home biology tutor Who invented alternating current. Nikola Tesla and his great inventions Who created alternating current

Who invented alternating current. Nikola Tesla and his great inventions Who created alternating current

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) - an outstanding inventor, physicist, engineer of Serbian origin, author of over a hundred inventions, many of which radically changed the life of mankind. He was best known for creating devices operating on alternating current, as well as for consistently advocating the idea of the existence of the ether. The name of the inventor is the unit of measurement of the density of magnetic induction.

"I no longer work for the present, I work for the future."

"The action of even the smallest creature leads to changes in the entire universe."

"The great mysteries of our existence have yet to be unraveled, even death may not be the end."

Nikola Tesla was born in the Croatian village of Smilyan (then Austria-Hungary) on July 10, 1856. His parents Milutin and Georgina were far from science - his father served as a priest, and his mother, by today's standards, was a housewife. The boy spent his early childhood in his small homeland, where he graduated from the first grade of elementary school.

Then the father was given a new spiritual order and a large family, which had five children, moved to the city of Gospic. By that time, the elder brother of Nikola Dane had died. In Gospic, the future physicist received further education, first completing three grades of elementary school, and in 1870 receiving a certificate from a real gymnasium.

Tesla in his youth

Education at the gymnasium opened the way to the Higher Real School (now the Technical University of Graz), which was located in the city of Karlovac. The young man went there, where he lived in an apartment with his own aunt. His studies were nearly interrupted by a serious illness (probably cholera), which Nikola could not get rid of for 9 months. Because of this, the father even wanted to forbid further education as an engineer, but the son insisted and showed such a will to live that he soon recovered.

While in Graz, Tesla plunged headlong into electrical engineering and soon realized that DC machines were not perfect. For this, he was subjected to a public “flogging” from Professor J. Peshl, who defiantly gave a lecture before the whole course on the impossibility of using alternating current in electric motors. But in Tesla's life there were people who left an indelible mark on his soul. Among them was his physics teacher M. Sekulich, who once demonstrated his invention - a light bulb wrapped in tin foil, intensively rotating under the action of a static machine. Nicola later recalled that each time this phenomenon echoed in his mind.

But at that time there was an unpleasant episode in the life of Tesla's student. In his third year, he began to gamble, losing large sums of money at cards. In rare moments of victories, he gave away the winnings to the losers and, it is not surprising that soon the Serb began to have a huge debt, which his mother helped to pay off. But this was a good lesson for him, after which the cards disappeared from Tesla's life forever.

Independent life

After the death of his father, Nikola began to teach at his native gymnasium in Gospic, but he did not particularly like this work. There was not enough money all the time, and only with the support of uncles Pavel and Petar, he was able to move to Prague, enrolling in the philosophical faculty of a local university. But here, too, chronic lack of money made itself felt, and after the first semester, the young man got a job as an electrical engineer in a telegraph company in Budapest. She was engaged in the laying of telephone communications and the construction of telephone exchanges. In 1882, Tesla guessed the possibility of using a rotating magnetic field in an electric motor, but work in the telegraph company interfered with the plans, which forced the aspiring scientist to move to the Continental Company.

At this time he works in Paris and Strasbourg. In the latter, he participated in the construction of a power plant for the local railway station. It was in Strasbourg that Tesla developed a model of an asynchronous electric motor, which he tested in action right in the city hall. After completing work on the power plant, Nikola returned to Paris, expecting a bonus of 25 thousand dollars due to him, but soon realized the futility of his intentions and quit.

New twist of fate

At first, Tesla wanted to go to Russia, where at that time a whole galaxy of scientific luminaries worked - and others. But one of his colleagues in the Continental Company, C. Belchor, convinced him to go to the USA and even wrote a letter of recommendation to T. Edison. In June 1884, the scientist arrived in New York and got a job at the Edison Machine Works as an electrical equipment repair engineer, while continuing to engage in inventive activities.

Knowing Tesla's great scientific excitement and not much trusting his ideas, Edison gave the task to his colleague - to improve DC electric machines, promising for this a fantastic amount of 50 thousand dollars for those times. Nikola plunged headlong into the work and in the shortest possible time presented 24 options for optimizing the machine, and with them a new regulator and commutator. Thomas approved all the developments, but did not give money, citing Tesla's poor English and his lack of understanding of American humor. In response, the offended inventor chose to quit.

