Nikola Tesla. Biography

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Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). Biography of a scientist

Directory / The life of remarkable physicists

Nikola Tesla (1856-1943)
Nikola Tesla

The unit of magnetic induction is named after Tesla.

The brilliant inventor was born in Serbia in the town of Smilyan on July 9, 1856. His father was an Orthodox priest. The boy received a good mathematical education at home, then studied at the Technical University in Graz (Austria). He graduated from the University of Prague in 1880. His first position was as an employee of the telegraph office in Budapest. In 1882, Tesla moved to Paris, then to Strasbourg, where in 1883 he manufactured his first electric motor. In 1884 Tesla moved to the USA. Having landed in New York without a penny of money, he was immediately convinced that this was a country of great opportunities.

While walking down Broadway, Tesla saw a group of people trying to fix an electric motor. He immediately earned $20. In the USA, he met with T. Edison, who recognized Tesla's talent and invited him to work in his laboratory. Here Tesla developed three-phase motors and generators. In 1885, J. Westinghouse bought his patents for various AC electrical equipment. Between T. Edison, who wanted to introduce his direct current electrical systems, and Westinghouse-Tesla, who wanted to introduce alternating current systems, a titanic struggle broke out. The winner, as we all know (alternating current flows through the wires in our apartments), is the alternating current electric power industry.

Tesla received a big name and general fame when the powerful generators he developed were installed at the Niagara hydroelectric power station (the first in the world, 1896). After becoming wealthy and independent, Tesla set up his own laboratory in New York. Here he devoted himself entirely to scientific research. Tesla did not marry, slept three hours a day, ate from time to time. But he became one of the most famous inventors in the world. Tesla has received over 700 US patents. Even the topics of his patents are difficult to enumerate. These are electric motors, rectifiers, electric generators, transformers, fluorescent lamps, high-frequency equipment, lighting systems and much more. By the way, although Marconi received the first patent in the field of radio, many of his other patent applications were rejected because Tesla managed to get ahead of him.

Tesla was especially interested in transmitting energy over a distance without wires. He managed to achieve outstanding achievements in this area. So, he experimentally transmitted such an amount of energy over a distance of 40 km that it was enough to light 200 light bulbs! Shortly before his death, Tesla announced that he had invented "death rays", in which such an amount of energy is transmitted over a distance of 400 km that 10000 aircraft or a millionth army can be destroyed. He took this secret with him to his grave.

Few people knew that Tesla was also a poet. When he came to the USA, his main goal was to publish a collection of his poems. Passion for science did not make it possible to do this, but Tesla published his translations of Serbian poets into English.

Nikola Tesla died on January 7, 1943 in New York. All his laboratory records, letters, diplomas were inherited by his nephew Sava Kosanovich, who founded the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

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