Nikola Tesla

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Nikola Tesla
Tesla circa 1890.jpeg
Tesla, aged 34, 1890, photo by Napoleon Sarony
Born (1856-07-10)10 July 1856
Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia)
New York City, New York, USA
Citizenship Austrian Empire (10 July 1856 – 1867)
United States (30 July 1891 – 7 January 1943)
Engineering career
Engineering discipline Electrical engineering
Mechanical engineering
Significant projects Alternating current,
high-voltage, high-frequency power experiments
Significant design Induction motor
Rotating magnetic field
Tesla coil
Radio remote control vehicle (torpedo)[1]:355
Significant awards
Signature TeslaSignature.svg



Tesla was renowned for his achievements and showmanship, eventually earning him a reputation in popular culture as an archetypal "mad scientist."[8] His patents earned him a considerable amount of money, much of which was used to finance his own projects with varying degrees of success.[9]:121,154 He lived most of his life in a series of New York hotels, through his retirement. He died on 7 January 1943.[10]

Tesla's work fell into relative obscurity after his death, but in 1960 the General Conference on Weights and Measures named the SI unit of magnetic field strength the tesla in his honour.[11] Tesla has experienced a resurgence in interest in popular culture since the 1990s.[12]

Early years (1856–1885)

Tesla wearing a folk costume, c. 1880.
Rebuilt, Tesla's house (parish hall) in Smiljan, Croatia, where he was born, and the rebuilt church, where his father served. During the Yugoslav Wars, several of the buildings were severely damaged by fire. They were restored and reopened in 2006.[13]
Tesla's baptismal record, 28 June 1856.
Nikola Tesla's father Milutin, Serbian Orthodox priest in the village of Smiljan.

Nikola Tesla was born on 10 July (O.S. 28 June) 1856 to Serbian parents in the village of Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia).[14][15] His father, Milutin Tesla, was an Orthodox priest.[5] Tesla's mother, Đuka Tesla (née Mandić), whose father was also an Orthodox priest,[14]:10 had a talent for making home craft tools, mechanical appliances, and the ability to memorize Serbian epic poems. Đuka had never received a formal education. Nikola credited his eidetic memory and creative abilities to his mother's genetics and influence.[9][16] Tesla's progenitors were from western Serbia, near Montenegro.[14]:12

Tesla was the fourth of five children. He had an older brother named Dane and three sisters, Milka, Angelina and Marica. Dane was killed in a horse-riding accident when Nikola was five.[17] In 1861, Tesla attended the "Lower" or "Primary" School in Smiljan where he studied German, arithmetic, and religion.[18] In 1862, the Tesla family moved to Gospić, Austrian Empire, where Tesla's father worked as a pastor. Nikola completed "Lower" or "Primary" School, followed by the "Lower Real Gymnasium" or "Normal School."[19]

In 1870, Tesla moved to Karlovac to attend school at Higher Real Gymnasium, where he was profoundly influenced by a math teacher Martin Sekulić.[14]:32[20] Tesla was able to perform integral calculus in his head, which prompted his teachers to believe that he was cheating.[21] He finished a four-year term in three years, graduating in 1873.[14]:33

In 1873, Tesla returned to his birthtown, Smiljan. Shortly after he arrived, Tesla contracted cholera; he was bedridden for nine months and was near death multiple times. Tesla's father, in a moment of despair, promised to send him to the best engineering school if he recovered from the illness[20][22] (his father had originally wanted him to enter the priesthood).[23]

In 1874, Tesla evaded being drafted into the Austro-Hungarian Army in Smiljan[24] by running away to Tomingaj, near Gračac. There, he explored the mountains in hunter's garb. Tesla claimed that this contact with nature made him stronger, both physically and mentally.[20] He read many books while in Tomingaj, and later claimed that Mark Twain's works had helped him to miraculously recover from his earlier illness.[22]