Dreams Come True

After leaving Edison, Tesla was well aware that he could no longer count on the patronage of his relatives, but by this time he had something more valuable - authority in scientific circles and confidence in the correctness of his own ideas. In the spring of 1885, together with the well-known patent lawyer L. Surrel, he filed the first patent application for an arc lamp that emits uniform light. After that, copyright inventions began to appear with enviable regularity.

Later, he entered into a partnership agreement with businessmen from New Jersey, who agreed to finance the scientist's projects and gave him money. With these funds, Tesla created a company and, it seems, life began to improve. However, unfortunate entrepreneurs deceived the naive Tesla and took the company for themselves, "sharing" part of the shares with him. Nicola was ruined and was forced to remember his past poverty. To survive, he was engaged in digging ditches, receiving only $ 2 for this.

Scientist with a capital letter

Fate rewarded him for his patience and in 1887, with the help of his colleagues, Nikola created his new offspring, the Tesla Arc Light Company, which quickly became a serious competitor to the Edison empire. The press wittily called this confrontation a “war of currents” and on the “battlefield” the Serb outplayed the venerable American more than once. In 1888, at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, Tesla announced the alternator and immediately received an offer from millionaire George Westinghouse to cede the invention to him for $ 1 million. As a result, he acquired patents for technologies for the transmission and distribution of polyphase currents and used these ideas during the construction of a hydroelectric power station at Niagara Falls.

Over the next seven years until 1895, Tesla worked actively in his laboratory on the theory of magnetic fields and high frequencies. As a result, many patents were obtained, including high and ultra-high frequency electric generators, a wave radio transmitter, and a resonant transformer. In addition, the scientist was able to guess the physiological effect of high-frequency currents.

Tesla never ceased to amaze the scientific world. In 1892, speaking at the Royal Academy of Great Britain, he amazed those present with burning light bulbs, which the "crazy Serb" held in his hands. However, they were not connected to a power source. For this, after the speech, he was seated in the chair of Faraday himself. Working on the theory of radio waves, Tesla came up with a "teleautomatic device" - a self-propelled device that was controlled from a distance.

It seemed that there were no barriers to Nikola, and nature itself obediently followed the instructions of the scientist. But in May 1895, a fire broke out in the laboratory, swallowing up the developments already created and the latest projects, including a method for transmitting messages at a distance and a mechanical oscillator. Then there were persistent rumors that the cause of the fire was the burning of competitors, and some even called the specific culprit - Edison.

Data transmission over a distance

Tesla was saved by a phenomenal memory, thanks to which he restored his records, and the Niagara Falls Company issued him $100,000 to set up a new laboratory. The result was not long in coming - in 1896, the scientist managed to transmit the signal without the help of wires for 48 km.

In 1899, at the invitation of the electrical company, Tesla created the Colorado Springs Laboratory, which worked on the study of thunderstorms. For this, the Serb created a special transformer with a grounded end of the primary winding. The other end was attached to a metal ball from which a rod emerged. The secondary winding was connected to a device integrated with a recording device. This design allowed the scientist to understand the dynamics of the changing potential of the planet. After that, he conducted another experiment, during which he was able to prove the possibility of creating a standing electromagnetic wave.

After impressive success, the inventor returned to New York and decided to build a station for transmitting data and energy over a distance to any place on the planet. To do this, he purchased a small plot of land on Long Island, and the architect V. Groy developed a project for a wooden tower. By 1902, this structure called Wardenclyffe, 47 meters high, was built, but things did not go further. D. Morgan, who promised to finance the project, refused Tesla at the last moment for fear of ruining his own business. However, this did not stop the scientist, and in the coming years he continued to hone the technology by conducting many experiments.

Tesla's "secret" inventions

But Tesla became famous not only for the tower - he did not stop working on other inventions. At the beginning of the 20th century, Nikola created an electric meter and a frequency meter, improved steam turbines, and led the development of a locomotive, an aircraft, a car, and a lathe.

"Aircraft" by Nikola Tesla

“These will be aircraft on completely new principles - without gas cylinders, wings or propellers. At high speeds, they will move in any direction regardless of the weather, air pockets and downdrafts.”

There are versions that a powerful destructive weapon was created in the scientist's laboratory. It is known that during the experiment related to the study of self-oscillations, a strong resonance began in the room, forcing Tesla to stop the action. Perhaps this was a weapon test. True, some argue that the “Great New York Earthquake” happened in the city at that time, but the acquisition by the US government of all the drawings and their subsequent classification leads to certain thoughts.

