"The man who invented the twentieth century."

 

The Year of 2006 was"Nikola Tesla Year"
Proclaimed by the governments of Serbia and Croatia, UNESCO, and the Professional Engineers of Ontario, Canada.

 

Tribute to Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic  born10 July 1856 - died 7 January 1943) was a world-renowned Serb-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer and electrical engineer. Tesla is regarded as one of the most important inventors in history. He is well known for his contributions to the discipline of electricity and magnetism in the late 19th and early 20th century. Tesla's patents and theoretical work form the basis of modern alternating current electric power (AC) systems, including the polyphase power distribution systems and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.

In the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture. After his demonstration of wireless communication in 1893 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as America's greatest electrical engineer. Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. In 1943, the Supreme Court of the United States credited him as being the inventor of the radio. Never putting much focus on his finances, Tesla died impoverished and forgotten at the age of 86.

His contribution was recognised and the derived SI unit measuring magnetic flux density or magnetic induction (commonly known as the magnetic field ), the tesla, was named in his honour (at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1960).

Tesla's legacy can be seen across the modern world wherever electricity is used. Aside from his work on electromagnetism and engineering, Tesla is said to have contributed in varying degrees to the fields of robotics, ballistics, computer science, nuclear physics, and theoretical physics. In his later years, Tesla was regarded as a mad scientist and became noted for making bizarre claims about possible scientific developments. Many of his achievements have been used, with some controversy, to support various pseudosciences, UFO theories, and New Age occultism. Contemporary admirers of Tesla have deemed him "the man who invented the twentieth century."

 

Above: Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) at the age of 38.

 

Above: Tesla Monument at Niagara Falls (Canadian side), Queen Victoria Park, unveiled on July 9, 2006.  Tesla is standing atop an AC motor, one of the 700 inventions he patented. The monument was the work of Canadian sculptor Les Dryzdale.

 

Above: Tesla Monument at Niagara Falls, New York.  Nikola Tesla designed the first hydro-electric power plant in Niagara Falls.  This was the final victory of Tesla's Alternating Current over Edison's Direct Current.  The monument was the work of Croatian sculptor Frane Krsinic.

 

Above: Tesla ashes were placed in a golden sphere, Tesla Museum, Belgrade.

 

Above: The letterhead of Tesla's business stationery recalls some of his more important inventions.

 

Nikola Tesla's name has been honored with the international unit of magnetic flux density called "Tesla".  All magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machines are calibrated with Tesla Unit (from .2 Tesla to 9 Tesla).  MRI machines work on the principle of a homogeneous magnet field.  Nikola Tesla discovered the Rotating Magnetic Field in Budapest, 1882.  The Tesla Unit for magnetism was established in 1956 in the Rathaus of Munich, Germany by the International Electrotechnical Commission Committee in Action.

Because of the tremendous importance of the MRI technology and widespread use of the MRI machines around the world, which are all calibrated in Tesla Units, Tesla's name connected with the MRI will be known more and more in the future and the years to come.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is extremely important for medical diagnosis of internal organs of the human body, especially the diagnosis of cancer, tumors, degenerative diseases of the brain and spinal cord. The modern diagnosis of the internal organs of the human body would be today unthinkable without MRI.  MRI machines are  widespread with many variations in size and capacity all around the world.  The revenue of MRI machines sales was 1.46 billion dollars in 2002.  Revenue for MRI machine sales is expected to increase in the following years.

MRI employs a strong homogeneous magnetic field and specific radio frequency to which many elements, especially hydrogen nuclei respond with radio frequency signals.  These signals are analyzed by computer reconstruction algorithms.  The healthy tissue and pathological tissue have different radio frequency signals and produce different images on MRI.  Therefore enable us to make diagnosis of pathological tissues of the body.

MRI has the advantage over CT scan, it uses no ionizing radiation and does not cause cumulative harm.  The only contraindication of those related to the high magnetic field.  Magnetic-sensitive objects like pacemakers, watched and magnetic tapes are contraindicated.

A Short History of the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)

Nikola Tesla discovered the Rotating Magnetic Field in 1882 in Budapest, Hungary.  This was a fundamental discovery in physics.