In 1875, Tesla enrolled at Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, Austria, on a Military Frontier scholarship. During his first year, Tesla never missed a lecture, earned the highest grades possible, passed nine exams[20][22] (nearly twice as many required[14]), started a Serbian culture club,[20] and even received a letter of commendation from the dean of the technical faculty to his father, which stated, "Your son is a star of first rank."[14] Tesla claimed that he worked from 3 a.m. to 11 p.m., no Sundays or holidays excepted.[22] He was "mortified when [his] father made light of [those] hard won honors." After his father's death in 1879,[24] Tesla found a package of letters from his professors to his father, warning that unless he were removed from the school, Tesla would be killed through overwork.[22] During his second year, Tesla came into conflict with Professor Poeschl over the Gramme dynamo, when Tesla suggested that commutators weren't necessary. At the end of his second year, Tesla lost his scholarship and became addicted to gambling.[20][22] During his third year, Tesla gambled away his allowance and his tuition money, later gambling back his initial losses and returning the balance to his family. Tesla claimed that he "conquered [his] passion then and there," but later he was known to play billiards in the US. When exam time came, Tesla was unprepared and asked for an extension to study, but was denied. He never graduated from the university and did not receive grades for the last semester.[24]

In December 1878, Tesla left Graz and severed all relations with his family to hide the fact that he dropped out of school.[24] His friends thought that he had drowned in the Mur River.[25] Tesla went to Maribor (now in Slovenia), where he worked as a draftsman for 60 florins a month. He spent his spare time playing cards with local men on the streets.[24] In March 1879, Milutin Tesla went to Maribor to beg his son to return home, but Nikola refused.[26] Nikola suffered a nervous breakdown at around the same time.[25]

Tesla aged 23, c. 1879

On 24 March 1879, Tesla was returned to Gospić under police guard for not having a residence permit. On 17 April 1879, Milutin Tesla died at the age of 60 after contracting an unspecified illness[27] (although some sources claim that he died of a stroke[28] ). During that year, Tesla taught a large class of students in his old school, Higher Real Gymnasium, in Gospić.[27]



Working for Edison

In 1882, Tesla began working for the Continental Edison Company in France, designing and making improvements to electrical equipment.[33] In June 1884, he relocated to New York City[14]:57–60[34] where he was hired by Thomas Edison to work for his Edison Machine Works. Tesla's work for Edison began with simple electrical engineering and quickly progressed to solving more difficult problems.[35]

Tesla was offered the task of completely redesigning the Edison Company's direct current generators. In 1885, he claimed that he could redesign Edison's inefficient motor and generators, making an improvement in both service and economy. According to Tesla, Edison remarked, "There's fifty thousand dollars in it for you—if you can do it"[9]:54–57—this has been noted as an odd statement from an Edison whose company was stingy with pay and who did not have that sort of cash on hand.[1]:110 After months of work, Tesla fulfilled the task and inquired about payment. Edison, claiming that he was only joking, replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor."[14]:64[36] Instead, Edison offered a US$10 a week raise over Tesla's US$18 per week salary; Tesla refused the offer and immediately resigned.[9]

Middle years (1886–1899)

After leaving Edison's company Tesla partnered with two businessmen in 1886, Robert Lane and Benjamin Vale, who agreed to finance an electric lighting company in Tesla's name, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing.[37] The company installed electrical arc light based illumination systems designed by Tesla and also had designs for dynamo electric machine commutators, the first patents issued to Tesla in the US.[1]

The investors showed little interest in Tesla's ideas for new types of motors and electrical transmission equipment and also seemed to think it was better to develop an electrical utility than invent new systems.[38] They eventually forced Tesla out leaving him penniless. He even lost control of the patents he had generated since he had assigned them to the company in lieu of stock.[38] He had to work at various electrical repair jobs and even as a ditch digger for $2 per day. Tesla considered the winter of 1886/1887 as a time of "terrible headaches and bitter tears." During this time, he questioned the value of his education.[1][39]

AC and the induction motor


In late 1886 Tesla met Alfred S. Brown, a Western Union superintendent, and New York attorney Charles F. Peck. The two men were experienced in setting up companies and promoting inventions and patents for financial gain.[40] Based on Tesla's patents and other ideas they agreed to financially back him and handle his patents. Together in April 1887 they formed the Tesla Electric Company with an agreement that profits from generated patents would go 1/3 to Tesla, 1/3 to Peck and Brown, and 1/3 to fund development.[40] They set up a laboratory for Tesla at 89 Liberty Street in Manhattan where he worked on improving and developing new types of electric motors, generators and other devices.

