What Did Nikola Tesla Invent? The Most Important and Craziest Things Tesla Invented | Who Smarted?
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey there, smarty fans, especially parents and educators, we’ve got something special for you and it’s not just another exciting episode of Who Smarted? It’s a chance for you to help shape the future of our show. We’re on a mission to make who smarted even better for both our brilliant young listeners and their amazing parents and educators. That’s why we’re inviting you to participate in our exclusive First Ever Who Smarted survey to let us know what’s working and where we can improve. So parents and educators, grab a cup of your favorite beverage cozy up and take a few minutes to fill out our survey. Head over to who smarted.com and click survey together. Let’s make who smarted the best it can be. Thanks for being an awesome part of our smarting community. And remember, the survey is at whosmarted.com. Just click survey.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
Hey Smarty fans, have you ever thought about what kind of car you’ll wanna drive when you get your driver’s license? Will it be a fast sports car, a minivan, or one of those SUVs you see on TV driving off road? Of course there’s a good chance your future car will sound like this. You hear that? No. Ah, that’s because your car will probably be electric. That’s right. Many of the world’s biggest automakers are planning to stop selling cars that run on air polluting gasoline in favor of cars you plug in. In fact, one company’s already doing that, making the top selling electric vehicles on the road today. Smarty fans, do you know the name of this automaker? Is it a Porsche?
Speaker 2 (01:41):
Porsche
Speaker 1 (01:42):
B Tesla. Tesla or C Sparky? Zippy things.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Sparky. Zippy things.
Speaker 1 (01:49):
If you guess Tesla, then you’re really up on your current events. Get it current as in electrical current. This year alone, Tesla has sold more electric vehicles than all other car companies combined. You could say the Tesla name has become famous for leading the electric car revolution.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
Not bad. I do like electrical devices and protecting the environment. And I invented many things, but never a car.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
Hey, it’s Nicola Tesla from long ago. Wait, did you invent a time machine?
Speaker 2 (02:24):
<laugh>? No, no, no. It’s a podcast. We can’t do anything too smart. So why is my name synonymous with cars?
Speaker 1 (02:32):
Not just any cars, electric cars? It’s because of your connection to electricity.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
But do people know I also helped invent the radio radar and wireless communication
Speaker 1 (02:48):
As in smartphones? Is
Speaker 2 (02:49):
That what they call them? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
And uh, pretty much everybody has one. In fact, a lot of people are using one right now to listen to this podcast. Well,
Speaker 2 (02:57):
I had a hand in developing them, not to mention neon lights, robots, and remote controls. Do people still use those?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
Good. My inventions made them all possible. Oh, and I suppose you can’t have an electric car without electricity.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
Nope. In fact, we couldn’t have a lot of things without electricity.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Well, you can thank me for that too.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Of course. There’s always the matter of
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Don’t say it,
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Thomas.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Don’t say it.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Edison,
Speaker 2 (03:30):
You had to say it. Let me tell you something. Edison may get the credit and attention, but I had a lot to do with electricity. Plus, I created a death beam.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Death beam. That sounds like something from Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (03:48):
I don’t know what that is, but there was definitely a war between me and Edison.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
So Smarty fans, who was this? Nicola Tesla. How did he and his inventions change the world? And what was his beef with Thomas Edison?
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Stop saying his name.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
It’s time for another whiff of science on.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Who Smarted?
Speaker 4 (04:13):
Is it you? Is it me? Is it science or history? Listen up everyone. We make smarting lots of fun. On Who Smarted?