In 1956, the "Tesla Unit" was proclaimed in the Rathaus of Munich, Germany by the International Electro-technical Commission-Committee of Action.  All MRI machines are calibrated in "Tesla Units".  The strength of a magnetic field is measured in Tesla or Gauss Units.   The stronger the magnetic field, the stronger the amount of radio signals which can be elicited from the body's atoms and therefore the higher the quality of MRI images.

1 Tesla = 10,000 Gauss

Low-Field MRI= Under .2 Tesla (2,000 Gauss)

Mid-Field MRI= .2 to 0.6 Tesla (2,000 Gauss to 6,000 Gauss)

High-Field MRI= 1.0 to 1.5 Tesla (10,000 Gauss to 15,000 Gauss)

In 1937, Columbia University Professor Isidor I. Rabi working in the Pupin Physic Laboratory in Columbia University, New York City, observed the quantum phenomenon dubbed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).  He recognized that the atomic nuclei show their presence by absorbing or emitting radio waves when exposed to a sufficiently strong magnetic field.

Professor Isidor I. Rabi received the Nobel Prize for his work.  He is one of 28 Nobel Laureates from the Pupin Physics Laboratory in New York City.

Raymond Damadian, a physician and experimenter working at Brooklyn's Downstate Medical Center discovered that hydrogen signal in cancerous tissue is different from that of healthy tissue because tumors contain more water.  More water means more hydrogen atoms.  When the MRI machine was switched off, the bath of radio waves from cancerous tissue will linger longer then those from the healthy tissue.

In 1973, Paul Lauterbur, a chemist and an NMR pioneer at the State University of New York, Stony Brook, produced the first NMR image.

Mike Goldsmith, one of the graduate students cobbled a wearable antenna coil to monitor the hydrogen broadcast detected by the coil.

On July 3, 1977, nearly five hours after the start of the first MRI test, the first human scan was made as the first MRI prototype.

How MRI works?

Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a medical diagnostic technique that creates images of the human body using the principle of nuclear magnetic resonance.  It can generate thin-section images of any part of the human body - from any angle and direction.  MRI is possible to make such a picture of the human body when the body is exposed to an electromagnetic field.

MRI creates a strong magnetic field and the small biological "magnets" in the human body consisting of protons located in the nucleus of the hydrogen atom are magnetized.  The proton possess fundamental magnetic properties.

First, MRI creates a steady state of magnetism within the human body by placing the body in a steady magnetic field.  Second, the MRI stimulates the body with radio waves to change the steady-state orientation of protons.  Third, the MRI machine stops the radio waves and registers the body's electromagnetic transmission.  Fourth, the transmitted signal are used to construct internal images of the body by computerized axial tomography.

An MRI image is not a photograph.  It is actually a computerized map or image of radio signals emitted by the human body.  MRI is superior to CAT scan because CAT scan is using ionizing radiation, MRI uses harmless radio waves.  The only unusual preparation is that all removable metallic objects must be left outside the scanning room, including removable hearing aids, dentures and other prosthetic devices.  Credit cards can be damaged by the MRI because magnetic codes can be affected by the MRI magnet.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging is a powerful diagnostic tool in the medical imaging market place as the procedure of choice for the visualization of soft tissue.  The MRI industry is producing over 2,000 units per year.  The United States is represented with 40% of the world marketing and production of MRI.  There is an emerging consensus that the MRI has a broad application in smaller hospital and clinics.

Neurologists are one of medical specialty that depend a great deal on MRI for accurate diagnostic of the central nerve system.  Other medical specialty that rely upon the MRI technology include neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons and chiropractors.  MRI is useful in diagnosis of "pinched nerves" in the spinal column, heart disease, multiple sclerosis and other diseases of the central nerve system.

The use of MRI technology will increase in the United States and the world because of the tremendous significance in modern medical diagnosis.  The Tesla Unit is a label on every MRI machine signifying the strength of the MRI  Magnetic Field.  The stronger the magnetic field, the better the image of the MRI.  Tesla's name connected with MRI technology will be more and more widely known around the world.

