Nikola Tesla was an electrical engineer and experimental physicist.

With and IQ

ranging from 160 to 310, he is regarded as one of the greatest inventors in American

history. He is the name of a car company, the subject of multiple movies, and a featured

character in sci-fi novels. Before he became one of the most well known names in

science, he was just a genius boy in Croatia.

Born on July 10, 1856, Tesla was raised in a Serbian family and grew up in

Smiljan Croatia. He didn’t have the easiest of childhoods, consisting of a bad

relationship with his parents, the death of his brother at a young age, and post traumatic

stress disorder at the age of 12. He once made writer Mark Twain cry, by telling him that

reading his book helped him get through his childhood illness. Tesla first showed signs

of high intelligence as a child when he told his uncle that one day he would put a wheel

under Niagara falls to harness it’s energy. As an adult, he went on to do it.

After high school, he attended the Graz University of Technology in Austria to

study math and physics from 1875 to 1878. He resumed his studies in 1881 at the

University of Prague to study philosophy. Tesla worked as telephone lineman after

college, when he used the equipment to create an amplifier, pioneering the way to the

speakers of today. In 1884 he immigrated to New York where he worked in Thomas

Edison’s laboratory, working closely with Edison himself. Tesla designed new machines

for Edison, all the while being underpaid and left unable to pursue his own greater

ambitions. He quit working for Edison after less than a year.

 In his life Tesla invented many revolutionary inventions, one of the most famous

being AC power. Still being in the early days of electricity, Tesla invented alternating

current or AC power. The invention solved the problems of Thomas Edison’s direct

current or DC power. Edison’s DC power was a current that ran in only one direction,

such as in a battery. DC wasn’t easy to convert into higher or lower voltages. AC power

solved the conversion problem by changing the direction of the current multiple times

per second, and using a transformer could be easily converted into higher or lower

voltages. He went on to call the transformer he invented the Tesla coil. After it’s

invention, alternating current power quickly became the new standard, replacing direct

current power, and sparking a deep rivalry between Tesla and Edison. Nikola then

invented an adaptation of the Tesla coil, the magnifying transmitter. Unlike the Tesla coil

that discharged to the earth, the magnifying transmitter was able to create standing

waves of electricity to then be harnessed by a receiving circuit. He invented the tesla

turbine which though not used, could change direction without any loss of efficiency.

Tesla and George Westinghouse developed the hydroelectric power plant under

Niagara falls, like he said he would do as a child. In 1887, he invented the AC induction

motor. Induction motors are used as industrial drives as well as in garbage disposals

and power tools.Tesla, was one of the first inventors of the neon lamp, and is said by

some to have invented the radio while others credit Gugielmo Giovanni with the

invention. Tesla is also one of multiple people who claimed to have invented the death

ray, a theoretical electromagnetic weapon.

 For his contributions to science, Nikola Tesla was awarded the Order of the

Yugoslav crown, an award given for merit towards the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in public

service. He was awarded the John Scott Legacy medal, for inventions that improve the

comfort, wellfare, and happiness of human kind. He was given the IEEE Edison Medal

which is awarded for a career of great achievement in electrical science. He was also

awarded the Elliott Cresson medal, the highest award given by the Franklin institute.

From growing up in Croatia, to College in Graz and Prague, to working in

Thomas Edison’s laboratory, to groundbreaking inventions to better the world, and even

being the namesake of one of the most prominent companies in the world, Nikola Tesla

is solidified in history as one of the greatest names in science. His work revolutionized

the way we harness and distribute energy, as well as laid the groundwork for countless

innovations in the modern era. The legacy left behind in his work will continue to shape

modern lives for years to come.

Anderson, S. (2022, October 12). The crazy, amazing life of immigrant Nikola

Tesla. Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2017/03/25/the-crazy-amazing-life-of-

immigrant-nikola-tesla/?sh=7ae424cb7dd5

Nikola Tesla Inventions. Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe. (2020, November

10). https://teslasciencecenter.org/nikola-tesla-inventions/