Overview of Nikola Tesla
| Birth | Death | Nationality | Key Contributions | Awards and Honors | Trivia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| July 10, 1856 (Smiljan, Croatia) | January 7, 1943 (New York City) | Serbian-American | Alternating Current (AC) electrical systems, Induction Motor, Polyphase Systems, Wireless Technology | Edison Medal, IEEE Nikola Tesla Award, Tesla Unit | Spoke 8 languages, claimed to only sleep 2 hours per night, obsessive compulsive habits, unusual visions |
Nikola Tesla was one of the most influential electrical engineers and energy scientists whose pioneering inventions established the backbone of modern power and communication systems. Though often overshadowed publicly by the more entrepreneurial Thomas Edison during his life, Tesla‘s prescient visions of wireless networks and remote control anticipate technologies that have become integral to 21st century living. His mastery and creative application of electricity in countless unprecedented ways make Tesla one of the most disruptive inventors whose work profoundly impacted society.
Early Life and Education
Tesla was born in 1856 amidst lightning storms raging over his small hometown of Smiljan in the Austo-Hungarian Empire (modern day Croatia). His father, an Orthodox Christian priest, wanted the young Tesla to join the clergy but his mother recognized intellectual talents that favored science. By age 3, Tesla was said to have remarkable skills at calculating mathematical sequences entirely in his head. Tesla possessed an acute photographic memory and ability to mentally visualize in 3D spatially-complex mechanical systems that exceeded what peers could imagine on paper.
As early as age 5, the young Tesla fashioned a tiny waterwheel driven by an insect-sized turbine demonstrating an innate understanding of fluid and energy mechanics. Tesla’s sister died when he was 5 which his mother believed deeply traumatized him. He later recounted enduring powerful flashes of light and visions that would spontaneously appear throughout life often revealing new inventions. He considered these his greatest gift but medical experts suggest he may have suffered some forms of obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD), anxiety, depression and synesthesia.
Despite personal difficulties likely linked to underlying mental health conditions, Tesla excelled academically. Teachers remarked how he often corrected their lectures rather than being taught. In advanced mathematics and science, Tesla’s abilities surpassed available schooling options as shown below:
| Subject | Schooling Level | Tesla‘s Functional Level |
|---|---|---|
| Arithmetic | College Graduate | Ability by age 8 |
| Geometry | Post-Graduate | Mastery by age 12 |
| Algebra/Calculus | Post-Graduate | Self-taught mastery by age 16 |
| Classical Physics | Post-Graduate | Self-mastered extended physics by age 19 |
Tesla enrolled briefly at the Austrian Polytechnic School in 1875 pursuing an electrical engineering degree. While a student, Tesla gambled skillfully in billiards, chess and card games to earn income after his father died. But after losing his tuition subsidy, Tesla departed prior to graduating once seeing little benefit from more advanced studies. He later attended University of Prague but stopped attending lectures altogether after the first year, opting to study independently instead. Eager to establish his inventions, he left Prague early without completing any college degree.
Early Career and Work with Edison‘s Company
After leaving school and several years abroad attempting unsuccessfully to start an engineering company with financial partners, the 28-year old Tesla arrived in New York in 1884 equipped with ambitious ideas but lacking capital and connections. With a letter of referral in hand, he gained an engineering role at Edison‘s Machine Works company despite limited experience.
Edison‘s team was still wrestling with maximizing the performance, safety and reliability of early direct current (DC) based electric power systems. The table below summarizes technical factors that distinguished operation of DC systems that Edison advocated from alternating current (AC) systems that Tesla sought to develop:
| Comparison Factor | Direct Current (DC) | Alternating Current (AC) |
|---|---|---|
| Waveform Polarity | Uni-directional current | Bi-directional current |
| Voltage Control | Difficult – big generators needed | Simple – use transformers |
| Power Transmission Efficiency | Lower – 10% power loss per 100 miles | Higher – only 5% loss per 1000 miles |
| Load Control | Limited ability to start/stop power | Full control over load powering on/off |
| Safety | Very dangerous – high voltage required | Safer and more controllable |
| Cost | Generally less efficient so higher long-term cost | Superior efficiency with lower long-term cost |
On numerous occasions, Tesla diagnosed root causes of equipment issues and suggested system improvements that were initially dismissed but later proven by management to work. Edison offered verbal praise but no bonus Tesla felt he had been promised. After less than a year working without contract, Tesla quit Edison‘s company as differences over direct versus alternating current became obvious. Despite lack of formal recognition at Edison for his efforts, Tesla leveraged this initial US experience to advance his own ambitious plans.
