AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History Nikola Tesla, New Yorks best dressed, is a celibate,

inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, author, and futurist. Life was made easier because of his many attributes that helped to improve the lives of society. He invented electrical systems such as the alternating current and the direct current. Without these contributions the government would have spent millions of dollars in an effort to build electric repeaters and power lines to enable electricity to travel across the country. Childhood and Education: Tesla was born on the tenth of July in 1856; he was born in modern day Croatia, but then it was then officially called the Austrian Empire. He then died at the age of 86 years on 7 the seventh of January in 1943, in New York City. He lived a fairly long life, long enough to see the rise and fall of economies, businesses, and inventions. His lifelong dream was to see a wireless network that we could use to instantly transmit thoughts, pictures, or some other type of media to each other regardless of distance, but he never lived to see it sadlysadly, he never lived to see it. Nikolai, or Nikola, Tesla was born in a small town in the Austrian Empire; many say that due to the lack of a proper education, because of the school size, Teslas intelligence could have been stunted. He went through two schools in his childhood due to his father, a pastor, moving
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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History around. Nikola started to love math and all science subjects; he was so good at it that he could do integral calculus in his head, which lead teachers to think that he was cheating for the most part. Tesla returned to Gospi for school, his town of previous residency, in spite of his father's instructions otherwise. Shortly after arriving he contracts Cholera. He is bedridden for 9 months and was near death many times. Tesla's father, in a moment of desperation, agreed to send him to an engineering school if he recovered from the illness. He then, after a lot of arguing with his father, went to Tomingaj near Graac to recover from Cholera and avoid the Army, from which he was a fugitive, due to required a compulsory three-yearsthree-year' service. Tesla later stated, "For most of this term I roamed in the mountains, loaded with a hunter's outfit and a bundle of books, and this contact with nature made me stronger in body as well as in mind." Tesla enrolled at the Austrian Polytechnic School in Graz on a Military Border scholarship. In his first year, Tesla never missed a lecture, made the highest grades possible and started a Serbian culture club. During his second year, Tesla came into conflict with Professor Poeschl over the Gramme dynamo when he suggested that commutators weren't necessary. At the end of the second year, Tesla lost his scholarship and took up gambling. Near the end of the third year, Tesla stopped attending lectures and dropped out the following year. The main reason he did it is not known, but many people accredit it to boredom. It is unclear why, but upon leaving Austria, Tesla chose Maribor, Slovenia as his next stop. He took his first job as a draftsman for a local engineering firm. Tesla spent his spare time
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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History in a pub called Happy Peasant where he played chess and cards. In March of the following year, Tesla's father came to Maribor and pleaded with him to return home, but he refused. After being reported to Maribor police because he did not have a residence permit, administrative proceedings were started immediately and Tesla was returned to Gospi under police guard. After this tragedy, another one struck., Tesla's father, Milutin Tesla, contracteds an unspecified illness and dieds at age 60. The following day, he was given a "funeral liturgy fit for a saint," and was buried in the Jasikovac. These events made a shocking negative impact to Nikola. Early Adulthood: Tesla taught a large class of students in his old school, the "Real Gymnasium" in Gospi. His former fellow student, Mojsije Medi, was also teaching there at the time. Tesla taught, but did not want this to be his future. He thought why waste his future, if he could invent amazing things. Nikolas uncles, Petar and Pavle, came to his rescue and put together enough money to help him escape from Gospi. Tesla travelled to Prague, but arrived too late to enroll in KarlFerdinand University. Even if Tesla had arrived early enough, he would have not been permitted to enroll as he had never taken Greek and did not speak or write Czech. Tesla lived at 13 Smeckach St. and spent most of his time at the Klementinum Library and Narodni Kavarna (People's Cafe) on Vodickova St. Tesla did attend lectures at the University as an auditor, but did not receive marks for the courses.
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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History Tesla's Uncle Pavle arranged for Tesla to work for Ferenc Puskas at the Budapest Telephone Exchange in Hungary, which was then under construction. When Tesla arrived, he found that the new business was not anywhere near operational, so instead he worked as a draftsman in the Central Telegraph Office. Within a few months, the Budapest Telephone Exchange became operational and Tesla was assigned the position of Chief Electrician. During his employment, Tesla made numerous improvements to the equipment and developed an amplifier device, which made many improvements to the telephone which that are still used today. Tesla, obsessed with solving the riddle of A.C., suffers suffered a mental breakdown and isn't was not expected to live. A short time later, Tesla begins began to recover and during a walk in the Varosliget city park of Budapest with friend Anthony Szigety, the solution comes came to Tesla in a vision. In his recollection of the event, Tesla states that he looked at the setting sun and began to recite a passage from Goethe's Faust. At that very moment, the idea came to him in a flash and he drew a diagram of the motor in the sand with a stick. Tesla and his good friend Anthony Szigety accepted positions with the Continental Edison Company, which had recently been started in Paris. Tesla worked for Charles Batchelor at the Ivry-sur-Seine lamp factory and installed lighting systems in the Paris Opera House and a theater in Bavaria. He submitted a plan for improving the Edison dynamos to Mr. Rau, an administrator for the company. The plan was approved and soon Tesla's automatic regulator was greatatefully accepted. Tesla was likely expecting to be compensated but was dispatched to Strasbourg before payment was awarded. On assignment by Continental Edison Company, Tesla was sent to Strasbourg, France to repair a new D.C. lighting system installed at the German 4

AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History Railway company which was damaged on a trial run. The government approved the job after the repairs, but Tesla never received the compensation he was promised for the work. Tesla demonstrates newly completed A.C. induction motor before Mr. Bauzin, former mayor of Strasbourg, and several potential investors. They watched the motor with interest, but it was apparent they did not understand the value of the invention. In the spring, Tesla, with funds provided by Uncles Petar and Pajo, packed his gear and caught the next boat for America. His trip didn't start too smoothly because his ticket, money and some of his luggage were stolen. To make matters worse, a mutiny broke out on the ship and Tesla was nearly thrown overboard. Through his strong resolve, Tesla was not deterred. He arrived in New York a few weeks later with four cents in his pocket, a few poems and remnants of his belongings. Some accounts state that Tesla started the very day he arrived in New York. Others put his start date on the following day. Regardless of the discrepancy, we know that Edison essentially hired Tesla on the spot but would hear nothing of his A.C. power system. Tesla was soon dispatched to Henry Villard's ocean liner, the Oregon, the first boat ever to have electric lighting. The set of dynamos that powered the ship were badly damaged and Edison was amazed to learn that Tesla had repaired them. He was quoted as calling Tesla "a damn good man." While Tesla worked for Edison he also installed and repaired incandescent and arc lamps, reassembled D.C. generators and designed twenty-four different types of machines that became standards replacing original Edison designs. Many agree that this is where the Tesla-Edison feud began.

AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History Investors approached Tesla and asked him to develop an improved arc lighting system. Although this was not the opportunity he had hoped for, the group was willing to finance the Tesla Electric Light Company in Rahway, New Jersey. The proud new owner set to work and invented a unique arc lamp of beautiful design and efficiency. After completing the work, Tesla was forced out of the company and left with nothing but worthless stock certificates. Tesla later referred to this as "the hardest blow" he'd ever received. If I were Tesla, at this point I would just quit. Being forced out of your own company that was set up by capitalists so they can earn more money off of your idea must be a huge blow. At some point during Tesla's employment, Edison promises promised to pay him $50,000 if he can improve the performance of Edison's D.C. dynamo. Tesla succeeds beyond Edison's expectations, but he goes went back on his promise to pay Tesla. Edison is quoted as stating to Tesla, "You don't understand our American humor." Deeply hurt, Tesla resignsresigned. Some accounts state that Edison offers offered Tesla a raise if he will would reconsider but Tesla declined. Betrayed by men he trusted, Tesla considered the winter of 1886/1887 a time of "terrible headaches and bitter tears." He was forced to work as a ditch digger for $2.00 two dollars per day and questioned the value of his education. Later, Tesla was introduced to Alfred S. Brown, director of Western Union, and Charles F. Peck, a New York City attorney, who were sold on his alternating current system after he demonstrated his "Egg of Columbus." Tesla agreed to split his patents on a fifty-fifty basis in exchange for funding. Brown located the laboratory at 89 Liberty St. and the company filed for its first patent by the end of the month. Tesla's oldest and best friend, Anthony Szigeti, landed in New York. By the end of the week he was working as Tesla's 6
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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History assistant at the Liberty St. lab. After a while, Tesla sells sold his patents for the A.C. Polyphase System to George Westinghouse for $25,000 in cash, $50,000 in notes and a royalty of $2.50 per horsepower for each motor. To Tesla, this was a huge move, not only selling his life work, but also selling one of his few remaining patents. Tesla visited Paris for the Universal Exposition and unveiling of the Eiffel Tower. While he was there he met Professor Wilhelm Bjerknes, a Norwegian physicist from the University of Stockholm. Bjerknes had replicated the work of Henrich Hertz and allowed Tesla to study his oscillator. Tesla also visited his homeland, including Smiljan, Raduc, Tomingaj and Plitivice Lakes before returning to New York. As part of an Edison-sponsored smear campaign against Westinghouse, H.P. Brown, an Edison ally and manufacturer of electric chairs, began electrocuting animals with A.C. The process was termed "Westinghoused" and was used to demonstrate the dangers of the new technology. That same year, the state of New York convicted William Kemmler of killing his mistress with an axe and sentenced him to die in the electric chair. Edison provided his staff to assist Brown in an effort to further damage Westinghouse's public image. The execution was a total disaster and Westinghouse suffered a great blow.

With high frequencies, Tesla developed some of the first neon and fluorescent illumination. He also took the first x-ray photographs. But these discoveries paled in comparison to his illuminating a vacuum tube wirelessly - having transmitted energy through the air. This was the beginning of Tesla's lifelong obsession - the wireless transmission of energy. L.L. Nunn, a Colorado lawyer and manager of the Gold King Mine, signed a contract with Westinghouse to install the Tesla A.C. power system. The plan was to harness a river below the mine and replace 7

AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History the costly coal powered steam generators. This facility became known as the Ames Power Plant and was the first power station in the world to transmit alternating current at high voltage for power purposes, for a long distance.

One day, Tesla has had a dream that his mother is was dying. Later that day, he receives received a telegram from his sister saying that he needs to get back home as soon as possible. Its from his sister. 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, Nido, my pride." Tesla's mother died on the Easter Sunday at one o'clock in the morning and was buried later that day beside her husband at the Jasikovac cemetery in Divoselo, Croatia. After her death, Tesla fell ill. He spent two to three weeks recuperating in Gospi and the village of Tomingaj near Graac, a village in the southern part of Lika, Croatia, his mother's birthplace. Tesla arrived in Belgrade due to the call from the Belgrade municipality. Several thousand people greeted him at the Belgrade train station. He addressed the gathered crowd, who saluted him: "There is something within me that might be illusion as it is often case with young delighted people, but if I would be fortunate to achieve some of my ideals, it would be on the behalf of the whole of humanity. If those hopes would become fulfilled, the most exiting thought would be that it is a deed of a Serb. Long live Serbdom!..." Tesla met the young Serbian King, Alexander Obrenovi, the following day. The king awarded Tesla with the Medal of St. Sava for extraordinary contribution to science the following year. Adult Life:
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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History In 1892, George Westinghouse won the contract to power the Columbian Exposition. The Westinghouse company, with Tesla's guidance, built a power system for the exposition that produced three times more energy than was being utilized by the entire remainder of Chicago. Tesla had a large display including phosphorescent lighting (a precursor to fluorescent lamps) powered without wires by high-frequency fields and the Egg of Columbus. The success of the Tesla Polyphase System installed at the exposition ensured Westinghouse would be selected to harness Niagara.
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Thomas Commerford Martin, editor of "Electrical World" and vice-president of the AIEE published the first book on Tesla's research. "The Inventions, Researches and Writings of Nikola Tesla" is a comprehensive compilation of Tesla's work with many illustrations.

