I must have missed that day in school. I can't remember studying about this man and all his accomplishments. The man was an electrical genius. He is responsible for almost everything pertaining to electricity. He patented over 700 invention during his life time. After watching the History Channel story on his life I became intrigued with this person.Born in Serbia and educated in Belgrade he began a career in studies and inventions of machines never before known to mankind. In 1884 he arrived in New York City with 4 cents and a few poems and some diagrams of his inventions along with an letter of introduction to Thomas Edison. The letter read." I know two Genius Mr. Edison, YOU, and the young man standing in front of YOU." Edison hired Tesla right on the spot. Edison had promised Tesla a 50,000 bonus for some of his inventions while he work for him. After these inventions were patented by Edison, Tesla asked for his bonus and Edison just laughed at him to which Tesla replied , " Mr. Edison I resign!!"
From this time on the two men would become competitors. Edison invention of DC power,(battery) he though would be the power of the future. Tesla on the other hand believed that his AC current,( alternating current) was the future. Tesla went to work for George Westinghouse and would receive royalties for his inventions while working for Westinghouse. Together they won the contract to light the Chicago Worlds Fair in 1893. Edison would not let Tesla use his invention of the light bulb for this project so Tesla invented a totally different type of light bulb in less than 6 months and lighting the fair was a huge success.
The first power plant in the World was another of Tesla's achievement's. Along with Westinghouse, they won the contract to build and install an electrical power plant to harness the power of Niagara Falls. This project bore Tesla's name and patent numbers and in 1896 carried the first power to a city Buffalo, N.Y. As we can see that Tesla is responsible for almost every thing electric in our world. Perhaps this man was not given all the credit he deserved during his life time.
" One of the outstanding intellects of the world who paved the way for many of the technological developments of modern times."