Shortly before his death, the brilliant scientist announced a sensation - he created a "death ray" capable of transmitting an incredible amount of energy over a distance that could destroy 10 thousand aircraft. In 1931, he showed the public his electric car with an AC motor, which traveled without recharging during the entire experimental week. According to the author, the car could accelerate to 150 km / h.

last years of life

Shortly before his death, Nikola Tesla was hit by a car and suffered a broken rib. Against the background of complications, pneumonia began and he went to bed. The scientist was deeply worried about the fate of his homeland, occupied during World War II by the Nazis, and tried to support those who fought for its independence. Even being deeply ill, Tesla did not let anyone in and was alone in his hotel room. So he died alone from heart failure on the night of January 8, 1943. The body was found only two days after death.

Like many talented people, Nikola Tesla was known as an eccentric and was strange in many ordinary everyday situations. But he could, like no one else, feel metaphysics and understand the laws of nature at an incredible level. The result of this was ingenious inventions that moved forward the development of all mankind.

“My brain is just a receiver. In outer space there is a certain core from where we draw knowledge, strength, inspiration. I have not penetrated the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.

Video

Documentary "Nikola Tesla. Lord of the world".
Scriptwriter and director: Vitaly Pravdivtsev
Editor: Larisa Kovalenko
Producer: Alexey Gorovatsky

Documentary "Nikola Tesla. Vision of the modern world.

The confrontation between Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison at the end of the 19th century could be called a real war, and it is not for nothing that their rivalry in whose technology for the transmission of electrical energy will become dominant in the world is still called the “War of Currents”.

The technology of Tesla's AC lines or Edison's DC lines is truly an epochal dispute, the point of which was put only at the end of 2007, with the final completion of the transition of New York to AC networks, in favor of Tesla.

The first electric generators producing direct current allowed a simple connection to the line, and accordingly, to consumers, while alternating current generators required synchronization with the connected power system.

It is important that consumers designed for alternating current did not originally exist, and an effective modification of the induction motor, designed directly for alternating current, was invented only by 1888, that is, six years after Edison launched the first direct current power plant in London.

After Edison patented in 1880 his system for the production and distribution of direct current electrical energy, which included three wires - zero, plus 110 volts, and minus 110 volts, the great inventor of the light bulb was already confident that "he would make electric lighting so cheap that only The rich will use candles."

So, as mentioned above, the first DC power plant was launched by Edison in January 1882 in London, a few months later - in Manhattan, and by 1887 more than a hundred Edison DC power plants were operating in the United States. At this time, Tesla worked for Edison.

Despite the seemingly bright future of Edison DC systems, they had a very significant drawback. Wires were used to transmit electrical energy over a distance, and with an increase in the length of the wire, as you know, its resistance increases, and therefore inevitable heating losses take place. Thus, the problem required a solution - to reduce the resistance of the wires, making them thicker, or to raise the voltage in order to reduce the current strength.

There were no effective methods for increasing the DC voltage at that time, and the voltage in the lines still did not exceed 200 volts, so it was possible to deliver any significant power only at a distance of no more than 1.5 km, and if you need to transfer electricity further, it is obvious that it is expensive large wires.

And so, in 1893, Nikola Tesla and his investor, entrepreneur George Westinghouse, received an order to illuminate the fair in Chicago with two hundred thousand light bulbs. It was a victory. Three years later, the first AC hydroelectric power station was built at Niagara Falls to transmit electrical power to the nearby city of Buffalo.

In other matters, by 1928, the United States had already stopped developing direct current systems, fully convinced of the advantages of alternating current. After another 70 years, their dismantling began, by 1998 in New York the number of DC consumers did not exceed 4600, and by 2007 there were none left, when the chief engineer of Consolidated Edison symbolically cut the cable, and the "War of Currents" was finished.

Switching to alternating current hit Edison hard in the pocket, and, feeling defeated, he began to sue for infringement of his patent rights, but the decisions of the judges were not in his favor. Edison did not stop, he began to organize public demonstrations where he killed animals with alternating current, trying to convince everyone and everything about the dangers of using alternating current, and vice versa - about the safety of his direct current networks.

