Since Nikola Tesla filed his first patent application on March 30, 1885, this year marks the 140th anniversary of its filing. The subject of this patent application, filed in the United States under number 160,574, is an electric arc lamp, for which he was granted patent US 335,786 A on February 9, 1886. However, this is not Tesla’s first granted patent. Namely, Tesla had previously received patent US 334,823 A, dated January 26, 1886, for a commutator for dynamo-electric machines, although he filed the application for it somewhat later – on May 6, 1885.
Previous research has shown that Tesla had at least 311 patents from 27 different countries, 112 American and 199 patents from other countries. Of these, a total of 116 patents (109 American and 7 British) represent basic patents, while the remaining 195 patents are their analogues. Unlike the list of basic patents, which is final, it is believed that there is still a possibility of finding some of their previously unknown analogues.
In any case, Tesla’s work, and especially his inventions and patents, remain an inexhaustible source of inspiration for numerous generations of scientists, experts and inventors.