Nikola Tesla.
Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-Croatian inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical
engineer, and physicist, considered one of the greatest geniuses of science and
technology in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His contributions were
fundamental to the development of modern electricity, telecommunications, and
electromagnetic engineering.
Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, a small village in the Austro-Hungarian Empire (present-
day Croatia). He was the son of Milutin Tesla, an Orthodox priest, and Đuka Mandić, a woman skilled in
creating household tools, to whom Tesla always attributed his inventive talent.
From an early age, he showed a prodigious memory and great aptitude for mathematics. As a child, he became
gravely ill with cholera and nearly died, but he survived and promised to dedicate his life to science if he
recovered.
He was educated at the Polytechnic School of Graz and later at the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague,
where he deepened his studies in physics, mathematics, and electricity. Although he did not complete a formal
degree, his curiosity and self-taught ability drove him to acquire extensive scientific knowledge.
In 1881, Tesla began working in Budapest at a telegraph company and later in Paris for the Continental Edison
Company, where he gained experience in electrical engineering. It was there that he conceived his revolutionary
idea of an alternating current (AC) motor, far superior to the direct current (DC) system promoted by Thomas
Edison.
In 1884, Tesla emigrated to New York with only a few letters of recommendation and little money. He initially
worked with Thomas Edison but soon parted ways due to disagreements over the viability of alternating current
versus direct current.
In 1887, he met industrialist George Westinghouse, who financially supported his ideas. With his collaboration,
Tesla developed and patented alternating current systems that enabled the efficient transmission of electrical
energy over long distances.
During the 1890s, an intense dispute known as the War of Currents broke out. Edison defended direct current,
while Tesla and Westinghouse promoted alternating current. Ultimately, Tesla’s AC proved to be more practical
and economical.
The triumph was solidified when Tesla and Westinghouse managed to illuminate the Chicago World’s Fair in
1893, and shortly afterward, by building the hydroelectric plant at Niagara Falls, the first to harness the power
of water to generate electricity on a massive scale.
Tesla was a prolific and visionary inventor with more than 300 patents registered in different countries. Among
his most outstanding contributions are:
Alternating current (AC): The foundation of the modern electrical system.
Tesla coil, used in radio research and wireless transmission.
Induction motor: Expanded the possibilities of electricity use in industry.
Radio: although Guglielmo Marconi is more recognized, many of Tesla’s experiments laid the
groundwork for its development.
Fluorescent lighting and filamentless lamps.
Remote control, which he demonstrated in 1898 with a radio-controlled boat.
Research on X-rays, wireless energy, and theories related to free energy.
Wireless energy transmission: He attempted to realize this concept with the Wardenclyffe Tower,
although the project was never completed due to lack of funding.
His vision went beyond his time: he imagined global wireless communication networks, something similar to
today’s internet.
Despite his brilliant ideas, Tesla faced financial difficulties for much of his life. His ambitious projects, such as
the Wardenclyffe Tower on Long Island (designed to transmit electricity wirelessly), remained unfinished due
to insufficient economic support.
He spent his final years in New York hotels, dedicating himself to writing, feeding pigeons, and continuing his
research in solitude. He died on January 7, 1943, at the age of 86, in the Hotel New Yorker, virtually in
anonymity and with scarce resources.
Today, Nikola Tesla is considered a pioneer of modern electricity, radio, telecommunications, and even robotics
and wireless energy. He was a visionary ahead of his time, whose ideas laid the foundation for the technological
world we live in.
