nikola tesla biography and inventions

Nikola Tesla

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

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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

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.

HISTORY Vault: The Tesla Files

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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.
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• 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 .
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• O’Neill, John J. “Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla.” Cosimo Classics, 2006.
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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 – The Genius Who Lit the World and Saw the Future

• by history tools
• November 19, 2023

Nikola Tesla was one of the most forward-thinking inventors and engineers in history whose pioneering work with electricity literally lit up the modern world. Though underappreciated in his own time, Tesla created hundreds of groundbreaking innovations that fundamentally advanced technology and changed the course of history. This complete biography explores Tesla’s storied life, brilliant vision, and lasting impact.

Introduction to the Master of Electricity

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia and displayed astonishing mental abilities and imagination from an early age. His lifelong passion for energy and electricity was evident even as a child when he created his own tiny waterwheels and turbines. Tesla went on to study math, physics, and mechanics in his teen years at advanced schools in Austria and Germany, showing great promise. After graduating, he worked with Thomas Edison on DC power projects for a period but soon struck out on his own to champion AC electricity instead.

Tesla constructed his first AC motors in the late 1880s and partnered with George Westinghouse to commercialize AC power. This set the stage for an epic technology battle against Edison called the “War of the Currents” which Tesla and Westinghouse ultimately won, ensuring AC became the global standard. Throughout his life, Tesla discovered groundbreaking electrical innovations that form the basis of modern power and communication systems. Though he died in obscurity, Tesla‘s inventionsUNDOUBTEDLY constituted some of the most important technological advances in history.

Early Life and Education – The Making of a Genius

Childhood of creativity and tragedy.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10th, 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia. His father, Milutin Tesla, was a priest in the Serbian Orthodox church and his mother Djuka Mandic was a homemaker and amateur inventor who created household appliances to help with daily tasks. Tesla inherited much of his inventive spirit from his mother. Tesla was one of five children, though his older brother died tragically in an accident when Nikola was five years old. The loss deeply impacted him and shaped his obsessive and eccentric personality later in life.

As a child, Tesla displayed astonishing creativity and visualization abilities. He could supposedly perform complex mathematical equations entirely in his mind without writing them down. Young Tesla was also captivated by thunderstorms and lightning. He made sketches of inventions like turbines and engines, even constructing a tiny waterwheel as a boy by observing the local river. His interests foreshadowed his future passion for electricity and engineering.

Immersive Education Shapes a Visionary Mind

In 1870, Tesla attended the Austrian Polytechnic School in Graz on an academic scholarship where he studied physics, mechanics, and mathematics. There, Tesla became fascinated with the Gramme dynamo which generated direct current electricity while also exploring fields like electrical engineering before they were widely taught. In his second year, Tesla stopped attending lectures and studied independently instead, astonishing professors with his brilliance but also worrying them with his unusual study habits and solitary nature.

After leaving Graz without a degree in 1878, Tesla contracted cholera and seemingly had intense visions during his recovery where he claimed to have unlocked the secrets of alternating current in a moment of insight. The following year, he attended the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague deepening his education even further and receiving a degree in physics in 1882. Tesla’s academic efforts clearly shaped his boundary-pushing innovations down the line.

Early Career – Harnessing the Magic of Electricity

Fresh out of school in 1882, Tesla began working for the Continental Edison Company in Paris. He focused on improving direct current generators and motors. At the time, Edison’s DC system was the only existing power system. After two years, Tesla departed for America to meet Edison himself and share his ideas.

Working With his Hero-turned-Rival, Edison

In 1884, Tesla arrived in New York and was hired to work directly for Thomas Edison. The two inventors got along well initially, and Edison was impressed by Tesla‘s skill. But things began deteriorating as Tesla pushed for more pay and Edison denied him. Edison reportedly offered $50,000 if Tesla could improve his inefficient direct current dynamos. Tesla succeeded but Edison dismissed the offer as a joke, causing bad blood between them.

Tesla left Edison‘s company after just one year of service. But this marked the start of Tesla’s pioneering research into alternating current electricity which would become his claim to fame. The messy split also sparked an intense rivalry with Edison that would culminate in the War of the Currents.

Discovering Alternating Current

In 1885, Tesla secured funding for his own startup focused on arc lighting systems and began developing his own AC motors and transformers. While working with high frequency alternators, he rediscovered the rotating magnetic field principle that essentially forms the basis of AC machinery today.

Tesla acquired several patents for AC motors, generators, and transformers in 1887-1888. His innovations relied on polyphase alternating currents rather than direct currents to distribute power more efficiently over long distances. Tesla gave acclaimed lectures to engineers describing the advantages of AC over DC. His ideas quickly caught the attention of American entrepreneur George Westinghouse.

Winning the War of the Currents – AC vs DC

George Westinghouse recognized the merits of Tesla’s AC approach and purchased his polyphase system patents in 1888 which included AC motors and transformers. This decision set the stage for a battle over the future of electricity between Westinghouse backing AC and Thomas Edison promoting DC. The stakes were enormous given the two incompatible electrical standards.

Edison wielded his broad patents and influence to block adoption of AC as much as possible, even staging public stunts to portray AC as dangerous. But thanks to Tesla’s innovations, Westinghouse prevailed when AC was chosen to power the Chicago World Fair of 1893 illuminating over 200,000 lightbulbs. Niagara Falls also chose AC to generate their groundbreaking hydroelectric plant in 1895. AC proved capable of transmitting power over vastly greater distances than DC which required power stations every mile.

This victory by Westinghouse demonstrated the superiority of AC power which was quickly adopted as the standard. To this day, our homes and cities are powered by Tesla‘s polyphase AC system showing its profound impact. Tesla‘s innovations literally electrified the modern world.

Trailblazing Inventions – Fueling the Future

In addition to revolutionizing electric power, Tesla discovered countless groundbreaking inventions over his lifetime that changed the future of technology and paved the way for modern wireless communication.

Radio and Wireless Communication

Tesla is credited by many to have been the first person to transmit and receive radio signals when he demonstrated a radio-controlled boat in 1898. While Guglielmo Marconi won the Nobel Prize for radio in 1909, Tesla had developed the underlying principles two years earlier. Tesla predicted the coming age of wireless communication, stating:

“As I review the events of my past life I realize how subtle are the influences that shape our destinies…we can never fathom the marvellous complexity of the causes behind the daily incidents that pass before our eyes and their altered relationships.” (Tesla 1926)

Tesla also patented various fundamental radio circuits between 1896-1900 that formed the basis for modern radio engineering. Though Marconi is often viewed as the inventor of radio, clearly Tesla‘s groundwork was pivotal.

Remote Control

In 1898 at Madison Square Garden, Tesla demonstrated a boat controlled wirelessly using radio-like technology to the amazement of crowds. This was one of the earliest implementations of remote control technology. Tesla described the system as being wireless like “invisible waves” and foresaw remote control being used in all kinds of mechanical devices and vehicles in the future.

Working with high voltage electricity and vacuum tubes, Tesla created some of the first X-ray images in 1895. They were produced earlier than Wilhelm Röntgen’s discovery of X-rays which garnered him the first Nobel Prize in Physics. Though Tesla did not win that prize, his innovations contributed to the field.

Electric Motors

Tesla invented the first AC induction motor in 1883 exploiting rotating magnetic fields generated by alternating current. Induction motors are brushless motors that provide high efficiency and operational speeds. They are the most common type of AC motors in use today powering appliances, tools, conveyors, and more.

Neon Lights

While investigating gases, Tesla created fluorescent light bulbs that lit up when electricity passed through them. This discovery led to the development of neon signs and lighting. Tesla‘s innovations literally brightened up the world.

