He was obsessed with the idea of wireless power transmission. And, from his now-famous labs in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and New York State, Tesla plunged headlong into his more fanciful, theoretical work. Tesla gained notoriety with photos of himself fearlessly sitting beside a giant Tesla coil, a high-voltage device popular today for its ability to throw off lightning bolts from a doughnut-shaped coil at the top. Nikola Tesla sits calmly next to a massive Tesla coil - or does he? - in a photo that earned him notoriety The acquisition of these patents by Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company made Tesla’s fortune and fame, and provided him with the resources he needed to do further research. So, on his own, Tesla filed a number of patents for an AC induction motor and for the distribution of alternating current via an electric grid. He knew that Edison would have owned anything Tesla developed while in his employ, and Tesla had several good ideas that he wanted to keep for himself. A contract dispute was the final straw that prompted him to head out on his own, but he had other (and better) reasons. Once Tesla arrived in the United States, he took a job in the laboratory of the great American inventor Thomas Edison, whom Tesla found to be gruff, unethical, and stingy. He’d been stuck in frustrating work as a telephone engineer in a remote European country with few resources or opportunities, while electrical technology was exploding elsewhere in the world. Nikola Tesla was almost thirty before he was finally able to immigrate to the United States from what is now Croatia. Nikola Tesla was a top-notch electrical engineer, but almost all of the fanciful inventions attributed to him by conspiracy theorists are fictional. The claim that Tesla created fantastic inventions that are suppressed by governments to protect their profits remains a staple of Internet conspiracy culture. They say his inventions were seized by the government and Tesla himself was written out of the history books. While limitless energy is the main invention that conspiracy theorists mention, his other inventions are treated the same way. But since it would be impossible to meter and sell, nobody would invest in it indeed, say the conspiracy theorists, his invention was actually suppressed by profit-driven utilities and regulators. The form this usually takes is a vague claim that Tesla invented limitless electricity, free to everyone, forever. No matter what magical technology you wish were real, you can find someone who believes Tesla invented it. This engineer has had his name co-opted by conspiracy theorists more than any other person. If everything the Internet said about Nikola Tesla were true, we would all have flying cars and holodecks and transporters. The theory about Tesla isn’t as widespread or ridiculous as the one about all-powerful lizard people, but it’s equally as fascinating. Inverse is republishing with permission his examination of Nikola Tesla, which is included in the section of the book titled “Suppressed Science.” The theory that Tesla’s potentially world-changing inventions are being hidden away is one that author and podcaster Brian Dunning explores in his new book, Conspiracies Declassified: The Skeptoid Guide to to the Truth Behind the Theories, which was released today, June 5. For one example of his popular appeal, anyone who has visited Los Angeles’ famous Griffith Observatory has likely marveled at the Tesla Coil on display just as much as what the telescopes reveal in the night sky.īecause of Tesla’s varied accomplishments, conspiracy theorists have given credit to the innovator for numerous inventions they say world governments have hidden away over the years for various reasons, from oppressing their people or using those inventions own selfish reasons. He also held remarkable popular appeal at the time and was known as a promotional expert, not unlike the CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, whose electric car company is named after the inventor. As he died in 1943, it’s easy to make claims about Nikola Tesla, the inventor, engineer, and futurist who is credited with more than 300 patents.
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