brief biography of nikola tesla

Nikola Tesla

Serbian American scientist Nikola Tesla invented the Tesla coil and alternating-current (AC) electricity, in addition to discovering the rotating magnetic field.

Who Was Nikola Tesla?

Quick facts, when was nikola tesla born, nikola tesla and thomas edison, solo venture, how did nikola tesla die, legacy: movies, electric car, and wardenclyffe tower renovation.

Engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla designed the alternating-current (AC) electric system, which is the predominant electrical system used across the world today. He also created the “Tesla coil” that is still used in radio technology. Born in modern-day Croatia, Tesla immigrated to the United States in 1884 and briefly worked with Thomas Edison before the two parted ways. The Serbian American sold several patent rights, including those to his AC machinery, to George Westinghouse . Tesla died at age 86 in January 1943, but his legacy lives on through his inventions and the electric car company Tesla that’s named in his honor.

FULL NAME: Nikola Tesla BORN: July 10, 1856 DIED: January 7, 1943 BIRTHPLACE: Smiljan, Croatia ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Cancer

Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in the Austrian Empire town of Smiljan that is now part of Croatia.

He was one of five children, including siblings Dane, Angelina, Milka, and Marica. Nikola’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.

Tesla received quite a bit of education. He studied 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.

After university, Tesla moved to Budapest, Hungary, 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.

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. Their feud would continue to affect Tesla’s career.

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 changed two years later when he received funding for his new Tesla Electric Company.

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 quickly became the preeminent power system of the 20 th 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

In 1895, Tesla designed what was among the first AC hydroelectric power plants in the United States, at Niagara Falls. The following year, it was used to power the city of Buffalo, New York—a feat that was highly publicized throughout the world and helped further AC electricity’s path to becoming the world’s power system.

In the late 19 th 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 used his coil to study fluorescence, x-rays, radio, wireless power, and electromagnetism in the earth and its atmosphere.

Wireless Power and Wardenclyffe Tower

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 transmitted through a large electrical tower that would enable information sharing and provide free energy throughout the world.

With funding from a group of investors that included financial giant J. P. Morgan , Tesla began work on the free energy project in earnest in 1901. He designed and built 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.

After suffering a nervous breakdown following the closure of his wireless power 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.

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.

The legacy of Tesla’s work 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 40 th Street and 6 th Avenue.

Several movies have highlighted Tesla’s life and famous works, most notably:

• The Secret of Nikola Tesla , a 1980 biographical film starring Orson Welles as J. P. Morgan .
• Nikola Tesla, The Genius Who Lit the World , a 1994 documentary produced by the Tesla Memorial Society and the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.
• The Prestige , a 2006 fictional film about two magicians directed by Christopher Nolan , with rock star David Bowie portraying Tesla.

In 2003, a group of engineers founded Tesla Motors, a car company named after Tesla dedicated to building the first fully electric-powered car. Entrepreneur and engineer Elon Musk contributed over $30 million to Tesla in 2004 and serves as the company’s co-founder and CEO.

Tesla Motors unveiled its first electric car, the Roadster, in 2008. A high-performance sports vehicle, the Roadster helped changed the perception of what electric cars could be. In 2014, Tesla launched the Model S, a lower-priced model that, in 2017, set the MotorTrend world record for 0 to 60 miles per hour acceleration at 2.28 seconds. The company’s designs showed that an electric car could have the same performance as gasoline-powered sports car brands like Porsche and Lamborghini.

Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe

Since Tesla’s original forfeiture of his free energy project, ownership of the Wardenclyffe property has passed through numerous hands. Several attempts have been made to preserve it, but efforts to declare it a national historic site failed in 1967, 1976, and 1994.

Then, in 2008, a group called the Tesla Science Center (TSC) was formed with the intention of purchasing the property and turning it into a museum dedicated to the inventor’s work. In 2009, the Wardenclyffe site went on the market for nearly $1.6 million, and for the next several years, the TSC 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 to acquire the site in May 2013.

Wardenclyffe Tower finally joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2018. Work on its restoration is still in progress. A $20 million redevelopment broke ground in April 2023, but those efforts were complicated by large fire that November. The site is closed to the public “for the foreseeable future” for reasons of safety and preservation, according to the Tesla Science Center.

• Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.
• I do not think you can name many great inventions that have been made by married men.
• The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.

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Nikola Tesla Biography

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was one of the greatest and most enigmatic scientists who played a key role in the development of electromagnetism and other scientific discoveries of his time. Despite his breathtaking number of patents and discoveries, his achievements were often underplayed during his lifetime.

Short Biography Nikola Tesla

Tesla was a bright student and in 1875 went to the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz. However, he left to gain employment in Marburg in Slovenia. Evidence of his difficult temperament sometimes manifested and after an estrangement from his family, he suffered a nervous breakdown. He later enrolled in the Charles Ferdinand University in Prague, but again he left before completing his degree.

During his early life, he experienced many periods of illness and periods of startling inspiration. Accompanied by blinding flashes of light, he would often visualise mechanical and theoretical inventions spontaneously. He had a unique capacity to visualise images in his head. When working on projects, he would rarely write down plans or scale drawings, but rely on the images in his mind.

In 1880, he moved to Budapest where he worked for a telegraph company. During this time, he became acquainted with twin turbines and helped develop a device that provided amplification for when using the telephone.

In 1882, he moved to Paris, where he worked for the Continental Edison Company. Here he improved various devices used by the Edison company. He also conceived the induction motor and devices that used rotating magnetic fields.

With a strong letter of recommendation, Tesla went to the United States in 1884 to work for the Edison Machine Works company. Here he became one of the chief engineers and designers. Tesla was given a task to improve the electrical system of direct current generators. Tesla claimed he was offered $50,000 if he could significantly improve the motor generators. However, after completing his task, Tesla received no reward. This was one of several factors that led to a deep rivalry and bitterness between Tesla and Thomas Edison . It was to become a defining feature of Tesla’s life and impacted his financial situation and prestige. This deep rivalry was also seen as a reason why neither Tesla or Edison was awarded a Nobel prize for their electrical discoveries.

Disgusted that he did not ever receive a pay rise, Tesla resigned, and for a short while, found himself having to gain employment digging ditches for the Edison telephone company.

In 1886, Tesla formed his own company, but it wasn’t a success as his backers didn’t support his faith in AC current.

In 1887, Tesla worked on a form of X-Rays. He was able to photograph the bones in his hand; he also became aware of the side-effects of using radiation. However, his work in this area gained little coverage, and much of his research was later lost in a fire at a New York warehouse.

“The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up… His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way.”

– Nikola Tesla,  Modern Mechanics and Inventions (July 1934)

In 1891, Tesla became an American citizen. This was also a period of great advances in electrical knowledge. Tesla demonstrated the potential for wireless energy transfer and the capacity for AC power generation. Tesla’s promotion of AC current placed him in opposition to Edison who sought to promote his Direct Current DC for electric power. Shortly before his death, Edison said his biggest mistake was spending so much time on DC current rather than the AC current Tesla had promoted.

In 1899, Tesla moved to Colorado Springs where he had the space to develop high voltage experiments. This included a variety of radio and electrical transmission experiments. He left after a year in Colorado Springs, and the buildings were later sold to pay off debts.

In 1900, Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower facility. This was an ambitious project costing $150,000, a fortune at the time.

In 1904, the US patent office reversed his earlier patent for the radio, giving it instead to G. Marconi . This infuriated Tesla who felt he was the rightful inventor. He began a long, expensive and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to fight the decision. Marconi went on to win the Nobel Prize for physics in 1909. This seemed to be a repeating theme in Tesla’s life: a great invention that he failed to personally profit from.

Nikola Tesla also displayed fluorescent lamps and single node bulbs.

Tesla was in many ways an eccentric and genius. His discoveries and inventions were unprecedented. Yet, he was often ostracised for his erratic behaviour (during his later years, he developed a form of obsessive-compulsive behaviour). He was not frightened of suggesting unorthodox ideas such as radio waves from extraterrestrial beings. His ideas, lack of personal finance and unorthodox behaviour put him outside the scientific establishment and because of this, his ideas were sometimes slow to be accepted or used.

“All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle.”

– Nikola Tesla, A Means for Furthering Peace (1905)

Outside of science, he had many artistic and literary friends; in later life he became friendly with Mark Twain , inviting him to his laboratory. He also took an interest in poetry, literature and modern Vedic thought, in particular being interested in the teachings and vision of the modern Hindu monk, Swami Vivekananda . Tesla was brought up an Orthodox Christian, although he later didn’t consider himself a believer in the true sense. He retained an admiration for Christianity and Buddhism.

“For ages this idea has been proclaimed in the consummately wise teachings of religion, probably not alone as a means of insuring peace and harmony among men, but as a deeply founded truth. The Buddhist expresses it in one way, the Christian in another, but both say the same: We are all one.”