A fire broke out in the basement of 33-35 South 5th Ave. (now West Broadway) and swept through the entire structure, including Tesla's laboratory, which occupied the entire fourth floor of the six-story building. All of his hundreds of invention models, plans, notes, laboratory data, tools, photographs, valued at $50,000, were destroyed. Tesla is quoted by "The New York Times" as saying, "I am in too much grief to talk. What can I say?"
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Tesla had originally noticed what he described as "a very special radiation" years earlier, in his previous laboratory when working his "carbon-button" lamp. He produced pictures he called "shadowgraphs" and had performed numerous experiments with them up until the fire at his lab. Upon learning of Rntgen's discovery, Tesla wrote him and sent some of the pictures recovered from the fire. Rntgen replied and asked Tesla how he produced them. After the fire destroyed the 5th Ave. lab, Tesla was allowed to use Thomas Edison's workshop at Llewellyn

AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History Park, New Jersey, but this was only a temporary solution. Within a few weeks, Tesla had rented a laboratory below Greenwich Village, near Chinatown, at 46 and 48 Houston St. This building is now the home of Soho Billiards.

The new A.C. power system enjoyed a flawless inauguration, transmitting electricity to Buffalo, New York 22 miles away. It came first to the Buffalo Railway Company - 1,000 horsepower, switched into the company's powerhouses at exactly midnight with a signaling of the event to the city by the firing of cannons, the blowing of steam whistles and the ringing of bells. Upon receiving a $100,000.00 investment from John Jacob Astor, Tesla promptly moved into the Waldorf-Astoria, which Astor owned. It was, at the time, the world's tallest building and is described as "extolling the essence of exclusiveness, cordiality, pomposity, and elegant grandiosity to the masses."

Working late one night on his powerful and sensitive radio receiver, Tesla observed strange rhythmic pulses on the receiver. He concluded that there was no possible explanation other than some effort was being made to communicate with Earth by creatures from another planet. Tesla reveals the discovery and is highly criticized. Theseis wereas the first type of sonargalactic radio waves ever received.

In his autobiography "My Inventions," autobiography Tesla states, "When in 1900 I obtained powerful discharges of 100 feet (in the Colorado Springs laboratory) and flashed a current around the globe, I was reminded of the first tiny spark I observed in my Grand St. laboratory and was thrilled by sensations akin to those I felt when I discovered the rotating magnetic field." In 1896, Tesla was issued a patent for a corona discharge ozone generator using

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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History charged metal plates to act on ambient air. He formed the Tesla Ozone Company and went into production of these units. His customers were naturopaths and allopaths who welcomed this powerful therapy into their practices. Breathing of ozone bubbled through olive oil and other oils was widely practiced at this time, and the Sears catalog of 1904 offered a unit for this purpose using eucalyptus, pine and spearmint oils. Tesla produced a gel made by bubbling ozone through olive oil until it solidified, and sold it to doctors.

"The New York Sun" reported the strange goings-on at Tesla's transmitter. It stated, "all sorts of lightning were flashed from the tall tower and poles," and "the air was filled with blinding streaks of electricity which seemed to shoot off into the darkness on some mysterious errand." The Colorado Springs power company, which is what Tesla used to shoot bolts of electricity into the sky, sued Tesla for electricity used at that experimental station. Tesla's Colorado laboratory wa is torn down and wasis sold for lumber to pay the $180 judgment; his electrical equipment wasis put in storage.

