HOME |
RSS | 
As part of a continuing series, Geeks Are Sexy posted a roundup of tattoos sent in by their readers. Kristina contributed her tattoo of Nikola Tesla. There are lots more, including many that are so geeky I don’t recognize them, but you might! Link
If you’re a regular Neatorama reader, then you probably already know that Nikola Tesla was certainly a bit strange, but when you really look at his eccentricities, you’ll quickly realize that he really was utterly insane. For example, he refused to touch anything that was round and insisted on walking around a building three times before entering it. Cracked has a great list of other insane geniuses for your reading pleasure, reminding us that sometimes it’s nice to just be average.
Nikola Tesla was born in what is now Croatia on July 10, 1856, which is 155 years ago today. It’s a good day to take a little time and find out more about this extraordinary man.
Few inventors contributed more to advances in science and engineering in the early 20th century than Nikola Tesla. As one of the Fathers of Electricity, Tesla did groundbreaking work on alternating current (AC) power system, electromagnetism, hydroelectric power, radio, and radar to name a few. Many of his inventions (Tesla obtained some 300 patents in his lifetime) became the stuff we take for granted today: when we flip a switch to turn on the light, we owe a lot of that electrical magic to Tesla.
As fate would have it, Tesla, one of the world’s greatest inventors, died penniless and in obscurity. Even today, many people mistakenly attribute many of his inventions to others (Edison, for example, is in the name of many power companies in the United States – ironically, they use the AC system devised by Tesla rather than the more inefficient direct current or DC system espoused by Thomas Edison; Tesla also invented the fundamentals of radio transmissions before Gugliegmo Marconi).
Today, there’s quite a bit of resurgence in Tesla’s popularity, which is helped in part by his mystique as a “mad scientist.” Amongst his more outlandish ideas, Tesla worked on death rays to knock out enemy airplanes out of the skies, pocket-sized resonance machine that could topple buildings, ways to send electricity through the upper atmosphere, force-fields to protect cities, and so on.
Read the story of Tesla’s life and inventions, along with plenty of photographs, in an excerpt from the book Tesla: Master of Lightning by Margaret Cheney and Robert Uth. Link
I used to love playing with the Tesla Coils at the mall but never wanted to fork over the cash for one. Now this helpful guide will show me how to build my own Tesla Coil right at home. However please be careful:
Bring it outside for its first run, as it really isn’t safe to run anything this potentially powerful indoors, there is a high risk of fire. Flip the switch and enjoy the light show. My NST, at 9Kv at 30mA, makes the coil give off 6 inch sparks.
Comments Off
Redditor enginesoftime saw this vanity plate on a Tesla Roadster and snapped a picture. But the fact that it has a numeral added, plus Nikola is spelled with a “c” made me wonder how many other vanity plates on Tesla cars refer to the original Nikola Tesla. This roundup of Tesla vanity plates has clever ones, but they mainly refer to fuel efficiency. The funniest one went viral about a year ago. The geekiest Tesla license plate would be one that just says “NIKOLA,” don’t you think? It has to exist out there somewhere! Link
Hello Neatoramanauts! We have a new article up on the Neatorama Spotlight blog, an excerpt of Tesla: Master of Lightning
It is a pleasure and honor for me to be able to to showcase the book and share the intriguing bits of one of the world’s greatest (and most mysterious) inventors.
Bonus: We also have the easiest book contest we’ve ever had on Neatorama. All you’ve got to do to be in the running to win the book is to leave us a comment over yonder post.
Comments Off 
Tesladownunder (aka Peter Terren) is the contributor of a number of items of high voltage arty goodness to Neatorama. Remember the Modern Thinker and sparks around a car?
His latest is a colorful 2 minute long exposure that looks most unlike a Tesla coil and marginally like an Xmas tree (but much better than the 2007 Tesla coil Christmas tree). No photo shopping, it’s all done with a flash and changing the position of the rod with the sparks as well as colour filters. The star is made of 10 dead fluoro tubes. Even Santa popped in to check it out -he obviously doesn’t mind a zap to the foot!
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Peter Terren of Tesla Down Under (featured before on Neatorama) did a take on Rodin’s The Thinker if he just happened to have a spare Tesla coil. The result is – literally – electrifying!
Peter’s protected from the several hundreds of thousands of volts of electricity by wearing a layer of foil and a mask made of fine strands of stainless steel, so don’t try this at home!
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by tesladownunder.
