a heavy toll on Tesla. Tesla, who parted ways with Edison, struggled with hunger for a long time. He did a variety of jobs, most recently digging holes for a living, and his master, with whom he shared his ideas, was impressed by his ideas and introduced him to the owner of the firm A. K. Brown, who helped him secure the finances to develop his work. After this development, which can be considered as another turning point in his life, Tesla started to patent the products that would pave the way for the use of alternating current.

The alternating current system found by Tesla was a highly efficient system compared to the direct current system used by Edison. The DC system was simple, but large transformers and thick wires were required per shaft to carry direct current. Tesla's AC technology did not have such problems. AC transformers allowed large amounts of electrical power to be transported many kilometers away and there was no loss of power. However, as can be seen many times in the history of humanity, personal interests hindered breakthrough developments. Despite all these advantages of the AC system, Edison's investments in direct current were enough for Tesla to initiate his work against his system. When the inter-system strife flared up in 1888, a new competitor emerged: another fierce foe of Edison's, industrialist George Westinghouse.

George Westinghouse went to Tesla's lab and they met. Both were talented, successful engineers and admirers of electricity. Westinghouse listened to Tesla's explanation, watched his demonstration, and immediately made up his mind. The two men easily made the historic deal and shook hands. Tesla signed a deal with Westinghouse, where he would receive $2.5 for every kilowatt of electricity sold. This money meant the opportunity for Tesla to realize the experiments he always dreamed of.

While Tesla took the opportunity and constantly improved the AC system, Edison spent his efforts to show that the AC current that Tesla found was very dangerous compared to his DC system and to give the impression that it was a negative development. At that time, stray animals were killed by electrocution with metal rods using alternating current developed by Westinghouse. In addition, the state of New York had invented a new method of capital punishment: the alternating current electric chair. In retaliation for Edison's arguments, Westinghouse proved that Edison's direct current could cook one side of a steak in 100 seconds. Tesla was also not indifferent to Edison's slander and responded ingeniously with his own marketing strategy. In order to show how safe the AC system was at the world fair held in Chicago in 1893 and attended by 21 million people, he passed high voltage electricity through his own body and lit the light bulbs with this electricity on his fingertips. Incredible intelligence!

Although the developments were tried to be blocked, it was developing against Tesla. In 1890, the International Niagara Commission began work to use the power of Niagara Falls to generate electricity. The chairman of the commission immediately made a statement and DC declared that the system was the best. But this announcement, made without technical support, refuted itself when power had to be transmitted to Buffalo 26 miles ahead. And a bit of necessity had to accept the necessity of the AC system. Result: Tesla's victory!

Tesla did not stop. Nicola Tesla's discoveries in the field of high frequency and high voltage paved the way for modern electronics, but developments were not limited to high voltage. The basis of the remote control systems we use today; In 1898, a brilliant demonstration of radio remote control was staged in New York City's Madison Park. Tesla, which rose rapidly in direct proportion to these developments and found wide coverage in the media, had reached the level of billions of dollars in money that he could not get his due, and Westinghouse was giving bankruptcy signals. This meant another financial disappointment for Tesla. He realized that Westinghouse's business would be closed if the original agreement remained valid, and he had no intention of dealing with creditors. Tesla renounced the deal outright, giving up his right to become the world's first trillionaire.

It would have been very easy for him to get over the fact that he had given up on money, as Nicola Tesla, who continued his studies without much place on his agenda, discovered that the ionosphere, one of the layers of the world, could be used for the benefit of humanity. He claimed that by using the ionosphere, electrical energy and radio, sound and electromagnetic waves could be carried from one point to another without using cables. In 1900, capitalist J.P. The Morgan-funded wireless communications system tower, known as Wardenclyffe, began construction on Long Island. But once again Morgan realized that this meant free energy for the whole world, unfortunately he withdrew his financial support from the project and the tower was sold for scrap price.

Among all these brilliant minds, the most important invention was the so-called "Tesla coil", one of his inventions that allowed him to produce high-frequency electric current and the name "Tesla" was rarely used. Tesla high-frequency alternating current, due to the so-called surface effect; He discovered that the wires only travel on their outer surface. That was why the high-voltage alternating current running through the wires he wrapped around his body at the World's Fair did not harm him. Moreover, the Tesla coil; It also opened the door to radio and TV broadcasts.

Although TV broadcasts did not reach us too late, there was another Tesla invention that was much more important than TV broadcasts, wireless transmission! He conducted an experiment in which he studied the transmission of electric force in air without wires.

In his lab in Colorado, he built a huge coil to generate a high-frequency electromagnetic field. And 40 km. He was able to send 10,000 watts of electricity by air to light 200 light bulbs at a distance. Isn't it incredible?

In science fiction movies, he also carried out experiments that can be examined under the title of 'natural disaster', which we see the figures of scientists perform as well. His experiments in the lower and upper parts of the frequency range caused a genuine earthquake around his new laboratory on Houston Street. Vibrating at the same frequency as the building's ground, Nicola Tesla's mechanical oscillator shook the old building, threatening it. A block away, items at the police station began to mysteriously shift. Tesla claimed that, in theory, the Empire State Building could be demolished with the same logic, and even the world could be split in half! Nikola Tesla proudly created the first man-made lightning bolt, which is the largest man-made lightning bolt ever recorded. A 30-meter-long, deafening lightning bolt flashed from a 1-meter-diameter copper sphere atop a pole. Thunder was heard up to the horizon, it could be heard 22 miles away. A voltage of 100 million Volts was used. The entire meadow area around his lab glowed strangely blue, just as St. As with the Elmo fire.' Unfortunately, during this experiment, which was essentially a pre-experiment warm-up, the local transformer's equipment was burnt out and he was never able to repeat his experiment.

In one way or another, what they did was ignored and what they could do was blocked. Perhaps the world would have acquired many technologies sooner if their work had not been stopped in a senseless way. The industry's efforts to expel him from the scientific literature drove him into exile for 20 years. Nikola Tesla, who has never been successful in money management with his extraordinary character, died on January 7, 1943 in a hotel room at the age of 86. His ideas were the first in the world of science and were groundbreaking. Unfortunately, instead of supporting these original ideas, we only reward those who take the concepts and change them into practice and turn them into products. Hoping that the story of this extraordinary genius will open up our horizons as a society, see you soon...