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Hey, Smarty fans. Think of all the things that you use that rely on electricity. Call ’em out. Did you say lights? , microwave, air, conditioner. It’s hard to imagine life before electricity, but guess what? Less than 200 years ago, people used candles to light a room and common things like TVs, radios, and smartphones just didn’t exist. Somebody had to figure out the best way to bring electricity into people’s homes and that someone was Nicola Tesla. You could say Tesla was a born inventor slash master of electricity as the family legend goes. Nicola Tesla was born during a lightning storm. Storm in a region now called Croatia in July of 1856. His father was a priest and a poet, but his mother was an inventor.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Mama created many tools and devices to make life easier on our farm. She’s the reason I became an inventor.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
Tesla had a photographic memory which allowed him to memorize into higher books, mathematical formulas and languages. Imagine being able to close your eyes and reread a novel as if you were holding it in your hands. That’s the kind of mind Tesla had.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
Whoa.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
When he started inventing things, he’d work out the designs in his head without sketching anything on paper. He once said this about his inventions.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
They were exactly as I imagined them. I made no attempt to improve the design, but merely reproduce the pictures as they appeared to my vision.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
One such invention was a motor that ran on a type of electricity Tesla felt was better than the electricity that scientists were studying at the time. In 1884, after creating this motor test the left Europe and moved to New York where he started working for America’s most famous inventor, Thomas Edison Smarty pants, which did Thomas Edison create A, the movie Camera B, the light bulb, or C, the alkaline bat. The answer is all three. Edison and his laboratory crafted more than 1000 inventions. You’d think that these two brilliant inventors would be a perfect match, but alas, they just couldn’t get along. For one thing, they had very different personalities and disagreed on many things, including what kind of electricity was best.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Thomas? I say ac.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
No. Nicola dc ac dc ac dc.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yes. AC dc is a band Your parents know, but it’s also two types of electricity. There’s ac, which stands for alternating current and dc, which stands for direct current. Now alternating current can change directions allowing for adjustments in its power. Once Tesla left Edison and started his own business, he developed an alternating current system that would allow electricity to travel great distances at a very high voltage. Then using a machine called a transformer, that high voltage could be lowered for use in people’s homes or businesses. Ah, using AC one power plant could light up a city mile away. Ooh, Edison argued that alternating current was too dangerous and he favored direct. Current or dc. DC can’t be easily adjusted and can’t travel as far so many small power plants would need to be built close by in order to power a community. Ah, the AC DC battle between Tesla and Edison was ultimately settled in 1893 at the Chicago World’s Fair. A businessman named George Westinghouse supplied the events electric power and was on Tesla’s side. Tesla showed off his alternating current at the fair wowing audiences. Following that success, Westinghouse and Tesla created one of the first AC power plants in the United States using water from Niagara Falls to power the city of Buffalo, New York. And after that, Tesla’s alternating current system quickly became the world’s favorite. Tesla had won the current wars. Though Edison’s direct current is still used today in smartphones, flashlights, and other battery powered devices,
Speaker 2 (08:50):
My victory should have made me rich. But ala I wasn’t as good as Edison at making wise business decisions. My pal George Westinghouse had money problems and his company couldn’t pay me the millions of dollars it owed me. Still, I was grateful. George had believed in me, so I tore up our contract. I still had plenty of other inventions to make me wealthy, including the death beam, right?
Speaker 1 (09:21):
We’ll get to that later. Tesla’s next major invention was a coil that could create electricity with high voltages and frequencies. Tesla used it to make lightning bolts 30 feet long.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Whoa.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
These Tesla coils would later be used to create X-rays, neon and fluorescent lights and electronics such as televisions and radio.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I invented the radio.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
Well, historians say Willi Elmo Marconi invented the radio.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Yeah. Using my inventions.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Oh It’s true. Tesla’s coils could send and receive radio signals, and in 1895, he planned to send a signal 50 miles before Marconi accomplished a similar feat. Ah, unfortunately, Tesla’s work was destroyed in a fire when Marconi received credit and a Nobel Prize for inventing the radio. Tesla fought him in court. But no luck. Tesla lost the radio war. Instead, he set his sights on something even bigger.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Can you say death beam?
Speaker 1 (10:24):
Not yet.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
Um, my boat. No,
Speaker 1 (10:27):
But your boat was important too. In 1898, Tesla created the first remote controlled boat, which some say pioneered the creation of robots. No, but Tesla’s biggest project started in 1901 on Long Island, New York with the backing of wealthy banker JP Morgan. Tesla built a laboratory that contained a power plant and a giant 185-foot-tall transmission tower, known as the Tesla Tower. Tesla hoped to use this tower to send free wireless electricity and signals to people all over the world. He said, quote,
Speaker 2 (11:01):
As soon as it’s completed, it’ll be possible for a businessman in New York to call up and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe. More important than this, however, will be the transmission of power without wires.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
Sound familiar? Today we’re just getting around at charging phones and other electronics wirelessly. But Tesla knew how to do that more than 100 years ago.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Whoa.
Speaker 1 (11:29):
He once lit 200 lamps wirelessly from 25 miles away. And historians say Tesla’s communication ideas led to smartphone technology. Tesla was way ahead of his time, but unfortunately, this project was also his biggest failure. The lab was too expensive and JP Morgan stopped funding it. Tesla was breaking and the unfinished tower was eventually destroyed.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
I can’t catch a break, but my mind keeps going.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yes. On some things that sound a bit outrageous. There were claims. Tesla created an earthquake machine and once received signals from outer space.