One of the things Tesla developed at that laboratory in 1887 was an induction motor that ran on alternating current, a power system format that was starting to be built in Europe and the US because its advantages in long distance high voltage transmission. The motor used polyphase current which generated a rotating magnetic field to turn the motor (a principle Tesla claimed to have conceived of in 1882).[41][42][43] This innovative electric motor, patented in May 1888, was a simple self-starting design that did not need a commutator, thus avoiding sparking and the high maintenance of constantly servicing and replacing mechanical brushes.[1]:161[44]

In 1888, the editor of Electrical World magazine, Thomas Commerford Martin (a friend and publicist), arranged for Tesla to demonstrate his alternating current system, including his induction motor, at the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE).[45] Engineers working for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company reported to George Westinghouse that Tesla had a viable AC motor and related power system—something that Westinghouse had been trying to secure the patents to. Westinghouse looked into getting a patent on a similar commutatorless rotating magnetic field based induction motor presented in a paper in March 1888 by the Italian physicist Galileo Ferraris but decided Tesla's patent would probably control the market.[1]:160–162[46]


In July 1888, Brown and Peck negotiated a licensing deal with George Westinghouse for Tesla's polyphase induction motor and transformer designs for $60,000 in cash and stock and a royalty of $2.50 per AC horsepower produced by each motor. Westinghouse also hired Tesla for one year for the large fee of $2,000 ($52,500 in today's dollars[47]) per month to be a consultant at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's Pittsburgh labs.[48]

During that year, Tesla worked in Pittsburgh, helping to create an alternating current system to power the city's streetcars. He found the time there frustrating because of conflicts between him and the other Westinghouse engineers over how best to implement AC power. Between them, they settled on a 60-cycle AC current system Tesla proposed (to match the working frequency of Tesla's motor), although they soon found that, since Tesla's induction motor could only run at a constant speed, it would not work for street cars. They ended up using a DC traction motor instead.[49][50]

War of Currents

Tesla's alternating current work put him firmly on the "AC" side of the so-called "War of Currents,"[51] an electrical standards battle waged between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.[52][53] Tesla's patents, along with the others that Westinghouse's company had acquired or developed, allowed Westinghouse to build a rival AC system that could compete with Thomas Edison's DC system.[54]

In 1893, George Westinghouse won the bid to electrify the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago with alternating current, beating out a bid by Edison to electrify the fair with direct current. This World's Fair devoted a building to electrical exhibits. It was a key event in the history of AC power, as Westinghouse demonstrated the safety, reliability, and efficiency of alternating current to the American public.[55][56] At the Columbian Exposition, Tesla demonstrated a series of electrical effects previously performed throughout America and Europe,[9]:76 included using high-voltage, high-frequency alternating current to light a wireless gas-discharge lamp.[9]:79 An observer noted:


Tesla also explained the principles of a rotating magnetic field and induction motor by demonstrating how to make a copper egg stand on end using a device he constructed known as the Egg of Columbus.[58]

By 1892 Edison's company was consolidated into the conglomerate General Electric by financier J. P. Morgan and the new company (by then switching over to an all AC system) was involved in take over attempts and patent battles with Westinghouse Electric. Although a patent sharing agreement was signed between the two companies in 1896[59] Westinghouse was still cashed strapped from the financial warfare. To secure further loans Westinghouse was forced to revisit Tesla's AC patent, which bankers considered a financial strain on the company[60][61] (at that point Westinghouse had paid out an estimated $200,000 in licenses and royalties to Tesla, Brown, and Peck[62]). In 1897, Westinghouse explained his financial difficulties to Tesla in stark terms, saying that if things continue the way they were he would no longer be in control of Westinghouse Electric and Tesla would have to "deal with the bankers" to try to collect future royalties. Westinghouse convinced Tesla to release his company from the licensing agreement over Tesla's AC patents in exchange for Westinghouse Electric purchasing the patents for a lump sum payment of $216,000;[9]:73–74 this provided Westinghouse a break from what, due to alternating current's rapid gain in popularity, had turned out to be an overly generous $2.50 per AC horsepower royalty.[48]

American citizenship

On 30 July 1891, at the age of 35, Tesla became a naturalized citizen of the United States,[63] and established his South Fifth Avenue laboratory, and later another at 46 E. Houston Street, in New York. He lit electric lamps wirelessly at both locations, demonstrating the potential of wireless power transmission.[64] In the same year, he patented the Tesla coil.[65]

Tesla served as vice president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the forerunner (along with the Institute of Radio Engineers) of the modern-day IEEE, from 1892 to 1894.[66]

X-ray experimentation

X-ray of a hand taken by Tesla.

