Nikola Tesla biography interesting facts. Interesting facts from the life of Nikola Tesla. He foresaw the invention of x-rays and radar

Nikola Tesla is an engineer, physicist, inventor, radio and electrical engineer. Gave the world revolutionary knowledge in the field of electricity and magnetism. Considered by many researchers to be one of the most brilliant people of all time (together with Leonardo da Vinci). Tesla's work made possible the development of modern electrical engineering. Tesla's inventions were ahead of their time by more than one century.

Biography

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in the small village of Smilyan, in Serbia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Father, Milutin Tesla, was an Orthodox priest. Mother, Georgina Tesla, also came from a family of a priest.

Nikola finished his first grade in his native village. The family then moved to Gospic, where he completed three more classes. elementary school. In 1870 he graduated from the lower real gymnasium. In 1873 he received a matriculation certificate.

In 1875 he entered the Higher Technical School in Graz, where he concentrated on the study of electrical engineering. Here he became addicted to gambling and as a result got into debt. The mother had to look for money. Since then, Tesla has never gambled again.

In 1879, Nikola got a job in a real gymnasium in Gospic, but the work of a teacher did not suit him. She's underpaid and uninteresting. The following year, Tesla travels to Prague, where he becomes a student at the University of Prague. I managed to study at the Faculty of Philosophy for only a semester, after which I had to look for a job.

Tesla took a job with a telegraph company in Budapest, where he worked until 1882. Then he figured out how to use the phenomenon of a rotating magnetic field.

At the end of the same year, Nicola moved to the Paris branch of the Edison Continental Company. In 1884, he resigned because he was not paid the expected bonus for a number of useful innovations. In July of the same year, Tesla arrived in New York and again got a job at the Edison company as an engineer for the repair of electric motors and DC generators.

In 1885, Edison offered Tesla $50,000 to improve DC electrical machines. Nikola actively set to work, presented the American with 24 options for solving the problem. Edison refused the award, saying that it was just a joke. Tesla immediately quit.

By that time, Tesla had already gained fame in US business circles. He was offered to create a company dealing with electric lighting. Instead of money, the inventor was offered company shares. This did not suit him, and he broke with the businessmen.

In 1888, wealthy American industrialist George Westinghouse (who himself loved to invent) bought 40 patents from Tesla, each costing about $25,000. Now Nicola had enough money to equip his laboratory. He is actively engaged in the study of high frequencies and magnetic fields, receives many patents. In 1895, the laboratory burned down, but Tesla provided $100,000 from the Niagara Falls Company. Research has been restarted. In 1896, Tesla carried out the transmission of a radio signal for 48 km.

In 1899, Testa moved to Colorado Springs, which later became famous thanks to the experiments of the inventor. Tesla achieved the production of gigantic electric discharges, the peals of thunder from which were heard 24 km from the laboratory. The public was wary of this, especially after Nikola announced his connection with extraterrestrial civilizations.

By the end of 1899, Tesla moved to New York and set up a laboratory on Long Island. Nikola wanted to obtain colossal energy by resonantly "shaking" the ionosphere. The launch of the experimental facility was simply amazing: journalists wrote that the sky became illuminated for thousands of miles around. However, soon the laboratory had to be closed due to lack of funds.

In 1914, after the outbreak of the First World War, Tesla took part in raising funds for the needs of the Serbian army.

In May 1917, Tesla was awarded the Edison Medal. The inventor refused it, because he did not have the best memories of the American entrepreneur. In the same year, Tesla developed a device for detecting submarines.

Until 1926, Tesla worked in collaboration with a number of firms: Pyle National, Waltham Watch Company, Budd Company.

Tesla met the beginning of World War II sick. He was hit by a car. The consequence of a broken rib was acute pneumonia. The inventor was bedridden.

