Nikola Tesla

Sabrina Claure

March 19, 2021

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 Nikola Tesla was an important man in the history of the science and technology. When

Nikola was very young, he discovered his passion to discover the mystery of electricity. His

life was full of success and with that also full of stumbles.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Serbia (which is now present-day

Croatia) had four brothers and sisters. His father was Milutin Tesla, a priest of the Serbian

Orthodox Church. Milutin advocated for the children’s education and wrote many articles in

newspapers about the economic and educational problems of his home region (“Milutin

Tesla”, 2016). His mother, Djuka Mandic, was the person charge of take care to her family

and farm. Nikola attributed his genius and inventiveness to his mother because in her free

time she used to create tools that help her with her housework. One day, when Nikola was a

kid he was stroking his hand on his cat’s back and Nikola felt sparks, surprised by the

sensation and the sound it produced Nikola asked his father, he explains to his son that it was

the same phenomenon that happens with the tress when there are a storm, which is called

electricity. Since that moment, Nikola dedicated his life to solving that mystery (Gavalda,

2019).

At the age of 17, Nikola Tesla got sick with Cholera, and it was so bad, so his father

promised him that when he recovered, he would go to the best engineering university. Nine

months later, Nikola recovered and went to the Polytechnic Institute in Graz in Austria and

there began the idea to give free energy to the entire world. After that, in the 1870s he

traveled to Vienna and then started to work at the Central Telephone Exchange (“Nikola

Tesla”, 2015). In 1884, Nikola immigrated to New York; where he visited the person who

changed his life forever, Thomas Alva Edison. Nikolas carried a letter of recommendation

made by his last boss in Europe with him, for which Edison hired Tesla that same day.

However, with the passing of the time their relation became increasingly difficult and distant

because Edison defended the direct current and Tesla the alternating current.

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 In 1886, Tesla funded his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing, but

the first investors did not agree with the Nikola’s plans, so they relieved him the position. Still

in New York, Tesla continued working his next inventions.

Among all his inventions, the most famous were alternate currents, lights, x-rays,

radio, electric motor, remote control, robotic, laser, wireless communication, unlimited

energy. Those inventions started with alternate current; he said that alternate current could

pass through your body without any problem, which does not means that you can use your

body to pass energy to produce light.

Tesla was not crazy; he only wanted to provide security at a low cost. He showed that

the alternate current was not dangerous. Nikola was victim of many defamations, moved with

Edison's money but today is that energy which we use, alternate current.

Then the second invention was the Light. Of course, he did not invent the lights, but

he invented how the lights can be distributed. “Tesla developed and used fluorescent bulbs in

its lab about 40 years before the industry "invented" them” (“Los 10 inventos de Nikola Tesla

que cambiaron el mundo, 2012).

Then we have the x-rays and the radio, the x-ray is what today the doctor uses to know

what happens in our bones. This invention is one of the most important in the area of

medicine.

Tesla gave a huge step for humanity when he thought of robotics. Nikola believed in a future

full of smart cars, robots, the use of sensors, and autonomous systems, all these ideas today

are not fantasy, these are a reality and thanks to it exists Elon Musk the man who in honor of

Nikolas Tesla opened an empire where energy, electricity is essential today.

One of his many problems was with Marconi, who is credited with the radio’s invention and

for which Marconi won a Nobel Prize in 1990, even though Tesla had patented the idea in

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1886. Finally, in 1943 the Supreme Court of the United States returns to Nikola Tesla patent

of the radio, which had been in possession of Marconi (Gavalda, 2019).

Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943, when he was 86 years old, in a hotel in New

York. His funeral had more than two thousand people. The United Stated Government

intervened his office and seized many documents, until years later his family managed to

recover some of them.

After know I little more about Nikola Tesla’s life I can say that it teach me that if

something in I believe seems impossible or ridiculous I have to keep believing because

everything is possible and the second thing is that each victory has behind its defeat or

difficulty.

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References

Gavalda, J (2019, 07 10) Nikola Tesla, el genio de la electricidad. Historia National

Geographic. Retrieved from https://historia.nationalgeographic.com.es/a/nikola-tesla-

genio-electricidad_14494

“Los 10 inventos de Nikola Tesla que cambiaron el mundo”. (2012, 04 22). La Vida Lucida

Retrieved from https://www.lavidalucida.com/los-10-inventos-de-nikola-tesla-

que.html

“Milutin Tesla” (2016, 09 12). Find a Gave. Retrieved from

https://es.findagrave.com/memorial/169853651/milutin-tesla

“Nikola Tesla” (2015, 02 26). Biography. Retrieved from

https://www.biography.com/inventor/nikola-tesla