Nikola Tesla

Inventor, Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Croatia. He studied physics and engineering in Austria and Hungary. immigrated to the US in 1884 and went to work for Thomas Edison. He disagreed with Edison over AC vs DC electrical power generation and formed his own company in 1885. He sold his patents for AC generation to Westinghouse in 1888.

In 1895, Tesla designed what was among the first AC hydroelectric power plants in the United States, at Niagara Falls. The following year, it was used to power the city of Buffalo, New York — a feat that was highly publicized throughout the world and helped further AC electricity’s path to becoming the world’s power system. Tesla’s design for his alternating current electrical system (AC) allowed electricity to be generated at remote plants and deliver electricity over a wide area.

In the late 19th century, Tesla patented the "Tesla coil," which laid the foundation for wireless technologies and is still used in radio technology today. The heart of an electrical circuit, the Tesla coil is an inductor used in many early radio transmission antennas. The coil works with a capacitor to resonate current and voltage from a power source across the circuit. Tesla himself used his coil to study fluorescence, x-rays, radio, wireless power and electromagnetism in the earth and its atmosphere. 

He also invented the induction motor that created current through electromagnetic induction from the coil. He invented neon lights, 3-phase electric power and wireless telegraphy.

His final goal was to provide free, wireless electricity to consumers, but he ran out of cash. Nikola Tesla died in New York in 1943 at the age of 86.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader