Opening
“How convenient is electricity in our lives? What would you do if you could no longer charge your phones? Reflect on that for a moment. If someone told me that I would be here reading the eulogy of this great man, I would have laughed and shrugged it off. Yet here I am. Paying tribute to a man who changed the world as we know it. Nikola Tesla was an eccentric genius and one of the greatest minds to have graced the earth.
Early Years
Nikola Tesla was born in 1856 in Croatia. Specifically in Smiljan, which was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother worked hard to manage the family farm while his father was a Serbian orthodox priest. His younger brother, Daniel, died in 1863 after a riding accident. This event traumatized the young Tesla and could have been the genesis of his lifelong mental health battles.
Education and Work
Tesla went on to study physics and mathematics at the Technical University of Grath. He then studied philosophy at the University of Prague. While he was taking a walk sometime in 1882, he brainstormed about a brushless AC motor and began sketching its components in the sand. This is an indication of the genius that Tesla was. Later in the year, he got a job in Paris at the Continental Edison company before immigrating two years later to the U.S.
Significant Events and Achievements
Tesla got a job in New York and worked as an engineer for Thomas Edison, whom he impressed with his ingenuity and hard-working nature. A disagreement between him and Thomas Edison would lead to Tesla quitting his job in Edison’s company. This inconvenience, however, did not signify the end of Tesla’s love for experimentation as he embarked on researching alternating currents. By 1888, Tesla had received numerous patents for his inventions and was renowned in the engineering community. He managed to get support from George Westinghouse, an investor and Edison’s competitor. The rivalry between Tesla and Edison would rear its ugly head again when Edison organized the execution of a convicted felon in an AC-powered electric as a demonstration of how dangerous it was. Tesla and Westinghouse later partnered with General Electric and installed AC systems at Niagara Falls, resulting in the first contemporary power station.
Marriage and Children
The departed Nikola Tesla did not have any wife or children.
Death and Legacy
Tesla’s lab in New York City burned down in 1895, and this led to the irreplaceable loss of documents and equipment. He relocated to Colorado for two years before moving back to New York, where he worked on his new inventions. He continued inventing even as his mental health and strength dwindled. This, I feel, can speak volumes about the resolve of this great man and is a valuable lesson to all of us. Tesla spent his final years feeding and, as he claimed, communicating with pigeons, which is an indication of the eccentricities of this modern-day genius. On January 7, 1943, Tesla died. This man was a true genius, and after his death, the U.S Supreme Court voided four patents by Marconi that had previously not been acknowledged to Tesla. Today, the AC systems that Tesla formulated and improved on remain globally incorporated in power transmission. He was great.”