Laser Vision

Tesla proposed using high voltage electricity and tiny metal particles to produce beams of concentrated light. Essentially, he had envisioned laser technology before the first working laser was invented in 1960. This showed Tesla’s thinking was decades ahead of his time.

A Futurist Stalled by Business Failures

In addition to his AC system and visionary inventions, Tesla conceived of even more ambitious plans that were simply impossible with the technology of his era. He envisioned worldwide wireless transmission of electricity essentially turning the earth into a giant conductor. In 1901, he began constructing his Wardenclyffe Tower facility on Long Island to demonstrate wireless power transmission on a large scale and provide telecommunications. But unable to secure adequate funding from industrialists like J.P Morgan, Tesla had to abandon the unfinished project in 1905.

Tesla articulated many forward-thinking concepts like wireless networks, self-driving vehicles, smart homes, and AI. But his poor business skills and inability to gain investors meant many of these revolutionary technologies could only be realized later by others. While a brilliant scientist, Tesla lacked the entrepreneurial abilities of businessmen like Edison or Westinghouse to commercialize his ideas. Tesla lived the final decade of his life in poverty relying on the kindness of friends until passing in 1943.

Legacy – Illuminating the Modern Age

Though Tesla‘s pioneering technologies were not always recognized during his lifetime, his inventions legitimately transformed the world and remain integral to our electrical infrastructure today. He was a pivotal figure whose work ranks among the most important innovations in history. Tesla undisputably provided the key infrastructure enabling modern society to flourish. He electrified the world and saw the future more clearly than almost anyone.

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Biography Online

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

Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age at Amazon

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.

External pages

• Tesla Museum

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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The History Hit Miscellany of Facts, Figures and Fascinating Finds

• 20th Century

Nikola Tesla’s Most Important Inventions

Harry Atkins

17 mar 2022.

Even among the many great and innovative minds of the late 19 th century, Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American inventor who discovered the rotating magnetic field, stands apart for the sheer scale of his contribution to science.

Over the course of his extraordinarily prolific life, Tesla filed at least 278 patents. Here is a modest selection of his most noteworthy inventions .

1. Tesla coil

Probably Tesla’s most famous invention and certainly one of his most spectacular, the Tesla coil was a product of his ambition to create a system that could transmit electricity wirelessly.

The system consists of two parts – a primary and secondary coil, both of which have their own capacitator (which stores electrical energy, like a battery). The primary coil is hooked up to a power source from which it receives a massive charge, to the point that the charge breaks the air resistance in the space between the two coils (known as the spark gap). This creates a magnetic field that soon collapses, generating an electric current in the secondary coil. Sparking voltage zips between the two coils several hundred times a second, charging the secondary coil’s capacitator until it bursts free in a spectacular bolt of electrical current.

The Tesla Coil has limited practical use, but it transformed our understanding of electricity and many of the 20th century’s most important electrical innovations – including TVs and radios – continue to employ similar technologies.

The Tesla coil in action at Nikola Tesla’s Colorado Springs laboratory, December 1899.

Image Credit: Nikola Tesla via Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain

2. Tesla turbine

Inspired by the emergent success of the piston engine in automobiles, Tesla decided to develop his own turbine-style engine. Also known as the boundary-layer turbine and cohesion-type turbine, Tesla’s turbine was distinct in its design. Unlike conventional turbines Tesla’s design was bladeless, instead employing smooth discs rotating in a chamber to generate movement.

Tesla’s cutting-edge turbine engine never really caught on, even though it offered clear advantages over the conventional turbine. Its design was not only adaptable and cheaper to produce than blade turbines, but it was also impressively efficient, delivering 3,600 rpm and generating 675 horsepower.

You’re probably thinking hang on a minute didn’t Guglielmo Marconi famously invent radio? Well, it turns out that Marconi’s claim is at least debatable. In fact, using his coils, Tesla made promising advances in the transmission and reception of radio signals in the mid-1890s, before Marconi took out the first wireless telegraphy patent in 1896.

In early 1895 Tesla was ready to send a radio signal 50 miles, from his lab at 33 and 35 South Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, to West Point, NY but disaster struck before his ground-breaking test could be completed: a building fire destroyed Tesla’s lab, taking his work with it. A year later, Marconi took out his first wireless telegram patent in England.

Guglielmo Marconi with his early wireless radiotelegraphy transmitter and receiver, 1897

Image Credit: Unknown author via Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

4. Magnifying transmitter

Like so much of Tesla’s work, the Magnifying transmitter was an expansion of his Tesla coil technology. Having set up a lab in Colorado Springs in 1899, he had the space and resources to create the biggest Tesla coil yet. He called this triple coil system the magnifying transmitter. It was 52 feet in diameter, generated millions of volts of electricity and produced 130-foot-long lightning bolts.

5. Induction motor

As with many of Tesla’s innovations, credit for the invention of the induction motor was contested. In this case, Tesla pipped the Italian inventor Galileo Ferraris, who developed the same technology at more or less the same time, to the post. Though Ferraris presented his concept of a motor that uses electromagnetic induction to spin its rotor first, Tesla filed his patents ahead of the Italian.

6. Alternating current

Arguably Tesla’s greatest contribution to humanity was his influence on the development of alternating current (AC). Perhaps it shouldn’t, strictly speaking, feature in a list of his inventions , but there’s no doubt that his technology was instrumental in the emergence of AC as the world’s dominant electrical system.

Tesla’s enthusiasm for AC was vociferously contested by Thomas Edison – for whom Tesla worked in the 1880s – who strongly favoured DC. Edison considered alternating current to be more dangerous than direct current and a very public ‘War of the Currents’ ensued, with AC’s biggest champion, George Westinghouse, using Tesla’s induction motor in his completely integrated AC system. Despite Edison’s opposition, Westinghouse’s belief in AC was ultimately vindicated.

7. Hydroelectric power

One of the most impressive products of Tesla’s partnership with George Westinghouse was surely Adams Power Station, the world’s first hydroelectric power plant. This innovative powerhouse realised a long-held hope that the awesome force of Niagara Falls, one of North America’s most spectacular natural wonders, could be harnessed. The project was the indirect result of a competition, organised by the International Niagara Falls Commission, to find a plan that would succeed in doing just that.

The competition attracted entries from around the world, including a proposal to transmit DC electricity that was endorsed by Edison. But the leader of the Commission, Lord Kelvin, was sufficiently impressed by Westinghouse Electric’s display of AC at the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair that he asked Westinghouse and Tesla to develop an AC transmitting solution.

The project proved to be challenging and expensive but despite mounting scepticism among investors, Tesla was never in doubt that it would ultimately prove to be a success. Eventually, on 16 November 1896, the station was activated and electricity generated by the revolutionary Adams Power Plant Transformer House began to surge into Buffalo, NY. Before long, ten more generators were built and energy from the plant was used to electrify New York City.

Westinghouse generators at Edward Dean Adams Power Plant in Niagara Falls, 1905.

Image Credit: Works of the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company via Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

8. The shadowgraph

Another area of Tesla’s research that was likely curtailed by the fire that destroyed his New York lab in 1895 relates to the emergence of X-ray technology. Famously, German scientist Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen developed the first X-ray on the 8 November of that same year, a ground-breaking achievement that earned him the inaugural Nobel Prize in 1901.

Inspired by Röntgen’s X-ray, Tesla renewed his own interest and developed the Shadowgraph using a vacuum tube. His image of a shoe with a foot in it, produced in 1896, is thought to be America’s first X-ray.

9. Neon lights

Neon lights are another example of a technology that Tesla advanced rather than invented. A Frenchman, Georges Claude, ushered in the neon age when he displayed a pair of 38-foot-long neon tube lights at the Paris Motor Show in 1910. But something akin to neon lighting had been developed decades earlier in the mid-19th century by Heinrich Geißler, a German glassblower and physicist who produced neon-like effects by running a current through glass tubes filled with gasses like argon.

