Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla
Tesla, aged 37, 1893, photo by Napoleon Sarony
Born	(1856-07-10)10 July 1856 Smiljan, Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia)
Died	7 January 1943(1943-01-07) (aged 86) Manhattan, New York, USA
Nationality	American
Citizenship	Austrian Empire (10 July 1856 – 1867) Austria-Hungary (1867 – 31 October 1918) United States (30 July 1891 – 7 January 1943)
Alma mater	Graz University of Technology (dropped out)
Occupation(s)	Inventor, scientist
Known for	Alternating current Bifilar coil Death ray Electrogravitics Induction motor Particle beam weapon Rotating magnetic field Teleforce Tesla coil Tesla electric car Tesla principle Tesla turbine Tesla's Egg of Columbus Tesla's oscillator Telegeodynamics Terrestrial stationary waves Wireless technology
Awards	Order of St. Sava, II Class, Government of Serbia (1892) Elliott Cresson Medal (1894) Order of Prince Danilo I (1895) Edison Medal (1916) Order of St. Sava, I Class, Government of Yugoslavia (1926) Order of the Yugoslav Crown (1931) John Scott Medal (1934) Order of the White Eagle, I Class, Government of Yugoslavia (1936) Order of the White Lion, I Class, Government of Czechoslovakia (1937) University of Paris Medal (1937) The Medal of the University St. Clement of Ochrida, Sofia, Bulgaria (1939)
Scientific career
Fields	Electrical engineering Mechanical engineering
Institutions	Edison Machine Works Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co.
Signature

Nikola Tesla (Serbian Cyrillic: Никола Тесла; 10 July 1856 – 7 January 1943) was a Serbian-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and futurist.

He is best known for his contributions to the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system, the successful system in the "War of Currents". Tesla's patents and theoretical work helped form the basis of wireless communication and radio. He is also known for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments in New York and Colorado Springs, experiments in X-rays, and his ill-fated attempt at intercontinental wireless transmission in his unfinished Wardenclyffe Tower project.

In the 1930s, towards the end of his life, Tesla became reclusive, living alone in a New York City hotel room and only appearing occasionally to make unusual statements to the press. Because of his pronouncements and the nature of his work over the years, Tesla gained a reputation in popular culture as the archetypal "mad scientist". He died penniless and in debt on 7 January 1943.

His work fell into relative obscurity after his death, but in 1960, in honor of Nikola Tesla the General Conference on Weights and Measures for the International System of Units dedicated the term "tesla" to the SI unit measure for magnetic field strength, and since the 1990s, Tesla's reputation has experienced a comeback in popular culture. In 2005, he was listed amongst the top 100 nominees in the TV show "The Greatest American", an open access popularity poll conducted by AOL and The Discovery Channel.

Early years (1856-1885)

Tesla's house (parish hall) in Smiljan, where he was born, and the church, where his father served.

Tesla's baptismal record, c. 28 June 1856.

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). His father, Milutin Tesla, was a priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church. Tesla's mother, Đuka Tesla (née Mandić), whose father was also a Serbian Orthodox priest, had a talent for making home craft tools and for memorizing many Serbian epic poems, even though she had never learned how to read. Tesla's progenitors were from Western Serbia, near Montenegro.

Nikola was the fourth of five children, having an older brother, Dane, who was killed in a horse-riding accident when Nikola was five, and three sisters, Milka, Angelina and Marica. Some accounts claim that Tesla had caused the accident by frightening the horse.

In 1861, Nikola attended the Krajina "Lower" or "Primary" School in Smiljan, Austrian Empire, where he studied German, arithmetic, and religion.

In 1862, the Tesla family moved to Gospić, Austrian Empire, where Nikola's father worked as a pastor. Nikola completed Krajina "Lower" or "Primary" School, followed by the "Lower Real Gymnasium" or "Normal School".

In 1870, Tesla moved to Karlovac, Croatia to attend school at Higher Real Gymnasium, where his math teacher, Martin Sekulić, profoundly influenced him. He was able to perform integral calculus in his head, leading his teachers to think that he was cheating. He finished a four-year term in just three years, graduating in 1873.

In 1873, after graduating from Higher Real Gymnasium, Tesla returned to his hometown, Smiljan, Croatia. Shortly after arriving, Tesla contracted cholera; he was bedridden for nine months and was near death multiple times. Nikola's father, in a moment of despair, agreed to send him to the best engineering school if he recovered from the illness (his father originally wanted him to enter the priesthood).

In 1874, Tesla evaded a draft by escaping to Tomingaj, near Gračac. During this period of time, he explored the mountains in hunter's garb. Tesla claimed that this contact with nature made him stronger, both physically and mentally. He read many books while in Tomingaj, later claiming that Mark Twain's works helped him to miraculously recover from the illness.

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Tesla wearing the Serbian national costume, c.1880. His childhood dream was to come to America to harness the power of Niagara Falls.

In 1875, Tesla enrolled at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, Austria on a Military Border scholarship. During his first year Tesla never missed a lecture, earned the highest grades possible, passed nine exams (nearly twice as many required), started a Serbian culture club, 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." Tesla claimed that he worked from 3 A.M. to 11 P.M., no Sundays or holidays excepted. He was "mortified when [his] father made light of [those] hard won honors." After his father's death in 1879, 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. 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. 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 he was known to play billiards in the U.S.. 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.

In December 1878, Tesla left Graz and severed all relations with his family. He didn't want his parents to know that he had dropped out. His friends thought that he had drowned in the Mur River. Tesla went to Marburg (now in Slovenia), where he was employed as a draftsman for 60 florins a month. He spent his spare time playing cards with the local man on the streets. In March 1879, Milutin Tesla came to Maribor to plead to his son to return home, but Nikola refused. Nikola suffered a nervous breakdown during this time.

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. During this year, Nikola taught a large class of students in his old school, Higher Real Gymnasium, in Gospić.

In January 1880, two of Tesla's uncles put together enough money to help him flee to Prague. Unfortunately, Tesla could not attend Charles-Ferdinand University because he arrived too tardy to enroll; never took Greek, which was required; and was illiterate in Czech, which was also required. Tesla did, however, attend lectures at the university as an auditor but did not receive grades for the courses.

