Time/Life put together a great list of technological breakthroughs and I hope you have had a chance by now to start homework assignment #1 (see the assignments icon in blackboard) . However, I think Time/Life missed one ... and maybe so did the rest of the world. Almost everyone has heard of Thomas Edison and are familiar with many of his great accomplishments (you should know at least one). But another great inventor was a contemporary of Edison and his name was Tesla.
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to research this great inventor and post some aspect of his life, work, successes, and failures in this thread. The rules are quite simple. First read all the postings students have already placed so there is no duplicating of material. Your post should be only about 1 paragraph long and in your own words. It should deal with only one aspect of his life. You can add to, or refute any students claims (in fact, if someone posts an error, please point that out). I think you will see that this man was very interesting and his work has a great deal to do with your everyday lives. As always, you can assume you have earned the 10 points provided that I don't intervene. Before long, we should have a pretty complete picture of this man's life. Make sure you eventually read all the posting here (before taking test1).
Let me be the first to contribute to the discussion so you have a guide to follow:
Tesla was extremely successful in some areas and a dismal failure in others. One of his failures was his quest to deliver electrical to all homes without the use of wires. This was, in fact, Tesla's ultimate (unsuccessful) dream. As far as I can tell, we still rely on copper wires to get our electric power.
Note: When you post your reply, please try to be very specific dealing with only one aspect of his life. Let me give you an example what I mean. Suppose you were researching Ben Franklin instead of Tesla. I'll give a bad example and a good example to follow:
Bad Example: Ben Franklin had many interests and hobbies including electricity, weather and politics. He was also a great inventor and was credited with the lightning rod, pot belly stove, bifocals, and the ball point pen. He also was one of our "Founding Fathers" since he worked very hard to gain independence for our country.
This is a bad example because it is all over the place ... giving way too much general information (plus the fact that he did not invent the ball point pen).
Good Example: Franklin spent many years in France as an ambassador. During his stay in France, our country was fighting in the revolution against England. He lobbied heavily with the French to form an alliance with the colonies. At that time, France and England were battling for power - both militarily and politically. He tried to gain both financial aid as well as military aid. Franklin was very popular in France and mainly because of this one man, France signed a treaty of alliance with the colonies in 1778. He also secured loans from France to help pay for the revolution.
This deals with only one small portion of his life and contains enough information so that you were aware of one aspect of his role in the American revolution. It gives other students a chance to add to this thread or explore other parts of Franklin's life.