CosmoCaixa recognises the figure of Nikola Tesla, exceptional scientist and engineer

”la Caixa” Foundation’s science museum in Barcelona is hosting from today until February 2022 a biographical exhibition on the visionary Nikola Tesla. The display takes a chronological journey through his life and the technological advances that marked his career, from its beginnings in Europe to his fructiferous stage in America, where he would eventually die alone and practically penniless.

In collaboration with the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, the exhibition underlines Tesla’s importance in the history of science. Tesla is credited with around three hundred documented patents, and we owe him numerous essential contributions to modern life. These include invention of the induction motor, the development of alternating current as a source of energy, and the wireless transmission of energy and information, among others.

A person of eccentric but captivating personality, Tesla was plagiarised and often unfairly treated by some of his contemporaries. He was involved in many disputes, such as the “war of the currents” with Thomas Edison. Largely forgotten for decades after his death, he would later go on to become a legend.

Following the characteristic line of CosmoCaixa, the exhibition includes electromechanical modules that enable visitors to see Tesla’s most significant inventions in operation. It also presents spectacular experiments that help explain the physics behind these inventions in a way that is easy to understand. A superb example of these are the two huge Tesla coils, which will be employed to conduct high voltage displays during the guided tours of the exhibition.