Nikola Tesla
The Master of Lightning · July 10, 1856, Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern Croatia) - January 7, 1943, New York City
Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer whose alternating current system powers the modern world. A visionary genius who held over 300 patents, Tesla's innovations in AC power, radio technology, and electrical engineering made the electrification of civilization possible.
Life and legacy
Nikola Tesla was born in the village of Smiljan in the Military Frontier of the Austrian Empire (present-day Croatia) to a Serbian Orthodox family. His father was a priest, and his mother, though unschooled, possessed a remarkable gift for building mechanical devices and memorizing epic poetry. Tesla studied engineering in Graz and Prague before working for the Continental Edison Company in Paris. In 1884, he emigrated to the United States with little more than a letter of introduction to Thomas Edison.
Tesla briefly worked for Edison but the two men clashed over the merits of direct current (DC) versus alternating current (AC). Edison championed DC, which could only transmit power over short distances. Tesla's AC system, using rotating magnetic fields and polyphase currents, could transmit electricity over vast distances with far less loss. Backed by industrialist George Westinghouse, Tesla's AC system won the contract to harness the power of Niagara Falls in 1893, and the "War of Currents" was effectively decided in Tesla's favor. The modern electrical grid is built on Tesla's AC system.
Tesla was a prolific inventor who held over 300 patents worldwide. He made fundamental contributions to the development of the induction motor, the Tesla coil (a resonant transformer still used in radio technology), fluorescent lighting, and wireless energy transmission. His dramatic public demonstrations - producing artificial lightning bolts and lighting lamps wirelessly - made him one of the most famous scientists in America. He also conducted pioneering work on radio transmission, and in 1943 the U.S. Supreme Court posthumously upheld Tesla's radio patent priority over Guglielmo Marconi.
Tesla's later years were marked by increasing eccentricity and financial ruin. He lived alone in a series of New York hotels, feeding pigeons in Bryant Park and claiming to have conceived inventions - a particle beam weapon, wireless energy for the entire globe - that were never realized. He died penniless in the New Yorker Hotel on January 7, 1943. Though largely forgotten for decades, Tesla has been recognized as one of the most important inventors in history. The SI unit of magnetic flux density, the tesla, bears his name.
Key accomplishments
- Developed the alternating current (AC) electrical system that powers the modern world
- Designed the hydroelectric power system at Niagara Falls (1893), proving AC's viability
- Invented the Tesla coil, the induction motor, and pioneered radio technology
- Held over 300 patents worldwide across electrical and mechanical engineering
- The SI unit of magnetic flux density (the tesla) was named in his honor
Quotes
The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.
Interview with Politika newspaper, Belgrade, 1927
Let the future tell the truth, and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments.
Interview in Politika (April 1927)