$1,000
Nikola Tesla
Net Worth
Born in (City)
Smiljan
Born in (Country)
Croatia
Date of Birth
10th December, 1856
Date of Death
07th December, 1943
Mother
Đuka Tesla
Father
Milutin Tesla
About
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian American engineer who was born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, Lika. During that time, it was a part of the Austo Hungarian empire, a region of Croatia. The US state of New York and many other states in the USA proclaimed July 10thTelson birthday as Nickola Tesla day. On July 10th, 1990 celebrating the 134th anniversary of scientist inventor, Nikola Tesla, many United States congressmen gave speeches in the house respectively. He made dozens of breakthroughs in the production, transmission, and application of electric power. Tesla is the inventor of the radio and modern electrical transmission systems. He registered over seven hundred patents worldwide. His father, Milutin Tesla was a Serbian (eastern) orthodox priest and his mother Djuke Mandic never received a formal education but was an inventor in her own right of the household application.
Early Life
Nikola Tesla symbolized a unifying force and inspiration for all nations in the name of peace and science. As he was growing, he showed remarkable imagination, creativity, and poetic touch. Telsa was the fourth of five children. He had three sisters Milka, Angelia and Marica. He has an older brother Dane who was killed in a horse-riding accident when Tesla was five years old. In 1861, Tesla attended primary school in Smilijan where he studied German, arithmetics, and religion. In 1862 his family moved to nearby Gospic where he completed primary and middle schooling. In 1870, he attended high school at the Real Gymnasium in Karlovac. During his student life, Tesla wrote a letter that he becomes interested in the demonstration of electricity due to his Physics professor. By this time, Tesla was able to perform Integral Calculus in his head from a very young age.
Road to Success
After completing his graduation from university, Tesla returned to Smiljan. He was affected by Cholera and was bedridden for nine months and had a near-death experience multiple times. During this time Tesla's father promised to send him to the best engineering school if he recovered from the illness. Tesla studied at the Realschule, Karistatt in 1873, the polytechnic institute in Graz, Austria, and the University of Prague. At first, intended to specialize in Physics and Mathematics, but later he became interested and fascinated with electricity. He began his career as an electrical engineer with a telephone company in Budapest in 1881.
In 1882, Tesla went to work in continental Edison Company, Paris. When Tesla was walking along with the friends, he found the solution to the rotating magnetic field as it is said to flash in his mind. He started to draw a diagram in the sand with the help of a stick by explaining the principle of the induction motor to his friends. This solution was a breakthrough invention and it became the fundamental principle in Physics and the basis of nearly all devices that use alternating current. While on assignment to Strassburg in 1883, after two hours he constructed his first induction motor. He sailed to America in 1884, arriving in New York with four cents, a few of his poems, and calculations for a flying machine.
After pointing out the inefficiencies of Edison's direct current electrical powerhouse. Nikola Tesla developed a polyphase alternating current system of generators, motors, and transformers which has forty basic U.S. patents on the system. He sold the patent rights to his system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors to the George Westing house. Tesla introduced his motors and electrical system in a classic paper, “A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers" which he delivered before the American Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1888.
On 30 July 1891, at the age of 35, Tesla became a naturalized citizen of the United States. In 1891, he invented the Tesla coil which we widely use today in radio sets, television sets, and other electrical equipment. In 1893, the world get astonished when Tesla is demonstrating the wonders of A.C electricity at the world Columbia exposition in Chicago. Alternating currents became standard power in the 20th century. This discovered to change the world completely. His alternating current induction motor is considered one of the tenth greatest discoveries of all time. The fluorescent light, laser beam, wireless communication, transmission of electrical energy, remote control. The money Tesla made from licensing his AC made him wealthy and have time and funds to pursue his own interest. Tesla and his hired staff conducted some of his significant work in the workshops.
He designed the first hydroelectric power plant in Niagara Falls in 1895. In 1896, the electrical review was published, and the first X-Ray of man was published. It was a product whose outcome was facilitated by Tesla who made X-Ray tubes of his design. At the same time, The Roentgen announced his discovery of X-Ray. During this period, he discovered an instrument to receive the radio wave. In 1915 he was severely disappointed when he reported that he and Edison were to share the Nobel prize. Tesla received the Edison medal in 1917 which is the highest honor in the American institute of electrical engineers.
Challenges
Tesla was quite impractical in financial and economic matters, which made him compulsive and he gradually developed germophobia. Tesla allowed himself only a few close friends. Among them were the writers Robert Wood Johnson, Mark Twain, and Francis Marion Crawford. Tesla had an eidetic memory. He read many works, memorizing complete books. He was a polyglot, speaking eight languages. Tesla never married, thus his whole life was devoted to the field of invention.
On 7th January 1943, at the age of 86, Tesla died. His body was found by his maid after she enters Tesla’s room by ignoring the Do Not Disturb sign. Assistant medical examiner H.W. Wembley examined the body and ruled the cause of death due to coronary thrombosis.
Failures
One of the failures of Tesla during his times of early invention was his electrical light company which was set to manufacture fluorescent tubes and single-electrode carbon bulbs in 1898-1899. However, when investor JJ Astor contributed one million dollars to his company, Tesla decided to shut down the company and used a proceeding of the money to build a radio lab in Colorado. Because of this move by Tesla, Astor canceled the rest of the payments for his company and his efforts were given up halfway. This gave way to Edison's cheaper but less efficient bulbs to be more successful and become a household name everywhere around the world.
Achievements
Tesla patented the Polyphase Alternating Current induction motor in 1887 which was used in radio sets all around the world.|Tesla was instrumental in building one of the first hydroelectric plants|Nikola Tesla created one of the world's first wireless remote controls.
Quotes
- If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.
- I don't care that they stole my idea . . I care that they don't have any of their own.
- The present is theirs; the future, for which I really worked, is mine.