Inventor, electrician, physicist Nikola Tesla was born on 9/10. July 1856 in Smiljan near Gospić. He comes from an Orthodox family, his father Milutin was an Orthodox priest, and his mother Georgina (Đuka) also comes from the Orthodox priestly family Mandić. He had three sisters: Milka, Angelina and Marica and one brother Dana.
He began his first schooling in his hometown of Smiljan, where he went to the Krajina Trivial School, a school where German language, arithmetic and religious education were taught, after which he went to Gospić where he went to the Preparatory Primary School and the Lower Real High School.
From Gospić he went to Rakovac in Karlovac where he finished the Higher Real High School. In Graz, he enrolled at the Polytechnic College with a scholarship from the Military Border, but after the scholarship was canceled due to the development of the Military Border, Nikola failed to complete his second year of study and indulged in card games and gambling to make up for the financial loss.
He worked for a short time in Maribor, and after his father's death in 1879. works at the Real Gymnasium in Gospić. In 1880 he tried to enroll in Prague, but failed, so a year later he began working in Budapest and participated in the construction of the first telephone exchange.
In Paris, Tesla worked for Edison's company (Continental Edison Company) and in 1883. in Strasbourg he constructed the first model of an induction motor, after returning to Paris Tesla received a recommendation from Charles Batchelor and in 1884 went to New York and was employed by Edison's company. After a disagreement with Edison in 1885. Tesla founds its own company, Tesla Electric & Manufacturing Company. A year later, his company collapses, so he subsists on hard physical work. In 1887, Tesla founded the Tesla Electric Company and applied for patents: a multi-phase el. energy, induction motor, generators and transformers.
A year later, in 1888, Tesla entered into a partnership with George Westinghouse and sold him patents based on alternating electricity for a million dollars but, however, he received about $ 60,000 (according to some sources).
Tesla in 1889. He returns to Europe and visits his native Lika. This is his first visit to Europe since he left for America. In 1890, he began researching high-frequency currents and a year later made the Tesla coil (transformer). The second visit to Europe was in 1892. when he buries his mother and then visits other European cities: London, Paris, Zagreb, Budapest and Belgrade. In 1893, an exhibition was held in Chicago dedicated to achievements in electrical engineering where Tesla demonstrated the advantage of alternating energy. It was on fire in 1895. destroyed the laboratory so that it fails to announce the discovery of electrons and x-rays.
In 1896, a hydroelectric power plant was put into operation at Niagara Falls, where Tesla's patents based on alternating electricity were used. Tesla was the first to make remote control, so in 1898 he demonstrated a remote-controlled ship. He continued researching high-frequency and high-voltage currents in 1899. erects a laboratory in Colorado Springs where he conducts experiments with these currents. In 1900, he began building the Long Island Wireless Power Transmission System, which he never completed because J. P. Morgan cut off his funds so he could not complete it. Tesla continued with his inventions, so in 1907 he made a turbine without blades, which he tested a year later, dealing with inventions related to mechanical engineering from 1910 to 1922.
In 1919, Tesla's autobiography "My Inventions" was published. Tesla continued to apply for patents from various fields, such as a patent for vacuuming, a vertical take-off aircraft, and improving the production process of sulfur, iron and copper.
He received the Edison Medal (the highest recognition of the American Society of Electrical Engineers) in 1917, and in 1926. became an honorary doctor of the University of Zagreb. In 1937 he received an honorary doctorate from the Polytechnic School of Graz and the University of Paris. Tesla lived a lot in hotels where he died. He died on January 7th. 1943 in New York at the New Yorker Hotel on the 33rd floor of Suite 3327 at age 86.
