Photo by Marc_SmithElectricity is something we take for granted every day. It’s something that has become common place in our lives and rightfully so. Everything in nature that changes or produces any kind of motion is propelled by some sort of energy. Whether it be living energy such as in humans, animals and plants. Or it may be from a kinetic energy, for instance pushing a rock off a cliff. All these forms of energy create friction which causes particles to be charged with energy. Harvesting these particles is another matter entirely. Let’s take a closer look at the man responsible for manipulating these currents into what we use today, known as an alternating current (AC).
Who was Nikola Tesla
Alternating Current, or AC, is composed of electrically charged particles that change direction periodically. This is the opposite of a Direct Current, or DC. A direct current will only flow in one continuous direction. Nikola Tesla is responsible for the use of AC current and also created the automotive ignition system and the electric motor.
As we all know great minds are usually consumed with some deal of eccentric behavior. Well, Tesla was no exception to this rule. What used to be known as eccentric is now more commonly known as ADD, ADHD and OCD behavior. I think Tesla wore the OCD label exceptionally well.
Some of Tesla’s Eccentric Behaviors
Now that we know exactly who Nikola Tesla was, I want to cover what was going on in
Photo by Andrew*his brain.
First off, Tesla never did marry, he was actually obsessed with pigeons and thought one of them to be his “wife!” Not sure if this had anything to do with the fact he was receiving communications from outer space or not. Yes, he also believed that.
Tesla had a compulsion with the number three. Now let me remind everyone that this is actually a wide spread compulsion that many people in society today have. Some folks may not even realize they are obsessed with this number but it’s true. Tesla’s hotel room numbers always had to be divisible by 3 and always insisted on having 9 napkins and 9 pieces of bread sent to him with his meal.
He also had a great disgust for the overweight or people with pierced ears and pearl earrings. I’ve gone over this one in my mind a lot but still can’t see exactly what could bother you about these things. I can understand the overweight part, because a lot of times overweight people do not take care of them selves or appear sloppy. Let me say that I myself am a bit overweight so I’m not taking sides here, not all folks that are overweight have this appearance. On the same note, there are a lot of folks not overweight that appear sloppy too. So maybe that analogy wasn’t that good, but… The pierced ears and pearl earrings thing is definitely odd though, any thoughts on that one from anyone??
A Little about Tesla’s Career
At one point Tesla had gone to work for Thomas Edison. He says that Edison stiffed him out of a $50,000 bonus at some point. So as payback Tesla went on an intense campaign to promote the widespread use of AC current. This put quite a damper in Edison’s plans to push his DC current as the preferred current.
The inventor of the radio, Guglielmo Marconi, actually used 17 of Tesla’s patents during the invention of his radio. The case was taken to the Supreme Court and ruled in favor of Tesla in 1943 stating that the patents belonged to Tesla, not Marconi.
I find things like this fascinating, it’s interesting to get behind the scenes in what makes some of these famous “brains” tick. Any more information pertaining to eccentric inventors, please feel free to comment.
Had always learned more about Edison and unfortunately not as much about Tesla which is a shame, seemed like a very intelligent individual.
Yes Conanvette, there are many great inventors out there that probably haven’t been given their due credit. I’ve found that most of them were pretty eccentric in their own ways, but indeed very smart people.
Genius and insanity are only separate by a hare’s breath, the old saying goes.