Tesla was in possession of several of Geißler’s tubes and observed that they lit up in succession as he adjusted the frequency of his coil. This chance discovery was a dramatic realisation of his interest in wireless energy. In 1893, he displayed a selection of discharge lights that lit up without being powered by electrodes or wires at the Chicago World’s Fair .

10. Tesla valve

Tesla’s extraordinary legacy continues to bear fruit nearly 80 years after his death. As recently as 2021, his 1920 patented ‘vavular conduit’ was revisited by scientists, who identified a variety of new applications for Tesla’s century-old design. While Tesla is obviously better known for his work with electrical currents and circuits, the valve is an interesting example of his genius being applied to a different scientific field.

The device, which has no moving parts, features a series of interconnected teardrop-shaped loops that provide a clear path for the forward flow of liquid while limiting the speed of reverse flow. It’s thought that a re-engineered version of the Tesla valve could provide an effective alternative to the conventional check valve, allowing flows to be controlled without the need for moving parts.

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Nikola Tesla’s Inventions: The Induction Motor, Bladeless Turbine, Wireless Power, and More!

Without Nikola Tesla’s inventions and his work with electrical energy, it is not unreasonable to suggest that household electrical appliances would be so popular. Thanks to his promotion of alternating current, his development of an induction motor, and his continued drive for innovation, today’s technology includes improved radio transmission, long-distance provision of electricity, and improvements in medical pumping.

Table of Contents

The Induction Motor

Nikola Tesla did not make his fortune until after he left the employ of Thomas Edison, and developed a new form of induction motor that ran on alternating current (AC). AC power was becoming popular across Europe and the USA because of its ability to transmit high-voltage power over long distances, and so a long-lasting motor that utilized alternating current was in demand.

Tesla’s induction motor, patented in May 1888, used a rotating magnetic field, and so avoided the need for a commutator. Without needing to replace brushes, and having less fire risk due to lack of sparks, the Tesla motor was an innovation in its field. Tesla’s business partners got it into the hands of trade media outlets, arranged demonstrations, and promoted the device directly to electric companies. Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing took great interest and offered a lucrative licensing deal. Tesla would provide the designs and technology in return for a $2.50 royalty per horsepower produced by each motor, as well as $24 thousand to consult for a year. That would be approximately $1.4 million dollars in today’s currency. Tesla immediately re-invested this money into his experiments.

Niagara Falls Hydroelectric Power Plant

In the mid-1800s, plans were put into place to create a hydroelectric powerplant at Niagara falls. While work moved slowly, by the 1890s the Cataract Construction Company was ready to build the first power plant. First, though, they would need to determine which system was best to transmit the power from the falls. Over the years, proposals and open competitions were used to slowly work out the best contenders.

Then, in 1893, Edward Dean Adams, head of the company, approached Tesla to ask for his input. Against the advice of Thomas Edison (who insisted direct current was the best option), Tesla recommended a two-phased AC power system that could travel long distances and power relatively inexpensive light bulbs currently being manufactured by Westinghouse. The company heeded this advice and awarded the contract to Westinghouse, who gratefully rewarded Tesla with further contracts. Despite the obvious financial gain Tesla had from this advice, today’s electrical engineers agree that the correct decision was made at the time .

Radio Remote Control

At an 1898 electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden, Tesla demonstrated a “teleautomaton”, a boat he could steer from the land using radio controls. He later attempted to sell this idea to the military for possible use with torpedoes, but they were not interested. Tesla was quite ahead of his time with this work, as it was not until the end of the Great War that the military began their own experiments with radio control.

Tesla was not to be discouraged, however, and demonstrated “teleautomatics” for a number of years in the hope others would improve on his designs. Tesla’s “remote control” may not have been the first, as British engineers Ernest Wilson and C. J. Evans developed their own only the year before. However, the two technologies had little in common and this may be yet another example of parallel innovation in the sciences.

The Bladeless Turbine

The “Tesla Turbine”, or boundary layer turbine as it was to be known, was first presented in 1906 on the inventor’s fiftieth birthday. Also used as a multiple-disk centrifugal pump, this device is still used today to move fluids that are abrasive, contain solids, or are otherwise difficult to handle. Because the pump does not use blades like a conventional turbine, there is less likelihood of blockages or damage to sensitive material that may be transported.

Unfortunately, Tesla’s designs were not fully realized until recently, as metallurgists were unable to create parts that would not move or warp during operation. Engineers today are examining the pump as a possible solution to moving blood products with less damage to cells in the process.

Nikola Tesla’s Inventions and Experiments That Haven’t Yet Taken Off

While many of Nikola Tesla’s inventions led to patented designs and devices used in the real world, many did not.

Wireless Power, Lighting, and New Forms of Radio

During the early 20th century, Tesla became obsessed with the idea of transmitting electrical energy without wires. His scientific understanding of the concepts behind the radio , light , and other radioactivity has since been found wanting, but it did not stop him from spending considerable resources on his experiments. He set up a station in the high altitude of Colorado Springs where he tested wireless telegraphy technology, and attempted to create early prototypes of radio telescopes . Tesla even believed that he had received radio signals from outer space.

READ MORE: Who Invented The Telegraph? Revolutionizing Global Communication

Today, “wireless charging” is slowly becoming a popular way to charge phones and watches, but the distance to do so is in millimeters, rather than kilometers as Tesla hoped for.

Experiments in X-Rays

Among Tesla’s other experiments was the fascination with x-ray technology. In fact, there is strong evidence that he inadvertently created the first x-ray image when he tried to photograph Mark Twain using a Geissler Tube only weeks before Wilhelm Rontgen’s announcement of discovering X-rays . After taking the photograph, he discovered that the only image captured was a metal screw on the camera lens.

READ MORE: The First Camera Ever Made: A History of Cameras

Therapy and Mental Stimulation with Ozone and Electricity

While now thoroughly debunked, Tesla also believed that ozone might contain healing properties and attempted to create healing gels by bubbling ozone through different oils. Later, he suspected the same technique might be used for sanitizing hospital equipment. Neither projects were a success.

Likewise, Tesla believed that keeping people in a “cage” of electrical wires might stimulate their brains and increase learning. Not only has this been proven false, but current science suggests that high-voltage wires may increase the chance of cancer.

What Fictional Devices Did Nikola Tesla “Invent”?

While Tesla himself would never call them fictional, the scientist made many claims about inventions despite showing no evidence of design or production. Among these were a death ray, an earthquake machine, and a motor that ran on “cosmic rays”. At one stage, Tesla claimed he had designed a “thought camera” (pictured above) that could present one’s thoughts as images projected on a screen.

Who Was Nikola Tesla? A short Biography

Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July 1856, in the town of Smiljan, which is in modern-day Croatia. His father was a local priest and former officer in Napolean’s army, and his mother was known throughout the town for her prowess at mechanical devices, and for having an eidetic memory. In his autobiography, Tesla would say, “[my father] had a prodigious memory and frequently recited at length from works in several languages [but my mother] was an inventor of the first order and would, I believe, [would] have achieved great things had she not been so remote from modern life and its multifold opportunities.”

Tesla wanted to be an engineer since childhood and developed a passion for electricity from his physics teacher in high school. He excelled academically both there and at university, but left the latter before graduating as a result of mental illness. He himself wrote, “I had a complete nervous breakdown and while the malady lasted I observed many phenomena strange and unbelievable.” Tesla continued to struggle with both physical and mental health problems through the rest of his life.

For a short time, Tesla worked as a draftsman, then as a teacher, and finally as an electrician at a telephone company. In 1882 he was able to gather enough funds to move to Paris and work for the Continental Edison Company. While he started with street lighting installation, it wasn’t long before he was designing and improving dynamos and motors. Two years later, Tesla’s manager, Charles Batchelor, was asked to return to America. He insisted the young man join him, and so Nikola left Europe to join the Edison Machine Works.

