Each semester, the Spokeo Scholarship recognizes a student who sees the world differently—someone who finds meaning in the overlooked, the underrepresented, or the underappreciated. Our Spring 2016 winner, Mark Hewertson, exemplifies this spirit through his thoughtful tribute to one of history’s most brilliant but misunderstood innovators: Nikola Tesla.
Mark, from Wescosville, Pennsylvania, is a student at Pennsylvania State University, where he’s part of the prestigious Schreyer Honors College. Majoring in Honors Computer Engineering, Mark combines his passion for technology with a strong interest in finance. His ultimate goal is to build advanced tools for tracking financial markets within a global banking organization.
In his winning essay, Mark reflects on Tesla’s quiet genius, the legacy of his revolutionary work, and the unfortunate way history has neglected his contributions. It’s a powerful reminder of how innovation often happens in the shadows—and why it’s worth shining a light on the minds who shape our world.
Read Mark’s full essay below.
Often innovative minds are ignored in the eyes of the public, while loud personalities rise to prominence and get all the attention. Popular culture finds little interest in discussion of inventors and engineers, preferring to hold its spotlight on the eccentric and outrageous. One would be hard pressed to find a person who has been more diminished by history than Nikola Tesla, whose theories, patents, and inventions ironically laid the foundation for virtually all of the modern technology that we use to view, follow and idolize our pop culture heroes.
Nobody has contributed more to multiple technology fields and received less credit than Nikola Tesla. Most people believe Edison to be the father of modern electricity; however it was actually Tesla who got Edison’s direct current electrical system operational. Tesla then went on to create an alternating current transmission system, which is universally used today because of its far superior safety and efficiency. Alternating current can transmit much larger amounts of energy over much longer distances than Edison’s direct current systems.
So why did Tesla die a penniless outcast, scorned by the public and scientific community of the day? At the time of Tesla’s groundbreaking creation, Thomas Edison owned a large number of dangerous and inefficient direct current systems. Seeing Tesla’s new invention as a threat to his profits and his reputation as a great inventor, Edison spent a large sums discrediting and essentially lying to the public about the new alternating current system, falsely claiming it was dangerous and would not work; when Edison, of all people, could clearly understand the significant inherent advantages of Tesla’s system.
Being the true father of electricity is impressive enough, but despite Edison’s smear tactics, Tesla gave birth to inventions that formed the foundation of countless other modern technologies. Tesla again had his recognition diminished when Marconi was credited with the invention of the radio, a device that made use of principles suggested by Tesla and covered by numerous patents Tesla owned. X-rays were first discovered using technology created by Nikola Tesla. Tesla proposed Radar to the US armed forces long before it was finally adopted. Wireless communications, electric motors, hydroelectric technologies were all created by, or founded on the principles of Nikola Tesla. The moon landing, the computer, the satellite, the television, the nuclear missile; almost all modern accomplishments owe significant thanks to Tesla.
However, the reason I decided to reflect on Tesla’s contributions to history was not just because of his many scientific accomplishments, but because he was so widely disliked in his own time and largely forgotten in mine, but despite all that he managed to rise above his unjust treatment and continue his incredible mission. History has proven him right by the fact that his technologies are everywhere, but still the public has no idea who Tesla was, or the scope of his achievements. Put simply, modern technology would not exist in the same capacity as it does now if not for the incredible mind of Nikola Tesla.