Nikola Tesla: The Enigma

An essay on the man who created the twentieth century

By Samantha Reagan Selman

Eighth Grade Home School Essay Assignment August 31, 2011

NIKOLA TESLA: THE ENIGMA

I.

Childhood A. Brother, Daniel, dies at age 12 1. Nikola is blamed for the killing 2. Family horse could have been responsible B. Invented a waterwheel lacking paddles at age five II. Schooling A. Attended Higher Reals Gymnasium in Karlovac 1. completed a four year term in the span of three years B. Studied electrical engineering in college 1. attended the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz 2. against the wishes of his father a. his father wanted Tesla to be a priest C. Attended the Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague in 1880 III. Early Employment A. Disappeared in 1878 to take an assistant engineering job 1. suffered an emotional breakdown 2. returned home in 1879 B. the National Telephone Company 1. met and worked with Nebojsa Petrovic a. worked on an alternating current system IV. Arriving in America A. Worked for Edison at Edison's Machine Works 1. was offered the task of improving the company's direct current generators a. was offered $50,000 b. was given five dollars for his work in 1885 2. Became frustrated and left Edison's company a. later had to return for a job digging ditches B. Was unsuccessful at starting his own business 1. Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing shut down in the same year it was built, 1886 2. A.K Brown helped Tesla create a separate company in 1887 V. War of the Currents A. Edison is frustrated over new competition B. Edison warns public that AC system is dangerous 1. electrocutes animals to prove point VI. Middle Age A. Tesla becomes acquainted with high class and famous people 1. Mark Twain, J.P. Morgan, Robert Johnson, etc. 2. Was frequently given financial help from friends B. Tesla is never married nor has children 1. misses opportunities to wed Anne Morgan, Marguerite Merrington VII. Death and the Missing Papers A. Tesla dies in hotel room at age 86 1. leaves no will 2. he expected to live until age 140 B. Battle between Tesla's nephew and the US government begins 1. Tesla's important papers, journals, and notes are taken by the government 2. Sava Kosanovic never gets the paper work, even though he is Tesla's only living heir
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NIKOLA TESLA: THE ENIGMA

Nikola Tesla was born at precisely midnight on July 10, 1856 in the village of Smiljan in the province of Lika, Croatia. His father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian Orthodox priest and and talented poet. His mother, Duka Mandic, was conversely dedicated to her duty on the farm, raising the children, and completing housework. Duka Mandic was, I believe, partly responsible for Nikola's interest in inventing for she herself enjoyed inventing home craft tools. Nikola was the fourth of five children. The eldest child, Daniel (or Dane, as he was referred to), was supposedly killed by the five year old Nikola while at play. This was never known to be true or otherwise, but some speculate that it was the family horse that was responsible. Nevertheless, Nikola was shunned all of his life by his parents and siblings. Whatever he accomplished in life, no matter how astounding, Tesla felt as if he could never earn his parents' praise nor adoration. Nikola began inventing at the age of five; it began with a small waterwheel that lacked paddles and had smooth edges. Therefore, it seems that Tesla partially conceived the idea of his bladeless turbine at a surprisingly early age. At the age of eight, he began memorizing scripture from the bible. Not long afterwards he was memorizing entire books almost perfectly. When he started attending Higher Reals Gymnasium in Karlovac in 1862, he surpassed all the other students and completed a four year term in the span of three years. In 1875 he began studying electrical engineering at the Austrian Polytechnic in Graz. The Reverend Tesla objected to this, yet Tesla knew engineering was his calling. The following years were spent moving from country to country, job to job. Nikola first left his family in 1878 to work as an assistant engineer in Marburg. When he left, he told not even his dearest friends where he was going; it was because of this that his friends and family thought he had drowned in the Mur river. He eventually became severely sleep deprived and found the work too laborious. Nikola decided it was best to return home. Tesla attended the summer term at CharlesFerdinand University in Prague in 1880, but left after the death of his father. He only completed one term here. He once again packed his bags and moved to Budapest to work for the National Telephone Company. This job had to be much better than the previous one for the work was not as arduous and the employers were much friendlier. He met several talented inventors and engineers, but was most inspired by a young man named Nebojsa Petrovic. The two developed a system that supplied continuous power using twin turbines and worked on several other unknown projects during the span of two years. Tesla was then offered a job in Paris as an engineer for the Continental Edison Company in 1882. His superior, Charles Batchelor, was impressed with Tesla's ideas and influenced him to relocate to the United States. Here, he said, Nikola would have a better chance at succeeding. So Tesla came to New York City with nothing in his pocket except a letter of recommendation signed by Charles Batchelor. Thomas Alva Edison was at the time a wealthy business tycoon making money from the work of others. Edison, depicted as the wonderful Wizard of Menlo Park, did not appear so genial to the twenty-seven year old Tesla. However Nikola was in desperate need of a job in fast-paced New York City. Tesla was hired by Edison to be the head engineer for Edison Machine Works in June of 1884. It was not long before Edison offered Nikola the task of improving the company's inefficient DC (direct current) generators for the sum of $50,000. Nikola readily accepted the task and was finished by early 1885. He expected a payment of $50,000 but was instead given a five-dollar bill by Edison who added, You simply don't understand our American humor. Nikola did not find the situation humorous and so quit immediately. He later had to return to Edison for a job digging ditches just to survive. Tesla soon became tired of Edison's exploitation and decided to begin his own company. Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing company was created in 1886 with headquarters in Rahway, New Jersey, and New York. Unfortunately, the company was shut down that same year and left Tesla working as a laborer in New York. What Tesla didn't know was that a Mr. A.K Brown was willing to give Nikola a hand up. Together in 1887 they founded the Tesla Electric Company and reached the goal of developing the alternating current system that the inventor had conceived in Budapest four years earlier. The War of the Currents became inevitable, for Tesla's new company was located only blocks from Edison's Machine Works. Edison hated the new competition, the new technology, as well as Tesla himself. Though Nikola was trying to stay out of the public eye as much as possible, Edison wanted to destroy Tesla's growing reputation. It is rumored that Edison began electrocuting his neighbors' house pets with Tesla's AC systems to simply prove a point. Tesla did not let this slow him down; he was busy working on his prized induction motors. It was during this time that Nikola became acquainted with Dr. B.A Behrend, J. Pierpont Morgan, and George Westinghouse. Westinghouse was captivated by Tesla's new technology, so much so that the two became close business partners. Yet