On the night of January 7-8, 1943, Nikola Tesla died. The cause of death was given as heart failure. The body was cremated, now the urn is in the Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

Tesla's main achievements

  • Invented the first electromechanical high-frequency current generators and a high-frequency transformer.
  • He studied the effect of electric current on the human body, and experimented on himself. Based on his research, modern electrical safety rules have been developed.
  • Experiments with high-frequency currents provided enough data for the development of electrotherapy and medical research.
  • Described the phenomenon of a rotating magnetic field. Received patents for multi-phase electrical machines. The latter were used to create hydroelectric power plants in the United States and other countries.
  • He created the first wave radio transmitter, carefully studied the principles of radio communication.
  • "Tesla coils" are still used to produce electrical discharges that are similar to lightning.
  • Tesla spent a lot of time realizing the idea of ​​transmitting energy without wires. Today, wireless charging is already beginning to be used in laptops and mobile phones.

Important dates in Tesla's biography

  • July 10, 1856 - birth in the Serbian village of Smiljany.
  • 1862-1866 - teaching at an elementary school.
  • 1866-1870 - studying at the Gospic real school.
  • 1871-1874 - studying at a real school in Karlovac.
  • 1875-1878 - studying at the Higher Technical School in Graz.
  • 1881-1882 - work in the Telephone Company in Budapest. Invention of the telephone amplifier.
  • 1882 - discovery of a rotating magnetic field. Work in Paris and Strasbourg. Creation of an induction motor.
  • 1884-1885 - work in the USA with Edison.
  • 1885 - Creation of the Tesla Erk Light Company.
  • 1886 - the invention of the commutator, the arc lamp, the regulator for the dynamo. Tesla lamps are used for street lighting in large cities.
  • 1887 - Creation of the Tesla Electric Company.
  • 1889 - construction of the first high-frequency electric generators.
  • 1892 - experiments on radiotelegraphy.
  • 1897 - Two-way radio transmission at a distance of 20 miles.
  • 1899 - received a voltage of 12 million volts.
  • 1921 - offers technical assistance to the Soviet authorities.
  • January 7, 1943 - Nikola Tesla died in New York from heart failure.
  • As a child, he contracted cholera, but recovered after a few days.
  • During the call, he hid in the mountains.
  • Tesla's debts during the gambling period were forced to be paid by his mother. Since then, Nicola has never played cards.
  • Tesla was overcome by an incomprehensible delight when looking at a necklace or pearls.
  • As a child, the future inventor often dreamed of trolls, ghosts, giants. It ended in tantrums and seizures.
  • He could visualize the meticulous inner workings of any instrument just by looking at it.
  • At school, he instantly solved problems in mathematics and physics, and also won almost all sports competitions.
  • The Tesla electric car is named after the scientist.

Nikola Tesla was not only the greatest and most brilliant inventor, but also a physicist, engineer and radio technician! People, speaking about an outstanding scientist, often call him a person “ahead of time”. He was born in 1856 in a small village - Smilyan, located seven kilometers from Gospic (Croatia). But in our time there are different opinions about the great, but mad scientist. Someone calls him one of the brilliant people of all time, who gave a huge impetus to the development of modern electrical engineering. And someone the most mysterious and sensational person who left behind only too many mysteries.


At the age of seventeen, as a young man, Nikola Tesla suffered a terrible disease - cholera. Doctors shrugged and frightened that he did not have long to live. The future inventor asked his father to allow him to study engineering, because this is his goal, and if a person has the meaning of life, he will want to live, and his body will be able to overcome the disease. The father did not give permission immediately, only after 9 months of persuasion, he agreed. Indeed, after some time, Nikola Tesla was able to defeat a dangerous disease.

When Nicola needed to go to the army, his parents decided that he was not strong and healthy enough, and decided to hide him in the mountains. Thus, Nikola Tesla "sloped" from the army.

When Tesla studied at the school, he gave preference to his favorite subject - electrical engineering. Even then, he told his teacher his ideas about the imperfection of direct current. The teacher gave a Lecture in front of the whole class that the use of current in electric motors is impossible.

His sleep usually did not last more than two hours a day. Although today we know that healthy sleep should last approximately 8 hours. The inventor assured that he did not remember the time when he had to rest for a long time. He was constantly immersed in work, so Nikola Tesla devoted most of his time to research in his laboratory.

Tesla had a detic memory. Many contemporaries assured that he never wrote down anything, and kept everything in his head. But, having an excellent photographic memory, Nicola still had numerous manuscripts about his possible inventions. Many of these records have survived to this day.

