Is Nikola Tesla overrated?

[lekh2003]

I was browsing the forum and it seems to be that Nikola Tesla is a generally unliked and unpreferred guy around here, due to him being overrated and hyped.

Is this really true? He seems just like every other physicist and he seems to have done some good work which definitely deserves some hype.

Am I wrong here? Did he not do what he claims to have done, like Edison?

 

[phyzguy]

I think Tesla definitely made contributions in the field of AC power transmission and high-frequency inductive coupling. After all, the SI unit of magnetic flux density is named after him. However, he has developed a cult following that seems to treat him as some sort of demi-god and believes that he made a huge number of wonderful inventions that were then suppressed by "the establishment". What you are seeing is probably a reaction to this cult following. I would post some links to the cult following, but they probably violate the forum guidelines.

 

[lekh2003]

However, he has developed a cult following that seems to treat him as some sort of demi-god and believes that he made a huge number of wonderful inventions that were then suppressed by "the establishment".

Aah, that is interesting. His work on AC currents is commendable, but I understand the outlash against cult followings.

Thanks for the response.

 

[rootone]

I don't think that Tesla is unliked.
It's the woo and mysticism which got attached to him that is unliked, as far as I know without he encouraging it,

 

[russ_watters]

I was browsing the forum and it seems to be that Nikola Tesla is a generally unliked and unpreferred guy around here, due to him being overrated and hyped.

Is this really true? He seems just like every other physicist...

Er, well, to start, he wasn't a physicist, he was an inventor!

 

[lekh2003]

Er, well, to start, he wasn't a physicist, he was an inventor!

He was quite a few things. Wikipedia says he was an inventor, engineer, physicist and futurist.

 

[russ_watters]

He was quite a few things. Wikipedia says he was an inventor, engineer, physicist and futurist.

Well he didn't finish any degree and never published a paper or developed a theory that left his head, so I don't know by what criteria one would call him a "physicist".

In any case, @rootone is correct: we don't dislike Tesla here, we just dislike the cult built around him.

 

[rootone]

There are people who are exceptional in many fields,
Tesla was, Newton too, but both made mistakes.

 

[lekh2003]

Well he didn't finish any degree and never published a paper or developed a theory that left his head, so I don't know by what criteria one would call him a "physicist".

I agree. That does make sense.

In any case, @rootone is correct: we don't dislike Tesla here, we just dislike the cult built around him.

Agreed as well.

 

[GANESH SHETTI]

Well he didn't finish any degree and never published a paper or developed a theory that left his head, so I don't know by what criteria one would call him a "physicist".

In any case, @rootone is correct: we don't dislike Tesla here, we just dislike the cult built around him.

Nikola Tesla was an extensive thinker, he had thoughts beyond dimensions. He had intuitions regarding converting the mechanical energy (free energy) i.e. for ex: rotation of Earth into electrical energy through his wireless transmission tower. This is my intuitions I did not read it anywhere he he.

 

[Fervent Freyja]

After all I've read, I would say that he is often underrated and doesn't get the credit he deserves. He could be mentioned far often than he is.

 

[Teslascience]

I think to state sombody is overrated or not is a subjective judgement. To be objective one need to know the work done by that person.
In case of Nikola Tesla it is a hard but I think a rewarding job. He lectured and patented his ideas and inventions so it's open for everybody who is interested in it. In his time his lectures were most popular and even the greatest scintist attended this in the US, Great Britain and France too.
Was he a scientist and physicist? On the one hand to answer this question one need to know his work on the field of high voltage high frequency currents, electron and röntgen rays, etc.
On the other hands he doesn't worked for any university or scientific institution so in that sense he was not a physicist, but definitely made scientific research work in his labs. By all means knowing his life and work I think he had one of the brightest mind in our history and this alone make him worthy to study his work. His discovery in his childhood that human thinking and action too is controlled through subliminal messages is maybe more important for mankind than his later scientific work (wich is based on that discovery)...

 

[Borek]

His discovery in his childhood that human thinking and action too is controlled through subliminal messages is maybe more important for mankind than his later scientific work (wich is based on that discovery)...

That's exactly the woo we don't allow here, and that's exactly why he is difficult to discuss - sooner or later every Tesla thread is contaminated by nonsense.

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