In the end, it got to the point that in 1887 Edison's partner, engineer Harold Brown, offered to execute criminals with deadly alternating current. Westinghouse and Tesla did not supply generators for this, and even hired a lawyer for the murderer of his wife, Kemmler, who was sentenced to death in the electric chair. But this did not save, and in 1890 Kemmler was executed by alternating current, and Edison made sure that the bribed journalist poured mud at Westinghouse for this in his newspaper.

Despite prolonged black PR from Edison, Tesla's AC system was doomed to success. AC voltage could be easily and efficiently increased by means of transformers, and transmitted over wires over distances of hundreds of kilometers without much loss. High-voltage lines did not require the use of thick wires, and lowering the voltage at transformer substations made it possible to deliver low voltage to the consumer to power loads with alternating current.

It began with the fact that in 1885 Tesla retired from Edison, and together with Westinghouse acquired several Golar-Gibbs transformers, and an alternator manufactured by Siemens & Halske, after which, with the support of Westinghouse, he began his own experiments. As a result, a year after the start of the experiments, in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, the first 500-volt alternating current hydroelectric power station began operation.

Then there were no motors suitable for efficient AC power, and already in 1882 Tesla invented a polyphase electric motor, for which he received a patent in 1888, the first AC meter appeared in the same year. The three-phase system was introduced in Frankfurt am Main at an exhibition in 1891, and in 1893 Westinghouse won a tender to build a power station at Niagara Falls. Tesla believed that the energy of this hydroelectric power plant would be enough for the entire United States.

To reconcile Tesla and Edison, the Niagara Power Company commissioned Edison to build a power line from the Niagara Falls station to the city of Buffalo. As a result, Edison's General Electric bought the Thomson-Houston company, which made AC machines, and began to manufacture them itself.

So, Edison again became with money, but black PR against alternating current did not stop - he publicized and circulated in newspapers pictures of the execution by alternating current of the elephant Topsy, who trampled three New York Luna Park circus workers in 1903.

Direct and alternating current - advantages and disadvantages

Direct current, as it happened historically, has found wide application for powering electric motors with series excitation in transport. Such motors are good in that they develop a lot of torque at a low number of revolutions per minute, and this number of revolutions can be easily adjusted by simply changing the constant voltage applied to the motor excitation winding, or by means of a rheostat.

DC motors are able to almost instantly change the direction of their rotation when changing the polarity of the supply to the field winding. So, DC motors are widely used to this day on diesel locomotives, electric locomotives, trams, trolleybuses, on various lifts and cranes.

Direct current can easily power incandescent lamps, various devices for industrial electrolysis, electroplating, welding, and it is also successfully used to power complex medical equipment.

Of course, direct current is useful in electrical engineering, because the corresponding circuits are easily calculated and simply controlled, not in vain by 1887 in the United States there were more than a hundred direct current power plants, which were led by Thomas Alva Edison's company. It is clear that direct current is convenient in the case when there is no need for conversion, i.e. increase or decrease in voltage, this is the main disadvantage of direct current.

Despite Edison's efforts to introduce direct current transmission systems, such systems also had a significant disadvantage - the need to use a large amount of materials and significant transmission losses.

The fact is that the voltage in the first direct current lines did not exceed 200 volts, and electricity could be transmitted at a distance not exceeding 1.5 km from the power plant, while a lot of energy was dissipated during transmission (remember).

If, nevertheless, it was required to transmit more power over a greater distance, thick heavy wires had to be used, and this was very expensive.

In 1893, Nikola Tesla began introducing his alternating current systems, which showed high efficiency due to the very essence of alternating current. Alternating current could be easily converted by means of transformers, increasing the voltage, and then it became possible to transmit electrical energy for many kilometers with minimal losses.

This happens because when the same power is supplied through the wires, the current can be reduced due to the increase in voltage, therefore, the transmission losses are smaller, and the required wire cross-section, respectively, decreases. That is why AC networks began to take root around the world.

Alternating current is used to power asynchronous motors in machines and machine tools, induction furnaces, it can also power simple incandescent lamps and any other active load. Asynchronous motors and transformers have made a real revolution in electrical engineering thanks to alternating current.

If, however, direct current is needed for some purpose, for example, for charging batteries, then now it can always be obtained from alternating current using rectifiers.