– Nikola Tesla,  The Problem of Increasing Human Energy (1900)

As well as considering scientific issues, Tesla was thoughtful about greater problems of war and conflict, and he wrote a book on the subject called   A Means for Furthering Peace (1905).  This expressed his views on how conflict may be avoided and humanity learn to live in harmony.

“What we now want most is closer contact and better understanding between individuals and communities all over the earth and the elimination of that fanatic devotion to exalted ideals of national egoism and pride, which is always prone to plunge the world into primeval barbarism and strife.”

– Nikola Tesla,  My Inventions (1919)

Personal life

Tesla was famous for working hard and throwing himself into his work. He ate alone and rarely slept, sleeping as little as two hours a day.  He remained unmarried and claimed that his chastity was helpful to his scientific abilities. In later years, he became a vegetarian, living on only milk, bread, honey, and vegetable juices.

Tesla passed away on 7 January 1943, in a New York hotel room.  He was 86 years old.

After his death, in 1960 the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic field strength the Tesla in his honour.

Citation: Pettinger, Tejvan . “ Biography of Nikola Tesla” , Oxford, UK – www.biographyonline.net . Last updated 25th September 2017

Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age

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Tesla: The Man who invented the Twentieth Century

Key Inventions of Nikola Tesla

• Development in electromagnetism
• Theoretical work on Alternating Current (AC)
• Tesla Coil – magnifying transmitter
• Polyphase system of electrical distribution
• Patent for an early form of radio
• Wireless electrical transfer
• Devices for lightning protection
• Concepts for electrical vehicles

Important contributions in

• Early models of radar
• Remote control
• Nuclear physics

Related pages

Inventions that changed the world  – Famous inventions that made a great difference to the progress of the world, including aluminium, the telephone and the printing press.

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Nikola Tesla

By: History.com Editors

Updated: March 13, 2020 | Original: November 9, 2009

Serbian-American engineer and physicist Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) made dozens of breakthroughs in the production, transmission and application of electric power. He invented the first alternating current (AC) motor and developed AC generation and transmission technology. Though he was famous and respected, he was never able to translate his copious inventions into long-term financial success—unlike his early employer and chief rival, Thomas Edison.

Nikola Tesla’s Early Years

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox church and his mother managed the family’s farm. In 1863 Tesla’s brother Daniel was killed in a riding accident. The shock of the loss unsettled the 7-year-old Tesla, who reported seeing visions—the first signs of his lifelong mental illnesses.

Did you know? During the 1890s Mark Twain struck up a friendship with inventor Nikola Tesla. Twain often visited him in his lab, where in 1894 Tesla photographed the great American writer in one of the first pictures ever lit by phosphorescent light.

Tesla studied math and physics at the Technical University of Graz and philosophy at the University of Prague. In 1882, while on a walk, he came up with the idea for a brushless AC motor, making the first sketches of its rotating electromagnets in the sand of the path. Later that year he moved to Paris and got a job repairing direct current (DC) power plants with the Continental Edison Company. Two years later he immigrated to the United States.

Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison

Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 and was hired as an engineer at Thomas Edison’s Manhattan headquarters. He worked there for a year, impressing Edison with his diligence and ingenuity. At one point Edison told Tesla he would pay $50,000 for an improved design for his DC dynamos. After months of experimentation, Tesla presented a solution and asked for the money. Edison demurred, saying, “Tesla, you don’t understand our American humor.” Tesla quit soon after.

Nikola Tesla and Westinghouse

After an unsuccessful attempt to start his own Tesla Electric Light Company and a stint digging ditches for $2 a day, Tesla found backers to support his research into alternating current. In 1887 and 1888 he was granted more than 30 patents for his inventions and invited to address the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on his work. His lecture caught the attention of George Westinghouse, the inventor who had launched the first AC power system near Boston and was Edison’s major competitor in the “Battle of the Currents.”

Westinghouse hired Tesla, licensed the patents for his AC motor and gave him his own lab. In 1890 Edison arranged for a convicted New York murderer to be put to death in an AC-powered electric chair—a stunt designed to show how dangerous the Westinghouse standard could be.

Buoyed by Westinghouse’s royalties, Tesla struck out on his own again. But Westinghouse was soon forced by his backers to renegotiate their contract, with Tesla relinquishing his royalty rights.

In the 1890s Tesla invented electric oscillators, meters, improved lights and the high-voltage transformer known as the Tesla coil. He also experimented with X-rays, gave short-range demonstrations of radio communication two years before Guglielmo Marconi and piloted a radio-controlled boat around a pool in Madison Square Garden. Together, Tesla and Westinghouse lit the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago and partnered with General Electric to install AC generators at Niagara Falls , creating the first modern power station.

Nikola Tesla’s Failures, Death and Legacy

In 1895 Tesla’s New York lab burned, destroying years’ worth of notes and equipment. Tesla relocated to Colorado Springs for two years, returning to New York in 1900. He secured backing from financier J.P. Morgan and began building a global communications network centered on a giant tower at Wardenclyffe, on Long Island. But funds ran out and Morgan balked at Tesla’s grandiose schemes.

Tesla lived his last decades in a New York hotel, working on new inventions even as his energy and mental health faded. His obsession with the number three and fastidious washing were dismissed as the eccentricities of genius. He spent his final years feeding—and, he claimed, communicating with—the city’s pigeons.

Tesla died in his room on January 7, 1943. Later that year the U.S. Supreme Court voided four of Marconi’s key patents, belatedly acknowledging Tesla’s innovations in radio. The AC system he championed and improved remains the global standard for power transmission.

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Biography of Nikola Tesla, Serbian-American Inventor

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Nikola Tesla (July 10, 1856–January 7, 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, and futurist. As the holder of nearly 300 patents, Tesla is best known for his role in developing the modern three-phase alternating current (AC) electric power supply system and for his invention of the Tesla coil, an early advancement in the field of radio transmission.

During the 1880s, Tesla and Thomas Edison , inventor and champion of direct electrical current (DC), would become embattled in the “War of the Currents” over whether Tesla’s AC or Edison’s DC would become the standard current used in long-distance transmission of electrical power.

Fast Facts: Nikola Tesla

• Known For: Development of alternating current (AC) electrical power
• Born: July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia)
• Parents: Milutin Tesla and Đuka Tesla
• Died: January 7, 1943 in New York City, New York
• Education: Austrian Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria (1875)
• Patents: US381968A —Electro-magnetic motor, US512,340A —coil for electro-magnets
• Awards and Honors : Edison Medal (1917), Inventor’s Hall of Fame (1975)
• Notable Quote : “If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.”

Early Life and Education

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in the village of Smiljan in the Austrian Empire (now Croatia) to his Serbian father Milutin Tesla, an Eastern Orthodox priest, and his mother Đuka Tesla, who invented small household appliances and had the ability to memorize lengthy Serbian epic poems. Tesla credited his mother for his own interest in inventing and photographic memory. He had four siblings, a brother Dane, and sisters Angelina, Milka, and Marica. 

In 1870, Tesla started high school at the Higher Real Gymnasium in Karlovac, Austria. He recalled that his physics teacher’s demonstrations of electricity made him want “to know more of this wonderful force.” Able to do integral calculus in his head, Tesla completed high school in just three years, graduating in 1873.

Determined to pursue a career in engineering, Tesla enrolled at the Austrian Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria, in 1875. It was here that Tesla studied a Gramme dynamo, an electrical generator that produces direct current. Observing that the dynamo functioned like an electric motor when the direction of its current was reversed, Tesla began thinking of ways this alternating current could be used in industrial applications. Though he never graduated—as was not uncommon then—Tesla posted excellent grades and was even given a letter from the dean of the technical faculty addressed to his father stating, “Your son is a star of first rank.”

Feeling that chastity would help him focus on his career, Tesla never married or had any known romantic relationships. In her 2001 book, “ Tesla: Man Out of Time ,” biographer Margaret Cheney writes that Tesla felt himself to be unworthy of women, considering them to be superior to him in every way. Later in life, however, he publicly expressed strong dislike what he called the “new woman,” women he felt were abandoning their femininity in an attempt to dominate men.

The Path to Alternating Current

In 1881, Tesla moved to Budapest, Hungary, where he gained practical experience as the chief electrician at the Central Telephone Exchange. In 1882, Tesla was hired by the Continental Edison Company in Paris where he worked in the emerging industry of installing the direct current-powered indoor incandescent lighting system patented by Thomas Edison in 1879. Impressed by Tesla’s mastery of engineering and physics, the company’s management soon had him designing improved versions of generating dynamos and motors and fixing problems at other Edison facilities throughout France and Germany.

When the manager of the Continental Edison facility in Paris was transferred back to the United States in 1884, he asked that Tesla be brought to the U.S. as well. In June 1884, Tesla emigrated to the United States and went to work at the Edison Machine Works in New York City, where Edison’s DC-based electrical lighting system was fast becoming the standard. Just six months later, Tesla quit Edison after a heated dispute over unpaid wages and bonuses. In his diary, Notebook from the Edison Machine Works: 1884-1885 , Tesla marked the end of the amicable relationship between the two great inventors. Across two pages, Tesla wrote in large letters, “Good By to the Edison Machine Works.”

