Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. He was an important contributor to the birth of commercial electricity, and is best known for developing the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. His many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries were based on the theories of electromagnetic technology discovered by Michael Faraday. Tesla's patents and theoretical work also formed the basis of wireless communication and the radio.Born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan (now part of Gospić), in the Croatian Military Frontier of the Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia), Tesla was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen.. Because of his 1894 demonstration of wireless communication through radio and as the eventual victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America. He pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. In the United States during this time, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture.Tesla demonstrated wireless energy transfer to power electronic devices in 1891, and aspired to intercontinental wireless transmission of industrial power in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project.
Because of his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist by many late in his life He died without much money to his name.
The SI unit measuring magnetic field B (also referred to as the magnetic flux density and magnetic induction), the tesla, was named in his honor (at the CGPM, Paris, 1960).
Nikola Tesla was born to Serbian parents in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire near the town of Gospić, in the territory of modern-day Croatia. His baptismal certificate reports that he was born on 28 June (N.S. 10 July) 1856 to father Milutin Tesla, a priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church.His mother was Đuka Tesla, née Mandić, whose father was also a Serbian Orthodox priest.She was talented in making home craft tools and memorized many Serbian epic poems, but never learned to read.Tesla's biographer John O'Neill relates that "the Tesla and Mandić families originally came from the western part of Serbia near Montenegro."
In 1882 he moved to Paris, to work as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company, designing improvements to electric equipment brought overseas from Edison's ideas. According to his autobiography, in the same year he conceived the induction motor and began developing various devices that use rotating magnetic fields for which he received patents in 1888.
On 30 July 1891, at the age of 35, he became a naturalized citizen of the United States. Tesla established his South Fifth Avenue laboratory in New York in the same year. Later, Tesla established his Houston Street laboratory in New York at 46 E. Houston Street. He lit electric lamps wirelessly at both of the New York locations, providing evidence for the potential of wireless power transmission.
Another of Tesla's theorized inventions is commonly referred to as Tesla's Flying Machine, which appears to resemble an ion-propelled aircraft. Tesla claimed that one of his life goals was to create a flying machine that would run without the use of an airplane engine, wings, ailerons, propellers, or an onboard fuel source. Initially, Tesla pondered about the idea of a flying craft that would fly using an electric motor powered by grounded base stations. As time progressed, Tesla suggested that perhaps such an aircraft could be run entirely electro-mechanically. The theorized appearance would typically take the form of a cigar or saucer.
Biography | |
| Born | 10 July 1856 Smiljan, Austrian Empire (Croatian Military Frontier) |
| Died | 7 January 1943 (aged 86) Manhattan, New York, USA |
| Residence | Manhattan, New York, USA Karlovac, Croatia Budapest, Hungary |
| Citizenship | Austrian Empire (10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) United States (30 July 1881 – 7 January 1943) |
| Fields | Mechanical engineering Electrical engineering |
| Institutions | Edison Machine Works Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. |
| Alma mater | Graz University of Technology Charles University in Prague |
| Known for | Tesla coil Tesla turbine Teleforce Tesla's oscillator Tesla electric car Tesla principle Tesla's Egg of Columbus Alternating current Induction motor Rotating magnetic field Wireless technology Particle beam weapon Deatd ray Terrestrial stationary waves Bifilar coil Telegeodynamics Electrogravitics |
| Influences | Ernst Mach |
| Influenced | Gano Dunn |
| Notable awards | Order of St. Sava (1892) Elliott Cresson Medal (1894) Edison Medal (1916) John Scott Medal (1934) |
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