Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in the village of Smiljan, then part of the Austrian Empire (present-day Croatia). Tesla’s family had a Serbian ancestry and were members of the Eastern Orthodox Church. Nikola completed primary school, followed by middle school, and in 1870, he attended high school at the Higher Real Gymnasium where instruction was conducted in German.
His interest in electricity was piqued by demonstrations in which his physics professor displayed its magical properties. Tesla’s ability to perform integral calculus in his head, prompted his teachers to believe that he was cheating. This ability was due in part to his eidetic memory that Tesla believed he had inherited from his mother. He finished a four-year term in three years, graduating in 1873.
In 1875, Tesla received a Military Frontier scholarship that enabled him to enrol at the Imperial-Royal Technical College in Graz where he studied engineering and physics. During his first two years, he took almost double the number of required courses and received the top marks, prompting the Dean to write to Nikola’s father, “Your son is a star of first rank.”. However, in his third year, for reasons that are a matter of speculation by his biographers, he failed his courses and dropped out, leaving the university and Graz in December 1878.
Tesla disappeared for several months and lost touch with his family, but in, March 1879, he returned and by January 1880 two of his uncles raised sufficient funds to enable Tesla to attend the University of Prague. However, Nikola attended only the classes in philosophy, but soon dropped out before earning his degree. He then moved to Budapest, Hungary in 1881, where he worked for telegraph and electrical power companies and then, in 1884, emigrated to the United States where he became a naturalized citizen.
In the United States, Tesla joined the Edison Machine Works and worked under Thomas Edison, focusing on improving direct current (DC) systems. However, Tesla soon developed his own ideas and vision for alternating current (AC) systems, which he believed to be more efficient and practical for transmitting electricity over long distances. This marked the beginning of the “War of Currents” between Tesla and Edison, with Tesla championing AC while Edison favored DC.
Tesla’s breakthrough came with the development of his Tesla coil, a high-voltage transformer capable of producing extremely high-frequency alternating currents. This invention paved the way for wireless power transfer and the exploration of radio waves. Tesla’s work on AC power systems and his inventions, such as the induction motor, laid the foundation for the modern electric power industry.
Throughout his career, Tesla obtained over 300 patents for his inventions and ideas, ranging from electrical devices to wireless communication systems. He envisioned a world powered by wireless electricity, and he conducted numerous experiments and demonstrations to support his theories. Tesla’s most ambitious project was the Wardenclyffe Tower, intended to provide wireless communication and power transmission across the globe, but it was never completed when he was unable to raise sufficient funds.
Despite his brilliance as an inventor, Tesla struggled financially throughout his life, often facing challenges in funding his projects and experienced several setbacks. Towards the later years of his life, Tesla became increasingly reclusive and focused on more unconventional and speculative ideas, such as wireless transmission of energy and communication with extraterrestrial beings.
Nikola Tesla passed away on January 7, 1943, in New York City at the age of 86. His contributions to the field of electrical engineering and his visionary ideas have left an enduring impact on modern technology. His work continues to inspire scientists, engineers, and inventors to this day, and he is widely regarded as one of the most important figures in the history of science and technology.