At the age of seven, Nikola witnessed the death of his older brother while riding. The event shocked Tesla. Many argue that it was then that the scientist went a little "crazy", and in subsequent years he was often found communicating with pigeons.

Tesla never married, although hundreds of women went crazy over him, but not one was awarded the reciprocity of feelings. Tesla told me that if he is in love, this love will become a huge obstacle to his scientific activity. Nikola Tesla began working for the Edison Company in 1882. But he did not work for a long time, Thomas did not pay him his bonus, and then “threw” a million, with which he promised to pay off Tesla for improving his model of an electric car.

  1. Nikola Tesla was terribly afraid of bacteria, always washed his hands and in hotels asked for a huge pile of towels. If suddenly a fly or some other insect sits on the table, then the scientist demanded a new portion.
  2. All the numbers of the rooms in which Tesla settled had to be a multiple of 3.
  3. Tesla appropriated the gift of clairvoyance. In the evening, when Nikola was seeing his friends off, he insisted that they not board the oncoming train, but wait for the next one. Thus, he saved their lives, indeed, the same train derailed.
  4. Nikola Tesla played billiards almost professionally.
  5. In order for food to give him pleasure, he liked to count how many he ate spoons of soup, pieces of bread and the like.
  6. Tesla hated women's earrings, and especially could not stand the sight of pearls.
  7. Nikola Tesla was undoubtedly a part of the high society of New York, but over time he grew old and impoverished. He lived like a hermit, completely alone and each time in cheaper and cheaper hotels. One of his oddities is that he preferred pigeons over the company of people.
  8. After the still young Nikola Tesla passed into adulthood, leaving his family, he never had his own property. Day and night he was in the laboratories, and as an old man he lived in cheap hotels in New York.
  9. Nikola raised funds for the Serbian army during the First World War. And the second world war he met with broken ribs and severe pneumonia.
  10. In 1943, heart failure caused the death of Nikola Tesla. Cremated, and the ashes are in the Belgrade Museum named after Nikola Tesla.

The main achievements and inventions of Nikola Tesla

  1. Three-phase power supply system - the main merit of the great inventor.
  2. Alternating current - 120 years ago in Chicago, Nikola Tesla showed how electricity could be distributed without the use of wires.
  3. X-ray and X-rays thanks to the research of electromagnetic and ionizing radiation by Nikola Tesla, it became possible for scientists to learn and study the structure of a person without opening his stomach.
  4. Transformer or Tesla Coil A transformer capable of producing high voltage.


The scale and genius of Nikola Tesla's inventions amazed his contemporaries, and the audience of his "crazy experiments" amazed the audience. The inventor himself declared: "I do not work for the present, I work for the future." And so it happened, many of his inventions served as a huge impetus for our present. The devices described by Nikola Tesla are used everywhere.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)


Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) - an outstanding scientist who was ahead of his time. He was called the ruler of the world, the lord of lightning, and even the embodiment of higher intelligence. Every conscientious schoolboy knows his name, but not everyone knows that a significant number of real photographs of the scientist and his laboratory have been preserved. In addition, there are many rumors, legends and anecdotes around his semi-mythical figure. We have selected for you 5 interesting and, apparently, reliable facts that Tesla's biographers describe.


Nikola Tesla in his laboratory

1. He was born during a thunderstorm

Nikola Tesla was born on the night of July 9-10, 1856 in the midst of a severe thunderstorm. According to family tradition, the midwife who took birth, wringing her hands, proclaimed lightning a bad sign. She declared that the baby would be a child of darkness, to which his mother replied, "No, he would be a child of light."


Nikola Tesla with an electric light bulb

2 He Invented Smartphone Technology In 1901

According to Tesla's biographer Bernard Carlson, the scientist, although he had a brilliant intellect, was not so good when it came to practical implementation of ideas. During the race that resulted in the invention of transatlantic radio, Tesla described to his sponsor and business partner J.P. Morgan the idea of ​​a new method of instant communication, which consisted in the fact that stock quotes and telegrams would be redirected to his laboratory, where he would encode them and assign a new frequency to each. Then, as Tesla explained, the messages had to be broadcast to a device that could fit in one hand. In other words, he anticipated mobile communications and the Internet.

