Other Inventions
"My method is different. I do not rush into constructive work. When I get an idea, I start right away to build it up in my mind. I change the structure, I make improvements, I experiment, I run the device in my mind. It is absolutely the same to me whether I operate my turbine in thought or test it actually in my shop. It makes no difference, the results are the same. In this way, you see, I can rapidly develop and perfect an invention, without touching anything. When I have gone so far that I have put into the device every possible improvement I can think of, that I can see no fault anywhere, I then construct this final product of my brain. Every time my device works as I conceive it should and my experiment comes out exactly as I plan it."- Nikola Tesla (1917)
Neon Lights
Tesla invented neon lights, demonstrating them at his World's Fair exhibit. Today, neon lights dominate cities.
"Before 1893, Tesla devised all kinds of wirelessly-lit vacuum and gas-filled tubes. He increased the brilliance of some by using uranium glass or coating them with phosphors — thus creating pioneer fluorescent tubes. He bent many to suit the requirements of the room they were to light, and others to form words or names just as we do in modern display lighting. Tesla displayed some of his neon-type tubes in his personal exhibit at the 1893 World’s Fair."-Kenneth M. Swezey, Science Magazine (1948) |
Contributions to X-Rays
"Every radiologist is aware of Nikola Tesla’s research in the field of electromagnetism. The International System (SI) unit of magnetic flux density, the Teslacon magnetic resonance imager (Technicare, Solon, Ohio), and Teslascan manganese contrast agent (GE Healthcare, Waukesha, Wis) were all named after him. Without his other inventions like the alternating current supply, Tesla-Knott generator, and fluorescent lights in view boxes, it is impossible to even imagine a workday in a contemporary radiology department. But if the discovery of x-rays is mentioned, only a few radiologists associate it with Tesla’s name."-Maja Hrabak, Ranka Stern Padovan, Marko Kralik, David Ozretic, and Kristina Potocki, RadioGraphics (2008)
Tesla had early correspondence with Wilhelm Roentgen, the inventor of x-rays, and made influential contributions. Tesla also started to form the foundations of MRI technology. The standard unit of magnetic flux is a tesla because of his work with MRI.
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"By exposing the head to a powerful radiation strange effects have been noted. For instance, I find that there is a tendency to sleep and the time seems to pass away quickly...Should these remarkable effects be verified by men of keener sense of observation, I shall still more firmly believe in the existence of material streams penetrating the skull. Thus it may be possible by these strange appliances to project a suitable chemical into any part of the body."-Nikola Tesla, St Paul Daily Globe (1896)
Radar
Tesla developed the concept for radar in hope to help the military.
'Now we are coming to the method of locating such hidden metal masses as submarines by an electric ray...that is the thing which seems to hold great promises. If we can shoot out a concentrated ray comprising a stream of minute electric charges vibrating electrically at tremendous frequency, say millions of cycles per second, and then intercept this ray, after it has been reflected by a submarine hull for example, and cause this intercepted ray to illuminate a fluorescent screen (similar to the X-ray method) on the same or another ship, then our problem of locating the hidden submarine will have been solved."
-Nikola Tesla, The Electrical Experimenter (1917)