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Tesla was contracted by Waltham Watch Company to build the world's first and only airfriction speedometer, which he also patented. It was used in Packard, Lincoln and Pierce-Arrow luxury cars. In an article entitled "Tesla's Tidal Wave To Make War Impossible," from ""English Mechanic and World of Science," Tesla states stated that his magnifying transmitter has obtained rates of 25 million horsepower which was the original reason of making the friction speedometer.

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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History The 1909 Nobel Prize for physics is shared between Guglielmo Marconi and Karl Ferdinand Braun "in recognition of their contributions to the development of wireless telegraphy." Tesla is furious and intensifies his long battle to correct the injustice.

Over a period of several months, Tesla tests numerous models of steam turbines at the Waterside Station of the New York Edison Company. When interviewed about the tests, Tesla stated, "In one of them the disks are only nine insaches in diameter and the whole working part is two inches thick. With steam as the propulsive fluid it develops 110 horse power, and could do twice as much."

John Jacob Astor was Tesla's wealthiest and most generous investor. He invested $100,000 in 1899 for Tesla to, as he understood it, further develop and produce a new lighting system. Tesla instead, used the money to fund his Colorado Springs experiments. Mr. Astor was understandably unhappy with Tesla's deception and avoided him for several years. They did later reconcile and worked together on aircraft and propulsion systems in 1908. Unfortunately, Mr. Astor and his wife were aboard the "Titanic" which began to sink after colliding with an iceberg. Mr. Astor was able to help his wife into a lifeboat but was unable to join her. His body was found a few days later and is buried in Trinity Church Cemetery in New York City."
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"The New York Times," followed by other prominent news sources, carried a story, based upon a Reuters dispatch from London, stating that Tesla and Edison were to share the Nobel Prize in physics. Both Tesla and Edison told reporters they had received no official notification of the award. A few days later the Nobel Committee announced that the prize for physics would, in fact, be shared by Professor William Henry Bragg of the University of Leeds, England and his

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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History son. The committee did not deny that Tesla and Edison were the first choices, but never made public the true reason for the change. Some speculate that either Tesla or Edison or both refused to share the prize with the other. Another huge blow to Tesla.

In order to keep a roof over his head, Tesla had given two mortgages on Wardenclyffe to George C. Boldt, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria, to secure payment of hotel bills amounting to almost $19,000.00. Wardyncliffe, Nikolas baby, his lifes work, wasits all gone with that. Tesla requested that they not be recorded, fearing that all his projects would be destroyed if the matter became public. He was unable to make any payments at all, and was forced to sign the deed over to Waldorf-Astoria, Inc., through a silent intermediary.

Even though Tesla had some minor successes, he continued to fall deeper and deeper into debt primarily due to his high overhead. He was called into the state Ssupreme Ccourt for $935.00 in unpaid taxes on the Wardenclyffe property. Under oath before Justice Finch, Tesla revealed that he was essentially penniless and owned no real assets. "New York World" ran an embarrassing article exposing Tesla's financial crisis.
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Originally rejecting the offer of the AIEE's highest award, Tesla reconsiders reconsidered and accepteds after being encouraged by Bernard A. Behrend. During the introduction, Tesla disappeareds and wasis later found at the library feeding his beloved pigeons. He wais persuaded to return and gave ives his acceptance speech.

In the August 1917 edition of "Electrical Experimenter" magazine, Tesla stated, "For instance, by their (standing electromagnetic waves) use we may produce at will, from a sending station, an electrical effect in any particular region of the globe; (with which) we may determine 13

AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History the relative position or course of a moving object, such as a vessel at sea, the distance traversed by the same, or its speed." "Electrical Experimenter" magazine began a series of articles entitled "My Inventions" by Tesla. An illustration of Tesla was also featured on the cover of the issue with the initial article. To persuade the great Tesla to write his own autobiography was no small feat, and editor Hugo Gernsback considered it one of his greatest journalistic achievements. The articles were later converted into the book with the same title.

