The famous writer Hugo Gernsback once said: “If you are talking about the man who actually invented, in other words, who created and discovered – and who did not simply improve on what had already been invented by others, then Nikola Tesla is without a shadow of a doubt the greatest inventor in the world, not only today, but also in all history. 'history." Powerful words from an influential man, and he wasn't wrong. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"?Get the original essayNikola Tesla, born July 10, 1856 in what is now Croatia, is widely considered one of the most influential scientists in to have lived. It is very clear to see how he gained such a reputation by delving into three of his arguably most important inventions and roles in: AC motors and the war of currents, the Tesla coil, and radio. In class, we learned that in direct current, the current only flows in one direction, whereas in alternating current, it alternates in each direction, hence their names direct current and alternating current. The great debate between the two began in 1884, the year Tesla began working for Thomas Edison. The two got along well, they played pool and joked in their free time, and were generally pleasant, but one point they tended to disagree on was over AC electricity. While working for Edison, Tesla created the first alternating current motor. He did this by taking Edison's dynamos and remaking them, for example replacing their long magnets with short-core magnets. He thought it was three times more effective than the DC equivalent. In the late 1880s, Edison created a cost-effective way to create DC electricity, dynamos, and machines to go with it. The problem is that there was no way to increase or decrease the voltage. It is in this aspect that alternating current had the advantage, because it had the transformer. Transformers consist of two coils of wire wound around an iron core. When an electric current passes through one of them, the iron core becomes magnetized, which, in turn, induces an electric current in the other wire because, as we learned in class: " current can be induced to flow through a conductor in a changing magnetic field. » (Faraday's Law) This transformer allowed companies using alternating current to increase or decrease the voltage based on the ratio of the number of turns of wire in each coil. This magic device could increase efficiency while reducing voltage loss over long distances, then reduce the voltage again to safer values ​​for final delivery to the consumer. This sparked a huge controversy known as the War of the Currents, as the stakes were high for Edison and the power companies using direct current electricity. So much so that Edison and a man named Harold Brown began spreading the news that this alternative electricity was dangerous and would publicly electrocute stray dogs, cats, horses and, notably, Topsy the Elephant, to prove it to the world. audience. In 1855, George Westinghouse, a notable figure in electricity sales at the time, began experimenting with a transformer created by Lucien Gaulard and John Gibbs, and in May 1888 Tesla presented a paper to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers to convince everyone of the superiority of alternating current over direct current. , Westinghouse had sold more AC power plants than all theDC power supplying companies combined, and AC reigned victorious due to its obvious advantages. Another influential Tesla device is the Tesla coil. Simply put, a Tesla coil is a device that allows the transfer of electricity wirelessly. This invention began with a man named Heinrich Hertz, who was the first person to transmit and receive radio waves. Tesla took Hertz's basic designs and modified them to run on alternating current. This increased the frequency that the original device would emit from a few hundred cycles per second to ten thousand to twenty thousand. Through experiments, he eventually created the Tesla coil. The Tesla coil consists of two coils of wire, a step-up transformer, a top load and a capacitor with a spark gap. In the device, the transformer increases the voltage in the circuit, the charge would then be stored in the primary coil capacitor. Here the current builds up until it reaches a tipping point and creates its own voltage which attempts to act as a bridge across the spark gap. This eventually closes the circuit and current then bursts through the coils, causing a very strong magnetic field in the primary coil. This change in the magnetic field causes voltage to pass through the coils and the top load maximizes this energy received from the primary coil. The voltage produced is so incredibly high that it can break apart air molecules and push their electrons into arcs, creating huge sparks. This amazing equipment was used by Nikola Tesla himself to experiment and learn about fluorescence, X-rays, radio, wireless energy and the Earth's atmosphere. Different versions are even used today in modern technology like CRT displays, combustion engines, welding machines, lighters and even in special effects for the entertainment industry. Tesla's dream of a wireless world didn't stop at the Tesla coil, it was later seen in much more of Tesla's work, including radio. Tesla first came up with the idea of ​​radio in 1892, and in 1898 he created a radio-controlled robotic boat. This boat ran on batteries and had switches activated by radio signals that controlled the propeller, rudder and lights. Using different frequencies, Tesla could start and stop the boat, steer it, and turn the lights on and off. In 1900, after realizing what could be done with radio, Tesla developed a transmission tower in Wardenclyffe on Long Island. The purpose of this tower was to create radio transmission services available worldwide. Marconi had a similar idea when he erected a power transmitter himself at Poldhu, Cornwall, England. He managed to send a signal 200 miles away on December 12, 1901. After hearing about this, an engineer working for Tesla, Otis Pond, reportedly told Tesla, "Looks like Marconi has gotten the better of you." » To which Tesla replied: “Marconi is a good boy. Let him continue. He uses seventeen of my patents. We can't get through it. Despite all this, Guglielmo Marconi usually gets credit for the invention. This is because Marconi obtained patents for his radio devices. Marconi even received a Nobel Prize for what should be widely considered Tesla's work. A National Press Reporter article from 1912 summed up the situation perfectly: "Mr. Tesla showed in 1892 that the true radio effect was not a means by which it was possible for a transmitting station to communicate with a receiving station at a great distance. He further demonstrated that the waves propagated at a transmitting station are.