Nikola Tesla's Life

Nikola Tesla, born on July 10, 1856, and died on January 7, 1943, was a Serbian-American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, and futurist. He is best known for his significant contributions to the development of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system.

Tesla was born and raised in the Austrian Empire and pursued studies in engineering and physics in the 1870s. Although he didn't receive a degree, he gained practical experience in the telephony and electric power industry. In 1884, he immigrated to the United States and became a naturalized citizen. After a brief period at the Edison Machine Works, Tesla established his own laboratories and companies in New York to develop various electrical and mechanical devices.

His most notable invention was the alternating current (AC) induction motor, along with related patents, which were licensed by Westinghouse Electric in 1888. This invention earned Tesla a substantial amount of money and formed the basis for the polyphase system marketed by Westinghouse.

In addition to his work on AC systems, Tesla conducted experiments in mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, X-ray imaging, and even wirelessly controlled boats. He gained fame as an inventor and often showcased his achievements to celebrities and wealthy individuals through public lectures. Tesla's interests also extended to wireless lighting and worldwide wireless electric power distribution, which he explored through high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs during the 1890s.

Tesla's most ambitious project was the Wardenclyffe Tower, intended for intercontinental wireless communication and power transmission. However, due to a lack of funding, the project remained unfinished. In the following years, Tesla continued to experiment with various inventions, but he faced financial difficulties and lived in New York hotels, leaving behind unpaid bills. He passed away in January 1943.

After Tesla's death, his work experienced a period of relative obscurity until the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic flux density the "tesla" in his honor in 1960. Since the 1990s, there has been a renewed interest in Tesla's life and contributions, leading to a resurgence in his popularity.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in the village of Smiljan in the Austrian Empire, which is now part of Croatia. He belonged to an ethnic Serb family. His father, Milutin Tesla, was an Eastern Orthodox Church priest, while his mother, Đuka Mandić, came from a family of priests and possessed skills in crafting tools and mechanical appliances, as well as an ability to memorize Serbian epic poems. Despite not receiving a formal education, Đuka's influence and genetics were credited by Tesla for his eidetic memory and creative abilities. Tesla's ancestors hailed from western Serbia near Montenegro.

Among five siblings, Tesla had three sisters named Milka, Angelina, and Marica, as well as an older brother named Dane, who tragically died in a horse riding accident when Tesla was just five years old. In 1861, Tesla began attending primary school in Smiljan, where he studied subjects such as German, arithmetic, and religion. The Tesla family later moved to Gospić, where Nikola's father served as a parish priest. Tesla completed his primary education there and continued to middle school. In 1870, he relocated to Karlovac to attend high school at the Higher Real Gymnasium, where classes were conducted in German, as was the norm in schools within the Austro-Hungarian Military Frontier.

According to Tesla's own account, his interest in electricity was sparked by the demonstrations given by his physics professor. These captivating displays of "mysterious phenomena" fueled Tesla's desire to delve deeper into the subject. Tesla possessed exceptional mathematical abilities and was capable of performing integral calculus mentally. His remarkable skills led his teachers to suspect him of cheating. Despite this, he managed to complete a four-year term in just three years, graduating in 1873.

Upon returning to Smiljan after graduation, Tesla fell seriously ill with cholera, which left him bedridden for nine months and brought him close to death multiple times. During this challenging period, Tesla's father, who had originally wanted him to become a priest, made a promise. If Tesla recovered, his father would send him to the finest engineering school. Tesla eventually regained his health.

The following year, Tesla evaded conscription into the Austro-Hungarian Army in Smiljan by running away to Tomingaj, near Gračac, where he roamed the mountains dressed as a hunter. Tesla believed that his close contact with nature during this time strengthened him physically and mentally. He spent his days reading a variety of books, and he later attributed his miraculous recovery from his previous illness to the influence of Mark Twain's writings.

