Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was born on July 10, 1856, in Smiljan, then part of the Austrian Empire (now Croatia), into a Serbian family. He displayed early genius in engineering, studying at the Technical University at Graz and the University of Prague, though he did not complete a degree. Tesla immigrated to the United States in 1884 with little money but big ideas, initially working for Thomas Edison before a pivotal fallout over AC versus DC current systems. He established his own lab in New York, securing patents for the induction motor and polyphase AC system, which powered the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition and Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant. Tesla's career peaked in the 1890s-1900s with ambitious projects like the Wardenclyffe Tower for wireless energy transmission, funded partly by J.P. Morgan but abandoned due to financial woes. He pioneered X-ray imaging, radio technology (later contested by Marconi), and high-frequency oscillators, holding over 300 patents worldwide. Despite rivalries, such as with Edison in the 'War of the Currents,' Tesla's AC system became the global standard, enabling long-distance power transmission. In later years, Tesla lived reclusively in New York hotels, facing poverty and eccentricity, including obsessions with the number 3 and pigeons. He died alone on January 7, 1943, in the New Yorker Hotel at age 86, his papers seized by the U.S. government amid World War II concerns. Posthumously, Tesla's legacy grew, inspiring fields from robotics to renewable energy, though he received little recognition or wealth during his lifetime.