In 1881, Tesla moved to Budapest to work under Ferenc Puskas at a telegraph company, the Budapest Telephone Exchange. Upon arrival, Tesla realized that the company, then under construction, was not functional, so he worked as a draftsman in the Central Telegraph Office, instead. Within a few months, the Budapest Telephone Exchange became functional and Tesla was allocated the chief electrician position. During his employment, Tesla made many improvements to the Central Station equipment and claimed to have perfected a telephone repeater or amplifier, which was never patented or publicly described.

Working for Edison

Drawing from U.S. patent 381,968, illustrating principle of Tesla's alternating current motor

In 1882 Tesla began working the Continental Edison Company in France, designing improvements to electrical equipment. Then in June of 1884, he transferred to New York City. During the trip across the Atlantic, his ticket, money and some of his luggage were stolen and he was nearly thrown overboard after a mutiny broke out on the ship. He arrived with four cents in his pocket, a letter of recommendation, a few poems, and remnants of his belongings.

In the letter of recommendation from Charles Batchelor, a former employer, to Thomas Edison, it is claimed that Batchelor wrote, 'I know two great men and you are one of them; the other is this young man', but the exact contents of the letter is disputed in McNichol's book. Edison hired Tesla to work for his Edison Machine Works. Tesla's work for Edison began with simple electrical engineering and quickly progressed to solving some of the company's most difficult problems. Tesla was even offered the task of completely redesigning the Edison Company's direct current generators.

In 1885, Tesla 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". This has been noted as an odd statement from an Edison whose company was stingy with pay and did not have that sort of cash on hand. After months of work, Tesla finally finished the task and inquired about payment. Edison claimed he had been only joking and replied, "Tesla, you don't understand our American humor". Edison offered a US$10 a week raise over Tesla's US$18 per week salary, but Tesla refused it and immediately resigned.

Middle years (1886-1899)

Wireless transmission of power and energy demonstration during his 1891 lecture on high frequency and potential Electromechanical devices and principles that Nikola Tesla worked on during his career.: Rotating magnetic fields Induction motor "High" frequency alternator Tesla coil magnifying transmitter Alternating current Electric power transmission Radio Radio remote control vehicle (torpedo) Electronic logic gate Wireless transfer of electricity Tesla principle Bifilar coil Telegeodynamics X-rays Arc light systems Lightning rods Polyphase system for distributing alternating-current electrical power

In 1886, Tesla formed his own company, Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing. 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. When Tesla proposed the company should go on to develop his ideas for alternating current transmission systems and motors the investors disagreed and eventually fired him.

Tesla was left penniless after being forced out of Tesla Electric Light & Manufacturing, forcing him to work as a ditch digger for US$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.

Tesla started a new company, the Tesla Electric Company, in April of 1887 with the backing of New York attorney Charles F. Peck, and Alfred S. Brown, the director of Western Union. They set up a laboratory for Tesla at 89 Liberty St. in Manhattan so he could work on his alternating current motor and other devices for power distribution, with an agreement that they share fifty-fifty with Tesla any profits generated from patents. It was here in 1887 that Tesla constructed a brushless alternating current induction motor based on a rotating magnetic field principle which he patented in 1888. At that time many inventors were trying to develop workable AC motors because AC's advantages in long distance high voltage transmission were counterbalanced by the inability to operate motors on AC. Tesla claimed that he conceived his induction motor in 1882 although the claim had no independent verification. The paternity of the invention remains controversial, since rotating magnetic fields and a prototype induction motor were demonstrated in Europe in 1885 by Galileo Ferraris. Ferraris published his findings in 1888. Also in 1897 Tesla developed the principles of his Tesla coil.

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 the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (now IEEE). Engineers working for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company reported to George Westinghouse that Tesla had a viable AC motor and power system, something Westinghouse had been trying to secure. 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 a month to be a consultant at the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company's Pittsburgh labs. Tesla worked in Pittsburgh during that year helping to create an alternating current system to power the cities streetcars. He found the time there frustrating because of conflicts between him and the other Westinghouse engineers over how to best implement AC power. Between them they came up with the modern standard three-phase, 60-cycle current AC current system, although they 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.

Tesla demonstrated wireless energy transmission as early as 1891. This so-called Tesla effect refers to the movement of energy through space and matter.

American citizenship

On 30 July 1891, at the age of 35, Tesla became a naturalized citizen of the United States. He told many of his companions that he valued the citizenship more than any scientific honors that he had acquired.

In the same year, Tesla established his South Fifth Avenue laboratory in New York. Later, Tesla established his Houston Street laboratory in New York at 46 E. Houston Street. He lit electric lamps wirelessly at both of the New York locations, providing evidence for the potential of wireless power transmission.

It is debated whether Tesla was the first to discover the electron. On 26 August 1891, Tesla published his article, "Reply to J.J. Thomson's note," in "Electrical Engineer, New York", claiming that his experiments proved the existence of small charged particles, but J.J. Thomson denied this. Five years later, Thomson proved the existence of electrons through another experiment.

In 1892, Tesla was awakened from a dream in which his mother had died. Tesla rushed to his mother's side as she lay dying, arriving from Paris hours before her death. Her last words to him were: "You've arrived, Nidžo, my pride." He returned to Europe for her funeral. After her death, Tesla became ill and spent two to three weeks recuperating in Gospić and the village of Tomingaj.

Nikola Tesla's AC dynamo-electric machine (Electric generator) used to generate AC which is used to transport electricity across great distances. It is contained in U.S. patent 390,721.

From 1892 to 1894 Tesla served as the vice president of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the forerunner (along with the Institute of Radio Engineers) of the modern-day IEEE. From 1893 to 1895 he investigated high frequency alternating currents. He generated AC of one million volts using a conical Tesla coil and investigated the skin effect in conductors, designed tuned circuits, invented a machine for inducing sleep, invented a cordless gas discharge lamp, and transmitted electromagnetic energy without wires, putatively building the first radio transmitter. In St. Louis, Missouri, Tesla made a demonstration related to radio communication in 1893. Addressing the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and the National Electric Light Association, he described and demonstrated in detail its principles. Tesla's demonstrations were written about widely through various media outlets. Tesla also investigated harvesting the energy that is present throughout space. He believed that it was merely a question of time until men would succeed in attaching their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature, stating: "Ere many generations pass, our machinery will be driven by a power obtainable at any point of the universe."

