Nikola Tesla was certainly an eccentric scientist, but many believe that his inventions were more outstanding than those of Alexander Graham Bell or Thomas Edison. His electric cars, wild imagination and eccentric style have become a symbol of "crazy genius".
1. Wireless transmission of electricity
About 120 years ago, at the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, Tesla demonstrated the wireless transmission of electricity by lighting a series of phosphor light bulbs in a process called electrodynamic induction. He dreamed that one day such technology would help us transmit electricity over long distances in the atmosphere, providing remote areas with the energy they need to live comfortably.
Now, more than a century later, big companies like Intel and Sony are interested in applying non-radiative power transmission to things like mobile phones so that we can charge batteries without power cords.
2. X-ray
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Tesla's research on electromagnetics has helped radiologists around the world see human anatomy without ripping open their belly. However, in the late 1880s, this idea seemed quite crazy.
Although the discovery of X-rays is credited to the German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen in 1895, it was Tesla who, in his experiments with this technology eight years before Roentgen, drew attention to some of the dangers of using radiation on human flesh.
3. Death ray
In the 1930s, Nikola Tesla was said to have invented a particle beam weapon called the "death ray." In theory, the device could generate an intensely directed beam of energy that could be used to destroy enemy aircraft, armies, and other things.
However, the "death ray" was never released by Tesla, although he tried to sell it to various military units.
4. Robotics
Tesla envisioned that in the future, a whole race of robots would be able to safely and efficiently perform human work. In 1898, he demonstrated a radio-controlled boat that he invented, which many consider "the birth of robotics." He predicted that the world would soon be filled with smart machines, robots, various sensors and autonomous systems.
5. The machine causing the earthquake
In the same year, 1898, Tesla announced that he had developed an oscillator that shook the building and everything that was next to it. The device itself weighed about a kilogram, but the scientist was able to adjust the vibration timing at such a frequency that each small vibration added more energy to the wave bends of the building. With enough small aftershocks, even the largest building could be shaken apart.
Realizing the potential danger of his invention, he smashed the generator with a hammer and asked his employees, in case of anything, to declare complete ignorance of the causes of the earthquake.