Nikola Tesla

Birth & Early Life

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10,1856 in Smiljian, Lika, then part of Croatia, a region in the Austo-Hungrarian
Empire.
Tesla studied at several institutions of higher learning including the Polytechnic institute in Graz, Austria, and
the University of Prague.
Tesla had originally planned on studying Physics and Mathematics, but found himself fascinated with
Electricity.
Tesla first started his career with a telephone company in Budapest, in 1881. He was an Electrical Engineer.

Edison Company & Early Career
In the early 1880s Tesla joined the Continental Edison Company in Paris.
Thomas Edison offered Nikola Tesla an opportunity to work for Edison himself in New York.
Tesla came to the united states in 1884.
Tesla and Edison had two differing views on Electric Current, Edison was in favor of Direct Current (DC), and
Tesla in favor of Alternating Current (AC).

Working with Westinghouse
Tesla had designed and held 40 patents on generators, motors, and transformers, all developed for the AC
system.
In 1882 Tesla created the Induction motor, based off his recently discovered Rotating Magnetic Field
principle. The Induction motor is used throughout the world today, in both industrial and home settings.
In 1893 Tesla demonstrated his work on Alternating Current at the World Columbian Expo in Chicago. This
lead to AC power beating DC power, and being the standard used across the globe, and it is still in use today.

Teslas Notable work
Tesla held a patent for the basic system of radio, which was later used, along with Teslas schematics, by
Marconi when he created his radio. The US Supreme Court found Marconis most important patent invalid,
citing Tesla as the inventor of radio technology.
Tesla released photos of a man taken with X-Rays in the Electrical Review at the same time as Roentgen
announced his discovery of X-Ray technology.
The Tesla Coil may be his most notable work, a Tesla coil creates an extremely powerful Magnetic Field,
and has been shown to wirelessly light up Florescent lights from 50 feet away.

Colorado Springs
While in Colorado Springs, Tesla discovered what he would say was his most important discovery. Terrestrial
Stationary Waves. This discovery meant that the Earth could be Used as a conductor and would be as
responsive as a tuning fork to certain frequencies of electrical vibrations.
Using this technology, Tesla was able to light 200 lamps without wires from 25 miles away.
He also created man-made lightning, using this same technology.



Death
Tesla Died on January 7
th
, 1943, in his room at the Hotel New Yorker, where he had stayed for ten years.
Over 2000 people attended his funeral at the St. John divine cathedral in New York. Most Notably Eleanor
Roosevelt, Vice President Henry Wallace, and with several Nobel Laureautes.
He was Cremated, and his ashes placed in a Golden Sphere, which was Teslas favorite shape. His ashes are
permanently on display in the Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

Legacy
Tesla has been recognized in numerous ways since his death
Elected into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 1975
The Institute of Electrical Engineers created the Nikola Tesla Award, which is one of its most distinguished
honors.
A Tesla is now an international Magnetic Density measurement.
Tesla Motors was named in honor of Nikola Tesla and everything he did for engineering and science, namely
for developing the Induction motor, which is used in every Tesla car.