Starting in 1894, Tesla began investigating what he referred to as radiant energy of "invisible" kinds when he had noticed damaged film in his lab in previous experiments[67][68] (later identified as "Roentgen rays" or "X-Rays"). His early experiments were with Crookes tubes, a cold cathode electrical discharge tube. Soon after, much of Tesla's early research—hundreds of invention models, plans, notes, laboratory data, tools, photographs, valued at $50,000—was lost in the 5th Avenue laboratory fire of March 1895. Tesla is quoted by The New York Times as saying, "I am in too much grief to talk. What can I say?"[69] Tesla may have inadvertently captured an X-ray image (predating Wilhelm Röntgen's December 1895 announcement of the discovery of x-rays by a few weeks) when he tried to photograph Mark Twain illuminated by a Geissler tube, an earlier type of gas discharge tube. The only thing captured in the image was the metal locking screw on the camera lens.[9]:134





Wireless transmission of power and energy demonstration during his 1891 lecture on high frequency and potential.

Tesla's theories on the possibility of the transmission by radio waves go back as far as lectures and demonstrations in 1893 in St. Louis, Missouri, the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Electric Light Association.[75] Tesla's demonstrations and principles were written about widely through various media outlets.[76] Many devices such as the Tesla Coil were used in the further development of radio.[77]



In 1898, Tesla demonstrated a radio-controlled boat—which he dubbed "teleautomaton"—to the public during an electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden.[1] The crowd that witnessed the demonstration made outrageous claims about the workings of the boat, such as magic, telepathy, and being piloted by a trained monkey hidden inside.[79] Tesla tried to sell his idea to the U.S. military as a type of radio-controlled torpedo, but they showed little interest.[80] Remote radio control remained a novelty until World War I and afterward, when a number of countries used it in military programs.[81] Tesla took the opportunity to further demonstrate "Teleautomatics" in an address to a meeting of the Commercial Club in Chicago, whilst he was travelling to Colorado Springs, on 13 May 1899.[18]


Colorado Springs

Multiple exposure publicity picture of Tesla sitting in his Colorado Springs laboratory with his "Magnifying transmitter" generating millions of volts and producing 7-metre (23 ft) long arcs.
An experiment in Colorado Springs. This bank of lights is receiving power by means of electrodynamic induction from an oscillator 100 feet (30 m) from the bulbs
A Colorado Springs experiment: here a grounded tuned coil in resonance with a distant transmitter illuminates a light near the bottom of the picture.

On 17 May 1899, Tesla moved to Colorado Springs, where he would have room for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments;[18] his lab was located near Foote Ave. and Kiowa St.[84] He chose this location because the polyphase alternating current power distribution system had been introduced there and he had associates who were willing to give him all the power he needed without charging for it.[85] Upon his arrival, he told reporters that he was conducting wireless telegraphy experiments, transmitting signals from Pikes Peak to Paris.[citation needed] The 1978 book "Colorado Springs Notes, 1899–1900" contains descriptions of Tesla's experiments.


Tesla investigated atmospheric electricity, observing lightning signals via his receivers. Tesla stated that he observed stationary waves during this time.[86] The great distances and the nature of what Tesla was detecting from lightning storms confirmed his belief that the earth had a resonant frequency.[87][88]



During his time at his lab, Tesla observed unusual signals from his receiver which he concluded may be communications from another planet. He mentioned them in a letter to reporter Julian Hawthorne at the Philadelphia North American on December 8, 1899[92] and in a December 1900 letter about possible discoveries in the new century to the Red Cross Society where he referred to messages "from another world" that read "1... 2... 3...".[93][94] Reporters treated it as a sensational story and jumped to the conclusion Tesla was hearing signals from Mars.[95] He expanded on the signals he heard in a February 9, 1901 Collier's Weekly article "Talking With Planets" where he said it had not been immediately apparent to him that he was hearing "intelligently controlled signals" and that the signals could come from Mars, Venus, or other plants.[96] It has been hypothesized that he may have intercepted Marconi's European experiments in July of 1899—Marconi may have transmitted the letter S (dot/dot/dot) in a naval demonstration, the same three impulses that Tesla hinted at hearing in Colorado[97]—or signals from another experimenter in wireless transmission.[98]




Wardenclyffe years (1900–1917)

Main article: Wardenclyffe Tower
Tesla Ready for Business – 7 August 1901 New-York tribune article
The Tesla coil wireless transmitter
U.S. Patent 1,119,732

In 1900, with $150,000 ($4,252,200 in today's dollars[47]; 51% from J. Pierpont Morgan), Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower facility.[103]


In December 1901, Marconi successfully transmitted the letter S from England to Newfoundland, terminating Tesla's relationship with Morgan.[improper synthesis?] Over the next five years, Tesla wrote over 50 letters to Morgan, pleading for and demanding additional funding to complete the construction of Wardenclyffe. Tesla continued the project for another nine months. The tower was erected to its full 187 feet (57 m).[98] In July 1903, Tesla wrote to Morgan that in addition to wireless communication, Wardenclyffe would be capable of wireless transmission of electric power.[103] On 14 October 1904, Morgan finally replied through his secretary, stating, "It will be impossible for [me] to do anything in the matter," after Tesla had written to Morgan when the financier was meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury in an attempt to appeal to his Christian spirit.[98]

In June 1902, Tesla's lab operations were moved to Wardenclyffe from Houston Street.[103]



Before World War I, Tesla sought overseas investors. After the war started, Tesla lost the funding he was receiving from his patents in European countries. Eventually, he sold Wardenclyffe for $20,000 ($470,900 in today's dollars[47]).[103] In 1917, around the time that the Wardenclyffe Tower was demolished by Boldt to make the land a more viable real estate asset, Tesla received AIEE's highest honor, the Edison Medal.[citation needed]

In the August 1917 edition of the magazine Electrical Experimenter Tesla postulated that electricity could be used to locate submarines via using the reflection of an "electric ray" of "tremendous frequency," with the signal being viewed on a fluorescent screen (a system that has been noted to have a superficial resemblance to modern RADAR).[105] Tesla was incorrect in his assumption that high frequency radio waves would penetrate water[106] but Émile Girardeau, who helped develop France's first RADAR system in the 1930s, noted in 1953 that Tesla's general speculation that a very strong high frequency signal would be needed was correct stating "(Tesla) was prophesying or dreaming, since he had at his disposal no means of carrying them out, but one must add that if he was dreaming, at least he was dreaming correctly."[9]:266[107]

Nobel Prize rumors

On 6 November 1915, a Reuters news agency report from London had the 1915 Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla; however, on 15 November, a Reuters story from Stockholm stated the prize that year was being awarded to Sir William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays."[9]:245[108][109] There were unsubstantiated rumors at the time that Tesla and/or Edison had refused the prize.[9]:245 The Nobel Foundation said, "Any rumor that a person has not been given a Nobel Prize because he has made known his intention to refuse the reward is ridiculous"; a recipient could only decline a Nobel Prize after he is announced a winner.[9]:245



Later years (1918–1943)

In 1928, Tesla received his last patent, U.S. Patent 1,655,114, for a biplane capable of taking off vertically (VTOL aircraft) and then be "gradually tilted through manipulation of the elevator devices" in flight until it was flying like a conventional plane.[112] Tesla thought the plane would sell for less than $1,000.[9]:251 Although the aircraft was probably impractical, it may be the earliest known design for what became the tiltrotor/tilt-wing concept as well as the earliest proposal for the use of turbine engines in rotor aircraft.[113][improper synthesis?]

Starting in 1934, the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company began paying Tesla $125 per month as well as paying his rent at the Hotel New Yorker, expenses the Company would pay for the rest of Tesla's life. Accounts on how this came about vary. Several sources say Westinghouse was worried about potential bad publicity surrounding the impoverished conditions their former star inventor was living under.[1]:365[114][115] It has been described as being couched in the form of a "consulting fee" to get around Tesla's aversion to accept charity, or by one biographer (Marc Seifer), as a type of unspecified settlement.[115]



Directed-energy weapon

Main article: Teleforce

Later in life, Tesla made claims concerning a "teleforce" weapon after studying the Van de Graaff generator.[116][117] The press called it a "peace ray" or death ray.[118][119] Tesla described the weapon as being able to be used against ground-based infantry or for antiaircraft purposes.

