The Life of Nikola Tesla
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian American[3][4][5][6] inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, and futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current(AC) electricity supply system.[7]
Tesla gained experience in telephony and electrical engineering before emigrating to the United States in 1884 to work for Thomas Edison in New York City. He soon struck out on his own with financial backers, setting up laboratories and companies to develop a range of electrical devices. His patented AC induction motor and transformer were licensed by George Westinghouse, who also hired Tesla for a short time as a consultant. His work in the formative years of electric power development was involved in a corporate alternating current/direct current "War of Currents" as well as various patent battles.
Tesla went on to pursue his ideas of wireless lighting and electricity distribution in his high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments in New York and Colorado Springs, and made early (1893) pronouncements on the possibility of wireless communication with his devices. He tried to put these ideas to practical use in his ill-fated attempt at intercontinental wireless transmission, which was his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project.[8] In his lab he also conducted a range of experiments with mechanical oscillators/generators, electrical discharge tubes, and early X-ray imaging. He also built a wireless controlled boat, one of the first ever exhibited.
Tesla was renowned for his achievements and showmanship, eventually earning him a reputation in popular culture as an archetypal "mad scientist".[9] His patents earned him a considerable amount of money, much of which was used to finance his own projects with varying degrees of success.[10]:121,154 He lived most of his life in a series of New York hotels, through his retirement. He died on 7 January 1943.[11] His work fell into relative obscurity after his death, but in 1960 the General Conference on Weights and Measuresnamed the SI unit of magnetic flux density the tesla in his honor.[12] There has been a resurgence in interest in Tesla in popular culture since the 1990s.[1
Early years (1856–1885)
Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July [O.S. 28 June] 1856 into a Serb family in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia[15]).[16][17] His father, Milutin Tesla, was an Orthodox priest.[18][19][20][21]Tesla's mother, Đuka Tesla (née Mandić), whose father was also an Orthodox priest,[16]:10 had a talent for making home craft tools, mechanical appliances, and the ability to memorize Serbian epic poems. Đuka had never received a formal education. Nikola credited his eidetic memory and creative abilities to his mother's genetics and influence.[10][22] Tesla's progenitors were from western Serbia, near Montenegro.[16]:12
Tesla was the fourth of five children. He had an older brother named Dane and three sisters, Milka, Angelina and Marica. Dane was killed in a horse-riding accident when Nikola was five.[23] In 1861, Tesla attended the "Lower" or "Primary" School in Smiljan where he studied German, arithmetic, and religion.[24]In 1862, the Tesla family moved to Gospić, Austrian Empire, where Tesla's father worked as a pastor. Nikola completed "Lower" or "Primary" School, followed by the "Lower Real Gymnasium" or "Normal School."[25]
In 1870, Tesla moved to Karlovac,[26] to attend school at the Higher Real Gymnasium, where he was profoundly influenced by a math teacher Martin Sekulić.[16]:32[27] The classes were held in German, as it was a school within the Austro-Hungarian Military Frontier.[28] Tesla was able to perform integral calculus in his head, which prompted his teachers to believe that he was cheating.[29] He finished a four-year term in three years, graduating in 1873.[16]:33
In 1873, Tesla returned to his birthtown, Smiljan. Shortly after he arrived, Tesla contracted cholera; he was bedridden for nine months and was near death multiple times. Tesla's father, in a moment of despair, promised to send him to the best engineering school if he recovered from the illness[26][27] (his father had originally wanted him to enter the priesthood).[30]
In 1874, Tesla evaded being drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army in Smiljan[31] by running away to Tomingaj, near Gračac. There, he explored the mountains in hunter's garb. Tesla said that this contact with nature made him stronger, both physically and mentally.[27] He read many books while in Tomingaj, and later said that Mark Twain's works had helped him to miraculously recover from his earlier illness.[26]
In 1875, Tesla enrolled at Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, Austria, on a Military Frontier scholarship. During his first year, Tesla never missed a lecture, earned the highest grades possible, passed nine exams[26][27] (nearly twice as many required[16]), started a Serbian culture club,[27] and even received a letter of commendation from the dean of the technical faculty to his father, which stated, "Your son is a star of first rank."[16] Tesla claimed that he worked from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m., no Sundays or holidays excepted.[26] He was "mortified when [his] father made light of [those] hard won honors." After his father's death in 1879,[31] Tesla found a package of letters from his professors to his father, warning that unless he were removed from the school, Tesla would be killed through overwork.[26] During his second year, Tesla came into conflict with Professor Poeschl over the Gramme dynamo, when Tesla suggested that commutators weren't necessary. At the end of his second year, Tesla lost his scholarship and became addicted to gambling.[26][27] During his third year, Tesla gambled away his allowance and his tuition money, later gambling back his initial losses and returning the balance to his family. Tesla said that he "conquered [his] passion then and there," but later he was known to play billiards in the US. When exam time came, Tesla was unprepared and asked for an extension to study, but was denied. He never graduated from the university and did not receive grades for the last semester.[31]
In December 1878, Tesla left Graz and severed all relations with his family to hide the fact that he dropped out of school.[31] His friends thought that he had drowned in the Mur River.[32] Tesla went to Maribor (now in Slovenia), where he worked as a draftsman for 60 florins a month. He spent his spare time playing cards with local men on the streets.[31] In March 1879, Milutin Tesla went to Maribor to beg his son to return home, but Nikola refused.[33] Nikola suffered a nervous breakdown at around the same time.[32]
