Nikola Tesla (1856–1943). Scientist & inventor

Abstract

This paper presents a short review of the life and work of Nikola Tesla (1856–1943) commencing with his early life and education in Eastern Europe. The Tesla coil is described. His early work with alternating current (AC) is detailed together with his disagreements with Thomas Edison and the so-called War of the Currents. As with many X-ray experimenters in the year after Röntgen’s discovery in November 1895, Tesla lost interest in X-rays and moved his attention to radio transmission. He was able to obtain financial backing for his projects in the years at the end of the 19th century and in the early 20th century, but thereafter eventually found it impossible. It was to be Marconi who made huge profits from radio transmission becoming standard science, and not Tesla who died virtually penniless. Although acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest inventors, his lack of financial acumen and some fantastic claims, also led him to be regarded as a mad scientist. His name is perpetuated with the Système International (SI) unit of magnetic flux density, the Tesla, denoted by the capital letter T.