Nikola Tesla is perhaps on the most underrated inventors in history.
Tesla was a Serbian-American born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika (Austria-Hungary). He studied at several institutions and found a great interest in electricity. One day while talking with his friend, he suddenly had an idea for the induction motor and began work on it. Unfortunately, he was unable to interest anyone in Europe with his invention, but was invited to America to work for Thomas Edison. Tesla arrived in America in 1884 where he began to work on improving several on Edison’s inventions. During his time in America he had several arguments with Edison regarding direct current and alternating current and this eventually led them to split up. DC flows continuously in one direction but AC changes direction fifty or sixty times per second and can be stepped up to high voltage levels, minimizing power loss across great distances. Because of these traits, Tesla believed alternating current would be better than direct current and he would be correct. From that point on he went to invent several more technologies including the Tesla coil, a steam turbine, the basic system of a radio and terrestrial stationary waves, which showed that the Earth could be used as a conductor. He was known for frequently inviting famous people to his laboratories and showcasing his inventions but was generally a shut in, choosing to work on his theories and inventions than being in public. He was also credited for working on the idea of wireless technology where electricity could be discharged at any point on the globe. Tesla also entertained the idea of interplanetary communication using the transmitter he had created. Unfortunately, since there was no profit from the invention he had been working on, his funding stopped and his research was incomplete. Tesla also designed the world’s first hydroelectric power plant in Niagara Falls in 1895; this was considered a huge victory for Tesla and the invention of alternating current. Tesla died in 1943 in a hotel in New York where he had been living at the time. During his last years in life he began to drift into insanity because he was often secluded with his work and rarely left his room. Tesla received many awards for his work after his death, and many of his theories were made reality as well.
One of the reasons why Tesla is one of the most underrated inventors in history is because of the damage to his reputation done by Thomas Edison. To discredit Tesla’s invention of alternating current, Edison would pay school children to bring him pets, after which he would display, alternating current killing the pets in view of other people, declaring that alternating current was extremely dangerous. Thomas Edison also offered Tesla a huge sum of money to fix one of his inventions, challenging him in public view. When Tesla fixed it, Edison laughed and replied, “Tesla, you don’t get our American humour”. An interesting fact about Tesla was that he never dated, simply because he wanted to put more focus on his work instead, despite the fact that he was very popular. Tesla also had an eidetic memory where he could read books and papers and memorize them without difficulty; he knew 8 different languages as well (Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian and Latin).
Nikola Tesla 