Perth, 8 November 2005
081105/4
To:
Hon. Kofi Annan
Secretary General
United Nations
Your Excellency,
Subject: Proposal for International Nikola Tesla day
Tesla Forum of Western Australia is asking for your support to help to establish “International Nikola Tesla Day” on 10 July, Tesla’s birthday.
“International Nikola Tesla Day” will signify a day of science, progress and brotherhood among all nations and religions.
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was the genius who lit the world, whose discoveries in alternating polyphase current electricity advanced the world into the modern industrial era.
Nikola Tesla had 700 patents in the USA and Europe. Tesla’s discoveries include the Tesla Coil, fluorescence light, wireless transmission of electrical energy, radio, remote control, terrestrial waves and the use of the ionosphere for scientific purposes.
Tesla was born in 1856 from Serbian parents, in the Austro-Hungarian province of Lika (subsequently Kingdom of Serbs, Croats & Slovenians, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Republic of Yugoslavia and Croatia). His father was a Serbian Orthodox priest.
Tesla studied physics and mathematics at the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria in 1875 and at the University of Prague, in the Czech Republic.
His first employment and first discoveries were in Budapest, Hungary, working in a telephone company. It was there, that Tesla discovered the rotating magnetic field, a basic principle in physics in 1882. Tesla’s early life and education in Europe is related to various countries of the previous Austro-Hungarian Empire, this is why his name is a unifying force in so many countries.
Tesla immigrated to the United States in 1884, and lived and worked in New York
City for the last 59 years of his productive life. He died in Hotel New Yorker in Manhattan on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86. On July 10th 2001, the Tesla memorial plaque was unveiled in his honour on Hotel New Yorker.
Nikola Tesla’s name has been honoured with an International Unit of Magnetic Flux Density called “Tesla”. He is one of only three Americans, to be given such an honour.
In 1917 Tesla was awarded the Edison Medal; the most coveted electrical prize in the United States.
The United States Postal Service honoured Tesla with a commemorative stamp in 1983. Tesla was inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame in 1975.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) from USA established Nikola Tesfa Award in 1975. It has been awarded each year to an individual or a team that have made outstanding contributions to the generation and utilization of electric power.
The Nikola Tesla Award is also presented annually since 1968, at the Area Power Conference, Duluth, Minnesota, The award is furnished by Siemens Westinghouse Power Corporation.
International Press Academy (IPA) from LA, California is also awarding its own Annual Tesla Award for in recognition of Visionary Achievements in the World of Digital Technology and Sound This year’s winner was Jerry Lewis, Comedian/Actor/Writer/Director and Humanitarian (previous winners are likes of George Lucas and others). IPA’s recipient for the Nikola Testa Award is expected to mirror the ingenuity and boldness that Nikola Tesla has proven to the world. Not only he should exude technical excellence in his chosen field, but also continue to be an innovator and a pioneer who makes the world a better place to live in.
Testa Forum of Western Australia Inc. has established an Annual Tesla Medal last year to support promotion of science and science education through renewed public recognition of Nikola Tesla’s contribution to modern civilization. It is our great pleasure that we are now presenting the Tesla Medal to the highest grade students at the Curtin University of Technology and University of Western Australia in Perth.
Many others throughout the world celebrate Tesla and keep the memory of his achievements.
An asteroid was named “Tesla” – this small celestial body revolves around the sun, whose orbits lie chiefly between Mars and Jupiter.
The planet “Tesla”, named alter the great Nikola Tesla, is listed at the “Minor Planet Centre” at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard University,.
One of the craters on the moon is named after Nikola Tesla.
The Smithsonian Institution is the world’s largest museum and research complex. The collections are vast, some 143.5 million objects – some of world’s most significant artistic, scientific and historic treasures, Nikola Tesla is presented well in the Smithsonian Institution.
In year 2003, a total of 91 properties from 45 countries are inscribed on the Memory of the World Register, which was established in 1997 to preserve and promote documentary heritage of universal value This includes the archives of Nikola Tesla.
Nikola Tesla’s Archive in Belgrade (Serbia and Montenegro) constitutes a unique collection of 160,000 pages of patent documentation, scientific correspondence, scientific papers, manuscripts, technical drawings, scientific measuring data, personal documents and legal papers, as well as 1,000 original photographs of Tesla’s experiments and inventions, all of which are indispensable to the study of the history of electrification.
Many of the new technologies in the world today are based on Tesla’s ideas. Tesla spent 50 years of his life to find a way for interplanetary communications, especially with Mars. He is the first scientist in the world to use the Ionosphere for scientific purposes (the Ionosphere is the upper part the atmosphere under constant bombardment of solar energy, which breaks down molecules into ions causing an ionized shield of our atmosphere, very important for radio communications). Tesla’s ideas about the exploration of cosmos are today being realized by the world…
Tesla was a humanist and idealist, devoting his entire life and his genius to help humanity. With his alternative current eiectricity, which is lighting the entire world today, and his AC Induction Motor, Tesla helped the Industrial Revolution at the turn of the 19th century. He liberated humans from heavy manual work in factories and industry with the use of machinery made possible from his AC Induction Motor and Alternative Current Electricity, Tesla is named among the 100 most famous people of the last 1,000 years by Life Magazine.
Nikola Tesla is a unifying factor for the people of the Balkans and the people of the previous Austro-Hungarian Empire, On behalf of the millions of Tesla’s admirers around the world and the remembrance of Tesla’s work and contribution to humanity, we ask for your help in establishing an International “Nikola Tesla Day” on July 10th, celebrating Tesla’s birthday.
Numerous United States governors proclaimed “Nikola Tesla Day” in their states such as: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Nevada, Minnesota, Arizona and many others.
United States Congressmen from various US states had speeches in American Congress celebrating the birthday of Nikola Tesla. This has never happened before, even to such a great man as Thomas Alva Edison and Alexander Graham Bell.
Earlier this year, the Discovery Channel listed Nikola Tesla among the 100 Greatest Americans of all times.
The government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (nowdays Serbia & Montenegro) proclaimed July 10th to be the “Nikola Testa Day in July 2002 “Nikola Testa Day”, July 10th, is being celebrated every year in the country as a “Day of science, progress and brotherhood among all nations and religions”.
Many notable individuals and government officials in the world today support “International Nikola Testa Day”.
Tesla was a man ahead of his time.
In 2006 we will celebrate Nikola Tesla’s 150th anniversary. We are asking you to help to establish “International Nikola Tesla Day” on 10 July, Tesla’s birthday, the day that will celebrate the science, progress and brotherhood among all nations and religions.
Branislav Grbovic, Chairman
Tesla Forum of W.A. Inc.
www.teslaforum.com