Nikola Tesla
Great PeopleWho He Was
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer born in 1856 in the village of Smiljan, in what is now Croatia (then the Austrian Empire). He emigrated to the United States in 1884 and became a naturalized citizen in 1891. His life's work centered on electricity: how to generate it, transmit it, and put it to work — and much of the technology behind the modern power grid traces back to his designs.
The AC Breakthrough
Tesla's central contribution was the practical alternating-current (AC) system, including the AC induction motor, for which he filed patents in 1887 and received them in 1888. Alternating current can be stepped up to high voltages and sent efficiently over long distances, then stepped back down for use — a decisive advantage over direct current for large-scale power. Industrialist George Westinghouse licensed Tesla's patents in 1888 and built a business around them.
The War of Currents
In the late 1880s and 1890s, Tesla and Westinghouse's AC competed against Thomas Edison's direct-current (DC) system in what became known as the 'War of Currents.' Edison did not fight fair: he waged a ruthless publicity campaign to paint AC as deadly. But AC ultimately won on the engineering merits, because it transmitted power far more efficiently across distance.
Lighting the World
Tesla's AC system had two landmark public triumphs. In 1893, Tesla and Westinghouse illuminated the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago with tens of thousands of lamps, showcasing AC to millions of visitors. Then in 1896, the first large hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls sent AC power roughly 32 kilometers to the city of Buffalo, proving that alternating current could electrify the world.
Wireless Dreams and Wardenclyffe
Tesla pioneered high-frequency and wireless technology — the Tesla coil (1891), and in 1898 a radio-controlled boat demonstrated at Madison Square Garden. In 1901 he began the ambitious Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island, hoping to transmit power and messages wirelessly. Funding from J.P. Morgan ran out, the staff was laid off by 1906, and the tower was later dismantled for scrap — Tesla's grandest project never worked as he had envisioned.
Death and Legacy
Tesla spent his final years in debt, living quietly in New York hotels and famously feeding pigeons in the parks. He died alone on January 7, 1943, at age 86, in Room 3327 of the Hotel New Yorker. Though overshadowed in his lifetime, his reputation soared afterward: in 1960 the international unit of magnetic flux density, the 'tesla,' was named in his honor.
Key Dates to Remember
- 1856 — Born in Smiljan
- 1884 — Arrives in New York
- 1888 — Westinghouse licenses AC motor
- 1893 — Lights the Chicago World's Fair
- 1896 — Niagara Falls AC power plant
- 1901 — Begins Wardenclyffe Tower
- 1943 — Dies in a NYC hotel room