So the work continued, but there were also clashes with Edison, also at the trials. Also, due to Edison's merit, a new type of execution was introduced in the electric chair, using alternating current. Large-scale executions of animals on alternating current, including Topsy the elephant, were also carried out to demonstrate the dangers of alternating and direct current safety. Westinghouse was against all these measures, he even hired a lawyer for Kemler, the first convict and subsequently executed in the electric chair. But even so, the work of victory followed victory and alternating current spread more and more, entering the life of modern cities.
Westinghouse also invited the inventor to become a consultant at the plants in Pittsburgh, where industrial designs of alternating current machines were being developed. The work did not bring satisfaction to the inventor, preventing the emergence of new ideas. Despite Westinghouse's persuasions, a year later Tesla returned to his laboratory in New York. Shortly after returning from Pittsburgh, Nikola Tesla traveled to Europe, where he visited the Paris World's Fair in 1889 and visited his mother and sister Maritza.
But one day, Westinghouse investors reminded him of the need to pay a dollar for each horsepower issued by generators, but the number of generators increased so much that it was necessary to give Tesla $ 12 million and although this would make him one of the richest people in the states, George would be ruined, so Nikola Tesla broke the contract without any additional conditions. So time passed and finally, in the end, Edison himself began to produce alternators. It was a victory.
In 1888-1895, Tesla was engaged in research of high-frequency magnetic fields. These years were the most fruitful: he received many patents for inventions. The leadership of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers invited Tesla to give a lecture about his work. On May 20, 1892, he spoke to the outstanding electrical engineers of that time and was a great success. There he demonstrated a large number of his experiments, he lit light bulbs by introducing them into an alternating electromagnetic field. He demonstrated how to transmit electricity without wires, controlled lightning and with the help of his hands passed a voltage of millions of volts through his body. It was a huge success, he was given an ovation and for the first time called a man from the future.
After that lecture, Tesla was shown the chair of Faraday himself, offering to take it and noting that after his death no one was worthy of such an honor, and then treated to whiskey from his cherished bottle. On March 13, 1895, a fire broke out in the Fifth Avenue laboratory. The building burned to the ground, destroying the inventor's latest achievements: a mechanical oscillator, a test stand for new lamps for electric lighting, a mock-up of a device for wireless transmission of messages over long distances and an installation for studying the nature of electricity. Tesla himself said that he could reconstruct all his discoveries from memory.
Financial assistance to the inventor was provided by the Niagara Falls Company. Thanks to Edward Adams, Tesla had $100,000 to equip a new laboratory. Already in the fall, the research resumed at a new address: 46 Houston Street. At the end of 1896, Tesla achieved the transmission of a radio signal over a distance of 30 miles (48 km).
It was there that a mechanical oscillator using selective resonance was created, representing a kind of analogue of a swing, if you give a push at the right moment, you can rock the installation to large amplitudes without putting much effort. It was then that an artificial earthquake was caused, as a result of one of the experiments that could destroy the Brooklyn Bridge in a few minutes. Selective resonance is the action of constant uniform vibrations that can destroy any object of choice. This earthquake was called the New York earthquake of 1898.
It is also worth noting the great predilection of Nikola Tesla himself for pigeons. But also the inventor himself organized small celebrations, where the notable people of that time came, Kipling, who loved to read poetry, Mark Twain made them laugh with his signature stories, and Dvorzek played the piano, and then Tesla brought them to his laboratory, showing wonderful experiments, telling about the future of science. It was an unforgettable evening. Nikola met many of them because of contact with Robert Johnson, the editor-in-chief of Century Magazine, with whom they met on the basis of love for poetry, and once they also translated and published a collection of poems by Serbian poets. They were also impressed by one of them Ioan Zmai.
One of Tesla s favorite poems was:
Moreover, the news is known today that it was Tesla who dissuaded Johnson from boarding the train that was in an accident. For example, he also persuaded his friend and patron, the owner of the Waldorf-Astoria hotel chain, Colonel John Jacob Astaire, not to sail on the Titanic, but, unfortunately, he did not listen to him.
Tesla with a burning gas discharge lamp demonstrates wireless transmission of electricity
In total, Tesla has more than 700 inventions and patents, some of which are the most important historical milestones of modern electricity. Tesla probably invented radio before Marconi and Popov, and also worked with X-rays before their official discovery by Wilhelm Roentgen.
Working for Westinghouse, he patented the use of multiphase alternating current systems. Before the invention of the asynchronous (induction) motor, alternating current was not widely used, since it could not be used in pre-existing electric motors. Since 1889, Nikola Tesla began to study high-frequency currents and high voltages. He invented the first samples of electromechanical HF generators (including inductor type) and a highfrequency transformer (Tesla transformer, 1891), thereby creating prerequisites for the development of a new branch of electrical engineering HF technology.
In the course of research on high-frequency currents, Tesla also paid attention to safety issues. Experimenting on his body, he studied the effect of alternating currents of various frequencies and strengths on the human body. Many of the rules first developed by Tesla have become part of the modern fundamentals of safety when working with RF currents. He found that at a current frequency of over 700 Hz, an electric current flows over the surface of the body without harming the tissues of the body. Electrical devices developed by Tesla for medical research have become widespread in the world.