Was Nikola Tesla a fraud?
No, Tesla was not a fraud. In fact, most of the electric power technology we use today (alternating current technology) was invented by Tesla. Tesla’s main rival, Thomas Edison, got his name on most of the power companies, because Edison was first with electric power and lighting, but Edison’s direct current systems were made obsolete by Tesla’s AC generators, motors, transformers and power transmission systems. You can find Tesla’s patents by going to the US patent office website, www.uspto.gov, and searching for Tesla’s name as an inventor.
Nope. He was neither a fraud nor was he suppressed, but he got much less public acclaim than he deserved and he didn’t profit as much as he deserved from his inventions because he was ripped off by crooks on several occasions in his career. The alternating current electric power supply grid, used everywhere in the world, is possibly the greatest engineering achievement in the last 100 years, and it is mostly his invention.
Tesla was the epitome of the mad genius. His inventions form the basis of our electrical power system. Tesla worked on a large number of speculative projects which were never satisfactorily demonstrated, including energy beam weapons and some technology for extracting energy from the atmosphere (or free space?) Both the US and Soviet governments, as well as Westinghouse, are suspected of having hidden away some of Tesla’s papers. Because of his research into uncharted territory, and the whiff of conspiracy surrounding the alleged misiing papers,Tesla is popular with many people on the fringes of science. Although you can now find some of his works for sale alongside purple energy angels and other nonsense, Tesla himself, though he was not always right, was the real deal.
Nikola Tesla is credited “with the invention of the induction motor, long-distance electrical power distribution, fluorescent and neon lights, the first true radio tube and remote control, besides making vital contributions to the technology underlying television, wireless communication, robotics, lasers, the facsimile machine and particle-beam weaponry anticipating the space-based “Star Wars” defensive shield.” He was not so much a scientist as an inventor and a technologist. He is sometimes discredited because of his eccentric personality which led to severe neurosis in later life. His personality does not, however, gainsay his incredible genius.
