Nikola Tesla: The Coolest Unknown Scientist
Written and Narrated by: Dan Bittinger
Nikola Tesla was the child of two Serbians, born on July 10th, 1856 in what is Croatia today. Tesla grew up into an inquisitive child who developed an eccentric personality, and was completely fascinated by the physical world around him. During his childhood Tesla attempted to fly by jumping off the roof of a barn, tried to generate static electricity by rubbing two cats together, and thought up a bug powered motor using Junebugs. He never got to build it, however, because a friend decided to eat some of the Junebugs. On June 6th, 1884 Tesla arrived in the United States and was hired by Thomas Edison to do basic engineering for his company.
Tesla was quickly moved up to redesigning the direct current generators that ran Edison's business. Edison offered Tesla 50,000 dollars (equivalent to 1.1 million today) to successfully do so. After completing the task, Tesla asked for payment, which Edison did not give to him. Edison claimed he wasn't serious about the offer and Tesla didn't understand American humor. Tesla eventually left Edison's company and joined George Westinghouse in 1888 to commercialize his system of alternating current. Since Edison's monopoly was built on direct current, the "War of the Currents" was thus sparked. Edison began a massive smear campaign against Tesla's alternating current, employing scare tactics to deter people from using it. He spread misinformation about fatalities caused by it, spoke of its negative health effects, and even electrocuted a circus elephant in public with it. Despite his campaign, Edison was forced to concede to popular demand and go with Tesla's alternating current.
Tesla's contributions to mankind reach far beyond electricity, however. Tesla accumulated over 700 patents in his lifetime and came up with ideas and inventions like robots, spark plugs, the Electric Arc Lamp, an X-Ray device, bladeless turbines, wireless communication, various electric motors, laser technology, neon lights, remote controls, the radio, RADAR, and much more. Nearing the end of his life in the 1930's, Tesla became reclusive, living in a room of the New Yorker Hotel. He emerged only to feed pigeons and make unusual statements to the press. On January 7th, 1943 Tesla died from heart failure in his room of the New Yorker Hotel. Even with his fame and great influence on the world, Tesla died all alone with considerable debt. He was the quintessential "mad scientist".
If you want to learn more about Nikola Tesla's Life, check out his autobiography at http://www.mcnabb.com/music/tesla/bio.pdf