Nikola Tesla was born on July 9, 1856, in Lika Croatia. Son of Reverend Milutin and Djouka Tesla, both of whom were way above average in intelligence, and which intellect was easily passed onto their four children. At the age of four, Nikola built a water wheel, and from then on, he became a problem to his parents, because he was always in trouble. His childish adventures included jumping off of a roof with a raised umbrella, thinking the umbrella would make his fall easy. It didn't. At age 15, he was sent to a higher education institute in Carlstadt, where he excelled, and lived with a relative of his father. He constructed several turbines, and began to think that his future was in the field of invention. He achieved outstanding grades and achievement. He came down with cholera and was bed ridden for many weeks. During his recovery time, his mind was wide awake with inventions and ideas. He envisioned a submarine tube which letters and packages could be conveyed across the ocean . He mentally built pumping plants and all sorts of mechanical devices which he stored away in his brain for future use. His father was insistent that Nikola follow him in the ministry, but Nikola decided that was not for him. In his second year at the Institute, he concentrated his energies on physics, mathematics, and mechanics. His physics class acquired a Gramme Dynamo, a very crude machine, but the world was all excited about the inventions of Thomas Edison. The crude dynamo had brushes connecting electricity to a commutator, and they were sparking badly. Tesla theorized that an alternating current would eliminate the need for crude, sparking brushes and a commutator. Such thinking was heresy to his professor. During his remaining term at the Institute his idea of an alternating current motor never left his fertile mind.
Upon graduating, he was offered a position in Paris with the Societe Continentale Edison of France. All eyes were focused on Edison, and no one could visualize Tesla's idea of a brushless, alternating current motor. The manager of his plant suggested that Tesla go to America and possibly improve Edison's D.C. motor. He arrived in New York with four cents in his pocket, plans for a flying machine, a book, and a scientific article. Walking down a sidewalk, he came across a man fruitlessly trying to make a electrical motor work Tesla offered to help, and quickly made the machine work perfectly. The man rewarded him with a $20 gold piece. Some time later, he was able to reach the famous Thomas Edison, where he presented his glowing letter of introduction. Tesla was proficient in many languages, and like Edison, both were proficient readers. Edison hired him on the spot. Edison was a hard taskmaster, and kept strict hours. Tesla worked to improve Edison's direct current motors, but kept his silence about his alternating current ideas. Edison was interested only in direct current arc lights, incandescent light bulbs, and direct current motors. Tesla eventually explained to Edison his alternating current motor idea, but Edison would have none of it. Tesla was introduced to George Westinghouse, a brilliant inventor of the air brake on trains, plus numerous other electrical devices. Westinghouse quickly recognized Tesla's invention, which he had already patented. Westinghouse bought Tesla's several patents, which relieved Nikola of any financial worries. Alternating current was capable of transmitting electrical power long distances with little current loss, whereas direct current could not be sent long distance at all, and would require a power plant every few hundred yards.
How could this be proved? It was proved at Telluride Colorado. Lucius Nunn, a Telluride lawyer, had heard of Westinghouse and Tesla's invention, and he had the perfect place to prove it would work. The Gold King mine had run out of wood fuel to fire its steam boilers which generated needed electricity, and coal had to be hauled by ox cart for 13 miles. The mine was about to shut down, when Westinghouse and Tesla found a site at a little town called "Ames," built a dam to harness water, and installed a six foot Pelton water wheel which powered a 100 Horsepower alternating current generator. Wire was strung 2.6 miles as the crow flies to the mine site, and the mine had ample electricity. It worked! The plant worked constantly for 30 days without interruption. The Ames Plant 124 years later, is still operating, although of course larger and more efficient generators have been installed. A.C. or alternating current, has since become the common current in your electrical outlets, and is used everywhere.