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Don’t Forget the death beam
Speaker 1 (12:09):
And the death beams to hear more about these crazy inventions. Stick around. Hey, Smarties trusty narrator here. I had a unique challenge recently. I needed to learn German for a friend’s wedding in just a few weeks. That’s when I found Babel. Thanks to Babel, I’m well on my way to holding my own in German conversations and just in time for the wedding. Babel makes learning a new language, engaging and practical. It’s not just about words, it’s about real conversations that you can actually use. And here’s a special deal for our listeners right now, get 55% off your Babel subscription, but only for our listeners at bael.com/smarted. Get 55% off at babel.com/smarted. It’s spelled B-A-B-B-E l.com/smarted. Rules and restrictions may apply. Join me on this language learning journey with Bael Zen and let’s embrace new conversations together. Hey there, smarty fans, especially parents and educators, we’ve got something special for you and it’s not just another exciting episode of who Smarted.
Speaker 1 (13:21):
It’s a chance for you to help shape the future of our show. We’re on a mission to make who smarted even better for both our brilliant young listeners and their amazing parents and educators. That’s why we’re inviting you to participate in our exclusive first Ever Who Smarted survey to let us know what’s working and where we can improve. So parents and educators, grab a cup of your favorite beverage cozy up and take a few minutes to fill out our survey. Head over to who smarted.com and click survey together. Let’s make who smarted the best it can be. Thanks for being an awesome part of our smarting community. And remember, the survey is at whosmarted.com. Just click survey now. Back to Who Smarted? Okay. Smarty fans, you’ve learned a lot about Nicola Tesla’s amazing inventions. We’re gonna play a game of true or false, about three claims made about Tesla. See if you can guess the right answers. Ready, true or false? Tesla invented an earthquake machine. False Tesla built a machine called an oscillator under his Manhattan laboratory to create electricity. The oscillator had a part that shook violently when it moved. Leading some to believe Tesla was trying to create earthquakes.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Why would I want to create earthquakes? I’m not professor doin Schwartz.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
True or false? Tesla received signals from outer space. True. While studying lightning storms, Tesla heard strange beeps. He said, were coming from another world.
Speaker 2 (14:55):
People thought I was crazy, but nope.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Scientists replicating Tesla’s experiment realized that one of Jupiter’s moons had created these signals while passing through Jupiter’s magnetic field. Historians say Tesla may have been the first person to detect radio waves from space.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:13):
And finally, true or false, Tesla invented a death beam. The answer is we’re not sure. In 1934, Tesla claimed his death beam could destroy up to 10,000 war planes. It might sound like a terrible weapon, but Tesla claimed it was an instrument of peace.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
If every country had my death beam, no one could use planes to fight and war would become impossible.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
Of course, in the wrong hands, a death beam would be extremely dangerous. That’s one reason why the US government took control of Tesla’s notes when he died in 1943. At the age of 86, some of Tesla’s work is still missing, so we don’t know if he’d actually designed a death beam. In recent years, the government has released many notes that they’d kept secret. There’s now a Tesla museum in Serbia and another under construction at his failed Tesla Tower on Long Island. Ooh, Nicola. Tesla’s popularity has grown as more people learn about his brilliance and how he changed the world.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
I’m so much more than a name on a car, but hey, listen to that electric engine. Is it even on
Speaker 1 (16:24):
A big shout out to our awesome fans, Micko and Ollie in Dixon, Tennessee. Thanks so much for listening to Who Smarted this episode, Nicola Tesla was written by Dave Boer and voiced by Brandon Bayless, Jason Williams, Charlotte Cohen, and Jerry Colbert. Technical Direction and sound design by Josh Hanh, who Smarted is recorded and mixed at the Relic Room Studios. Our associate producer is Max Kaki. The theme song is by Brian Suarez, with lyrics written and performed by Adam Tex Davis, who Smarted was created and produced by Adam Tex Davis and Jerry Colburn. This is an atomic entertainment production
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Who smarted?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Hey there, smarty fans, especially parents and educators. We’ve got something special for you. And it’s not just another exciting episode of Who Smarted? It’s a chance for you to help shape the future of our show. We’re on a mission to make who smarted even better for both our brilliant young listeners and their amazing parents and educators. That’s why we’re inviting you to participate in our exclusive First Ever Who Smarted survey to let us know what’s working and where we can improve. So parents and educators, grab a cup of your favorite beverage cozy up and take a few minutes to fill out our survey. Head over to who smarted.com and click survey together. Let’s make who smarted the best it can be. Thanks for being an awesome part of our smarting community. And remember, the survey is at whosmarted.com. Just click survey.
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