By March 1885, Tesla, with the financial backing of businessmen Robert Lane and Benjamin Vail, started his own lighting utility company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. Instead of Edison’s incandescent lamp bulbs, Tesla’s company installed a DC-powered arc lighting system he had designed while working at Edison Machine Works. While Tesla’s arc light system was praised for its advanced features, his investors, Lane and Vail, had little interest in his ideas for perfecting and harnessing alternating current. In 1886, they abandoned Tesla’s company to start their own company. The move left Tesla penniless, forcing him to survive by taking electrical repair jobs and digging ditches for $2.00 per day. Of this period of hardship, Tesla would later recall, “My high education in various branches of science, mechanics, and literature seemed to me like a mockery.”

During his time of near destitution, Tesla’s resolve to prove the superiority of alternating current over Edison’s direct current grew even stronger.

Alternating Current and the Induction Motor

In April 1887, Tesla, along with his investors, Western Union telegraph superintendent Alfred S. Brown and attorney Charles F. Peck, founded the Tesla Electric Company in New York City for the purpose of developing new types of electric motors and generators.

Tesla soon developed a new type of electromagnetic induction motor that ran on alternating current. Patented in May 1888, Tesla’s motor proved to be simple, dependable, and not subject to the constant need for repairs that plagued direct current-driven motors at the time.

In July 1888, Tesla sold his patent for AC-powered motors to Westinghouse Electric Corporation, owned by electrical industry pioneer George Westinghouse. In the deal, which proved financially lucrative for Tesla, Westinghouse Electric got the rights to market Tesla’s AC motor and agreed to hire Tesla as a consultant.

With Westinghouse now backing AC and Edison backing DC, the stage was set for what would become known as “The War of the Currents.”

The War of the Currents: Tesla vs. Edison

Recognizing the economic and technical superiority of alternating current to his direct current for long-distance power distribution, Edison undertook an unprecedently aggressive public relations campaign to discredit AC as posing a deadly threat to the public—a force should never allow in their homes. Edison and his associates toured the U.S. presenting grizzly public demonstrations of animals being electrocuted with AC electricity. When New York State sought a faster, “more humane” alternative to hanging for executing condemned prisoners, Edison, though once a vocal opponent of capital punishment, recommended using AC-powered electrocution. In 1890, murderer William Kemmler became the first person to be executed in a Westinghouse AC generator-powered electric chair that had been secretly designed by one of Edison’s salesmen.

Despite his best efforts, Edison failed to discredit alternating current. In 1892, Westinghouse and Edison’s new company General Electric, competed head-to-head for the contract to supply electricity to the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. When Westinghouse ultimately won the contract, the fair served as a dazzling public display of Tesla’s AC system.

On the tails of their success at the World’s Fair, Tesla and Westinghouse won a historic contract to build the generators for a new hydroelectric power plant at Niagara Falls. In 1896, the power plant began delivering AC electricity to Buffalo, New York, 26 miles away. In his speech at the opening ceremony of the power plant, Tesla said of the accomplishment, “It signifies the subjugation of natural forces to the service of man, the discontinuance of barbarous methods, the relieving of millions from want and suffering.”

The success of the Niagara Falls power plant firmly established Tesla’s AC as the standard for the electric power industry, effectively ending the War of the Currents.

The Tesla Coil

In 1891, Tesla patented the Tesla coil, an electrical transformer circuit capable of producing high-voltage, low-current AC electricity. Though best-known today for its use in spectacular, lightening-spitting demonstrations of electricity, the Tesla coil was fundamental to the development of wireless communications. Still used in modern radio technology, the Tesla coil inductor was an essential part of many early radio transmission antennas.

Tesla would go on to use his Tesla coil in experiments with radio remote control, fluorescent lighting , x-rays , electromagnetism , and universal wireless power transmission. 

On July 30, 1891, the same year he patented his coil, the 35-year-old Tesla was sworn in as a naturalized United States citizen.

Radio Remote Control

At the 1898 Electrical Exposition in Boston’s Madison Square Gardens, Tesla demonstrated an invention he called a “telautomaton,” a three-foot-long, radio-controlled boat propelled by a small battery-powered motor and rudder. Members of the amazed crowd accused Tesla of using telepathy, a trained monkey, or pure magic to steer the boat.

Finding little consumer interest in radio-controlled devices, Tesla tried unsuccessfully to sell his “Teleautomatics” idea to the US Navy as a type of radio-controlled torpedo. However, during and after World War I (1914-1918), the militaries of many countries, including the United States incorporated it.

Wireless Power Transmission

From 1901 through 1906, Tesla spent most of his time and savings working on arguably his most ambitious, if a far-fetched, project—an electrical transmission system he believed could provide free energy and communications throughout the world without the need for wires. 

In 1901, with the backing of investors headed by financial giant J. P. Morgan, Tesla began building a power plant and massive power transmission tower at his

Wardenclyffe laboratory on Long Island, New York. Seizing on the then commonly-held belief that the Earth’s atmosphere conducted electricity, Tesla envisioned a globe-spanning network of power transmitting and receiving antennas suspended by balloons 30,000 feet (9,100 m) in the air. 

However, as Tesla’s project drug on, its sheer enormity caused his investors to doubt its plausibility and withdraw their support. With his rival, Guglielmo Marconi—enjoying the substantial financial support of steel magnate Andrew Carnegie and Thomas Edison—was making great advances in his own radio transmission developments, Tesla was forced to abandon his wireless power project in 1906.

Later Life and Death

In 1922, Tesla, deeply in debt from his failed wireless power project, was forced to leave the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City where he had been living since 1900, and move into the more-affordable St. Regis Hotel. While living at the St. Regis, Tesla took to feeding pigeons on the windowsill of his room, often bringing weak or injured birds into his room to nurse them back to health.

Of his love for one particular injured pigeon, Tesla would write, “I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them for years. But there was one, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life.”

By late 1923, the St. Regis evicted Tesla because of unpaid bills and complaints about the smell from keeping pigeons in his room. For the next decade, he would live in a series of hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills at each. Finally, in 1934, his former employer, Westinghouse Electric Company, began paying Tesla $125 per month as a “consulting fee,” as well as paying his rent at the Hotel New Yorker.

In 1937, at age 81, Tesla was knocked to the ground by a taxicab while crossing a street a few blocks from the New Yorker. Though he suffered a severely wrenched back and broken ribs, Tesla characteristically refused extended medical attention. While he survived the incident, the full extent of his injuries, from which he never fully recovered, was never known.

On January 7, 1943, Tesla died alone in his room at the New Yorker Hotel at the age of 86. The medical examiner listed the cause of death as coronary thrombosis, a heart attack.

On January 10, 1943, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia delivered a eulogy to Tesla broadcast live over WNYC radio. On January 12, over 2,000 people attended Tesla’s funeral at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. Following the funeral, Tesla’s body was cremated at Ferncliff Cemetery in Ardsley, New York.

With the United States then fully engaged in World War II ., fears that the Austrian-born inventor might have been in possession of devices or designs helpful to Nazi Germany , drove the Federal Bureau of Investigation to seize Tesla’s possessions after his death. However, the FBI reported finding nothing of interest, concluding that since about 1928, Tesla’s work had been “primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character often concerned with the production and wireless transmission of power; but did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.”

In his 1944 book, Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla , journalist, and historian John Joseph O’Neill wrote that Tesla claimed to have never slept more than two hours per night, “dozing” during the day instead to “recharge his batteries.” He was reported to have once spent 84 straight hours without sleep working in his laboratory.

It is believed that Tesla was granted around 300 patents worldwide for his inventions during his lifetime. While several of his patents remain unaccounted for or archived, he holds at least 278 known patents in 26 countries, mostly in the United States, Britain, and Canada. Tesla never attempted to patent many of his other inventions and ideas.

Today, Tesla’s legacy can be seen in multiple forms of popular culture, including movies, TV, video games and several genres of science fiction. For example, in the 2006 movie The Prestige, David Bowie portrays Tesla developing an amazing electro-replicating device for a magician. In Disney’s 2015 film Tomorrowland: A World Beyond, Tesla helps Thomas Edison, Gustave Eiffel , and Jules Verne discover a better future in an alternate dimension. And in the 2019 film The Current War, Tesla, played by Nicholas Hoult, squares off with Thomas Edison, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, in a history-based depiction of the war of the currents.

In 1917, Tesla was awarded the Edison Medal, the most coveted electrical prize in the United States, and in 1975, Tesla was inducted into the Inventor’s Hall of Fame. In 1983, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Tesla. Most recently, in 2003, a group of investors headed by engineer and futurist Elon Musk founded Tesla Motors, a company dedicated to producing the first car fittingly powered totally by Tesla’s obsession—electricity.

