TESLA

Nikola Tesla (/ˈtɛslə/ TESS-lə; Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла,[2] pronounced [nǐkola têsla];[a]

10 July [O.S. 28 June] 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American[5][6][7] inventor,

electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist best known for his contributions to

the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.[8]

Born and raised in the Austrian Empire, Tesla studied engineering and physics in the 1870s

without receiving a degree, gaining practical experience in the early 1880s working in

telephony and at Continental Edison in the new electric power industry. In 1884 he

emigrated to the United States, where he became a naturalized citizen. He worked for a

short time at the Edison Machine Works in New York City before he struck out on his own.

With the help of partners to finance and market his ideas, Tesla set up laboratories and

companies in New York to develop a range of electrical and mechanical devices. His

alternating current (AC) induction motor and related polyphase AC patents, licensed by

Westinghouse Electric in 1888, earned him a considerable amount of money and became

the cornerstone of the polyphase system which that company eventually marketed.

Attempting to develop inventions he could patent and market, Tesla conducted a range of

experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early

X-ray imaging. He also built a wireless-controlled boat, one of the first-ever exhibited. Tesla

became well known as an inventor and demonstrated his achievements to celebrities and

wealthy patrons at his lab, and was noted for his showmanship at public lectures.

Throughout the 1890s, Tesla pursued his ideas for wireless lighting and worldwide wireless

electric power distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New

York and Colorado Springs. In 1893, he made pronouncements on the possibility of wireless

communication with his devices. Tesla tried to put these ideas to practical use in his

unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project, an intercontinental wireless communication and

power transmitter, but ran out of funding before he could complete it.[9]
After Wardenclyffe, Tesla experimented with a series of inventions in the 1910s and 1920s

with varying degrees of success. Having spent most of his money, Tesla lived in a series of

New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He died in New York City in January 1943.[10]

Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity following his death, until 1960, when the General

Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the tesla

in his honor.[11] There has been a resurgence in popular interest in Tesla since the 1990s.[12]

Nikola Tesla was born an ethnic Serb in the village of

Smiljan, within the Military Frontier, in the Austrian
Empire (present day Croatia), on 10 July [O.S. 28 June]
1856.[14][15] His father, Milutin Tesla (1819–1879),[16] was a
priest of the Eastern Orthodox Church.[17][18][19][20]
Tesla's mother, Đuka Mandić (1822–1892), whose father
was also an Eastern Orthodox Church priest,[21] had a
talent for making home craft tools and mechanical
appliances and the ability to memorize Serbian epic
poems. Đuka had never received a formal education.
Tesla credited his eidetic memory and creative abilities
to his mother's genetics and influence.[22][23] Tesla's
progenitors were from western Serbia, near
Montenegro.[24]
Tesla was the fourth of five children. He had three
sisters, Milka, Angelina, and Marica, and an older
brother named Dane, who was killed in a horse riding
accident when Tesla was aged five.[25] In 1861, Tesla
attended primary school in Smiljan where he studied
German, arithmetic, and religion.[26] In 1862, the Tesla
family moved to the nearby Gospić, where Tesla's
father worked as parish priest. Nikola completed
primary school, followed by middle school.[26] In 1870,
Tesla moved to Karlovac[27] to attend high school at the
Higher Real Gymnasium where the classes were held
in German, as it was usual throughout schools within
the Austro-Hungarian Military Frontier.[28]

Tesla's father, Milutin, was an Orthodox priest in the

village of Smiljan.

Tesla later wrote that he became interested in

demonstrations of electricity by his physics
professor.[29] Tesla noted that these demonstrations of
this "mysterious phenomena" made him want "to
know more of this wonderful force".[30] Tesla was able to
perform integral calculus in his head, which prompted
his teachers to believe that he was cheating.[31] He
finished a four-year term in three years, graduating in
1873.[32]
In 1873, Tesla returned to Smiljan. Shortly after he
arrived, he contracted cholera, was bedridden for nine
months and was near death multiple times. In a
moment of despair, Tesla's father (who had originally
wanted him to enter the priesthood),[33] promised to
send him to the best engineering school if he
recovered from the illness.[26][27]
In 1874, Tesla evaded conscription into the
Austro-Hungarian Army in Smiljan[34] by running away
southeast of Lika to Tomingaj, near Gračac. There he
explored the mountains wearing hunter's garb. Tesla
said that this contact with nature made him stronger,
both physically and mentally.[26] He read many books
while in Tomingaj and later said that Mark Twain's
works had helped him to miraculously recover from
his earlier illness.[27]
In 1875, Tesla enrolled at the Imperial-Royal Technical
College in Graz on a Military Frontier scholarship.
During his first year, Tesla never missed a lecture,
earned the highest grades possible, passed nine
exams[26][27] (nearly twice as many as required[35]),
started a Serb cultural club,[26] and even received a
letter of commendation from the dean of the technical
faculty to his father, which stated, "Your son is a star of
first rank."[35] At Graz, Tesla was fascinated by the
detailed lectures on electricity presented by Professor
Jakob Pöschl.[36]
Tesla claimed that he worked from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m., no
Sundays or holidays excepted.[27] He was "mortified
when [his] father made light of [those] hard won
honors." After his father's death in 1879,[34] Tesla found a
package of letters from his professors to his father,
warning that unless he were removed from the school,
Tesla would die through overwork. At the end of his
second year, Tesla lost his scholarship and became
addicted to gambling.[26][27] During his third year, Tesla
gambled away his allowance and his tuition money,
later gambling back his initial losses and returning the
balance to his family. Tesla said that he "conquered
[his] passion then and there," but later in the United
States, he was again known to play billiards. When
examination time came, Tesla was unprepared and
asked for an extension to study, but was denied. He did
not receive grades for the last semester of the third
year and he never graduated from college.[34]