In 1875, Tesla enrolled at the Imperial-Royal Technical College in Graz on a scholarship from the Military Frontier. In his autobiography, Tesla described his diligent efforts, earning top grades, passing numerous exams (almost twice the required amount), and receiving a commendation letter from the dean of the technical faculty addressed to his father, praising Tesla as a brilliant student. Tesla was particularly captivated by the lectures on electricity delivered by Professor Jakob Pöschl. He even offered suggestions for improving the design of an electric motor demonstrated by the professor. However, Tesla's academic performance began to decline in his third year, and he ultimately left Graz in December 1878 without graduating.

While there are different accounts, one biographer suggests that Tesla's academic struggles in Graz may have been due to a lack of focus, possibly related to gambling and pursuing romantic relationships.

After leaving school, Tesla's family had no communication from him, leading to rumors among his classmates that he had drowned in the nearby river. However, in January, one of his classmates encountered Tesla in the town of Maribor in Slovenia and informed Tesla's family about the encounter. It turned out that Tesla had been working there as a draftsman, earning 60 florins per month. In March 1879, Tesla's father, Milutin, located him and tried to persuade him to return home and continue his education in Prague. Tesla did return to Gospić later that month, but he was eventually deported due to not having a residence permit. Sadly, Tesla's father passed away the following month at the age of 60.

During the remainder of that year, Tesla taught a large class of students at his former school in Gospić. In January 1880, two of Tesla's uncles gathered enough money to assist him in leaving Gospić and traveling to Prague for his studies. However, when he arrived in Prague, it was already too late to enroll at Charles-Ferdinand University. He lacked the necessary qualifications in Greek and was also illiterate in Czech. Nonetheless, Tesla attended philosophy lectures at the university as an auditor, but he did not receive grades for those courses.

In 1881, Tesla relocated to Budapest, Hungary, where he secured a position at the Budapest Telephone Exchange under Tivadar Puskás. However, upon his arrival, Tesla discovered that the company was still under construction and not yet operational. He ended up working as a draftsman at the Central Telegraph Office instead. Eventually, the Budapest Telephone Exchange became functional, and Tesla was appointed as the chief electrician. During his time there, Tesla made numerous improvements to the Central Station equipment and claimed to have developed a telephone repeater or amplifier, although he did not patent or publicly disclose it.

In 1882, Puskás helped Tesla secure a job with the Continental Edison Company in Paris. Tesla played a significant role in installing indoor incandescent lighting throughout the city. He gained valuable practical experience in electrical engineering during his time there. Tesla's expertise in engineering and physics caught the attention of management, who assigned him to design and build improved versions of generating dynamos and motors. He was also sent to troubleshoot engineering issues at other Edison utilities in France and Germany.

Following his departure from the Edison company, Tesla focused on patenting an arc lighting system, potentially the same one he had developed during his time there. In March 1885, he sought the assistance of patent attorney Lemuel W. Serrell, who had previously worked with Edison, to help with the patent submissions. Through Serrell, Tesla was introduced to businessmen Robert Lane and Benjamin Vail, who agreed to provide financial support for Tesla's venture. Together, they established the Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing Company, with the aim of manufacturing arc lighting systems and establishing a utility company.

Throughout the year, Tesla worked diligently on obtaining patents for his inventions, including an improved direct current (DC) generator. These patents marked Tesla's initial successes in the United States. He also built and installed the lighting system in Rahway, New Jersey. Tesla's innovative system attracted attention in the technical press, which praised its advanced features.

However, Tesla's investors showed little interest in his ideas for new types of alternating current (AC) motors and electrical transmission equipment. Once the utility was operational in 1886, they decided to focus solely on running an electric utility and deemed the manufacturing aspect too competitive. As a result, they formed a new utility company, abandoning Tesla's enterprise and leaving him without financial support. Additionally, Tesla lost control of the patents he had assigned to the company in exchange for stock, further exacerbating his difficulties. Struggling to make ends meet, Tesla took on various electrical repair jobs and even worked as a ditch digger for a meager wage of $2 per day. Reflecting on this challenging period later in life, Tesla described it as a time of hardship and lamented that his extensive education in various scientific and literary fields felt futile.