• Carlson, W. Bernard. “Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age.” Princeton University Press, 2015.
• Cheney, Margaret. “Tesla: Man Out of Time.” Simon & Schuster, 2001.
• O'Neill, John J. (1944). “Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla.” Cosimo Classics, 2006.
• Gunderman, Richard. “The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla.” Smithsonian.com , January 5, 2018, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/extraordinary-life-nikola-tesla-180967758/ .
• Tesla, Nikola. “Notebook from the Edison Machine Works: 1884-1885.” Tesla Universe, https://teslauniverse.com/nikola-tesla/books/nikola-tesla-notebook-edison-machine-works-1884-1885 .
• “The War of the Currents: AC vs. DC Power.” U.S. Department of Energy , https://www.energy.gov/articles/war-currents-ac-vs-dc-power .
• Cheney, Margaret. “Tesla: Master of Lightning.” MetroBooks, 2001.
• Dickerson, Kelly.“Wireless Electricity? How the Tesla Coil Works.” LiveScience , July 10, 2014, https://www.livescience.com/46745-how-tesla-coil-works.html .
• “About Nikola Tesla.” Tesla Society , https://web.archive.org/web/20120525133151/http:/www.teslasociety.org/about.html .
• O’Neill, John J. “Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla.” Cosimo Classics, 2006.
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The fascinating life of Nikola Tesla, the genius who electrified the world and dreamed up death rays

July 10 is the birthday of Nikola Tesla, who would have been 161 years old today.

It's a good time to celebrate the life of the Serbian-American engineer and physicist: Without Tesla, you might not be able to affordably power your home, let alone read this sentence.

Tesla filed more than 300 patents during his 86 years of life, and his inventions helped pave the way for alternating current (AC), electric motors, radios, fluorescent lights, lasers, and remote controls, among many other things.

Some of his ideas later in life, however, seem strange even now. He once described plans for a death ray, for example, and alluded to another idea for an impenetrable "wall of force" to block and destroy foreign invasions.

Here's a glimpse into the remarkable life of one of history's most important — and eccentric — geniuses.

Tanya Lewis wrote a previous version of this story.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan in the Austo-Hungarian Empire (modern-day Croatia).

His father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian Orthodox Priest and his mother, Djuka Mandic, was an inventor of household appliances.

Source: Tesla Society

In college, Tesla was initially interested in studying physics and mathematics, but soon became fascinated by electricity.

He attended the Realschule, Karlstadt in 1873, the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague. He took a job as an electrical engineer at a telephone company in Budapest in 1881.

He developed the concept of an induction motor while walking in a park with a friend.

Later, while he was in Strasbourg, France in 1883, he built a prototype of the induction motor (an AC motor powered by electromagnetic induction) and tested it successfully. Since he couldn't get anyone in Europe interested in it, Tesla came to the United States to work for Thomas Edison in New York.

Tesla's childhood dream was to harness the power of Niagara Falls.

In 1895, he designed the first hydroelectric power plant in the Falls, a major victory for alternating current. A statue was later erected on Goat Island in Tesla's honor.

For all his brilliance, Tesla was pretty eccentric. At one point, he stopped eating solid foods.

He ate honey, drank bowls of warm milk, and made a potion from vegetables like artichokes and celery.

Source: " The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla - Biography of a Genius "

He claimed he never slept for more than two hours at a time.

However, Tesla did admit to dozing off sometimes to "recharge his batteries." According to one report, he once worked for 84 hours without sleeping.

Source: " Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla "

In 1882, Tesla discovered the rotating magnetic field, a principle of physics that forms the basis for nearly all devices that use AC power.

He used this principle to construct the AC induction motor and polyphase system for the generation, transmission, distribution and use of electric power.

While Tesla was working in Thomas Edison’s lab in New Jersey, the two fought a 'war' with over the best form of electrical current.

Edison favored direct current or DC (which flows in one direction), while Tesla favored alternating current or AC (which changes direction periodically). This led to the "war of the currents," which Tesla eventually won because of AC's greater efficiency. 

Tesla also worked closely with industrialist and inventor George Westinghouse, and their partnership helped establish electricity across America.

Tesla wrote a classic paper called "A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers," in 1888, in which he introduced the concept of his motors and electrical systems. The work caught Westinghouse's attention, and they ended up partnering to work on bringing electricity to the rest of the country.

Tesla's AC-driven system  remains the world standard for delivering electricity today.

He also invented the Tesla coil, a device that is widely used today in radios, TV sets, and other electronics.

In 1891, Tesla developed an induction coil that produced high-frequency alternating currents, now known as the Tesla coil. He used it in experiments to produce electric lighting, X-rays, and wireless power, and it became the basis of radio and TV. Today, the coils are mostly used in educational displays and entertainment.

Source: PBS.org

Tesla patented the basic system of radio in 1896.

The invention of radio is often credited to  Guglielmo Marconi, who made the first transatlantic radio transmission in 1901. But Tesla developed patents for the basic elements of a radio transmitter that were later used by Marconi — a point that led the two into a court battle.

Source: Earlyradiohistory.us

Tesla also dreamed up two concepts that remained purely theoretical: the 'death ray' and an 'impenetrable wall of force' that'd ward off foreign invasions.

T he FBI kept a dossier on Tesla throughout his life in the US, but kept it classified until 2011, when the bureau publicly released  250 pages .  

In 1943, when Tesla died, electrical engineer and military technology researcher  John G. Trump  — who an  April 2016 New Yorker article  dubbed President Trump's "nuclear" uncle  — examined Tesla's effects for the FBI and reported his findings.

John Trump reportedly told the Bureau: "Tesla's 'thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character,' but 'did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.'"

Source: Business Insider

Through his life, Tesla never married, but he once claimed to love a pigeon.

Tesla used to take walks to the park to feed the pigeons. He developed an unusual relationship with a white pigeon that used to visit him every day.

" I loved that pigeon as a man loves a women, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life," Tesla reportedly said.

Source: Tesla Society  and Tesla Universe

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Famous Scientists

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American engineer and inventor who is highly regarded in energy history for his development of alternating current (AC) electrical systems. He also made extraordinary contributions in the fields of electromagnetism and wireless radio communications.

Early Life and Education:

Nikola Tesla was born in the Croatian town of Smiljan (Austrian Empire) on 10 July in 1856 to a priest father. He studied electrical engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz and later attended the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague. Unfortunately his father died early, and he had to leave the university after completing only one term.

Tesla accepted a job under Tivadar Puskás in a Budapest telegraph company in 1880. He was later promoted to chief electrician and later engineer for the company. He later moved to Paris to work for the Continental Edison Company as an engineer.

Contributions and Achievements:

After moving to New York, United States, Tesla worked for Thomas Alva Edison, but the two did not get along well. He started working with George Westinghouse in 1885. There, he devised an electrical distribution system that employed alternating current (AC).

Tesla made public the first successful wireless energy transfer to power electronic devices in 1891.

Probably Tesla’s most important contribution to energy history is the use of alternating current (AC). The Westinghouse Electric Company was the first to implement this technology by lighting the World Colombian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. It proved to be a more efficient and effective method compared to the direct current (DC) system of Edison, to transport electricity in a grid. The technology quickly became the basis for most modern electricity distribution systems. Besides the AC system, Tesla helped in the development of generators and turbine design. The earliest demonstration of fluorescent lighting was also his accomplishment.

Later Life and Death:

Nikola Tesla continued his research work on electricity generation and turbine design in his later life. Even at 81, he claimed to have completed a “dynamic theory of gravity” – something which was never published. He died in New York City of a heart thrombus on 7 January 1943. He was 86 years old.

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Nikola Tesla summary

Nikola Tesla , (born July 9/10, 1856, Smiljan, Lika, Austrian Empire [now in Croatia]—died Jan. 7, 1943, New York, N.Y., U.S.), Serbian U.S. inventor and researcher. He studied in Austria and Bohemia and worked in Paris before coming to the U.S. in 1884. He worked for Thomas Alva Edison and George Westinghouse but preferred independent research. His inventions made possible the production and distribution of alternating-current electric power. He invented an induction coil that is still widely used in radio technology, the Tesla coil (1891); his system was used by Westinghouse to light the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition. Tesla established an electric power station at Niagara Falls that delivered power to Buffalo, N.Y., by 1896. His research also included work on a carbon button lamp and on the power of electrical resonance. He discovered terrestrial stationary waves (1899–1900), proving that Earth is a conductor. Due to lack of funds, many of his ideas remained only in his notebooks, which are still examined by enthusiasts for inventive clues.

The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla

The eccentric inventor and modern Prometheus died 75 years ago, after a rags-to-riches to rags life

Richard Gunderman, The Conversation

Match the following figures – Albert Einstein, Thomas Edison, Guglielmo Marconi, Alfred Nobel and Nikola Tesla – with these biographical facts:

• Spoke eight languages
• Produced the first motor that ran on AC current
• Developed the underlying technology for wireless communication over long distances
• Held approximately 300 patents
• Claimed to have developed a “superweapon” that would end all war

The match for each, of course, is Tesla. Surprised? Most people have heard his name, but few know much about his place in modern science and technology .

