Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, best known for his development of alternating current electrical systems. He also made extraordinary contributions to the fields of electromagnetism and wireless radio communications. He was a child prodigy and possessed an eidetic memory with a futuristic vision for the mankind which is evident from most of his discoveries and researches. He was a trained electrical and mechanical engineer whose discoveries and inventions included the modern electric motor, wireless transmission of energy, basic laser and radar technology, the first neon and fluorescent illumination and the Tesla coil (widely used in radio, television sets, and other electronic equipment).
Despite being a great inventor, his life was mostly shadowed by poverty because he was a terrible businessman. He was impractical with his money and had nobody to pass on his legacy to since he never got involved in a relationship with anyone. Although he was regarded as a generous and polite person by his friends, he had very limited social interaction with them because of his firm daily routine. He was a loner all his life and died penniless without the accolades that he would ultimately earn after his death. He was undoubtedly one of the most influential inventors of the 20th century whose discoveries in the field of electricity were way ahead of his time and continue to influence technology even today.
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| Nikola Tesla, with Roger Boskovich's book, “Theoria Philosophiae Naturalis,” in front of the spiral coil of his high-frequency transformer at East Houston St. 46, New York. |
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| Photograph of the experimenter standing in the middle of the laboratory and lighting a vacuum bulb by waves from a distant oscillator — His body is, in this case, subjected to great electrical pressure. |
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| Lighting a disconnected vacuum bulb of 1,500 candle power by high-frequency currents — Photograph taken by the light of the bulb itself, exposure about two seconds. |
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| First photograph ever taken by phosphorescent light. The face is that of Mr. Tesla, and the source of light is one of his phosphorescent bulbs. The time of exposure, eight minutes. Date of photograph January, 1894. |
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| Dr. Nikola Tesla — This immigrant from Yugoslavia invented a.c. motors and radio. A 1943 Supreme Court decision invalidated Marconi radio patents because of Tesla's prior work. |
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