Westinghouse won the bid to electrify the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago with alternating current. This Worlds Fair devoted a building to electrical exhibits. It was a key event in the history of AC power as Westinghouse and Tesla demonstrated the safety and reliability of alternating current to the American public. At the Columbian Exposition, Tesla demonstrated a series of electrical effects in a lecture he had performed throughout America and Europe. This included using high-voltage, high-frequency alternating current to light a wireless gas-discharge lamp. An observer noted:

Within the room was suspended two hard-rubber plates covered with tin foil. These were about fifteen feet apart, and served as terminals of the wires leading from the transformers. When the current was turned on, the lamps or tubes, which had no wires connected to them, but lay on a table between the suspended plates, or which might be held in the hand in almost any part of the room, were made luminous. These were the same experiments and the same apparatus shown by Tesla in London about two years previous, "where they produced so much wonder and astonishment".

File:Tesla wireless light bulb.jpg

Tesla holding a phosphor-coated gas-discharge lamp, illuminated by wireless electricity. Colorado Springs, 1899.

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

As a result of the "War of Currents", Edison and Westinghouse went nearly bankrupt. In 1897, citing his financial difficulties, Westinghouse convinced Tesla to released his company from licensing agreement over Tesla's AC patents in exchange for Westinghouse Electric purchasing the patents flat for $216,000; 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.

X-ray experimentation

Starting in 1894, Tesla began investigating what he referred to as radiant energy of "invisible" kinds that he had noticed damaged film in his lab in previous experiments (these would latter be identified as "Roentgen rays" or "X-Rays"). He did these early experiments with Crookes tubes, a cold cathode electrical discharge tube. Tesla may have been the first person in North America to, accidentally, capture an image created by X-Rays when he tried to take a photograph of Mark Twain illuminated by an earlier type of gas discharge tube Geissler tube in 1895. The only thing captured in the image was the metal locking screw on the camera lens. Soon after, much of Tesla's early research was lost in the 5th Avenue laboratory fire of March 1895.

After hearing in March 1896 of Wilhelm Röntgen's discovery of the X-Ray and X-Ray imaging (Radiography) Tesla proceeded to do his own experiments in X-Ray imaging, developing a high energy single terminal vacuum tube of his own design that had no target electrode and that worked from the output of the Tesla Coil (the modern term for the phenomenon produced by this device is bremsstrahlung (or braking radiation).. In his research, Tesla devised several experimental setups to produce X-rays. Tesla held that, with his circuits, the "instrument will [... enable one to] generate Roentgen rays of much greater power than obtainable with ordinary apparatus".

Tesla also noted the hazards of working with his circuit and single-node X-ray-producing devices. In his many notes on the early investigation of this phenomenon, he attributed the skin damage to various causes. He believed early on that damage to the skin was not caused by the Roentgen rays, but by the ozone generated in contact with the skin, and to a lesser extent, by nitrous acid. Tesla incorrectly believed that X-rays were longitudinal waves, such as those produced in waves in plasma. These plasma waves can occur in force-free magnetic fields.

Other inventions

A "world system" for "the transmission of electrical energy without wires" that depended upon the electrical conductivity of the earth was proposed, in which transmission in various natural media with current that passes between the two points is used to power devices. In a practical wireless energy transmission system using this principle, a high-power ultraviolet beam might be used to form a vertical ionized channel in the air directly above the transmitter-receiver stations. The same concept is used in virtual lightning rods and the electrolaser electroshock weapon, and has been proposed for disabling vehicles.

In 1897, at age 41, Tesla filed the first radio patent (U.S. patent 645,576). A year later, he demonstrated a radio-controlled boat to the public during an electrical exhibition at Madison Square Garden. Tesla called his boat a "teleautomaton". He tried to sell his idea to the U.S. military as a type of radio-controlled torpedo, but they showed little interest. This same year, Tesla devised an "electric igniter" or spark plug for internal combustion gasoline engines. He was awarded U.S. patent 609,250, "Electrical Igniter for Gas Engines", for this mechanical ignition system. Before the end of the century, Tesla lived in the Gerlach Hotel (later renamed The Radio Wave building) at 49 West 27th Street Lower Manhattan, where he conducted radio wave experiments. Remote radio control remained a novelty until World War I and afterward, when a number of countries used it in military programs.

On 1899 May 13, while on his way to Colorado Springs, Colorado, Tesla stops for his "Teleautomatics" address/demonstration before a meeting of the Commercial Club in Chicago, Illinois.

Colorado Springs

See also: Magnifying transmitter

Multiple exposure publicity picture of Tesla sitting in his Colorado Springs laboratory with his "Magnifying transmitter" generating millions of volts and producing 7 meter (23 ft) long arcs.

An experiment in Colorado Springs. This bank of lights is receiving power by means of electrodynamic induction from a nearby transmitter

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 1899 May 17, Tesla moved to Colorado Springs, where he would have room for his high-voltage, high-frequency experiments; his lab was located near Foote Ave. and Kiowa St. Tesla chose Colorado Springs as the preferred location to build his lab and study electricity because it is one of the most active lightning strike areas in the United States. Upon his arrival, he told reporters that he was conducting wireless telegraphy experiments, transmitting signals from Pikes Peak to Paris. Tesla's diary contains explanations of his experiments concerning the ionosphere and the ground's telluric currents via transverse waves and longitudinal waves.

On 1899 June 15, Tesla performed his first experiments at his Colorado Springs lab; he recorded his initial spark length at five inches long, but very thick and noisy.

At his lab, Tesla proved that the earth was a conductor, and he produced artificial lightning (with discharges consisting of millions of volts, and up to 135 feet long). Thunder from the released energy was heard 15 miles away in Cripple Creek, Colorado. People walking along the street observed sparks jumping between their feet and the ground. Electricity sprang from a tap whenever someone turned them on. Lightbulbs within 100 feet of the lab glowed even when turned off. Horses in a livery stable bolted from their stalls after receiving shocks through their metal shoes. Butterflies were electrified, swirling in circles with blue halos of St. Elmo's fire around their wings. Tesla also investigated atmospheric electricity, observing lightning signals via his receivers. Reproductions of Tesla's receivers and coherer circuits show an unpredicted level of complexity (e.g., distributed high-Q helical resonators, radio frequency feedback, crude heterodyne effects, and regeneration techniques). Tesla stated that he observed stationary waves during this time.

