Nikola Tesla was a man with big ideas by
the time of his death he had 300 patents
to his name
the problem with Tesla is that he was
way ahead of his time and while many of
his ideas works in theory
they never practically panned out with
that said Tesla was an amazing inventor
who gave the world some amazing
inventions and was a pioneer in many
fields rather than look at some of
Tesla's more theoretical inventions in
this video we're looking at ten of the
best Tesla inventions that were designed
constructed and tested so let's get on
with today's video the top 10 greatest
inventions by Nikola Tesla number 10 the
Tesla coil the Tesla coil was invented
in 1891 and it uses two coils a primary
and a secondary each coil has its own
capacitor which is something that stores
energy like a battery the coils are
connected to a spark gap which is just
open air where the spark and generate
but the result is that the Tesla coil
can shoot lightning bolts send electric
current through the body and create
electron winds Tesla had developed it
because he was obsessed with powering
cities wirelessly today the Tesla coil
is mostly used for entertainment and can
be seen in places like Science Center's
some elements are however used in radios
wait the Tesla coil is important is
because it helped engineers understand
the nature of electricity better and how
to use it number nine the magnifying
transmitter in the late 1890s Tesla had
become obsessed with transferring power
without wires and he thought that it was
possible to do so at higher altitudes
after securing some funding Tesla set up
a lab in Colorado Springs in May 1899
they rebuilt the largest and most
powerful Tesla coil called the
magnifying transmitter the magnifying
transmitter had three coils and it was
52 feet in diameter it generated
millions of volts of electricity and
shot lightning bolts there were a
hundred and thirty feet long
they were the biggest man-made lightning
at the time the problem was that Tesla
was a bit too ambitious and ahead of his
time while this electricity wouldn't be
developed until the mid 2010 and as of
2015 it's not yet common in households
while this specific project did not pan
out the vision and scope is still quite
impressive the magnifying transmitter
was the predecessor to Tesla's
Wardenclyffe tower that was supposed to
provide free electricity and
communications to the world Tesla
started working on the project in 1901
but after financial backers pulled out
of the project it fell apart and in 1915
the site went into foreclosure the
project also ruined Tesla yet to file
for bankruptcy and had a nervous
breakdown
number eight the tesla turbine in the
early 20th century the world saw the
rise of the piston engine in automobiles
in an attempt to compete against the
piston engine Tesla developed his own
turbine it was bladeless and used smooth
discs that spun in a chamber how it
worked was that fuel was combusted
before entering the main chamber that
contained the discs the combustion would
make the discs rotate which ran the
engine when Tesla tested the engine in
1909 it got to 60% fuel efficiency which
is impressive considering that currently
we only get 42% fuel to energy
conversion rates yet because of the
nature of business people saw more value
in the piston engine because of fuel
sales and it became the norm that is
still in use today
number 7 shadow graphs in 1895 German
scientist Vilhelm Conrad röntgen
discovered a mysterious energy that he
called x-rays these x-rays had a strange
ability when he placed photographic film
between his hand and a LED screen it
created an image of the bones in his
hand on the film a short time later
wronskian went public with his research
and the picture of ROM scans wife's hand
which was taken on December the 22nd
1895 became famous in the picture you
can see the bones in her hand and the
wedding ring on her finger there is some
evidence that Tesla knew a little bit
about x-rays before wronskian made his
research public Tesla's own research was
stopped when a fire destroyed his lab in
1895 shortly before Ron Tagen discovered
them when Ron skin' published his
findings it helped inspire Tesla to
create his own x-ray using a vacuum tube
which produced pictures that he called
shadow graphs Tesla is considered the
first person in America to take an x-ray
picture he made a shadow graph of a foot
with a shoe honest and sent it with a
letter to Ron skin' congratulating him
on his discovery Ron skin' in turn wrote
to Tesla commending him on taking a
remarkably clear shadowgraph shadow
graphs played an important role in the
development of x-ray machines after the
discovery people were developing new
x-ray tools but the image was never that
clear Tesla realized that bulbs with
higher voltages and bulbs with thick
walls made for clearer images Tesla was
also one of the first to write that
x-ray
may be harmful for the body number 6
radio who exactly invented radio is a
point of contention what happened was
that in 1895 Tesla was getting ready to
transmit a radio signal 50 miles before
he could do that though his lab burned
down and it delayed the testing
meanwhile in England an Italian man
named guglielmo marconi was working on
wireless telegraphy Marconi was granted
a patent in England in 1896 for its
device his system that was much
different than the one Tesla built
Marconi's only used two circuits and
couldn't transmit over long distances
such as the Atlantic Tesla's invention
would use multiple circuits which would
make it much stronger Tesla submitted
his patent in 1897 in the United States
and it was granted in 1900 when Marconi
submitted his radio patent in 1902 the
US Patent Office it was turned down
because it was too similar to Tesla's
undeterred Marconi opened his own
company called the Marconi wireless
Telegraph Company Limited and it had
powerful backers including English
aristocrats Andrew Carnegie and Tesla's
rival Thomas Edison on the 12th of
December 1901 while using a number of
Tesla's patents including a Tesla
oscillator Marconi was able to transmit
a signal across the Atlantic in 1904
without giving a clear reason the Patent