READ MORE: Who Invented the Lightbulb? Hint: Not Edison

Within six months, Tesla decided to quit the company, citing disputes over bonuses that would be worth over a million dollars in today’s money. After being scammed out of patents by investors, he spent a short time as a ditch digger while making designs at home, before finally being placed in contact with Alfred S. Brown and Charles Fletcher Peck. These two men would help him for years, selling his patents for improved alternate current generators and motors to Westinghouse.

From 1889 onwards, the success of his own company allowed Tesla to perform experiments in a range of new areas. He was particularly excited by wireless technology, x-rays, and electric brain therapies. Tesla was known for being more creative than careful with his thinking, with many of his ideas now considered science fiction, while many others only now being possible to create. Despite an 1895 fire in which Tesla’s New York lab burned to the ground, the company grew quickly.

Tesla sadly became more erratic, “eccentric”, and possibly even ill in later years. After a particularly extravagant 75th birthday party, Tesla would hold a public party every year in which he would opine on his latest ideas and inventions. In 1932, he claimed to have invented a motor that ran on “cosmic rays”, in 1934 a “teleforce” death ray that would “end all wars,” and in 1935, an earthquake-maker.

Nikola Tesla died on 7 January 1943, in his room at the Hotel New Yorker, of a heart attack. Two days later, the FBI seized all belongings, unsure about his prior claims about militarily-dangerous devices. When his belongings were inspected by John G. Trump, the professor at MIT’s High Voltage Research Laboratory, Trump found nothing dangerous or even new to add to the engineering world.

Trump eventually wrote in his report that the belongings only contained, “thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were 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.” 

Obsessed with work, and someone affected by his childhood, Tesla never married or had any known romantic relationships. However, he was rarely considered misanthropic. His secretary, Dorothy Skerrit, wrote: “his genial smile and nobility of bearing always denoted the gentlemanly characteristics that were so ingrained in his soul.” In later years he was to become friends with Mark Twain, Swami Vivekananda, and Sarah Bernhardt.

Tesla’s eccentricities did not stop at relationships. Nikola claimed to only ever sleep two hours at a time, and once worked 84 hours without rest. He was known to enjoy cards, billiards, and chess , however, and would “relax” as hard as he would work. He walked between 8 and 10 miles a day, and in later life took up a diet of only milk, bread, honey, and vegetable juices. He held anti-feminist and eugenic beliefs, although was not an advocate of either viewpoint.

READ MORE: Sleeping In: A Short History on Sleep before the Industrial Revolution

By his death, Tesla had made at least 278 patents issued in 26 countries. He is remembered today for his brilliant engineering skills, public feuding with Thomas Edison, and wild imagination of later life. His name has been given to holidays, scientific measurements, powerplants, schools, and airports. His likeness has been on ten different currencies since his death, including the Croatian 10, 20, and 50 cent euros. While the man himself is in no way connected to the car manufacturer, Tesla Inc. is the 6th largest company in the world.

What Was the IQ of Nikola Tesla?

Nicola Tesla’s IQ has been estimated between 160 and 310. The average American adult has an IQ of 110, and only 0.2% of people have an IQ over 150. However, estimating IQs is difficult and so it is impossible to work out exactly how smart Nikola Tesla was. Most psychologists estimate that Tesla was more academically gifted than Einstein, Edison, or Newton.

What Field of Science Was Nikola Tesla Known For?

Nikola Tesla may have experimented in optics, astronomy, and even civil engineering, but he was best known for his work in the physics and engineering of electrical energy. While Tesla’s mathematical capabilities were strong, his real genius lay in a creative mind and a natural aptitude for engineering concepts. While many of his theories about energy were debunked even at the time, no one could argue against the improvements he made to electrical generation, the efficiency of motors, and the use of radio.

READ MORE: Who Invented Math? The History of Mathematics

What Was Nikola Tesla’s First Invention?

There is no evidence that Tesla applied for a single patent until he moved to America. On March 30, 1884, Tesla filed for his first patent, an electric arc lamp. This could be called his first official invention since leaving Edison’s company and selling this design allowed him to found Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing.

What Was Nikola Tesla’s Greatest Invention?

While Tesla was most famous at the time for his work with Alternating Current electricity production, perhaps his greatest work was in the use of remote control, and the exploration of wireless power. Despite never successfully creating a wireless power system, the work he performed at Wardenclyffe would be used for decades. In the last years, we have finally seen some of that work come to fruition, with our portable devices now powered simply by laying on charging pads.

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Nikola Tesla Inventions

Nikola Tesla Inventions:

Nikola Tesla inventions constitute numerous technological breakthroughs throughout his lifetime. Born in Smiljan, Croatia, in 1856, the math and physics genius contributed innovations that continue to impact our lives daily today. He held over three hundred patents, but was only recognized for some, indicating many of his ideas were tested and failed or never became well known.

In 1882, upon graduation from the Technical University of Graz and Philosophy at the University of Prague, he drew the first sketches of his idea to build an electromagnetic motor. His first job entailed retailing DC power plants for ConEd which led to his immigration to the states in 1884.

Tesla’s inventions included:

• AC Power (alternating current)

Magnifying Transmitter

Tesla turbine.

• Shadowgraph

Hydroelectric Power

Induction motor.

• Radio Controlled Boat

Nikola Tesla’s Best-Known Invention — the Alternating Current

When Tesla came to the United States, he worked for Thomas Edison in Manhattan and was promised $50,000 if he could make Edison’s direct current method successful. As it turned out, Edison’s DC current was not as effective as Tesla’s own alternating current method in transmitting electricity over long distances. When Edison reneged on his offer to pay Tesla to solve his DC power design flaws, Tesla quit and moved on to his next endeavor.

He applied for many patents for his AC power discoveries which were later sold to Westinghouse. AC power has been widely used since its discovery and still has some applications in radio and television transmission.

The Tesla Coil

Perhaps the most familiar symbol of Tesla’s work is the Tesla coil, embodied in the tower that was erected at what is now the last remaining laboratory located in Shoreham, New York, the Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. Here, Tesla created a tower topped by his infamous coils which shot electric sparks through the air and circulated the electricity around the coils by alternating current.

Building upon the revelations of the Tesla coil, Tesla sought to offer wireless power for free to all by transmitting information from one tower to another using resonance. The currents were sent from one circuit to the other, building in frequency until lightning sparked from one tower to the other. By connecting a wire to the tower and running it around his lab, he powered his laboratory wirelessly. He demonstrated the effect on stage to audiences using light bulbs that were not connected to any power source. The magnifying transmitter succeeded in transmitting an electrical current a kilometer away.

Tesla developed a piston engine to power automobiles using combustion to rotate disks.  At the time, commonly used turbines were less efficient and relied on blades. Tesla’s invention merged many disks to create a centrifugal pump. By moving fluid in the path of least resistance, his turbine was more fuel-efficient. His turbine is also known as “…the boundary-layer turbine, cohesion-type turbine, and Prandtl-layer turbine it uses the boundary-layer effect and not a fluid impinging upon the blades as in a conventional turbine.” ( Wikipedia )

Smooth disks with nozzles circulate fluid around the edge of the disk. As the disk spins, the fluid adheres to the edge of the disk and is drawn from the edge of disk to the center. It works by adhesion rather than friction, resulting in greater efficiency.

The Shadowgraph

The Shadowgraph is another name for x-rays, but Tesla’s term is actually more depictive of the process. An x-ray creates a silhouette of the area captured by passing radioactive waves through the human body. Although the invention was initially developed by Rontgen, Tesla made improvements to the technique to render clearer images.

