Inventions that vastly improved our quality of life

Michael Pravica, Henderson

Wednesday, Oct. 6, 2010 | 2:01 a.m.

It is deeply unfortunate that one of the real heroes behind Hoover Dam was not celebrated in recent ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of the dam’s construction. Nikola Tesla was the first to convert mechanical energy from moving water into useful electrical energy.

The Serbian-American inventor developed the rotating polyphase motor/dynamo that made alternating current possible. The ease of converting the rotational motion of a turbine from flowing water into electricity and vice versa made much of the 21st century possible and made Hoover Dam an economically rewarding project (far beyond flood control) that continues to generate much electricity for the Southwest.

Tesla’s original invention created the 60-hertz, 120-volt alternating current system that is extant more than 115 years later and was first demonstrated at Niagara Falls. For this and his many other inventions pertaining to the radio, the Tesla coil, remote control, fluorescent lighting, the spark plug and many more, he is regarded by many scholars as the father of the 20th century.

However, despite all that Tesla did for humanity, he died a pauper and is barely known by ordinary Americans. It’s high time that Americans learned about and celebrated Tesla, one of world’s greatest inventors.

Perhaps, then, we might encourage future Teslas to actually solve the world’s problems instead of creating them as politicians often do.

The writer is a physics professor at UNLV.