At the beginning of his lecture, Tesla mentioned a certain professor
Krucks, who had impressed him while he was still at school and
influenced his later work. However, after the lecture, one of
the most distinguished members of the Academy approached Tesla,
congratulated him and told him that he needn't have mentioned
professor Krucks, but instead of that, should simply have said:
"My name is Nikola Tesla, I am Serbian, and these are the
results of my research..."
The next day, during his second lecture, a malfunction occurred
on the machines that were supplying electricity for the experiments.
At the time Tesla was repeating what he had said on his previous
lecture, and he noticed by the instruments that electricity would
be supplied for a few more minutes. Having that in mind, he said
that he would not bore the audience with the facts they had already
heard the night before and he went on with other experiments,
for which electricity was supplied from the city network rather
than the malfunctioned machine. After the lecture, the same Lord
approached Tesla again and told him: "Last evening I advised
you how to give a lecture, but now I see that I must come to you,
so that you can instruct me how to teach."
Tesla then received an invitation from the French Society for
Physics and the International Society for Electricity to come
to Paris and give a certain number of lectures. He accepted the
invitation and repeated his London success. Unfortunately, after
those lectures, Nikola had to rush back to his native country,
because his mother was dying. After his mother's funeral, he spent
some time in Belgrade, and then returned to the United States
to prepare for the World exhibition in Chicago. Maybe we should
also mention that Tesla was very popular with his friends for
his eloquence and sense of humor. He would enrich every conversation
with a verse or a quotation, since his education was remarkable.
Tesla expressed his feelings for his homeland in a speech, given
on a banquette that was organised in Belgrade in his honour:
"There is something in me, which can be a deception, as
so often happens with young people, but if I could be so lucky
as to accomplish just a few of my ideals, it would be a benefit
for all mankind. If my hopes become reality, my dearest thought
will be that those were the achievements of a Serbian."
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|
Tesla's
patent of the wireless control system |
Unfinished
project on Long Island |
Nikola Tesla died in New York in 1943, and his ashes are kept in
the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.
Author: Krstanoviæ Ljubomir
Source: www.znanje.org
