Nikola Tesla Facts
Nikola Tesla Facts
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| Interesting Nikola Tesla Facts: |
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| Nikola Tesla was born to Serbian parents in Croatia. |
| He was the fourth of five children and was the son of an Orthodox priest. |
| In 1873 he graduated from Higher Real Gymnasium. |
| Shortly after graduation, he contracted cholera and came very close to death. |
| He spent nine months recuperating during which time his father promised to send him to engineering school if he recovered. |
| In 1875 he entered the Austrian Polytechnic where he excelled at his studies and earned a letter of commendation. |
| He became addicted to gambling and never graduated. |
| He disappeared to hide his failure from his friends and family. |
| In 1881 he moved to Budapest and took a job as the chief electrician at the Budapest Telephone Exchange. |
| In 1884 he moved to New York City and was hired by Thomas Edison to work at the Edison Machine Works. |
| Tesla completely redesigned the direct current generators but resigned from the company when Edison refused to pay him the reward he thought he had been offered. |
| He and two started Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing but the partners eventually forced Tesla out and left him penniless. |
| In 1886 he and two new partners founded the Tesla Electric Company and set up a laboratory on Liberty Street. |
| Tesla's induction motor was patented in May 1888. |
| George Westinghouse purchased Tesla's design for $60,000, stock and a $2.50/unit royalty. |
| He also hired Tesla to be a consultant for Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing for the exorbitant salary of $2000/mo. |
| Tesla worked on an a/c system to power Pittsburgh's street cars but it was not successful. |
| In 1893 Westinghouse won the bid to light the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and Tesla was able to demonstrate his fully integrated alternating current system to the world. |
| Westinghouse and Tesla won the contract to build the current generating system at Niagara Falls. |
| July 29, 1891 Tesla became a US citizen and in that same year, patented the Tesla coil. |
| From 1892 to 1894 he was vice president of the American institute of Electrical Engineers. |
| In 1898 demonstrated a radio-controlled boat but was unable to interest the government in its military applications. |
| In 1899 he moved to Colorado Springs and built a laboratory to continue his experiments in wireless telegraphy. |
| In 1917 he was awarded the Edison Medal by the AIEE. |
| In 1917 he correctly predicted the invention of radar though his methodology was faulty. |
| In 1928 Tesla received a patent for a vertical takeoff aircraft. |
| In 1937 he revealed his plans for a charged particle beam weapon but he could not interest the military in its use. |
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