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New international project:
 
"Mechanical Figures - twentythousandcycles.NET"
 
Experimental interactive movie inspired by
Nikola Tesla

www.mechanicalfigures.net
 

- Who is Tesla? -

 

 

 

Who is Tesla?

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) is regarded as one of the most important physicists and inventors in history. He is well known for his contributions to electricity and magnetism. His patents and theoretical work form the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, radio and wireless technologies. With his inventions he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution. Tesla is widely known for his rivalry with the inventor Thomas Alva Edison, who advocated direct current for electricity, while Tesla advocated AC system that prevailed, and with Marconi over the invention of radio transmission. He was also well known personality at his time, close friend of many artists, including Mark Twain and Sarah Bernhardt.
 

Nikola Tesla, about 1890

Nikola Tesla, about 1890

 
Nikola Tesla is certainly the greatest person ever born in our parts - he was born in Smiljan, near Gospiæ, in central Croatia, and he spent most of his life in New York City. By nationality he was a Serbian, a son of an orthodox priest.

He was a famous inventor, physicist and engineer to whom we have to thank for the electricity we use today: alternating current and the three-phase power distribution system, induction motor, wireless communication and remote control, radio and other things.

Tesla in his laboratory in Colorado Springs

the famous photo of Tesla
in his Colorado Springs laboratory,
about 1900

 
He also conducted the first experiments with high voltage and high frequencies, x-rays, cosmic rays, radar, and robotics. His alternating current system was used in the first power plant built on Niagara Falls in 1888, and this was his childhood dream. Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance.

One of his most controversial ideas was wireless transfer of electricity, and he spent many years researching his theories in Colorado Springs and on Long Island. However, it was never developed, perhaps because the industry could not find the way to charge their customers for the energy freely distributed by air.

Tesla on the cover of Time magazine, 1931

Tesla on the cover of the Time Magazine, 1931

 
He was also an interesting personality, eccentric but humanist and visionary, and his persona gave rise to many controversies, even conspiracies. Never putting much focus on his finances, Tesla died impoverished and forgotten at the age of 86. After his death, in 1947, the United States Supreme Court credited him as being the inventor of the radio.

Many contemporary admirers of Tesla have deemed him the man who invented the twentieth century. The scientific compound derived SI unit measuring magnetic flux density or magnetic induction, the tesla (T), was named in his honor.
 
 

Nikola Tesla, about 1890

Nikola Tesla in his laboratory in New York City
 
 

To find out more about Nikola Tesla,
we recommend brilliant PBS' website on:

www.pbs.org/tesla/

the pages of their great documentary
"Tesla - Master of Lightning"

 

 

 

 

  Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla's Lightning
Columbian Expo - Tesla's City of Light
Nikola Tesla - Colorado Springs
Nikola Tesla
Tesla's Radio Patent
Nikola Tesla
Mark Twain in Tesla's Lab
Tesla's Letter about Aliens
Tesla
Tesla's Dove
Tesla's Flying Fiwer
Tesla's Menu for Pigeons
Wardenclyfe Tower on Long Island