Tesla researched ways to transmit energy wirelessly over long distances (via transverse waves, to a lesser extent, and, more readily, longitudinal waves). He transmitted extremely low frequencies through the ground as well as between the earth's surface and the Kennelly–Heaviside layer. He received U.S. patent 645,576 for wireless transceivers that developed standing waves by this method. In his experiments, he made mathematical calculations and computations based on his experiments and discovered that the resonant frequency of the earth was approximately 8 hertz (Hz). In the 1950s, researchers confirmed that the resonant frequency of the earth's ionospheric cavity was in this range (later named the Schumann resonance). Tesla effect is the application of a type of electrical conduction (that is, the movement of energy through space and matter; not just the production of voltage across a conductor). Through longitudinal waves, Tesla transferred energy to receiving devices. He sent electrostatic forces through natural media across a conductor situated in the changing magnetic flux and transferred electrical energy to a wireless receiver.

While experimenting, Tesla accidentally short-circuited the generator, causing a power outage. In August 1917, Tesla explained what had happened in The Electrical Experimenter: "As an example of what has been done with several hundred kilowatts of high frequency energy liberated, it was found that the dynamos in a power house six miles away were repeatedly burned out, due to the powerful high frequency currents set up in them, and which caused heavy sparks to jump thru the windings and destroy the insulation!"

In his lab, Tesla observed unusual signals (which he interpreted as 1—2—3—4) that he later thought might have been evidence of extraterrestrial radio wave communications coming from Mars. He noticed repetitive signals from his receiver which were substantially different from the signals that he had noted from noise of storms and the earth. Specifically, he later recalled that the signals appeared in groups of one, two, three, and four clicks together. Tesla was highly criticized upon revealing his finding. Tesla had mentioned that he thought his inventions could be used to talk with other planets. It is debatable what type of signals Tesla received or whether he picked up anything at all. Research has suggested that Tesla may have had a misunderstanding of the new technology he was working with, or that the signals Tesla observed may have been from a non-terrestrial natural radio source such as the Jovian plasma torus signals. Other sources hypothesize that he may have intercepted Marconi's European experiments—in December 1901, Marconi successfully transmitted the letter S (dot/dot/dot, the same three impulses that Tesla claimed to have received from outer space while at Colorado in 1899) from Poldhu, England to Signal Hill, Newfoundland (now part of Canada)—or signals from another experimenter in wireless transmission.

In 1899, John Jacob Astor IV invested $100,000 for Tesla to further develop and produce a new lighting system. Instead, Tesla used the money to fund his Colorado Springs experiments.

Tesla left Colorado Springs on 7 January 1900. His lab was torn down ca. 1905 and its contents sold to pay debts. The Colorado experiments prepared Tesla for the establishment of the trans-Atlantic wireless telecommunications facility known as Wardenclyffe near Shoreham, Long Island.

Wardenclyffe years (1900–1917)

Tesla's Wardenclyffe plant on Long Island in 1904. From this facility, Tesla hoped to demonstrate wireless transmission of electrical energy across the Atlantic.

In 1900, with US$150,000 (more than $3 million today; 51% from J. Pierpont Morgan), Tesla began planning the Wardenclyffe Tower facility.

Tesla later approached Morgan to ask for more funds to build a more powerful transmitter. When asked where all the money had gone, Tesla responded by saying that he needed more money because of the Panic of 1901, which he (Morgan) had caused. Morgan was shocked by the reminder of his part in the stock market crash and by Tesla's breach of contract by asking for more funds. Tesla wrote another plea to Morgan, but it was also fruitless. Morgan still owed Tesla money on the original agreement, and Tesla had been facing foreclosure even before construction of the tower began.

In December 1901, Marconi successfully transmitted the letter S from England to Newfoundland, terminating Tesla's relationship with Morgan. Over the next 5 years, Tesla wrote over 50 letters to Morgan, pleading for and demanding additional funding to complete the construction of Wardenclyffe. Tesla continued his project for another nine months. The tower was raised to its full 187 feet. In July 1903, Tesla wrote to Morgan that in addition to wireless communication, Wardenclyffe would be capable of wireless transmission of electric power. On 14 October 1904, Morgan finally replied through his secretary, stating, "It will be impossible for [me/ Morgan] 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.

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

On his 50th birthday in 1906, Tesla demonstrated his 200 hp (150 kW) 16,000 rpm bladeless turbine. During 1910–1911 at the Waterside Power Station in New York, several of his bladeless turbine engines were tested at 100–5,000 hp.

In 1915, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Marconi attempting, unsuccessfully, to obtain a court injunction against Marconi's claims. After Wardenclyffe, Tesla built the Telefunken Wireless Station in Sayville, Long Island. Some of what he wanted to achieve at Wardenclyffe was accomplished with the Telefunken Wireless. In 1917 the tower was seized and blown up with dynamite for scrap by the Marines, owing to fears that German spies were using it and that it could be used as a landmark for German submarines.

Before World War I (1914–1918), Tesla looked overseas for investors to fund his research. When the war started, Tesla lost the funding he was receiving from his patents in European countries. 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). Tesla believed that the League of Nations was not a remedy for the times and issues.

At this time, Tesla was staying at Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, renting in an arrangement for deferred payments. Eventually, the Wardenclyffe deed was turned over to George Boldt, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria, to pay a US$20,000 debt (about $400,000 today). 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.

Tesla, in August 1917, first established the principles of frequency and power level for the first primitive radar units.

Nobel Prize rumors

On November 6, 1915 a Reuters news agency report had the Nobel Prize in Physics that year being awarded to Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla, but on November 15 Reuters released a story stating the prize would be awarded to Sir William Henry Bragg and William Lawrence Bragg "for their services in the analysis of crystal structure by means of X-rays". There are claims by Tesla biographers that neither Edison nor Tesla were given the award because of their animosity toward each other; that each sought to minimize the other's achievements and right to win the award; that both refused ever to accept the award if the other received it first; and that both rejected any possibility of sharing it. The Nobel Foundation declined to comment on any speculation other than to say that if Edison and Tesla were going to get a prize, it would not be withdrawn based on a recipient's plan to refuse it; it would be awarded and the recipient would have to refuse it after the fact.