Before his lab burned down, Tesla was working on developing a radio intended to transmit a signal fifty miles. Prior to its completion, however, another gentleman received a patent for a similar radio design in England. Had he succeeded, Nikola Tesla’s invention would have surpassed the Brit’s invention in strength.

The neon lamp (or sign) was Tesla’s modification of existing neon light technology to form words and designs. Neon signs continue to exist worldwide, lighting up bars, casinos, hotels, and other signs along the roadway.

The Niagara Falls Commission selected Tesla to design the hydroelectric power generator at Niagara Falls using his alternating power technology. Considered the first power plant, Tesla’s technology was used throughout the world to provide electricity to the masses.

Using electromagnets to spin, Tesla’s induction motor currently powers everyday household items such as vacuums, hairdryers and power tools.

Radio-controlled Boat

Tesla used radio transmission to power the first radio-controlled toy boat, controlling its engine, lighting and steering with a remote control. Today’s drones are based on this technology. While some viewed his invention as a contribution to warfare, i.e. torpedoes, Tesla considered it the beginning of robotic technology which would eventually handle the majority of labor for man.

Many of Nikola Tesla’s inventions went unrecognized, others lost when his notes were destroyed by fire. At the end of his life, his research was confiscated by the FBI, and only in recent years has it been made available to the public.

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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

• Main content

History | Updated: April 24, 2024 | Originally Published: February 4, 2013

Nikola Tesla and the Tower That Became His ‘Million Dollar Folly’

The eccentric inventor’s dream of a wireless-transmission tower would prove to be his undoing

Gilbert King ; Updated by Sonja Anderson

By the end of his brilliant and tortured life, the Serbian American physicist, engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla was penniless and living in a small New York City hotel room. He spent his days in a park surrounded by the creatures that mattered most to him— pigeons —and his sleepless nights ruminating on mathematical equations and scientific problems. He designed and perfected his inventions in his head, a habit that would confound scientists and scholars for many years after his death.

Tesla believed his mind to be without equal, and he wasn’t above chiding his contemporaries, such as Thomas Edison , who once hired him. If Edison had a needle to find in a haystack, Tesla once said , “he would not stop to reason where it was most likely to be, but would proceed at once, with the feverish diligence of a bee, to examine straw after straw until he found the object of his search.”

But what his contemporaries may have been lacking in scientific talent (by Tesla’s estimation), they made up for in other ambitions. Inventors like Edison and George Westinghouse possessed one trait that Tesla did not: a mind for business. In the last days of America’s Gilded Age , Tesla made a dramatic attempt to change the future of communications and power transmission around the world. He managed to convince J.P. Morgan that he was on the verge of a breakthrough, and the financier gave Tesla more than $150,000 to fund what would become a gigantic, futuristic and startling tower in the middle of Long Island in New York. In 1898, as Tesla’s plans to create a worldwide wireless transmission system became known, Wardenclyffe Tower would be Tesla’s last chance to claim the recognition and wealth that had always escaped him.

The eccentric engineer

Nikola Tesla was born in modern-day Croatia in 1856. His mother , Đuka Tesla, was a hard-working caretaker of their home and farm; she developed small appliances to ease her labor, including a mechanical eggbeater, and Tesla later credited her for his inventiveness. His father, Milutin Tesla, was a priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church . From an early age, Nikola Tesla demonstrated an obsessiveness that left those around him puzzled and amused. He could memorize entire books and store logarithmic tables in his brain. He picked up languages easily, and he could work through days and nights on only a few hours of sleep.

By age 19, he was studying electrical engineering at the Imperial and Royal Technical College in Graz, Austria, where he quickly established himself as a star student. He found himself in an ongoing debate with a professor over perceived design flaws in the direct-current (DC) motors that were being demonstrated in class.

He would spend the next six years of his life thinking about electromagnetic fields and a hypothetical motor powered by alternating current (AC). The ideas obsessed him, and he was unable to focus on his schoolwork. Professors at the university warned Tesla’s father that the young scholar’s working and sleeping habits were killing him. Rather than finishing his studies, Tesla dropped out of school during his third year in 1878. He became addicted to gambling, lost all his tuition money and suffered a nervous breakdown . It would not be his last.

After recovering, Tesla moved to Budapest to work as a draftsman in 1881. “I hated drawing,” he wrote , “It was for me the very worst of annoyances.” But one day, he was walking through a park with his new friend Antal Szigety , reciting verses from Goethe’s Faust , when an “idea came like a lightning flash.” And there in the park, with a stick, Tesla drew a crude diagram in the dirt: a motor using the principle of rotating magnetic fields created by two or more alternating currents. While AC electrification had been employed before, there would never be a practical, working motor run on alternating current until he invented his induction motor several years later.

Tesla’s rise to the top

In June 1884, Tesla sailed for New York City, arriving with four cents in his pocket and a letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor —a former employer—to Edison, which was purported to say , “My Dear Edison: I know two great men and you are one of them. The other is this young man!”

A meeting was arranged, and once Tesla described the engineering work he was doing, Edison, though skeptical, hired him. According to Tesla, Edison offered him $50,000 if he could improve upon the DC generation plants Edison favored. Within a few months, Tesla informed the American inventor that he had indeed improved upon Edison’s motors. Edison, Tesla noted, refused to pay up. “When you become a full-fledged American, you will appreciate an American joke,” Edison told him.

Tesla promptly quit and took a job digging ditches. But it wasn’t long before word got out that Tesla’s AC motor was worth investing in, and the Western Union Company put Tesla to work in a lab not far from Edison’s office, where he designed AC power systems that are still used around the world. “The motors I built there,” Tesla said, “were exactly as I imagined them. I made no attempt to improve the design, but merely reproduced the pictures as they appeared to my vision, and the operation was always as I expected.”

Tesla patented his AC motors and power systems, which were said to be the most valuable inventions since the telephone. Soon, Westinghouse, recognizing that Tesla’s designs might be just what he needed in his efforts to unseat Edison’s DC current, bought his patents for $60,000 in stocks, cash and royalties based on how much electricity Westinghouse could sell. Ultimately, he won the “ War of the Currents ,” but at a steep cost in litigation and competition for both Westinghouse and Edison’s General Electric Company .

Fearing ruin, Westinghouse begged Tesla for relief from the royalties he had agreed to. “Your decision determines the fate of the Westinghouse Company,” he said. Tesla, grateful to the man who had never tried to swindle him, tore up the royalty contract, walking away from millions of dollars in royalties that he was already owed and billions that would have accrued in the future. He would have been one of the wealthiest men in the world—a titan of the Gilded Age.

A ‘faint-hearted, doubting world’

Tesla’s work with electricity reflected just one facet of his fertile mind. Before the turn of the 20th century, Tesla had invented a powerful coil capable of generating high voltages and frequencies, leading to new forms of light, such as neon and fluorescent, as well as X-rays. Tesla also discovered that these coils, soon to be called “ Tesla coils ,” made it possible to send and receive radio signals. He quickly filed for American patents in 1897, beating the Italian inventor Guglielmo Marconi to the punch.

Tesla continued to work on his ideas for wireless transmissions, which he pitched to J.P. Morgan. After Morgan put up the $150,000 to build the giant transmission tower, Tesla promptly hired the noted architect Stanford White of McKim, Mead and White in New York . White, too, was smitten with Tesla’s idea. After all, this was the highly acclaimed man behind Westinghouse’s success with alternating current, and when Tesla talked, he was persuasive. As the inventor said at the time:

As soon as completed, it will be possible for a businessman in New York to dictate instructions and have them instantly appear in type at his office in London or elsewhere. He will be able to call up, from his desk, and talk to any telephone subscriber on the globe, without any change whatever in the existing equipment. An inexpensive instrument, not bigger than a watch, will enable its bearer to hear anywhere, on sea or land, music or song, the speech of a political leader, the address of an eminent man of science or the sermon of an eloquent clergyman, delivered in some other place, however distant. In the same manner any picture, character, drawing or print can be transferred from one to another place. Millions of such instruments can be operated from but one plant of this kind.

