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Edison couldn’t figure it out. One of Tesla’s many accomplishments is the AC induction motor, the technology that makes the Tesla car perform as it does, with no friction brushes for contacts and no permanent magnets and no Rare Earth minerals (in contrast, a hybrid car like the Prius uses a kilogram of neodymium and 13kg of lanthanum).

Today, 90% of industrial motors are AC induction motors. It has been called one of the 10 greatest discoveries of all time.

The framed patent page above was a cool gift from a friend. Thanks!

“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.” — Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)

19 responses to “How it all started… the Nikola Tesla patent on the alternating motor – no brushes or rare Earth magnets needed”

  1. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    By peculiar coincidence, I took the the photo of my gift above, and then noticed that it was on the anniversary date of the patent (No. 555,190), and then I drove to Tesla, using the Tesla AC induction motor to get there, and saw a wall of Tesla Motors patents on way to the meeting room….

    IMG_5485 detail

    Reply
  2. gsikich1 Avatar
    gsikich1

    Tesla was from Croatia, as you may know. Wonderful story of his life and his genius.

    Reply
  3. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    close – Serbia.
    Tesla Library

    Reply
  4. gsikich1 Avatar
    gsikich1

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson] Yes, but he claimed Croatian as his nationality – I think that his mother or his wife was Croatian. Nonetheless he did some amazing things for us.

    Reply
  5. angry shock Avatar
    angry shock

    He was hot.

    I’m sure I would’ve fallen madly in love with him, had I lived at the time. 😀

    My kind of geek.

    Reply
  6. bike-R Avatar
    bike-R

    TAE challenged him to invent a better type of Electrical motor and promised 50k to him, however TAE reneged on payment to Tesla citing he did’nt understand our "AMERICAN HUMOR" …………… scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Tesla.html

    Reply
  7. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    bike-R — Yeah, and then it got worse. Edison was so competitive with Tesla (partnered with Westinghouse at the time) that he arranged for the electric chair to use AC power for electrocutions, conveying the marketing message that AC is lethal (versus the DC power systems that Edison sold). Edison’s lab “Westinghoused” 24 dogs purchased from local children for 25 cents apiece before moving to a human criminal.

    On his deathbed, Edison volunteered that his biggest mistake was trying to develop DC instead of the vastly superior AC system that his former employee, Nikola Tesla, had put within his grasp.

    Hence the bumper sticker gift given to the larger donors to the Tesla museum:
    Tesla > Edison Bumper sticker

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/gi] — Oh yes….

    I think you'll find me electrifying Nikola Tesla

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/26274943@N02] — There a fair bit of online debate on Serb or Croat topic. Wikipedia may capture a summary opinion: "Tesla’s progenitors were from western Serbia, near Montenegro."

    But the story is more interesting that I realized at first… Here is what Tesla himself said:

    "I’m glad that Croats consider me to be one of them too, since my ancestors were Croatian noblemen by the name of Draganić from Zadar. As Croatian noblemen they came to Lika in 16th century and stayed there. My ancestors came to Lika via Novi Vinodol [historical part of Croatia]. My mother’s ancestors, by the name of Kalinić, were also Croatian nobles of the New Vinodol. Due to the circumstances, my great-grandfather had to go to Bosanska Krajina [Turkish Croatia: historical name for occupied parts of medieval Croatia] and there married Orthodox girl and converted to Orthodox Christianity.

    He had protruding front teeth so he was called by tool named "tesla" used to process wood, and hence my current name Tesla. This was actually a nickname. My grandfather was an officer in the regiment of Lika, and my father an Orthodox arch priest!"

    Reply
  8. bike-R Avatar
    bike-R

    Times were so cut-throat back then recent hires at the MENLO PARK LAB had it’s own versions of spys and espionage of that era, only surviving piece of the complex is the underground vault he built under the office that held paperwork and other stuff

    Reply
  9. bike-R Avatar
    bike-R

    And U might want to add one of these to your collections, a Death MASk of TESLA… very fashionable and chic to do in that era………………. boingboing.net/2012/01/31/my-favorite-museum-exhibit-11.html

    Reply
  10. gsikich1 Avatar
    gsikich1

    Steve:

    Thanks for the story – I have not heard that one – it is nice to know that. His family in Zadar was near where my family originated – Rijeka and Island Krk.

    Reply
  11. HighVoltageFeathers Avatar
    HighVoltageFeathers

    That is an original patent page? And its yours? That’s probably on the list of the most incredible objects in existence to posses.

    Reply
  12. bike-R Avatar
    bike-R

    And Edison killed an ELEPHANT TOO named TOPSY from Coney Island and took some movies of it, gross but back in the day it was SOP to discredit your rivals with the most outrageous and sensational stunts…………….shocking!!!!!!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD0Q5FeF_wU

    Reply
  13. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson] Pefect synchronicity 😉 Ever heard the story about Pauli and room 137? ps: Is that the actual one-of-a-kind patent doc?

    Reply
  14. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/gi] He never married, never had a known girlfriend, and possibly never had sex. He exhibited no known homosexual tendencies. Like Newton (and da Vinci and Michelangelo…) he was so purely and passionately devoted to scientific/inventive/artistic pursuits that "normal" relationships did not fit…

    Reply
  15. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    For all you AC vs DC motor heads, two great posts on why Tesla S has a variable frequency drive AC induction motor:

    http://www.teslamotors.com/en_CA/forum/forums/ac-induction-motor...

    http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/induction-versus-dc-brushless-mo...

    Reply
  16. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    [http://www.flickr.com/photos/stephenbove] — Pauli was the 1/137 fixation like Tesla’s love dove?
    I presume the page is a replica, but I did not ask as it was a gift.

    And as for Tesla’s love life, we turn to the Oatmeal

    Oatmeal Tesla Love Life

    Reply
  17. sbove Avatar
    sbove

    "Well, OK." Hehheh. Oatmeal is a great site. Especially the Tesla page (click through on above image) 😉
    ps: re 137, check out Arthur Miller’s amazing book on Jung and Pauli called "137" – a "dual biography"…one of the most amazing stories I’ve ever read…and not shy about going sufficiently deep on the scientific side. Jung and Pauli had a long and complex professional relationship turned friendship… They tried really hard to reconcile a-causal psychological events (~ synchronicity) and quantum indeterminacy…

    Reply
  18. jurvetson Avatar
    jurvetson

    Tesla Motors just made their patent wall open source… more The Tesla Patent Wall at HQ, now set free

    Reply
  19. neno1968 Avatar
    neno1968

    Nikola Tesla is Serbian. If you do not believe to me, you need believe to themselves. Pay attention to the text ; "Nikola Tesla, the famous SERBIAN inventor and electrical says… " Of course … this is an American magazine and now the text of the U.S. Library of Congress. I can supply more evidence of a minimum of 1000. The truth can not be hidden. chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn89064695/1920-03-18/ed-…

    Reply

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