 

Tesla's AC Induction Motor is one of the 10 greatest discoveries of all time

 

Nikola Tesla invented the induction motor with rotating magnetic field that made unit drives for machines feasible and made AC power transmission an economic necessity.

In 1887 and 1888 Tesla had an experimental shop at 89 Liberty Street, New York, and there he invented the induction motor. He sold the invention to Westinghouse in July 1888 and spent a year in Pittsburgh instructing Westinghouse engineers.

Born in Smiljan Lika, Croatia, the son of a Serbian Orthodox clergyman, Tesla attended Joanneum, a polytechnic school in Graz and the University of Prague for two years. He started work in the engineering department of the Austrian telegraph system then became an electrical engineer at an electric power company in Budapest and later at another in Strasbourg. While in technical school, Tesla became convinced that commutators were unnecessary on motors; and while with the power company he built a crude motor which demonstrated the truth of his theory. In 1884, Tesla came to the United States and joined the Edison Machine Works as a dynamo designer.

Telsa obtained more than 100 patents in his lifetime. Despite his 700 inventions Tesla was not wealthy. For many years he worked in his room at the Hotel New Yorker, where he died.

 

Above: One of the original Tesla Electric Motors from 1888 which is today the main power of for industry and household appliances.  Tesla's Electric Motor is one of the ten greatest inventions of all times.

Above: Tesla's Alternating Current Motor found at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C.  (For more information go to: Smithsonian Institution  (Museum) in Washington D.C. pays tribute to Nikola Tesla

 

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Wall Street Journal Headline 1-10-2010

 

"Long-Dead Inventor Nikola Tesla Is Electrifying Hip Techies"
article HERE

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When California engineers wanted to brand their new $100,000 electric sports car, one name stood out: Tesla. When circuit designers at microchip producer Nvidia Corp. in 2007 launched a new line of advanced processors, they called them Tesla. And when videogame writers at Capcom Entertainment in Silicon Valley needed a character who could understand alien spaceships for their new Dark Void saga, they found him in Nikola Tesla.

Tesla was a scientist and inventor who achieved fame and fortune in the 1880s for figuring out how to make alternating current work on a grand scale, electrifying the world. He created the first major hydroelectric dam, at Niagara Falls. He thrilled packed theaters with presentations in which he ran high voltage through his body to illuminate a fluorescent light in his hand. His inventions helped Guglielmo Marconi develop radio.

And his rivalry with Edison—called the Battle of the Currents because Edison had bet on direct current—was legendary. Tesla won the contest, when his AC equipment powered an unprecedented display of electric light at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.

Fifty years later, the 86-year-old Serbian emigré died in obscurity at a New York hotel, unmarried, childless and bereft of friends. Meanwhile, Edison was lionized for generations as one of America's greatest inventors.

But Tesla has been rediscovered by technophiles, including Google Inc. co-founder Larry Page, who frequently cites him as an early inspiration. And Teslamania is going increasingly mainstream.

An early hint was "Tesla Girls," a 1984 single from the British technopop band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Performance artist Laurie Anderson has said she was fascinated by Tesla. David Bowie played a fictionalized version of him in the 2006 film "The Prestige," alongside Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman. Director Terry Gilliam described Tesla in a recent documentary film as "more of an artist than a scientist in some strange way."

 

Tesla, in short, is cool.

 

"He was a kind of crazy, interesting dude," says Melody Pfeiffer, spokeswoman for the Dark Void game's distributor, Capcom Entertainment.

Edison, meanwhile, is less au courant than he used to be, says Paul Israel, director of the Thomas Edison Papers, a scholarly project at Rutgers University, in Piscataway, N.J.

Many significant Edison inventions—including the phonograph and the motion-picture camera—are becoming historical curios. The European Union has banned old-fashioned incandescent light bulbs, another Edison innovation. The EU is urging consumers to replace them with more-efficient fluorescent lights descended from those Tesla favored.

"Edison is so 20th century, much like Henry Ford," says Bernie Carlson, a professor of Science, Technology and Society at the University of Virginia.

Once, Edison was revered as the Wizard of Menlo Park, after the New Jersey town—since renamed Edison—where he built a laboratory and movie studio. But Edison biographies have started focusing on his role in establishing monopolies in the electricity and movie industries.

