Inventions of Nikola Tesla

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Most people when asked who influenced modern electricity think Thomas Edison. However, the real mind behind modern electricity was Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla is most commonly known as the inventor of the AC current, or the electricity that is found when you plug something into a wall socket. Undoubtedly, he was a revolutionary thinker during the 1870s. He opposed the old and imagined the new, battling with Edison in “The Current Wars” and filing for hundreds of patents. Nikola Tesla was a man of many inventions inventing a practical use for AC current, imagining and establishing revolutionary technologies, and furthering the scientific applications of radio. Nikola Tesla, despite his many contributions, is still unrecognized in history.
Nikola Tesla was able to invent a practical use for AC or alternating current, which was revolutionary at the time. In fact, as a young man attending the Polytechnic Institute, upon hearing about AC, he was determined to make it practical despite his professor, Professor Poeschl, telling him it was impossible (“Dommermuth-Costa” 36). AC current was considered to be impractical at the time as it required the direction of the flow of electrons to rapidly change back and forth. This meant the poles had to be switched very fast. However, unlike DC (direct current), the voltage or the amount of power coming through the circuit was high and could be maintained over long distances. Plainly, the scientific community thought this was impossible, and the technology needed to do this was seemingly beyond them. To use AC current the poles (north and south) needed to be flipped 90 times per second. How can moving poles as firm as they are on magnets, rapidly, seem possible? Tesla eventually solved the problem w...

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...ime rejecting this possibility during World War I.

Works Cited

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