Nikola Tesla might be one of the most celebrated inventors today, but it wasn’t that way when he was working. He actually ended up being almost penniless when he passed away, despite the fact that some of his inventions were worth billions of dollars. When he passed away, the government came in and confiscated all of his research, but today we know the true genius of this man who has forever changed the way the world works. Here are his most notable inventions.
#1. Alternating Currents in Electricity
Although Thomas Edison is recognized for his work with electricity, Edison was working with direct current. That’s the kind of current that has a lot more danger to it and can often lead to electrocutions. The alternating current that Tesla discovered offered a much safer means of using electricity, which Tesla demonstrated at one point by putting the current through his own body to produce light. It is Tesla’s system that is used for the modern power grid today.
#2. X-Rays
Tesla believed that everything that is in the universe that is needed by humanity was always surrounding each person every day. Tesla used his research through electromagnetic and ionizing radiation to bring about the first medical diagnostic systems of which we are familiar with today.
#3. The Radio
Many people have credited Marconi with the invention of the radio, but Marconi’s patents were overturned by the Supreme Court in 1943 because of the work that Tesla did with radio waves as far back as 1893. Tesla was given two patents initially in 1897, but 7 years later the Patent Office reversed its decision and awarded the patent for the radio to Marconi.
#4. Remote Controls
With his work on radio waves, Tesla naturally figured out that radio waves could be sent as a means of control in addition to being received to hear sounds. In 1898, Tesla used some large batteries and radio signals to operate the world’s first remote controlled model boat.
#5. Electric Motors
For over a century, the emphasis in automobiles was to use gas-powered motors that consume fossil fuels because they produced the most horsepower. With Tesla’s electric motor that was invented in 1930, however, there was proof that reliable transportation didn’t need to be based on a foundation that could potentially harm the environment. Although the invention was difficult to manage financially at the time, today you can see electric motors in virtually everything that is used today, including the device that you’re using to read this article.
#6. Lasers
One of the biggest struggles for Tesla was trying to balance the good of an invention with the ways that it could be used for evil. Lasers have definitely changed the way technology operates today, giving us all access to digital media in a very fast way. They can also be used during surgeries to create precision cuts or repairs, such as laser eye surgery. Lasers also operate as weapons and can be extremely lethal under the right applications.
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