A year later, Tesla and Westinghouse won a bid to light the Columbia Exposition in Chicago. They were bidding against Thomas Edison, who had started his General Electric Company, and who held the patent on the incandescent light bulb. Tesla had to invent a new light bulb in 11 months, but he did it. By the time the fair or exposition opened May 1st, 1893, Tesla and Westinghouse had 250,000 lamps ready to be lit. And lit they were, and which gave them world wide fame and reputation. Edison's D.C. was relegated to the junk pile. Newspapers were eloquent in their praise of Tesla, calling him "Our foremost electrician…Greater even that Edison." Their next stop was Niagara Falls, where a 164 foot wall of water went unused. They won the bid to harness parts of that water, and electrified Buffalo New York, which quickly became a manufacturing center, thanks to plentiful electricity. Tesla's name is on the generator's name plate as the inventor.
Tesla's fame quickly went to his head, so to speak, and he spouted forth many, many ideas, such as transmitting electricity without wires, a powerful vibrating machine which could take down a building, and mind control of machinery. Tesla outgrew his New York laboratory, and wanted to go to the American West, which he then did. His fame attracted big time investors in his ideas, and he built a laboratory in Colorado Springs, promising wireless voice transmission around the world, as well as wireless transmitting of electricity. He built a large laboratory in the 1400 block of North Cascade, and erected a 200 foot tall pole with a brass globe on top. He kept all of his secrets to himself, and would not divulge anything to anyone, other than to say that he had successfully transmitted power without wires, discovered stationary waves in the earth, received radio waves from the stars, etc, but with no patents forthcoming. He had a vast array of coils and devices in his building, and finally it came time to test it. When the switch was thrown by an associate (Tesla was outside to witness his huge surge of power, far greater than at Niagara Falls), "There was a crackling and snapping as the power built up. There was a crescendo of vicious snaps from above. The noises became machine-gun stacatto, then roared to artillery intensity. Ghostly sparks danced a macabre routine all over the laboratory. There was a smell of sulfur that might be coming from hell itself. A weird blue light spread over the room. Flames began to jump from the ball at the top of the 200 foot mast….first a few feet long…then longer and brighter…thicker…bluer. More emanations until they reached rod-like proportions, thick as an arm and with a length of over a hundred and thirty feet. The heavens reverberated with a terrific thunder that could be heard fifteen miles over the ridge in Cripple Creek." Account by a witness. Then there was dramatic silence. Tesla had blown the power plant and the entire city was in darkness. That finished his Colorado Springs experiments.
Tesla then decided to build a new laboratory in upstate New York, and conned J.P. Morgan out of $150,000 to build it. It was called "Wardenclyffe." Tesla never learned how to control is spending or how to manage money. He proposed an industrial utopian city, and had Stanford White design it. Quickly, the $150,000 ran out and Tesla began begging for more. He didn't get it. It took a few years, but "Wardenclyffe" failed, and Tesla was not doing much but dreaming of new inventions and preposterous ideas, with no patents, and no money. He did design a new turbine which worked well, but he failed to attract investors for it. "Wardenclyffe," like Tesla's Colorado Springs lab, were both demolished, much to the smiles of neighbors. Tesla had a few royalties coming in, and lived in New York, first at the Waldorf, then the New Yorker, and finally at a run down hotel which no longer exists. Tesla was a clean, fastidious man, who constantly washed his hands, and made hotel maids weary of his demands for many towels, and endless cleaning. He never drank alcohol, and never married. His collars were discarded after one wearing, and he replaced his neckties every week. He could not tolerate a fly, and if one landed upon his table, he demanded that everything be removed and the meal would start over again.
Finally, his life consisted of feeding pigeons in front of St. Patrick's Church and a local park. caring for wounded birds, and not doing much else other than constantly thinking and imagining far out inventions and reviewing his past glories. He never quite recovered from a taxi accident in 1937. His germ phobia grew more pronounced, and he backed away from any human contact. He died January 7, 1943. There are those who say that the government seized his inventions and papers and are keeping them from us, but such is not the case. A team of engineers was called to look over his papers. They hastily weeded out those pertaining to their field. Personal papers were set aside to be housed later in the Tesla Museum in Beograd. A few meager possessions were put into storage and there was no money to get them out. His final net worth was less than $2,000. Tesla was a genius that faded gradually. His crowning achievements were alternating current, The Chicago Exposition lighting, and the Niagara Falls installation. We will remember Tesla by Tesla electric automobiles I suppose.