Lecture Notes on Nikola Tesla

Early Life

• Birth: 1856, in Austrian Empire (modern-day Croatia).
• Family: Father was an Orthodox priest; mother invented labor-saving devices.
• Education Promise: Father promised best science education if Tesla recovered from illness.
• Education: Attended Austrian Polytechnic in Graz, excelled initially, but later lost scholarship due to gambling.

Academic and Early Career

• Academic Challenges: Dropped out after unprepared for exams.
• Early Work:
  • Chief electrician at Budapest Telephone Exchange, invented telephone amplifier.
  • Worked for Continental Edison Company in Paris, focusing on electric lighting.
  • Moved to New York to work for Edison, improved generators.

Founding and Struggles

• Tesla Electric Light and Manufacturing: Founded his own company.
• Financial Troubles: Poor financial management, left penniless after company shift.

Alternating Current (AC) and Westinghouse

• Invention: Developed a motor that ran on AC.
• Westinghouse: Hired for $2,000/month, became wealthy, funded own research.
• Battle of the Currents: Competition between AC (Westinghouse) and DC (Edison).

Inventive Period

• US Citizenship: Became a citizen in 1891.
• Patents and Research: Patented Tesla coil, experimented with wireless lighting.
• Wireless Power: Devoted research to global wireless power transmission.
• Strange Signals: Observed unusual signals, speculated to be from other planets.

Financial Decline and Later Years

• Investments: Invested in wireless technology, borrowed from J.P. Morgan.
• Marconi's Success: Marconi's transatlantic message overshadowed Tesla's work.
• Financial Instability: Moved between hotels, unpaid bills, eccentric behavior.
• Personal Life: Never married, had deep affection for a pigeon.

Legacy and Death

• Speculative Inventions: Claimed inventions like a cosmic ray motor and teleforce.
• Death: Died in 1943 at age 86, belongings seized by FBI.
• Posthumous Analysis: Belongings analyzed, deemed non-hazardous.
• Legacy: Ashes housed in Nikola Tesla Museum.

Tesla's life was a complex tapestry of brilliance, visionary ideas, financial mismanagement, and eccentric behavior. His contributions to electricity and wireless technology remain influential, despite many of his projects never reaching commercial fruition.