In the years after these rumors, neither Tesla nor Edison won the prize (although Edison did receive one of 38 possible bids in 1915, and Tesla did receive one bid out of 38 in 1937).

Later years (1918-1943)

Tesla (9th from left), along with some of the greatest scientists at that time, including Albert Einstein (8th from left), taking an inspection tour of the New Brunswick Marconi Station. Circa 1921.

Tesla on cover of Time Magazine for 20 July 1931.

Tesla received his last patent, U.S. patent 1,655,114, in 1928 for his idea for a type of biplane that could take off vertically (a vertical take-off and landing or VTOL aircraft) and then be "gradually tilted through manipulation of the elevator devices" in flight until it was flying like a conventional plane. Tesla stated it would weigh 800 pounds and would sell at $1,000 for both military and consumer uses. 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.

In the late 1920s, Tesla befriended George Sylvester Viereck, an illustrious German poet and mystic. Though nearly a hermit, Tesla occasionally attended dinner parties held by Viereck and his wife.

On Tesla's 75th birthday in 1931, Time magazine put him on its cover. The cover caption "All the world's his power house" noted his contribution to electrical power generation. He received congratulatory letters from more than 70 pioneers in science and engineering, including Albert Einstein.

In 1934, Tesla wrote to consul Janković of his homeland. The letter contained a message of gratitude to Mihajlo Pupin who had initiated a donation scheme by which American companies could support Tesla. Tesla refused the assistance, choosing instead to live on a modest pension received from Yugoslavia, and to continue his research.

In 1936, replying to a birthday telegram from Vladko Maček, Tesla said he was "equally proud" of his "Serbian origin and Croatian homeland", a phrase often paraphrased in conciliatory context at modern-day joint Croatian-Serbian Tesla celebrations. In addition, in the same telegram, Tesla wrote "Long live all Yugoslavs." When others tried to co-opt him into ethnic and other conflicts in Yugoslavia, Tesla once replied: "If your hate could be turned into electricity, it would light up the whole world."

Directed-energy weapon

Later in life, Tesla made remarkable claims concerning a "teleforce" weapon after studying the Van de Graaff generator. The press called it a "peace ray" or death ray. 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:

[The nozzle would] send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 200 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies to drop dead in their tracks.

In total, the components and methods included:

• An apparatus for producing manifestations of energy in free air instead of in a high vacuum as in the past.
• A mechanism for generating tremendous electrical force.
• A means of intensifying and amplifying the force developed by the second mechanism.
• A new method for producing a tremendous electrical repelling force. This would be the projector, or gun, of the invention.

Tesla worked on plans for a directed-energy weapon from the early 1900s until his death. In 1937, at a luncheon in his honor concerning the death ray, Tesla stated, "But it is not an experiment... I have built, demonstrated and used it. Only a little time will pass before I can give it to the world." His records indicate that the device is based on a narrow stream of small tungsten pellets that are accelerated via high voltage (by means akin to his magnifying transformer).

In 1937, Tesla wrote a treatise entitled "The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media", which concerned charged particle beams. 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 describing the particle beam 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). Tesla tried to interest the US War Department in the device.

During the period in which the negotiations were being carried on, Tesla claimed that efforts had been made to steal the invention. His room had been entered and his papers had been scrutinized, but the thieves, or spies, left empty-handed. He said that there was no danger that his invention could be stolen for he had at no time committed any part of it to paper. The blueprint for the teleforce weapon was all in his mind.

Death

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

On 7 January 1943, at the age of 86, Tesla, alone in room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel, died from coronary thrombosis. His corpse was later found by maid Alice Monaghan after she entered Tesla's room, ignoring the "do not disturb" sign that Tesla had placed on his door two days prior to his death.

A few days after Tesla's death, the information center of the Yugoslav royal government-in-exile released a statement giving a short review of Tesla's achievements and the schedule for his memorial service and funeral. The speech, written by Louis Adamic, was read in a live broadcast on Radio New York by the mayor of New York City, Fiorello La Guardia, on 10 January 1943.

Tesla's remains were taken to Campbell cemetery. The protocol anticipated the funeral service would be conducted on 12 January in the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. Bishop William T. Manning delivered the introductory and the last prayer in English. The funeral service was conducted in the name of the Serbian Orthodox Church by priest Dusan Sukletovic, the superior of the Church of St. Sava of the New York parish. The bereaved family members present at the funeral were Sava Kosanovic and Nikola Trbojevic. A state funeral was attended by 2000 people. Tesla's casket was draped with U. S. and Yugoslav flags. The pallbearers were Nobel prize winners. Telegrams of condolence were received from many notables including the First Lady of the United States, Mrs Eleanor Roosevelt and Vice-President Henry A. Wallace. Tesla's body was cremated and his ashes taken to Belgrade, Serbia, then-Yugoslavia in 1957. The urn containing his ashes was placed in the Nikola Tesla Museum in Belgrade.

Despite having sold his AC electricity patents, Tesla died with significant debts.

Later that year, the US Supreme Court upheld Tesla's U.S. patent 645,576 in a ruling that served as the basis for patented radio technology in the United States.

Dr. 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 asked by U. S. government officials to go over Tesla's papers after Tesla's death to look for any material that could be sensitive in nature in relationship to the ongoing war at the time. After a three-day investigation, Trump concluded in his report that there was nothing that would constitute a hazard in unfriendly hands, stating:

His [Tesla's] thoughts and efforts during at least the past 15 years were primarily of a speculative, philosophical, and somewhat promotional character often concerned with the production and wireless transmission of power; but did not include new, sound, workable principles or methods for realizing such results.

In a box purported to contain a part of Tesla's "death ray", Trump found a 45 year-old piece of basic electrical test equipment.

Patents

Main article: List of Nikola Tesla patents

Newspaper representation of Tesla's theoretical invention, the thought camera, which would photograph thoughts. Circa 1933.

Tesla obtained around 300 patents worldwide for his inventions. Some of Tesla's patents are not accounted for, and various sources have discovered some that have laid hidden in patent archives. There are a minimum of 278 patents 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. Many inventions developed by Tesla were not put into patent protection.

Personal life

Nikola Tesla's father Milutin, Serbian Orthodox priest in the village of Smiljan.