Office reversed their decision and said
that Marconi's patent was valid making
him the inventor of the radio Marconi
won the Nobel Prize in 1911 and 1915
Tesla sued Marconi's corporation the
problem was at that point in his life
Tesla was too poor to take on a major
corporation the case wasn't settled
until a few months after Tesla's death
in 1943 when the Supreme Court held up
Tesla's patent however the reason for
that is during that time that Marconi
was suing the United States government's
over patent infringement during World
War one by reverting the rights back to
Tesla they would avoid the lawsuit with
Marconi number five and neon lamps while
fluorescent and neon lights were not
discovered by Tesla they did make many
contributions to the advancement of both
what is interesting is that no one
working with cathode rays which are the
electrons observed in vacuum tubes like
neon lights really came up with a
practical application for the technology
Tesla saw an opportunity so he
experimented with running electrical
particles through gases and he developed
four different types of lighting for
example he converted black light into
visible light using a
for us in substance that he created he
also found a practical use for such a
technology when he created lamps and
neon signs for example that the World's
Columbian Exposition otherwise known as
the 1893 Chicago World's Fair but his
personal exhibit Tesla had neon signs
that were unique designs and written
words the idea became more popular and
now neon lights and signs light up major
cities around the world number four the
Adams powerplant transformer house for
years the Niagara Falls Commission was
looking for a company to build a
hydroelectric plant that would harness
the mighty power of the force a first
they considered Thomas Edison's direct
current plants but after witnessing
Tesla's alternating current that was
offered by Westinghouse Electric
Westinghouse was offered the contract in
1893 Westinghouse used designs from
Tesla and the biggest problem was
getting and keeping funding for such an
ambitious task that a lot of people
doubted would work yes when the switch
was flipped on November the 16th 1896
the Adams power plants transformer house
worked and started powering the City of
Buffalo New York ten more generators
were built and they helped power New
York City the plants was considered
revolutionary and set the standard for
modern hydroelectric power plants number
three the induction motor an induction
motor is a motor that uses alternating
current and it essentially has two parts
a stator and a rotor the status stays
stationary and it uses electromagnets to
spin the rotor that it has in the middle
of it
induction motors are noted for being
durable easy to maintain and they are
cheap to run in the 1880s there were two
people working separately on the
induction motor Tesla and Galileo
Ferrari in Italy they both presented
their findings in 1888 with Ferrari
presenting his engine two months before
Tesla presented his however Tesla's
patents held up under the weight of the
evidence both had developed the same
technology and came to the same
independent conclusion Tesla had just
filed his patents first the induction
motor was incredibly influential and it
is still used today in everyday products
like vacuums blow dryers and power tools
number two
teller automation in 1898 at the
electrical exhibition at Madison Square
Gardens Tesla showed off an invention he
called teller automation and it was a
boat that was controlled by radio waves
he didn't even have a patent on it
because the Patent Office didn't want to
she won on something that they didn't
think was feasible but at the exhibition
he proved that it was possible he
controlled the boat that had some
batteries on it through the radio waves
he controlled the propeller and even the
lights on the boat the invention was a
big first in three different areas the
first is remote controls radio waves
that control objects are seen in
everyday life such as television remote
controls and garage door openers
secondly the Bose is also one of the
earliest robots there was a mechanical
object that could be controlled without
a human physically touching it
finally the combination of robotics and
radio technology makes Tesla's boat the
great great grandfather of drones number
one alternating current easily the most
important invention from Nikola Tesla
involved his contributions to
alternating current AC it is important
to note that he did not invent or even
discover AC but his inventions made AC
applicable for widespread use and it
helped electrify the world the story of
how Tesla's AC system came to be the
dominant power system is impossible to
tell without talking about Thomas Edison
in his early career Tesla worked for
Edison whose company had discovered
direct current DC DC is similar to a
battery it only sends power out the
problem with DC is that about a mile
away from the power generator the
electricity gets weaker
that is when Tesla developed his
advancement in AC AC and not only sends
power out but it also sends power back
to the source this made it much more
feasible to send large amounts of energy
over a large area
Edison hated AC then thought the Tesla
was completely wrong on the topic this
led to a rift between Tesla and Edison
which led to Tesla quitting while Tesla
was unemployed he worked odd jobs until
he was able to raise money for the Tesla
Electric Company his work caught the
attention of engineer and businessman
George Westinghouse who bought most of
Edison's patents involving AC a pivotal
moments in the history of electricity
came down to lighting at the Chicago
World's Fair in 1893 Edison and
Westinghouse both submitted quotes
Edison said that he could light the
whole fair for five hundred and fifty
four thousand dollars but Westinghouse
said he could do it for three hundred
and ninety million thousand dollars so
Westinghouse won the contract after the
fair ac became more popular and it is
the dominant electrical system that we
still use today so I really hope you
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