It is the 160th anniversary of the birth of the great scientist Nikola Tesla, so I decided to share a visual walkthrough the museum of Nikola Tesla located Belgrade, Serbia.
The museum itself is a bit small for all the inventions exhibited, nevertheless it was quite an experience to be able to see and experience things like wireless transfer of electricity made possible over a 100 years ago ( It almost seems unbelievable that we are still waiting for mobile manufactures to give us the possibility to wirelessly charge our devices. )
It was nice to see visitors of various ages, from kids to grownups and hear the “wow” whenever a Tesla Coil initiated, or a remote controller was engaged.
A short movie was presented to introduce all those that are not already familiar with the life and work of #Tesla.
So let's begin our journey. Tickets please!
There is a lot to be told about his life, but that is out of scope for this post. For those who are seeking details, here is a useful link to begin with: Tesla's Chronology.
The year that Tesla left the Europe and went to the Promised Land was the breaking year:
In 1884 Charles Batchelor, Edison's representative in Europe writes a letter to Edison in USA, in witch he had written:
“I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young man.”
Tesla obtained around 300 patents worldwide for his inventions, and many inventions developed by Tesla were not put into patent protection. (source: wikipedia - List of Nikola Tesla patents)
One of the most recognizable demonstrations at the Museum of Nikola Tesla concerns high frequency and potential:
Wireless energy transmission
May the force be with you steemers! More than 100 years later, scientist have still not come much closer... This was cool. And by the way, did you know that gas-filled phosphor-coated light bulb (similar to the lamps that people on the image are holding) is also Tesla's invention?
The following one photo is not mine, but I just want to show you some of Tesla's original lamps to get the idea (because of the letter that follows):
Source: http://www.teslauniverse.com/
Quite a design? Take a look at Tesla's letter to Louis C. Tiffany. Tesla wanted to demonstrate that light can be used as a design tool.
The year is 1914. "...I hope that you have lost none of your interest in the beautiful improvement which I believe offers great commercial possibilities and oportunities for artistic designs."
New York artist and designer Louis Tiffany wanted to begin work on a fountain for the interior of Tiffany’s jewelry stores. He applied for the patent on October 28. For the next few years he would work on designing and constructing several different models of fountain, but without much commercial success.
The next time you sit in your car, you're probably gonna see one more of Tesla's patented inventions:
This is how speedometer looked back in 1916. Looks familiar?
Tesla sold the patent in 1916. The license was bought by the Boston company Waltham Watch, one of the largest American companies making precision instruments, watches and speedometers. According to Tesla’s documentation, the company sold about 60,000 speedometers, mostly built into mass-manufactured vehicles.
Tesla's Egg of Columbus
At celebrating 400 years since Columbus discovered America, Nikola Tesla, at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, demonstrated a device he constructed known as the "Egg of Columbus." It was used to demonstrate and explain the principles of the rotating magnetic field model and the induction motor.
Everybody has heard of the “Egg of Columbus.” Columbus cheated and cracked the egg's head in order for it to stand and he got the money for the journey. Tesla didn't get so much. But it was impressive. The original egg was about 1 meter tall. The Tesla's museum replica is much smaller but demonstrates magnetic field quite well.
I didn't get what this is. Looks like seismograph to me, but I'm probably wrong. Please correct me if you know what this is.
If you are a masohist, you're also welcome to the Tesla's museum.
It was a real fun today. Have to go now, but I'll be posting 1 more part from this same visit. And I hope that you enjoyed this post!
To be continued...
Read "Letter to Mother" from Nikola Tesla.