One last post for the evening - a sad anniversary
Sixty Five years ago today, Nikola Tesla passed away alone and penniless in a New York hotel room.
I consider him to be one of my personal heroes -- he invented a few things that are still in use today.
Radio. The Fluorescent Light. The system of commercial power distribution and use that is in place to this date. He was working with X Rays in 1887 -- Wilhelm R�ntgen 'discovered' them in 1895 (Tesla never discovered the medical applications, only the radiation itself). His work in Radio Astronomy when he was working in Colorado Springs is still considered groundbreaking. In 1917, he laid down some of the fundamentals of RADAR - this work was at such a low frequency that only distance could be measured but it was what was available at the time in terms of technology.
Good friends with Mark Twain.
He was known for being a flamboyant showman but remember, there was no National Science Foundation back then. To get funding for your projects, you had to attract people's attention and Tesla did and Tesla always delivered the goods.
The man was a genius and the world is a lesser place for his absence.
Posted by DaveH at January 7, 2009 10:16 PM