Nikola Tesla at CosmoCaixa
By Mariana Hristova
An archetype of the romantic genius as described in the nineteenth-century adventure novels, one of the most important figures of science and technology in history Nikola Tesla ended up his brilliant and turbulent life penniless and living in a small New York City hotel room. He might have been more talented by most of his contemporaries but they developed a faster mind for business, while plagiarizing and treating him unfairly. However, time has proved him right in many respects and today he is a popular icon whose fame spread beyond the mere technological inventions. Who was really Nikola Tesla?
Joining forces with the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, the official depository of the legacy of the great Serbian scientist, the Nikola Tesla: The Genius of Modern Electricity exhibition reflects the life of this extraordinary engineer and an idealistic, multifaceted and visionary scientist, whose theories proved their ongoing relevance despite all the difficulties he had experienced in launching them. He is the discoverer of the alternating current as a source of energy, the induction motor and the wireless transmission of energy, although his great competitor, Thomas Edison took credit for some of his inventions. He was also a pioneer in branches of science and technology that would still take decades to be taken seriously into consideration, such as robotics, alternative energies, avionics, interplanetary communications.
Tesla was convinced that the secrets of the Universe should be looked in the terms of energy, frequency and vibration, hence the expo has based its narrative on thas philosophy. A bunch of related guided tours and talks will be taking place in the following months as well.