The father of physics and the man who invented the 20th century are the nicknames that lunched on the genius scientist that was wronged by the history. We are talking about Nikola Tesla. He is one of the scientists that had a rarely ingenious genius.
A legendary scientist that you may hear many stories about him, some are true and the other are a false ones. Also you can find many strange and exaggerated works that were attributed to him, which we already wish to be exist. And this is already what made him a legendary figure.
Early years
Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in the village Smiljan which was a part of the Austrian Empire in this time, and it is within the boarders of Croatia nowadays. On the day of his birth, there was a severe thunderstorm so the midwife said that he is a presentiment. But after a short time, the young child proved her ignorance and he started his first invention in the age of 16.
Tesla studied in Prague University, in Czech Republic. He initially intended to specialize in physics and mathematics, but he changed his mind quickly and decided to specialize in the electricity department to start his career as an electrical engineer in Budapest Telephone Exchange in 1881.
Moving to the US
In 1882, Nikola Tesla got another job and joined Continental Edison Company in Paris, then achieved his dream of living in USA after applying for a job with Thomas Edison in New York. He had a recommendation letter from Richard Bachelard written in it:
“I know two of the genius men, you are one of them, and the other is this guy”
After that, the conflict broke out between them, as Edison was not able to bear Tesla’s brilliant success and the success of his idea about the Alternating Current unlike the Direct Current that Edison invented. But Nikola Tesla won the war when he lightened the World Expo in Chicago using the Alternating Current and proved that it is more successful than the Direct Current.
Although Tesla outperformed Thomas Edison in all the scientific battles, but the history did not do justice to him and has not been honored like Edison. This may be due to his lack of interest in making any profits from his inventions at all. He even knew that many of his own inventions were stolen, but he showed no interest.
Personal life
As for his personal life, Tesla was eccentric like all other geniuses. He had many strange practices like he was just sleeping a couple of hours in the night, and taking more than one nap all day long. He never married and did not change his mind about marriage, as he felt that marriage would be a waste of his time and will exhaust his mind away from his laboratory and researches. Tesla was very fond of pigeons and taking care of them. He also had a sense of humor.
Tesla was one of those who were interested in the environment, and he had concerns about the rapid consumption of earth resources without prudence.
Nikola Tesla registered more than 300 patents, but the US government seized all his researches and papers after his death, plus he is the scientist that his inventions were stolen and attributed to other persons more than any other scientist.
His most important inventions are: Alternating Current, X-ray, Radio, Remote controls, Electric motor, Robots, Laser, Wireless Communications and many other inventions, in addition to his contributions to many other fields such as computer science, ballistic expansion, nuclear physics and theoretical physics. And there are still inventions and theories of Tesla that scientists are developing nowadays like Wireless Power transfer, and it is the experiment in which Tesla succeeded in lighting a lamp 40 kilometers away.
His death
At the age of 86, Nikola Tesla died alone poor and destitute. In his late days, he became weird and love talking to birds, plus being obsessed with the number (3). In addition, he was suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder where he was wiping the pots that he will use several times.
His statue was built at Niagara Falls because he is the one who invented the electrical generators located in the waterfall. He has another statue in Zagreb, Croatia made by Ivan Meštrović.
The grief felt after the loss of the genius scientist who provided many benefits to Mankind, and his dream was to discover new and free energy sources that all human beings could use without governments control.
