Nicola Tesla

Nicola Tesla was one of my inspirational heroes when I started out in electronics as a teenager. I never built a Tesla Coil but I did become a ham operator who "homebrewed" my own ham gear and later became a design engineer. Tesla  (born 1856 died 1943) was around in the era of Thomas Edison and they became competitors. Edison, always the pragmatist, through trial and error and the sweat and tears of his lab assistants, invented a working light bulb. It's immediate popularity, brought more business his way in outfitting New York with DC power so everyone could power their new electric lights.

Tesla, the deep thinking intellectual, envisioned AC power which could losslessly be sent from far distances and be stepped up or down to any voltage needed. AC motors were far simpler than DC motors and AC transformers were needed later to run radios (later in the 1920s).

Westinghouse saw the advantages of AC and teamed with Tesla to design a large generating station at Niagara Falls.  A statue was erected there in honor of Tesla.

Edison fared well, inventing the telephone, phonograph and other handy devices. Tesla shot for the stars and invented radio devices and apparatus that could sympathetically create eartquakes. Tesla died a pauper and never received the press that Edison did.

 Edison was a good friend of Henry Ford and after Edison died his Menlo Park lab was moved to Michigan and made into a museum by Ford.

Tesla now has a cult following of hobbyists that build their own Tesla coils but he never recieved the attention in history and science books that he deserved.

Tesla ~ I came to America, gave my all and all I get is this stinking statue.....