On 24 March 1879, Tesla was returned to Gospić under police guard for not having a residence permit. On 17 April 1879, Milutin Tesla died at the age of 60 after contracting an unspecified illness[34] (although some sources say that he died of a stroke[35]). During that year, Tesla taught a large class of students in his old school, Higher Real Gymnasium, in Gospić.[34]
In January 1880, two of Tesla's uncles put together enough money to help him leave Gospić for Prague where he was to study. Unfortunately, he arrived too late to enroll at Charles-Ferdinand University; he never studied Greek, a required subject; and he was illiterate in Czech, another required subject. Tesla did, however, attend lectures at the university, although, as an auditor, he did not receive grades for the courses.[36][37][38]
In 1881, Tesla moved to Budapest to work under Ferenc Puskás at a telegraph company, the Budapest Telephone Exchange. Upon arrival, Tesla realized that the company, then under construction, was not functional, so he worked as a draftsman in the Central Telegraph Office instead. Within a few months, the Budapest Telephone Exchange became functional and Tesla was allocated the chief electrician position.[39] During his employment, Tesla made many improvements to the Central Station equipment and claimed to have perfected a telephone repeater or amplifier, which was never patented nor publicly described.[26]
Working for Edison
In 1882, Tesla began working for the Continental Edison Company in France, designing and making improvements to electrical equipment.[40] In June 1884, he relocated to New York City[16]:57–60[41] where he was hired by Thomas Edison to work at his Edison Machine Works on Manhattan's lower east side. Tesla's work for Edison began with simple electrical engineering and quickly progressed to solving more difficult problems.[42]
Tesla was offered the task of completely redesigning the Edison Company's direct current generators. In 1885, he said that he could redesign Edison's inefficient motor and generators, making an improvement in both service and economy. According to Tesla, Edison remarked, "There's fifty thousand dollars in it for you—if you can do it."[10]:54–57 [16]:64 This has been noted as an odd statement from an Edison whose company was stingy with pay and who did not have that sort of cash on hand.[43] After months of work, Tesla fulfilled the task and inquired about payment. Edison, saying that he was only joking, replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor."[16]:64 [44] Instead, Edison offered a US$10 a week raise over Tesla's US$18 per week salary; Tesla refused the offer and immediately resigned.[10]
Middle years (1886–1899)
After leaving Edison's company Tesla partnered with two businessmen in 1886, Robert Lane and Benjamin Vale, who agreed to finance an electric lighting company in Tesla's name, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing.[45] The company installed electrical arc light based illumination systems designed by Tesla and also had designs for dynamo electric machine commutators, the first patents issued to Tesla in the US.[46]
The investors showed little interest in Tesla's ideas for new types of motors and electrical transmission equipment and also seemed to think it was better to develop an electrical utility than invent new systems.[47] They eventually forced Tesla out leaving him penniless. He even lost control of the patents he had generated since he had assigned them to the company in lieu of stock.[47] He had to work at various electrical repair jobs and even as a ditch digger for $2 per day. Tesla considered the winter of 1886/1887 as a time of "terrible headaches and bitter tears." During this time, he questioned the value of his education.[46][48]
AC and the induction motor
In late 1886 Tesla met Alfred S. Brown, a Western Union superintendent, and New York attorney Charles F. Peck. The two men were experienced in setting up companies and promoting inventions and patents for financial gain.[49] Based on Tesla's patents and other ideas they agreed to back him financially and handle his patents. Together in April 1887 they formed the Tesla Electric Company with an agreement that profits from generated patents would go 1/3 to Tesla, 1/3 to Peck and Brown, and 1/3 to fund development.[49] They set up a laboratory for Tesla at 89 Liberty Street in Manhattan where he worked on improving and developing new types of electric motors, generators and other devices.
One of the things Tesla developed at that laboratory in 1887 was an induction motor that ran on alternating current, a power system format that was starting to be built in Europe and the US because of its advantages in long distance high voltage transmission. The motor used polyphasecurrent which generated a rotating magnetic field to turn the motor (a principle Tesla claimed to have conceived of in 1882).[50][51][52] This innovative electric motor, patented in May 1888, was a simple self-starting design that did not need a commutator, thus avoiding sparking and the high maintenance of constantly servicing and replacing mechanical brushes.[53][54]
In 1888, the editor of Electrical World magazine, Thomas Commerford Martin (a friend and publicist), arranged for Tesla to demonstrate his alternating current system, including his induction motor, at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE).[55] Engineers working for theWestinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company reported to George Westinghouse that Tesla had a viable AC motor and related power system—something to which Westinghouse had been trying to secure patents. Westinghouse looked into getting a patent on a similar commutatorless rotating magnetic field based induction motor presented in a paper in March 1888 by the Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris but decided Tesla's patent would probably control the market.[56][57]
In July 1888, Brown and Peck negotiated a licensing deal with George Westinghouse for Tesla's polyphase induction motor and transformer designs for $60,000 in cash and stock and a royalty of $2.50 per AC horsepower produced by each motor. Westinghouse also hired Tesla for one year for the large fee of $2,000 ($52,500 in today's dollars[58]) per month to be a consultant at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company'sPittsburgh labs.[59]
During that year, Tesla worked in Pittsburgh, helping to create an alternating current system to power the city's streetcars. He found the time there frustrating because of conflicts between him and the other Westinghouse engineers over how best to implement AC power. Between them, they settled on a 60-cycle AC current system Tesla proposed (to match the working frequency of Tesla's motor), although they soon found that, since Tesla's induction motor could only run at a constant speed, it would not work for street cars. They ended up using a DC traction motorinstead.[60][61]
