According to Legend When Was the Art of Memory Born?
In honor of inventor Nikola Tesla's 157th birthday, we've turned to two Tesla experts and historians to help u.s.a. compile a list of interesting facts you probably never knew about the guy. The information beneath comes from interviews with W. Bernard Carlson, author of "Tesla: Inventor of the Electric Historic period," and Marc Seifer, author of "Wizard: Life and Times of Nicola Tesla."
one. HE WAS BORN DURING A LIGHTNING Storm
Nikola Tesla was born around midnight, between July 9 and July 10, 1856 during a fierce lightning tempest. Co-ordinate to family legend, midway through the birth, the midwife wrung her hands and alleged the lightning a bad omen. This child will be a child of darkness, she said, to which his mother replied: "No. He volition exist a child of light."
two. HE WAS REALLY FUNNY
Nearly people don't know that Tesla had a terrific sense of humour, Seifer said. For example, after dining with writer and poet Rudyard Kipling, he wrote this in a correspondence to a close friend:
Apr one, 1901
My dear Mrs. Johnson,
What is the matter with inkspiller Kipling? He really dared to invite me to dine in an obscure hotel where I would exist sure to go pilus and cockroaches in the soup.
Yours truly,
Northward. Tesla
3. HE AND EDISON WERE RIVALS, Just NOT SWORN ENEMIES
Many have characterized Tesla and inventor Thomas Edison equally enemies (see this and this,) just Carlson says this human relationship has been misrepresented. Early in his career, Tesla worked for Edison, designing direct current generators, but famously quit to pursue his ain project: the alternating current induction motor. Sure, they were on unlike sides of the and so-chosen "Electric current Wars," with Edison pushing for direct current and Tesla for alternating electric current. But Carlson considers them the Steve Jobs and Beak Gates of their time: one the bright marketer and businessman and the other a visionary and "tech guy."
On a rare occasion, Edison attended a conference where Tesla was speaking. Edison, difficult of hearing and not wanting to be spotted, slipped into the back of the auditorium to heed to the lecture. But Tesla spotted Edison in the crowd, called attending to him and led the audience in giving him a continuing ovation.
Seifer qualifies it more, proverb the two had a dear/detest human relationship. At first Edison dismissed Tesla, but came to eventually respect him, he said.
"When there were fires at Tesla'southward laboratory, Edison provided him a lab, so clearly there was some mutual respect," Seifer said
4. HE Adult THE IDEA FOR SMARTPHONE Engineering IN 1901
Tesla may have had a vivid listen, just he was not as adept at reducing his ideas to practice, Carlson said. In the race to develop transatlantic radio, Tesla described to his funder and concern partner, J.P. Morgan, a new means of instant communication that involved gathering stock quotes and telegram messages, funneling them to his laboratory, where he would encode them and assign them each a new frequency. That frequency would be broadcast to a device that would fit in your hand, he explained. In other words, Tesla had envisioned the smart phone and wireless internet, Carlson said, adding that of all of his ideas, that was the 1 that stopped him in his tracks.
This tesla coil snuffed out the power in Colorado Springs when this photo was taken. Photo by Dickenson 5. Aisle, photographer at the Century Magazines via Wikimedia Commons.
"He was the first to be thinking about the information revolution in the sense of delivering information for each private user," Carlson said.
He also conceived of, but never adult technology for radar, X-rays, a particle beam "expiry ray" and radio astronomy.
five. 'HE SHOOK THE POOP OUT OF Marker TWAIN'
One famous fable surrounding the eccentric Tesla was that he had an earthquake automobile in his Manhattan laboratory that shook his building and nearly brought down the neighborhood during experiments.
Tesla's device wasn't actually an earthquake motorcar, Carlson said, but a high frequency oscillator. A piston fix underneath a platform in the laboratory shook violently as it moved, another experiment in more than efficient electricity.
Information technology didn't bring the block to ruins, Carlson said, but information technology did "milkshake the poop out of Marker Twain." Twain was known for having digestive problems, then Tesla, who knew Twain through their gentlemen'due south club, invited him over. He instructed Twain to stand on the platform while he flipped on the oscillator. Afterwards about ninety seconds, Twain jumped off the platform and ran for the facilities.
6. HE HAD FAMOUS FRIENDS
People aren't aware that he was close friends with conservationist John Muir, Seifer said. Muir, one of the founders of the Sierra Social club, loved that Tesla'south hydroelectric power system was a clean energy system. It runs on waterfalls, which Tesla referred to as "running on the wheelwork of nature." Also among his friends: financiers Henry Clay Frick and Thomas Fortune Ryan. "He lived in the Waldorf Astoria, at the height of the aureate historic period," Seifer said, adding that his fame later in life lessened.
vii. PEARLS Collection HIM CRAZY
Tesla could not stand the sight of pearls, to the extent that he refused to speak to women wearing them. When his secretary wore pearl jewelry, he sent her domicile for the solar day. No one knows why he had such an aversion, but Tesla had a very particular sense of style and aesthetics, Carlson said, and believed that in guild to be successful, 1 needed to expect successful. He wore white gloves to dinner every night and prided himself on being a "dapper dresser."
Every photograph of Tesla, he said, is very carefully synthetic to capture his "skillful side."
eight. HE HAD A PHOTOGRAPHIC MEMORY AND A Fear OF GERMS
Tesla had what'due south known as a photographic memory. He was known to memorize books and images and stockpile visions for inventions in his head. He likewise had a powerful imagination and the ability to visualize in three dimensions, which he used to command the terrifying brilliant nightmares he suffered from as a kid. It'due south in part what makes him such a mystical and eccentric character in popular culture, Carlson said. He was also known for having excessive hygiene habits, built-in out of a nearly-fatal bout of cholera as a teenager.
Jenny Marder contributed to this report.
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Source: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-nikola-tesla
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