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George was in many ways like Thomas Edison and he was anxious to use Nikola's genius for his own financial gain. Desperately wanting the AC systems for his own use, Westinghouse at one point offered Tesla a million dollars for the patents, but Tesla politely declined even though this offer could have changed his life drastically. Was it worth it to ruin Westinghouse's business and have creditors after him? Apparently Nikola didn't think so. During the 1890's Nikola began developing radio technologies. His work was going extremely well until in early 1892 when he awakened from a terrifying and realistic nightmare in which his mother had died of a horrific disease. This dream was realistic enough to convince Tesla his mother was actually dying and he chose to visit her in his home country. Surprisingly enough, his mother was in fact dying. Tesla had had premonitions of disasters since the age of six, possibly harnessed by the death of his brother Daniel. To relate to this fact, Nikola once told his nephew he had envisioned a train crash which killed dozens of people. He had thrown a party a week after this premonition and the people were supposed to leave on a train. He stopped them before this same train crashed just five minutes later. Reverting back to the original topic, Nikola was able to visit his dying mother for only a few days before she passed. Like anyone would be, Tesla was in a state of shock. Only a year before, Tesla had become a legal US citizen and had established a second laboratory in New York City (which was lit completely by wireless lighting). This event stunted his progress. He became ill soon afterwards and spent three weeks recuperating in Gospic. A series of strange events happened during the time he spent here: he was influenced by Hinduism, and even began using Sanskrit words in his notebooks. Another strange event was the discovery of the radio by Guglielmo Marconi. This labeled Tesla's invention as second place. Becoming tired of New York and its fast pace, Tesla moved to Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1899. He moved into a sizable laboratory where he had the freedom to conduct more advanced (and dangerous) experiments. He began producing artificial lightning, which danced across his laboratory at all times. It was from this that he concluded Earth was a conductor; otherwise how could he conduct such an experiment? He also succeeded in transmitting wireless telegraphy signals from Pikes Peak to Paris. He then left Colorado Springs on January 7, 1900 and returned to New York. The lab in Colorado Springs was unfortunately torn down in 1905 and its contents sold to pay debts. He tried to begin a new laboratory called Wardenclyffe Tower on the loan of $150,000 in 1900. J.P. Morgan was ready to help Tesla with the project, and he provided Nikola with ninety-one percent of the funds. He was unsuccessful in his experiments with wireless technologies, and the tower was torn down in 1905. The Telefunken Wireless Station in Sayville, Long Island, was built in 1915, the same year Tesla attempted to sue Marconi. He was sadly unsuccessful with the lawsuit, but it did put the public's eyes on Marconi. The Telefunken Wireless Station was torn down in 1917 because it was suspected that Tesla was using it to cooperate with German spies. However, he did accomplish his original goal of creating wireless technologies and was able to relax for a short while. Nikola Tesla, despite his genius, had some very strange habits and characteristics. Around the age of ten he began having visions preceded by bright flashes of light before his eyes. It is supposed that Daniel had this problem as well. Tesla was also multilingual, speaking English, Czechoslovakian, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin along with his native tongue. He was a life-long animal lover and especially adored pigeons. Nikola was seriously opposed to the killing of animals for their use in food products and referred meat-eaters as cruel barbarians. It is said that Tesla was an extreme gambler and would sometimes spend near 48 hours straight at a gaming table. Tesla never required much sleep; Nikola once stated he had never slept more than two hours in his adult life. He also suffered from obsessive-compulsive disorder; he did things in threes and would never spend the night in a hotel room with a number not divisable by three. Nikola was revolted by pearl earrings and the obese and was a notorious clean-freak. His obsession with pigeons became more severe as he grew older. By the age of sixty he had pigeons everywhere, from his laboratory to his hotel room. He treated sick pigeons he found in the park and even mysteriously cured one of cancer. It is said that he once brought a beloved white pigeon back from the dead, for he was seen with it the week after it died by his assistant, a Mr. Kenneth Swezey. In middle age he became acquainted with several famous and high-class people, including the author Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Katharine Johnson and and her husband, Robert Underwood Johnson. On his 75 th birthday Nikola received congratulatory letters from Albert Einstein, Robert Millikan, Arthur Compton, and Dr. W.H. Bragg. He was featured on the cover of Time Magazine in tribute of his life, experiments, and groundbreaking inventions. Nikola was given several 3

