Google joins the world in commemorating what would be the 153rd birthday of a man that changed human history. Nikola Tesla ushered in the age of alternating current, radio, and television with fanfare. Though his showmanship as a scientist often made overt skeptics of his colleagues his ideas were centuries ahead of their time and are only now receiving the kind of consideration and awe they deserve. When presenting his new concepts he insisted that one of his coils (pictured above) be spouting off the visual manifestations of electricity, popping and fizzling so loudly as to make his words inaudible. If his contemporaries could have heard his voice they would see he had an infectious obsession with progress and the idea that the hidden powers of electricity and magnetism could be unlocked to allow humanity to live more easily. He had a vision for free and equitable POWER (in all philosophical and practical definitions of the word) for every man woman and child on earth. His efforts to realize this were thwarted by J. P. Morgan and other financial backers who caught wind of Tesla's scheme to deliver free electricity wirelessly to the public through Tesla's giant telecommunications tower at Wardenclyffe on Long Island. There was no profit to be made by giving people what the needed freely. But presently, as the internet gains depth and gravity, this vision is being pieced together slowly and perhaps one day will be complete. The ghost of Nikola Tesla breathes life into the very medium in which I pass these keystrokes along. Happy Birthday Nikola!
Read more about Tesla and enrapturing story of his life here here and here
Above pictured is a sculpture of Nikola Tesla located at Queen Victoria Park near Niagara falls, unveiled on July 9, 2006. Tesla is standing atop an AC motor, one of the 700 inventions he patented. The monument was the work of Canadian sculptor Les Dryzdale.
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