Nikola tesla (Serbian: николатесла; 1856 July10-1943 65438+1October 7) is a world-famous inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. Serbian descent, he was born in Croatia (later incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Tesla is considered as an important inventor in history. His contributions to electricity and magnetism at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century are also well known. Tesla's patent and theoretical work formed a modern AC power system including AC motors, which helped promote the second industrial revolution.
Nikola tesla. He was born in Smithrian, Croatia, and later became an American citizen. Because of his admiration for Edison, Tesla was recommended by Bacheller to join Edison's American company 1884. Tesla and Edison were born incompatible, and there were serious differences between them. Edison paid attention to practice. He was a man who invented by experience and exploration. Tesla is the kind of person who pays attention to theory. He thought Edison's actions were very stupid. He believes that the experiment must be based on theory, instead of making 10000 attempts with a single filament like Edison (he found more than 6000 kinds of bamboos all over the world to do experiments. When the number of experiments reached 65,438+00,000 times, the bamboo suitable for filament was finally found.) Tesla often joked about this "experience trawl" later, "If Edison looks for a needle in a pile of grass, he will immediately rummage through the straw like a bee until he finds what he wants. In fact, if you know a little theory and do a little calculation, then he can easily save 90% of the labor force. "
On one occasion, Tesla and Edison talked about several potential reform possibilities of generators. Edison said contemptuously, "If you can do it, I will pay you $50,000." Tesla worked frantically for several months to transform the generator, and after loading the modified parts into the generator, he was completely successful. When he asked Edison for 50 thousand dollars, Edison replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor." Because Tesla's talent was so outstanding, he was repeatedly persecuted by Edison and resigned from Edison's company angrily.
1880, Tesla invented the world's first alternator. He firmly believes that alternating current will one day make the power supply range wider and the cost lower. Edison shrugged off the idea and was unwilling to seriously consider it.
After leaving Edison, Tesla got the support of George Westinghouse and finally led the alternating current to practical application. 1888, Tesla successfully built an AC transmission system. The generator he designed is simpler and more convenient than the DC generator, and his transformer solves the inherent problems of long-distance transmission. This is undoubtedly a great blow to the direct current promoted by Edison (Edison earned a lot of money in direct current generators at that time and was unwilling to conduct other research).
Edison still realized that alternating current can reduce costs, which is beyond doubt. Attacking alternating current from an economic point of view is bound to end in failure. So he made a big fuss about other aspects of alternating current. He realized that in the last period of the19th century, the public was still afraid of electricity: although electricity can bring benefits to human beings, it may also kill people. Therefore, publicizing the dangers of high pressure is the most effective way to disturb the public's mind.
So, he issued a booklet called "Beware", which listed in detail the harm of so-called alternating current, and described the use of alternating current as "futile" strangely. Edison also published an article entitled "The Danger of Electric Lights" in North American Weekly, attacking the use of alternating current. He said: "An electric light company that keeps in touch with me bought a patent for a whole set of communication systems some time ago. I protested against this, and the content was recorded in the company memorandum. So far, I have successfully persuaded them not to promote this system to the public. Even if I agree to promote it today, they will not do so. "
Edison not only overwhelmed the other side in public opinion, but also built a huge laboratory to prove his point of view. He hired primary school students to catch cats, dogs and other domestic animals in the street for experiments and brutally shocked them with alternating current. He also persuaded officials in New York State Prison to promise to change hanging to electrocution, that is, electrocution with alternating current provided by Tesla's patent. 1890 On August 6th, a murderer, William Kemler, sat in Auburn's AC chair and died. Because of inexperience, the charges used by the authorities were too weak, and the prisoners were just electrocuted. According to media reports at that time, this horrible sight was much more terrible than hanging. Since then, alternating current has caused fear in many people's hearts and has become synonymous with death.
But practice has proved that alternating current has many advantages, so Tesla was not intimidated by Edison's series of attacks. In order to change the public's impression of alternating current, he hired a reporter from Pittsburgh, E·H· Heinsis, as his news consultant. Under the arrangement of E·H· Heinz, Tesla let current pass through his body, lit electric lights and even melted wires at the press conference of 1893 Chicago Expo, which stunned the reporters present and achieved great publicity effect. This has changed the public's view of alternating current and brought the world into the era of alternating current.
19 12, Tesla and Edison were awarded the nobel prize in physics at the same time for their contributions to electricity, but both refused to accept the prize because they could not bear to share the honor with each other. In addition to outstanding achievements in electricity, Tesla's inventions in other aspects are also quite amazing. He devoted his life to studying nonlinear problems (that is, the input is not proportional to the output), and once said that the earth can be divided into two parts. As early as 19 12, Tesla put forward: "If the vibration of objects and the resonance frequency of the earth are correctly combined, the ground will vibrate and fluctuate within a few weeks." 1935 Tesla drilled a deep well in his laboratory and put a steel casing in the well. Then, he blocked the wellhead and input vibrations of different frequencies into the well. Strangely, at a certain frequency, the ground will suddenly vibrate strongly and the surrounding houses will collapse. Some magazines at that time commented: "Tesla almost razed new york to the ground with an artificially induced earthquake". This is the famous Tesla experiment. This super transmission effect of small input and large output is called Tesla effect, which is the key to geophysical weapons, so Tesla is also the founder of long-range weapons.
Not only that, Tesla also invented Tesla transformer, AC electric motorcycle, modern computer foundation, wireless communication, solar system, radar device, robot, death ray and lie detector, and put forward the concept of electromagnetic radio frequency weapon ... These inventions and discoveries surpassed the technological era at that time, and some theories could not be perfectly answered even by the most advanced technology today. After Tesla's death, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation confiscated all his design drawings and experimental works, and the US military never stopped studying his papers. This also created a mystery for Tesla.
Although Tesla was born a genius, his fate is confusing. Tesla's fate is bumpy and his personality is eccentric, so his evaluation by later generations is obviously lower than his historical achievements. 1943 Tesla died alone in the hotel. However, his achievements cannot be buried. In recognition of his achievements in realizing 200 kV and overhead 57.6 meters high-voltage transmission as early as 1896 ~ 1899, and his contribution in making the famous Tesla coil and AC system, the International Electrotechnical Institute decided to use his name as the unit of magnetic induction intensity on the occasion of his centenary birthday (1956).
There are many rumors about Tesla because he doesn't believe in relativity and stays away from the mainstream world. His theory and design are absurd in the eyes of laymen, but magical in the eyes of insiders. Things like Tesla coils and amplifier transmitters, if used on a large scale, can indeed use electricity without paying electricity bills, but they have violated the interests of those in power (Edison and ZF), so they have been monitored and suppressed for a lifetime and have also been slandered as pseudo-scientists. Even the FBI had to follow him all the time, which was regarded as "evidence" by later netizens. The legend of the Tunguska Big Bang means that he built the Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island near new york in1901905, which is a complex electromagnetic oscillator. Tesla used this tower to realize the * * * vibration of the earth and ionosphere, and later generations think that this tower triggered 660.
In addition, it is said that Tesla hated war, so he invented death ray to fight fascism during World War II. It is said that the so-called death ray is an ion beam weapon. This concentrated particle beam can kill millions of people in one blow, and it uses a voltage as high as 50 million volts. The sketch map of this death ray was sent to the major anti-fascist countries at that time, but it was blocked by these countries, and it was rumored that the Soviet Union used it in the war in Afghanistan.