An inventor’s endeavor is essentially lifesaving. Whether he harnesses forces, improves devices, or provides new comforts and conveniences, he is adding to the safety of our existence. —Nikola Tesla (All quotations are from “My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla,” compiled and edited by Ben Johnston.)Born in a small village in the Balkans, Tesla dreamed often about improvements that would make life better and easier for all. He wanted “to harness the energies of nature to the service of man.” He believed it could only happen in “the Land of Golden Promise”—America—where dreams can come true.
Nikola Tesla was an engineer, physicist, inventor, visionary, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system. But there was much, much more.
Imagination and Dreams of Boyhood
Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, Lika County, in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, on July 10, 1856. Currently, Smiljan is part of Croatia. He was the second son of Georgina (Djuka) and Milutin Tesla. Reverend Tesla was a Serbian Orthodox priest, as was Djuka’s father, Nikola Mandić. Nikola Tesla said, “I was being intended from my very birth for the clerical profession and this thought constantly oppressed me.”Uninterested in a religious life, instead young Nikola was drawn to his mother’s intelligence and inventiveness. Djuka was the oldest of eight children. Although she was the only one in her family not to attend school, she may have been the most industrious and creative.
Djuka had a talent for making home craft tools and mechanical appliances and could memorize Serbian epic poems. Nikola credited his eidetic (sometimes colloquially labeled “photographic”) memory and creative abilities to his mother.
I was fascinated by a description of Niagara Falls I had perused, and pictured in my imagination a big wheel run by the Falls. I told my uncle that I would go to America and carry out this scheme. Thirty years later I saw my ideas carried out at Niagara and marveled at the unfathomable mystery of the mind.Although both his mother and father wanted Nikola to be a priest, after a serious bout with cholera as a teen, his parents allowed him to pursue his own interests. Only a few years after attending the Polytechnic School at Graz in Austria, and doing some minor jobs, Tesla started to outline the principle of an induction motor.
Employment in Europe, Then With Edison
Then, an opportunity to work as an electrical engineer took him to Budapest, where once again he struggled with illness. During a period when he was very sick, he visualized and drew out the principles of this new type of motor.The images I saw were wonderfully sharp and clear and had the solidity of metal and stone, so much so that I told him: “See my motor here; watch me reverse it.”Next, he was offered a position at the Continental Edison Company in France, where he was exposed to the work of his idol, Thomas Edison. Because of his outstanding work in Paris, he was “pressed” to go to America and work directly with Edison. His childhood dream of coming to America to harness the power of Niagara Falls was about to come to fruition.
Tesla set off for New York in 1884. Possibly due to theft or his penchant for gambling, he arrived with only four cents in his pocket.
Working as an engineer at Thomas Edison’s Manhattan headquarters, Tesla greatly impressed Edison. However, their divergent views on direct current (DC) versus alternating current (AC) led to what some called the “War of the Currents”—a war that Tesla would eventually win as AC proved to be a more efficient and inexpensive system for transmitting electricity across long distances. Tesla would soon quit the company over his disagreements with Edison and set out on his own.
Lighting Up Niagara Falls and New York
His Tesla Electric Light Company, however, was a failure. To support himself, the proud immigrant took a job digging ditches for $2 a day. All the while, he persisted and finally found backers to support his research in alternating current. In 1887 and 1888, he was granted over two dozen patents for his inventions. While addressing the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on his latest patents, Tesla caught the attention of Edison’s major competitor George Westinghouse, the inventor who had launched the first AC power system near Boston.Westinghouse hired Tesla, licensed the patents for his polyphase AC induction motor, and paid him royalties of $2.50 per horsepower of electrical capacity sold. This agreement had the potential to make Tesla one of the richest men in the world. However, Westinghouse’s backers soon forced the renegotiation of their contract, with Tesla giving up his royalty rights.
Using Tesla’s alternating current, George Westinghouse won the contract to electrify the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair—also known as the World’s Columbian Exposition. The use of AC was such a great success at the Fair that it convinced the Niagara Falls Power Company to award Westinghouse the contract to generate power from Niagara Falls. One of the world’s first hydroelectric power stations, the Niagara Falls plant would power Buffalo, New York, and soon thereafter electrify New York City. Of the 13 patents used in the project, Tesla owned 9. Tesla’s childhood dream had come true.
We have many a monument of past ages; we have the palaces and pyramids, the temples of the Greek and the cathedrals of Christendom. In them is exemplified the power of men, the greatness of nations, the love of art and religious devotion. But the monument at Niagara has something of its own, more in accord with our present thoughts and tendencies. It is a monument worthy of our scientific age, a true monument of enlightenment and of peace. It signifies the subjugation of natural forces to the service of man, the discontinuance of barbarous methods, the relieving of millions from want and suffering.By 1920, hydroelectric power would account for 25 percent of all electricity produced in the United States.
Citizenship and 300 Patents
In July 1891, another boyhood dream was realized as Tesla became a U.S. citizen.Tesla’s other inventions included the high-voltage transformer known as the Tesla coil, the neon lamp that lights up signs along the world’s roadways, and the Tesla turbine, a piston engine used to power automobiles. He experimented with X-rays, gave short-range demonstrations of radio communication, and, to the astonishment of observers at New York’s Madison Square Garden, piloted a radio-controlled boat around a pool. In all, he received over 300 patents.
When wireless is perfectly applied the whole earth will be converted into a huge brain, which in fact it is, all things being particles of a real and rhythmic whole. We shall be able to communicate with one another instantly, irrespective of distance. Not only this, but through television and telephony, we shall see and hear one another as perfectly as though we were face to face, despite intervening distances of thousands of miles; and the instruments through which we shall be able to do this will be amazingly simple compared with our present telephone. A man will be able to carry one in his vest pocket.Unfortunately, Tesla did not benefit financially from his inventions. He never had a great mind for business—he was more interested in research and improving the lives of others than making money. Several of his business ventures failed, and by the 1920s, he began to withdraw from the world.
He died in a small, New York hotel room on January 7, 1943, alone and without a penny to his name.
Only thru annihilation of distance in every respect, as the conveyance of intelligence, transport of passengers and supplies and transmission of energy will conditions be brought about some day, insuring permanency of friendly relations.
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