The Life of Nikola Tesla

Ian Brazier
Phys 212x
Spring 2015


Photo Credit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla
    and Napolean Sarony


The Early Years


        Nikola Tesla was born on midnight July 10, 1856 in Smiljan, Lika, which is a part of Croatia. Interestingly, Nikolas Tesla was born during a fierce, recorded lightning storm between July 9th, and July 10th. Tesla's father, Milutin Tesla, was a Serbian Orthodox Priest, and his mother, Djuka Mandic, was an inventor of household appliances.  Tesla, attended the Polytechnic Institute in Graz, Austria, and the University of Prague, intending to specialize in physics and math, but he became fascinated with electricity which lead him to become an Electrical Engineer in 1881 with a Budapest telephone company.  Eventually, at the age of 23, Tesla accepted a position with the Continental Edison Company to design dynamos.  It was there that he built his reputation ever so slightly enough to work with Thomas Edison himself in New York. Edison however focused his life's work on the Direct Current (DC), while Tesla pointed his focus towards Alternating Currents (AC) and the polyphase principle. 



   

The Early Years
Alternating Current
Tesla Coil
Bibliography