UP Ibalon Bicol: 2010

Today is the death anniversary of Nikola Tesla.

1/08/2010 | Posted by gimpayamd@gmail.com | Edit Post

Nikola who? If you don't know him, can't blame you. But I am glad he is alive in Facebook with over 200,000 fans--- way below Michael Jackson's 10 million but much ahead that of his nemesis, Thomas Alba Edison who has just over 900. Nikola Tesla deserves more.

Ostracized and persecuted in his time because of an obsessive-compulsive behavior (a little understood disorder in his time), Tesla is now regarded as the "mad scientist" who invented the 20th century and probably beyond. Electricity that powers our homes and applicances ---and, yes, computers---is a result of Tesla's works on Alternating Current (AC). Maybe partly because of OBC, Tesla was so obsessed with "free energy for all" that he refused to impose royalties out of his AC patents. He could have been the richest man in his time and, who knows, a Tesla-AC royalty fee would still be an unwelcome burden in our electric bills.

Whereas we still hear of Westinghouse, General Electric, huge companies that benefited from his AC technology; Tesla died in 1943 at the age of 86, impoverished, leaving unfinished projects behind. Pure science ruled Tesla's life, unmindful of his finances. He should have been resting today in a tomb made of diamonds, which he deserves, but did not want to. There lies the greatness of the man.

I am not into fan pages but I take exception---way of saying "Thank you, Nikola Tesla." And we have not talked about the Principle of Resonance yet! ---another mind-boggling concept that will forever be equated with his name.