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 collaborated for a brief period 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 commercially out-of-tune and somewhat vulnerable, yet an extremely pivotal inventor who pioneered some of history's 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's name graced 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 Tesla's AC system. He would succeed in doing just that, not long after purchasing Tesla's patents. Around this time, a 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's 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 what was among the first AC hydroelectric power plants in the United States, at Niagara Falls, a feat that was highly publicized throughout the world.
Around 1900—nearly a decade later after inventing the "Tesla coil"—Nikola set to work 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. With funding from a group of investors that included financial giant J.P. Morgan, in 1901 Tesla began work on the project in earnest, designing and building a massive transmission tower on Long Island, New York, that became known as Wardenclyffe. However, when doubts arose among his investors about the plausibility of Tesla's system, and Gugliemo Marconi continued to make great advances with his, Tesla had no choice but to abandon the project. In 1915, the Wardenclyffe site fell into foreclosure, and two years later the tower was dismantled and sold for scrap to help pay the debt that Tesla had accrued.
"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 was also a pioneer in the discovery of radar technology, X-ray technology and the rotating magnetic field—the basis of most AC machinery. Tesla was not without his major faults, however, as he supported the use of population control via eugenics and forced sterilizations
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 documentary produced by the Tesla Memorial Society and the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia; and The Secret of Nikola Tesla, which stars Orson Welles as J.P. Morgan). And in the 2006 Christopher Nolan film The Prestige, Tesla was portrayed by rock star/actor David Bowie. 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.
Wardenclyffe Project
Over the past several years, various 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 Wardenclyffe laboratory and turn it into a museum of the inventor's work. For more than a decade, New York's Tesla Science Center worked to secure funding for the preservation of Wardenclyffe, the ownership of which had passed through several hands.In February 2009, the Wardenclyffe site went on the market for nearly $1.6 million, and for the next several years, the Tesla Science Center worked diligently to raise funds for its purchase. In 2012, public interest in the project peaked when Matthew Inman of TheOatmeal.com collaborated with the TSC in an Internet fundraising effort, ultimately receiving enough contributions for the acquisition of the site, which the organization plans to turn into a science museum.
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