A Wisdom Archive on Smiljan

Tesla was born at the stroke of midnight during a lightning storm in Smiljan near Gospić, a part of Austro-Hungary at the time. Tesla was baptised in the Serbian Orthodox Church. His baptism certificate reports that he was born on June 28 (Julian calendar; July 10 in the Gregorian calendar) 1856, and christened by the Serbian Orthodox priest, Toma Oklobdžija. His father was Rev. Milutin Tesla, a priest in the Serb Orthodox Church Metropolitanate of Sremski Karlovci. His mother was Đuka Mandić, herself a daughter of a Serbian Ortho ...

Read more here: » Nikola Tesla: Encyclopedia II - Nikola Tesla - Early years

Tesla died alone in the New Yorker hotel of heart failure, some time between the evening of January 5 and the morning of January 8, 1943, at the age of 86. Despite selling his AC electricity patents, Tesla was essentially destitute and died with significant debts. Later that year the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla's patent number 645,576 in effect recognizing him as the inventor of radio. Immediately after Tesla's death became known, the Federal Bureau of Investigation instructed the Office of Alien Property to take possession of his p ...

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Tesla believed that war could not be avoided until the cause for its recurrence was removed, but was opposed to wars in general.[26] He sought to reduce distance, such as in communication for better understanding, transportation, and transmission of energy, as a means to ensure friendly international relations. [27] A system for "Projecting Concentrated Non-Dispersive E ...

Read more here: » Nikola Tesla: Encyclopedia II - Nikola Tesla - Personal views

There are at least two films describing Tesla's life. In the first, arranged for TV, Tesla was portrayed by Rade Šerbedžija. In 1980, Orson Welles produced a Yugoslavian film named Tajna Nikole Tesle (The Secret of Nikola Tesla), in which Welles himself played the part of Tesla's patron, J.P. Morgan. A Christopher Nolan directed film called "The Prestige" will feature rock star and actor David Bowie playing the part of Nikola Tesla. The Prestige is set to begin production in January 2006. Documentary film " ...

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In 1899, Tesla decided to move and began research in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where he could have room for his high-voltage high-frequency experiments. Upon his arrival he told reporters that he was conducting wireless telegraphy experiments transmitting signals from Pikes Peak to Paris. Tesla's time at this lab has been a source for urban legends about him. Tesla's diary contains explanations of his experiments concerning the ionosphere and the ground's telluric currents via transverse waves and longitudinal waves.

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In 1886, Tesla formed his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. The initial financial investors disagreed with Tesla on his plan for an alternating current motor and eventually relieved him of his duties at the company. Tesla worked in New York as a common laborer from 1886 to 1887 to feed himself and raise capital for his next project. In 1887, he constructed the initial brushless alternate-current induction motor, which he demonstrated to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE) in 1888. In t ...

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In 1900, with $150,000 (51% from J. Pierpont Morgan), Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower facility. In June 1902, Tesla's lab operations were moved to Wardenclyffe from Houston Street. The tower was finally dismantled for scrap during wartime. Newspapers of the time labeled Wardenclyffe "Tesla's million-dollar folly." In 1904, the US Patent Office reversed its decision and awarded Guglielmo Marconi the patent for radio. Tesla began his fight to re-acquire the radio patent. On his 50th birthday in 1906, Tesla demonstrated his 2 ...

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As the result of his achievements in the development of electricity and radio, Nikola Tesla received many awards and accolades. He was selected as a fellow of the IEEE (at the time the AIEE) and was awarded its most prestigious prize, the Edison Medal. He was also made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and accepted invitations to become a member of the American Philosophical Society, and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Because of his research in electrotherapy and his invention of high frequency oscillators, he was ...

Read more here: » Nikola Tesla: Encyclopedia II - Nikola Tesla - Recognition and honors