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Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor, born on July 10, 1856 in Smiljan,

Lika, which was then part of the Austo-Hungarian Empire, now better known as

Croatia. His father was a priest and his mother was formally uneducated although was

an inventor of household appliances in her spare time. He was first interested in

studying physics and mathematics, but eventually his heart grew closer to electricity,

which eventually let to his dream of traveling to America and harnessing the power of

Niagara Falls. Before he transferred to America, he was employed at the Continental

Edison Company in Paris where he designed his own dynamos, generators that are

used to convert mechanical energy to electrical energy. When Nikola Tesla finally

arrived at New York in 1884, he was introduced to Thomas Edison through a letter

from Charles Batchelor in which Charles stated: I know two great men, one is you and

the other is this young man. Edison employed Tesla in his company, which then

allowed Tesla to improve and develop Edison's own rotor or dynamos.

Thomas Edison was promoting his direct current powerhouse system (DC) to

America and Tesla argued with him saying that his system was inefficient and an

alternating current system (AC) would be preferable. Tesla claims the DC was weak

because energy cannot be transferred over long distances because of its inability to

utilize high voltage levels, which are requisites for long distance transmission. A

direct current power station was needed every two miles for successful energy transfer

using the DC. The AC on the other hand is capable of employing high voltage levels

that would consequently allow it to travel across long distances and would minimize

power loss. Tesla had 40 basic U.S. patents enclosing the technology behind the AC

and he sold these to George Westinghouse, an American engineer and businessman,

head of the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh. This feud between Edison

and Tesla was dubbed as the 'Current Wars', where Tesla and Westinghouse emerged

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triumphant. Tesla's AC was popularized around 1893 and became the dominant

system used throughout the 20th Century.

In 1895, Nikola Tesla designed the first hydroelectric power plant in Niagara Falls,

the success of which was greatly publicized.

Tesla's discoveries and ideas lead to the inventions and innovations surrounding of

fluorescent light, laser beams, wireless communications, wireless transmission of

electrical energy, remote control, robotics, turbines and vertical take off aircrafts.

He is considered as the father of radio and modern electrical transmission systems and

has over 700 registered patents worldwide.

1) Vujovic, L. (1998). Tesla biography. In Tesla Society. Retrieved on September 17,

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2) The Biography Channel. (2013). Nikola Tesla. In The Biography Channel.

Retrieved on September 17, 2013 from http://www.biography.com/people/nikola-

tesla-9504443?page=1

3) Kosanovic, B. R. (2000). Nikola Tesla. InNeuronet. Retrieved on September 17,

2013 from http://www.neuronet.pitt.edu/~bogdan/tesla/index.htm

4) Tesla Memorial Society of New York. (n.d.). Tesla: Hall of Fame. In Tesla Society.

Retrieved on September 17, 2013 from

http://www.teslasociety.com/hall_of_fame.htm