Arreola 1 Rigo Arreola Prof. Petersen Math 101 5 April 2016 Nikola Tesla an Inventor Genius When most people think of electricity they most often think of Thomas Edison. Thomas Edison was a pioneer in the electricity field but, there was a huge underlying factor that most often goes unknown or even thought about. The underlying factor was a Serbian man with extreme talent and smarts in the electricity field at the time and still to this day in age. His name was Nikola Tesla, and he was the electrical genius who discovered the electric alternating current, or better known as AC electricity supply system, that powers the whole world as we know it today. Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia. His father was Milutin, an unorthodox priest, and his mother was named Djuka both being from Serbian origin (PBS.org, Tesla Life and Legacy). Tesla s mother was a woman of many talents and created appliances to help in the household with one being a mechanical egg beater. Nikola Tesla must have inherited all his inventive attributes from his mother. Tesla was home schooled and later he attended gymnasium in Carlstadt, Croatia. He excelled throughout all his education. Nikola was able to perform calculus in his mind and had many teachers thinking he was cheating. Young Tesla saw a metal engraving of Niagara Falls and imagined a huge water wheel being turned by the strong stream of the river. At age seventeen, Nikola Tesla, contracted a disease called Cholera, a bacterial disease that causes severe diarrhea and dehydration that is usually spread in water, and his father told Nikola that if he was to survive this disease at the time he would give him
Arreola 2 permission to attend the famous Austrian Polytechnic School in Graz, Austria. Tesla survived Cholera and his dream of attending the school soon became a reality studying mechanical and electric engineering. One day in class, Nikolas physics professor brought out a new Gramme dynamo which if applied direct current the device could work as both a motor and a generator. Tesla looked at the device for a while and thought that by removing a couple of inefficient sparking connections it would work just as fine. That thought stuck with Tesla for many years until he was 24 living in Budapest when the answer came to him and he finalized the induction motor. After the discovery of the induction motor, Nikola Tesla had many jobs in Europe hired by electrical companies to improve their DC, direct current, generating facilities. He also tried to sell his idea of the AC motor to investors but had no interests. Tesla knew that to realize his idea he had to meet the greatest electrical engineer named Thomas Alva Edison (PBS.org, Tesla Life and Legacy). Tesla arrived in New York at age 28 and was appalled at the difference between the United States and Europe. Nikola Tesla didn t arrive to the United States with much The Serbian immigrant had four cents in his pocket, some mathematical computations, a drawing of an idea for a flying machine, and a letter of introduction from Charles Batchelor, one of Edison's business associates in Europe. (PBS.org, Tesla Life and Legacy) Tesla did arrive with a recommendation letter from one of Thomas Edison s business associates in Europe and that s all that he would need. The letter read My Dear Edison: I know two great men and you are one of them. The other is this young man! and this instantly grabbed Edison s attention and hired Tesla to work and improve his DC generation plants. Tesla pitched his idea of AC current to Edison but he had no interest or knowledge in it, it only sounded as competition to him. Edison promised Tesla $50,000 if he succeeded and the huge amount of money really inspired the
Arreola 3 impoverished Tesla. Both men worked very hard and were very different from each other in upbringing. Edison believed in trial and error while Tesla relied on moments of inspiration and perceiving the invention in his brain and finalizing it before constructing the idea. This is where problems soon ended up happening. A couple months passed while Tesla worked for Edison and his work was finally finished. When Tesla asked Edison to be paid the $50,000 he was promised Edison replied When you become a full-fledged American you will appreciate an American joke. (PBS.org, Tesla Life and Legacy) Tesla was disgusted by Edison s remark and quickly resigned making them rivals in the war of currents. Tesla went back to nothing as he had when he came into the United States. Word on the streets was that a foreigner with unusual talents was struggling to make a living in the United States and soon was offered a job to design an improved method for arc lighting from investors. Although it wasn t the exact job Tesla wanted, they were willing to finance the Tesla Electric Company and Tesla finalized a beautiful new design of arc lighting. Again, Tesla was left with nothing but a stack of worthless stock certificates while all the money earned went to the investors. Tesla s luck would ultimately flip upside down when Mr. A.K. Brown from the Western Union Company agreed to invest in Tesla s idea of the AC motor. In a small lab, a short distance from Edison s, Tesla quickly finalized the AC power generation and transmission that is used worldwide today.(pbs.org, Tesla Life and Legacy) In November and December of 1887 Tesla filed for 7 patents in the field of AC motors and power transmission and all passed with no successful challenges due that they were so original. The patents included the complete system of his AC electricity supply system. A man named George Westinghouse, inventor of railroad brakes, heard of Tesla s patents and offered to buy them for $60,000 plus $5,000 in cash, 150 shares of The Westinghouse Corporation, and a
Arreola 4 royalty of $2.50 of each electricity capacity sold. (PBS.org, Tesla Life and Legacy) With the money Tesla built his own laboratory. A war of currents began between Westinghouse s AC current and Edison s DC current. The obvious winner being the AC current system due to it still being used today. Nikola Tesla didn t stop inventing after giving up his patents of the AC current system to George Westinghouse. Tesla built the first hydro-electric generator at Niagara Falls just as he had imagined 30 years before during his childhood in gymnasium in Carlstadt, Croatia. In 1891 Tesla invented one of his most well-known inventions, the Tesla Coil. The Tesla Coil was a way of generating extremely high voltages and the inspiration behind the radio transmitter, radar and other technologies. Nikola Tesla was also the inventor of the fluorescent light bulb, the remote control, and many more. (History Channel, Nikola Tesla: Genius Inventor Discovered Electric Alternating Current) Tesla even developed an idea for a smart phone and wireless internet in 1901. He spoke to his funder and business partner J.P Morgan about a new means of communication that involved gathering telegram messages and funneling them to his lab where he would assign them each a new frequency. The same frequency then would be broadcasted to a device that would fit in your hand. In shorter explanation wireless internet, and the smart phone (PBS.org, 8 Things You Didn t Know About Nikola Tesla) Modern day car manufacturer, Tesla, was also named on behalf of the electrical genius. In an archived post from Tesla Motors in about October of 2007 they wrote Without Tesla s vision and brilliance, our car wouldn't be possible. We're confident that if he were alive today, Nikola Tesla would look over our 100 percent electric car and nod his head with both understanding and approval. and it is totally believable being that Tesla only produces 100 percent electric automobiles (Davies, Here's Why Tesla Motors Is Named For A Famous Serbian Inventor)
Arreola 5 Tesla was undeniably a huge factor to the creation of the AC electricity supply system. Tesla passed away in 1943 at the age of 86. (History Channel, Nikola Tesla: Genius Inventor Discovered Electric Alternating Current) Just as his arrival upon the United States, Nikola Tesla died practically unknown and penniless despite the fact of his incredible brilliance and what he gave to the world. It isn t until recent times that the interest and appreciation in Tesla has grown. Nikola Tesla was genius inventor that gave the world many things that are still used today.