Byzantine Blog

“Were we to seize and to eliminate the results of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark, and our mills would be dead and idle.”
B. A. Behrend, distinguished author and engineer.

If you happen to be in or near Pittsburgh, Pasadena on Tuesday, June 20th this year, remember to visit the Carnegie Mellon University School of Computer Science located at 5000 Forbes Avenue. At Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Institute at 11:30 a.m. the bronze statue of Nikola Tesla will be unveiled, followed by special presentation by a Tesla expert, Jeffrey Sellon, P.E. and a reception.

The brief and succinct introduction to the event says almost everything one should know about Tesla's rare genius:

Nikola Tesla was possibly the greatest discoverer the world has known since Leonardo da Vinci. Even so, Tesla is one of the least recognized scientific discoverers in history.

• It was Tesla, not Edison, who discovered the alternating current we use today.
• It was Tesla, not Marconi, who discovered radio.
• It was Tesla who discovered fluorescent lighting.
• It was Tesla who discovered the basics of robotry, computers, and missile science that are the foundation for today’s technology.

Nikola Tesla, a Serb from Lika (Serbian Krajina in Croatia), was born into a family with long line of Serbian priests and baptised in Serbian Orthodox Church. His baptism certificate reports that he was born on June 28, 1856 (Julian calendar), July 10 by the new, Gregorian calendar. His father, Rev. Milutin Tesla of Serbian Orthodox Church, was hoping Nikola will continue the family tradition and get ordained into priesthood, but didn't insist, since Nikola started showing his calling was of different nature from a very early age. Tesla's mother was Đuka Mandić, herself a daughter of a Serbian Orthodox priest. By Tesla's own account, his mother was a gifted inventor, a maker of tools and devices for her weaving, carpentry, and other handiwork, from whom he inherited most of his extraordinary talents.

Not surprisingly, a number of Croatian nationals are investing a lot of time and effort to persuade the world Nikola Tesla was of Croatian nationality, even though Tesla was a son of no other but a Serbian Orthodox priest and a Serbian Orthodox priest's daughter was his mother. Even the online Wikipedia had to note on the pages about Tesla that “his nationality is disputed between Croatians and Serbs”. This must be due to inordinate amounts of stubbornness, among other things, by those who prefer to ignore not just Tesla's heritage, Faith and ancestors, but also his own words:

There is something within me that might be illusion as it is often case with young delighted people, but if I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity. If those hopes would become fulfilled, the most exiting thought would be that it is a deed of a Serb. Long live Serbdom! Addressing thousands of Belgrade citizens who came to greet him upon arrival, on June 1st 1892.

As you can see and hear, I have remained a Serb overseas where I have done some researches. You should do so and by your knowledge and hard work you should glorify Serbdom over the world. Speaking to the Belgrade University students in 1892.

By the time he was a teenager, Tesla spoke four languages. At about age 17, he found to his delight that he could create things in his mind, picturing them as the finished product without models, drawings or experiments. Later on, he related in his autobiography that he experienced astonishing moments of inspiration from an early age. Tesla would visualise an invention in his mind in precise form and minuscule detail before moving to the construction stage; a technique which is sometimes known as picture thinking. This is how he explained this unique creative process:

Before I put a sketch on paper, the whole idea is worked out mentally. In my mind I change the construction, make improvements, and even operate the device. Without ever having drawn a sketch I can give the measurements of all parts to workmen, and when completed all these parts will fit, just as certainly as though I had made the actual drawings. It is immaterial to me whether I run my machine in my mind or test it in my shop. The inventions I have conceived in this way have always worked. In thirty years there has not been a single exception. My first electric motor, the vacuum wireless light, my turbine engine and many other devices have all been developed in exactly this way.

Tesla studied electrical engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, Austria. While there, he studied the uses of alternating current and engaged in reading many works, memorizing complete books, including Faust by Goethe, one of Tesla's favorite poets. At times, however, Tesla's discipline and thirst for knowledge turned to be an overwhelming burden:

I had a veritable mania for finishing whatever I began, which often got me into difficulties. On one occasion I started to read the works of Voltaire when I learned, to my dismay, that there were close to one hundred large volumes in small print which that monster had written while drinking seventy-two cups of black coffee per diem. It had to be done, but when I laid aside the last book I was very glad, and said: “Never more!”. (Nikola Tesla, My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla)

Tesla worked in Budapest and Paris before moving to States in 1884, where he was hired by Thomas Edison to work for Edison Machine Works. He resigned in 1886 and established his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. Until his passing on January 7 1943 in New York, Tesla invented a telephone repeater, rotating magnetic field principle, polyphase alternating-current system, induction motor, alternating-current power transmission, coil transformer (known as Tesla coil transformer, or Tesla coil), wireless communication, radio, fluorescent lights, and more than 700 other patents.