Tesla worked every day from 9 A.M. until 6 P.M. or later, with dinner from exactly 8 to 10 pm, at Delmonico's restaurant and later the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Tesla would telephone his dinner order to the headwaiter, who also could be the only one to serve him. "The meal was required to be ready at eight o'clock... He dined alone, except on the rare occasions when he would give a dinner to a group to meet his social obligations. Tesla would then resume his work, often until 3 am."

Tesla did not believe in telepathy. In an interview with Arthur Brisbane, a newspaper editor for The World , Tesla said, "Suppose I made up my mind to murder you," he said, "In a second you would know it. Now, isn't that wonderful? By what process does the mind get at all this?" Moreover, Tesla believed that all fundamental laws could be reduced to one.

For many years, a rare indulgence of Tesla's were half-hour scalp massages three times a week at a barbershop. He insisted on a clean towel for his chair, but uncharacteristically did not object to the use of a common shaving mug and brush. Some of today's cosmetology, therapeutic and salon businesses offer "Tesla scalp massages" and other electrotherapies. One version meant to stimulate circulation and massage the scalp is a "glass scalp rake" called the Tesla Violet Ray, with handsets holding a Tesla coil that creates a low current. The current excites the inert argon gas within the tube, which creates a violet color in the glass. However, the products and their efficacies are still being debated.

Although he was opposed to war, and made the obvious statement that war could not be avoided until the cause for its recurrence was removed, Tesla concluded that some wars might be justifiable.

Near the end of his life, Tesla showed signs of encroaching senility, walking to the park every day to feed the pigeons and even bringing injured ones into his hotel room to nurse back to health. He claimed that he had been visited by a specific injured white pigeon daily. Tesla spent over US$2,000, including building a device that comfortably supported her so her bones could heal, to fix her broken wing and leg. Tesla stated, "I have been feeding pigeons, thousands of them for years. But there was one, a beautiful bird, pure white with light grey tips on its wings; that one was different. It was a female. I had only to wish and call her and she would come flying to me. I loved that pigeon as a man loves a woman, and she loved me. As long as I had her, there was a purpose to my life.”

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

In his final years, Tesla suffered from extreme sensitivity to light, sound and other influences.

Appearance

Tesla was 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m) tall and weighed 142 pounds (64 kg), with almost no weight variance from 1888 to about 1926. He was an elegant, stylish figure in New York City, meticulous in his grooming, clothing, and regimented in his daily activities. "This was not because of personal vanity. Neatness and fastidiousness in clothes were entirely in harmony with every other phase of his personality. He did not maintain a large wardrobe and he wore no jewelry of any kind... He observed, however, that in the matter of clothes the world takes a man at his own valuation, as expressed in his appearance, and frequently eases his way to his objective through small courtesies not extended to less prepossessing individuals."

Although many of Tesla's progenitors were dark-eyed, his eyes were a gray-blue. He claimed that his eyes were originally darker, but as a result of the exorbitant use of his brain, their hue changed. However, his mother and some of his cousins possessed gray eyes, so it can be inferred that the gray of his eyes was inherited.

Arthur Brisbane, a newspaper editor for The World, described Tesla's appearance:

Nikola Tesla is almost the tallest, almost the thinnest and certainly the most serious man who goes to Delmonico's regularly.... He has eyes set very far back in his head. They are rather light. I asked him how he could have such light eyes and be a Slav. He told me that his eyes were once much darker, but that using his mind a great deal had made them many shades lighter. I have often heard it said that using the brain makes the eyes lighter in color. Tesla's confirmation of the theory through his personal experience is important.

He is very thin, is more than six feet tall and weighs less than a hundred and forty pounds. He has very big hands. Many able men do--Lincoln is one instance. His thumbs are remarkably big, even for such big hands. They are extraordinarily big. This is a good sign. The thumb is the intellectual part of the hand. The apes have very small thumbs. Study them and you will notice this.

Nikola Tesla has a head that spreads out at the top like a fan. His head is shaped like a wedge. His chin is as pointed as an ice-pick. His mouth is too small. His chin, though not weak, is not strong enough. His face cannot be studied and judged like the faces of other men, for he is not a worker in practical fields. He lives his life up in the top of his head, where ideas are born, and up there he has plenty of room. His hair is jet black and curly. He stoops--most men do when they have no peacock blood in them. He lives inside of himself. He takes a profound interest in his own work. He has that supply of self-love and self-confidence which usually goes with success. And he differs from most of the men who are written and talked about in the fact that he has something to tell.

Eidetic Memory

Tesla read many works, memorizing complete books, and supposedly possessing a photographic memory. He was a polyglot, speaking Serbo-Croatian, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin. 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. Modern-day synesthetes report similar symptoms. 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.

Sleep Habits

During Tesla's 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. Tesla claimed to never sleep more than two hours. On one occasion at his laboratory, Tesla worked for a period of 84 hours without sleep or rest.

OCD

Tesla probably suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in his later years. He developed a hatred of jewelry and round objects, could not bear to touch hair, did not like to shake hands, and became obsessed with the number three—he often felt compelled to walk around a block three times before entering a building, and demanded 18 napkins (a number divisible by three) to polish his silver and glasses and plates until they were impeccable, whenever he went dining. If he read one of an author's books, he had to read all of his books. The nature of OCD was little understood at the time and no treatments were available, so his symptoms were considered by some to be evidence of partial insanity, undoubtedly damaging what was left of his reputation.

Relationships

File:TeslaUnknownWoman.png

Tesla with an unknown woman

Tesla was celibate and never married, claiming that his chastity was very helpful to his scientific abilities. However, towards 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...." There have been numerous accounts of women vying for Tesla's affection, even some madly in love with him. Tesla, though polite and soft-spoken, behaved ambivalently towards these women in the romantic sense.

Tesla was prone to secluding himself. 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." 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." 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."

Mark Twain in Tesla's lab, early 1894

Tesla was a good friend of Robert Underwood Johnson, Francis Marion Crawford, Stanford White, Fritz Lowenstein, George Scherff, and Kenneth Swezey. In middle age, Tesla became a close friend of Mark Twain. They spent a lot of time together in his lab and elsewhere. Twain notably described his induction motor invention as "the most valuable patent since the telephone".