White got to work designing Wardenclyffe Tower in 1901 , but soon after construction began it became apparent that Tesla was going to run out of money too quickly. An appeal to Morgan for more funding proved fruitless, and in the meantime, investors were rushing to throw their money behind Marconi. In December 1901, the Italian inventor successfully sent a signal from England to Newfoundland, the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission . Tesla grumbled that Marconi was using 17 of his patents, but litigation eventually favored Marconi, and the commercial damage was done. (The U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld Tesla’s claims, clarifying his role in the invention of the radio—but not until 1943, shortly after he died.) Thus, Marconi was credited as the inventor of radio and became rich. Wardenclyffe Tower became a 186-foot-tall relic (it would be razed in 1917 ) known as Tesla’s “ million dollar folly .” The defeat—his worst yet—led to another breakdown. “It is not a dream,” Tesla said, “it is a simple feat of scientific electrical engineering, only expensive—blind, faint-hearted, doubting world!”

By 1912, Tesla began to withdraw from that doubting world. He was showing signs of obsessive-compulsive disorder . He became consumed with cleanliness and fixated on the number three: excessively washing his hands, counting his steps, staying only in hotel rooms with numbers divisible by three and setting 18 napkins on his table during meals. He claimed to have an abnormal sensitivity to sounds, as well as an acute sense of sight, and he later wrote that he had “a violent aversion against the earrings of women,” and “the sight of a pearl would almost give me a fit.”

Near the end of his life, Tesla became fixated on pigeons, especially a specific white female, which he claimed to love almost as one would love a human being. Tesla said the white pigeon visited him through an open window at his hotel one night, and he believed the bird had come to tell him she was dying. He saw “two powerful beams of light” in the bird’s eyes, he recalled. “Yes, it was a real light, a powerful, dazzling, blinding light, a light more intense than I had ever produced by the most powerful lamps in my laboratory.” The pigeon died in his arms, and the inventor claimed that in that moment, he knew that he had finished his life’s work.

Throughout the following years, Tesla would make news from time to time, while living on the 33rd floor of the New Yorker Hotel . In 1931, he made the cover of Time magazine, which featured his inventions on his 75th birthday. And in 1934, the New York Times reported that Tesla was working on a “Death Beam” capable of knocking 10,000 enemy airplanes out of the sky. “When put in operation, Dr. Tesla said, this latest invention of his would make war impossible,” surrounding countries like an impenetrable, invisible wall, the Times reported. He hoped to fund the prototypical defensive weapon in the interest of world peace, but Tesla’s appeals to J.P. Morgan Jr. and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain went nowhere. The Soviet Union did fund his investigations of beam weapons in 1939, to the tune of $25,000, but the project languished.

Though the inventor’s genius had forever changed the world of electrical engineering, Tesla’s final days were clouded by his business and social ineptitudes. He died at age 86, in debt, though Westinghouse had been paying his room and board at the hotel for years.

Additional Sources “ Reflections on the Mind of Nikola Tesla ” by R. (Chandra) Chandrasekhar Tesla: Man Out of Time by Margaret Cheney (1981) “ The Cult of Nikola Tesla ” by Brian Dunning “ Tesla: Live and Legacy, Tower of Dreams ,” PBS My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla by Nikola Tesla (1982) “ The Future of Wireless Art ” by Nikola Tesla “ The Problem of Increasing Human Energy With Special References to the Harnessing of the Sun’s Energy ” by Nikola Tesla “Nikola Tesla, History of Technology, The Famous Inventors Worldwide” by David S. Zondy

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Gilbert King is a contributing writer in history for Smithsonian.com. His book Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America won the Pulitzer Prize in 2013.

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Sonja Anderson is a writer and reporter based in New York City.

The Amazing Life Of Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla accomplished more in his lifetime than many of us could ever hope to achieve in a 100 lifetimes. Tesla held over 300 different patents , spanning several countries. From wireless technology to alternating current, electric motors, Radio, X-Rays, radar and laser technology…the list goes on.

Nikola Tesla’s work would go on to inspire thousands of inventors, dreamers and engineers. To this very day, his inventions continue to shape life as we know it. You can’t help but wonder what the world would have looked like today if Nikola Tesla would have been able to finish his experiments with free energy and long range wireless energy transfer.

Here’s a brief look at Nikola Tesla’s fascinating life.

Nikola Tesla Timeline

A timeline of important events, achievements, setbacks and triumphs..

• July 10th 1859 Nikola Tesla is born Nikola Tesla is believed to have been born at midnight. During his birth, lightning struck during a summer storm. Born to a Serbian Family in Smiljan, Tesla was nicknamed `Child of the Storm`, by his aunt. That said, his mother replied to that comment by calling him `Child of the light`. He was born based on the conventional Slavonic rites, and his birth records show he was born on July 28th. Tesla was the fourth child in a family of five children. The family comprised of three sisters including Marica, Angelina, Milka and his old brother who was known as Dane. Dane died when Tesla was still at a tender age. Tesla attended his early education in 1861 in Smiljan, where he acquired various skills including arithmetic and he also mastered the German Language. The following year, Nikola Tesla moved to a place known as Gospic. Here, his father played the role of a Parish Pastor.
• 1870 Tesla's Brush With Death Nikola Tesla moved to a place known as Karlovac to complete his high school. Three years later, he went back to Smiljan and shortly after his arrival; he contracted cholera. He was in hospital for close to one year, and he faced near-death circumstances.
• 1875 Tesla Enrolls In College In 1875, Tesla enrolled to a Polytechnic based on a military scholarship. He was a disciplined student and achieved the highest grades possible while passing various exams. More so, he also started a cultural club and received a letter of commendation from the dean of the Technical Department. During his second year, he got into an argument with one his professors over the functionality of the Gramme dynamo.
• 1880 Tesla Moves To Prague To Study Philosophy Tesla’s uncle collected money to help him relocate to Prague to finish his studies. He arrived late to enroll for classes, and his lack of competence in Greek and Czech meant that he did not qualify for the classes he wanted to take. Instead, he took up classes in Philosophy at the university, though he did not receive grades for the courses.
• 1881 Tesla Begins His Career As Chief Electrical Engineer In 1881, he moved to Budapest in Hungary, to work for a telegraph company. Upon arriving, he noticed that the Budapest Telephone Exchange company was not in operation, so he worked at draftsman in another company. A few months later, the BTS Company was in operation, and he was given the position of chief electrical engineer. During his tenure, he introduced various operation upswings which improved the performance of the company.
• 1882 Tesla Goes To Work For Edison In 1882, he found another job in Paris with a company referred to as the Continental Edison Company. He began working in a new industry by installing indoor lighting resources. His company had several divisions, and he worked in the section of the company that was responsible for lighting systems. At this company, he improved his electrical engineering prowess. The management team noticed his abilities and soon introduced him as part of the team that would produce dynamos and motors. Following this, Tesla moved to New York in the USA. In 1884, one of his managers from Paris was relocated to the US to manage a company where he worked. During, this time, Tesla started a manufacturing division that was found in New York and sought for Tesla to be relocated to the country as well. In the same year, Tesla was relocated to the USA and started working immediately.
• 1885 Tesla Submits Some Of His First Patents In March 1885, he met with an attorney known as Lemuel Serrel, to help in the submission of various patents. Serrel introduced Tesla to various businessmen, including Benjamin Vail and Robert Lane. They agreed to help finance a new light production company under Tesla Name. Tesla worked to acquire the patents for the company including developing an enhanced DC motor. His solutions gained attention from the mass media who sought his solutions.
• 1887 Tesla Re-imagines The Electric Motor In 1887, Tesla came up with an induction motor that was operated by alternating current, a form of power that was becoming common in Europe and the USA. This type of power provided various benefits, especially in long-distance power transmission. In particular, the motor was operated by a polyphase current, which produced a rotating magnetic field to operate the motor. This innovative electric motor was patented in May 1988, and it comprised of a basic self-starting design that did not require the use of commutators. As a result, this reduced the occurrence of sparking the high maintenance that was associated with replacing mechanical brushes
• 1890 Tesla Begins His Work On Wireless Power Transmission After 1890, Tesla researched various approaches to transmitting power by inductive and capacitive coupling. This was through the use of AC voltages that were produced by his famous `Tesla coil.` He tried in many ways to come up with a wireless lighting system that was based on near field and capacitative coupling. He even performed various public demonstrations, where he would light up Geissler tubes to impress his audience. Tesla also spent close to well over a decade trying to come up with new solutions for lighting
• 1891 Tesla Patents The Tesla Coil In mid 1891, at the age of 35, he became a naturalized citizen of the US. In the same year, he also patented his famous Tesla Coil.
• 1943 Tesla's Death In early 1943, at age 86, Tesla died in a Hotel Room in New York. He died alone, and his body was found by a maid who ignored a do not disturb sign on Tesla’s room. The assistant medical professional evaluated the body and determined the cause of death was related to coronary complications. A few days after the FBI ordered for the acquisition of his belongings, John G Trump was called in to evaluate his works. Trump was a well known electrical engineer who worked for the state, which was held in custody. Following a three day investigation, a Trumps report concluded that was nothing that would demonstrate a hazard in unfriendly circumstances.

