May 3, 2017

Nikola Tesla's Visions of the Future

By Gavin Aung Than / zenpencils.com

The ONE secret that Nikola Tesla wrested from nature on that fateful day in a Budapest park was the design for his most famous and important invention: the Alternating Current Induction Motor. Before Tesla’s breakthrough, all electricity and motors used a direct current system, like the Gramme dynamo Professor Poeschl was demonstrating at Tesla’s Polytechnic School in Graz. Direct current motors were prone to wear and tear and sparking due to the number of moving parts brushing up against each other. Much to the disgust of his Professor, Tesla thought he could do away with the inefficiencies and sparking (in particular caused by a part known as a commutator). The genius of Tesla’s AC motor was it’s simplicity. There was no need for a commutator because the rotor moved due to a rotating electric field. This meant that the motor was more efficient, reliable, quieter and cheaper. In the ‘War of the Currents’ between Thomas Edison’s DC power and the AC system, Tesla’s alternating current prevailed and today is the basis of all modern power generation and distribution. Suck it, Professor Poeschl.

Read more on about Tesla on Zen Pencils.

Big Ideas   Sustainability   Technology & Design
Rate this article 
Technology & Design
Conversation Starters for Teachers & Students
Permaculture
Trending Videos
Anonymous Issues DIRE WARNING To MAGA | The Kyle Kulinski Show
11 min - Anonymous has released a new video warning about the growing threats posed by Trump, JD Vance, and Elon Musk. They outline how economic policies, mass firings, and regulatory rollbacks are...
Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980)
780 min - Astronomer Carl Sagan's landmark 13-part science series takes you on an awe-inspiring cosmic journey to the edge of the Universe and back aboard the spaceship of the imagination.The series was...
Sicko (2007)
123 min - The words "health care" and "comedy" aren't usually found in the same sentence, but in Academy Award winning filmmaker Michael Moore's new movie 'SiCKO,' they go together hand in (rubber)...
Trump’s Shocking Plan for Greater Israel Exposed
19 min - Trump and Netanyahu, with the full backing of billionaire war profiteers and far-right ideologues, are openly orchestrating the ethnic cleansing of Gaza—framing mass displacement, destruction, and...
Deep Ecology (2025)
53 min - Deep Ecology delves into the profound interconnectedness of our personal and collective grief with the ecological and systemic crises engulfing our planet. At its heart lies the transformative...
Claim CRITIQUE: Millions of Votes Stolen by Trump, Kamala Won
13 min - David Pakman examines Greg Palast's viral article claiming that Donald Trump did not really defeat Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.TL:DR Voter suppression tactics are a legitimate problem, but...
Establishing a Food Forest the Permaculture Way (2008)
82 min - Join Geoff Lawton on a Permaculture adventure as he demonstrates how to grow a food forest from start to finish. Over 90 minutes of quality information to get you on the right track in creating...
Trending Articles
Media Literacy
Christianity
Subscribe for $5/mo to Watch over 50 Patron-Exclusive Films
Subscribe $5/mo View All Patron Films

 

Your support keeps us ad-free and financially independent

Our 10,000+ video & article library is 99% free, ad-free, and entirely community-funded thanks to our patron subscribers!


Want to donate extra? You can subscribe and donate an extra $5/mo or more.