After writing about Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern, Madeleine Albright and Rita M.Rodriguez, and finally Albert Einstein in What Does It Take To Be An Entrepreneur? – I’m going to continue with my series about famous U.S. immigrants today, and shed some light on Nikola Tesla. Who has to be one of the most complex men I had researched.

Bunny is interested in history and so should you. It’s good and important to know a few facts about our past, especially when it’s such an interesting story as this one is! Nikola Tesla is famous for his work with electricity. I have found many conflicting stories on him and his inventions and patents, and about such things as what happened to which of his numerous patents and inventions.

Early Life

Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia. He was first educated at home then attended a a school in Karlovac – even at very young age, Nikola was determined to become an engineer; he was very intelligent and passionately interested in science and mathematics. So he entered the Austrian Polytechnic School to study mechanical and electrical engineering.

The gifted man then went to work at electrical power companies in Germany and France, with the hopes of improving their DC generation facilities. Then he attempted to get investors interested in his concept for an AC motor, but to no prevail.

America

Tesla’s dream was to work for Thomas Edison. Edison was his hero in 1884 – his invention of the incandescent light bulb had created more of a demand of electricity. Electricity was introduced to New York in the 1870’s.

Tesla was 28 when he came to America to work for Thomas Edison. He arrived in New York City and was overwhelmed by the modernization, and Edison hired Tesla to redesign his inefficient motors and generators.

But the two never really saw each other eye to eye. Later on, they parted ways – I have read several different versions as to why. I feel Edison may have thought Tesla to be competition and tried to place limitations on him. Edison was determined the world would run on his DC current exclusively.

Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison

At the time Edison hired Tesla in 1884, he offered him $50,000 as a bonus upon completion. Months later when Tesla’s work was finished, he went Thomas and asked to be paid. Edison laughed at Nikola, replying “when you become a full-fledged American you will appreciate an American joke.”

Tesla received a mere $18 a week. When he asked his weekly pay to be increased to $25, Edison declined – resulting in Nikola quitting the company. The two great inventors fundamentally disagreed on the concept of the AC motor – while the pigheaded Edison strongly believed in his DC technology, Tesla saw the future to lie in AC, and he was correct. Tesla and Edison remained adversaries until death.

After the two men parted, Tesla was hired by the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in Pittsburgh. In 1886, he invented many of the principle concepts and worked on discovering the alternating current power system, the AC motor, and poly phase power distribution. And as you know, the AC current power system conquered the world and is used almost exclusively today.

While working for Westinghouse, Tesla sold many patents to George Westinghouse, losing the remaining ones upon his breaking his contract with the company. His creating the AC motor concept put a cease fire on his power struggle with Edison – after all, the AC motor was more efficient. It would carry electricity for long distances. This blew Edison’s vision of electrifying the world with only DC current. I have read that shortly before Edison’s death, he said he should have gone with the idea of an AC motor when the concept was placed right in his hands.

Three years after Westinghouse, Tesla would be under contract to use the AC current power system to turn the energy of Niagara Falls into electricity. He opened his own lab in 1887 in New York City. He went on to invent the Tesla Coil, the fluorescent lamp, the X-ray, wireless transmissions, and various other power and lighting sources.

The Invention of the Radio – also by Tesla!

Tesla also invented the radio but the credit of a Nobel Prize for Physics would go to Marconi in 1909. Tesla would unsuccessfully lose a lawsuit to reclaim the rights to his invention from Marconi in 1915. It wasn’t until after Tesla’s death that he would be recognized for the invention of the radio.

Tesla also designed a wireless telecommunications tower called the Wardenclyffe Tower, or the Tesla Tower. A land developer in Long Island Sound thought it would increase the marketing value of the resort and ordered it from him. The erection of the tower started in 1901, according to his design – but it was not completed; it was demolished in 1917.

Nikola’s intentions were for the tower to provide commercial trans-atlantic wireless telephone and broadcasting, and to demonstrate the transmission of power without interconnecting wires. The site of the tower in Shoreham, Long Island, became a National Landmark in 1990.

Nikola Tesla and Mark Twain

Frequently, Twain and Tesla would run into each other at the Player’s Club and at the restaurant Delmonico, both in New York City. Tesla only allowed himself a small circle of friends, and Mark Twain was one of his best friends in later years.

Twain’s fascination with lighting increased his admiration for Tesla’s work. In 1888, Twain was astonished by Tesla publication of the AC Polyphase System, and the two grew to become friends over the years. The two men also had mutual friends – among them Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book), Theodore Roosevelt (the 26th President of the United States), and John Muir (popular author and naturalist).

Tesla’s Great Mind – and his Big Phobias

Nikola was an eccentric man. He suffered from a neurological condition called Synesthesia. This is when involuntary memory flashbacks occur. On the onset of a seizure, Tesla would experience visual distortion like those of us who suffer from migraine headaches.

Tesla also had several phobias, one of which was Haphephobia – the fear of being touched. He would often claim he had injured his hand in the lab in order not to shake hands. He also suffered from Mysophobia, the fear of contact with dirt and germs. The two phobias are closely related and was also expressed in his obsession with washing his hands, and were the cause for him having frequent panic attacks.

When he was a child, Tesla was not expected to live to become an adult. When he was a young man, a girl had kissed him, and Nikola’s reaction was to run away in distress. When women showed interest in him, he became very unsure of himself. Needless to say he never married; Nikola regarded his bachelorhood and celibacy as a benefactor in his progress of inventing. He enjoyed living his life in solitude, and was happiest when he was working.

Tesla was a bit superstitious – he would only stay in certain hotel rooms with a number that could be divided by 3. He claimed that jewelry made him physically sick, and he detested pearl earrings.

Because of Nikola’s obsessive compulsive disorders, he was often referred to as “the mad scientist”. Nevertheless, he was a great showman when presenting his inventions in public.

Death

Nikola Tesla died alone in the hotel, The New Yorker, in 1943 – in room 3327. At this time, he had his name on over 700 patents. After his death, the United States Department of Alien Property took all of Nikola’s personal papers, even though he had become an American citizen in 1901. All of Nikola’s personal effects were taken by the FBI and were considered to be Top Secret. – except for his death ray, on which Tesla had been working on actively until he was 86 years old, one year before his death. There were no notes or transcripts about the death ray found by the government.

I can only say that Nikola Tesla was a devoted scientist who was more into his work than actually taking the notoriety for it. A true genius. I hope you found this little excursion interesting, as it not only provides great insights into the tools and the technology we use every day, but also into the exciting and tragic life of a talented man who helped humanity in so many ways.