Nikola Tesla,
the genius of
electricity
Cristian Serrano
On July 10, 1856, Nikola Tesla was
born in present-day Croatia, a man
who dedicated his life to solving the
mysteries of electricity and to
devising a way to make this
phenomenon easier for people.
At just 17 years old, young Nikola fell seriously ill with
cholera and was on the verge of not recovering. His father
promised that once he was restored he would send him to
the best engineering school there was, the most fervent
wish of the young man. After recovering and entering the
army, in 1875, Tesla began his studies at the Polytechnic
University of Graz, in Austria.
At the age of three, while stroking his cat, Tesla was surprised by a
shower of sparks and wanted to know what was the reason
THE ETERNAL STRUGGLE OF TESLA AND EDISON
In his student days he began to develop the purpose that would accompany him forever: to devise the way
in which free energy could reach everyone. In 1881 he traveled to Vienna, where he worked for the
National Telephone Company. Eventually Tesla moved to Paris, where he found work with the Edison
Company. From the French capital he traveled to New York in 1884 - the same year that the Statue of
Liberty also arrived from Paris. Once in the city, Tesla went directly to the offices of the man who would
definitely influence his life: Thomas Alva Edison. To him was addressed a letter of recommendation from
Charles Batchelor, his last boss in Europe, which read: "I know two great men, and you are one of them. The
other is the young bearer of this letter."
Edison defended his own theory at all costs and in no way
was he going to allow a young foreigner who had just
arrived in the city to take away his fame and endanger his
empire. Tesla then ran into a savage smear campaign.
After reading the letter, Edison hired him that same day. But their relationship was far from placid. There
were differences between the two that increased over time. These differences were reflected in the way of
posing and seeing the results of their work. While Edison was the first introducer and strong advocate of
direct current, Tesla was convinced that alternating current was a better solution - current that we
continue to use in our homes more than 150 years later. This dispute is known as "the war of the
currents."
THE "WAR OF THE CURRENTS"
In fact, Tesla's idea was better, but he needed Edison to put it
into practice. Edison defended his own theory at all costs and
in no way was he going to allow a young foreigner who had
just arrived in the city to rob him of his fame and endanger his
empire. Tesla then ran into a savage smear campaign.
Tesla and Edison had profound differences. Edison was a supporter of
direct current and Tesla, of alternating current. Edison did not want to
risk his fortune because of a "newcomer."
Edison did not want to risk his fortune because of a "newcomer." For this reason, the veteran inventor
came to tour the United States with the intention of demonstrating the danger of alternating current, for
which he did not hesitate to electrocute animals (from dogs and cats to an elephant) to discredit Tesla's
proposal. He also denied the payment of the $ 50,000 promised at first with a mocking and grotesque
comment: "When you become a true American, you will be in a position to appreciate a good Yankee joke."
In 1886, Tesla founded his own company, the Tesla Electric Light &
Manufacturing . The first investors did not agree with his plans for the
development of an alternating current motor and eventually ended up
relieving him of his position in the company. But Tesla did not give up
and worked as a laborer in New York from 1886 to 1887 in order to
COLLABORATION survive and earn money for his next project. In 1887, he built a
WITH brushless induction motor, supplied with alternating current, presented at
WESTINGHOUSE the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (American Institute of
Electrical Engineers) in 1888. That same yearHe developed his coil
principle, and began working with George Westinghouse at Westinghouse
Electric & Manufacturing Company's in Pittsburgh laboratories.
Westinghouse listened carefully to his ideas about polyphase systems,
which could allow the transmission of alternating current over long
distances, and he bet on him.
Tesla introduced in 1898 an invention called
"Teleautomaton", a miniature boat controlled by
radio remote
Tesla also had problems with Marconi , who is credited with inventing
PATENT the radio. Marconi won the Nobel Prize in 1909 for this invention,
although Tesla had patented the idea in 1896. But the patent office
ISSUES AND backtracked and ended up granting Marconi the patent for the
invention. There was much talk at the time about the change, which
DEATH some attributed to economic pressure from Marconi. Finally, in 1943
the United States Supreme Court recognized Nikola Tesla shortly before
his death as the inventor of the radio and returned the patent to
him, which had been in the possession of Marconi until that time.
After Tesla's Nikola Tesla died alone on January 7, 1943, in a hotel room in New York,
death, the at the age of 86, of a myocardial infarction. His funeral, which was held
in the Cathedral of San Juan el Divino, was attended by more than
United States 2,000 people who mourned the loss of a true genius. The United States
government government, once Nikola Tesla was buried, intervened in his office and
requisitioned all the documents that contained his studies and
seized all the research, however, some could not be understood or deciphered since
Tesla kept most of his ideas in his mind. Years later, Nikola Tesla's family,
documents through the Yugoslavian embassy, managed to recover part of the seized
material .
from his office
Tesla is considered by many to be the best
inventor of the 20th century. His figure, somewhat
mistreated by history, was later vindicated by
countercultural movements that discovered the
legacy of a man who opposed the established
norms and who lived in a world that was not yet
ready for his inventions. From the "death ray", a
weapon capable of shooting beams of particles, to
the "teslascope", an invention that would allow
communication with beings from other galaxies,
since Tesla was convinced of the existence of
intelligent beings in other dimensions. .
Today, the life and work of Nikola Tesla are
revealed in the museum that bears his name in
Belgrade. A curious and interesting place where
you can better understand the importance of one
of the most important inventors in history.
