Nikola Tesla’s biggest dream was a worldwide network of wireless power transmission

Nikola Tesla's original laboratory was recognized as a historical site in 2018

Beginning in 1901, the Wardenclyffe Tower was built on Long Island, New York to transmit electrical power through Earth's atmosphere. The project was abandoned before becoming operational due to limited funding, and was demolished for scrap in 1917 to help pay off Tesla's debts.

J.P. Morgan provided Nikola Tesla with funding for the Wardenclyffe Tower

The structure was part of a project to transmit electricity and communication signals wirelessly across the globe. Shortly after construction began, Guglielmo Marconi beat Tesla to the punch and transmitted a trans-Atlantic signal, preventing Tesla from getting additional funding to finish his project.

The Tesla coil was the first system to wireless transmit electricity

Developed in 1891, the system effectively consists of two open electric circuits with a gap of air between them. When a high enough voltage is built up, air becomes a conductor and sparks of electricity are generated.

Nikola Tesla embraced showmanship when promoting ideas ahead of their time

He once electrified himself during a live demonstration to illustrate the safety and power of alternating current, and his presentations often featured arcing coils, glowing lights, and bold claims about a future of wireless power.

Guglielmo Marconi overshadowed Nikola Tesla through commercialization

Despite Tesla envisioning wireless power and communication earlier, Marconi developed practical implementations of wireless communication, including transmitting the first transatlantic radio signal. The technology, which facilitated telegraphy critical for warships and navies, earned Marconi the 1909 Nobel Prize in physics.

Tesla's lack of business savvy and inability to commercialize led to his obscurity

For decades, despite pioneering technologies for large-scale electrical systems and telecommunications, Nikola Tesla had been forgotten to history. Rather than monetizing his work and becoming more well known, his inventor-first mentality saw him sell off lucrative patents to fund new experiments in the short term.

In 1898, Nikola Tesla wowed a crowd by controlling a boat with no visible connection

Some onlookers thought it was a trick, such a a monkey being inside the boat, rather than mind control or some other metaphysical phenomenon. In reality, Tesla was pioneering radio waves, proving wireless control was possible.

Despite promoting alternative current, Nikola Tesla did not invent it

The technology was developed by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832, almost 25 years before Tesla was born. Other myths about Tesla include that he invented the transformer, radio, and the induction coil, which was invented by Nicholas Callan in 1836.

No proof of Nikola Tesla developing a working 'death ray' exists

He described his "teleforce" weapon as generating beams of concentrated particles that could destroy targets from 250 miles away with unparalleled precision. Analysis of Tesla's papers on the subject by an expert after his death revealed the work to be mostly speculative.

Tesla's alternating current power's most of the world's electric grids

In 1879, Thomas Edison’s light bulb relied on direct current, but such currents can't efficiently transmit power over long distances. Nikola Tesla introduced alternating current, which feature far fewer energy loses. Despite Edison’s attempts to discredit AC, Tesla proved its efficiency by lighting the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair.

Nikola Tesla was born in modern-day Croatia and moved to the US in 1884

His interest in electricity came from his mother, who invented small household appliances during Tesla's upbringing. Upon arriving in America, he began working for and improving upon the electrical inventions made in Thomas Edison's lab.

The world's first AC hydroelectric power plant incorporated Tesla's engineering

Built at Niagara Falls, New York, the plant alternating current electricity was hailed as the future of power generation. Tesla's fascination with Niagara Falls is traced to his seeing a photo of the waterfalls when he was still a child.

George Westinghouse purchased Tesla's AC technology patents for $60,000

The seven patents in alternating current motors and power transmission formed the basis for a system of technologies including generators, transformers, and lighting. Nikola Tesla spent half the funds on a new laboratory to develop new inventions.

A quote by scientist Nikola Tesla

"The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result ... His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way."

