Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American physicist, mechanical engineer, and electrical engineer. He was an extraordinary scientist who left a profound mark on the late 19th and early 20th centuries through his groundbreaking work on electricity and magnetism.

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, a village near the border of present-day Croatia, which at the time was part of the Austrian Empire. His father served as a priest in the Orthodox Church, and this intellectual and disciplined environment played a significant role in shaping Tesla’s early development.

After entering professional life, Nikola Tesla quickly drew attention due to his exceptional ability to visualize complex objects and retain them vividly in his mind. He secured his first job at an American telephone company in Budapest. During this period, he suffered a serious episode related to obsessive-compulsive disorder. After recovering, he conceived the idea of the polyphase system during a walk with a friend, a moment that marked a turning point in his scientific career. At that time, Tesla was working on repairs at the Edison Electric Company in Strasbourg. Although he successfully completed the task, the company failed to honor its promise of payment. Unable to find stable work afterward, he spent two difficult years earning a living by digging canals and waterways.

Following these challenging years, Nikola Tesla managed to secure a position at the Westinghouse laboratories in Pittsburgh. There, he introduced the revolutionary idea that alternating current could transmit electricity over long distances with minimal loss. The direct current technology in use at the time caused severe energy losses due to high resistance, making efficient transmission nearly impossible. However, Thomas Alva Edison, who had heavily invested in direct current systems, strongly opposed Tesla’s ideas and attempted to block his progress. Recognizing the potential of alternating current, the Westinghouse Company purchased Tesla’s patent for one million dollars. As a result, Edison’s direct current systems gradually lost popularity and were replaced by alternating current.

Using the money he earned from the patent, Nikola Tesla founded the Tesla Electric Company in New York. He devoted all his time and financial resources to unconventional electrical experiments, the most notable of which was the invention of the Tesla Coil. On March 13, 1895, a devastating fire destroyed his laboratories, causing Tesla to lose everything he owned.

After this disaster, Nikola Tesla moved to Colorado, where he established a new laboratory and continued his work on massive versions of the Tesla Coil. He used this device to generate artificial lightning. He later returned to New York and began constructing a laboratory centered around an enormous tower, though this ambitious project was never completed. Subsequently, the Telefunken Wireless station he built on Long Island was demolished in 1917 due to concerns that it could be used by German agents.

An eccentric and unconventional figure, Nikola Tesla was never successful at managing money. He spent the final years of his life moving from one hotel to another to escape mounting debts. On January 7, 1943, at the age of 86, he passed away from heart failure in a room at the New Yorker Hotel. Before his death, Tesla had been working on a project he called the Teleforce Weapon, and all of his documents related to this work were confiscated by the United States government.

Source: Biyografiler.com