Nikola Tesla is an engineer, physicist, the greatest inventor and scientist of the 20th century. His discoveries forever changed the world, and his life and biography are filled with amazing events. Tesla gained worldwide fame as the creator of the electric motor, generator, multi-phase systems and devices operating on alternating current, which became the main milestones of the second stage of the industrial revolution and the amazing facts of his biography.

Nikola Tesla is also known as one of those who believed in the existence of the free energy of the ether. He conducted a large number of experiments and experiments confirming its existence and the possibility of using ethereal technologies. He is called a psychic who predicted the modern world, others call him a charlatan and schizophrenic, others call him a great inventor and scientist.

Childhood

The father of the famous scientist Milutin Tesla was a clergyman, mother Georgina Tesla raised children and helped her husband in the church. Nikola had three sisters and a brother who died as a child after falling from a horse. The family lived 6 km from the town of Gospic in the Serbian village of Smiljany. Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856.

Today, the homeland of the scientist is in Croatia, at that time it was the territory of Austria-Hungary. The boy finishes the first grade of school in the village. Despite the cramped conditions and the lack of teachers, he really liked it there.

Therefore, the news of the move to Gospic upset him. The reason for this change was the promotion of his father in dignity. Nikola finishes her junior school in Gospić.

After graduation, she attends a three-year gymnasium. From childhood, he learns to be independent. Parents work hard, are rarely at home, relatives look after the boy. Helps to manage the household, later gets a job at a factory to earn pocket money. In the autumn of 1870 he went to Karlovac and entered the Higher Real School.

Disease

In 1873, Nikola Tesla receives a matriculation certificate, reflects on his destiny. The parents wanted their son to continue their work, to become a priest. The young man had other interests not related to the church. Finding himself at a crossroads, he longingly reflects on the future. Not wanting to disobey his parents, Nicola decides to study spiritual sciences.

Fate decreed otherwise. In Gospić, a cholera epidemic broke out, wiping out a tenth of the townspeople. The whole Tesla family was sick, so Nicola was strictly forbidden to return home. He goes to his parents and soon falls ill. Nine months of illness, complicated by other diseases, became a difficult test for him.

The situation was hopeless, the doctors could not help. On one of the difficult days of the crisis, a conversation took place with my father. The father, trying to cheer up the young man, said that everything would be fine and he would get better. Nicola replied that he would get through if his father allowed him to devote his life to engineering. The father promised his dying son that he would study at the most prestigious university in Europe.

Perhaps this was the reason for Nicola's recovery. He himself gratefully recalls the sorceress, who ended up in the priest's house when no one hoped for anything. An elderly woman gave the patient a decoction of beans to drink, which turned out to be a miraculous drug that put the young man on his feet. After recovering, Nicola hid in the mountains for three years from military service, as he had not yet fully recovered from his illness.

After a painful illness, Tesla developed a manic fear of the possibility of catching the infection again. He washed his hands often. Noticing a fly crawling on the table, he demanded a change of dishes. The second oddity that he acquired after his illness was strong flashes of light appearing to him, hiding real objects and replacing thoughts.

Subsequently, this feature manifested itself in the fact that, along with flashes, visions of his future inventions arose. An unusual gift was expressed in the fact that the scientist imagined a device or device, mentally tested it and put it into reality, getting a product ready for use. His abilities would be the envy of a modern computer.

Studies

In 1875, Nikola Tesla became a student at the Higher Technical School in Graz (now the Graz Technical University), studying electrical engineering. In the first year, while watching the machine, Gramma concludes that the constant current of the engine interferes with its full-fledged work. The teacher sharply criticized him, saying that the machine would not work at all on alternating current.

In his third year, he became addicted to gambling, losing a lot of money. Recalling this period of his life, he writes that card games were not entertainment for him, but a desire to escape from failures.

He distributed the sums he won to the losers - for this he was called an eccentric. The passion for gambling ended in a big loss, after which the mother had to borrow money from a friend in order to pay off a gambling debt.

A student who solves the most difficult problems in his mind, oddly enough, did not pass his final exams, so he did not graduate from college. In 1879, his father dies. To help the family, Nikola gets a job as a teacher at the gymnasium in Gospic. The following year, funded by his uncles, he becomes a student at the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Prague. After the first semester, he drops out of school and leaves for Hungary.

Work in Europe

In 1881 he moved to Budapest, worked in the engineering department of the Central Telegraph as a designer and draftsman. Here he has access to the study of progressive inventions, the opportunity to experiment and implement his own ideas. The main task of this period was the invention of the alternating current electric motor.

