Tesla: Too Advanced for His Time
Nikola Tesla was born at the stroke of midnight on July 9/10, 1856 in the small village of Smiljan, which is in the Lika province of what is now Croatia. His father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian Orthodox Priest and his mother Djuka Mandic was known for her intelligence. Tesla often said that his mother, more than anyone else, influenced his life as an inventor (Cheney, 26). In 1863, when Nikola was seven years old, his older brother, Daniel, was killed accidentally while riding the family horse. Nikola experienced an overwhelming amount of guilt over this for the rest of his life because he believed he somehow contributed to the mishap that killed Daniel. A great deal of the drive in Nikola’s later life seemed to be spent trying to prove that he was as good as Daniel (Kurtus, 2002). Shortly thereafter, the family moved to the nearby city of Gospic, where Nikola attended school. As a boy he was passionate about mathematics and science, and had his heart set on becoming an engineer but was “constantly oppressed” by his father’s insistence that he enter the priesthood. At age fifteen Tesla was sent to the Higher Real Gymnasium in Karlovac, Croatia, where his father intended that he study for the ministry. At age
It didn’t take long, though, for the personal differences between the two men to drive them apart. They were two very different men in both personality and work habits. Nikola was professionally educated and obsessed with personal hygiene. When people were around him they knew that they were in the presence of a genius. Edison, though somewhat uncouth, was also hailed as a genius, but he was self –educated and had gained all of his knowledge through trial- and-error experimentation (Dommermuth-Costa, 61). Edison’s patience was already wearing thin due to Tesla’s annoying proposal concerning a new alternating current scheme. Edison would not hear it, and regarded this as a threat to the direct current system already in place. But it all came to a head when Tesla approached Edison about the efficiency of Edison’s DC dynamos. Tesla had observed the dynamos for a long time and he already had a plan for redesigning them, he claimed, that would save time and money. Edison, always the businessman, told Tesla that if he could solve a variety of problems with the motors and dynamos, and standardize them, it would be worth $50,000 to him. Tesla worked frantically day and night for nearly a year, and managed to successfully implement all the improvements that he had proposed, and better than Edison had expected. When Tesla reported his results to Edison and inquired of the $50,000 that he was due, Edison was incredulous. “Tesla,” he exclaimed, “you don’t understand our American humor.” (Cheney, 54-57). The disillusioned Tesla resigned immediately. Tesla's insight would ultimately make the advantages of AC power usable by industry, with enormous improvements in the cost and reliability of electricity. But he could convince no one of this at the time. The advantages of AC for power transmission were well known but there had been thus far no functional and efficient way to produce it. And although many people were impressed with Tesla himself, he was unable to raise the capital to start a company to manufacture his new motor/generator. So instead he went to work at the Continental Edison Company in Paris, a company that used the Edison system for direct current. It was an exposure for Tesla that brought his designs and creativity to full bloom. He loved the diversity of the engineers; since he spoke at least eight languages, he could communicate with anyone there. Americans fascinated him especially, with their entrepreneurial enthusiasm, and it didn't take long for him to become infected with the desire to go to America. In the meantime, Tesla proved his worthiness to his company by bailing them out of trouble time and time again. After some time trying to gain finances for his alternating current dynamo, he was finally able to win some support with his boss so that he could then go to America and more fully develop his ideas (Hunt and Draper, 35). After parting ways with Westinghouse, Tesla needed to regain some financial support, but, then what? The Paris Exposition of 1900 was just a couple years away, so Tesla decided to demonstrate what he considered his greatest contribution to mankind, the wireless power and broadcasting station. In order to do this, he needed to build a laboratory where he would have freedom to do as he pleased. As luck would have it, his old friend Leonard Curtis, recently involved with the Colorado Springs Electric Company, invited Tesla to Colorado with the promise of free land, building, and power for his experiments. J.P. Morgan had also invested money in Tesla provided that Morgan controlled 51% of the operation. Tesla arrived in Colorado in May of 1899 and found the climate and scenery much to his liking, and after a few months of construction, his laboratory was finally operational (Cheney, 170-175).
Some topics in this essay:
Hunt Draper,
Edison’s DC,
Park Edison,
Colorado Springs,
Electrical Engineers,
Company Paris,
Tesla Tesla,
Mars Tesla,
Djuka Mandic,
JP Morgan,
ac power,
hunt draper,
alternating current,
nikola tesla,
direct current,
trull 1996,
power niagara falls,
westinghouse tesla,
thomas edison,
letter introduction,
advantages ac,
advantages ac power,
alternating current dynamo,
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Approximate Word count = 2717
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page double spaced)
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