On July 10th, 1865 at the stoke of midnight, in what would now be known as Croatia, a baby boy was born. Little did his Serbian parents know how their son, Nikola Tesla, would change the world.
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| Inventor and Electrical Genius, Nikola Tesla |
Nikola's father, Milutin Tesla, had devoted his life to the priest hood and had expected that his son would so the same. From a young age Nikola had been taught and raised to be a holy man, but he had always held a deep interest in the scientific studies of his era. Intrigued by the sciences more than his rigorous studies, Nikola often shared his desires to continue his learning at distinguished scientific schools. In 1873, 18 year old Nikola suddenly got stuck with cholera. He had been bedridden for 9 months, and the worst was assumed to be eminent. With little chance for his health to return, he tried to regain his fathers optimism. Nikolas father, in a moment of desperation, agreed to send him to an engineering school if he recovered from the illness. Young Nikola Tesla had recovered and in 1875 had been enrolled in the Austrian Polytechnic school in Graz.
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| The Graz University of Technology |
Tesla's Epiphany
During this time Edison and his empire had been using Direct Current to generate electricity for many people in the city. Tesla was a great fan of Edison and his work. In a much later account Tesla's had stated, "It had been the height of my ambition and my most ardent wish to cone in contact with Edison and see America." After studying Edison methods of creating electricity with Direct Current, Tesla had an insistent feeling that he could help Edison improve it, but he had yet to find out how. One afternoon in 1882, Tesla was out for a walk, obsessed with Edison's D.C dilemma, it is said that he had a mental break down. According to his own accounts of the event, "...The idea came to me like a flash of lightning and in an instant the truth was revealed... The images I saw were wonderfully sharp and clear and had the solidity of metal and stone, so much so that I told him: 'See my motor here; watch me reverse it.' I cannot begin to describe my emotions. It was a mental state of happiness as complete as I had ever known in life"
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| This is a visual representation Tesla's vision |
Tesla's new vision had been the breakthrough he had been longing to achieve. By using a rotating bi-polar magnet it could influence the flow of ions at multiple points and the force of magnetic induction would cause the ions to shift directions frequently, thus creating a new type of current, Alternating Current. Sadly this was just a concept and many colleagues even professors laughed at his claim to convince them of what they called a "perpetual motion scam".
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| A rendition of Tesla's First Alternating Current conductor |
Working For Edison
Later that year Tesla had gotten a job in Paris, working for the Edison Electrical Illumination Company. Working under Charles Batchelor at the Ivry- sur-Seine lamp factory and installing light and fixtures in Opera Houses and Theaters all around Europe, he had earned himself quite the positive reputation.
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| An illustration of the Paris Opera House in which Tesla had installed a new lighting system |
After working for Edition's company in Europe for over 2 years, he had managed obtain a letter of recommendation written by Charles Batchelor. With Charles Batchelor being personal friends with Thomas Edison, his recommendation was extremely valuable. In the letter Batchelor wrote, " My Dear Edison, I know two great men and you are one of them. The other is this young man!" Thomas Edison had accepted the recommendation and agreed to assign Tesla to a Station in America to work alongside him.
Tesla's trip to America was not a smooth one. During the voyage a mutiny had broken out and Nikola had almost been thrown overboard and he had even gotten his luggage stolen, but by the morning of June 6th, 1884 Tesla would have arrived safely in New York with only a poem and 4¢ in his pocket. During a speech he made later in life, Tesla recounted that day, “On my way uptown I came to a small machine shop in which the foreman was trying to repair an electric machine of European make. He had just given up the task as hopeless and I undertook to put it in order without a thought of compensation. It was not easy but I finally had it in perfect running condition. I was astonished when he gave me twenty dollars and wished that I had come to America years before. The next day I was thrilled to the marrow by meeting Edison who began my American education right then and there.”
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| During this time in the late 1800's many people immigrated to America seeking new opportunities for success |
It wasn't long after Tesla began working that he had tried to convince Edison his invention could improve upon Edison's Direct Current. Edison refused to entertain the idea of Alternating Current, and condemned them as deadly. Thomas Edison had built his entire electric empire on direct current and viewed Tesla's alternating current as a way to undermine his business.
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| One of Edison's several dynamo D.C generator's |
When Edison heard of Tesla's effort to earn more money, Edison offered Tesla a chance to improve the performance of the company's D.C generators. Tesla had worked tirelessly for nine months, consistently working on the Dynamo generators, "I began the work for which I was engaged immediately and after nine months of strenuous effort I fulfilled my contract rigorously. The manager had promised me fifty thousand dollars but when I demanded payment, he merely laughed. 'You are still a Parisian,' remarked Edison, 'when you become a full-fledged American you will appreciate an American joke.'" This was the straw that broke the camel's back. Disgusted and shocked by Edison's remark and the lack of any compensation for his work, Tesla quit.
Looking at other dimensions of Tesla's work like his early years is a great way to go about research for a topic like this. Perhaps including a video to hear from another voice will help orchestrate that.
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