Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla (1856 - 1943) Serbian born was an inventor extraordinaire. He was also an electrical and mechanical engineer and his contribution to applications of electricity is somewhat immeasurable. From the famous Tesla coil, to alternating current, poly-phase systems of power distribution, AC motors, remote control to mention but a few.

Tesla almost died of cholera at the end of his high school, but later on completed his electrical engineering degree at Graz Polytechnic in Austria in 1875. After working in Paris for a few years he went to the US with nothing more than a letter of recommendation from previous employers and joined Thomas Edison's company called Edison Machine Works. Tesla worked seven days a week for Edison and Edison promised him US50,000 if he would improve his Direct Current (DC) motors' efficiencies. To that end Tesla improved over 24 designs and listed several profitable patents for Edison.

After all that hard work, Edison reneged on his promise and said "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor". Tesla was furious as he wanted the money to start his own Laboratory. He resigned on the spot even though Edison offered him a much improved salary. Apparently he had to work as labourer digging trenches to keep alive while he was working on his poly-phase system. Fortunately Tesla did find some investors and started the Tesla Electric Light company.

He never believed in Edison's DC systems and focused on alternating current (AC). After successfully demonstrating his designs to the electrical engineering community he met up with George Westinghouse a competitor of Edison and sold all his patents to Westinghouse for a handsome profit. Tesla ended up working for Westinghouse and in the years that followed the battle between AC and DC heated up, with AC the winner in the end.

Eventually Tesla established his own laboratory again and he could give freedom to all the ideas he had. He did work following on from Roentgen in X-rays, he built the powerful Tesla coil still used in radio transmitters and some television equipment, he demonstrated the safety of alternating current by letting it flow through his body and light up some electric light globes. He also demonstrated the transmission of electrical energy without wires which was called the Tesla effect in his honour.

Tesla died in 1943 of heart failure. In 1960 he was posthumously given recognition by the International Commission for Electrical Engineering by declaring that the unit of magnetic induction will be called the Tesla: T = Wb/m² (Weber per square meter)

Links

Read more on Wikipedia
Tesla Coils
Nikola Tesla Museum
Brief life history
Tesla Coil images

Front Page photo: "A member sent in his latest Tesla coil experiment. He calls it the 'Eye of Sauron' effect. It was created by adding a rotating breakout to an already powerful Tesla coil. It isn't quite the same as the old evil eye of Tolkien's dreams, the picture is a 22 second exposure of two rotations of the 7 foot aluminum tube"