Nikola Tesla - Part 2

Tesla then resigned from Edison’s company after he was refused a raise to $25 a week and he went on to form his own company, Tesla Electric-Light and Manufacturing. However, his company didn’t work out and Tesla became jobless and eventually worked in New York as a common laborer. This was Tesla’s lowest part in his life. In this time though, he developed his alternating current induction motor and demonstrated it to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. George Westinghouse, an American entrepreneur, got in contact with Tesla and bought all of his AC patents for a million dollars plus royalty of $1/hp produced. Tesla then began developing the principles for the Tesla coil and worked for Westinghouse for a year. After working for Westinghouse, Tesla went back to his New York laboratory to work on and investigate X-rays.

In 1891, Tesla became a naturalized US citizen at 35 years old. He then established two laboratories both in New York and used them to experiment. In those laboratories he provided evidence for the potential of wireless transmission. Tesla then went on to serve as Vice President of AIEE from 1892-94. At his time there, he investigated high frequency alternating currents, generated an alternating current of 1 million volts using the Tesla coil, designed tuned circuits, invented a machine for inducing sleep, and invented cordless discharge lamps. He also transmitted electro-magnetic energy without wires, which was the first radio transmitter, and he started microwave technology when he showed the heating effect on high frequency current. In 1893 Tesla used his AC power to illuminate the world’s fair and also showcased many of his inventions there. Tesla’s contribution to AC power really became prevalent when, in 1896, the world’s first large scale power plant producing AC power was set up at Niagara Falls. This also showed its superiority over Edison’s DC power. This kicked off the “war on currents” between Edison’s DC current vs. Tesla’s AC current.

In 1894, Columbia and Yale Universities gave Tesla honorary doctoral degrees. He was also given the Elliot Cresson Medal by the Franklin Institute and, in 1934; Philadelphia gave him the John Scott Medal for his polyphase power system. Tesla also became an honorary member of the National Electric Light Association and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  As you can see, Tesla’s influence was greatly shown in his amount of medals and awards that were given to him.

End of Part 2.

 

Who was Nikola Tesla - Part 1

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in a small town in The Austria–Hungary border province of modern day Republic of Croatia. A priest and an illiterate mother raised him, however, he claimed to have gotten his inventiveness from his mother. He also had an older brother and three sisters but when his talented brother died at the age of 12, Tesla found himself under extreme pressure to perform as well as his older brother. At that point, Tesla gained the inner strength to become the ingenious inventor that he eventually became. 

Tesla went to school in Karlovac, Croatia at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, where he studied electrical engineering and alternating current. After going studying at the Austrian Polytechnic, Tesla’s father convinced him to study at a branch of the University of Prague. Unfortunately, after only one term there, Tesla’s father died and he dropped out of the University of Prague. 

In 1881, Tesla moved to Budapest Hungary where he worked for a telegraph company (The American Telephone Company). He quickly became the chief electrician at the company and later he became the engineer for the country’s first telephone system! At his time with the company, he even invented what could have been the first loudspeaker! A year later Tesla moved to Paris and worked as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company where he designed improvements to the electric equipment. Also, in his time at the Continental Edison Company, he developed various devices that used rotating magnetic fields.

One of the administrators of the CEC noticed Tesla’s outstanding ability and urged him to move to America. The administrator recommended Tesla to the great Thomas Edison and, in 1884, Tesla moved to the US and began working for Edison. Edison offered Tesla $50,000 if he could completely redesign the company’s direct current generators. Unfortunately, Edison never gave Tesla the money calling the $50,000 deal “American Humor”.

End of Part 1.