The 75th anniversary of Tesla’s death on Jan. 7 provides a timely opportunity to review the life of a man who came from nowhere yet became world famous; claimed to be devoted solely to discovery but relished the role of a showman; attracted the attention of many women but never married; and generated ideas that transformed daily life and created multiple fortunes but died nearly penniless.

Early years

Tesla was born in Croatia on a summer night in 1856, during what he claimed was a lightning storm – which led the midwife to say, “He will be a child of the storm,” and his mother to counter prophetically, “No, of the light.”* As a student, Tesla displayed such remarkable abilities to calculate mathematical problems that teachers accused him of cheating. During his teen years, he fell seriously ill, recovering once his father abandoned his demand that Nikola become a priest and agreed he could attend engineering school instead.

Although an outstanding student, Tesla eventually withdrew from polytechnic school and ended up working for the  Continental Edison Company , where he focused on electrical lighting and motors. Wishing to meet Edison himself, Tesla immigrated to the U.S. in 1884, and he later claimed he was offered the sum of US$50,000 if he could solve a series of engineering problems Edison’s company faced. Having achieved the feat, Tesla said he was then told that the offer had just been a joke, and he left the company after six months.

Tesla then developed a relationship with two businessmen that led to the founding of  Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing . He filed a number of electrical patents, which he assigned to the company. When his partners decided that they wanted to focus strictly on supplying electricity, they took the company’s intellectual property and founded another firm, leaving Tesla with nothing.

Tesla reported that he then  worked as a ditch digger  for $2 a day, tortured by the sense that his great talent and education were going to waste.

Success as an inventor

In 1887, Tesla met two investors who agreed to back the formation of the Tesla Electric Company. He set up a laboratory in Manhattan, where he developed the  alternating current induction motor , which solved a number of technical problems that had bedeviled other designs. When Tesla demonstrated his device at an engineering meeting, the Westinghouse Company made arrangements to license the technology, providing an upfront payment and royalties on each horsepower generated.

The so-called “ War of the Currents ” was raging in the late 1880s. Thomas Edison promoted direct current, asserting that it was safer than AC. George Westinghouse backed AC, since it could transmit power over long distances. Because the two were undercutting each other’s prices, Westinghouse lacked capital. He explained the difficulty and asked Tesla to sell his patents to him for a single lump sum, to which Tesla agreed, forgoing what would have been a vast fortune had he held on to them.

With the  World’s Columbian Exposition  of 1893 looming in Chicago, Westinghouse asked Tesla to help supply power; they’d have a huge platform for demonstrating the merits of AC. Tesla helped the fair illuminate more light bulbs than could be found in the entire city of Chicago, and wowed audiences with a variety of wonders, including an electric light that required no wires. Later Tesla also helped Westinghouse win a contract to generate electrical power at  Niagara Falls , helping to build the first large-scale AC power plant in the world.

Challenges along the way

Tesla encountered many obstacles. In 1895, his Manhattan laboratory was devastated by a fire, which destroyed his notes and prototypes. At Madison Square Garden in 1898, he demonstrated  wireless control  of a boat, a stunt that many branded a hoax. Soon after he turned his attention to the wireless transmission of electric power. He believed that his system could not only distribute electricity around the globe but also provide for worldwide wireless communication.

Seeking to test his ideas, Tesla built a laboratory in  Colorado Springs . There he once drew so much power that he caused a regional power outage. He also detected signals that he claimed emanated from an extraterrestrial source. In 1901 Tesla persuaded J.P. Morgan to invest in the construction of a  tower on Long Island  that he believed would vindicate his plan to electrify the world. Yet Tesla’s dream did not materialize, and Morgan soon withdrew funding.

In 1909,  Marconi received the Nobel Prize  for the development of radio. In 1915, Tesla unsuccessfully sued Marconi, claiming infringement on his patents. That same year,  it was rumored  that Edison and Tesla would share the Nobel Prize, but it didn’t happen. Unsubstantiated speculation suggested their mutual animosity was the cause. However, Tesla did receive numerous honors and awards over his life, including, ironically, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers  Edison Medal .

A singular man

Tesla was a  remarkable person . He said that he had a photographic memory, which helped him memorize whole books and speak eight languages. He also claimed that many of his best ideas came to him in a flash, and that he saw detailed pictures of many of his inventions in his mind before he ever set about constructing prototypes. As a result, he didn’t initially prepare drawings and plans for many of his devices.

The 6-foot-2-inch Tesla cut a dashing figure and was popular with women, though he never married, claiming that his  celibacy played an important role in his creativity . Perhaps because of his nearly fatal illness as a teenager, he feared germs and practiced very strict hygiene, likely a barrier to the development of interpersonal relationships. He also exhibited unusual phobias, such as an aversion to pearls, which led him to refuse to speak to any woman wearing them.

Tesla held that his greatest ideas came to him in solitude. Yet he was no hermit, socializing with many of the most  famous people of his day  at elegant dinner parties he hosted. Mark Twain frequented his laboratory and promoted some of his inventions. Tesla enjoyed a reputation as not only a great engineer and inventor but also a philosopher, poet and connoisseur. On his 75th birthday he received a congratulatory letter from Einstein and was featured on the cover of Time magazine.

Tesla’s last years

In the popular imagination, Tesla played the part of a mad scientist . He claimed that he had developed a motor that ran on cosmic rays; that he was working on a new non-Einsteinian physics that would supply a new form of energy; that he had discovered a new technique for photographing thoughts; and that he had developed a new ray, alternately labeled the death ray and the peace ray, with vastly greater military potential than Nobel’s munitions.

His money long gone, Tesla spent his later years moving from place to place, leaving behind unpaid bills. Eventually, he settled in at a New York hotel, where his rent was paid by Westinghouse. Always living alone, he frequented the local park, where he was regularly seen feeding and tending to the pigeons , with which he claimed to share a special affinity. On the morning of Jan. 7, 1943, he was found dead in his room by a hotel maid at age 86.

Today the name Tesla is still very much in circulation. The airport in Belgrade bears his name, as does the world’s best-known electric car, and the magnetic field strength of MRI scanners is measured in Teslas. Tesla was a real-life Prometheus: the mythical Greek titan who raided heaven to bring fire to mankind, yet in punishment was chained to a rock where each day an eagle ate his liver. Tesla scaled great heights to bring lightning down to earth, yet his rare cast of mind and uncommon habits eventually led to his downfall, leaving him nearly penniless and alone.

*Editor's Note, August 29, 2019: This article has been updated to correct Tesla's birthplace. Though he was of Serbian ethnicity, he was born in present day Croatia.

Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University

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Nikola Tesla: Biography, Inventions & Quotes

Nikola Tesla is often called one of history’s most important inventors, one whose discoveries in the field of electricity were way ahead of his time and continue to influence technology today. Despite his accomplishments, however, Tesla died penniless and without the accolades that would he would ultimately earn over a century later.

The “genius who lit the world” is now commemorated with an electrical unit called the Tesla, has a place in the inventor’s hall of fame, streets, statues, and a prestigious engineer’s award in his name, but in life he wasn’t always so successful.

Brilliant scientist, terrible businessman

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in a town called Smiljan, today part of Croatia but then located within the borders of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His father was a priest and his mother, despite not having any formal education, tinkered in machinery and was known for having a spectacular memory.

Tesla’s career as an inventor began early; while working at the Central Telegraph Office in Budapest, at the age of just 26, he is reported to have first sketched out the principles for a rotating magnetic field — an important idea still used in many electromechanical devices. This major achievement laid the groundwork for many of his future inventions, including the alternating current motor and ultimately led him to New York City in 1884, lured by Thomas Edison and his groundbreaking engineering factory, Edison Machine Works.

It is often said that as brilliant a scientist as Tesla was, he was an equally terrible businessman, unable (or possibly unwilling) to see the commercial value behind his ideas. Thomas Edison was both an inventor and a business mogul focused on the bottom line, and he often clashed with Tesla over methods and ideology. It was also unlikely, perhaps, that two minds so brilliant could coexist in peace for very long and, indeed, Tesla quit Edison Machine Works only a year later.

Tesla’s creativity was given free rein at the new laboratory he established, Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing, where he experimented with early X-ray technology, electrical resonance, arc lamps and other ideas. Moves to Colorado and then back to New York coincided with other great scientific feats, including advances in turbine science, the installation of the first hydroelectric power station at Niagara Falls and, most importantly, the perfection of his alternating current system.

Through it all, the compulsive, eccentric and often sensational Tesla provided terrific sound bites for reporters, speaking frequently to the press about new, futuristic ideas up to a few years before his death, when he became a recluse. Tesla died in 1943, broke and alone in a New York City hotel room.

Tesla’s legacy has experienced a resurgence of sorts in recent years, thanks to a handful of supporters who have popularized his work in the media, in the hopes of having a Nikola Tesla science museum built on the grounds of a former laboratory on Long Island, New York.

Innumerable patents

The exact number of patents held by Tesla is disputed, as some likely remain undiscovered, historians believe. He is thought to be responsible for at least 300 inventions (many related to each other), in addition to countless unpatented ideas that he developed over the course of his career.

