Tesla's Claim to Fame
Tesla's
greatest contribution was the development of the induction motor. Most
of the motors in use today are of the induction type.
A good engineer takes existing ideas and takes them to next level. The engineers at Boeing are not inventing the airplane. They're making it faster, safer, more efficient and so on. That's great engineering.
In order to sell AC power to the public, it was necessary that it drive existing DC brush motors of the day, which it does. It is quite possible that one day Tesla applied AC to a shunt-wound brush motor only to find the armature rotating very slowly. Puzzled, Tesla looked more closely and discovered a hung brush. So why did the armature rotate when there was no current flowing through the armature windings? Tesla being a good engineer did not ignore this puzzle, but instead realized it had to be transformer action (induction), and began a series of experiments that resulted in the induction motor.
Or Tesla's experiments may have been based on the Walter Bailey's demonstration in 1879 of a rotating magnetic field.
Tesla did what all engineers do. They try to find new applications for an existing technology. It's done to acquire fame and fortune.To think that Tesla somehow created all of his inventions out of thin air is pure folly.
 | ||
 | | |
