Nikola Tesla was an electrical inventor, and lived during the late 1800's into the mid-1900's. He was a brilliant person, yet was an enigma to practically everyone. Known for his eccentric lifestyle, Tesla nevertheless maintained a rather high social profile, despite his prolific inventiveness. Tesla had a good number of friends, one of which was Samuel Clemons, also known as Mark Twain.

Tesla's main claim to fame lay with his invention of the alternating current motor. Tesla believed that alternating current was vastly superior to (Edison's) direct current, but the problem was the lack of a practical motor. Alternating current is practical because of the fact that it can be altered or converted to suit a variety of situations. For example, if the voltage is made quite high, thenbladeless technology is being used in a special type of non-clogging pump designed for the oil industry. (In fact, the thicker the stuff it pumps, the more efficiently it pumps it!)

Tesla had a knack for visualizing inventions in their final, finished form. He also would envision a great many other ideas and concepts, which only later in this century would come to pass. One such idea was the creation of a large ring that would encircle the earth. Built on scaffolding, once completed, the scaffolding would be removed, and the ring would remain stationary. 20th century geosynchronous satellites work in a similar way.

Tesla was also responsible for a great many other inventions and devices that we take for granted today. He postulated the ability to locate objects in