Do you like having air conditioning, heating, or even the ability to read this post on one of the many, many devices that needs charging? Do you ever watch TV, or get a snack from the fridge, or turn on a lightbulb at night? Obviously, yes. All that is possible thanks to electricity, specifically the AC (alternating-current) system, which Serbian-American inventor Nikola Tesla designed. He was born on this date, 10 July 1856, in Smiljan, then part of the Austrian Empire (which became part of the Austro-Hungary Empire of the Hapsburgs, and is in Croatia).
Long before his name became associated with a well-known EV (electric vehicle) brand, Tesla revolutionized science and electricity. He studied engineering across Germany, Austria, and Prague (though without the defenestrations) in what is now the Czech Republic during the 1870s, then worked in a telephone exchange in Budapest, Hungary, in the early 1880s.
Tesla vs. Edison
Tesla then got a job in Paris in 1882 where he worked for the Continental Edison Company. Through his work connections he received an introduction to the famed American inventor and in 1884 set sail for America. Upon arriving in New York, Tesla continued his engineering work with Edison, but the two soon clashed over the direction of electricity and business and after only a few months of employment, Tesla left the company. Edison was more focused on marketing and finances, as well as DC (direct current), while Tesla was commercially out-of-touch and a proponent of AC. The relationship fell apart and they remained bitter rivals for their remaining days.
For the next two years Tesla suffered hardships and humiliations, being swindled in business, having to work as a day laborer, and ignored as an inventor. In 1887 Tesla managed to reignite his life as an engineer, having founded a new company which demonstrated the viability of AC electricity. This came to the attention of George Westinghouse, the engineer who had invented railroad air brakes, which had netted him a fortune. Westinghouse and Tesla soon teamed up to introduce the AC system further afield (in direct competition with Edison and another rival company, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company, which were both championing DC electricity. Those two companies merged in 1892 to form General Electric (GE), which now has interests in aerospace, healthcare, finance, and more, though they were all spun off into different companies in early 2024, ending GE as a conglomerate that had lasted more than 125 years). The Westinghouse-backed AC system received a huge boon when Westinghouse won the bid to light the 1893 World’s Fair, known as the World's Columbian Exposition, in Chicago. This successful demonstration led to the installation of the first power machinery at Niagara Falls in 1893, which then carried power to Buffalo by 1896.
After working successfully with Westinghouse, Tesla soon established his own company to focus more on his own designs and experiments. In 1891 he obtained American citizenship and invented the Tesla Coil, a device still used in radios and some TVs. He later invented the Tesla oscillator, made inroads into radiology (eventually known as x-rays), radio remote controls, wireless power, and more.
Later Life
Unfortunately, Tesla was eccentric, a progressive germaphobe, and impractical with his finances. By 1915 he went bankrupt trying to construct a wireless radio tower, just around the same time as Marconi succeeded with his invention of the radio telegraph. Afterwards he suffered a nervous breakdown and was never the same. In his later years he claimed he was working on a “death ray” that could destroy up to 10,000 airplanes at a distance of 250 miles, though he never revealed the plans. He also became an increasing recluse and was noted for talking to the pigeons of New York. He died on 7 January 1943 in his room in the Hotel New Yorker. Days later the FBI confiscated his possessions, concerned as they were about the death ray and other potential instruments of destruction, though after analysis they discovered nothing noteworthy. Eventually his possessions were shipped back to Belgrade and became part of the Nikola Tesla Museum there. In the years after his death Tesla has become well-known in scientific circles for his inventions, and to the popular world as the namesake car brand company.
He’ll forever be associated with the revolution around electricity, AC vs DC, from which the famous rock band takes their name. So, for those about to rock, we salute you.