In the latter part of 1886, Tesla crossed paths with Alfred S. Brown, a superintendent at Western Union, and Charles Fletcher Peck, a New York attorney experienced in promoting inventions and patents for financial gain. Recognizing the potential of Tesla's new electrical equipment ideas, including his concept for a thermo-magnetic motor, Brown and Peck agreed to provide financial backing and handle Tesla's patents. Together, they established the Tesla Electric Company in April 1887, with a profit-sharing agreement: one-third for Tesla, one-third for Peck and Brown, and one-third for further development.

A laboratory was set up for Tesla at 89 Liberty Street in Manhattan, where he dedicated his efforts to improving and inventing new types of electric motors, generators, and other devices. It was during this time, in 1887, that Tesla developed an induction motor designed to run on alternating current (AC), a power system format gaining popularity due to its advantages in long-distance, high-voltage transmission. Tesla's motor utilized polyphase current, which generated a rotating magnetic field to drive the motor. He claimed to have conceived this principle in 1882. The patented motor, which emerged in May 1888, was a simple self-starting design that eliminated the need for a commutator. This innovation prevented sparking and reduced the high maintenance associated with constantly servicing and replacing mechanical brushes.

Peck and Brown undertook efforts to publicize the motor. They arranged independent testing to validate its functional improvement and issued press releases to technical publications, coordinating articles to coincide with the patent's release. Physicist William Arnold Anthony conducted tests on the motor, and Thomas Commerford Martin, editor of Electrical World magazine, played a role in organizing a demonstration by Tesla at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on May 16, 1888. Engineers from the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company informed George Westinghouse about Tesla's viable AC motor and related power system, which Westinghouse needed for the AC system he was already promoting. While Westinghouse had previously explored the possibility of patenting a similar commutator-less, rotating magnetic field-based induction motor developed in 1885 by Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris, he recognized that Tesla's patent would likely have greater control over the market.

In July 1888, Brown and Peck engaged in negotiations with George Westinghouse to license Tesla's designs for the polyphase induction motor and transformer. The agreement entailed a payment of $60,000 in cash and stock, along with a royalty of $2.50 for each AC horsepower generated by the motors. As part of the deal, Westinghouse also recruited Tesla as a consultant for one year at a substantial fee of $2,000 per month (equivalent to $65,100 in today's currency), to work at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's laboratories in Pittsburgh.

During his time in Pittsburgh, Tesla's primary focus was on developing an alternating current system to power the city's streetcars. However, this period proved to be challenging and frustrating for Tesla due to disagreements with other engineers at Westinghouse over the best approach to implement AC power. Eventually, they settled on a 60-cycle AC system, proposed by Tesla to match the operating frequency of his motor. Unfortunately, they soon discovered that this system was unsuitable for streetcars because Tesla's induction motor could only operate at a constant speed. As a result, they had to resort to using a DC traction motor instead.

During the late 1880s, the electric industry was marked by intense competition and financial struggles among major players, including Westinghouse, Edison, and Thomson-Houston Electric Company.These companies were engaged in a fierce rivalry, engaging in a "war of currents" propaganda campaign, with Edison Electric promoting the superiority and safety of their direct current system and sometimes finding support from Thomson-Houston. In this highly competitive market, Westinghouse faced financial constraints and lacked the necessary resources to immediately develop Tesla's induction motor and the accompanying polyphase system.

Two years after entering into the contract with Tesla, Westinghouse Electric encountered significant difficulties. The financial panic of 1890, triggered by the near collapse of Barings Bank in London, led to a crisis, prompting investors to demand repayment of their loans to Westinghouse Electric. This sudden shortage of cash forced the company to refinance its debts, and the new lenders insisted on cost-cutting measures, including reducing expenditures on acquisitions, research, and patents, including the royalty payments specified in the Tesla contract per motor At that time, Tesla's induction motor had not yet achieved success and remained in the development stage. Despite the scarcity of operational examples of the motor and the limited availability of polyphase power systems required to run it, Westinghouse continued to pay a guaranteed annual royalty of $15,000. In early 1891, George Westinghouse candidly explained his financial predicament to Tesla, expressing the risk of losing control over Westinghouse Electric if he failed to meet the demands of his lenders, leaving Tesla to negotiate future royalties with the bankers.Recognizing the importance of Westinghouse's support for promoting his motor, Tesla agreed to release the company from the royalty payment clause in the contract. Six years later, Westinghouse purchased Tesla's patent for a lump sum payment of $216,000 as part of a patent-sharing agreement signed with General Electric, a company formed from the merger of Edison and Thomson-Houston in 1892.

