The Forgotten Genius: The Inspiring Journey of Nikola Tesla

When we reflect on the greatest inventors of all time, names like Henry Ford, the Wright brothers, and Thomas Edison instantly spring to mind. However, there is one name that has been somewhat obscured by history: Nikola Tesla.

Tesla's genius reverberates through our daily lives every time we plug our phone in, turn on the lights, or use a refrigerator. Yet, his story begins with a tragic end. On January 7, 1943, the body of an 86-year-old man was discovered in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. Tesla died alone and penniless, surviving on a meager diet of warm milk and crackers while obsessing over feeding pigeons. This forgotten genius, one of the greatest inventors of all time, faded into obscurity, and his story holds an explanation as to why this happened.

Nikola Tesla was born in Smiljan, present-day Croatia, on July 10, 1856, during a tumultuous lightning storm. As a child, he experienced visions accompanied by flashes of light, blurring the line between reality and imagination. This remarkable ability allowed him to conceive intricate inventions in his mind without the need to draw them out. His mother, Đuka Mandić, an inventor with an eidetic memory, instilled in him an interest in invention from a young age.

Though his father wanted him to become a priest, Tesla's passion lay in engineering. After contracting cholera as a teenager and surviving, he pursued his dream and studied engineering at the Technical College of Graz in Austria. However, Tesla's gambling addiction led to his dropping out and cutting ties with his family.

Tesla's life took a significant turn when he ended up in Budapest, working as an electrician at a telephone company. During a stroll in the city park, he conceived the idea for a new way of generating electricity using alternating current (AC), which would become his greatest invention.

In 1882, Tesla moved to Paris to work for the French branch of Thomas Edison's electric company. Their differing views on electricity containment and delivery turned them into bitter rivals. Edison favored direct current (DC), while Tesla championed alternating current (AC). Tesla's AC motor caught the attention of George Westinghouse, and they teamed up to revolutionize electricity generation and transmission.

The "war of the currents" ensued, with Edison trying to discredit Westinghouse and Tesla by promoting the dangers of AC. Nevertheless, Tesla's and Westinghouse's success was evident when they illuminated the World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago in 1893 and built the first alternating current power plant at Niagara Falls.

Despite his brilliance, Tesla's life took a downturn when he lost his laboratory in a fire and faced challenges from Italian entrepreneur Guglielmo Marconi, who gained recognition for using Tesla's patents. Tesla's mental health suffered, and he struggled financially, leading to the abandonment of his dream project, the Wardenclyffe Tower.

Unlike many inventors driven by profit, Tesla was more concerned with advancing science for the betterment of humanity. He made decisions that were not conducive to financial success, such as giving up his royalties for the AC motor. Tesla's lack of business acumen and his focus on the pursuit of knowledge ultimately led to his obscurity and financial ruin.

Nonetheless, Tesla's legacy endured, and his contributions to modern society continue to resonate. His inventions power our entire planet, and today, thanks in part to Elon Musk's company, Tesla's name is becoming more recognized as people learn about the man whose ideas laid the foundation for our electric age.

Tesla's achievements are too numerous to list comprehensively, but some of his standouts include an early version of neon lighting, the tesla turbine (a bladeless turbine for vehicles), pioneering x-ray technology through radiation experiments, and inventing one of the first remote controls.

In 1898, Tesla demonstrated his remote control technology at Madison Square Garden in New York, where he controlled a miniature boat. The crowd was mystified and believed he was performing magic. Little did they know that Tesla's innovation would be the ancestor to today's remote-controlled drones.

One of his most well-known inventions is the Tesla coil, a device capable of producing large amounts of high voltage electricity. The coils also allowed Tesla to discover that powerful radio signals could be sent and received when they resonated at the same frequency. Tesla was on the verge of broadcasting his first radio signal when disaster struck; a fire destroyed his lab in 1895, causing him to lose years of research and equipment.

Tesla didn't apply for a patent for the radio until two years later, and in a peculiar twist of fate, an Italian entrepreneur named Guglielmo Marconi also began working on radio technology in England. When Marconi tried to acquire patent rights in the US, he was initially turned down due to the similarity to Tesla's work. However, everything changed when Marconi succeeded in sending the world's first transatlantic radio message in 1901 using seventeen of Tesla's patents. This prompted Edison to support Marconi financially.

Unfortunately, in 1904, the US Patent Office reversed its stance and awarded Marconi a patent for the invention of the radio. No reasons were given for this decision, but the financial backing Marconi received from prominent figures could offer an explanation. Marconi went on to win the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1911, an achievement made possible by Tesla's pioneering work. Tesla was infuriated and sued Marconi, and the case was only settled in Tesla's favor after his death.

The radio incident had a detrimental impact on the rest of Tesla's career. His obsession with bringing wireless communication to the world led him to build a massive wireless transmission station called the Wardenclyffe Tower in Long Island, New York. He envisioned a world where messages could be sent and received wirelessly, well ahead of his time. Unfortunately, financial backers lost faith in the project, withdrew their support, and invested in Marconi's radio invention instead. This left Tesla in financial ruin, and he was forced to abandon his dream project in 1905, eventually losing the Wardenclyffe Tower to foreclosure.

In his last decade, Tesla lived at the New Yorker Hotel beginning in 1933. The Westinghouse Corporation hired him as a consultant and paid for his room, allowing him to live rent-free. However, he died in debt, his mental health having deteriorated over the years.

So, why did one of the greatest inventors of all time fade into obscurity and die penniless? While some unfortunate events, such as the fire at his lab, contributed to his difficulties, the primary reason was Tesla's nature as a non-capitalist. He made decisions that a more business-minded individual would not have, such as giving up his royalties for the AC motor. Money did not concern him; his focus was the pursuit of science and its potential to better humanity.

Tesla's desire to change the world and his unwavering commitment to scientific discovery were his driving forces. He had a vision of a future that the world was not yet ready to embrace. Today, thanks in part to Elon Musk's company, people are starting to learn more about the man who inspired the company's name, a man whose inventions power our entire planet.

It is because of Tesla that modern society functions the way it does. Although he faced adversity and financial ruin, his impact on the world remains unparalleled. Tesla's mother called him a child

of light, and she couldn't have been more accurate. Despite the hardships he endured, his inventions have illuminated the path to a brighter future for humanity, forever preserving his legacy as a forgotten genius, an extraordinary mind whose brilliance transcends time.