Nikola Tesla and His Legacy
“Today’s scientists have substituted mathematics for experiments, and they wander off through equation after equation, and eventually build a structure which has no relation to reality.”
–NIKOLA TESLA
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian physicist, engineer, and inventor. He obtained around 200 patents worldwide during his lifetime. In total, 278 patents were issued in his name, and 112 of them were granted in the United States. He is well known for designing the alternating current (AC) electric system, which remains a predominant electrical system used across the world. He also invented the Tesla coil, an essential device in radio technology.
Throughout his career, Tesla discovered and developed several important inventions. He pioneered the discovery of radar and X-ray technology that we use today. This article aims to highlight some of the remarkable patents granted in his name.
Tesla’s Notable Inventions
COIL FOR ELECTRO MAGNETS [US512340] – 9th January 1894
The Electromagnetic coil, commonly known as the Tesla coil, uses two coils that store energy. The Tesla coil can shoot lightning-like bolts and send electric currents through the body. Tesla developed this invention because he was obsessed with powering cities wirelessly. Today, the coil is used mainly for entertainment in places such as science centers and museums. Some of its components also support radio technology.
TURBINE [US1061206] – 6TH May 1913
In the early 20th century, Tesla developed his own turbine to compete with the piston engine. Its discs operated when fuel combusted before entering the main chamber that held them. The combustion caused the discs to rotate and run the engine. Tesla’s tests reached 60 percent fuel efficiency at a time when even today we achieve only about 42 percent fuel-to-energy conversion rates.
ELECTROMAGNETIC MOTOR [US381968] – 1st May 1888
Tesla’s motor uses alternating current and has two main parts: a stator and a rotor. In the 1880s, both Tesla and Galileo Ferraris worked separately on similar motors. However, Tesla filed his patents first. The induction motor became highly influential and is still used in everyday devices such as vacuums, blow dryers, and power tools.
SYSTEM OF TRANSMISSION OF ELECTRICAL ENERGY (RADIO) [US645576] – 20TH March 1900
Tesla discovered that he could transmit and receive powerful radio signals when both ends resonated at the same frequency. By early 1895, he was ready to send a signal 50 miles to West Point, New York. However, a major fire struck that year and destroyed his lab along with much of his work.
Many people consider Guglielmo Marconi the father of radio, so Tesla’s role often remains unknown. Marconi claimed the early radio patents, even though Tesla had developed the core ideas first. Tesla tried for years to prove that he created radio technology. In 1943, a few months after his death, the U.S. Supreme Court deemed Marconi’s patents invalid and upheld Tesla’s radio patent.
Tesla’s Impact and Legacy
The above list clearly shows that Tesla was a man with big ideas and lived far ahead of his time. Many people believe that he lost several brilliant patent ideas in the 1895 laboratory fire, yet he still gave the world many remarkable and pioneering inventions. Tesla died of coronary thrombosis on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86 in New York City. However, the legacy of his work continues to keep him alive even today.