The fascinating life of

Nikola Tesla, the genius

who electrified the
world

He ______ (be born) on July 10, 1856 in

Smiljan in the Austo-Hungarian Empire
(modern-day Croatia).
In college, he ____ (be) initially interested
in studying physics and mathematics,
but soon _____ (become) fascinated by
electricity.
He _____ (attend) the Realschule, Karlstadt in 1873, the
Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria and the University of Prague.
He _____ (take) a job as an electrical engineer at a telephone
company in Budapest in 1881.

He _____ (develop) the concept of an

induction motor while walking in a
park with a friend.

Later, while he _____ (be) in Strasbourg, France in 1883, he

_____ (build) a prototype of the induction motor (an AC motor
powered by electromagnetic induction) and _____ (test) it
successfully. Since he _____ (cannot) get anyone in Europe
interested in it, Tesla _____ (come) to the United States to work
for Thomas Edison in New York.

Tesla's childhood dream _____ (be) to

harness the power of Niagara Falls.
In 1895, he _____ (design) the first hydroelectric power plant in
the Falls, a major victory for alternating current. A statue _____
(be) later erected on Goat Island in Tesla's honor.

For all his brilliance, he ____ (be) pretty

eccentric. At one point, he was eating
solid foods.

He _____ (claim) he never _____ (sleep) for

more than two hours at a time.

However, he sometimes _____ (doze off) to "recharge his

batteries." According to one report, he once _____ (work) for 84
hours without sleeping.

In 1882, he _____ (discover) the rotating

magnetic field, a principle of physics
that forms the basis for nearly all
devices that use AC power.

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He _____ (use) this principle to construct the AC induction motor
and polyphase system for the generation, transmission,
distribution and use of electric power.

While Tesla was working in Thomas

Edison’s lab in New Jersey, the two
_____ (fight) a 'war' over the best form
of electrical current.
Edison _____ (favor) direct current or DC (which flows in one
direction), while Tesla _____ (favor) alternating current or AC
(which changes direction periodically). This _____ (lead) to
the "war of the currents," which Tesla eventually _____ (win)
because of AC's greater efficiency.

He also _____ (win) the Tesla coil, a device

that is widely used today in radios, TV
sets, and other electronics.

en.wikipedia.org
In 1891, Tesla _____ (develop) an induction coil that _____
(produce) high-frequency alternating currents, now known as the
Tesla coil. He _____ (use) it in experiments to produce
electric lighting, X-rays, and wireless power, and it _____
(become) the basis of radio and TV. Today, the coils are mostly
used in educational displays and entertainment.
Tesla ______ (patent) the basic system of radio in 1896.
Tesla _____ (develop) patents for the basic elements of a radio
transmitter that were later used by Marconi — a point that _____
(lead) the two into a court battle.

Tesla also ______ (dream up) two concepts

that ______ (remain) purely theoretical:
the 'death ray' and an 'impenetrable
wall of force' that'd prevent foreign
invasions.

Through his life, Tesla never married, but

he once claimed to love a pigeon.

Tesla used to take walks to the park to feed the pigeons. He _____
(develop) an unusual relationship with a white pigeon that used to
visit him every day.
I _____ (love) that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she "
_____ (love) me. As long as I had her, there _____ (be) a purpose
.to my life," Tesla reportedly _____ (say)