Tesla gives the following description concerning the particle gun's operation:


In total, the components and methods included:

  • A mechanism for generating tremendous electrical force.
  • A new method for producing a tremendous electrical repelling force. This would be the projector, or gun, of the invention.[122][123][124]

Tesla claimed to have worked on plans for a directed-energy weapon from the early 1900s until his death.[125][126]


During the same year, Tesla wrote a treatise, The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media,[127] concerning charged particle beam weapons.[128] Tesla published the document in an attempt to expound on the technical description of a "superweapon that would put an end to all war." This treatise is currently in the Nikola Tesla Museum archive in Belgrade. It describes an open-ended vacuum tube with a gas jet seal that allows particles to exit, a method of charging particles to millions of volts, and a method of creating and directing non-dispersive particle streams (through electrostatic repulsion).[128] Tesla tried to interest the US War Department,[129] the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia in the device.[130]



Gilded urn with Tesla's ashes, in his favorite geometrical object, a sphere, Nikola Tesla Museum, Belgrade.


Two days later, the FBI ordered the Alien Property Custodian to seize Tesla's belongings,[19] even though Tesla was an American citizen.[63] Tesla's entire estate from the Hotel New Yorker and other New York City hotels was transported to the Manhattan Storage and Warehouse Company under Office of Alien Property (OAP) seal.[19] John G. Trump, a professor at M.I.T. and well-known electrical engineer serving as a technical aide to the National Defense Research Committee, was called in to analyze the Tesla items in OAP custody.[19] After a three-day investigation, Trump's report concluded that there was nothing that would constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands, stating:


In a box purported to contain a part of Tesla's "death ray," Trump found a 45-year-old multidecade resistance box.[133]

On 10 January 1943, New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia read a eulogy written by Slovene-American author Louis Adamic live over the WNYC radio while violin pieces "Ave Maria" and "Tamo daleko" were played in the background.[19] On 12 January 2,000 people attended a state funeral for Tesla at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine. After the funeral, Tesla's body was taken to the Ferncliff Cemetery in Ardsley, New York, where it was later cremated. The following day, a second service was conducted by prominent priests of the Cathedral of St. Sava in New York City.[19]


In 1952, following pressure from Tesla's nephew, Sava Kosanović, Tesla's entire estate was shipped to Belgrade in 80 trunks marked N.T.[18] In 1957, Kosanović secretary Charlotte Muzar transported Tesla's ashes from the United States to Belgrade.[18] The ashes are displayed in a gold-plated sphere on a marble pedestal in the Nikola Tesla Museum.[134]

Despite having sold his AC electricity patents, Tesla died impoverished and in debt.[135][136][137][138]



Tesla obtained around 300 patents worldwide for his inventions.[139] Some of Tesla's patents are not accounted for, and various sources have discovered some that have lain hidden in patent archives. There are a minimum of 278 patents[139] issued to Tesla in 26 countries that have been accounted for. Many of Tesla's patents were in the United States, Britain, and Canada, but many other patents were approved in countries around the globe.[9]:62 Many inventions developed by Tesla were not put into patent protection.

Personal life


For exercise, Tesla walked between 8 to 10 miles per day. He squished his toes one hundred times for each foot every night, claiming that it stimulated his brain cells.[140]


Near the end of his life, Tesla walked to the park every day to feed the pigeons and even brought injured ones into his hotel room to nurse back to health.[142][143] He claimed that he had been visited by a specific injured white pigeon daily. Tesla spent over $2,000, including building a device that comfortably supported her so her bones could heal, to fix her broken wing and leg.[24] Tesla stated,


Tesla became a vegetarian in his later years, living on only milk, bread, honey, and vegetable juices.[117][146]


Tesla's portrait—Blue Portrait—from 1916, painted by then-Hungarian princess, Vilma Lwoff-Parlaghy.
Tesla, aged 40. c. 1896








