Tesla's fountain: From idea to patent: On the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the birth of Nikola Tesla

Among the numerous artifacts in the scientist's legacy in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade there are sketches of original conceptual solutions, technical drawings, patent documentation, several sheets of handwritten calculations related to the design of a new fountain model (engine characteristics, fluid flow parameters, dimensions of structural elements), as well as other archival material that testifies to his work on this invention. This research aims to analyze the preserved technical and other archival documents related to the development of several different conceptual solutions of the fountain model for which Tesla, in cooperation with his lawyers, prepared and submitted an application to the Patent Office of the United States of America at the end of October 1913 and for which he was granted US patent No. 1,113,716. We reviewed all the modifications to the construction of the imagined models of the new fountain, which were carried out during the entire development process, from the initial idea to the final patented solutions. To that end, we also made computer models based on original technical and patent documentation.