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1 Tesla, Nikola
SUBJECT AREA: Electricity[br]b. 9 July 1856 Smiljan, Croatiad. 7 January 1943 New York, USA[br]Serbian (naturalized American) engineer and inventor of polyphase electrical power systems.[br]While at the technical institute in Graz, Austria, Tesla's attention was drawn to the desirability of constructing a motor without a commutator. He considered the sparking between the commutator and brushes of the Gramme machine when run as a motor a serious defect. In 1881 he went to Budapest to work on the telegraph system and while there conceived the principle of the rotating magnetic field, upon which all polyphase induction motors are based. In 1882 Tesla moved to Paris and joined the Continental Edison Company. After building a prototype of his motor he emigrated to the United States in 1884, becoming an American citizen in 1889. He left Edison and founded an independent concern, the Tesla Electric Company, to develop his inventions.The importance of Tesla's first patents, granted in 1888 for alternating-current machines, cannot be over-emphasized. They covered a complete polyphase system including an alternator and induction motor. Other patents included the polyphase transformer, synchronous motor and the star connection of three-phase machines. These were to become the basis of the whole of the modern electric power industry. The Westinghouse company purchased the patents and marketed Tesla motors, obtaining in 1893 the contract for the Niagara Falls two-phase alternators driven by 5,000 hp (3,700 kW) water turbines.After a short period with Westinghouse, Tesla resigned to continue his research into high-frequency and high-voltage phenomena using the Tesla coil, an air-cored transformer. He lectured in America and Europe on his high-frequency devices, enjoying a considerable international reputation. The name "tesla" has been given to the SI unit of magnetic-flux density. The induction motor became one of the greatest advances in the industrial application of electricity. A claim for priority of invention of the induction motor was made by protagonists of Galileo Ferraris (1847–1897), whose discovery of rotating magnetic fields produced by alternating currents was made independently of Tesla's. Ferraris demonstrated the phenomenon but neglected its exploitation to produce a practical motor. Tesla himself failed to reap more than a small return on his work and later became more interested in scientific achievement than commercial success, with his patents being infringed on a wide scale.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsAmerican Institute of Electrical Engineers Edison Medal 1917. Tesla received doctorates from fourteen universities.Bibliography1 May 1888, American patent no. 381,968 (initial patent for the three-phase induction motor).1956, Nikola Tesla, 1856–1943, Lectures, Patents, Articles, ed. L.I.Anderson, Belgrade (selected works, in English).1977, My Inventions, repub. Zagreb (autobiography).Further ReadingM.Cheney, 1981, Tesla: Man Out of Time, New Jersey (a full biography). C.Mackechnie Jarvis, 1969, in IEE Electronics and Power 15:436–40 (a brief treatment).T.C.Martin, 1894, The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla, New York (covers his early work on polyphase systems).GW -
2 Electricity
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3 Laithwaite, Eric Roberts
[br]b. 14 June 1921 Atherton, Lancashire, England[br]English engineer, notable contributor to the development of linear electric motors.[br]Laithwaite's education at Kirkham Grammar School and Regent Street Polytechnic, London, was followed by service in the Royal Air Force. After entering Manchester University in 1946 and graduating in 1949, he joined the university staff and became Secretary to the Inaugural Conference of the Ferranti Mark I computer. In 1964 he moved to Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, and became Professor of Heavy Electrical Engineering. From 1967 to 1976 he also held the post of External Professor of Applied Electricity at the Royal Institution. Research into the use of linear induction motors as shuttle drives in weaving looms was followed by investigations into their application to conveyors in industrial processes and as high-speed propulsion units for railway vehicles. With considerable involvement in a tracked hovercraft project in the 1960s and 1970s, he proposed the concept of transverse flux and the magnetic river high-speed linear induction machine. Linear motors and electromagnetic levitation have been applied to high-speed propulsion in the United States, France and Japan.Laithwaite has written five books and over one hundred papers on the subjects of linear motors and electromagnetic levitation. Two series of Christmas lectures were presented by him at the Royal Institution.[br]Principal Honours and DistinctionsRoyal Society S.G.Brown Medal 1966. Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers Nikola Tesla Award 1986.Bibliography1966, Induction Machines for Special Purposes, London.1970, Propulsion Without Wheels, London (discusses properties and applications of linear induction motors).1977 (ed.), Transport Without Wheels, London (describes the design and applications of linear electric motors).1987, A History of Linear Electric Motors, London (provides a general historical survey).Further ReadingB.Bowers, 1982, A History of Electric Light and Power, London, pp. 261–4 (provides an account of early linear motors).M.Poloujadoff, 1980, The Theory of Linear Induction Motors, Oxford (for a comparison of analytical methods recommended by various investigators).GWBiographical history of technology > Laithwaite, Eric Roberts
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Tesla, Nikola — born July 9/10, 1856, Smiljan, Lika, Austria Hungary died Jan. 7, 1943, New York, N.Y., U.S. Serbian U.S. inventor and researcher. He studied in Austria and Bohemia and worked in Paris before coming to the U.S. in 1884. He worked for Thomas Alva… … Universalium
Tesla, Nikola — (9/10 jul. 1856, Smiljan, Lika, Austria Hungría–7 ene. 1943, Nueva York, N.Y., EE.UU.). Inventor e investigador serbioestadounidense. Estudió en Austria y Bohemia y trabajó en París antes de emigrar a EE.UU. en 1884. Trabajó para Thomas Alva… … Enciclopedia Universal
Tesla , Nikola — (1856–1943) Croatian–American physicist Tesla was born at Smiljan in Croatia, at that time within the Austro–Hungarian empire. He studied mathematics and physics at the University of Graz and philosophy at Prague. In 1884 he emigrated to America… … Scientists
Tesla,Nikola — Tes·la (tĕsʹlə), Nikola. 1856 1943. Serbian born American electrical engineer and physicist who discovered the principles of alternating current (1881) and invented numerous devices and procedures that were seminal to the development of radio and … Universalium
Tesla, Nikola — (1857–1943) Croatian American scientist and inventor … Bryson’s dictionary for writers and editors
Nikola Tesla in popular culture — Nikola Tesla, inventor and engineer, has appeared in popular culture as a character in books, films, comics and video games. The lack of recognition received by Tesla during his own lifetime has made him a tragic and inspirational character well… … Wikipedia
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tesla — [ tɛsla ] n. m. • mil. XXe; « dispositif de couplage » 1930; nom d un physicien yougoslave (1856 1943) ♦ Phys. Unité de mesure d induction et de densité de flux magnétique (symb. T), valant un weber par mètre carré. ● tesla nom masculin (de N.… … Encyclopédie Universelle