Eidetic memory

Tesla read many works, memorizing complete books, and supposedly possessed a photographic memory.[9]:33 He was a polyglot, speaking eight languages: Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin.[14]:282 Tesla related in his autobiography that he experienced detailed moments of inspiration. During his early life, Tesla was stricken with illness time and time again. He suffered a peculiar affliction in which blinding flashes of light would appear before his eyes, often accompanied by visions. Often, the visions were linked to a word or idea he might have come across; at other times they would provide the solution to a particular problem he had encountered. Just by hearing the name of an item, he would be able to envision it in realistic detail. Tesla would visualize an invention in his mind with extreme precision, including all dimensions, before moving to the construction stage, a technique sometimes known as picture thinking. He typically did not make drawings by hand but worked from memory. Beginning in his childhood, Tesla had frequent flashbacks to events that had happened previously in his life.[9]:33

Sleep habits

Tesla claimed to never sleep more than two hours.[14]:46 However, Tesla did admit to "dozing" from time to time "to recharge his batteries."[140]

During his second year of study at Graz, Tesla developed a passion for (and became very proficient at) billiards, chess and card-playing, sometimes spending more than 48 hours in a stretch at a gaming table.[14]:43, 301 On one occasion at his laboratory, Tesla worked for a period of 84 hours without sleep or rest.[14]:208



Tesla with an unknown woman

Tesla never married, claiming that his chastity was very helpful to his scientific abilities.[9]:33 However, toward the end of his life, he told a reporter, "Sometimes I feel that by not marrying, I made too great a sacrifice to my work ..."[24] There have been numerous accounts of women vying for Tesla's affection, even some madly in love with him.[citation needed] Tesla, though polite and soft-spoken, did not have any known relationships.

Tesla was asocial, and prone to seclude himself with his work.[147][148][1][149] However, when he did engage in a social life, many people spoke very positively and admiringly of Tesla. Robert Underwood Johnson described him as attaining a "distinguished sweetness, sincerity, modesty, refinement, generosity, and force."[24] His loyal secretary, Dorothy Skerrit, wrote: "his genial smile and nobility of bearing always denoted the gentlemanly characteristics that were so ingrained in his soul."[14] Tesla's friend, Julian Hawthorne, wrote, "seldom did one meet a scientist or engineer who was also a poet, a philosopher, an appreciator of fine music, a linguist, and a connoisseur of food and drink."[citation needed]

Mark Twain in Tesla's lab, early 1894

Tesla was a good friend of Robert Underwood Johnson,[150] Francis Marion Crawford, Stanford White,[151] Fritz Lowenstein, George Scherff, Kenneth Swezey.[152][153][154] In middle age, Tesla became a close friend of Mark Twain. They spent a lot of time together in his lab and elsewhere.[150] Twain notably described his induction motor invention as "the most valuable patent since the telephone."[155] In the late 1920s, Tesla befriended George Sylvester Viereck, a poet, writer, mystic, and later, a Nazi propagandist, occasionally attending dinner parties held by Viereck and his wife.[156][157]

Tesla could be harsh at times, openly expressing disgust for overweight people, such as when he fired a secretary because of her weight.[9]:110 He was quick to criticize clothing. On several occasions, Tesla directed a subordinate to go home and change her dress.[9]:33

When Thomas Edison died in 1931, Tesla contributed the only negative opinion to the New York Times, buried in an extensive coverage of Edison's life:


Views on experimental and theoretical physics

Tesla working in his laboratory.

Tesla exhibited a pre-atomic understanding of physics in his writings;[159] he disagreed with the theory of atoms being composed of smaller subatomic particles, stating there was no such thing as an electron creating an electric charge (he believed that if electrons existed at all they were some fourth state of matter or sub-atom that could only exist in an experimental vacuum and that they had nothing to do with electricity).[14]:249[160] Tesla believed that atoms are immutable—they could not change state or be split in any way. He was a believer in the 19th century concept of an all pervasive "ether" that transmitted electrical energy.[161]

Tesla was generally antagonistic towards theories about the conversion of matter into energy.[14]:247 He was also critical of Einstein's theory of relativity, saying:


Tesla claimed to have developed his own physical principle regarding matter and energy that he started working on in 1892[14] and in 1937, at age 81, claimed in a letter to have completed a "dynamic theory of gravity" that "[would] put an end to idle speculations and false conceptions, as that of curved space."[163] He stated that the theory was "worked out in all details" and that he hoped to soon give it to the world.[164] Further elucidation of his theory was never found in his writings.[9]:309

Societal views




Tesla is widely considered by his biographers as a humanist regarding his worldview.[1]:154[167][168][169][170]

