Question:
Why hasn't inventor Nikola Tesla received the acclaim he is due?
OctopusGuy
2007-01-01 11:57:21 UTC
Nikola Tesla was , in my view, possibly the most innovative inventor of the 19th century- yet he seems to languish in Edison's shadow. Why isn't Tesla as well known as Edison- and do you think in the future Tesla will recieve the recognition he is long oversue? One engineer friend thinks Tesla is a footnote to history because he was a 'crackpot', with most of his ideas being 'bonkers'. Not sure i agree....
Six answers:
dcarcia@sbcglobal.net
2007-01-01 12:04:12 UTC
thank you very much sir!

he's mine and my dad's hero, and nobody knows who he is! yes, he was a little crazy, he used to claim he could talk to "things" on mars. yet, he still invented the tesla coil, and power phase AC. maybe it's because he didn't invent as much as edison? i don't know.

the prestige was an awesome movie, it showed him as a smart individual that he was. i would see it if you're a big tesla fan.
milo7
2007-01-01 20:14:50 UTC
Your friend is totally wrong, Tesla was a genius. Unfortunately for him he got involved in a patent war with Marconi over the new radio technology. Originally Tesla won out, but then in a reversal Marconi received the patent rights. Why? Probably because the Marconi family was very powerful and had a great deal of influence. Sadly shortly after Tesla's death this decision was reversed by the US Supreme court, in part because the US was involved in a lawsuit with the Marconi family. Basically Tesla got cheated out of the Nobel prize that went to Marconi. This is only one area of Tesla's inventive genius. I think history is already taking a second look at Tesla. Do check out : www.pbs.org/tesla
K
2007-01-02 16:44:19 UTC
His technology was probably too dangerous and too complicated for the majority of the time.



We need to collect energy utilizing Tesla's concepts into fuel cells to supply energy to the world. Enough with all these ridiculous wires to every house in the entire world!!! Then we wouldn't need nuclear or coal or gasoline....or is this too good and reasonable of an idea that the major corporations would only want to silence anyone with such an idea as happened to him.
james
2007-01-01 20:23:43 UTC
Good question



Tesla (like Faraday) kept his research methods (notes and results) to himself, and the scientific community never likes that.



I suspect too, that Tesla had little regard for either "scientific method" or "peer review." Both are really censoring techniques, that wouldn't have met with his liking.



So IMO, the scientific community is just getting even, so to speak!

.
The answer guy
2007-01-01 20:04:17 UTC
Tesla had the unit of magnetic flux strength named after him. In the scientific community, that is one of the highest forms of honor there is. Every scientist in the world who works with magnetic fields knows what a Tesla is.



Some other honors Tesla received:



Scientific societies

As the result of his achievements in the development of electricity and radio, Nikola Tesla received many awards and accolades. He was selected as a fellow of the IEEE (at the time the AIEE) and was awarded its most prestigious prize, the Edison Medal. He was also made a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and accepted invitations to become a member of the American Philosophical Society, and the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Because of his research in electrotherapy and his invention of high frequency oscillators, he was also made a fellow of the American Electro-Therapeutic Association.



SI Unit

The scientific compound derived SI unit measuring magnetic flux density or magnetic induction (commonly known as the magnetic field ), the tesla, was named in his honor (at the Conférence Générale des Poids et Mesures, Paris, 1960).



IEEE Nikola Tesla Award

In 1975 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) created a Nikola Tesla Award via an agreement between the IEEE Power Engineering Society and the IEEE Board of Directors. It is given to individuals or a team that has made outstanding contributions to the generation or utilization of electric power. The Tesla award is considered the most prestigious award in the area of electric power.[68]



Doctor Honoris Causa

For his work Tesla received numerous honorary doctoral degrees from a number of universities to include: Columbia University, Graz Polytechnic Institute, University of Zagreb, Polytechnic Institute of Bucharest, University of Belgrade, University of Brno, University of Grenoble, University of Paris, University de Poitiers, Charles University in Prague, University of Sofia, Vienna Polytechnic Institute, and Yale University



Belgrade airport

On July 10, 2006 in honor of his 150th birthday the biggest airport in Serbia (Belgrade) was renamed Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.



Yugoslavian/Serbian currency

100 Serbian dinar banknote obverse. Photo courtesy of National Bank of Serbia.[69] 100 Serbian dinars banknote reverse. Note the drawing of the electric motor.Nikola Tesla was featured on the currency of the former Yugoslavia. The current 100 Serbian dinar banknotes issued by the National Bank of Serbia have a picture of a handsome young Tesla on the obverse (front side). On the reverse side there is portion of drawing of an induction motor from his patent application and a photograph of Tesla holding a gas filled tube emitting light as a result of electric induction.



Cosmological objects

The Tesla crater on the far side of the moon and the minor planet 2244 Tesla are named after Tesla.



Electric power stations

Two of the coal fired power stations run by Electric Power Industry of Serbia, TPP Nikola Tesla A and TPP Nikola Tesla B, are named in honor of Tesla.[70]



Commerce

The Croatian subsidiary of Ericsson is named Ericsson Nikola Tesla d.d. (Nikola Tesla was a phone hardware company in Zagreb before Ericsson bought it in 1990s) in honour of Nikola Tesla's pioneering work in wireless communication.



Train

Silverlink Metro in London has a train named "Nikola Tesla", which, like the rest of the rollingstock, is an electrically powered train that can take power from either trackside and overhead power lines within the same journey on the North London Line.



Electric Car

Tesla Motors, an electric car company that is producing a high end, long distance sports, named their company in tribute to Nikola Tesla. Their website states: "The namesake of our Tesla Roadster is the genius Nikola Tesla [...] We‘re confident that if he were alive today, Nikola Tesla would look over our car and nod his head with both understanding and approval."[71]
gokusanone
2007-01-01 21:43:05 UTC
Of course he was !! But the Nobel prize came late !! Tough luck for him !!


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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