A mad scientist, a lonely recluse, a selfish maniac. No matter how you address him, Nikola Tesla provided the backbone for the electricity we use in our daily lives. Without his lasting influence, we still may be searching for a way to harness the electrons whizzing around atoms. Nikola Tesla was an influential inventor who revolutionized modern engineering by introducing alternating current and developing countless designs for electrical devices. As a young man, Nikola Tesla attended the Technical University at Graz, where he had his first experience with true electrical engineering. The Gramme dynamo was one of the first electric motors/generators, and it proved to inspire many aspects of Tesla’s future inventions (“Nikola Tesla, Britannica”).
…show more content…
He contributed other small, but important nevertheless, designs and products. For instance, to help the Navy in World War II, Tesla proposed energy waves. The government (and public) quickly shut him down and disregarded his “outlandish” idea. This idea of radar would turn out to be revolutionary, doing everything from guiding missiles to tracking weather ("Nikola Tesla - Unsung"). Another example of his brilliance was the Arc Lamp, commonly regarded as one of his best designs. By exposing part of his alternating current system to carbon electrolytes in the air, Tesla was able to efficiently turn electricity into light ("Nikola Tesla", American). The Tesla coil was yet another example of Tesla’s ingenuity. The coil was a type of transformer that caused near-perpetual motion of electrons. This was the basis of a modern day transformer, which basically adjusts the voltage of electricity. Without a transformer, houses would have to either supply very low voltage electricity, which would be used very quickly and therefore would prove to be very expensive and slow, or all electronics (phones, laptops, lights) would have to use very high voltage electricity, which would be an unimaginably dangerous hazard ("Nikola Tesla", American). All of these small inventions still strongly influence the world
He contributed other small, but important nevertheless, designs and products. For instance, to help the Navy in World War II, Tesla proposed energy waves. The government (and public) quickly shut him down and disregarded his “outlandish” idea. This idea of radar would turn out to be revolutionary, doing everything from guiding missiles to tracking weather ("Nikola Tesla - Unsung"). Another example of his brilliance was the Arc Lamp, commonly regarded as one of his best designs. By exposing part of his alternating current system to carbon electrolytes in the air, Tesla was able to efficiently turn electricity into light ("Nikola Tesla", American). The Tesla coil was yet another example of Tesla’s ingenuity. The coil was a type of transformer that caused near-perpetual motion of electrons. This was the basis of a modern day transformer, which basically adjusts the voltage of electricity. Without a transformer, houses would have to either supply very low voltage electricity, which would be used very quickly and therefore would prove to be very expensive and slow, or all electronics (phones, laptops, lights) would have to use very high voltage electricity, which would be an unimaginably dangerous hazard ("Nikola Tesla", American). All of these small inventions still strongly influence the world