Letter: Tesla’s influence bears a reminder

Monday, May 21, 2007 | 7:56 a.m.

Nikola Tesla is one of the world's greatest yet forgotten geniuses who literally gave us the 20th century. His inventions include alternating current, transformers, radio, radar and remote control. At a May 4 UNLV University Forum talk on Tesla, I suggested naming a street in Las Vegas in his honor and found extremely strong support for this effort among the audience.

Whether it is Hoover Dam that supplies megawatts of hydroelectric power, the beautiful neon lights that give this city its reputation as the "City of Lights," Nellis Air Force Base and McCarran International Airport, which both depend heavily on radar and radio frequency communications, or the more "mundane" inventions that we all take for granted but would not be able to do without (such as air conditioning which uses electric motors), we all owe Nikola Tesla a tremendous debt of gratitude for his tireless yet often unknown service to humanity.

In this spirit, I am circulating a petition that encourages the city leaders of Las Vegas to dedicate one street in Tesla's honor. There is already a street named after Thomas Edison. Why not one for Tesla?

Michael Pravica, Henderson

The writer is an assistant professor of physics at UNLV.