Pioneering Work on AC Systems and Induction Motor Inventions
Tesla quickly attracted alternative investors and founded the Tesla Electric Company in 1887 to develop proof of concept versions of AC-based inventions he envisioned. Within a year, he filed over 30 patents around fundamentally new AC technologies still widely used today – polyphase alternating current motors, multiphase generators and transformers, long-distance high voltage transmission lines and corresponding energy measurement/metering systems.
The key novelty Tesla introduced was the concept of distributing power delivery into multiple, alternating pathways instead of a single direction. This allowed energy transmission over vastly longer distances with reduced power losses compared to Edison‘s direct current standard. Transformers stepped
Tesla’s induction motor applied a rotating magnetic field created within windings of his new Alternating Current Motor to drive smooth torque. By avoiding troublesome mechanical commutators needed to spark rotations in direct current motors, Tesla‘s revolutionary device was synchronized entirely by magnetic fields using precisely timed pulses of AC current. Friendlier and more energetically-efficient, this prototype embodied the profound advantages of AC power for scalable, controllable distributed power systems that ushered in the 2nd Industrial Revolution.
Despite demonstrations of functional AC devices, the science establishment struggled to grasp radical new theories and equations developed by the futuristic inventor now in his early 30‘s. Tesla lacked credentials and suffered ridicule as an undereducated Eastern European with exaggerated claims until fateful meetings with George Westinghouse changed everything. Recognizing tremendous commercial potential after witnessing Tesla‘s early prototypes, Westinghouse acquired over 40 of Tesla‘s patents in 1888 which provided intellectual property protection and development facilities for incubating new generations of polyphase equipment. Within a decade after being commercialized by Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Tesla‘s AC system inventions became the global standard for efficient generation and delivery of modern electric power as this infographic illustrates:
Tesla‘s AC Induction Motor Design (Credit: inventorspath.com)
"Of all my inventions, I consider the rotating magnetic field and induction motor, which made long distance distribution of electrical power possible, the most valuable." – Nikola Tesla
By 1895 when Tesla’s AC equipment first lit the Chicago World‘s Fair pavilions, both the scientific establishment and public witnessed that a new technological era had emerged. Within 5 years this more flexible and less hazardous form of electricity catalyzed demand beyond early commercial/lighting applications into every sector from industrial manufacturing to electrified public transit systems. As the AC system grew globally dominant by the turn of the century, Tesla royalties made him a millionaire allowing focus to shift to other futuristic concepts before unforeseen reversals.
Prolific Inventor: Radio, X-rays, Beam Weapons and Cosmic Theories
In between pioneering work on AC systems that transformed modern civilization, Tesla somehow still found time to seed numerous other disruptive inventions spanning wireless communications, medical devices, exotic energy sources, turbines and theoretical physics. He possessed an uncanny intuition to identify unmet needs and propose solutions to problems not yet defined.
A prolific inventor and technology visionary, Tesla:
- Demonstrated wireless remote control boats, torpedo-like machines and vehicle guidance systems as early as 1898
- Transmitted first ever radio signals 2 years before either Marconi or Popov achieved wireless telegraphy
- Built remarkably sophisticated beam transmitting devices and oscillators
- Accidentally produced X-ray images with high energy electrical discharges before Roentgen
- Designed prototypes and secured patents for bladeless, frictionless turbines and pumps seeking to revolutionize energy mechanics
- Published theories about cosmic rays and particle energy flows between Earth and outer space that preceded modern astrophysics explanations
- Promoted concepts for directed energy weapons he claimed could obliterate aircraft and entire armies to support peace
Such incredible range of complex yet plausible innovations literally flowed out of Tesla‘s hyperactive mind and uncontrolled work schedule. Ever racing ahead with new ideas before sufficiently testing preceding ones, Tesla advanced technology broadly but left unanswered questions all around. Lacking entrepreneurial skills or focused strategic direction to identify and nurture his best inventions to fruition was perhaps Tesla‘s Achilles‘ heel. Nonetheless, Tesla will be forever admired for the sheer volume and variety of breakthrough concepts he introduced during three prolific decades even while wrestling internal demons.
