Nikola Tesla: Life and Contributions to Electrotherapeutics
Similar to Bird, Nikola Tesla [Figure 2] was an innovator who was ahead of his time. However, he is celebrated in the modern world for his scientific contributions. Many in society reap the benefits of scientific advancements associated with Tesla, without knowing its aetiological origins. This would be an apt case, when considering Tesla, a man who many millennials know because of Elon Musk’s efforts to create an eco-friendly industrial advancement. More so than ever, people have become more interested in Nikola Tesla as Musk decided to name his fleet of electric cars, “Tesla” to honour the use of Tesla’s designs and concepts. This inspired generations of consumers and otherwise, to “Google” the meaning of “Tesla” which prompted discussions around one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. Contrary to this notion, most clinicians know of Nikola Tesla for a variety of reasons as his patents resulted in the development of many different medical equipment and devices, especially in Clinical Radiology, Nuclear Medicine, Neurology, Oncology and Trauma Surgery. However, a relatively unknown fact is that Tesla’s patents and scientific reasoning is invaluable to the advancements in clinical trials and methodological designs to test technologies and devices. To explore this further, it is important to understand Tesla and his work.
Nikola Tesla was born on the 10th of July 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia. Tesla is undoubtedly one of the most understated inventors of modern times despite having 300 patents to his name and has made one of the most important contributions to the field of high frequency and voltage electrical currents. In addition, Tesla was well known for his versatility as he focused on multiple areas of science. Whilst he was a great inventor, most of the academic community criticised him for completing 24 publications throughout his lifetime without realising, each had wider impact than any others seen at the time and this misconception, prevented Tesla from receiving any academic honours. This is further evident as Tesla’s contributions are not well discussed in academia compared to Albert Einstein or Thomas Edison, despite the impact of his theories and applications across various genre. This is of course until the revival of his work by Elon Musk and the likes of Rohit Prasad, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak.
In 1891, Tesla showed that the rapid oscillation currents could cross the human body without the cause of any muscle spasms or tissue damage [5]. This was a sensational discovery as it showed the possibility of therapeutic application and provided the basis to modern day ultrasound. This methodology was further used by Tesla to create an oscillator to relieve fatigue from leg muscles that is used in the treatment of modern-day musculoskeletal conditions. Following on from these discoveries, the Tesla coil and wireless remote controls were developed which is widely used within medical equipment in the modern day. Tesla’s theory and design of wireless streams is used in modern day technology that is applied to both diagnostic and therapeutic procedures such as HIFU. The same principles are also applicable in clinical trials used to test medical devices, technologies and equipment commonly seen in the 21st century. In 1896, Tesla also used high frequency currents to design an ozone generator to produce ozone with antiseptic and antibacterial properties. This concept was later used in bacteriology and vaccinology production as well as developing and designing aseptic pharmacy units required for clinical trials that comply with Good Manufacturer Production (GMP) standards.
The most useful discovery of all of course is Tesla’s concepts in Artificial Intelligence (AI) that he demonstrated in 1898 at the Madison Square Garden Electrical Exhibition [6]. At the time, his exhibit was the world’s first AI project, which was a radio-controlled vessel, seen in figure 4, and he described that the boat has a ‘borrowed mind’. His design and methods for this were patented (613:809) and he made it a point to generalise the knowledge as much as possible. Thus, Tesla’s device marks the birth of Robotics. Furthermore, an innovation within the circuitry of the boat was referred to, as “logic gate” became a vital steppingstone to semiconductors. This work resulted in the development of the first industrial robot in 1961 that led to the current theorems in medical technologies [6]. Similarly, these methods were used to develop robots for surgical procedures that was pursed by the Interventional Clinical Trials Unit at UCL/UCLH that provided multiple inventions to the NHS for across specialties of urology, gynaecology, bariatrics and general surgery in head and neck, colorectal and hepatobiliary. Furthermore, Tesla’s “logic gate” and primary patent influenced the modern-day smart speakers like Amazon’s echo to missile-firing drone aircrafts and the rise to an entire section of applied sciences; referred to as operational research.