One commentator gives a perfect snapshot of Tesla's genius that allows for direct insight into what this amazing man truly out of his time was capable of:

Think about this... the technology to make cell phones has existed for 115 years! It was invented by Nikola Tesla in 1891! In fact everything we consider to be “modern technology” has been perfected for almost a hundred years!!!

Tesla conducting experiments in his Colorado Springs Laboratory. Dec. 31, 1899.

Tesla had a plan to give FREE power to anyone in the world capable of installing a metal rod into the ground in 1910, but was sabotaged by both J.P. Morgan (International Banker) and Continental Edison (Tom 'EVIL' Edison, and his cronies).

Nikola used to sit in his Laboratory in Colorado, and create 10,000 megawatt lighting storms....just for fun. He determined the exact frequency of the planets harmonic convergence, a means by which anti-gravity power became a reality. In 1911, he flew the worlds first flying 'saucer', utilizing his new technology.

Tesla also wrote the plans on 'weather modification' and designed a real working antennal array, to manipulate weather patterns from any stationary spot on the planet.

Tesla was also able to create earthquakes and has enabled us to replace horse-driven carriages with motor cars, for without his coil transformers (Tesla coil) no motor car could operate, today or ever. No wonder U.S. Ministry of Defense has seized all of his notes, drawings and experiment logs immediately after his death, and keeps them in strict confidence since 1943!

During his lifetime, Tesla became a fellow of the AIEE, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and of a dozen other professional societies. He received over 13 honorary degrees from such diverse institutions as Columbia, Yale, and the Universities of Paris, Vienna, Prague, and Sofia. In 1937, he was nominated for the Nobel prize in physics by the same man who previously nominated Albert Einstein for the highest award, Felix Ehrenhaft of Vienna.

Throughout his life Tesla was a strict vegetarian and a celibate. In spite of all the adulation that was heaped upon him, Tesla had but one desire - to continue his work. He allowed himself no more then four hours of sleep a day and was an exceptionally disciplined and hard worker. He enjoyed poetry and the opera and though he was not a drinker, he appreciated a glass of beer and advocated the limited consumption of liquor as an elixir of life. Although extremely popular - his public demonstrations were more crowded then the concert halls - and with many admirers who considered him charismatic and fascinating, he never married and counted very few people as his close friends. Mark Twain was one of them:

I had hardly completed my course at the Real Gymnasium when I was prostrated with a dangerous illness or rather, a score of them, and my condition became so desperate that I was given up by physicians. During this period I was permitted to read constantly, obtaining books from the Public Library which had been neglected and entrusted to me for classification of the works and preparation of the catalogues. One day I was handed a few volumes of new literature unlike anything I had ever read before and so captivating as to make me utterly forget my hopeless state. They were the earlier works of Mark Twain and to them might have been due the miraculous recovery which followed. Twenty-five years later, when I met Mr. Clemens and we formed a friendship between us, I told him of the experience and was amazed to see that great man of laughter burst into tears. Nikola Tesla, “My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla”

Among the monuments honoring Nikola Tesla and his genius is the bronze statue at Niagara Falls, between the United States and Canada boarders, built in the mid-seventies. It is a twin of Tesla monument from 1963, erected in front of the Electrical Engineering building of the Belgrade University in Serbia.

Although most of Tesla's notes and manuscripts remain out of reach sixty years after his death, being classified as top secret by the U.S. Ministry of Defense (Margaret Cheney, Tesla: Man Out of Time), many of his inventions, thousands of artifacts and personal items can be seen in Belgrade Museum of Nikola Tesla.

Along with numerous web sites dedicated to Nikola Tesla (a very good and detailed one with verified information about the great inventor is available here) and books about his life and work published in dozens of languages, there is also a Tesla Memorial Society of New York which has written a proposal to United Nations' officials to proclaim July 10th, Nikola Tesla's birthday, an international “Nikola Tesla Day”. It is also important to note that year 2006 is the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birth.

Note: This entry's title is part of the title of the book written by Robert Lomas: The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, Forgotten Genius of Electricity.