Dakota Beacon

It’s the weekend, so time for another interesting foray into People, Places and Things! Tesla. Nope – not the ridiculous “car” that you can count on to blow up. The man – Nikola Tesla, a genius born in Croatia. Although few know his (whole) name today, he is responsible for most of the inventions and developments which have made life easier and better for us today.

He conceived of the internet more than 100 years before we had it. He developed alternating current, which makes electricity practical for us in our homes. He developed radio waves, x-rays, hydroelectric power and hundreds of other things. We don’t know much about him because he didn’t really monetize any of his inventions. He mostly patented them . . . and then just gave them away. We know Marconi, Edison, Westinghouse, but they owed their fame largely to Tesla.

I have been aware of Tesla because when I was young, my dad was presented the Nikola Tesla award for work in the electric power industry and I learned who Tesla was and what he did as a result. One thing not mentioned in the video below is that in his last years, living in his hotel room, he required a room temperature of about 90 degrees.

Yes, Tesla was an eccentric and a great genius but perhaps his most distinguishing characteristic was that he was a generous humanitarian, a man whose greatest dream was to make life better for others. At a time when fortunes were being built by those whose names are now household words, Tesla worked for the sake of work itself and to create a path to a better life for mankind.

This video comes in two parts, one should follow the other, but I will link both. Meet Nikola Tesla, one of our most amazing and brilliant immigrants, a great American.

Part One: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDxi6ozDwhc

Part Two: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iie8U5rngwA

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