In less than two months of intensive work, he creates all single-phase and multi-phase motors, all modifications of the system associated with his name. The innovation of Tesla's work was that thanks to them it became possible to transmit energy over long distances, powering lighting fixtures, factory machines and household appliances.

In 1882 he moved to Paris, settled in the Edison Continental Company. The company was working on the construction of a power plant for the railway station in Strasbourg. Tesla was sent there to solve work issues. In his spare time, the scientist works on an asynchronous electric motor, in 1883 he demonstrates his work at the Strasbourg City Hall.

Work in America

In 1884 he returned to Paris, where he was denied the promised bonus. Insulted, Tesla quits and decides to go to America. July 6 arrives in New York. Gets a job at Edison Machine Works as a repair engineer for electric motors and DC generators.

Tesla hopes to devote himself to his favorite job - the creation of new machines, but the creative ideas of the inventor annoy Edison. There was an argument between them. The emigrant in case of losing the opponent was supposed to receive almost a million US dollars. Tesla won the argument by presenting 24 variations of Edison's invention. Referring to the fact that the dispute was a joke, he did not give money.

The inventor quits and becomes unemployed. To somehow live, he digs ditches and accepts donations. During this period, he met the engineer Brown, with whose light hand the interested people learn about the ideas of the scientist. Nikola rents a laboratory on Fifth Avenue, which later becomes the Tesla Arc Light Company, which produces arc lamps for street lighting.

In the summer of 1888, Tesla begins cooperation with the American George Westinghouse. An industrialist buys several patents and a batch of arc lamps from an inventor. Realizing that he is a genius, he buys almost all the patents and invites him to work in the laboratory of his own company. Tesla refuses, realizing that this will limit freedom.

In 1888-1895, the most fruitful years, the scientist explores high-frequency magnetic fields. The American Institute of Electrical Engineers invites him to give a lecture. The performance in front of electrical engineers was an unprecedented success.

On March 13, 1895, the Fifth Avenue laboratory burned to the ground. The fire also destroyed his latest inventions. The scientist said that he was ready to restore everything from memory. The Niagara Falls Company provided $100,000 in financial support. Tesla was able to start working in the new laboratory already in the fall.

Discoveries and inventions

What did he invent? Nikola Tesla had many inventions, but the most important discoveries for science were:

An amplifying transformer for excitation of the Earth, acting in the transmission of electricity in a similar way to a telescope in astronomical observations.
A way to save and transmit light;
Field theory (rotating magnetic field);
Alternating current;
AC motor;
Tesla coil;

Radio;
X-rays;
Amplifying transmitter;
Turbine of Nikola Tesla;
Shadow photography;
neon lamps;
Adams Hydroelectric Transformer Substation;
Teleautomatic;
Asynchronous motor;
Electrodynamic induction lamp.
Remote control;
Electric submarine;

Robotics;
Tesla's ozone generator;
Cold Fire.
Wireless communications and unlimited free energy;
Laser.
Plasma ball.
Installation for the production of ball lightning.

The mystery surrounding Tesla's personality gave rise to myths and legends. Modern researchers doubt his attitude to the Philadelphia ship experiment, to the Tunguska meteorite, the creation of an electric car, death rays and some other unconfirmed sensational discoveries. Tesla believed in the universal mind, the Akashic Records, the energy of the Earth and that it is a living being.

Personal life

Tesla was distinguished by an extravagant character and strange habits. Many women fell in love with him, but he did not reciprocate and was not married. He held the belief that family life, the birth of children are incompatible with scientific work. Shortly before his death, the scientist admits that the rejection of his personal life was an unjustified sacrifice.

Tesla, after he left his parents' house, did not have his own home. Lived in a laboratory or in hotel rooms. I slept two hours a day, and once spent 84 hours at work without feeling tired. At one time he drank whiskey daily, believing that it would prolong his life. At the same time, he suffered from neurosis and obsessive-compulsive disorders.

He was a supporter of Eugenics - selection of people and birth control.

A monument to the great inventor and scientist for his merits and discoveries was erected in Silicon Valley in 2013 with voluntary donations from fans.

The funds were raised using the Kickstarter service. At the base of the statue is a capsule that will be opened in 2043. The monument is a free wireless internet access point.