Ep. 92: Tesla – Top 7 Inventions
Intro
Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.
Today's episode is on a man who was called “the smartest man alive” by probably the smartest man in history, Albert Einstein. Nicola Tesla was a genius who surprisingly struggled financially for most of his life. He died in 1943 in relative obscurity along with his work, and if it wasn’t for an award from the General Conference on Weights and Measures where they named a SI unit of flux density in his honour along with a resurgence in the 1990’s, his work may have been forgotten.
Ironically, his name is now synonymous around the world with electric cars which just happen to run on DC power, which was his rival, Edison’s preferred power source.
Today’s mnemonic is on Tesla’s top 7 inventions.
So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.
Wikipedia Summary
Nikola Tesla (/ˈtɛslə/; Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла,[2] pronounced [nǐkola têsla];[a] 10 July [O.S. 28 June] 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American[5][6] inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.[7]
Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla studied engineering and physics in the 1870s without receiving a degree, gaining practical experience in the early 1880s working in telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own. With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His alternating current (AC) induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.
Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wirelessly controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited. Tesla became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures. Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.
After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943.[8] Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor. There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.[9]
Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla]
Mnemonic
Nicola Tesla – Top 7 Inventions Mnemonic – TIN TRAM
(Picture Nicola Tesla building the first wirelessly controlled miniature tin tram after he built the first wirelessly controlled miniature boat)
1. Tesla Coil
2. Induction Motor
3. Neon Lights
4. Tesla Turbine
5. Radio
6. Alternating Current
7. Magnifying Transmitter
Five Fun Facts
1. Nicola Tesla was born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan in Croatia. He was born in a Frankenstein like setting around midnight in a lightning storm that the midwife claimed was a bad omen and that Tesla would be a child of darkness. To which his mother replied “No, he will be a child of light”.
2. Two of the greatest inventors in history used to work together. Tesla was once employed by Thomas Edison before he went out on his own. The two were opposed on their idea of how current should flow with Edison attempting to light up America with DC (direct current) and Tesla expounding the benefits of AC (alternating current).
3. Tesla had envisioned the smartphone and wireless internet. While his ideas were both brilliant and ingenious, reducing these ideas to practice was Tesla’s biggest challenge and one that stalled his progress.
4. Tesla had a very unusual phobia to pearls. His dislike for pearls was so strong that he refused to speak to women who wore pearls and once when his secretary came to the lab adorned in pearls, he promptly sent her home!
And for those that just asked the question to themselves, like I did, is there a name for the fear of pearls? Well to my astonishment, yes there is, and it is called kosmemophobia.
5. Tesla had the rare gift of a photographic memory and could memorize books and images. This was augmented with a powerful imagination and the ability to visualise his inventions in three dimensions.
Bonus Fact: Nicola Tesla teamed up with another giant name in American business and that was George Westinghouse. They joined forces to compete against Edison and ended up winning the contract to light up the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.
Three Question Quiz
Q.1. Did the Croatian government seize control over Tesla’s inventions after he died? Is that true or false.
Q.2. Approximately how many patents did Nicola Tesla have? Options are around 200, around 300 or around 400.
Q.3. What natural wonder did Tesla harness to power New York City? Your options are lightning, Niagara or the sun.
Bonus Q. Who agreed to pay Tesla $50,000 for his work on sources of electricity?
Bonus Q. What do you call a Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison band?
Mnemonic Recap
Nicola Tesla – Top 7 Inventions Mnemonic – TIN TRAM
(Picture Nicola Tesla building the first wirelessly controlled miniature tin tram after he built the first wirelessly controlled miniature boat)
1. Tesla Coil
2. Induction Motor
3. Neon Lights
4. Tesla Turbine
5. Radio
6. Alternating Current
7. Magnifying Transmitter
Three Question Quiz Answers
Q.1. Did the Croatian government seize control over Tesla’s inventions after he died? Is that true or false.
A. False. The US government seized control over Tesla’s inventions.
Q.2. Approximately how many patents did Nicola Tesla have? Options are around 200, around 300 or around 400.
A. Tesla had around 300 patents across five different continents
Q.3. What natural wonder did Tesla harness to power New York City? Your options are lightning, Niagara or the sun.
A. Niagara
Bonus Q. Who agreed to pay Tesla $50,000 for his work on sources of electricity?
A. Thomas Edison. However, he reneged on payment when Tesla came to collect.
Bonus Q. What do you call a Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison band?
A. AC/DC ……. That hertz!
Word of the Week
reboant
[ reb-oh-uhnt ]
adjective
resounding or reverberating loudly.
Example
Edison was reboant in his push for direct current to light up the homes in America as opposed to Tesla’s alternating current which ultimately prevailed.
Extracted from: [https://www.dictionary.com/]
https://www.themnemonictreepodcast.com/
https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-mnemonic-tree-podcast/id1591795132
https://open.spotify.com/show/3T0LdIJ9PBQMXM3cdKd42Q?si=fqmaN2TNS8qqc7jOEVa-Cw
References
https://www.historyhit.com/nikola-teslas-most-important-inventions/
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/5-things-you-didnt-know-about-nikola-tesla
https://www.dictionary.com/e/word-of-the-day/reboant-2023-04-30/
https://facts.net/nikola-tesla-facts/
https://www.funtrivia.com/trivia-quiz/People/Nikola-Tesla-23241.html