Legacy and Impact
“I misunderstood Tesla. I think we all misunderstood Tesla. We thought he was a dreamer and visionary. He did dream and his dreams came true, he did have visions but they were of a real future, not an imaginary one.”
–John Stone Stone, American physicist and inventor
Nikola Tesla’s contributions to science and the world are astonishing. He gave humanity so much, yet expected so little. We use his technology to light the world and defend against foreign missiles.1
“Nikola Tesla is the true unsung prophet of the electronic age; without whom our radio, auto ignition, telephone, alternating current power generation and transmission, radio and television would all have been impossible.”
–Ben Johnston
Introduction to My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla (1983)
| Tesla's most influential contributions: AC power transmission, the radio, remote control vehicles, radar, x-ray photographs, fluorescent and neon lighting, the spark plug, bladeless turbines, electric cars, wireless communication, and missile defense systems.2 |
"Were we to seize and eliminate from our industrial world the results of Mr. Tesla's work, the wheels of industry would cease to turn, our electric cars and trains would stop, our towns would be dark, our mills would be dead and idle. Yes, so far reaching is his work that it has become the warp and woof of industry. His name marks an epoch in the advance of electrical science. From that work has sprung a revolution."
–B.A. Behrend, American engineer
“Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs; the future, for which I have really worked, is mine.”
-Nikola Tesla,
10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943