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

He had no hobby, cared for no sort of amusement of any kind and lived in utter disregard of the most elementary rules of hygiene  ... His method was inefficient in the extreme, for an immense ground had to be covered to get anything at all unless blind chance intervened and, at first, I was almost a sorry witness of his doings, knowing that just a little theory and calculation would have saved him 90 percent of the labor. But he had a veritable contempt for book learning and mathematical knowledge, trusting himself entirely to his inventor's instinct and practical American sense.

Views on experimental and theoretical physics

Tesla's education did not extend into higher level mathmatics and theoretical physics and he followed a belief that atoms were immutable—that they could not change state ot be split in any way—and that there was no such thing as an electron. He instead was a believer in the 19th century concept of an all perswasive "ether" that transmitted electrical energy.

Tesla was generally antagonistic towards modern day theory about the structure of the atom and the conversion of mater into energy. He was specifically critical of Einstein's Theory of relativity, saying:

I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties. It might as well be said that God has properties. He has not, but only attributes and these are of our own making. Of properties we can only speak when dealing with matter filling the space. To say that in the presence of large bodies space becomes curved is equivalent to stating that something can act upon nothing. I, for one, refuse to subscribe to such a view.

Tesla claimed to have his own physical principle regarding matter and energy that he started working on in 1892 and in 1937, at age 81, he claimed in a letter to have completed a "dynamic theory of gravity" that "will put an end to idle speculations and false conceptions, as that of curved space". He stated that it was "worked out in all details" and that he hoped to soon give it to the world. The theory was never published.

Societal views

Nikola Tesla monument by Les Drysdale in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Tesla, like many of his era, became a proponent of an imposed selective breeding version of eugenics. His opinions stemmed from a belief that humans already interfered with the natural "ruthless workings of nature", rather than from conceptions of a "master race" or inherent superiority of one person over another. His advocacy of it was, however, to push it further. In a 1937 interview, he stated:

... man's new sense of pity began to interfere with the ruthless workings of nature. The only method compatible with our notions of civilization and the race is to prevent the breeding of the unfit by sterilization and the deliberate guidance of the mating instinct .... The trend of opinion among eugenists is that we must make marriage more difficult. Certainly no one who is not a desirable parent should be permitted to produce progeny. A century from now it will no more occur to a normal person to mate with a person eugenically unfit than to marry a habitual criminal.

In 1926, Tesla commented on the ills of the social subservience of women and the struggle of women toward gender equality, indicated that humanity's future would be run by "Queen Bees". He believed that women would become the dominant sex in the future.

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. He had a profound respect for both Buddhism and Christianity. In his article, "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy", published in 1900, Tesla stated:

For ages this idea [that each of us is only part of a whole] has been proclaimed in the consummately wise teachings of religion, probably not alone as a means of insuring peace and harmony among men, but as a deeply founded truth. The Buddhist expresses it in one way, the Christian in another, but both say the same: We are all one.

However, his religious views remain uncertain due to other statements that he made.

Literary works

Main article: List of Nikola Tesla writings

Tesla wrote a number of books and articles for magazines and journals. Among his books are My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla; 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, including the article "The Problem of Increasing Human Energy", published in The Century Magazine in 1900, and the article "Experiments With Alternate Currents Of High Potential And High Frequency", published in his book Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla.

Legacy and honors

See also: Nikola Tesla in popular culture

Nikola Tesla on 100 Serbian dinar banknote.

Nikola Tesla Corner in New York

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.

• The Tesla Society was founded in 1956.
• Tesla, a 26 kilometers-wide crater on the far side of the moon.
• 2244 Tesla, a minor planet.
• TPP Nikola Tesla, the largest power plant in Serbia.
• Tesla Motors, an electric car company.
• The Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport.
• The Nikola Tesla Award
• The Nikola Tesla Museum Archive in Belgrade

Plaques and Memorials

File:Teslabust adjusted.jpg

Bust of Tesla by Ivan Meštrović, 1952, in Zagreb, Croatia

• The Nikola Tesla Memorial Centre in Smiljan opened in 2006. It features a statue of Tesla designed by sculptor Mile Blažević.
• 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.
• A monument to Tesla was established at Niagara Falls, New York. This monument portraying Tesla reading a set of notes was sculpted by Frano Kršinić. It was presented to the United States by Yugoslavia in 1976 and is an identical copy of the monument standing in front of the University of Belgrade Faculty of Electrical Engineering.
• 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. Drysdale's design was the winning design from an international competition.
• In 2012, Jane Alcorn, president of the nonprofit group The Tesla Science Center at Wardenclyffe, and Matthew Inman, creator of web cartoon The Oatmeal, joined forces to honor "the Father of the Electric Age", by preserving the Wardenclyffe facility as a science center and museum. On 22 August 2012, the fundraising group exceeded its target after a $33,000 donation put the total amount raised at $873,169. Including a matching grant from the state of New York, the crowd funding campaign raised approximately $1,700,000 in six days, with the campaign originally slated to run 45 days. However, people kept donating after the goal was reached, collecting over a million dollars 9 days after the action was started.
• A commemorative plaque honoring Nikola Tesla was installed on the façade of the New Yorker Hotel by the IEEE.

References

Sources

• Seifer, Marc J (2001). Wizard: the life and times of Nikola Tesla : biography of a genius. Citadel. p. 542. ISBN 0-8065-1960-6. Retrieved 14 November 2010.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

• O'Neill, John J (2007). Prodigal Genius: The Life of Nikola Tesla. Book Tree. p. 336. ISBN 1-60206-743-0. Retrieved 14 November 2010.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

• Cheney, Margaret (2001) [1981]. Tesla: Man Out of Time. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7432-1536-2. Retrieved 17 June 2007.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

• Cheney, Margaret; Uth, Robert; Glenn, Jim (1999). Tesla, Master of Lightning. Barnes & Noble Books. p. 184. ISBN 0-7607-1005-8. Retrieved 22 November 2010.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

• Jonnes, Jill (2004). Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World. Random House Trade Paperbacks. p. 464. ISBN 0-375-75884-4. Retrieved 25 November 2010.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: ref duplicates default (link)