Tesla’s Inventions

How Tesla’s inventions changed the world forever…

Alternating Current

This is one of his first ever inventions that caused a stir at the 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago. The resulting conclusion from Edison and Tesla`s argument on the distribution and production of electricity was provided. The argument could be summarized in relation to cost and safety factors. It was determined that the DC current produced by Edison was costly over long distances and it also produced sparks from the commutator. Edison and his proponents used various approaches to oppose Tesla`s Alternative Current as a solution. Edison tried to prove by going as far as electrocuting animals to prove his point. That said, Tesla responded by showing that AC was safe by shooting current through his body to produce light. This argument is regarded by most as the culmination of well over a decade of wrangles in terms of patents, corrupt deals and stolen ideas. Despite it all, this proves that the system developed by Tesla is effective at providing power in the modern era.

Modern Lighting

While Tesla did not invent light itself, he is responsible for the innovations that have been crucial in how it’s distributed and produced. He came up with fluorescent bulbs in his lab 40 years before they became a standard in the consumer market. More so, at the world`s fair, he used glass tubes by customizing them into the names of famous scientists, to create neon signs.

Ionizing radio and electromagnetic technologies were common on research during early in the 1800s. However, Nikola Tesla went in depth by studying everything up until the Kirlian photography. This resource has the ability to observe life force, which is now common in medical diagnostics. It was a transformative piece of technology which Tesla was key in it`s development. Similar to many of his inventions, the inspiration for X-rays came from his belief that everything we need, is around us at all times.

It’s important to note that the Guglielmo Marconi is initially credited to be the inventor of the original radio technology. However, the Supreme Court denied his patent in 1943, when it was determined that Tesla originally built the radio years before. In particular, Radio signals occur naturally and require a transmitter and receiver to be used. This is a technique that Tesla demonstrated at a presentation in 1892 before the National Electric Light Association. Five years later, Tesla made a patent application. However, in 1904, the patents were overturned with the U.S patent office determining that Marconi was the original owner. This was mainly due to the backing that Marconi had and the state, which was afraid of paying royalties to Tesla

Remote Control

This particular invention was a natural development from the radio. The demonstration of this technology occurred in 1898 and it comprised of several huge batteries. Also, the demonstration included large radio controlled switches, a rudder, running light and a boat propeller. Although this technology remained dormant for a long time, it has played an important role in modern day society.

Electric Motor

One of his greatest inventions has finally become popular by the car that brandishes his name. Although the technical aspects are beyond the scope of this summary, it is important to note that the invention of the motor was one Tesla`s exceptional inventions. In fact, the development of this motor could have helped in reducing the world`s dependency on oil. That said, this invention was compromised by the economic crisis in 1930 and the following world wars. All things considered, this technology has revolutionized the world in many ways.

With his exceptional prowess in scientific concepts, Nikola Tesla came up with the idea that all people are inspired by external impulses. In fact, according to him, every thought and act, was inspired by external stimuli. As a result, he came up with the concept of robotics. That said, an aspect of humanity was still present, with Tesla claiming the human replicas have limitations including growth and procreation. Nevertheless, Tesla worked with all his information to come up with practical solutions. Some of his visions for the future including robotic companions, use of sensors, autonomous systems and intelligent vehicles.

Tesla is also believed to have played a major role in the invention of the laser. Lasers have played an important role in various medical procedures such as surgery. Besides that, the laser has also been key in the development of digital media. That said, his invention of the laser is a classical example of crossing into the worlds of science fiction. The main paradox here being that laser energy can be beneficial for the society and potentially dangerous at the same time. Lasers are still evolving and most techniques are based on the research by Tesla.

Wireless Communications and Limitless Free Energy

These two technologies are directly linked and they can have a significant impact in our daily lives. J.P Morgan gave Tesla the funding to develop a technology that would leverage the occurrence of natural frequencies in the universe to transmit data. This includes a broad range of information that could be communicated including voice messages, text and images. This represented the world’s first communication resources, but it also showed that there was a worldwide technology that could be used to connect the entire world.

Myths, Rumors & Legends

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Tesla’s life – His ambitious and unfinished projects

WardenClyffe Tower

Long-Range Wireless Energy Transfer

Tesla was researching how energy could be transferred wireless by using his accumulated knowledge on microwaves and radio. This also involved the creation of the Tesla Coil and magnifying transmitter. Tesla wanted to come up with a system where energy could be transmitted through long distances. To achieve this goal, he developed the Wardenclyffe Tower in Shoreham, Long Island. The role of this island was to function as wireless telecommunications resources and transmit electrical power. That said, JP Morgan who funded the development of the tower finally cut down the funding for the same. Since he was unable to find any additional financiers, he was inclined to stop the development of the tower. As a result, he was never able to achieve his goal of transmitting energy worldwide.

Early in the 1930s, Tesla claimed to have come with a particle beam weapon. Theoretically speaking, this device would have been able of producing an intense and focused beam of energy. This energy could be sent across great distances to destroy armies, warplanes and more. Tesla advertised his technologies to various militaries all over the world, but never found the best financiers. According to Tesla, efforts had been made to steal the invention. His room was invaded, and his papers were scrutinized, but the perpetrators never found anything worth value.

Tesla’s Oscillator

In 1898, Tesla claimed to have developed and launched a small oscillating device that, when attached to a building, would shake it almost destroying everything around it. This device could essentially produce the same power as an earthquake. Upon realizing the potential side effects of owning such a technology, he informed his staff to destroy the technology. Some theorists still believe that the government continues to use his research in places such as the HAARP facility.

Free Electricity System

With financing from J.P Morgan, Tesla developed the Wardenclyffe Tower. This was a gigantic wireless transmission station that was found in New York in the early nineties. Morgan believed the Tower could transmit wireless resources all over the world. That said, Tesla had other plans. He intended to send messages, images and telephony all across the Atlantic to the UK. This would even be related to ships at sea based on his concepts of leveraging the Earth to conduct signals. If the project was successful, anyone could gain access to electricity, by simply inserting a rode into the ground. That said, free electricity is not profitable. This system could have serious ramifications for the energy supply in the world and Morgan refused to finance it.

