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.