Tesla's Vision: Inventions Ahead of Time

Previously we're talking about Nikola Tesla's early life. But except for his inventions, it's not possible for us to know his diligence and dedication. Here we'll try to highlight some of his phenomenal inventions.

01-Alternating System

If you think that the alternating current (AC) was invented by Tesla, you need to recheck it. AC was invented long ago Tesla started his works. So what did Tesla do??? Tesla, through his phenomenal inventions, set the standard of AC in the whole world and he also designed the transmission and generation of AC. But what triggered him to go for AC while the contemporary world was fascinated with Thomas Edison's DC? Have you heard of the famous incident, "War of Currents"?

02-Induction Motor

Induction Coil of Tesla

While studying electrical engineering at the Polytechnic Institute at Graz in Austria, he could perceive the design flaws in the DC motors being demonstrated there. Later he spent 6 years of his life thinking of electromagnetic fields and a hypothetical motor that would run on AC. After his vision about this motor and upon getting investors, he could finally build the AC motor namely Induction motor. And it worked exactly as Tesla had thought. Believe it or not, he had drawn the design of the motor in the sand as he got the vision in a park!

03-Tesla Coil

The Magnifying Transmitter

Tesla was inspired by Heinrich Hertz's experiment, which proved the existence of electromagnetic radiation including radio waves. But operation above 20KHz (Radio Wave) was unknown. Tesla dived deeper into it and he made an electrical resonant transformer circuit that could produce very high voltage with high frequency and low current. He also applied his idea of tesla coil in the wireless power transmission project.

04-Polyphase System

Tesla used the theme of the polyphase system in his Induction motor. Later on, his generation and powerplant system also applied the polyphase scheme as it is more economical. Tesla holds patents on the polyphase system.

05-X-Ray Experiment

X-ray of Roentgent's wife hand

As we all know Wilhelm Roentgen as the inventor of X-rays. And the Roentgen's X-ray film of his wife is evident with her wedding ring on her finger. But it is assumed that Tesla had captured X-ray images accidentally while working with tubes in his previous experiments before the declaration came from Roentgen. After hearing Roentgen's invention, Tesla proceeded with his own experimentations of X-rays. His discovered instrument had his own designed vacuum tube with a single terminal. That means, unlike Roentgent, it contained no target electrode and it could produce high energy. A tesla coil's output was used in this experiment.

X-ray of Tesla's hand

06-Remote Control

Radio Controlled Boat

It became an unbelievable incident to people when Tesla experimented with his "Teleautomaton" during an electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden. He built a boat and controlled its motion & direction using radio wave remote control. It was hard for people to believe this technology and started calling it magic, telepathy, and being piloted by a trained monkey hidden inside the boat. But in reality, the boat was powered by dc batteries in it and Tesla was just controlling it by remote.

07-Wireless Power

Design of Magnifying Transmitter

Tesla was obsessed with wireless power transmission. Though inductive and capacitive coupling work for near field transmission but they are not convenient for long-distance. Being obsessed with long-distance wireless power transmission, he published his visions regarding this. Tesla had claimed that his model can transmit power worldwide. The atmosphere and the Earth would work as a conductor as he believed that the entire Earth could work as an electric resonator and that by driving current pulses into the Earth at its resonant frequency from a grounded Tesla coin with an elevated capacitance, the potential of the Earth could be made to oscillate, creating global standing waves, and this alternating current could be received with a capacitive antenna tuned to resonance with it at any point on Earth. But there is no evidence that this project was successful.

08-Bladeless Turbine

Tesla Turbine

Conventional compression turbines offer less efficiency. Tesla built a turbine that consists of multiple disks. It had no blades in it. The specialty of this turbine is that the fluid here moves in neutral paths or streamline of least resistance. During that time, Tesla demonstrated a 200 HP (1500 KW) 16,000 rpm bladeless turbine. But this turbine was refused to put in the application grounds giving the excuse of its complexity.

09-Hydroelectric Power Plant

Tesla Hydroelectric Power Plant at Niagra

Tesla was one of the pioneers in the renewable energy sector. he didn't believe that fossil fuels can be a better solution to the energy crisis. The Niagra Falls Commission made a project to generate power from the falls. First, they considered Edison's DC current but after Tesla's success on AC, the gave the contract to Westinghouse Electric Company. The design was taken from Tesla and finally, it worked out.