Alternating current

Perhaps Tesla’s most famous and important idea, alternating current (AC), was an answer to his old boss Edison’s inefficient — as Tesla put it — use of direct current (DC) in the new electric age. While DC power stations sent electricity flowing in one direction in a straight line, alternating currents change direction quickly, and could do so at a much higher voltage.

Indeed, Edison’s power lines that crisscrossed the Atlantic seaboard were short and weak due to DC, while AC was able to send electricity much farther afield. Though Thomas Edison had more resources and an established reputation, Tesla’s AC power grids eventually became the norm. Several dozen of Tesla’s patents were related to alternating current science.

The Tesla Coil

Since named for its inventor, this impressive machine transforms energy into extremely high voltage charges, creating powerful electrical fields capable of producing spectacular electrical arcs. Besides the lightning-bolt shows they can put on, Tesla Coils had very practical applications in wireless radio technology and some medical devices. Tesla experimented with his coils in the last years of the 19th century.

The true father of radio

Tesla tinkered with radio waves as early as 1892, debuting a radio wave-controlled boat in 1898 with great fanfare at an electrical exhibition at New York’s Madison Square Garden. Expanding on the technology, he patented more than a dozen ideas related to radio communication, before Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi leapt ahead of a financially unstable Tesla and completed the first transatlantic radio transmission (a bit of Morse code, sent from England to Newfoundland) on the back of Tesla’s science. Marconi and Tesla’s battle for intellectual recognition waged for decades before the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately revoked some of Marconi’s patents in 1943, restoring Tesla as the father of radio, at least legally.

Tesla quotes

“Money does not represent such a value as men have placed upon it. All my money has been invested into experiments with which I have made new discoveries enabling mankind to have a little easier life.” — "A Visit to Nikola Tesla" by Dragislav L. Petković in Politika (April 1927)

“The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of the planter — for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation for those who are to come, and point the way. He lives and labors and hopes.” — “Radio Power Will Revolutionize the World" in Modern Mechanics and Inventions (July 1934)

“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.” — “Radio Power Will Revolutionize the World" in Modern Mechanics and Inventions (July 1934)

Further reading:

• Tesla Memorial Society

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Nikola Tesla

We explore Nikola Tesla, his life and major contributions. In addition, we discuss his main characteristics, awards, and more.

Who was Nikola Tesla?

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-born engineer, scientist, and inventor , noted for his numerous contributions to the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He is regarded as a pioneering genius in numerous technology fields including electromechanical engineering, robotics, radar, computer science, ballistics, theoretical physics, and nuclear physics.

Tesla’s patents and his rigorous theoretical work laid the foundation for a great number of modern technological systems such as the alternating current polyphase system and the alternating current motor, key to the advent of the Industrial Revolution .

In recent times, Tesla's eccentric character and the story of his famous demonstration of radio communication have established him as a figure in popular culture, often at the center of conspiracy theories that attribute totally fallacious discoveries and research to him.

• See also: René Descartes

Biography of Nikola Tesla

Tesla was born in the Serbian village of Smiljan , in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, present-day Croatia. His parents were Milutin Tesla, a Christian Orthodox Church priest, and Duka Mandici, a housewife and self-taught scientist who developed home craft tools in her spare time.

The family moved to the town of Gospić in 1862 , where young Nikola began his education, completing it ahead of schedule thanks to his remarkable photographic memory.

During his childhood, he suffered from a strange disease that caused visual flashes and hallucinations , often triggered by ideas or as a solution to problems that had been posed to him.

In 1880, while in Budapest, he worked as chief electrician in a telegraph company, where he met a young Serbian inventor named Nebojša Petrović with whom he embarked on his early projects. He then traveled to Paris, joining one of Thomas Edison's companies, and later to New York, where he worked with the American genius himself.

Subsequent years of Nikola Tesla

In 1886, Tesla founded Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing . However, investors' disagreement over the development of an alternating current motor led to his expulsion from his own company.

Undeterred, in the following years he developed the greatest inventions of his life, working with George Westinghouse at the latter's company.

In 1891, Tesla became a naturalized United States citizen and set up his laboratory in New York City . A year later, he was granted his first patents, and was elected vice-president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE). This was the first of many laboratories and projects he would lead in the United States.

Personality of Nikola Tesla

Raised in the Orthodox Christian faith , Tesla held throughout his life true respect and an inclination towards other religions like Buddhism and Catholicism. His notes reflect an interest in finding common ground between science and religion, as well as a certain fascination to understand the unknown.

Tesla reportedly never drew plans of any kind, relying entirely on his memory instead . This played against him in his fight over patents for the invention of the radio, disputed with Guglielmo Marconi. Numerous other patents were taken away from him, since Tesla felt a deep contempt for legal and business matters.

He may have suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), which would account for his complete devotion to his projects, often to the extent of forgoing sleep when he felt most inspired. He is not known to have engaged in any relationship.

Major contributions of Nikola Tesla

Tesla's major contributions are associated with the following fields:

• Electromagnetism . Tesla's major work concerned the transmission of electrical power, the alternating current energy supply system, and wireless power transmission. He made pioneering achievements in the construction of alternating current motors, experiments with high-voltage, and electric field measurements.
• Radiation . He experimented with X-rays or Roentgen rays, but lost his notes on the subject in an 1895 laboratory fire. He later studied radio waves, and even designed devices to "listen" to space, with which he claimed to have detected signals of extraterrestrial origin.
• Physics of gases . The liquefaction of air was one of Tesla's objectives, as he knew from Lord Kelvin's experiments that this process could be used to absorb energy for cooling purposes.

Inventions and discoveries of Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla is officially credited with the following inventions:

• Wireless transmission of electrical energy, using electromagnetic waves.
• Alternating current.
• Directed energy weapons (an electricity-based "death ray" that was discarded by the United States government as too costly)
• The theoretical principles of radar.
• Spark plugs for electrical ignition engines.
• Direction finding.
• The "Tesla Coil", a resonant transformer.
• The remote control.
• The polyphase induction motor.
• The "Teslascope", an extraplanetary wave receiver.

Relationship with Thomas Edison

Tesla's relationship with Thomas Edison was fraught with tension. They worked together upon Tesla's arrival in the United States in 1884 , when he was charged with redesigning Edison's direct current generators for a promised $50,000 (equivalent to about $1.1 million today).

However, when the work was completed, Edison refused to pay Tesl a, on the grounds that the latter "did not understand American humor".

Tesla resigned shortly afterwards from Edison's company , and thus began a rivalry between the two scientists. The dispute became known as the "war of the currents", as Edison was a proponent of direct current while Tesla championed the superiority of alternating current.

Unknown inventions by Nikola Tesla

Tesla is credited with numerous secret or unknown inventions that were found in his laboratory after his death and confiscated by the United States government.

These include eccentric machines such as a UFO , and devices to extract electrical energy out of nothing, among other inventions. The first hydroelectric power plant is erroneously ascribed to him.

Nikola Tesla in popular culture

Tesla and his so peculiar life have been the subject of artistic portrayals in movies including The Secret of Nikola Tesla (1980), Tesla (1993, TV) , Tesla: Master of Lightning (2000), The Visionary (2005), Tesla's Engine (2015), and Tesla (2015). In addition, a documentary about his life, entitled "Tesla," was released in 2014.

Awards and recognition of Nikola Tesla

The only award Tesla received during his lifetime was, ironically, the Edison Medal, the highest distinction of the IEEE . Edison's intrigues and the injustice over the contested radio patent with Marconi twice deprived him of a Nobel Prize nomination in Physics.

Nevertheless, Tesla's name has been honored by the International System of Units that measures magnetic flux density (tesla), a lunar crater has been named after him, as well as a minor planet (2244 Tesla). In addition, the most prestigious award for the popularization of science in the Spanish-speaking world bears his name.

Death of Nikola Tesla

Tesla died in the United States, at the Wyndham New Yorker Hotel, on January 7, 1943.

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Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a well-known Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, and mechanical engineer who was awarded about 300 patents for his inventions. He was born in Smiljan, Croatia on July 10, 1856. Tesla’s mother, Duka, was an early inspiration to him as she invented small household appliances during his childhood. Tesla clearly inherited his mother’s inventive spirit, as he went on to develop some of the most important inventions in history, such as alternating current (AC) electricity and the Tesla Coil. 

Growing up, Tesla studied in various places in Europe including Germany, Austria, and Prague. In the late 1870s, he had the opportunity to go to Budapest where he worked at the Telephone Exchange. While in Budapest he made improvements to some inventions and came up with his idea for the induction motor, which produced an alternating current system and used electromagnetic induction from the magnetic field, instead of electrical connections to the rotor. He later tried to gain attention for his proposed invention but didn’t gain any recognition. At age 28, in 1884, he decided to move to the U.S. where there were more opportunities. While in the U.S. Tesla met Thomas Edison and worked alongside him for a couple of months. When Edison refused to pay Tesla for his work, Tesla decided to leave and pursue his own journey as an inventor. 