Improved Airships

Tesla proposed that ships which were electrically powered could help in transporting passengers from New York to London in less than 4 hours. The airships would travel eight miles above the ground, and he also believed that the airships might source their power from the atmosphere. This would reduce the need to refuel, and the ships might be used to transport passengers to pre-chosen locations. He was never validated for his invention, and we nowadays have drones flying based on his work as inspiration.

Learn More About Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla Facts

Well known for his eccentricities, his long list of inventions and of course his technical prowess, Here’s a few facts about Nikola Tesla you may not know…

The shock of his brother’s death affected his personality

The defining moment in Tesla`s life was when he came across the death of his sibling. His death occurred during a riding accident and the years following this were traumatic for Tesla. In fact, he at one point mentioned he could see visions of the air around him `packed with flames of fire.` As an adolescent, he learnt to control his visions but would spend most of his time feeding and communicating with pigeons.

Tesla was once digging trenches for a living

Following his graduation from the state university, Tesla got a job with the local electrical company in Paris. However, he relocated later on in 1884, with the goal of working for Edison. Edison at the time was a prominent name when it came to technological innovations. Tesla quickly rose up the heights at the Edison Company, and he subsequently got a job as an engineer. Edison claimed to give a $50,000 reward for an improvement to his DC generator design. Tesla worked hard to come up with an alternative, but Edinson refused to pay up and Tesla lost his job. While Tesla searched for financiers for his project, he was forced to dig trenches to earn a living.

He discovered x rays with assistance from Mark Twain

Twain and Tesla become close compatriots in the early 18901. He received support from Mark Twain who had a lifelong obsession with new inventions and technologies as well. One day, while visiting Tesla`s lab, Twain decided to take photos that were lit by incandescent light. In 1895, Tesla and a well knew photograph her invited Twain in the lab to take a picture. This one was operated by an electrical device that was known as a Crookes tube. When Tesla reviews the resulting photograph negative, he determined that it was rather splotchy and therefore ruined. A few weeks later, he and another famous German Scientist known as Rontigen unveiled what is nowadays referred to as X-rays.

He developed a remote-controlled boat for military purposes.

During the Spanish American war that occurred in 1898, one of Tesla`s main projects was a small boat that could control through wireless signals. When he applied for the patent for the technology, the state did not believe it was functional and therefore sent their staff. Tesla did well to demonstrate his technology to the staff, and various other big names. This included J.P Morgan who was the financier of various estates. Tesla also informed a local news media that his invention would make it simple for battles to be fought without losing lives. This would render warfare useless, and this was one of his main goals. Today you can find similar technology in a wide range of technologies, such as the remotes for your TV, electric skateboards , adult electric scooters , self balancing scooters  and electric unicycles .

His claims of signals received from space were legitimate

During the summer of 1899, Tesla set up a lab in Colorado Springs. The station was a high altitude station that was to be used to transmit information and electrical resources over long distances. One day, while tracking the lightning storms, his equipment came across certain beeps. After determining that Solar and terrestrial factors were not the cause, he came to the conclusion that the signals came from another planet. On the following Christmas, Tesla informed the world that there was a message from an unknown world. However, a 1996 study copying Teslas experiment showed that the signal was caused by the moon passing through Jupiter.

The famous Stanford White designed his lab

J.P Morgan was one of the main financiers of Teslas projects. In fact, in 1901, he convinced Morgan to release an average of $150,000 for a new business venture. This was a powerful station that was based at Wardenclyffe, on the northern section of Long Island. The role of the of the station would be the new location where Tesla would work on his long-distance communication resources. It is here where Stanford white was hired to design his laboratory. He was a long time friend of Tesla, and they design a lab features a giant 180-foot tower. The tower was designed to act as a transmitter, and it was also linked to underground horizontal pipes.

His relationship with J.P Morgan was not stable

When financing for the Wardenclyffe project ran out, Tesla tried to ask for additional funding for the project, but he failed. While some theorists believe the Morgan cut out funding because Tesla planned to provide wireless power, his other key concern was getting caught up with radio projects. In 1903, after being denied funds by Morgan, Tesla closed up the project. The following year, he wrote accusing Morgan of being a Muslim follower.

He spent his last years in isolation

While for a long time Tesla was one of the big names in New York, poverty and age ultimately led to his death. He lived in isolation in various hotels, and he often preferred the company of pigeons. However, he remembered one aspect of his days as a showman, in the form of press conferences that were to be organised each year. After turning 79 in the same year, he announced that he was inventing a small-sized oscillator that had the power to destroy any military forces.

He once paid his hotel bills with a supposed `death beam` plan

The closed project at Wardenclyffee was finally settled by turning over the resources to various debtors that Tesla owed. In the years after this, the owners of a certain hotel known as Governor Clinton were also given the same piece of collateral payment. This was a wooden case that Tesla said contained a functional model of a unique war ending particle weapon. According to him, the `death beam`, could be able to stop any army and this made war useless. When he gave up the box containing the information, he also warned the employees that they must refrain from opening it. Following his death, the box was opened, and it was found to contain nothing but redundant electrical components.

Nikola Tesla Quotes

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

“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.” -Nikola Tesla

“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

“If I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity.” ― Nikola Tesla

“The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.” ― Nikola Tesla

Recommended books about Nikola Tesla

There are a ton of great books on Nikola Tesla if you want to learn more about Nikola Tesla.

Here is a selection of some of our favorites to get you started:

• GoodReads.com – Nikola Tesla Quotes
• TeslaCommunity.com – Nikola Tesla Timeline
• TeslaUniverse.com – Nikola Tesla Timeline
• Wikipedia.org – Nikola Tesla
• TeslaAutobiorgraphy – My Inventions: The autobiography of Nikola Tesla

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Explore the mysteries surrounding Tesla's innovative ideas, his financial struggles, and his posthumous recognition in the fields of science and technology. Our podcast not only sheds light on Tesla's genius but also on the human side of this legendary figure. This Biography offers an engaging and comprehensive look at the man who envisioned a world powered by sustainable energy.Key highlights include: In-depth analysis of Tesla's most significant inventions, such as the Tesla Coil, AC motor, and radio technology.Exploration of Tesla's philosophies and predictions for future technologies.Discussions on how Tesla's work shaped the 20th century and continues to influence modern-day innovations.listeners will gain insights into Tesla's life and legacy, making "Tesla Unveiled" a must-listen for history buffs, technology enthusiasts, and anyone intrigued by the life of a true visionary. Subscribe now to The Electrifying Story of Nikola Tesla" and electrify your understanding of one of the most influential figures in scientific history.

Nikola Tesla the AC - Audio Biography Biography

• Society & Culture
• DEC 14, 2023

Nikola Tesla Biography

Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. Born in Smiljan, now part of Croatia, Tesla's early interest in inventing was spurred by his mother's homemade tools and his father's philosophical teachings.Tesla's education at the Technical University at Graz and the University of Prague set the foundation for his later innovations. In 1884, he immigrated to the United States and began working with Thomas Edison, where their differing views famously led to a rivalry. Tesla's belief in the superiority of AC over Edison's direct current (DC) system was eventually vindicated, leading to the widespread adoption of AC power.Tesla's most significant contributions include the development of the AC motor, the Tesla coil, and early contributions to radio technology. His visionary projects, such as wireless energy transmission, were far ahead of his time. Tesla's work laid the groundwork for modern power and communication systems, though many of his more ambitious projects remained unrealized.Despite his brilliance, Tesla's life was marked by financial struggles and he died alone and impoverished in New York City. Posthumously, Tesla has received widespread recognition for his contributions to science and technology, and he remains a subject of fascination and admiration for his foresight and innovations.

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