Licensing his AC patents proved to be highly lucrative for Tesla, granting him financial independence and providing the resources and time to pursue his own interests. In 1889, Tesla moved out of the Liberty Street shop that had been rented by Peck and Brown and subsequently worked in various workshop and laboratory spaces in Manhattan over the next twelve years. These locations included a laboratory at 175 Grand Street (1889-1892), the fourth floor of 33-35 South Fifth Avenue (1892-1895), and the sixth and seventh floors of 46 & 48 East Houston Street (1895-1902). It was within these workshop settings that Tesla, along with his hired staff, conducted some of his most significant work.

During the summer of 1889, Tesla visited the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris, where he became aware of Heinrich Hertz's experiments conducted from 1886 to 1888, which confirmed the existence of electromagnetic radiation, including radio waves. Intrigued by this groundbreaking discovery, Tesla decided to delve deeper into the subject. In his attempts to harness this new knowledge, Tesla attempted to power a Ruhmkorff coil using a high-speed alternator he had been developing for an improved arc lighting system. However, he encountered difficulties as the high-frequency current caused overheating in the iron core and insulation melting between the primary and secondary windings of the coil. To overcome this issue, Tesla conceived the idea of an "oscillating transformer," which incorporated an air gap instead of insulating material between the primary and secondary windings, and an adjustable iron core that could be positioned inside or outside the coil. This device, later known as the Tesla coil, was capable of generating high-voltage, low-current, high-frequency alternating current electricity. Tesla would later utilize this resonant transformer circuit in his pioneering work on wireless power transmission.

Following 1890, Tesla dedicated his efforts to experimenting with the transmission of power through inductive and capacitive coupling, employing high AC voltages generated by his Tesla coil. His objective was to develop a wireless lighting system based on near-field inductive and capacitive coupling. Tesla conducted public demonstrations where he successfully illuminated Geissler tubes and even incandescent light bulbs from a distance across a stage. Throughout the decade, he collaborated with various investors, striving to refine this innovative form of lighting. Unfortunately, none of these endeavors achieved commercial success, despite Tesla's persistent efforts.

In 1893, at venues such as St. Louis, Missouri, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Electric Light Association, Tesla confidently expressed his belief that a system like his had the potential to transmit "intelligible signals or perhaps even power to any distance without the use of wires," accomplishing this through the conductivity of the Earth.

Additionally, Tesla held the position of vice-president at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers from 1892 to 1894, which served as the precursor to the present-day IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and the Institute of Radio Engineers

By the start of 1893, Westinghouse engineers Charles F. Scott and Benjamin G. Lamme had made significant advancements in developing an efficient version of Tesla's induction motor. Lamme devised a rotary converter that made the polyphase system compatible with existing single-phase AC and DC systems. With this breakthrough, Westinghouse Electric had a means to provide electricity to a wider range of customers and began marketing their polyphase AC system as the "Tesla Polyphase System." They believed that Tesla's patents granted them priority over other polyphase AC systems.

Westinghouse Electric invited Tesla to participate in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago, where the company secured a large space in the "Electricity Building" to showcase electrical exhibits. Having won the bid to illuminate the Exposition with alternating current, Westinghouse Electric played a pivotal role in the history of AC power. The company demonstrated the safety, reliability, and efficiency of their polyphase AC system to the American public. Moreover, they highlighted Tesla's induction motor through various displays, including a captivating demonstration called the Egg of Columbus, which utilized a two-phase coil to spin a copper egg and make it stand upright.