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exclusive honors, some which he was hesitant to accept, including the Edison Medal in 1916, the Elliott Cresson Medal in 1893, and the John Scott Medal in 1934. He was nearly married to Anne Morgan, the daughter of his close friend, but was sidetracked by his work. She soon became a leader in the fight for equal rights for women and he never again got the chance to marry her. He was also quite interested in a young pianist named Marguerite Merrington, but once again became sidetracked by his work. Nikola never married nor had children and therefore had no heirs except a few nephews including one Sava Kosanovic. On a personal note, I find it quite strange that Nikola Tesla is never mentioned in any history book nor classroom lecture. Thomas Edison and and Guglielmo Marconi are mentioned frequently as the wonderful Wizard of Menlo Park and as the genius inventor of the radio. Yet where is Tesla mentioned? What is mentioned about the creator of alternating current which we use so often? Many of us have never heard of Nikola Tesla, the War of the Currents, nor the Tesla Coil. Without alternating current, many of today's electronics could not function properly, if at all. There is no doubt that leaving out Nikola Tesla is leaving out a huge part of history. Without him, the twentieth and twenty first centuries would be very different. And couldn't we all learn from Nikola Tesla, the penniless immigrant who came to America with no money and no place to live and still managed to start a business from the ground up. Tesla ignored the people who tried so desperately to ruin his reputation and in the process invented several new technologies and a multitude of new devices. So why is Tesla never mentioned? You decide. Tesla died at the age of eighty-six in hotel room 3327 of the New Yorker Hotel. This is both sad and a little ironic, for Nikola once stated that he expected to live for 140 years since he was in such good health. He had passed away on January 4, 1943 during his sleep. However, Tesla's story had not ended. After his death, his safe was opened and it is rumored that the Department of United States' Alien Property had taken the contents. This was suspicious because Nikola had legally been a US citizen since the age of thirty-five. His nephew, Sava Kosanovic, engaged in a ten year fight with the United States saying that, as Tesla's only heir, he should have access to the documents. Unfortunately, the papers were declared top secret and handed over to the FBI. The papers were supposed to contain information on the lethal death ray device as well as other machines rumored to cause disastrous effects. No one knows what has happened to the secret papers since then or what information the papers even contained. Tesla accomplished many things in his life: the invention or radio and wireless technologies, the discovery of earth's own conductive powers, the induction motor, alternating current, the Tesla coil, and polyphase (3 phase) electrical systems. We continue to use some of Tesla's technology nearly one-hundred years later; but in some cases we may never be able to grasp the concepts of some of Tesla's mysterious creations.