Gizmodo Genius: The Weird and Wondrous Life of Nikola Tesla
- by [Redacted]
- 5 Min
- Innovators and peculiar individuals such as Nikola Tesla and Elon Musk share distinct traits.
He had a thing for specific table settings: always arranging 18 napkins on the table, and always cooking his meals at an excessive length because he was a germaphobe. He'd only shake hands with people while wearing gloves and stayed loyal to hotel room numbers divisible by three. In his old age, he consorted with a white dove. This is a glimpse into the strange life of Nikola Tesla, a peculiar inventor who fled Europe to New York at the end of the 19th century and became the inspiration behind Elon Musk.
Without Nikola Tesla, modern-day living would look rather different. From your desk lamp to the radio in your living room and the coffee maker in your kitchen - anything that requires an outlet for power, wouldn't function the same way it does now. But Tesla's name often goes unnoticed in history, resting in the shadows unless you're aware of the electric car that bears his name.
Elon Musk, the current Tesla CEO and an American trailblazer, claims the car was named after Nikola Tesla, a "pioneer of electrical engineering." However, that's only partially true. Tesla's moniker and the spark for the electric car originated in 2003 from a pair of California inventors named Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning. Musk joined later on as an investor, eventually elbowing out the founders to control Tesla solo.
When you examine Elon Musk and Nikola Tesla, both Serbian-born in the late 1850s, it's tough not to see Musk as Tesla's spiritual twin—if not the reincarnation of Tesla himself. Much like Musk, Tesla too possessed a grandiose persona, accustomed to flamboyant gestures and obsessed with outdoing his rivals.
The Misunderstood Genius: Tesla's Money Problems
As a penniless mechanical engineer with no formal schooling, Tesla immigrated to New York in 1884. Four years later, he patented the first AC generator. Before Tesla's invention, electricity in America was generated by DC generators, which could only transmit power for a few hundred meters before power loss. But AC, Tesla's innovation that alternated between positive and negative voltage 50 times per second, could be transmitted efficiently over long distances. His AC generator patent was bought in 1888 by industrial tycoon George Westinghouse. This allowed Westinghouse to compete against Thomas Alva Edison, a rival inventor advocating for DC power, leading to the "War of Currents." When the first hydroelectric power plant in the U.S. was built at Niagara Falls using the AC system, it became the standard across the continent.
But Tesla's inventions extended beyond the AC generator. He invested his savings in further experiments and a lab in Colorado Springs. After numerous attempts to capture and harness lightning energy, he successfully developed a resonance transformer, which led to the invention of radio waves and wireless communication technology. Unfortunately, a patent for radio communication was unjustly awarded to physicist Guglielmo Marconi.
People often forget that Tesla's genius didn't always lead to wealth or acclaim. Tesla splurged his savings on luxury hotels and fine dining establishments and wasted money on lavish leather goods, which he discarded weekly. His spending habits left him penniless, even as he continued to dream up grandiose projects such as a wireless alternative to the power grid and a mode of transportation using particles.
The Spiritual Legacy: Tesla's Ideas Live On in Elon Musk
In his memoirs "My Inventions" and other essays, Tesla sought to impart his technical philosophy on humanity. Skimming through his writings, you can trace elements from which Musk's brash, bold ideas may have sprouted: "In past ages, the law of the survival of the fittest roughly eliminated the less desirable tribes. Then, human compassion interfered, disrupting the ruthless operation of nature. As a result, we continue to keep the unfit alive and breed them."
Modern audiences may find these beliefs disturbing, but it's undeniable that they share similarities with Musk's views. Take, for example, his infamous quote: "The fundamental weakness of Western civilization is empathy." Ironically, Tesla's so-called eugenicist views stemmed from a genuine love for humanity, believing that humanitarianism often resulted in the preservation of the weak at the expense of the strong.
Musk may also have found inspiration in Tesla's beliefs about the progress of technology: "The universe is simply a great machine that has never been created and will never end. Man is no exception to the natural order. Man is, like the universe, a machine." This attitude reflects Tesla's appreciation for technology's power and potential, in stark contrast to Musk's relentless pursuit of unbridled technological progress, often at the expense of the workforce behind the scenes.
While Tesla and Musk may share similarities in their worldviews, it's essential to remember the differences between them. Tesla's elitism, eugenics, and technocracy paved the way for ideas as dangerous as they were innovative. But when Tesla equated people with machines, it was an expression of his love for the power of technology, not a disdainful view of humanity. Tesla's unabashed reverence for technology was in stark contrast to Musk's callous indifference to the workers behind the headlines.
- Tesla
- Car
- Elon Musk
Additional Insights:
- Nikola Tesla Timeline: Born in 1856 in Smiljan, Tesla immigrated to the U.S. in 1884, patented his first AC generator in 1887, and passed away in 1943[5].
- Influence on Modern Technology: Tesla's contributions to wireless communication, electrical power transmission, and AC systems have paved the way for advancements in radio, television, and mobile communication technologies. His ideas continue to inspire engineers and scientists today[1][2].
- Tesla vs. Edison: The "War of Currents" between Tesla's AC and Edison's DC marked a pivotal period in the history of electrical power distribution. Edison's DC fueled early electric power companies, while Tesla's AC transformed the way electricity was generated and distributed on an industrial scale[5].
- Tesla, despite his significant contributions to modern technology, struggled financially throughout his life, a stark contrast to the financial success of Elon Musk, the current CEO of the Tesla car company.
- Elon Musk's fascination with Tesla extends beyond the electric car's name, as some of his views and beliefs, such as his appreciation for technology's power and potential, seem reminiscent of Nikola Tesla's.
- Nikola Tesla's inventions such as the AC generator and radio technology revolutionized the way we use electricity, leading to advancements in various technologies like radio, television, and mobile communication, but his unconventional ideas like eugenics and technocracy remain controversial.