 

Recent portrayals of Edison have highlighted his darker side. In the 1998 HBO miniseries "From the Earth to the Moon," Tom Hanks plays a French filmmaker who was financially ruined when Edison secretly copied and then released his 1902 epic, "A Trip to the Moon," without paying its creator.

The Tesla-Edison rivalry was intense partly because the highly educated young engineer sailed to America in 1884 to work for Edison. But after less than a year in Edison's labs, Tesla quit in a spat over pay.

Tesla-boosters note that in Edison's effort to discredit alternating current a decade later, his staff deliberately electrocuted a murderous circus elephant and profited from a popular film of the killing. To sully Tesla's ideas, Edison's men also helped orchestrate the first execution by electric chair.

"I can't imagine writing a song about Edison…too boringly rich, entrepreneurial and successful!" said Andy McCluskey, a founder of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, in an email. He calls Tesla "a romantic 'failure' figure."

In 1895—after selling his AC patents to industrialist George Westinghouse for a mint and harnessing Niagara Falls—Tesla hobnobbed with Mark Twain, J.P. Morgan and French actress Sarah Bernhardt. But troubles soon began.

Tesla's laboratory in New York was destroyed by fire, along with years of work and notes. The secretive experimenter then burned through much of his fortune testing radio transmissions in Colorado Springs, Colo. In 1898, he demonstrated a pair of small radio-controlled boats—decades before guided torpedoes—but was rebuffed by the U.S. military. When Marconi changed the world with a trans-Atlantic radio transmission in 1901, Tesla wasn't mentioned.

Undaunted, the scientist continued to be far ahead of his time. His papers suggest he stumbled upon—but didn't pursue—lasers and X-rays, years before their recognized discoveries. He proposed transmitting electricity through the upper atmosphere. He sketched out robots and a death ray he hoped would end all wars.

"There's a sort of science-fiction aspect to Tesla," says Prof. Israel at Rutgers.

For marketers at chip makers Nvidia, who were targeting the techno-cognoscenti with a new product line, that aura is priceless.

"A mythology has built up around Tesla that catches people's imagination," says Andy Keane, general manager of Tesla Products at Nvidia.

Tesla's more outlandish pronouncements stoked that mythology. He said he could use electricity to cause earthquakes and control weather. He claimed to have detected signals from Mars while he was in Colorado.

Unlike Edison, who died in 1931 with 1,093 patents to his name, Tesla left few completed blueprints. The shortcoming undercut his legacy but added to the air of mystery surrounding him.

"Tesla's work is incomplete, so people can read into it what they want to," says Prof. Carlson at the University of Virginia.

Christopher Priest did just that in writing "The Prestige," his novel and then movie about rival magicians in Victorian London. In it, one of the magicians visits Tesla in Colorado and pays him to create a machine unlike anything the real Tesla ever mentioned.

"I wanted an ambiguous, mysterious genius," says Mr. Priest. "Tesla was the man for the job."

Creators of the Dark Void videogame needed a mentor for their hero, Will, who falls from our world into a parallel realm ruled by sinister aliens bent on annihilating humans.

"We quickly decided that tapping into the conspiracies and geek mystique built up around Nikola Tesla would be awesome," says senior producer Morgan Gray. "What is cooler than having Tesla reverse-engineer alien technology to build weapons of super science?"

At Tesla Motors, the branding isn't simply an effort to ride the name's nerdy snob appeal, says spokeswoman Rachel Konrad. The Tesla Roadster uses an AC motor descended directly from Tesla's original 1882 design, which he said came to him in a vision.

Still, for all Tesla's cachet, Edison's legacy remains inescapable. Ms. Konrad says customers note with irony that Tesla Motors' main showroom is in Menlo Park, Calif.

To help boost the Tesla name, the automotive start-up has launched a promotional sweepstakes with Capcom around the release of Dark Void. The prize: a Tesla Roadster.

For Nikola Tesla himself, Ms. Konrad says, the prize is overdue recognition.

"You know you've gone into mainstream pop glory when you're in a videogame aimed at 18-year-old boys," she says.

more on the way...