Nikola Tesla (1856–1943)

It’s the birthday of Nikola Tesla (Никола Тесла), who was born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia. Tesla’s first technical job was at the Budapest Telephone Exchange, where he made several improvements to the equipment and rose to become chief electrician. His next job, in 1882, was for Continental Edison Co in France. Two years later, he was at the company’s Manhattan office, working to redesign and improve Thomas Edison’s DC generators and associated equipment. With financial backing, Tesla set up his own company, which developed a revolutionary AC induction motor and transformer. Those inventions and others, licensed by George Westinghouse, helped AC defeat DC in the so-called War of the Currents, which was all but over by the early 1890s. Tesla’s research interests shifted focus to the generation and uses of wireless electrical power. Thanks to the royalties he earned from his 300 patents, Tesla could finance extensive research projects at labs in Colorado and New York. Those high-voltage, high-frequency experiments did not result in profitable devices—at least not in Tesla’s lifetime. He died alone of coronary thrombosis on 7 January 1943 in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel.

Date in History: 10 July 1856