Nikola Tesla, one of the great scientists of the 19th century, who was born in Croatia on July 10, 1856, was a wonderful inventor, physicist, electrical, mechanical engineer, and futurist.
It is said about him that he is the same person who has done the incredible work of decorating the whole earth with light. Tesla’s fame is due to his phenomenal contribution in the field of modern alternating current (AC) power supply system. Many of his revolutionary development work done in the field of electromagnetism created a stir in the world of science.
Nicola’s childhood
Nicola, one of 5 siblings, grew up in poverty since childhood and his father worked as a pastor in a church and mother was a housewife. It is said that when Nikola was 8 years old, his elder brother died in an accident in front of his eyes. Then this incident had a deep impact on Nikola’s mind and he started to remain silent.
Due to which people also called him mentally ill. Seeing all this happening, his father started encouraging Nicola to become a priest, but Nicola was obsessed with becoming an engineer. Nicola was amazingly talented since childhood. His mind used to move very fast. He had a great affection for nature and used to think about science and the mysteries of science.
Due to his stubbornness, his admission was done in a polytechnic institute. It is said that Nikola was such a genius in studies that he used to solve the most difficult questions of Maths in his mind. He used to solve the question paper of high class children easily, his genius was discussed in the whole school.
Nikola’s special attachment to electricity
When Nikola, after completing his studies, in 1881, a telegraph company in Budapest, “Budapest Telephone Exchange” got a job as chief electrical engineer. In this position, he made many improvements in the central communication equipment and made the telephone amplifier in a new way.
Then in 1882, he joined Thomas Alva Edison’s company Continental Edison Company and here he met Sir Edison, the greatest scientist of that century. When Nicola got a chance to work with Edison, Nicola made a major contribution to some of Edison’s important inventions.
Edison was very impressed by Nicola’s passion for electricity and one day he proposed to Tesla to make his motor and generator more efficient. Edison told Tesla that if he succeeded in this task, he would get fifty thousand dollars.
And then what was it, Tesla did it after a few days of hard work, but Edison went back on his promise. Edison mocked Tesla by calling his promise American Humor, then in anger Tesla left Edison.
AC / DC or the beginning of the electricity war
After leaving Edison, Tesla, along with industrialist George Westing, put the AC system in front of the world, which Edison strongly opposed. Edison opposed AC because the DC power system was in force throughout America at that time and his company was making large-scale DC-based equipment. With the introduction of AC system, they would have to face a lot of loss.
Edison adopted many tactics to create fear in the minds of people towards AC, he said that AC electricity would be very harmful, the coming days of AC electricity would increase the danger to humans and animals, so he did something in front of many people. Animals were also shown by killing them with AC electricity.
But with the AC system, electricity could be easily transported far and wide and was also very cheap. Even today, electricity is made available in homes all over the world through AC system only. And finally Tesla won. However, Edison later apologized to Tesla for his misbehavior.
Some of Tesla’s main inventions
Later on, he made many inventions, including alternating current, electric motor, radio, amplifier, wireless, fluorescent light, laser beam, remote control, etc. He patented more than three hundred inventions. Within no time his inventions spread across the world.
And Nikola Tesla became a famous inventor despite many troubles and obstacles. He used to say that if you stick to your noble cause with complete dedication without caring for the people, then you create history.
Some unsuccessful experiments of Nikola Tesla
In later days, some of Tesla’s experiments were unsuccessful, due to which he became a victim of depression. He stopped meeting people from outside. Nikola Tesla died on 7 January 1943 at the age of 86.
Interesting Facts
- Nikola Tesla was knowledgeable in eight languages, including Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian and Latin.
- On Nikola Tesla’s 75th birthday, Time Magazine featured him on its cover page. On this occasion, he received letters of appreciation from 70 great scientists.
- Tesla is believed to have discovered X-rays in 1895–96, well before Röntgen’s 1996 discovery.
- The unit of magnetic effect Tesla is in his honor.
- Tesla Motors is an American company that manufactures electric cars.