Nikola Tesla, Inventor

Running Head: Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla, Inventor

Paul Lidberg

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Prof. Paul Webb

December 6, 2005

Week #1

Nikola Tesla, Inventor

Nikola Tesla, Inventor

Nikola Tesla is regarded as one of the most brilliant inventors in history. His work provided the basis for the modern alternating current power system, as well as having developed both radio and the fluorescent light bulb. He worked with Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, among others. He was also widely misunderstood by his peers and the public at large.

Biography

Nikola Tesla was born in a small town called Smiljan, in what is now Croatia, during a lightning storm. Some would say that this would prove significant later in his life. He grew up the son of a Serbian Orthodox Reverend, and was one of five children. He was an avid reader, and would often memorize entire books.

He studied electrical engineering at Graz Politechnic in Graz, Austria. He then moved to Budapest to work for the American Telephone Company in 1881. He then moved to Yugoslavia, where he became chief engineer to that country’s first telephone system. Later he moved to Paris to work for the Continental Edison Company. While there, he developed devices that used rotating magnetic fields, for which he later received patents.

In 1884, he moved to the United States, and was able to obtain employment from Thomas Edison. While there, Edison offered Tesla $50,000 if he could solve several serious problems the company was having. After spending a year working it all out (and developing several patentable ideas for the company along the way), Edison reneged on the deal claiming it was a joke. He offered Tesla a $10 per week raise instead. Tesla resigned immediately. This experience would color Tesla’s relationships later.

He next formed a company, the Tesla Electric Light & Manufactoring. Unfortunately, his investors disagreed with his plans for developing a motor, and forced Tesla out. In 1887, he went to work for George Westinghouse. It was there that he started working out the basics of his polyphasic systems for alternating current. The infamous Tesla Coil was also developed at this time.

In 1891, at the age of 35, he became a naturalized American citizen. In 1893, at the World’s Fair, Tesla and Westinghouse made history by having the first exhibit ever powered by electricity. He demonstrated several things, including the fluorescent light bulb. This was to lead to problems with Edison, as Tesla was in favor of AC power, while Edison was promoting DC power systems.

Tesla filed the first basic radio patent in 1897, and demonstrated a crude radio controlled boat to the U.S. Navy in 1898. He also invented the first spark plug that year, and was awarded a patent on that as well.

In 1899, Tesla moved his operations to Colorado. There he could pursue his research into high-voltage high frequency power transmission. After 3 years, he left Colorado for New York, and the lab was dismantled and sold to pay debts.

He next worked on a project called Wardenclyffe, which was an early radio transmission tower. After much investment, the project was unsuccessful. Eventually, the tower was dismantled and sold for scrap. It was around this time that Marconi was given credit for the invention of radio, up to and including a Nobel Prize. Tesla was deeply resentful, and spent years fighting for his rightful credit.

Tesla’s last patent was issued in 1928, for what was actually the world’s first VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) aircraft. Tesla did a lot of work on a Unified Field Theory, something that physicists still search for today. Unfortunately, it was never published, nor were his notes found among his things after death. Most modern physicists disregard the possibility of the Theory having been finished.

His later years were