Nikola Tesla Facts

Nikola Tesla has been hailed as one of the most visionary men in the history of science. Here are some interesting Nikola Tesla facts. Learn more, and share your knowledge!

• When Tesla arrived in New York from Serbia, he had 4 cents to his name.

• Nikola Tesla was an inventor, engineer and geek that lived in the 1800s.

• Tesla invented the Rotating Magnetic Field.
  

  “My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength and inspiration. I have not penetrated into the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.” – Nikola Tesla

• Tesla invented the Alternating Current (AC). This electrical system today powers every home on the planet.

• Nikola Tesla discovered the AC Motor.

• The Tesla coil is one of Nikola Tesla’s most famous inventions. It is essentially a high-frequency air-core transformer.

• Nikola Tesla’s name has been honored with an International Unit of Magnetic Flux Density called “Tesla” (most installed clinical MRI scanners are built around this.)

• Tesla discovered X-ray radiation 3 years before Wilhelm Roentgen was credited for the same discovery.
  

• Tesla invented a free energy machine.

• Tesla applied for the first basic radio patent in 1897. A year later, he demonstrated a radio controlled boat to the U.S. military.

• Tesla didn’t invented the light itself, but he did invent how light can be harnessed and distributed.

• Tesla invented fluorescent bulbs and neon signs (just think about clubbing and dancing).

• Tesla discovered remote control and patented a radio controlled robot-boat.

• Nikola Tesla proved that the Earth is a conductor. He produced artificial lightning.

• He predicted the internet by saying: “The household’s daily newspaper will [one day] be printed ‘wirelessly’ in the home during the night”.

• He claimed to have designed a death ray that could electrocute an approaching army completely at a distance of 200 miles.

• Nikola Tesla and George Westinghouse built the first hydro-electric power plant in Niagara Falls.

• Tesla built a wireless power transmission facility known as the Wardenclyffe Tower.
  

  Father of Alternative Energy: In his lab in Colorado Springs, Nikola Tesla theorized that electricity could be broadcast free through the earth, even generated from lightning and charged particles in the atmosphere.

• Tesla claimed that electrical energy can be economically transmitted without wires (welcome to the wifi era).

• Nikola Tesla was the first scientist who utilized the ionosphere for the scientific purposes.

• Tesla is at the basis of numerous inventions. Some 700 patents were issued to his name.

• David Bowie played Tesla in the Prestige movie.

• Tesla was a polyglot. He spoke more than six languages with fluency.

• Tesla was celibate.

• Tesla had a photographic memory and fear of germs.

• Tesla claimed to sleep in spurts, but never over a period of more than two hours at a time.

• Tesla never spoke to a woman who wore pearls.

• He was unusually fond of pigeons.

• Tesla was obsessed with the number three and polished every dining implement he used to perfection, using 18 napkins.

• Nikola Tesla walked eight to 10 miles a day and was very aware of staying fit.

• Tesla loved nature and used it a lot in his inventions.

• Tesla died penniless and alone in the Hotel New Yorker.

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