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THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: NIKOLA TESLA

The Man Who Invented the Twentieth Century:

Nikola Tesla
Clay Carter
Salt Lake Community College

THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: NIKOLA TESLA

Born in 1856 in Smiljan, Croatia, Nikola Tesla was one of the most influential men the
world has ever seen through his work as an inventor, electrical engineer, futurist, and physicist.
Tesla was born to Serbian Orthodox parents, with his father being a man of cloth and assuming
the title of Priest in the church. He was inspired at a young age by his mother who invented
household appliances in her spare time.
In 1884, Tesla migrated to the United States of America and received an offer to work
alongside Thomas Edison, whose electrical work was becoming standard in the country. Edison
hired Tesla and the two worked to innovate and improve Edisons inventions. This was short
lived, however, as they had differing opinions on the type of current that would prove to be most
successful. Edison believed Direct Current (DC) would be the dominant current for electrical
energy, while Tesla believed in Alternating Current (AC).
Direct Current is an electrical current that travels in one direction, from positive to
negative terminals at a constant output of energy. Alternating Current periodically reverses
direction as the amount of energy being transmitted fluctuates. A simple way to visualize the
difference is that, when graphed, a DC current looks like a flat line, whereas the flow of AC on a
graph makes a sinusoid or wave-like pattern, says Berggren. This is because AC changes over
time in an oscillating repetitionthe up curve indicates the current flowing in a positive
direction and the down curve signifies the alternate cycle where the current moves in a negative
direction. This back and forth is what gives AC its name. (MIT School of Engineering, 2013)
After several months of working together, Tesla and Edison went their separate ways.
Edison disagreed with using AC as he insisted it was too dangerous. On several occasions,

THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: NIKOLA TESLA

Edison publicly electrocuted small animals using high-voltage Alternating Currents, like cats and
dogs, to prove this point. He even went as far as to electrocute an elephant named Topsy.
(http://science.howstuffworks.com/electricity8.htm) Alternating current would go on to provide
us the opportunity to easily access electricity as it is how electric power is delivered to our
homes and businesses.
Even though the two disputed over the dominant current, both have turned out to be
useful to our modern day technology as we use AC and DC currents every day. For example,
while writing this paper on a laptop, DC is being delivered to the computers battery, but it
receives the charge from the AC plug from the wall.
The Tesla/Edison battle continued when Tesla beat Edison in the bid for lighting in
Chicago Worlds fair, which celebrated the 400 year anniversary of Christopher Columbus
discovery of America, in 1893. After his loss, Edison would not allow Tesla to use his patented
Edison bulb. Tesla was forced to design a new bulb, without impeding on Edisons existing
patent, in just 6 months. From this, the fluorescent lightbulb was born.
When redesigning a lightbulb that did not interfered with Edisons patent, Tesla found
that more than 50% of the energy used in a light bulb was creating heat, not light, which made it
less efficient. Tesla designed the fluorescent lamp to have electricity enter the bulb filled with
gas, which then excites the gas and light the tube. The newly created bulb design glowed more
bright and ran cooler, and therefore, was much more efficient that the original bulb. Because of
this creating, Teslas efforts were successfully. On May 1, 1893, President Glover Cleveland

THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: NIKOLA TESLA

pushed a button and nearly 100,000 lamps illuminated the White City. (Top Secret of Nikola
Tesla, 1980, Krsto Papi)

Tesla would go on to create more than 200 patented inventions, and continue his
visionary ideas that would pave the way for the wireless world we live in today.
Some say that Teslas most important invention came in 1891, the Tesla Coil. The Tesla
Coil passes current from a small coil to a bigger secondary coil where it increases the voltage
and reduces the current, making the Tesla Coil a transformer. Teslas vision was to pump the
Earths atmosphere with electrical energy. He believed he could sue the Earth as a natural
conductor and send power all around the world, and the earth would essentially become a giant
outlet for electricity.
In order to accomplish this vision, Tesla built and 80-foot tower in his laboratory in
Colorado to test his invention. After he experienced success, he approached J.P. Morgan, an
American financier and banker, for $150,000 (equivalent to $4,273,800 in 2015) in funding to
continue his experience and build an even larger tower. He promised Morgan a return on
investment as he would be able to broadcast images, sound, and text wirelessly throughout the
world. While he was working on his 187-foot tower in New York at his new lab he named
Wardenclyffe another inventor, Marconi, was using Teslas patents to broadcast the first radio
wave. Thus, ending funding from Morgan and sparking the downfall of Wardenclyffe, which
never became operational.
Tesla spent much of his life focused on his work, his passion of experimenting,
designing, and inventing. He was once quoted saying, I do not think there is any thrill that can

THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: NIKOLA TESLA

go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain
unfolding to success. Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.
He truly lived this believe and never married before passing away in the New York Hotel alone
in 1943.

THE MAN WHO INVENTED THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: NIKOLA TESLA

References
MIT School of Engineering. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2016, from
http://engineering.mit.edu/ask/whats-difference-between-ac-and-dc
The Quotes of Nikola Tesla. (n.d.). Retrieved December 9, 2016, from
http://inventors.about.com/od/tstartinventors/a/Quotes-Of-Nikola-Tesla.htm
How Electricity Works (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2016, from
http://science.howstuffworks.com/electricity8.htm
Top Secrets about Nikola Tesla, History Channel Documentary. H. (2016). Retrieved December
9, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qqYuM8HC5k
Tesla Life and Legacy Teslas Early Years (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2016, from
http://www.pbs.org/tesla/ll/ll_early.html