But, let’s take a look at what Nikola Tesla — a man who died broke and alone — has actually given to the world. For better or worse, with credit or without, he changed the face of the planet in ways that perhaps no man ever has.

1. Alternating Current – This is where it all began, and what ultimately caused such a stir at the 1893 World’s Expo in Chicago.
2. Light – Of course he didn’t invent light itself, but he did invent how light can be harnessed and distributed.
3. X-rays – Electromagnetic and ionizing radiation was heavily researched in the late 1800s, but Tesla researched the entire gamut.
4. Radio – Guglielmo Marconi was initially credited, and most believe him to be the inventor of radio to this day. However, the Supreme Court overturned Marconi’s patent in 1943, when it was proven that Tesla invented the radio years previous to Marconi.
5. Remote Control – This invention was a natural outcropping of radio. Patent No.613809 was the first remote controlled model boat, demonstrated in 1898.
6. Electric Motor – Tesla’s invention of the electric motor has finally been popularized by a car brandishing his name.
7. Robotics – Tesla’s overly enhanced scientific mind led him to the idea that all living beings are merely driven by external impulses. He stated: “I have by every thought and act of mine, demonstrated, and does so daily, to my absolute satisfaction that I am an automaton endowed with power of movement, which merely responds to external stimuli.” Thus, the concept of the robot was born.
8. Laser – Tesla’s invention of the laser may be one of the best examples of the good and evil bound up together within the mind of man.
9 and 10. Wireless Communications and Limitless Free Energy – These two are inextricably linked, as they were the last straw for the power elite — what good is energy if it can’t be metered and controlled?

The 10 inventions of Nikola Tesla that changed the world