“He was the first to think about the information revolution in terms of transferring information to an individual user,” Carlson writes. Tesla also came up with, but never technically implemented, the idea of ​​radar, X-ray, beam weapons and radio astronomy.


Mark Twain takes part in an experiment with electricity

3. He made Mark Twain 'gut out'

One of Tesla's famous eccentric legends is that in his Manhattan laboratory, he built an earthquake machine that almost destroyed the entire area during testing.

In fact, Tesla's device was not an earthquake machine, but a high-frequency mechanical oscillator. The piston, installed under the platform, made it actively vibrate.

Once Tesla invited Mark Twain to his laboratory. Everyone knew that the writer, whom Tesla knew from the gentlemen's club, suffered from digestive problems. The scientist suggested that Twain try the work of a mechanical oscillator. About a minute and a half later, Twain quickly jumped off the platform and ran to the restroom.


Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

4. Pearl drove him crazy


Tesla couldn't stand pearls. To the point where he literally refused to talk to women who wore pearls. Once he sent home a secretary who had the imprudence to put on a pearl jewelry. No one knows the real reason for such idiosyncrasy, but Tesla was known as an esthete and had a very specific sense of style. He believed that in order to be successful, a person must look successful. Every evening he went out to dinner in white gloves, and was proud of the elegance of his suit. Carlson claims that every photograph of Tesla was required to show only his "winning side".


Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

5 He Had A Photographic Memory And Had A Fear Of Germs

Tesla was known for his ability to memorize books and images, and to store ideas for new inventions in his head. He also had an extremely vivid imagination, which allowed him to reproduce detailed three-dimensional images of objects once seen. Among other things, this ability helped him control the terrible nightmares that Tesla suffered from since childhood.

According to Carlson, in many ways, it is to her that he owes the fame of a mystical and eccentric character in popular culture. Another reason for idle gossip was his fanatical obsession with personal hygiene, which developed due to cholera suffered in adolescence, which nearly cost him his life.


Tesla in the laboratory, 1910


American photographer is unlikely to become famous for a great scientific discovery, but photographs of his experiments with "entertaining physics" are pleasing to the eye and exhibited in art galleries.

You will learn interesting facts from the life of the Austro-Hungarian inventor in the field of electrical and radio engineering of Serbian origin, engineer, physicist in this article.

Nikola Tesla interesting facts

Tesla was terrified of germs constantly washed his hands and in hotels demanded up to 18 towels a day.

After finishing school, he fell ill with cholera and lay in bed for almost 9 months.

If a fly landed on the table during lunch, he forced the waiter to bring a new order.

He settled in a hotel only if the number of his apartment was a multiple of three.

Walking down the street, he could do somersaults in a sudden impulse.

He often walked in the park and recited Faust by heart, and in these moments brilliant technical ideas dawned on him.

He had an inexplicable the gift of foresight. One day, seeing off his friends after a party, he persuaded them not to get on an approaching train and this saved their lives - the train really went off the rails, and many passengers died or were injured ...

Tesla played billiards almost professionally.

Tesla rested about 4 hours a day. Of these, two hours were spent thinking and only two hours sleeping.

He had a fierce dislike for women's earrings, especially those with pearls.

The smell of camphor made him very uncomfortable.

Tesla counted steps while walking, the volume of plates of soup, cups of coffee and pieces of food. If he failed to do this, then the food did not give him pleasure, so he preferred to eat alone.

Tesla never married. This contributed to his scientific abilities

In the late 1890s, a war broke out between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison, which was later called the "war of currents." Tesla's company worked with alternating current, while Edison's company worked with direct current. Edison tried in every possible way to denigrate competitors - he demonstrated to the public how alternating current animals die and even developed a project for the world's first electric chair (of course, it worked from a "bad" alternating current). Despite the tricks of Edison, Tesla prevailed - the country began to use alternating current.

In 1897 Tesla invented a miniature radio-controlled ship. Similar toys appeared in our stores only after 100 years.

Tesla and Edison met more than once in their lives. Tesla and Edison were once nominated for the same Nobel Prize. They were supposed to split it in half. But sworn enemies chose to abandon it.