Tesla made predictions about the relevant issues of a post-World War I environment in a printed article, "Science and Discovery are the great Forces which will lead to the Consummation of the War" (20 December 1914).[171] Tesla believed that the League of Nations was not a remedy for the times and issues.[citation needed]

Religious views

Tesla was raised as an Orthodox Christian. Later in his life, he did not consider himself to be a "believer in the orthodox sense," and opposed religious fanaticism.[172] He had a profound respect for both Buddhism and Christianity.[22][172]



However, his religious views remain uncertain due to other statements that he made.[174][175][176] For example, in his article, "A Machine to End War", published in 1937, Tesla stated:


Literary works

Tesla wrote a number of books and articles for magazines and journals.[177] Among his books are My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, compiled and edited by Ben Johnston; The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla, compiled and edited by David Hatcher Childress; and The Tesla Papers.

Many of Tesla's writings are freely available on the web,[178][179][180] including the article "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy," published in The Century Magazine in 1900,[181][182] and the article "Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High Frequency," published in his book Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla.[183][184]

Legacy and honors

Tesla on cover of Time Magazine for 20 July 1931.
Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade, Serbia.
Nikola Tesla on 100 Serbian dinar banknote.

Tesla's legacy has endured in books, films, radio, TV, music, live theater, comics and video games. The lack of recognition received during his own lifetime has cast him as a tragic and inspirational character, well suited to dramatic fiction. The impact of the technologies invented by Tesla is a recurring theme in several types of science fiction.

  • July 10, National day of Nikola Tesla in Croatia

Plaques and memorials

Nikola Tesla Corner in New York City
  • The Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre in Smiljan opened in 2006. It features a statue of Tesla designed by sculptor Mile Blažević.[13][194][195]
  • On 7 July 2006, on the corner of Masarykova and Preradovićeva streets in the Lower Town area in Zagreb, the monument of Tesla was unveiled. This monument was designed by Ivan Meštrović in 1952 and was transferred from the Zagreb-based Ruđer Bošković Institute where it had spent previous decades.[196][197]
  • A monument of Tesla standing on a portion of an alternator, was established at Queen Victoria Park in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. The monument was officially unveiled on 9 July 2006 on the 150th anniversary of Tesla's birth. The monument was sponsored by St. George Serbian Church, Niagara Falls, and designed by Les Drysdale of Hamilton, Ontario.[198][199] Drysdale's design was the winning design from an international competition.[200]
  • In 2012, Jane Alcorn, president of the nonprofit group The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, and Matthew Inman, creator of web cartoon The Oatmeal, raised a total of $2,220,511—$1,370,511 from a campaign and $850,000 from a New York State grant—to buy the property where Wardenclyffe Tower once stood and eventually turn it into a museum.[201][202] The group began negotiations to purchase the Long Island property from Agfa Corporation in October 2012.[203] The purchase was completed in May 2013.[204]
  • A bust and plaque honoring Tesla is outside the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Sava at 20 West 26th Street in New York City.[206]



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  • Lomas, Robert, The Man who Invented the Twentieth Century. Lecture to South Western Branch of Instititute of Physics.
  • Penner, John R.H. The Strange Life of Nikola Tesla, corrupted version of "My Inventions."
  • Pratt, H., Nikola Tesla 1856–1943, Proceedings of the IRE, Vol. 44, September 1956.
  • Rajvanshi,Anil K., Nikola Tesla - The Creator of Electric Age, Resonance, March 2007.
  • Weisstein, Eric W., Tesla, Nikola (1856–1943). Eric Weisstein's World of Science.
  • Dimitrijevic, Milan S., Belgrade Astronomical Observatory Historical Review. Publ. Astron. Obs. Belgrade, 162–170. Also, Srpski asteroidi, Tesla. Astronomski magazine.
  • Secor, H. Winfield, Tesla's views on Electricity and the War, Electrical Experimenter, Volume 5, Number 4, August 1917.
  • Page, R.M., The Early History of Radar, Proceedings of the IRE, Volume 50, Number 5, May 1962, (special 50th Anniversary Issue).
  • C Mackechnie Jarvis Nikola Tesla and the induction motor. 1970 Phys. Educ. 5 280–287.
  • Giant Eye to See Round the World (DOC)

Further reading






External links