• Lomas, Robert, The Man who Invented the Twentieth Century. Lecture to South Western Branch of Instititute of Physics.
• Martin, Thomas Commerford, The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla, New York: The Electrical Engineer, 1894 (3rd Ed.); reprinted by Barnes & Noble, 1995 ISBN-X
• 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.
• 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.
• Roguin, Ariel, Historical Note: Nikola Tesla: The man behind the magnetic field unit. J. Magn. Reson. Imaging 2004;19:369–374. 2004 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
• Sellon, J. L., The impact of Nikola Tesla on the cement industry. Behrent Eng. Co., Wheat Ridge, Colorado. Cement Industry Technical Conference. 1997. XXXIX Conference Record., 1997 IEEE/PC. Page(s) 125–133. ISBN
• Valentinuzzi, M.E., Nikola Tesla: why was he so much resisted and forgotten? Inst. de Bioingenieria, Univ. Nacional de Tucuman; Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, IEEE. July/August 1998, 17:4, pp. 74–75. ISSN
• Secor, H. Winfield, Tesla's views on Electricity and the War, Electrical Experimenter, Volume 5, Number 4, August, 1917.
• Florey, Glen, Tesla and the Military. Engineering 24, 5 December 2000.
• Corum, K. L., J. F. Corum, Nikola Tesla, Lightning Observations, and Stationary Waves. 1994.
• Corum, K. L., J. F. Corum, and A. H. Aidinejad, Atmospheric Fields, Tesla's Receivers and Regenerative Detectors. 1994.
• Meyl, Konstantin, H. Weidner, E. Zentgraf, T. Senkel, T. Junker, and P. Winkels, Experiments to proof the evidence of scalar waves Tests with a Tesla reproduction. Institut für Gravitationsforschung (IGF), Am Heerbach 5, D-63857 Waldaschaff.
• Anderson, L. I., John Stone Stone on Nikola Tesla's Priority in Radio and Continuous Wave Radiofrequency Apparatus. The AWA Review, Vol. 1, 1986, pp. 18–41.
• Anderson, L. I., Priority in Invention of Radio, Tesla v. Marconi. Antique Wireless Association monograph, March 1980.
• Marincic, A., and D. Budimir, Tesla's contribution to radiowave propagation. Dept. of Electron. Eng., Belgrade Univ. (5th International Conference on Telecommunications in Modern Satellite, Cable and Broadcasting Service, 2001. TELSIKS 2001. pp. 327–331 vol.1) ISBN-X
• 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)
• Bock-Luna, Birgit (2007). The past in exile: Serbian long-distance nationalism and identity in the wake of the Third Balkan War. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 3-8258-9752-4, 9783825897529. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)

Further reading

Books

• Tesla, Nikola, "My Inventions" Parts I through V published in the Electrical Experimenter monthly magazine from February through June, 1919. Part VI published October, 1919. Reprint edition with introductory notes by Ben Johnson, New York: Barnes and Noble,1982, ISBN; also online at Lucid Cafe, et cetera as My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla, 1919. ISBN
• Martin, Thomas C., The Inventions, Researches, and Writings of Nikola Tesla, 1894 . ISBN-X
• Auster, Paul, Moon Palace, 1989. Tells Tesla's story within the history of the United States.
• Lomas, Robert, The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century: Nikola Tesla, forgotten genius of electricity, 1999. ISBN
• Childress, David H., The Fantastic Inventions of Nikola Tesla, 1993. ISBN
• Glenn, Jim, The Complete Patents of Nikola Tesla, 1994. ISBN
• Trinkaus, George TESLA: The Lost Inventions, High Voltage Press, 2002. ISBN 0-9709618-2-0
• Valone, Thomas, Harnessing the Wheelwork of Nature: Tesla's Science of Energy, 2002. ISBN
• McNichol, Tom, AC/DC The Savage Tale of the First Standards War, Jossey-Bass 2006 ISBN 0-7879-8267-9

Publications

• A New System of Alternating Current Motors and Transformers, American Institute of Electrical Engineers, May 1888.
• Selected Tesla Writings, Scientific papers and articles written by Tesla and others, spanning the years 1888–1940.
• Light Without Heat, The Manufacturer and Builder, January 1892, Vol. 24
• Biography: Nikola Tesla, The Century Magazine, November 1893, Vol. 47
• Tesla's Oscillator and Other Inventions, The Century Magazine, November 1894, Vol. 49
• The New Telegraphy. Recent Experiments in Telegraphy with Sparks, The Century Magazine, November 1897, Vol. 55

Journals

• Carlson, W. Bernard, "Inventor of dreams". Scientific American, March 2005 Vol. 292 Issue 3 p. 78(7).
• Jatras, Stella L., "The genius of Nikola Tesla". The New American, 28 July 2003 Vol. 19 Issue 15 p. 9(1)
• Rybak, James P., "Nikola Tesla: Scientific Savant". Popular Electronics, 1042170X, November 1999, Vol. 16, Issue 11.
• Lawren, B., "Rediscovering Tesla". Omni, March 1988, Vol. 10 Issue 6.

Video

See also: Nikola Tesla in popular culture

• Nikola Tesla - 1977 ten-episode TV series featuring Rade Šerbedžija as Tesla.
• Tajna Nikole Tesle (The Secret of Nikola Tesla)' - 1980 Documentary directed by Krsto Papić, featuring Petar Božović as Tesla and Orson Welles as J.P. Morgan
• Tesla: Master of Lightning - 2003 Documentary by Robert Uth, featuring Stacy Keach as the voice of Tesla.

External links

• The Nikola Tesla Museum
• Original Tesla's patents presented in documentary movie by Museum Nikola Tesla
• Tesla Resource Surrounding the PBS "Master of Lightning" documentary
• World of Scientific Biography: Nikola Tesla, by Wolfram Research
• Nikola Tesla Page
• Tesla's grand-nephew William H. Terbo's site
• Nikola Tesla, Forgotten American Scientist
• Tesla Wardenclyffe Project, Long Island New York. Mission is the adaptive reuse of the Wardenclyffe laboratory building.
• Online archive of many of Tesla's writings, articles and published papers
• Seifer, Marc J., and Michael Behar, Electric Mind, Wired Magazine, October 1998.
• Works by Nikola Tesla at Project Gutenberg
• Nikola Tesla's FBI file in pdf
• Kenneth M. Swezey Papers, 1891–1982, Archives Center, National Museum of American History, archival resources.
• The Case Files of Nikola Tesla, Franklin Institute
• Booknotes interview with Jill Jonnes on Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse and the Race to Electrify the World, 26 October 2003.
• TED Talk On Tesla