Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a scientist whose inventions include the Tesla coil, alternating-current (AC)
electricity, and the discovery of the rotating magnetic field.
Who Was Nikola Tesla?

Nikola Tesla was an engineer and scientist known for designing the alternating-current (AC)
electric system, which is the predominant electrical system used across the world today. He
also created the "Tesla coil," which is still used in radio technology.
Born in modern-day Croatia, Tesla came to the United States in 1884 and briefly worked
with Thomas Edison before the two parted ways. He sold several patent rights, including those
to his AC machinery, to George Westinghouse.
Early Life
Tesla was born in Smiljan, Croatia, on July 10, 1856.
Tesla was one of five children, including siblings Dane, Angelina, Milka and Marica. Tesla's
interest in electrical invention was spurred by his mother, Djuka Mandic, who invented small
household appliances in her spare time while her son was growing up.
Tesla's father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian orthodox priest and a writer, and he pushed for his
son to join the priesthood. But Nikola's interests lay squarely in the sciences.
Education
After studying at the Realschule, Karlstadt (later renamed the Johann-Rudolph-Glauber
Realschule Karlstadt) in Germany; the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria; and the University
of Prague during the 1870s, Tesla moved to Budapest, where for a time he worked at the
Central Telephone Exchange It was while in Budapest that the idea for the induction motor first
came to Tesla, but after several years of trying to gain interest in his invention, at age 28 Tesla
decided to leave Europe for America.
Nikola Tesla vs. Thomas Edison
In 1884 Tesla arrived in the United States with little more than the clothes on his back and a
letter of introduction to famed inventor and business mogul Thomas Edison, whose DC-based
electrical works were fast becoming the standard in the country.
Edison hired Tesla, and the two men were soon working tirelessly alongside each other, making
improvements to Edison's inventions.
Several months later, the two parted ways due to a conflicting business-scientific relationship,
attributed by historians to their incredibly different personalities: While Edison was a power
figure who focused on marketing and financial success, Tesla was commercially out-of-touch
and somewhat vulnerable.
First Solo Venture

In 1885, Tesla received funding for the Tesla Electric Light Company and was tasked by his
investors to develop improved arc lighting. After successfully doing so, however, Tesla was
forced out of the venture and for a time had to work as a manual laborer in order to survive. His
luck would change two years later when he received funding for his new Tesla Electric
Company.

Inventions
Throughout his career, Tesla discovered, designed and developed ideas for a number of
important inventions — most of which were officially patented by other inventors — including
dynamos (electrical generators similar to batteries) and the induction motor. He was also a
pioneer in the discovery of radar technology, X-ray technology, remote control and the rotating
magnetic field — the basis of most AC machinery. Tesla is most well-known for his
contributions in AC electricity and for the Tesla coil.

AC Electrical System
Tesla designed the alternating-current (AC) electrical system, which would quickly become the
preeminent power system of the 20th century and has remained the worldwide standard ever
since. In 1887, Tesla found funding for his new Tesla Electric Company, and by the end of the
year, he had successfully filed several patents for AC-based inventions.
Tesla's AC system soon caught the attention of American engineer and businessman George
Westinghouse, who was seeking a solution to supplying the nation with long-distance power.
Convinced that Tesla's inventions would help him achieve this, in 1888 he purchased his patents
for $60,000 in cash and stock in the Westinghouse Corporation.
As interest in an AC system grew, Tesla and Westinghouse were put in direct competition with
Thomas Edison, who was intent on selling his direct-current (DC) system to the nation. A
negative press campaign was soon waged by Edison, in an attempt to undermine interest in AC
power. Unfortunately for Edison, the Westinghouse Corporation was chosen to supply the
lighting at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and Tesla conducted
demonstrations of his AC system there.

Hydroelectric Power Plant

Tesla Coil
In the late 19th century, Tesla patented the Tesla coil, which laid the foundation for wireless
technologies and is still used in radio technology today. The heart of an electrical circuit, the
Tesla coil is an inductor used in many early radio transmission antennas. The coil works with a
capacitor to resonate current and voltage from a power source across the circuit. Tesla himself
used his coil to study fluorescence, x-rays, radio, wireless power and electromagnetism in the
earth and its atmosphere.

Free Energy
Having become obsessed with the wireless transmission of energy, around 1900 Tesla set to
work on his boldest project yet: to build a global, wireless communication system — to be
transmitted through a large electrical tower — for sharing information and providing free
energy throughout the world. With funding from a group of investors that included financial
giant J. P. Morgan, in 1901 Tesla began work on the free energy project in earnest, designing
and building a lab with a power plant and a massive transmission tower on a site on Long
Island, New York, that became known as Wardenclyffe.

However, doubts arose among his investors about the plausibility of Tesla's system. As his
rival, Guglielmo Marconi — with the financial support of Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison
— continued to make great advances with his own radio technologies, Tesla had no choice but
to abandon the project. The Wardenclyffe staff was laid off in 1906, and by 1915 the site had
fallen into foreclosure. Two years later Tesla declared bankruptcy and the tower was
dismantled and sold for scrap to help pay the debts he had accrued.

Death Ray
After suffering a nervous breakdown following the closure of his free energy project, Tesla
eventually returned to work, primarily as a consultant. But as time went on, his ideas became
progressively more outlandish and impractical. He grew increasingly eccentric, devoting much
of his time to the care of wild pigeons in the parks of New York City. Tesla even drew the
attention of the FBI with his talk of building a powerful "death ray," which had received some
interest from the Soviet Union during World War II.
How Did Nikola Tesla Die?
Poor and reclusive, Tesla died of coronary thrombosis on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86 in
New York City, where he had lived for nearly 60 years.
However, the legacy of the work Tesla left behind him lives on to this day. In 1994, a street sign
identifying "Nikola Tesla Corner" was installed near the site of his former New York City
laboratory, at the intersection of 40th Street and 6th Avenue.

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