Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was a world-famous physicist, a great inventor, scientist and engineer.

Tesla was born in the village of Smiljan in Lika, Croatia on July 10, 1856. He was one of five
children. His mother was Croatian and his father was a Serbian orthodox priest. He wanted his
son to become a priest too, but Nikola was only interested in science. He probably got his
talent from his mother, Djuka Mandic, who invented small household appliances in her free
time while her son was growing up. He finished elementary school in Smiljan and gymnasium
in Gospić. Then he went to study math and physics at the Technical University of Graz and
philosophy at the University of Prague. One day while he was walking he came up with the
idea for a brushless AC motor and made the first sketches of its rotating electromagnets in the
sand of the path. Two years later he immigrated to the United States. He arrived in New York
in 1884 and got a job as an engineer in Thomas Edison’s company. After he had a conflict with
Edison he decided to leave that job and started the Tesla Electric Light Company. Tesla
discovered, designed and developed ideas for many important inventions, but many of them
were patented by other inventors. He invented the Tesla coil, the magnifying transmitter, the
induction motor, the alternating current motor and many other things. He was a true genius
and had a brilliant mind, but all his inventions didn’t bring him any financial success. He
began building a global communications network in a giant tower but he ran out of money.
Tesla lived his last years in a New York hotel, poor and ill. He was working on his inventions
and feeding and talking to pigeons. He died in his room on January 7, 1943.

Nikola Tesla is still remembered as one of the most brilliant scientists and his inventions are
used all over the world. The most famous electric cars company wears his name.