Nikola Tesla changed modern science and academia for the better. He is one of the greatest inventors of the 19th century who has ever lived. Tesla had a tough life, though. Most of his scientific innovations and research didn’t receive the full amount of funding. He had invented the alternating current but was smeared by Thomas Edison who ruined Tesla and defrauded him out of millions of dollars. A huge PR campaign was made against Tesla by Edison’s company and went on to be backed by JP Morgan. In the end, though, Tesla had invented the AC current, radio/remote control and predicted many of the wireless technologies we see today.
His contributions to science are one of the many reasons many technologies we have exist today. Without his knowledge of wireless charging, alternative currents, etc. we probably wouldn’t have technologies such as the internet, computer, rechargeable battery, etc. This means he was underappreciated for his time. His inventions went on to be called some of the greatest of all time. As for what he created, that is a whole other story.
If you look at innovations such as his believe that wireless charging will become a thing in the future, his prediction of the rise of smart homes, and other technologies as well. Many of his predictions, besides his contributions to electrical engineering and mechatronics, ended up being revolutionary in fields such as Physics, Chemistry, and Computer Engineering. Many will go down in history but none as innovative or passionate as Nikola Tesla who ultimately chose technical breakthroughs and benefiting humanity over a lucrative capitalistic career and died bankrupt. His contributions and love for what he does go unmatched to any engineer living today.
Part of the reason for his bankruptcy was the ruthless greed of Thomas Edison. Edison didn’t even invent the light bulb, he took credit for what was mainly a contribution of 22 scientists plus “Tesla Bulbs”. Edison promised to pay Nikola Tesla a large sum of money for working for him, but once the project was over he said, “Tesla, it seems you don’t understand our American humor.”
When Tesla quit to build his AC project, Edison spent lots of money (mainly backed by J.P Morgan) to make a public smear campaign degrading Tesla’s better AC system. This included hiring schoolboys to kidnap people’s cats and dogs just so Edison could electrocute them to death in front of large crowds of people. He even went as far as to electrocute an elephant.
Tesla tried having a campaign of his own but eventually went bankrupt trying to keep up w/ the negative PR. He ended up destroying the royalties contract just to save the company he was working for. In the end, he died completely broke, delusional, and on the brink of madness. He died, as what it seems, insanely depressed. However, he had started a second industrial revolution. His contributions are almost 5 decades to even 100 years ahead of his time. He made almost every single modern technology we have today even more possible. If he had more funding, he could have solved lots of the world’s global environmental problems as well. Since he could do what he did, science will never be the same.
There would be no way we would have Computer Engineering, even tech giants like Apple would have probably never existed. In terms of interdisciplinary, his vast array of knowledge, talent, and stigma is an example of something that truly changed the way we look at using technology in this modern age.
