Table of contents:
- 1. He was born during a thunderstorm
- 2. He invented technology for smartphones in 1901
- 3. He made Mark Twain "rip his guts"
- 4. Pearls pissed him off
- 5. He possessed a photographic memory and suffered from a fear of germs
Video: Original photos and interesting facts from the life of Nikola Tesla
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was an outstanding scientist ahead of his time. He was called the lord of the world, the lord of lightning, and even the embodiment of the highest mind. Every conscientious student knows his name, but not everyone knows that a significant number of real photographs of the scientist and his laboratory have survived. In addition, many rumors, legends and anecdotes circulate around his semi-mythical figure. We have selected for you 5 interesting and, apparently, reliable facts that are described by Tesla's biographers.
1. He was born during a thunderstorm
Nikola Tesla was born on the night of July 9-10, 1856, in the midst of a severe thunderstorm. According to family tradition, the midwife who took the birth, wringing her hands, proclaimed lightning a bad sign. She declared that the baby would be a child of darkness, to which his mother replied: "No, he will be a child of light."
2. He invented technology for smartphones in 1901
According to Tesla biographer Bernard Carlson, the scientist, although he possessed a brilliant intellect, was not so good when it came to practical implementation of ideas. During the race that culminated in the invention of the transatlantic radio, Tesla described to his sponsor and business partner J. P. Morgan the idea of a new way of instant communication, which was that stock quotes and telegrams would be redirected to his laboratory, where he would encode them and assign a new frequency to each. Then, as Tesla explained, the messages had to be broadcast to a device that could fit in one hand. In other words, he anticipated mobile communications and the Internet.
“He was the first to think about the information revolution in terms of conveying information to an individual user,” writes Carlson. Tesla also came up with, but never technically implemented, the idea of a radar, X-ray, beam weapons and radio astronomy.
3. He made Mark Twain "rip his guts"
One of the famous legends about the eccentric Tesla says that in his Manhattan laboratory he built an earthquake machine, which, during tests, almost destroyed the entire area.
In fact, Tesla's device was not an earthquake machine, but a high-frequency mechanical oscillator. A piston installed under the platform made it vibrate actively.
Once Tesla invited Mark Twain to his laboratory. Everyone knew that the writer, whom Tesla knew from the gentlemen's club, suffered from digestive problems. The scientist suggested that Twain try the work of a mechanical oscillator. After about a minute and a half, Twain quickly jumped off the platform and ran to the restroom.
4. Pearls pissed him off
Tesla could not stand pearls. To the point that he literally refused to talk to women who wore pearls. Once he sent home his secretary, who had the imprudence to put on a pearl jewelry. No one knows the real reason for this idiosyncrasy, but Tesla was known as an esthete and had a very specific sense of style. He believed that in order to be successful, a person must appear successful. Every evening he went out to dinner in white gloves, and prided himself on the elegance of his suit. Carlson argues that every photo of Tesla was required to show only his "winning side."
5. He possessed a photographic memory and suffered from a fear of germs
Tesla was known for his ability to memorize books and images, and "store" ideas for new inventions in his head. He also had an extremely vivid imagination that allowed him to reproduce detailed three-dimensional images of objects once seen. Among other things, this ability helped him control the terrible nightmares that Tesla suffered from since childhood.
According to Carlson, in many ways, it is to her that he owes the fame of a mystical and eccentric character in popular culture. Another reason for idle gossip was his fanatical obsession with personal hygiene, which developed from cholera suffered in adolescence, which almost cost him his life.
American photographer Caleb Charland is unlikely to be famous for his great scientific discovery, but photographs of his experiments with "entertaining physics" are pleasing to the eye and are exhibited in art galleries.
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