Tesla died at the age of 86, in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. Despite all his numerous patents, towards the end of his life Nicola plunged into debt and poverty. Two days after his death, the FBI seized all of Tesla's property. But Nikola managed to outwit the government here too - in the box, supposedly containing part of the "death ray", there was only a large old resistor. The FBI never found anything.

There is an opinion that Tesla destroyed all the documents related to his brilliant inventions. But according to the employees of the Serbian Tesla Museum, at least 60,000 scientific documents written by Nikola have come down to us. The legacy of the great inventor has not disappeared - just no one wants to study it.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) - an outstanding scientist who was ahead of his time. He was called the ruler of the world, the lord of lightning, and even the embodiment of higher intelligence. Every conscientious schoolboy knows his name, but not everyone knows that a significant number of real photographs of the scientist and his laboratory have been preserved. In addition, there are many rumors, legends and anecdotes around his semi-mythical figure. We have selected for you 5 interesting and, apparently, reliable facts that Tesla's biographers describe.

Nikola Tesla in his laboratory

1. He was born during a thunderstorm

Nikola Tesla was born on the night of July 9-10, 1856 in the midst of a severe thunderstorm. According to family tradition, the midwife who took birth, wringing her hands, proclaimed lightning a bad sign. She declared that the baby would be a child of darkness, to which his mother replied, "No, he would be a child of light."

Nikola Tesla with an electric light bulb

2 He Invented Smartphone Technology In 1901

According to Tesla's biographer Bernard Carlson, the scientist, although he had a brilliant intellect, was not so good when it came to practical implementation of ideas. During the race that resulted in the invention of transatlantic radio, Tesla described to his sponsor and business partner J.P. Morgan the idea of ​​a new method of instant communication, which consisted in the fact that stock quotes and telegrams would be redirected to his laboratory, where he would encode them and assign a new frequency to each. Then, as Tesla explained, the messages had to be broadcast to a device that could fit in one hand. In other words, he anticipated mobile communications and the Internet. “He was the first to think about the information revolution in terms of transferring information to an individual user,” Carlson writes. Tesla also came up with, but never technically implemented, the idea of ​​radar, X-ray, beam weapons and radio astronomy.

Mark Twain takes part in an experiment with electricity

3. He made Mark Twain 'gut out'

One of Tesla's famous eccentric legends is that in his Manhattan laboratory, he built an earthquake machine that almost destroyed the entire area during testing. In fact, Tesla's device was not an earthquake machine, but a high-frequency mechanical oscillator. The piston, installed under the platform, made it actively vibrate. Once Tesla invited Mark Twain to his place. Everyone knew that the writer, whom Tesla knew from the gentlemen's club, suffered from digestive problems. The scientist suggested that Twain try the work of a mechanical oscillator. About a minute and a half later, Twain quickly jumped off the platform and ran to the restroom.

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

4. Pearl drove him crazy

Tesla couldn't stand pearls. To the point where he literally refused to talk to women who wore pearls. Once he sent home a secretary who had the imprudence to put on a pearl jewelry. No one knows the real reason for such idiosyncrasy, but Tesla was known as an esthete and had a very specific sense of style. He believed that in order to be successful, a person must look successful. Every evening he went out to dinner in white gloves, and was proud of the elegance of his suit. Carlson claims that every photograph of Tesla was required to show only his "winning side".

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

5 He Had A Photographic Memory And Had A Fear Of Germs

Tesla was known for his ability to memorize books and images, and to store ideas for new inventions in his head. He also had an extremely vivid imagination, which allowed him to reproduce detailed three-dimensional images of objects once seen. Among other things, this ability helped him control the terrible nightmares that Tesla suffered from since childhood. According to Carlson, in many ways, it is to her that he owes the fame of a mystical and eccentric character in popular culture. Another reason for idle gossip was his fanatical obsession with personal hygiene, which developed due to cholera suffered in adolescence, which nearly cost him his life.

Tesla in the laboratory, 1910

American photographer Caleb Charland is unlikely to become famous for a great scientific discovery, but photographs of his experiments with "entertaining physics" are pleasing to the eye and exhibited in art galleries.