During the six-month run of the fair, Tesla visited for a week to attend the International Electrical Congress and conduct demonstrations at the Westinghouse exhibit. In a specially arranged darkened room, Tesla showcased his wireless lighting system, which he had previously demonstrated across America and Europe. The demonstrations involved using high-voltage, high-frequency alternating current to illuminate wireless gas-discharge lamps. An observer described Tesla's exhibit, where two hard-rubber plates covered with tin foil were suspended about fifteen feet apart. When the current was activated, lamps and tubes lying on a table between the plates or held in various parts of the room would emit light, despite not being connected by wires. This was the same experiment Tesla had presented in London two years prior, eliciting wonder and astonishment.

At the International Electrical Congress, held in the Agriculture Hall of the Columbian Exposition, Tesla introduced his steam-powered reciprocating electricity generator, which he had patented that year. He believed this invention offered a superior method of generating alternating current. The generator relied on steam being forced into the oscillator and exiting through a series of ports, causing a piston attached to an armature to move up and down. The rapid vibration of the magnetic armature produced an alternating magnetic field, inducing electric current in adjacent wire coils. While it eliminated the complexities of a traditional steam engine/generator, Tesla's oscillator did not gain traction as a practical solution for generating electricity.

In 1893, Edward Dean Adams, head of the Niagara Falls Cataract Construction Company, sought Tesla's advice on the most effective system for transmitting power generated at Niagara Falls. Numerous proposals and competitions had been held over the years to determine the best method, including two-phase and three-phase AC, high-voltage DC, and compressed air. Tesla recommended a two-phase system as the most reliable and informed Adams about Westinghouse Electric's two-phase AC system for lighting incandescent bulbs. Based on Tesla's advice and Westinghouse's successful demonstration at the Columbian Exposition, the company was awarded a contract to build a two-phase AC generating system at Niagara Falls. Simultaneously, General Electric received a separate contract to construct the AC distribution system.

Impressed by a tour of Tesla's laboratory, Edward Dean Adams agreed to help establish the Nikola Tesla Company in 1895. The company aimed to fund, develop, and market various patents and inventions by Tesla.

From 1894 onwards, Tesla directed his attention towards investigating what he termed as "invisible" radiant energy after observing damaged film in his laboratory during previous experiments. Unbeknownst to him at the time, this phenomenon would later be identified as "Roentgen rays" or "X-rays." His initial experiments involved working with Crookes tubes, which are cold cathode electrical discharge tubes. In a peculiar occurrence, Tesla may have unintentionally captured an X-ray image—a few weeks before Wilhelm Röntgen's official announcement of the discovery of X-rays—while attempting to photograph Mark Twain illuminated by a Geissler tube, an earlier form of gas discharge tube. However, the resulting image only displayed the camera lens's metal locking screw.

In March 1896, following Röntgen's revelation about X-rays and X-ray imaging (radiography), Tesla embarked on his own experiments in X-ray imaging. He developed a unique high-energy vacuum tube, devoid of a target electrode, which operated from the output of the Tesla coil. The modern term for the phenomenon produced by this device is bremsstrahlung or braking radiation. Tesla devised several experimental setups to generate X-rays, firmly believing that his circuits could produce more powerful Roentgen rays than ordinary apparatuses.

Throughout his research, Tesla acknowledged the risks associated with working on his circuit and single-node X-ray-producing devices. In his extensive notes on the early exploration of this phenomenon, he attributed skin damage to various causes. Initially, Tesla theorized that the damage was not caused by Roentgen rays themselves, but rather by ozone generated upon contact with the skin, and to a lesser extent, nitrous acid. Tesla mistakenly believed that X-rays were longitudinal waves, akin to those produced in plasmas. These plasma waves can manifest in force-free magnetic fields.

In a July 11, 1934 article published by the New York Herald Tribune, Tesla recalled an occasional occurrence while experimenting with his single-electrode vacuum tubes. He described a sensation of sharp stinging pain upon the entry and exit points of minute particles that broke off from the cathode and physically struck his body. Tesla drew a comparison between these particles and the bits of metal projected by his "electric gun," emphasizing that the particles in the beam of force would travel much faster and in concentrated concentrations.