MANA has a Tesla-3 machine — but who was Tesla?
Nikola Tesla was one of the greatest inventors and scientific minds in the last hundred and fifty some-odd years. He was a visionary who predicted many of the inventions that we use today before they ever even existed, and is responsible for inventing the first alternating current (AC) motor. He made numerous discoveries and breakthroughs that have allowed us to harness electricity, and his intellect, tenacity, and eccentricity have elevated him to figure that’s larger than life.
From his bitter rivalry with Thomas Edison to his prophetic experiments, Nikola Tesla led a life that was nothing short of riveting.
Tesla was born in modern day Croatia to Serbian parents. He studied physics and math in Austria and philosophy in Prague. At the age of 27, Tesla moved to New York to work for Thomas Edison. Edison originally hired Tesla as an electrical engineer, but Tesla’s capabilities soon had him in charge of redesigning Edison’s direct current (DC) motors.
Legend has it that Edison offered Tesla today’s equivalent of $1 million to fix his inefficient DC system. However, once Tesla invented the AC motor, which we still use today, Edison told Tesla that his offer was merely a joke, and instead offered him a 50% raise to his weekly salary. Tesla refused, resigned, and the Edison-Tesla rivalry was born.
Tesla’s discovery of the alternating electric current proved to be the more cost-effective and much safer alternative to Edison’s direct current. Tesla demonstrated just how safe the AC was by sending currents through his own body to produce light.
Tesla developed fluorescent light bulbs in his lab nearly 40 years before they were patented, predicted, “intelligent cars, robotic human companions, [various] sensors, and autonomous systems.”, and championed a form of wireless communication that we now know to be cell phones and the internet.
Of course, Tesla also helped pioneer x-ray technology. Without Tesla’s contributions to the field of science, we might not have the MRI technology that we have today!