Life

Nikola Telsa was born in the Austrian Empire in 1856, and died in 1943. He 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) electricity supply system.

In 1875 he attended university in Austria however he dropped out after three years

Telsa worked in a telegraph company and as an electrical engineer before emigrating to the united states
in 1844 to work for Thomas Edison

He soon set up laboratories and companies to develop a range of electrical devices

Today, Telsa is considered one of the most influential scientists of our time and even has an electrical car
company, Tesla Motors, named after him

Inventions

Alternating current; where he used thinner wires, higher voltage and could be used over longer
distances

Wireless communication; allows for signals to be sent over long distances. Tesla first demonstrated with
a remote control, which led to the invention of the t.v. remote control.

Resonant frequency of the earth. Discovered through his wireless experiments, which produced radio
waves capable of penetrating the earth.

Hydroelectricity. Built a hydroelectric plant on Niagara Falls to harness the energy of the flow of water.

The War of the Currents – Nikola Tesla vs Thomas Edison

Nikola Tesla transferred to America to work with Edison himself in 1844

Both had very different styles of approach when it came to new inventions.

Edison promised Tesla $50,000 if he could improve his prototypical dynamos used in his direct current
(DC) electricity system.

Tesla devoted months of work to this project and made significant progress. When he was done, Edison
insisted the whole idea had been a joke. Tesla then left the company to set up his own, the Tesla Electric
Light Company.

Tesla believed that his model of an alternating current (AC) was much more practical for large scale
applications, for example in power grids for large cities. It allowed power to be sent further and through
thinner wires than Edison’s direct current model.

Edison fought hugely against this new concept, claiming it was unsafe. He showed this by electrocuting a
number of local pets in public using an AC current.

Tesla won the war of the currents in the end, but it should be noted that most current household
appliances convert AC back to DC. This is to prevent massive surges of energy entering these appliances

The Importance of Tesla

He was 100 years ahead of his time; with mind blowing experiments

He persisted despite Edison’s slander

He changed how we see and use energy.

Alternating current particularly important; it allows us to plug anything into the wall and access the
current .

Relationship discovered between magnetic fields and alternating current make things like alternators
and transformers possible.

Beliefs

Tesla disagreed with the theory of atoms being composed of smaller subatomic particles, stating there
was no such thing as an electron creating an electric charge. He believed that if electrons existed at all,
they were some fourth state of matter or "sub-atom" that could exist only in an experimental vacuum
and that they had nothing to do with electricity.

Tesla was generally antagonistic towards theories about the conversion of matter into energy. He was
also critical of Einstein's theory of relativity,

Fun Facts

Tesla was born during a lightning storm

He rarely slept

He had photographic memory

He loved pigeons

He spoke 8 languages

Most of his inventions are mantained in secret

He wanted to build a death laser, which was a gun that would shoot a particle beam and anihilate entire
armies.