19th/20th Century Pioneer

Nikola Tesla (1856 – 1943). Immigrant from Croatia.

Born in Smiljan Croatia, attended the Austrian Polytechnic School of Graz less than two years in 1875. Worked for the Edison Telephone Company that was expanding into Europe in 1882.  A supervisor of Tesla’s in Paris wrote a letter to Thomas Edison recommending Tesla for a job in America.  Tesla  immigrated, went to work for Edison in America, but left in less than a year over a pay dispute after he had redesigned a problematic DC generator for Edison. 

In America, Tesla formed a number of companies involving backers, and produced the patents for AC Generators, Motors, and the AC transmission scheme that enabled widespread electric power generation.

Among his many investors, George Westinghouse and Tesla developed financial relationships that resulted in Westinghouse acquiring the rights to Tesla’s basic AC patents in 1888.  Tesla’s AC generator patents were incorporated into the first Westinghouse Power Plant built at Niagara Falls. 

During his working life, Tesla produced 111 patents.  In addition to AC Power, he was a pioneer in the development of radio transmission circuitry and he experimented with inductors and devices that produced “ball” lightning.  The “Tesla Coil” that he invented  produced the high voltages and current necessary for the transmission of radio waves.  It is said that Marconi used Tesla’s methods.

Source:  The Complete Patents of N. Tesla, edited by Jim Glen, Barnes & Noble, 1994.