Nikola Tesla
By: Cole Gray
Early Years
Nikola Tesla was born July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Austrian Empire with his 3 sisters; Milka, Angelina, and Marica. As Tesla grew up he began his education at home and later attended gymnasium in Carlstadt. An early sign of his genius, he was able to perform integral calculus in his mind, resulting his teachers to believe he was cheating in class. his father wanted him to be a priest just like him, but Tesla Nikola Tesla had other plans. He contracted Cholera and was promised if he survives he can go to the renowned Austrian Polytechnic School at Graz to study engineering. His dream later became a reality. He enrolled himself to Graz University of Technology but soon dropped out. That's where it all began.
Career
Tesla wanted to start his career as an engineer so he soon went to work with Thomas Edison. He later quit from his job because of little to no pay with Edison. He was going to start his own company but at the time, the Industrial Revolution Was happening and no one could fund him. They also thought that he was crazy trying to invent something that seemed impossible. He soon invented many things that we use daily in our lives. Tesla has invented High-voltage and High-frequency power experiments. But he is most known for inventing Alternating Current (AC). Alternating Current is the flow of electricity that changes direction instead of Direct Current (DC) where the electric charge stays in one direction. It basically is if you touched something with Direct Current, it wouldn't let you go it will just keep electrifying you. But if you accidentally touched an Alternating Current, it will let you go and you have the power to move your hand from whatever you touched. If he never invented this object, wee would have a lot of people dying by electric shocks. Tesla lived in many places such as Colorado Springs, New York, Paris, Budapest, Prague, Graz, Manhattan, Austrian Empire, Croatia, Hungary, Karlovac, and Smiljan. But while he live in America his parents died and he had to overcome that. Tesla wanted to quit science and move back to his home in Smiljan. He soon accepted the fact that he needed to continue with his work and forget about his family. Before his death, Tesla gained many awards. He got the Elliott Cresson Medal in 1894, the IEEE Edison Medal in 1916, and the John Scott Legacy Medal and Premium in 1934. Tesla later died January 7, 1943 at age 86 in his New York City home penniless because of Coronary Thrombosis. But before he died he said these quotes.
“All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combated, suppressed – only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle. Let the future tell the truth and evaluate each one according to his work and accomplishments. The present is theirs, the future, for which I really worked, is mine.”
“Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more.”