Tesla had many pigeons he fed and cared for, but one, he was particularly fond of. He described it as being a beautiful female bird, pure white with light gray tips on its wings. One night the bird flew into Tesla's room at Hotel St. Regis, and he perceived that she was attempting to tell him she was dying. Tesla said a light came from her eyes more intense than he had ever produced by the most powerful lamps in his laboratory. The bird then died and Tesla said that at that same moment, something went out of his life and he knew his life's work was finished. Katharine McMahon Johnson was, according to some accounts, the only woman Tesla ever loved. She was the wife of Tesla's lifelong friend, Robert Underwood Johnson. Though the two often exchanged flirtatious letters, their relationship was totally platonic. Not forgetting Tesla even at death, she charged Robert to keep in close touch with him always.

Late Adulthood:

A settlement was reached with the Westinghouse Corporation that provided Tesla with a consulting rate of $125.00 per month along with the agreement to pay his monthly rent expenses. Upon signing the agreement, Tesla promptly moved to the Hotel New Yorker where he'd live rent free for the rest of his days. The debt owed to Hotel Governor Clinton was never paid.

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AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History The headline on the front page of "The New York Times" read, "TESLA, AT 78, BARES NEW 'DEATH BEAM.'" The article reported that the new invention "will 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 250 miles..." Tesla stated that the death beam would make war impossible by offering every country an "invisible Chinese wall."
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Tesla, realizing war was imminent, composed a treatyise entitled "The Art of Projecting Concentrated Non-dispersive Energy through the Natural Media" concerning a charged particle beam weapon. The document was published in an attempt to expound on the technical description of a "super weapon that would put an end to all war." Tesla tried to interest the U.S. War Department and European allies, but none were willing to make the investment required to build the device.

In his diaries "A King's Heritage," the young Peter II writes: "I visited Dr. Nikola Tesla, in his apartment in the Hotel New Yorker. After I had greeted him, the aged scientist said, 'It is my greatest honor. I am glad you are in your youth, and I am content that you will be a great ruler. I believe I will live until you come back to a free Yugoslavia. From your father you have received his last words: "Guard Yugoslavia." I am proud to be a Serbian and a Yugoslav. Our people cannot perish. Preserve the unity of all Yugoslavs - the Serbs, the Croats, and Slovenes.'"

Death:

Tesla died quietly and alone in room #3327 on the 33rd floor of the Hotel New Yorker in New York City. The coroner would later estimate the time of death at 22:30 EST. Tesla was 86 years old. Tesla had placed a "do not disturb" sign on his door on January 5th, 1943. Ignoring the 15

AJ Munoz Power of One Honors English and Honors History sign, maid Alice Monaghan entered the room to find Tesla dead in his bed. Assistant Medical Examiner H. W. Wembly was called to the scene and after examination of the body, gave his opinion that the cause of death had been coronary thrombosis and that there had been no suspicious circumstances. Tesla's body was taken to the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home at Madison Ave. and 81st St. A sculptor was commissioned by Hugo Gernsback, a long-time friend and supporter of Tesla, to create a death mask which is now displayed in the Nikola Tesla Museum.

Tesla was accorded a State Funeral at the Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine at West 112th St., in New York City. The Cathedral of St. John is the largest Gothic cathedral in the world, accommodated the more than 2,000 who attended. The funeral service was opened by Episcopal Bishop William T. Manning and concluded by the venerable Reverend Dushan J. Shukletovich, rector of the Serbian Orthodox Church of St. Sava. After the funeral, Tesla's body was taken to the Ferncliff Cemetery in Ardsley, New York, where it was later cremated.

Basing their decision on Tesla's lectures of 1893, which were widely published in translation, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Tesla as "the father of radio" in 1943, only a few months after Tesla's death. Some have speculated that the court reversed the decision merely to avoid having to pay any royalties to the Marconi Corporation, which was suing the U.S. government for patents used during World War I.

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