He also developed numerous other electrical and mechanical devices including the fundamental principles and machinery of wireless technology, including the high frequency alternator, the "AND" logic gate and the Tesla coil, as well as other devices such as the bladeless turbine, the spark plug and numerous other inventions.
Early Life
It was determined early in his life that Tesla was a man of extraordinary intelligence. He was often accused of cheating on his Calculus exams because he solved problems in his head, and did not need to write down formulas. He attended the school of Karlovac and took up electrical engineering at the Austria Polytechnic in Graz, Austria (1875). It was here he begin his research on the potential uses of alternating current.
In the year 1881 Tesla moved to Budapest and begin work for the American Telephone Company. He became the chief engineer for the company, and while in employment, developed the telephone repeater or amplifier.
After having a nervous breakdown, Tesla moved to Paris and begin work for the Continental Edison Company. It was at this time he begin developing devices for rotating magnetic fields. He received patents for these devices in 1888, and after the death of his mother, made plans to come to the United States.
Middle Years
Upon his arrival to the United States, Nikola Tesla accepted a job with the Thomas Edison company. Tesla's work for Edison began with simple electrical engineering. Eventually Tesla earned the respect of Edison and offered to undertake a complete re-design of the Edison company's DC dynamos. After Tesla described the nature of the benefits from his proposed modifications, Edison offered him $50,000 if they were successfully completed. Tesla worked nearly a year to redesign them and gave the Edison company several enormously profitable new patents in the process. When Tesla inquired about the $50,000, Edison replied to him, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor" and reneged on his agreement, offering a raise in Tesla's salary of $10 per week as a compromise - at which rate it would have taken almost 100 years to earn the money Edison had originally promised. Tesla resigned on the spot. In some accounts of the final confrontation, he didn't say a single word to Edison but simply turned his back on the inventor and walked off the premises.
In the year 1886 Tesla formed his own company called Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. However, Tesla had a disagreement with his venture capitalists involving the alternating current motors, and his investors proceeded to relieve him of his duties of running the company.Tesla worked in New York as a common laborer from 1886 to 1887 to feed himself and raise capital for his next project. In 1887, he constructed the initial brushless alternate-current induction motor, which he demonstrated to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE) in 1888. In the same year, he developed the principles of his Tesla coil and began working with George Westinghouse at Westinghouse's Pittsburgh labs. Westinghouse listened to his ideas for polyphase systems which would allow transmission of AC electricity over large distances.
War Of The Currents
Eventually Nikola Tesla and Thomas Edison would face off in a war that would come to be known as the war of the currents. Thomas Edison deep down knew that Tesla's Alternating Current inventions were superior to his. In order to beat Tesla, he begin waging a negative campaign against Alternating Current. During the height of the war, AC was used in Sing Sing prison to execute criminals. This was never Tesla's intention. Despite Edison's campaign, Tesla and Westinghouse won the war of the currents, showcased at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.
Despite winning the war, Edison and Tesla were nearly bankrupt. Tesla tore up the royalty contracts he had with Westinghouse in order to save him.
Later Life
As Tesla begin to get older, he begin to find it hard to get investors to finance his ideas. In 1899, he had a breakthrough in Colorado Springs that allowed him to transfer over 100 million volts of electricity 26 miles. In short he had discovered a way to wirelessly transfer energy. He begin construction of a tower in Long Island New York that he called Wardenclyffe. However, JP Morgan canceled his part of the investment in 1906, and Tesla was forced to cancel the project.
Eventually, Tesla would die in near poverty, and sad end for a man who did so much for the world. Here at supernaturalMinds.com, we will have more information available on this man and his many beliefs, some esoteric. He died on January 7, 1943, in New York City.
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