Nikola Tesla Biography

Mon, 07 Sep 2009 21:04:14 +0100

Early Life

Nikola Tesla's early life is not very well documented. From what is known, Nikola Tesla was born in the town of Smiljan, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now located in Croatia, but Tesla's family is of Serbian origin. His father, Milutin Tesla was a priest in an Serbian Orthodox church, while his mother, Đuka, who although never learned how to read, had a knack of inventing household farming tools. He was one of their 5 children.

Tesla went on to study electrical engineering in the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz. While it is said that he originally intended to study physics and mathematics, he was fascinated by the uses and working of electricity and went on to specialize in that. It is still debated if he has actually completed his baccalaureate degrees in Graz. The reason for this argument is that the university claims, he left in the first semester of his third year, never to return again. In between, on the insistence of his father Tesla attended the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague, but left after the death of his father.

Intermediate Years

In 1882, he got a job with the reputed Continental Edison Company in Paris. While working there, he is said to have conceived the induction motor and other devices that would use rotating magnetic fields. In 1884, he came to the United States, and began working for Edison Machine Works. While working under the great Thomas Alva Edison, he was given the responsibility of reworking the entire system of motors and generators in order to make it more efficient. For all his effort, Edison promised him US$ 50000. Tesla claims that after he completed his arduous task, Edison did not fulfill his part of the promise and instead paid Tesla a mere US$ 18 for a week. Infuriated, Tesla left Edison Machine Works.

Along the course he also had to work as a manual laborer to raise funds. In the meanwhile, he fine-tuned his ideas for a AC polyphase system. During that time he also constructed his brushless alternating current induction motor and the Tesla coil, which would enable transmission of alternating current over a longer distance. He was said to be obsessed with the alternating current, and his craze was rewarded when George Westinghouse chose to believe in his theses and decided to work with him. He portrayed the uses of AC in a slightly negative light, but eventually people decided that AC is indeed a great substance and a hydro-electric power station was built over the Niagara Falls was built, as a testament to the genius of Nikola Tesla.

Nikola Tesla then continued his works in the fields of wireless transmission of energy. He foresaw the use of radars and X-rays. He was also a firm advocator of geo-thermal and solar energy.

Death

Great as he was, he wasn't quite the best when it came to managing his finances. He used up his money quite injudiciously and became eccentric owing to a progressive Germ phobia. He died penniless, after he sold all his patents, in the New Yorker Hotel in 1943. It is said that he left a mountain of debts behind him.

PBS - Empires: The Roman Empire in The First Century (2001)

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 05:05:28 +0100

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Nikola Tesla Biography

PBS - Empires: The Roman Empire in The First Century (2001)