10 World-Changing Inventions That Were Total Rip-Offs

2. Everybody Totally Ripped Off Tesla

If you look up a ground breaking invention whose origin is dated between 1884 and 1943, chances are that it was actually dreamt up by a Serbian-American genius by the name of Nikola Tesla €“ just don't expect him to be given any credit. Tesla is one of the most tragic lost geniuses of the 20th century, and that's largely our fault. Sure, he probably would've been pretty chuffed at being played by David Bowie in the 2005 Christopher Nolan film The Prestige, but possibly less so by his characterisation as a man who had perfected a weird cloning technique. What he actually achieved in life was impressive enough. Tesla wound up locked in any number of patent battles after moving from his native Serbia to the States to make his fortune: Marconi ripped off Tesla's oscillating coils for his radio (he was two poor to sue the Italian), Thomas Edison took his original design for the light bulb and made it his own, played with x-rays before Wilhelm Rontgen, and eventually Tesla died a pauper.