A 1,000 square kilometer patch of solar panels in Africa can power most of Europe

The $500 billion Desertec initiative would have constructed massive solar farms in the Sahara and expansive electrical transmission networks across continents. However, the plan was built on concentrated solar power technology, which is more expensive and less practical than photovoltaics.

View a gallery of whimsical transmission tower designs from around the world

Despite their importance to the functioning of the electric grid, these structures are often considered aesthetically unpleasant. To remedy this, some have been transformed into art installations featuring stained glass and colorful lighting, or built with whimsical designs, such as clown faces or giant bodies.

Around 380 underwater cables power the Internet across the world.

On July 29, 1858, two steam-powered battleships met in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There, they connected two ends of a 4,000 kilometer (2,500 mile) long, 1.5 centimeter (0.6 inch) wide cable, linking for the first time the European and North American continents by telegraph.

In the 1970s, a former NASA engineer pitched remote work as a solution to an energy crisis

His name was Jack Nilles, and he wrote a book that is considered the "founding document of telecommuting" in 1973 called "The Telecommunications-Transportation Tradeoff," coining the terms "telecommuting and telework." Nilles argued that telecommuting could serve as an "alternative to transportation," helping cut down on gridlocked traffic and reduce society's reliance on nonrenewable resources like oil. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

NASA's big dream that never came to life

Conceived in the early 1960s, the Sea Dragon was an audacious ocean-launched rocket design that would have dwarfed the Saturn V in both scale and payload—but its extreme engineering challenges kept it firmly on the drawing board.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Elon Musk's Neuralink's N1 chip can wirelessly read brain signals from over 2,000 electrodes

The device is a battery-powered brain implant that transmits data via Bluetooth. Neuralink's near-term objectives for the device focus on unlocking new treatments for paralysis, neurological disorders, and some psychiatric conditions.

Future self-driving cars may communicate across a closed wireless infrastructure

Current autonomous vehicles collect and analyze their own data through their own hardware and proprietary software. Connecting data from all such cars on a single network will require overcoming challenges related to standardization and security.

Wind turbines are limited to capturing no more than 59.3% of incoming wind energy

In 1919, German physicist Albert Betz applied the laws of conservation of mass and momentum to airstreams to calculate the theoretical limit. However, real-world turbines only convert 35 to 45% of available wind energy into electricity.

Stephen Hawking's biggest discovery—Hawking radiation—came from a major mistake

Hawking radiation may not have been discovered without Jacob Bekenstein first convincing Stephen Hawking that black holes follow the laws of thermodynamics. The graduate student showed that black holes could shrink, setting the stage for Hawking’s most significant contribution.

Boost your Wi-Fi with aluminum foil

A surprising hack using aluminum foil can potentially improve Wi-Fi signals, to many readers' surprise. Check out the science with this brief article. Wi-Fi signals spread like radio or light waves from a router's antenna, often leading to...

How new research sheds light on why we dream

The theory of where dreams originate began shifting from ancient mystical explanations to modern scientific ones at the beginning of the 20th century. Now, scientists have the ability to track electrical activity in the brain, solidifying some of the field's softer science into observable data and giving rise to sleep labs.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Pure water does not conduct electricity because this flow of energy requires the movement of charged particles, and water is a neutral molecule.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Track the location of the Voyager probes, currently between 13 and 15 billion miles away from Earth.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

In 1963, a basement renovation in Turkey revealed a passageway to a hidden, multilevel underground city that once housed as many as 20,000 people

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Double world record holder Hunter Ewen helped conquer his fear of balloons, called globophobia, by training to win Guinness World Record titles for balloon inflation.

While the first exchange-traded fund (a 'basket' of different assets that can be bought and sold on a stock exchange) in the US only launched in 1993, the global ETF market has grown to more than $10T in the short time since.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Some researchers have labeled nomophobia, the fear of being without your phone, as 'the phobia of the 21st century.'

The rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson centered on federalism—the question of how much power the federal government should hold relative to the states.