In 1887, Tesla received funding to start a company from American entrepreneur George Westinghouse. Tesla was able to finalize his induction motor to compete against Edison’s direct current system. Tesla’s motor was certainly an asset during the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century as it was found to be more durable, cheaper, and more efficient than his competitors. Tesla licensed his invention to the Westinghouse Company in 1888. In 1893, Tesla achieved a milestone at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. This exposition was the turning point for public acceptance of alternating current as it dispelled the public’s doubts about the safety and reliability of alternating current. . The exposition demonstrated that alternating current could run smoothly and it later became the main standard for power systems.  

In 1895, Tesla’s lab burned down in New York, which destroyed most of his work including notes, designs, patents and inventions. After the trauma of losing everything, Tesla moved to Colorado Springs. During this time, Tesla thought of the idea of a world-wireless-network for communication. He was able to network with J.P. Morgan, a wealthy financier, and together they set up a laboratory back in Long Island, New York. 

In 1901 another famous inventor, Guglielmo Marconi, transmitted Morse code from England to Canada, but Tesla believed that Marconi stole some of his world-wireless-network ideas. The following year, Tesla proposed a different angle of communication and came up with the “World Telegraphy System,” in which he envisioned transmitting stations would collect and broadcast news stories through individual receivers. However, this early idea of radio was shut down and Tesla lost the funding from J.P. Morgan that supported his lab because his idea didn’t seem feasible. Investors started to favor Marconi because of his previous success and began funding him instead. 

Tesla’s last living years were spent in poverty until he died on January 7, 1943. Six months after his death, the United States Supreme Court awarded the patent of radio back to Tesla. The reason for why the U.S. revoked Tesla’s patent for radio in the first place is debated, but many assume it is because of Marconi’s robust financial backing. .  Although the last of Tesla’s years were tragic, he is remembered as an accomplished inventor who made significant advancements in the world of communication, electricity, and manufacturing. 

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Nikola Tesla

Introduction.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 9 or 10, 1856, in Smiljan, Austria-Hungary (now Croatia). His parents were Serbian. Nikola was an excellent student who easily memorized books and solved math problems. He studied electricity in college.

In 1880 Tesla graduated from the University of Prague. In 1882 Tesla discovered a type of current, or flow of electricity. It was different from the type being used in the world’s first two electric power stations, which opened that year. Both stations used direct current (DC), which could not change direction. However, Tesla’s alternating current (AC) could. Tesla built his first AC motor in 1883.

In 1884 Tesla moved to the United States. He worked for the renowned inventor Thomas Edison . Unlike Tesla, Edison preferred DC to AC. After two years Tesla left Edison’s laboratory.

In 1887 Tesla opened a laboratory in New York City. The next year he sold his AC idea to George Westinghouse, head of Westinghouse Electric Company. By 1891 he had invented the Tesla coil, which was widely used for many years in radios, television sets, and other electronic equipment. Tesla became a U.S. citizen in 1891.

In 1893 AC power was used to light the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. People started to agree that AC worked better than DC over distances. By 1896 Tesla and Westinghouse had constructed an AC power station that was driven by the energy of Niagara Falls.

Tesla died in New York City on January 7, 1943. The Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia, was founded in his honor.

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• About Tesla

Biography of Nikola Tesla

Nikola tesla biography.

Already at an early age, Tesla shows insight and ambition. There is an anecdote from his life related to his first sight of Niagara Falls, where he announced to his uncle Josip that one day, he would put a big wheel there and use the potential of the falls. This was his childhood dream.

Tesla started school in Smiljan, where he learned German, mathematics, and religion. After moving to Gospic, he carried forward with elementary school finishing Preparatory Elementary School and Lower Real Gymnasium. From Gospic, he left for Rakovac, located near Karlovac, and finished Higher Real Gymnasium.

When Tesla completed high school, he avoided forced enlistment in an ongoing war, and went to study physics and other disciplines at the Polytechnic School in Graz, located south of Vienna. However, he did not stay to complete his degree. Still, he later enrolled at the University of Prague, where he advanced his knowledge of wave mechanics (and indirectly AC), working with Professor Ernst Mach.

After his studies, Tesla began his career as an electrical engineer with a telephone company in Budapest in 1881. Tinkering with equipment as a telephone line repairman, he created a kind of amplifier, a forerunner of loudspeakers, which he never filed as his own patent.

Tesla started to work in Edison’s lab in New Jersey, where he began to improve Edison’s line of dynamos. This is the point where his divergence of opinion with Edison over direct current versus alternating current began. Due to disagreements with Edison, he decides to found his own company.

In 1885, he founded a company called the Tesla Electric and Manufacturing Company, which went bankrupt a year later. After that, Tesla is forced to finance himself through hard manual work. Two years later, he founded a new company called Tesla Electric Company. That same year, 1887, Tesla decided to register his patents, which included a multi-phase electric power transmission motor system, an induction motor, generators and transformers. A year later, in partnership with George Westinghouse, Tesla sold his alternating current patents for $1 million (some sources claim he received only $60,000).

After going to Europe and visiting Lika, Tesla's birthplace, in 1890, he began researching high-frequency current, where after a year, he constructed the first transformer, the so-called Tesla coil. In 1892, he returned to Lika for his mother's funeral.

In 1896 the first hydroelectric plant was commissioned at the foot of Niagara Falls and used Tesla's alternating current patents. In 1899, Tesla built an experimental station in Colorado Springs to experiment with high voltage, high-frequency electricity and other phenomena. There he worked for one year, and after that, he moved to Long Island, where he never had a chance to finish his research on wireless transmission of electricity because J.P. Morgan stopped to finance him.

From 1910 to 1922, Tesla continued with his engineering inventions, where 1919, Tesla's autobiography „My inventions” was first published. He was awarded the Edison medal in 1917 and, in 1926, received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zagreb. In 1937 he earned two honorary doctorates from the Polytechnic University in Graz and the University of Paris.

Tesla spent his life in hotels, and he lived in the Hotel New Yorker for the last ten years. He died there on January 7th, 1943, in his apartment on the 33rd floor. A state funeral was held at St. John the Divine Cathedral in New York City. He was cremated, and his ashes were interned in a golden sphere, Tesla’s favorite shape, which was handed over to the Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

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Nikola Tesla – Complete Biography, History, and Inventions

Updated: April 16, 2024 by History Computer Staff | Leave a comment

Who was Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856; he was a Serbian-American engineer and scientist who produced hundreds of discoveries in generating, transmitting, and using electric power. He pioneered AC generation and transmission technologies and built the first alternating current (AC) motor.

Quick Facts

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Ieee edison medal, elliott cresson medal.

He also invented the three-phase electric power transmission system. Tesla moved to the United States and sold George Westinghouse the patent rights to his system of alternating-current dynamos, motors, and transformers in 1884. He created the Tesla coil, an induction coil that is widely utilized in radio technology, in 1891.

Tesla was born in Croatia in 1856; his father, Milutin, was a Serbian Orthodox priest, and his mother used to manage the family farm. Tesla’s brother Daniel died in a riding accident in 1863. Tesla, who was 7 years old, was shaken by the loss and claimed seeing visions, the earliest indicators of his chronic mental problems.

He displayed obsessiveness that perplexed and amused many around him from an early age. He can remember entire books and keep logarithmic tables in his head. He quickly took up languages and could work for days and nights on only a few hours of sleep.

Tesla attended the Technical University of Graz, where he studied math and physics, and the University of Prague, where he studied philosophy. Tesla came up with the invention of a brushless AC motor while walking in the sand of the route in 1882. He drew the first designs of its whirling electromagnets in the sand.

Continental Edison Company

Later that year, he relocated to Paris and worked for the Continental Edison Company, fixing direct current (DC) power facilities. He came to the United States two years later.

Thomas Edison’s Manhattan Headquarters

Tesla came to New York in 1884, where he was hired as an engineer at Thomas Edison’s Manhattan headquarters. Tesla stayed there for a year, impressing Edison with his diligence and ingenuity.

Alternating Current Research

Tesla attempted to initiate his own Tesla Electric Light Company, but it went unsuccessful. Later on, Tesla was able to get funding for his research on alternating current. Tesla received more than 30 patents for his innovations in 1887 and 1888 and was asked to speak to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers about his work.

Westinghouse

George Westinghouse, the inventor who had built the first AC power system in Boston and was Edison’s main adversary in the “Battle of the Currents,” was drawn to Tesla’s talk.

Tesla was employed by Westinghouse, who licensed his AC motor patents and provided him with his laboratory. In 1890, Edison staged the execution of a convicted New York murderer in an AC-powered electric chair to demonstrate the dangers of the Westinghouse standard.

What Did Nikola Tesla Invent?

Tesla made numerous inventions throughout his life.

A Tesla coil is an invention made by Nikola Tesla in 1891. A resonant electrical transformer circuit was used to generate alternating-current energy with a high voltage, low current, and high frequency.

It is a signaling and communication technology that uses radio waves. Electromagnetic waves with a frequency of 30 hertz to 300 gigahertzes are known as radio waves.

