Nikola Tesla biography

Synopsis

Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was born in July of 1856, in what is now
Croatia. He 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
alternating-current machinery, to George Westinghouse. His 1891 invention, the "Tesla
coil," is still used in radio technology today. Tesla died in New York City on January 7,
1943.

Early Life

Famous Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in what is
now Smiljan, Croatia. Tesla's interest in electrical invention was likely 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 priest. After studying in the
1870s at the Realschule, Karlstadt (later renamed the Johann-Rudolph-Glauber
Realschule Karlstadt); the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria; and the University of
Prague, Tesla began preparing for a trip to America.

Famed Inventor

Tesla came to the United States in 1884, and soon began working with famed inventor
and business mogul Thomas Edison. The two worked together for a brief periof before
parting 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 a commercially out-of-tune and somewhat
vulnerable, yet extremely pivotal inventor, who pioneered some of history's the most
important inventions. His inventions include the "Tesla coil," developed in 1891, and an
alternating-current electrical system of generators, motors and transformers—both of
which are still used widely today.

On the AC electrical system alone, Tesla held 40 basic U.S. patents, which he later sold
to George Westinghouse, an American engineer and business man who was determined
to supply the nation with the Tesla's AC system. He would succeed in doing just that, not
long after purchasing Tesla's patents. Around this time, conflict arose between Tesla and
Edison, as Edison was determined to sell his direct-current system to the nation.
According to the Tesla Memorial Society of New York, Tesla-Westinghouse ultimately
won out because Tesla's system was "a superior technology," presenting greater "progress
of both America and the world" than Edison's DC system. Outside of his AC system
patents, Tesla sold several other patent rights to Westinghouse.
At the 1893 World Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago, Tesla conducted
demonstrations of his AC system, which soon became the standard power system of the
20th century, and has remained the worldwide standard ever since. Two years later, in
1895, Tesla designed the first hydroelectric powerplant at Niagara Falls, a feat that was
highly publicized throughout the world.

Around 1900—nearly a decade later after inventing the "Tesla coil"—Tesla began
working on his boldest project yet: Building a global communication system—through a
large, electrical tower—for sharing information and providing free electricity throughout
the world.

The system, however, never came to fruition; it failed due to financial constraints, and
Tesla had no choice but to abandon the Long Island, New York laboratory that housed his
work on the tower project, Wardenclyffe. In 1917, the Wardenclyffe site was sold, and
Tesla's tower was destroyed.

"It's a sad, sad story," Larry Page, Google's co-founder, said of Tesla in a 2008 interview
with Forbes magazine. "[Tesla] couldn't commercialize anything. He could barely fund
his own research."

In addition to his AC system, coil and tower project, 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 also a pioneer in the
discovery of radar technology, X-ray technology and the rotating magnetic field—the
basis of most AC machinery.

Death and Legacy

Poor and reclusive, Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86, in New York
City—where he had lived for nearly 60 years. His legacy, however, has been thriving for
more than a century, and will undoubtedly live on for decades to come.

Several books and films have highlighted Tesla's life and famous works, including Nikola
Tesla, The Genius Who Lit the World, a film created by the Tesla Memorial Society and
the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia; and The Secret of Nikola Tesla, which
stars Orson Welles as John Pierpont Morgan (J.P. Morgan). In recent years, a street sign
entitled "Nikola Tesla Corner" was installed in honor of the famous inventor, near the
40th Street-6th Avenue intersection in New York City.

Wardenclyffe Project

Over the past several years, several nonprofit organizations, high-profile individuals,
municipalities and Tesla enthusiasts have been involved in a different kind of effort to
uphold Tesla's legacy: A project to preserve Tesla's still-standing, still-abandoned New
York laboratory, Wardenclyffe, and turn it into a museum of the famous inventor's work.
For more than a decade, New York's Nikola Tesla Science Center has been working to
gain momentum and, subsequently, funding for preserving Wardenclyffe. Since then, the
lab's ownership has been passed through several hands, and public interest for the project
has slowly but steadly been growing.

Interest escalated in February 2009, when the Wardenclyffe site was posted for sale, for
nearly $1.6 million. Since then, the Tesla Science Center has continued to diligently work
to raise funds for the lab's preservation. The state of New York recently acknowledged
the center's efforts, awarding the center with a $850,000 grant (the center can't officially
receive the grant until it raises matching funds).