Wardenclyffe, Personal Eccentricities and Unfulfilled Visions
By 1900, renowned financier J.P. Morgan was intrigued enough by demonstrations of wireless power transmission to fund construction of an ambitious new facility for Tesla on Long Island called Wardenclyffe Towers. Morgan’s large investment reflected confidence that Tesla was indeed technically capable of achieving his far-reaching, futuristic visions that intermixed wireless communications, television and delivery of electric power globally. Tower construction commenced in 1901 to support a planned World Telegraphy Center for simultaneous wireless transmission of messages, news reports plus stunning claims of eventual telephonic communiques and even power beamed to any terrestrial point.
As delays and costs overruns mounted, Morgan eventually withdrew funding in 1905 before operational testing commenced from the still incomplete tower. Tesla spent his remaining funds unsuccessfully courting new investors but was forced to abandon Wardenclyffe site altogether in 1917. Along with the folded grand project, Tesla‘s reputation waned while still clinging to theoretical ideas lacking solid experimental verification beyond visionary conjecture.
Rare Photo of Tesla sitting in his Lab in Colorado Springs 1899 (Credit: Getty Images)
Tesla relocated to Colorado Springs lab between 1899-1900 seeking insights into wireless technology and equipment properties at high altitude. In specially designed enormous coils, Tesla explored intensely pulsating AC frequencies and voltage levels seeking standing wave resonance with Earth itself using the Schumann cavity existing between ionosphere and ground. Through launches of blinding, buzzing electrical discharges tens of meters long, Tesla studied how energy might be broadcast as signals or power. But aside from sparks and pyrotechnics that wowed audiences, his largely solitary experiments achieved no major breakthrough.
Tesla’s extreme work habits likely also took a toll over these intense years without concrete progress. He claimed to sleep only 2 hours nightly from 2-3 AM. Yet he often worked through the night until 11 AM next morning. Tesla despised jewelry and round objects. He became obsessed with cleaning dishes exactly 3 times before meals. Tesla only dined in groups of 3 persons. But Tesla also periodically experienced complete mental breakdowns. Despite being polyglot in 8 languages, Tesla had difficulty expressing emotions as social anxiety and germophobia multiplied later in life. The eclectic genius who electrified the whole world increasingly withdrew to hotel rooms trusting only the white pigeons who visited him daily.
While patents still occasionally flowed around new bladeless pump/turbine designs, cosmic energy devices and VTOL aircraft before his death at age 86 in 1943, Tesla’s most brilliant era contributing practical inventions had clearly passed even as he remained anchored to visions far beyond his time. Lacking self-promotion skills and any business success to monetize brilliant ideas, Tesla’s pioneering breakthroughs were frequently unheralded or attributed to others like Edison, Marconi and Westinghouse who built vast empires from derivatives of Tesla’s initial creations. Despite devolving into an eccentric, reclusive figure, Tesla‘s original masterpieces still form the foundation for significant modern technologies so fundamental to contemporary life that the true depth of his influence cannot be overstated. No wonder Tesla has experienced resurgence as an iconic technology superhero waving the flag of geeks and misfits alike!
Conclusion – Titan of Electricity‘s Legacy Lives On
While more commercially-savvy inventors like Edison and Ford overshadowed the poor Serbian immigrant in popular fame during his lifetime after initial AC power system successes, Tesla‘sCollectively, Tesla‘s inventions enabled creation from intangible ideas and nature‘s forces tools that built industries and reshaped civilization itself.
