Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Austria-Hungary and emigrated to the United States in 1884 as a physicist. He revolutionized the generation, transmission, and application of alternating current (AC) electricity, which could be distributed over much greater distances than direct current (DC).
Tesla patented a device that induced electrical current in a piece of iron (a rotor) spinning between two electrified coils of wire. This rotating magnetic field device generated AC current when rotated by mechanical energy, such as steam or hydropower. When the generated current reached a user and was fed into another rotating magnetic field device, it powered an AC induction motor that converted electrical energy into mechanical energy. These motors became essential for running household appliances like washing machines and dryers, leading to widespread industrial and manufacturing applications for electricity.
Tesla’s vision extended beyond the induction motor. Through a series of groundbreaking patents, he demonstrated a polyphase alternating-current system comprising a generator, transformers, transmission layout, motors, and lighting. This system, from power generation to utilization, remains largely unchanged to this day.
Partnership with Westinghouse
In 1888, George Westinghouse, the head of Westinghouse Electric Company, purchased Tesla’s patents for dynamos, transformers, and motors. Westinghouse showcased Tesla’s AC system at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and later used it to power the world’s first major hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls in 1896. The Tesla coil, invented in 1891, remains in use today in radio and television sets, car starters, and various electronic devices.
Tesla’s work in radio-frequency waves laid the foundation for modern radio. He experimented with wireless power transmission and held 112 patents for inventions, including speedometers, high-efficiency electrical generators, and a bladeless turbine still in use today. He also proposed using radio waves to detect ships, an early concept of radar, and his research on gas-filled lamps paved the way for fluorescent lighting.
During the late 19th century, Tesla rivaled Thomas Edison in fame. His polyphase AC power system brought him worldwide recognition, yet he never amassed great wealth. At his peak, he mingled with poets, scientists, industrialists, and financiers. However, he died alone and nearly penniless in a New York hotel room in 1943. His contributions to science were later honored by naming the unit of magnetic flux density the “tesla.”
An extraordinary smart man
Born to a Serbian Orthodox priest, Tesla demonstrated extraordinary intellectual abilities from an early age. He memorized entire books, stored logarithmic tables in his mind, and learned new languages with ease. He worked tirelessly, often sleeping only a few hours each night.
At 19, he attended the Graz University of Technology in Austria, where he gained notoriety for challenging a professor over the design flaws of DC motors. For six years, he obsessed over electromagnetic fields and AC motors, but his intense focus led to academic neglect. Professors warned his father that his work habits were harming his health. Instead of completing his studies, Tesla fell into gambling, lost his tuition money, dropped out of university, and suffered a nervous breakdown.
After recovering in 1881, Tesla moved to Budapest. While reciting poetry in a park with a friend, he had a vision. With a stick, he sketched a design in the dirt—a motor powered by rotating magnetic fields generated by two or more alternating currents.
Working with Thomas Edison
In 1884, Tesla boarded a ship to New York with four cents in his pocket and a letter of introduction from Charles Batchelor to Thomas Edison. The letter read: “Dear Edison: I know two great men, and one of them is you. The other is this young man!”
Edison, skeptical but intrigued, hired Tesla. According to Tesla, Edison promised him $50,000 if he could improve his DC machines. Within months, Tesla succeeded, but Edison refused to pay, allegedly telling him, “When you become a regular American, you will appreciate American humor.” Feeling betrayed, Tesla resigned and resorted to digging ditches to survive. Soon, word spread about his AC motor, leading Western Union to hire him to design AC systems, which remain in use today.
Why Tesla died poor.
Tesla’s alternating current patents were considered among the most valuable inventions after the telephone. Recognizing their potential, George Westinghouse licensed Tesla’s patents for $60,000 in cash and stock, plus royalties. Tesla and Westinghouse triumphed over Edison in the “War of Currents,” but the competition strained both Westinghouse Electric and Edison’s General Electric Company.
Facing financial trouble, Westinghouse pleaded with Tesla to release him from their contract, warning, “Your decision decides the fate of the Westinghouse Company.” Out of gratitude, Tesla tore up the contract, waiving rights to the millions owed to him, and the billions he would have earned in the future. Had he not, he would have been one of the wealthiest men of the Gilded Age.
Tesla’s work in electricity was far from over. Before the 20th century, he invented a high-voltage, high-frequency coil that led to neon and fluorescent lighting, X-rays, and wireless radio transmission. His radio patents in 1897 preceded Guglielmo Marconi’s work, but Marconi received widespread credit. When Marconi successfully transmitted a radio signal across the Atlantic in 1901, Tesla protested that the Italian had used 17 of his patents. Though the U.S. Supreme Court eventually recognized Tesla as the true inventor of radio in 1943, the decision came too late to benefit him.
Tesla continued experimenting with wireless energy transmission, securing funding from J.P. Morgan to build a massive transmission tower. He envisioned a world where a businessman in New York could instantly send instructions to an office in London. However, construction revealed the project’s financial shortcomings. Investors turned to Marconi, and Tesla’s appeals for additional funding went unanswered. The Wardenclyffe Tower was abandoned and demolished in 1917, another symbol of Tesla’s failed ventures.
In his later years, Tesla withdrew from society, exhibiting signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder. He was possibly a high-functioning autistic individual, obsessing over cleanliness and the number three. He washed his hands three times after shaking hands, used 18 napkins at meals, and meticulously counted his steps while walking.
He also developed a peculiar attachment to pigeons, particularly a white female pigeon, which he claimed to love as one would a human. He spent his final years in a New York hotel, where Westinghouse discreetly covered his rent. Though he was financially unstable, he was not destitute; he received a modest pension from his home country and lived modestly.
Contribution to modern technology
Despite his financial struggles, Tesla’s contributions to modern technology are immeasurable. He held numerous patents, but the fortune he could have earned was lost, particularly the $50,000 Edison denied him and the lucrative Westinghouse royalties he forgave. Unlike many inventors, Tesla valued innovation over wealth. “My royalties will be the betterment of mankind,” he once said.
Tesla’s influence on modern technology is profound. The alternating current he championed powers the world today. Though he died in relative obscurity, his genius endures, and history has finally recognized him as one of the greatest inventors of all time.
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