Induction Motor

It is a motor that uses electromagnetic induction. In an induction motor, also known as an asynchronous motor, the electric current in the rotor necessary to create torque is generated by electromagnetic induction from the magnetic field of the stator winding.

Wardenclyffe Tower 

Tesla proposed a scheme that must have sounded like science fiction: a world system of wireless communications to relay telephone messages across the ocean; to broadcast news, stock market reports, private and military messages and communications, and even pictures and music to any part of the world. When wireless is fully applied the earth will be converted into a huge brain, capable of response in every one of its parts.

Tesla asked Morgan for the money he needed to start his project, but Morgan turned him down. Then Tesla offered him 51% of the patent rights to his inventions for $150000 and Morgan accepted. It seems, however, in spite of what Tesla told Morgan, his actual plan was to make a large-scale demonstration of electrical power transmission without wires, and this turned out to be a fatal mistake.

By 1901 the so-called Wardenclyffe project was well under construction, the most challenging task being the erection of an enormous tower, rising over 60 meters in the air and supporting on its top a 55 ton steel sphere. Beneath the tower, a well-like shaft plunged 40 meters into the ground, and 16 iron pipes were driven 90 meters deeper so that currents could pass through them and seize hold of the earth. As Tesla explained— In this system that I have invented, it is necessary for the machine to get a grip of the earth, otherwise it cannot shake the earth. It has to have a grip… so that the whole of this globe can quiver.

As Wardenclyffe tower construction slowly increased, it became evident that more money were needed. Tesla pleaded with Morgan for more financial support, but he refused. To make matters worse, the stock market crashed and prices for the tower’s materials doubled. High prices combined with Tesla’s inability to find enough willing investors eventually led to the demise of the project in 1905, after some amazing electrical displays.

Nikola Tesla: Marriage, Divorce, Children, and Personal Life

While his contemporaries prospered well, Tesla died pennilessly. Yet, at his death, he had a net worth of $1,000.

Tesla never married throughout his life, although he allegedly claimed to have been in love with a pigeon. Tesla liked to feed the pigeons at the park during his walks. He formed an odd bond with a white pigeon who used to pay him daily visits. “I adored the pigeon in the same way as a man adores a woman, and she adored me.”

On January 7, 1943, a maid at the New Yorker Hotel entered room 3327 and discovered a dead Tesla at the age of 86 years. He had spent the previous decade at the hotel. Tesla was alone and destitute when he died. He was preoccupied with feeding the pigeons outdoors and lived on warm milk and crackers. It was later given that he died of coronary thrombosis.

In January 1943, Tesla died in New York City. Following his death, Tesla’s work faded into obscurity until 1960, when the General Conference on Weights and Measures declared Tesla the SI unit of magnetic flux density in his honor.

Nikola Tesla: Awards and Achievements

Nikola Tesla was awarded many awards throughout his life.

Tesla was awarded this award in 1934.

Nikola Tesla, a former Edison adversary, received the Edison Medal in 1917 to create polyphase and high-frequency electric currents.

The Franklin Institute awarded Nikola Tesla the Elliott Cresson Medal in 1894.

Nikola Tesla: Published Works and Books 

Tesla published several books as well as essays in periodicals and journals. The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla, gathered and edited by David Hatcher Childress, and The Tesla Papers are only a few of his works.

Ben Johnston gathered and edited My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla , a book that details Nikola Tesla’s work. The content was mostly based on Nikola Tesla’s series of essays for Electrical Experimenter magazine, which he wrote when he was 63 years old in 1919.

Other books include;

A New System of Alternate Current Motors and Transformers, Phenomena of Alternating Currents of Very High Frequency, On Light and Other High-Frequency Phenomena, and Experiments with Alternate Currents of High Potential and High Frequency, etc.

Nikola Tesla Quotes

Following are the famous quotes of Nikola Tesla:

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency, and vibration.”

“I don’t care that they stole my idea. I care that they don’t have any of their own”

“Of all things, I liked books best.”

“The scientists of today think deeply instead of clearly. One must be sane to think clearly, but one can think deeply and be quite insane.”

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Frequently Asked Questions

Who was Nikola Tesla?

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor and engineer who developed the rotating magnetic field, the foundation of most alternating-current machines. He also invented the three-phase electric power transmission system.

What did Nikola Tesla invent?

He developed AC generation and transmission technology and invented the first alternating current (AC) motor.

How did Nikola Tesla invent the rotating magnetic field?

Tesla recited the Faust in Budapest, he discovered the rotating magnetic field which is the heart of his induction motor and alternating current electricity.

When was Nikola Tesla born?

Nikola Tesla was born on July 9, 1856, in Smiljan, Austrian Empire.

When did Nikola Tesla die?

Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943, in New York City.

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Nikola Tesla

Amongst many inventors throughout the history of science, one of the most prominent inventors was Nikola Tesla. Nikola Tesla was an inventor, an electrical engineer and a mechanical engineer. Nikola Tesla was also a Serbian-American Engineer who was highly regarded for his achievements in energy for the advancement and growth of Alternating Current (AC) in electrical systems. He also provided his extraordinary contributions to electromagnetism and wireless radio communications.

Table of Contents

Introduction of nikola tesla, nikola tesla’s education, awards and achievements, contribution in alternating currents (ac).

• Tesla Turbine

Nikola Tesla was a mastermind inventor who shaped some ground-breaking inventions. He was an engineer who was awarded about 300 patents for his innovations in history. He also collaborated with many prominent names and companies in history.

Nikola Tesla was born on 10th July in 1856 to a priest father in the Croatian town of Smiljan (Austrian Empire).

Tesla’s inventions constitute significant technological breakthroughs throughout his lifetime. He invented the widely used Tesla coil and induction coil in radio technology. This math and physics genius made a substantial impact on our daily lives through his important innovations.

Tesla studied at several places in Europe, which also included Germany, Austria, and Prague. At the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, he pursued electrical engineering, and later, joined the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague.

He had the opportunity to go to Budapest in the late 1870s, where he worked at the Telephone Exchange. He made enhancements to some inventions and came up with an idea for the induction motor, which produced an alternating current system, and used electromagnetic induction from the magnetic field instead of electrical connections to the rotor.

At age 28, in 1884, he decided to move to the U.S., in search of more opportunities. Tesla met Thomas Edison in the U.S. Tesla worked alongside him for a couple of months. When Edison declined to pay Tesla for his work, Tesla decided to quit and pursue his journey as an inventor.

Tesla’s legacy holds nine decorations with certificates of honours with which the scientist was decorated between 1892 and 1939.

Nikola Tesla’s best-known invention was Alternating Current . AC power permits electricity to be sent over extended distances much more efficiently.

Tesla’s AC patents were accepted by Westinghouse and used for the lighting of the Chicago World’s Fair. Tesla’s apparent essential skill for invention and profound imagination made him one of the most prolific inventors of our times. Clearly, his genius was unmatched in his time and perhaps ours.

Perhaps the most well-known symbol of Tesla’s work is the Tesla coil. It is a transformer that produces high-voltage, low-current, high-frequency alternating-current electricity.

A Tesla coil comprises a primary coil and secondary coil, each coil with its own capacitor to store electrical energy. A spark gap links both the coils and capacitors. The system is powered by a high-voltage source. As the current flows out of the capacitor down the primary coil, a magnetic field is created.

This field breaks down quickly and produces an electric current in the secondary coil. The subsequent high-frequency voltage can lighten fluorescent bulbs several feet away with no wire connection.

Watch Video :Charging By Induction

Tesla revealed that he could use his coils to transmit and receive powerful radio signals before his lab burned down. Tuning those radio signals to resonate at the same frequency radio signals could be sent and received. He was ready to convey a signal 50 miles from his lab to West Point, New York, by early 1895. But the fire in Tesla’s lab demolished his work.

Guglielmo Marconi (inventor of the wireless telegraph system) established long-distance demonstrations in the future, and he used a Tesla oscillator to spread the signals across the English Channel.

Tesla Turbine and Induction Motor

As a way to make a change in the world, Tesla saw the growth of piston engines in the automobile industry. Therefore, Tesla developed his own turbine engine that used the combustion process to rotate the disks.

With 90% of fuel efficiency, this engine was a significant achievement.

Also, Nikola Tesla and Galileo Ferraris independently invented the first AC commutator-free three-phase induction motor in 1885, and it was Tesla who filed for a patent first. This type of motor is generally used in vacuums, blow dryers, and power tools, even today.

Frequently Asked Questions

Define alternating current..

Alternating current is an electric current that periodically reverses direction, in contrast to DC which flows in only one direction.

Where is Nikola Tesla Tower located?

Shoreham, Long Island, Newyork

Nikola Tesla was most famous for which inventions?

Tesla Coil, Alternating Current (AC) and discovery of rotating magnetic field.

What is a Tesla Coil?

A form of Induction coil used for producing high-frequency alternating currents.

Which principle is responsible for the working of induction motor?

Electromagnetic Induction.

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